Classroom Of The Elite Year 2

Chapter 436: Chapter 4 : Advice

HAVING FIGURED OUT the identity of Mii-chan's benefactor during my day off, the weekend came to a close.

Even after Monday and Tuesday had passed, Horikita had not come to me for advice.

And on Wednesday afternoon, two days before the special exam, a certain boy proposed an unexpected plan.

"Dude... I think... I might have an incredible winning strategy...!"

Ike stood up and slammed his hands on his desk, his seat clattering.

Everyone was still in class, so he naturally drew a lot of attention. However, nobody was looking at him with expectation, and in fact they were all skeptical.

"Wh-what? You do, Kanji? No way!"

Shinohara, his girlfriend, was the most surprised, and also the most dismissive.

"No, seriously. But wait, let me recalculate a little..."

Saying this, Ike began to count on his fingers. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to finish the calculation on his fingers, so he hurried to pull out his phone. He was struggling but he kept at it.

But the cruel reality was that one by one, our classmates started to leave, probably judging that this sudden idea wouldn't be worth it. However, Ike, oblivious to the dispersing crowd, nodded as if he had finished rechecking.

"No doubt! This is a winning idea!? Can I talk about it?!"

"Ike-kun. I will respond seriously for now, but I don't want to discuss strategy here. Understand?"

"Ah, okay. It'd be serious if my too-perfect strategy got leaked...!"

"Horikita-san, let's go to the usual location."

Yōsuke responded. It seemed like he was frequently meeting with Horikita in secret. That much was evident just from the conversation. Although it might've been obvious, they were definitely preparing for the special exam.

"That sounds good. Those who are interested can come with us, however, keep in mind that it's a hassle if there are too many people. Can you raise your hand if you would like to come along?"

Shinohara immediately raised her hand, along with Hondō and Miyamoto, but that was it. No one else seemed to expect much from Ike's idea. As for me, I was rather interested in what kind of strategy it was, so I casually raised my hand.

"You too? Why the sudden change of mind? Do you have a good reason?"

While the other three who had raised their hands were Ike's close friends and didn't seem to mind, she demanded a reason from me.

"Can't I just be curious? Ike said he's super confident about a winning strategy. I just want to know."

"...I see. That's fine then. I didn't have any other meetings scheduled for today anyway."

Following the conversation, the six of us began to move. We left the school and headed to Keyaki Mall, ending up at the karaoke. It was the perfect place to have a confidential discussion.

Completed with snacks and a bar for drinks, it was an affordable place. No reason not to use it.

"Satsuki, would you like the usual?"

"Yeah. You too, Kanji?"

Ike and Shinohara nestled up together, exploring the menu and discussing in familiar conversations.

"Hey, Horikita."

"What?"

"It's kind of confusing that you can choose not to sing when you come to karaoke, but you must get a drink. After all, this is supposed to be a place for singing."

"Huh? That might be true... But you worry about such strange things."

"You're a fool, Ayanokōji. It's obviously because there's a one-drink policy, right?"

Ike, who had been eavesdropping on our conversation, kindly lectured us.

I only mentioned it offhand, but I didn't want to steal away Shinohara's enamored gaze towards Ike, so I let it slide.

I picked up the terminal to check out the music trends.

"...I see."

I didn't get it at all.

There were songs with titles I recognized, but more often than not, I didn't know the songs.

Asian songs from outside of Japan appear to be popular now, with several occupying the rankings. The quality of the songs seemed to be of a very high standard.

"The only thing left is your order, Ayanokōji-kun."

While I was looking at the rankings, it seemed like everyone else's orders had been placed.

"Then, I'll have plum kelp tea."

Horikita finished ordering for everyone and we just needed to wait for the delivery.

It was best to avoid any interruptions while we were discussing.

It was fine if the staff heard it, but we wanted to avoid any leaks.

A few moments later, the drinks everyone ordered arrived at our table.

"So, let's hear what you..."

I decided to let everyone else do the talking, I picked up my plum kelp tea that just arrived and brought it to my mouth.

"Hot... Sorry, continue please."

After experiencing everyone's piercing gaze, I apologized and turned my face away.

The tip of my tongue was burning so hot that it was numbing. I would have to be careful while drinking.

"Ahem, let's hear Ike-kun's idea."

Horikita, as the leader, engaged with Ike's idea seriously, an idea which most people wouldn't even consider.

Her expression showed no signs of amusement, and even Ike's face grew slightly tense.

"Alright, let's get to the point. Suppose we were to guarantee that we get 68 points for our class. Can we agree that this would be a winning score?"

After a quick wink at Shinohara, Ike proposed something quite interesting.

"68 points? Sure, if we had 68 points, there would indeed be a good chance of victory, but that seems like a very specific score."

The lack of transparency about the tasks in this exam made it impossible to predict how many points each class would get. Yet, Ike claimed that we could acquire 68 points. This contention instilled a strong sense of unease in Horikita. Sensing her skepticism, Ike quickly finished half of his bottled soda, moistening his throat, and began to speak about his just-conceived solution.

"While it's risky, we could secure exactly 68 points. We do this by feigning sickness right as the exam starts. Our class has 38 students—if we only leave five for defense, plus the leader, and then have the remaining 32 eliminated..."

"What? If you did that, we'd be down 32 points right from the start! Don't you even understand the rules?"

Exasperated, Hondō put his hands on the sofa and looked at the ceiling, sighing heavily.

Horikita, however, was keenly listening. It made sense; a 32-person elimination guaranteed 68 points.

There was no way the sum would coincidentally add up to 100.

"That's fine. Even if we subtract 32 points for the eliminated students, we are guaranteed to get 68 points."

Hondō and Miyamoto were confused by this statement.

Shinohara, perhaps having already heard the strategy, had a smile on her face.

"But, you know, the opponent can only nominate five students, right? We can protect five students each round, but we only have five students left to nominate, right?"

"Ah—"

Miyamoto understood before Hondō did, and let out a sound.

"So, for all 20 turns, we can get 5 points each. That's a perfect score, right?"

It was an interesting idea for Ike, one that I never thought he'd come up with.

"Moreover! No one even needs to study for the exam! Not a bad idea, huh?"

"But, even so, would the school really allow 32 people to feign illness? I mean, it's too suspicious."

Hondō, puzzled by his surprisingly logical strategy, pointed out its flaw.

"It certainly looks like something underhanded, you know."

Miyamoto also expressed his skepticism. Indeed, it seemed absurd that 32 students in the class would fall ill on the day of the exam.

"Feigning illness... It's a bit of a gray area in terms of the rules, but I suspect the school wouldn't be able to stop us, even if they found it suspicious. No one can prove we've faked it."

Normally, it would be unimaginable for 32 people to fall ill at once.

Therefore, even though the school would likely be 99% sure the illness was fake, they wouldn't be certain.

They would have to concede.

It was clearly stated that even if students fell ill, they would only be treated as eliminated students.

There were also no limits on how many students could be ill.

"That's a great idea for you. It's certainly a strategy that could maintain a high average score."

"See? See? What do you think of this approach!?"

With Horikita's unexpected appraisal, even Hondō, who was initially skeptical, started to acknowledge it.

"A strategy to guarantee 68 points... Well, isn't it pretty amazing?"

"I was also surprised when I heard it from Kanji. It's a good idea, isn't it?"

There was a strong focus on the ability to guarantee 68 points, but there were other benefits.

The strategy didn't require skills, luck, or prior preparation. It could be implemented immediately before the exam started, and no other class could obstruct or prevent us from securing 68 points.

And, in the worst case, even if the class were to place last, we could choose one of the 32 students to expel. Therefore, this plan also made it easy to discard a less capable student. Even though choosing who to expel among the 32 students would be difficult, if we somehow decided in advance who to expel and got their consent, the aftermath would also be smooth.

The risk of expulsion could be reduced to zero if a person holding a Protection Point was made to drop out.

At first glance, the idea didn't seem bad, but it was unlikely to be adopted.

"If it weren't for 'a certain rule' in this special exam, this might've remained a candidate that we could have implemented."

Horikita replied, saying that Ike's interesting idea was made difficult due to that rule.

It seemed that Horikita could foresee significant obstacles as she heard the plan.

"Wh-why? Well, I'm not insisting that you adopt it..."

His idea seemed to be the best.

It was out of such confidence that Ike pushed to learn the reason.

"Let's say, hypothetically, that Ryūen-kun's class implements this strategy right after the exam starts."

Horikita began her discussion on the assumption that the hypothetical enemy would adopt Ike's strategy.

"Even though there was one person expelled from his class, the addition of Katsuragi-kun has kept their numbers at 40. Except the leader and five others, there would be 34 eliminations. This means they would secure 66 points. While that certainly isn't a bad score, it also means they can't possibly score any higher. If the remaining three classes each manage to score 67 points or more, that approach becomes a 'no-win' strategy."

If they've already expelled their disposable resources, they'd have no way to boost their scores.

As the offensive, they could only hope that the other side kept making mistakes.

"Sure, but there's no guarantee that the other three classes will each be able to score 67 points or more, right? While there might be a risk of coming last, isn't there a higher probability of coming first?"

"No. Most likely, if Ryūen-kun's class were to use that strategy, they would end up in last place."

"Why? We won't know how difficult the questions are until the actual exam, right? So then—"

Ike couldn't understand why this would almost certainly result in them coming last.

"Listen. If they're going to use the faking sickness strategy to cause mass elimination, they should naturally do that in the first turn. There's little merit in implementing this strategy after the second turn."

The longer it was postponed, the higher the risk that they'd lower the maximum points they could secure.

"Moreover, this strategy is conspicuous. All three classes would quickly find out. Just imagine their class situation when the classes see through that strategy. Will they think, 'Oh no, they've played a good move?'"

"W-Won't they?"

"No. On the contrary. If they play that strategy, it would actually make things easier for the other three classes."

Saying so, Horikita picked up her cell phone, which she had placed next to her, and showed it to him.

"A phone...? Oh, we can use it during the exam, right?"

"Yes. So as soon as we see their aim, we would use this to cooperate with the other classes. If Ryūen-kun's class could only get up to 66 points, the other three classes should team up and aim for more. If they judge that a losing class has appeared, Ichinose-san and Sakayanagi-san will also positively consider this option."

"Wait a minute. I don't quite get it, but if we gang up on them, they'd lose?"

"They'd lose. Who to nominate, who to protect. Just by doing this, the two classes Ryūen-kun's class targets would definitely get 50 points. Hence, they would only need to earn 17 more points. Under the current rules, they can raise the difficulty by using points, but if the score is zero or less, they can only attack with the base difficulty. Therefore, it wouldn't be difficult to score more than 17 points."

If they could get more than 34% accuracy, that would be fine. Regardless of how unclear the contents of the questions were going to be, as long as the percentage didn't fall significantly lower, they'd be in the safe zone. Additionally, with the element of protection, the actual required accuracy rate could be somewhat lower.

The absolute score of 66.

While it could be a merit, it also came with a significant disadvantage.

It was a strategy that was weak against changes in the situations that followed.

Ryūen's class, which would have 34 eliminations from the get-go, wouldn't see a positive shift until after the end of the 7th defensive turn. after the end of the 7th turn of defense. If they choose a high difficulty when attacking, the final score they could get would decrease every time, to 65 points, 64 points, and so on.

"I think you understand which is better, aiming for a win with 66 points or securing 17 or more points in 10 turns with your own abilities."

After hearing the explanation, Ike, who was ecstatic at first, dropped his shoulders as if he had been plunged to the bottom.

"Damn! I thought we could win! I feel bad for getting everyone together!"

Ike was unexpectedly disappointed, and Horikita was slightly flustered.

"You don't have to apologize. Your strategy was well thought out. What I need to apologize for is for assuming from the start that it definitely wouldn't be helpful."

"Uh, oh... I feel happy, but it's a bit complicated..."

"Your strategy has a chance of winning. If the other three classes can't cooperate, the chances of winning would increase. Even if they gang up on us, there's still a chance of winning. For lower-ability classes, it's not a bad idea to pin their hopes on this strategy. However, I believe our class has the ability to fight without depending on that method."

That was why we wouldn't adopt Ike's splendid strategy, Horikita explained.

"You also taught me something valuable."

"Something valuable...?"

"It became clear that this special exam would be troublesome if the others gang up on us."

The shift between offense and defense in the first and second halves meant both classes would be attacking and defending against each other. They'd beat each other up. Then, if the two classes were to cooperate, they could definitely get 50 points.

If they could get the cooperation of the three classes, it wasn't impossible to get a perfect score of 100 points.

Of course, whether other classes would easily accept this approach was uncertain.

Joining hands would mean reaching the goal at the same rate.

Ideally, it could force a sudden death in the final round, but that would be difficult to orchestrate.

Considering the current point differences among the four classes, Ryūen's and Ichinose's classes, the bottom two, would want as many class points as possible. Naturally, Horikita's class also wanted to rise even slightly higher. It wasn't that difficult to make Class A the only enemy, but it could hardly be called an ideal development to merely hinder those above us.

In this exam, ultimately, only one class could be elected as the absolute winner.

"You were brave to speak up."

"S-so, if that's the case, uh, good. Hehe."

Perhaps pleased with Horikita's praise, Ike scratched the back of his head.

"Shinohara-san, Hondō-kun, and Miyamoto-kun, too. Please feel free to voice any ideas you may have. Also, relay this to classmates who aren't present here. I promise not to look down on anyone from the get-go."

As Horikita said, it was best to voice any ideas that came to mind.

Whether they were perfect or not was secondary; the point was to engage in discussion.

Indeed, Ike's idea wasn't perfect, but by having others point out its strengths and weaknesses, he deepened his understanding and reluctantly accepted their criticisms.

The fact that the discussion was held at all held significant value and purpose.

After a while, the others left the karaoke room smiling and chatting.

"What will you do after this, Horikita?"

"I'm going home. Until yesterday, I was meeting Hirata-kun and the others here every day, but it was a day off to rest."

It was admirable to create space for a gathering even on such a day.

Horikita seemed tired of her karaoke drink; she hadn't touched it much.

Well, it could hardly be called café-level quality.

The advantage of being able to drink a lot quickly and cheaply was very important.

"I was surprised that you wanted to listen to Ike-kun's idea. His strategy was interesting, but knowing you, wouldn't you have already envisioned something like that before?"

Instead of affirming or denying, I decided to present Horikita with a new proposition.

"How about we change the location and talk about it?"

"I don't have any plans after this, but it's unusual for you to want to talk. Unless it's about trouble with Karuizawa-san, in which case I'd like to decline."

Horikita joked as she stood up with the bill.

"If that was the case, I'm sure you wouldn't be the best person to handle it, Horikita."

"Indeed."

"I'd like to discuss the special exam with you, one-on-one."

Upon hearing that, Horikita widened her eyes in surprise.

"You? About the special exam?

"Is that so surprising?"

"I often initiate discussion, but it's unusual for you, isn't it?"

"Could be."

I couldn't specifically recall who started how many conversations, so I couldn't be sure. But surely, Horikita had initiated more.

"And I can't always rely on you, so I decided against unnecessarily asking for your help this time."

"I'm not exactly offering a strategy. I just want to hear your thoughts."

"I see. You want to assess if I'm prepared to fight well?"

She showed a slightly irritated and troubled attitude, simple like a child's.

"Bothered?"

"Not at all. It would be harder for me to find a reason to refuse if that's your reasoning. Where should we move to?"

"How about a café? I feel like having some good coffee."

Plum kelp tea wasn't bad either, but my mouth was craving a slight bitterness now.

"Would I be self-conscious if I said I'm worried about others spying and listening in?"

"No worries, it won't be like what you're worried about."

"Well, as long as you say so, there won't be any problem. Shall we get going right away then?"

She trusted me without hesitation, and together, we left the karaoke box.