I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

Amane had no way to refuse Horikita. Of course, if Amane threw a tantrum, she might be able to change Horikita's mind.

However, Tianyin judged that there was no need for that at all; the outcome of this match was not yet of that importance to her.

But apart from this method, Amane couldn't think of any other way to stop Horikita from acting so rashly without harming her.

This was the first time Tianyin felt powerless, just like watching a galloping horse rush towards a cliff, unable to stop it.

Feeling powerless, uneasy, and mentally confused.

This made Tianyin gradually irritable. Although she could easily erase these annoying emotions if she wanted to, she actually enjoyed the pain that this irritability brought.

This may sound perverse, but pain is the only way to experience the feeling of 'pain' without feeling pain in the body.

"Hopefully... she can pull through."

Tianyin sighed deeply. Defeating the enemy was easy for her, but why was it so difficult to stop her teammates from doing stupid things?

Amane shook her head and closed her eyes tightly, just like Horikita.

Horikita did this to escape Amane's teasing, while Amane did this to temporarily escape what might happen next that would cause her even more headaches.

The next morning, all the first-grade students gathered on the playground to wait as required by the school.

It was only at this point that everyone realized that this special exam was a battle limited to first-year students only.

"Hello everyone, I am Kiriyama Ikuha, the student council president who is in charge of this special exam."

Since Kiriyama's 'reputation' was already well-known among the first-year students, he didn't need to introduce himself much. After introducing his name and position, Kiriyama began the first step of this special exam.

"First, according to the rules of this special exam, each class must designate a class to challenge. This rule is mandatory. If no class is designated within the allotted time, a draw will be held to determine the challenger. Furthermore, if two classes designate the same class to challenge, or if there is a cross-designation, such as Class A designating Class B, but Class B designating Class C, the draw will still be used to resolve this. Now, you have two minutes to designate your challenger. Begin..."

As soon as Kiriyama finished speaking, as if they had planned it together, Sakayanagi and Amane simultaneously decided on each other's classes, while Ryuen and Kanzaki did the same.

This made Kiriyama feel as if he had become superfluous for a moment.

"Very good. Now that everyone has completed the designated challenge class, your class advisor will lead you to the pre-prepared testing venue. Before entering the venue, you need to hand in your mobile phones and check if you have any communication devices. After the check is completed, each class will have fifteen minutes to prepare, ensuring that you have enough 'challengers' and 'challenged' in your class. When your class goes to challenge other classes' venues, at least one person must stay behind to meet the challenge from the other class."

Kiriyama basically read from the manual, and everyone already knew the contents, so after he finished reading, they immediately followed the class guide to the designated place.

Incidentally, it wasn't Chabashira-sensei who led them to the designated place, but rather Majima-sensei, the homeroom teacher of Class A.

It seems that after the classes are assigned, the homeroom teachers from both sides will go to each other's locations as supervisors.

This is indeed the best way to prevent a class from cheating.

After submitting their collections, most of the students in Class B began to rest in the open space, since this special exam had nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, the challenge team that Tianyin had singled out quickly came to Tianyin's side.

"Tianyin, shall we go challenge Class A now?"

Matsushita's voice carried a hint of nervousness. This was the first time she had been chosen as a key player to participate in a special exam, and her first opponent was Class A, which made her feel somewhat nervous.

Amane noticed Matsushita's nervousness and gently patted her shoulder.

"Relax, I'll go with you this time."

"Shall we go together?"

Matsushita looked at Amane with some confusion.

According to the original plan, it should have been Tianyin who stayed here to accept the challenge. Only with Tianyin here could they feel at ease. But just now, Tianyin suddenly said that she wanted to go too. Why did Tianyin suddenly change her mind at the last minute?

"Did something happen?"

Hirata asked curiously, but his gaze was fixed on Horikita. Of all the people, only Horikita showed no unusual expression. According to Amane's previous arrangements, Horikita was supposed to be the team leader responsible for leading the challenge against Class A.

Faced with such a sudden change, Horikita's expression remained unchanged, clearly indicating that she already knew the news. The outcome was obvious: if Amane led the team to challenge Class A, someone would have to stay behind to face the challenge. Could it be...?

As if he had thought of something, Yukimura looked directly at Horikita and frowned.

"I don't think suddenly changing plans is a good thing."

Yukimura's words were rather tactful; he was already being very polite by not directly saying that he didn't believe Horikita Suzune.

Unfortunately, this decision was something Amane had already discussed with Horikita yesterday. Amane herself couldn't think of a better way to stop Horikita, so naturally she couldn't change her mind at this time.

"It was my request to make a change. With Amane's setup, I can easily defeat Sakayanagi here. You can rest assured and challenge Class A."

Horikita's confident demeanor left Yukimura speechless for a moment, because he, too, didn't know what to say to persuade Horikita to abandon her plans.

Horikita said that he would use Amane's plan to defeat Sakayanagi. If Yukimura questioned Horikita's ability, Horikita could bring up Amane's plan. Yukimura greatly admired Amane's plan and naturally couldn't find fault with it. But in that case, he would be unable to stop Horikita at all.

Helpless, Yukimura could only look to Amane, hoping that Amane could be more forceful in stopping Horikita from acting recklessly, but Amane just shrugged, indicating that she was powerless to do anything about it.

"That's settled then. Let Rin stay here and we'll go challenge Class A first."

Now that things have come to this, without a reasonable excuse to stop Horikita, everyone can only let Horikita do as he pleases.

"Lingyin, have you really learned everything I prepared?"

After walking only a few steps, Amane still looked back with some concern and asked, while Horikita gave her an OK sign.

"Don't worry, I've been rehearsing with you for so long, how could I not learn it? Just set off with peace of mind."

Hearing Horikita say that, Amane pouted and muttered something under her breath, but Horikita couldn't hear her because her voice was too soft.

And so, Tianyin led the challenge team to the location where Class A had set up the challenge content.

On the way, Amane and the others encountered Sakayanagi and his group, who were slowly moving towards Class B. They exchanged a brief greeting and then hurried past each other.

However, it was obvious that almost everyone in Class A showed excitement when they saw that Amane hadn't stayed behind, and even Sakayanagi's tense little face broke into a smile.

In her view, as long as Tianyin was not around, victory was practically a sure thing for her.

Tianyin arrived at Class A's challenge area.

The venue was very rudimentary, just a soundproof room that resembled a small shipping container. According to the rules, if you entered through the front door, you could only leave through the back door, and no conversation was allowed during that time.

The soundproof room was completely opaque, which disappointed Tianyin, who planned to use lip reading to obtain some information. However, her team was quite strong, so sending a few out to test the waters wouldn't affect the overall situation.

The challenge for Class A is worth 225 class points, and the challenge fee is one-tenth of the challenge points, which means that each challenge costs 22.5 class points, which is quite expensive.

"Chiaki, Yukimura, Honami, the three of you will go first."

Tianyin generously sent three people to test the waters right away.

Matsushita, whose name was called, pointed to himself with some surprise.

"Tianyin, are you letting me go first? What if I lose..."

"It's okay to lose. I need someone to scout ahead for me. You just need to relax and do your best."

Tenon originally wanted to go in first to save on the entrance fee, but she was worried that the questions Banliu had prepared were common sense questions. Since common sense is slightly different from that of normal people, she was most likely to fail if she encountered a question that everyone else knew but she didn't. If she, as the leader, failed right away, the impact on morale would be significant. Therefore, she needed a few people with common sense to go in first to scout the way.

Matsushita took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the soundproof room.

There were three people sitting inside: Mr. Chabashira and two girls from Class A.

"My name is Fukuyama Shisho, and this is my younger sister, Fukuyama Shinobu. We are in charge of the special exam for Class A of the first year. Please take care of me."

"I am Chiaki Matsushita from Class B, Grade 1. Nice to meet you."

Matsushita glanced at Chabashira-sensei, but Chabashira-sensei kept his head down, looking at the scoring board, showing no intention of giving Matsushita any information.

"Without further ado, let's begin. Our challenge is simple: Matsushita, you will ask the questions, and the two of us will answer them. You can ask three questions, but the three questions must be related, otherwise the challenge will fail. Our answers can only be 'no' and 'yes.' You must make us say 'yes' when answering the third question in order to pass the challenge."

'

Chapter 172: You can even feed dog food like this?! (6K)

Matsushita felt a chill run down his spine upon learning the details of the challenge. However, this wasn't because he was shocked by the difficulty of the challenge, but because Amane had already seen through the framework of the challenge.

When simulating the challenge content before, Tianyin judged that there was a high probability that Class A would switch the question and answer roles. After all, it was a 'you ask, I answer' test. This special test did not specify who was the questioner in terms of either the test name or the content. Therefore, the method adopted by Class A was the most likely to catch the opponent off guard.

However, although Amane introduced some of the question-setting methods, she did not tell her how to deal with similar situations in detail, or rather... it's not that she didn't mention it. Matsushita still remembered when someone asked Amane what to do when encountering such a method.

Tianyin's answer was 'adapt to the situation'.

However, how to adapt to changing circumstances depends on the challenger's individual abilities.

Matsushita glanced at the timer next to him.

About thirty seconds had passed. Each response could not exceed two minutes, meaning that in the remaining minute and a half, she had to think of three related questions and ensure that the other person's answer to the last question was "yes".

Just thinking about it gives Matsushita a headache. If the power to answer is in the other party's hands, doesn't that mean that no matter what she asks, the other party can completely shut down all of the challenger's questions by simply answering "no"?

"Tea Pillar Teacher, does the challenge content for Class A meet the standards stipulated in this special exam of the school?"

Matsushita thought for a while but couldn't come up with any good ideas, so he decided to start by considering whether this method violated the rules.

"Don't worry about that. Class A provided me with the reference answers before the exam started. Based on my judgment, their challenge is passable and meets all the requirements of the special exam. Also, I need to remind you that there are still fifty seconds left before the answering time ends. If you don't ask any questions, the challenge will be considered a failure."

Matsushita's face stiffened; she hadn't expected that asking Chabashira-sensei would also be within the time limit.

As the numbers on the timer steadily decreased, Matsushita decided to ask a random question to buy some time.

"Can I pass this challenge?"

"No."

Fukuyama Shisho's answer was simple and decisive, clearly indicating that he had anticipated such a question.

When he saw the timer start counting down again, Matsushita felt both happy and troubled.

The good thing is that she had two minutes to think about the next question.

The difficulty lies in... she must ask a question that is related to the first question, meaning that, at the very least, the two questions must be logically connected.

What should she ask?

Suddenly, Matsushita thought of a possibility.

The students in Class A didn't seem to mention whether their answers could be repeated. In other words, if the first answer is 'no,' can the answer to the second question be a repeat of 'no,' or must they answer 'yes'?

If it's the first type, then there's a way to solve this challenge, but if it's the second type... this challenge is probably not as simple as it seems.

With time running out, Panasonic has no choice but to take a gamble.

"Can you skip the exam?"

"No."

Oh no!!

Matsushita hadn't expected this to be the worst possible outcome. Now, the other party could answer "no" to any question they asked. Could they really continue playing this challenge?

Matsushita began to suspect that Chabashira-sensei was lying to her. There was no way anyone could pass such a challenge, right? Could it be that Class A deliberately gave Chabashira-sensei the answer to the last question?

What should I do now?

Unlike Matsushita, who was filled with worry, all the Class A students who came to the challenge location at Class B's location had smiles on their faces.

Aside from a group of B-class students who had no chance to perform, those who remained here to accept the challenge were surprisingly Horikita Suzune and Kushida.

In Sakayanagi's view, Amane's victory in this special exam was as if she had handed it over to someone else. However, knowing that Amane had a competitive spirit beneath her lazy exterior, Sakayanagi felt that Amane would never let her win so easily.

If Amane hadn't left enough backup plans here, or if Horikita had volunteered to stay here, Amane would have led the team to challenge Class A because she had no other choice.

Which one will it be?

Sakayanagi looked at the small house and muttered to himself.

"Why worry about all that? Let's just go up and give it a try."

Kamuro's words brought a smile to Sakayanagi's somewhat worried face.

“Masumi-kun, you’re absolutely right. Then you can go first.”

"What? Are you sure you want me to lead the charge?"

Kamuro pointed to herself with some surprise. She was at the bottom of the class in both physical fitness and academic performance. To put it bluntly, her biggest role was to act as Sakayanagi's crutch and mouthpiece.

Their performance in terms of ability was really quite average.

Sakayanagi actually asked her to lead the way on such an important occasion, which made Kamuro think he had misheard.

“That’s right, I need your sacrifice, Masumi-kun, to tell me how well Class B is prepared.”

Like Amane, Sakayanagi didn't go in person because she was afraid of messing up in an unfamiliar situation without any information. In a special exam that concerns the fate of the class, even a small mistake could change the outcome.

Therefore, even someone as confident as Sakayanagi wouldn't dare to gamble that he would definitely win.

"Honestly, you're talking as if I'm already dead."

Kamuro grumbled as he walked toward the challenge room.

"Then I wish you good luck."

Before Kamuro could even reach out and open the door, it was opened from the inside, and Mr. Majima came out with the scoreboard, announcing the rules of the special exam challenge for Class B to all the first-year Class A students.