Real teaching, hypocritical gray life

"...Not sure about what?"

"I'm not sure what's going on on the field right now. Is there only one rat, or is there one each in Class B and Class D, or... the rat who likes to hide also has his own subordinates."

"The last one is saying that our class B or class D has a person in the other class who helps them pass the exam?"

"That's a possibility, isn't it?"

"I have considered an alliance between classes, but after all, we are fighting for the victory of our own class. The other party will never agree to such a thing. Or do you think we have the ability to take action in secret?"

"That's why I find it hard to say. If you, Class B, can really control the opponent's lifeline and threaten or take control, then I will really look at you with new eyes. You were originally a docile sheep, but in the next moment you turned into a fierce crow."

"If you really think highly of Class B, you wouldn't continue to harass us, but would confront us more directly."

"Can't harassment and provocation be a part of combat strategy? Continuously draining the opponent's spirit and strength is a skill I want to be good at."

"Even if we are a little tired, we can't be defeated by you. You should understand this. Instead of doing this, you should think about how to really defeat us."

"It's quite easy to deal with you, but my next target is Horikita. As for you, you will be placed in the lower position, so please look forward to it."

"How arrogant! Aren't you afraid that the hidden brains of the other class will take action to deal with you?"

"It wouldn't matter if my next move could lead that person out of the cave. At least I'd have won the cat-and-mouse game."

"Then I'll be looking forward to your actions, Ryuen-san. Please don't let the cat suddenly turn into a mouse."

"I will let you see the results, Ichinose, in the near future. But for now, let me mess up your class for a bit."

"Unfortunately, this special exam is over and you no longer have any chance."

"It's true that the exam is over, but if you violated the rules, there is still room for consideration after the exam, right?"

When Long Yuan said this, I nervously grabbed Luo's arm. I remembered that Long Yuan said his target of attack was Luo, and now Luo did have a very fatal weakness.

Once designated for certification, Luo might get into the dispute of expulsion.

"Wow, you look quite uneasy. This guy is your weak spot, isn't he?"

"At least when the external enemy is a student from another class, I have to help prevent my classmates from falling into danger."

"Do you really protect him out of this philosophy? Or is he a special existence to you, or to your class B?"

"Do you think we could tell you this?"

"If this guy had some outstanding qualities, I could understand that, but he has never made any outstanding achievements. The only way you and I have met is through the desks in front and behind you. So why do you value this guy so much? But if you admit that you just like this type of pretty boy, I won't have to go through so much trouble to figure it out."

"Isn't the relationship between the front and back tables enough?"

"In this case, he does have room for doubt."

"What do you want to do?"

If Ryuen really mentioned that, I don't have a complete response plan. I can't waver in answering his questions now, otherwise we will fall into a prisoner's dilemma.

"Before the exam was over, your Rabbit Team seemed to have a very interesting discussion. Let all members of the Rabbit Team show their identity emails to find out who is being treated preferentially."

"Perhaps you don't know yet, but I have already understood the fundamental principle of the so-called [serious adjustment] in the preferential status email, which means that I now have the preferential status of all groups in my hands."

Did even Ryuen realize this? Then we are in trouble.

"Were you bluffing? If so, why didn't you just send a betrayal email and end the exam early? Instead, you ended up like this."

"This was my miscalculation. It was precisely because I had the rule in my hands that the person became afraid of me and took action... Now that I put it this way, you may not believe it. The exam results were finally over not long ago, so I will reveal the rules to you so that you can understand them."

Ryuuen pressed his smiling face with his hands, trying hard to control the beast's hunger before hunting.

"Aren't you afraid that you will be punished for your current behavior? After all, there are clauses in the school's rules that protect the anonymity of those who are favored."

"I discovered this by my own means. How can the school have any jurisdiction over this?"

"Listen carefully. The rule for selecting the preferred candidates in this special exam is to sort the names of all participating members of each group in the order of the 50-character syllabary. Then, select a person based on the ranking of the zodiac sign in the current group name. That person will be the preferred candidate for the current group."

After Long Yuan revealed this rule, the discussion among the surrounding students suddenly became lively.

"Then what do you plan to do now that you have stated the rules for being a favored person?"

"Don't you understand? Since I know what happened in your Rabbit Group's last discussion, I also know how much truth and falsehood there is in the email information you revealed. According to the above rules, the follower behind you is the one who is favored by the Rabbit Group."

"I'm right about that, right?"

Chapter 112: A Sudden Reversal

(From the perspective of Ichinose Honami)

Just as Long Yuan had just said, Luo's true identity was a favored person.

I discovered this long before I mastered the fundamental principle of selecting favored individuals in Longyuan. I'm not saying it's absolute, but I think I was the first to do so.

The time point is the first night of the special examination for preferential treatment.

No matter how hard Luo tried to conceal his behavior, his movements of flipping through the book were too deliberate. He was almost indicating to me that there were reminders about the answers to this special exam written on the book.

After an hour-long group discussion that night, I sorted out the content I had seen, and gradually I figured out the identity patterns of the preferential treatment recipients.

I was skeptical about the result I got at first, because it meant that Luo Jun was the favored one in the Rabbit Group. But on the day of the special exam, Luo showed me the email that said he was not the favored one without any intention of hiding it.

Luo was not the one who was favored, this was the fact I learned at the time.

With this heavy fact in mind, I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I didn’t get any other answer.

Then I discovered something strange.

According to the 'wrong' rule, I guessed that the beneficiaries of the Ox Group and the Monkey Group were also students from Class B, so I found those two students and verified the information with them.

The result is - absolutely correct.

This time I am confused.

Regular yet unusual breaking, at this point I always feel that I have grasped victory, but I don’t know what exactly I have grasped.

In the chaotic situation, I made an extremely bold move, and even now I still feel a little scared when I think about it.

I sent the email stating that Luojun was a beneficiary to the designated mailbox of the school.

When I pressed the send button, I came to my senses and realized what I was doing. I knew that Luo was not a preferential treatment recipient, but the email in reply from the school unexpectedly let me know a shocking secret.

It also left me bewildered.

[The sender and the preferential treatment recipient are in the same class, so the answer is invalid and the test continues.]

It was from this moment that I realized that the email Luo Jun showed me in the morning was fake, and his real identity was a favored person.

This means that before the exam officially started, he already knew the identity of the favored persons and tried to reveal the information to us.

But how did he create emails that showed he wasn't the favored one in the first place?

So the first thing I thought of was to change the SIM card binding. I replaced the SIM card of other students with my own mobile phone, and used other people's mobile phones to conceal my identity as a preferential recipient.

In this case, it must be possible to have another student to help cooperate. And the student's mobile phone will show the identity email of the preferential treatment. Then I confirmed the identity email information with other students in the class, but the result was

——Luo did not exchange SIM cards with the students in Class B.

In addition to Luo, there are only two students with preferential status in the class, which is an indisputable fact. This means that Luo has contact with students from other classes. I immediately considered students from other classes, and the first one was Ayanokouji from Class D because Luo usually walked closest to him. However, an extremely bold idea came to my mind.

Shortly after the start of the school year, a fight broke out between the students of Class D and Class C. The plan that Horikita had prepared did not work, but was saved by a recording at the last moment of the trial meeting. This was revealed to us by Ryuen after the meeting, and he also revealed the people that other classes had planted in Class C.

At this moment, I instantly understood a lot of things, including the threatening recordings received by Long Yuan, the mosquito repellent grass in the camp during the uninhabited island assessment, and the replacement of the special unlocking card...

At first I thought Luo was threatened by others and used this method to remind me, but now I seem to understand that the person who has been causing trouble behind the scenes might be Luo.

After thinking about this, I felt very complicated, so I went to the stern of the cruise ship that night. I wanted to be alone for a while, but I didn't expect to meet Luo again there.

I clearly understood the rules of the exam for the preferential status, but I didn't want to be responsible for Luo Jun's hint. I wanted Luo to say it himself and reveal his identity to everyone. So I kept planning until I accidentally discovered the loophole in his plan.

I don't understand why Luo, who wanted us to know the hidden rules of the preferred identity, would reveal his non-preferred identity at the beginning. As long as one of us solves his clue puzzle, we will know his identity clearly. So no matter how I think about it, hiding the email from us is the best way.

Later, when I tried to find out who he had planted in other classes, I found that Luo might have violated the rules. Because Longyuan used his violent dominance to check the preferential status of all students in the class but found no problems, which means that the person who exchanged SIM cards with Luo was not in Class C.

When I found out that Raku was hiding his identity, I hadn't convinced myself to calm down, but when it came time to reveal my identity to Ayanokouji-san, I suddenly remembered that there was a possibility that Raku's email was fake.

The email on Ayanokouji-san's phone showed that she was not a preferential treatment recipient.

Although the school has regulations prohibiting any copying, forwarding, or altering of emails sent by the school in this examination, and because it seems that I don't know what the real email looks like, it is very likely that he has forged his own email.

At that moment I called Luo's cell phone and confirmed that the number was indeed his, but the range of people he could trade with was getting smaller and smaller, and the possibility of fraud was even higher.

After witnessing the last discussion where Luo took out an email indicating that he was not a favored person, I grabbed his hand so that he had no chance to leave with the majority of the crowd, and made sure that he returned to the room alone. Finally, during the conversation just now, I secretly opened the email on Luo Jun's phone to make sure that the email displayed on the phone was still that of a non-favored person. I finally confirmed that this email of his was forged.

After understanding this, I can now realize how dangerous the situation we are facing is. As long as someone leaks the information, then after being confirmed, Luo Jun will have to accept the punishment of this special exam - expulsion.

I don't want that to happen, at least I don't want him to leave me without permission while behaving like that.

I absolutely won't allow that kind of thing.

Therefore, in the following conversation, I cannot allow my 'convince' to waver, otherwise we will be instantly seized and defeated.

"Don't you understand? Since I know what happened in your Rabbit Group's last discussion, I also know how much truth and falsehood there is in the email information you revealed. According to the above rules, the follower behind you is the one who is favored by the Rabbit Group."

"I'm right about that, right?"

"...I don't intend to give you a chance to prove your talent."

"I don't need you to give me a chance to prove whether my guess is correct, because I know very well that the angle I stand at is the position of truth. Ibuki explained to me the identities of each member of your Rabbit Group. As a preferential treatment, he showed the preferential treatment identity email information at the last moment. Don't you think this is a very interesting thing?"

"I don't know what's so interesting about this matter. And if Ryuen-san only knows this, then I don't think Ibuki-san reported all the details of the last discussion of the Rabbit Team to you. Although the school rules prohibit all copying, forwarding, and altering of mail sent by the school, they don't say that we can't exchange cell phones, right?"

"And if you think this is funny, then isn't it even more suspicious that Ayanokouji, who is not a member of the privileged group, showed an email stating that he is a member of the privileged group?"

"Of course I know about this matter, so I just confirmed it with them. Maybe I plan to let it go and push the situation to a point where I can see more and more clearly. It's just that - you look a little unexpectedly flustered, Ichinose."

"I don't take any provocation."

Although I said this, my inner worry was undoubtedly increasing step by step. I suppressed the instinctive trembling of my body and looked at Luo. As a result, he still maintained his original expression without panic. After noticing my gaze, he just responded to me with a calmer look.

Why is he still so calm now? Doesn't he know that he will be expelled from the school as punishment for sending fake emails?

If Ryuuen and the others weren't in front of me right now, I would really want to ask loudly right now.

"I never said that I was just trying to provoke you. That's the truth, Ichinose. Look at how different your current state is from your previous state. It's really hard to bear when someone so important to you is threatened."

"Whatever you say. Whether it's provocation or not, I don't feel that my current state has changed much. I am just a little annoyed by your unreasonable harassment of the students in Class B. If you don't believe this, you can ask the school to check whether our students are violating the rules."

I know very well that I am just bluffing in this paragraph, but at least this can delay the dispute. I must expose Luo's dark side tonight and deal with the forged document. Otherwise, if Luo is expelled from school, it may become the most regrettable thing in my life.

"Please feel free to consider the rest, Ryuen-san. Luo, let's go."

I grabbed Luo's wrist and forcefully tried to take him away from the scene, but Long Yuan stretched out his hand to block our way.

"You're bluffing, am I right, Ichinose?"

Long Yuan's smile of seeing his prey taken the bait appeared on his face again. Although his name contained the word "dragon", his actions did not match the temperament of a dragon at all. Instead, he was as cold and vicious as a snake.

"Haven't I made it clear to you? If you are so suspicious, you can just take action now."

"Haha, Ichinose, I wonder how you felt when you were handling class affairs before, seeing the way you are now? I don't think you would show such emotions at that time, but I can clearly smell the so-called 'panic' emotion." After saying that, Ryuuen licked his lips.

I am not really good at lying... But there is still hope. It only takes a little time.

"Well, it seems to have come just in time."

While I was still thinking about how to act on my next goal, Ryuen suddenly looked away from the cafe and muttered to himself. I followed his gaze and found that Mr. Hoshinomiya was heading towards the bar with Mr. Mashima, the homeroom teacher of Class A, and Mr. Chabashira, the homeroom teacher of Class D.

Oops, the email has not been processed in time. If I don’t stop it now——

"Mr. Mashima, could you please come over here for a moment?" Ryuuen called out without giving me any time to react.

Because the confrontation between Ryuen and I just now attracted the attention of all the students in the cafe, Ryuen's shouting easily reached the ears of Mr. Majima. After saying a few words to Mr. Hoshinomiya, Mr. Majima came to us.

I turned around and tugged at my fallen sleeve, but he was still watching what was happening with an expressionless face. After noticing my uneasiness, he spoke casually.

"Is this how students in Class C usually harass other students in the class? They need to prove themselves before they can leave. This is really troublesome."

"...Won't Luo be worried?"

"Why should I worry? No one can explain that what Ryuen said is absolute, right? Even if the school checks me, nothing will happen unless they specifically find an excuse to slander me."

"Yes, that's right..."

"But, Ichinose's expression really looks very different from usual, and his words are always inexplicable. Is something wrong?"

“…That’s not true.”

Why? Why can Luo still feel so at ease until now?

I was able to confirm that the phone number belonged to me from the call from Kanzaki-san, and I was not mistaken in the email information showing that I was not a preferential treatment recipient.

Could it be that the phone he is holding now belongs to someone else?