The Survival and Elimination Special Exam had begun, and the first turn was progressing leisurely.
Ryūen, who received the first attack from Ichinose's class, had only one successful protection out of the five he nominated. Furthermore, none of the students answered the question correctly. The start was anything but good.
But this was not surprising. Ryūen's class had many students he had to protect for their academics but had obvious points of weakness. Even apart from the students who chose to exclude 'Economics,' the category Ichinose chose, about half the class would be anxious about that category.
On the other hand, as a result of the attack from Horikita's class, Ichinose's class scored a total of four points.
A gap of three points had occurred from the first turn, and a heavy air had already begun to form.
However, it wasn't because they couldn't score points.
"Now, as the next attacker, please make the nomination against Class A!"
Hoshinomiya cheerfully sent instructions to the leader, but Ryūen didn't move.
He quietly stared at his phone.
"Hello~ Can you hear me?"
She called him again from the podium just in case he hadn't heard her, but Ryūen still didn't move.
As could be understood from the prior rule explanations, the nomination time was steadily decreasing by the second without stopping.
In the first-turn attack, selecting who to target was usually decided ahead of time. Even though Hoshinomiya thought it should be common sense, Ryūen didn't move even after 60 seconds had passed.
Normally, it wouldn't be strange for classmates to ask, 'Are you okay?' However, no one pointed it out. No, most people in this class couldn't point it out even if they wanted to.
After returning to the front lines, Ryūen exuded an even more overwhelming sense of domination than ever before.
It was rare for Hoshinomiya to see the tense situation in Ryūen's class, but it wasn't the same for the classmates.
This was their everyday usual scenery.
If Kaneda, who was in the role of advisor, moved, the situation would be resolved quickly, but typically, he tended to wait for Ryūen's instructions, so nothing could be expected.
During such times, the gaze of the lost classmates naturally turned to Katsuragi more often.
He was a transfer from another class, but he was already recognized in that class as Ryūen's advisor.
Along with his exceptional overall abilities in the OAA, his most important factor was his fearless attitude towards Ryūen.
Ibuki could be irrationally arrogant, but Katsuragi was rational. However, the well-relied-on Katsuragi... didn't move.
He closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and allowed the offensive's time limit to pass.
Maybe he resigned himself, knowing that nothing would change even if he raised his voice in this situation.
Or maybe he was calmly waiting, having already expected something like this to happen.
Either way, many students could only silently watch.
"You know, it's still the first turn, right? A difference of 3 points isn't that big of a deal. You shouldn't get too worked up."
Hoshinomiya cheered them on, treating the fact that they couldn't withstand merely the first attack as a trivial matter.
Her actions lacked impartiality as a teacher, but she couldn't remain silent for the sake of the students, who were most likely full of anxiety.
This was an excuse. The reality was that she couldn't let Sakayanagi's class, who were up against her class led by Ichinose, score points. If they kept getting high scores with a reckless strategy, there would be no chance of winning.
Although it was a calculated move, in the ensuing silence, Hoshinomiya realized that her judgment was wrong.
Even though many students felt suspicious about Ryūen's lack of action, hardly any felt uneasy.
Normally silence could often lead to bad outcomes, but this class had nurtured a unique strength.
They accepted the abnormal situation where no one was named for nearly two minutes.
Hoshinomiya began to think that perhaps there was a secret strategy in this silence.
Sakayanagi's class would have zero successful protections and an ideal nomination that could cause many students to answer incorrectly—was he pondering such a fanciful strategy?
As the remaining time neared thirty seconds, Ryūen announced five names.
"W-wait, wait, wait. I'll input it quickly." Following his voice, Hoshinomiya swiftly operated the tablet.
Category 'Lifestyle' Difficulty 1
Offensive's Nominees:
'Kitō Hayato,' 'Kamuro Masumi,' 'Hashimoto Masayoshi,' 'Machida Kōji,' 'Yamamura Miki'
Hoshinomiya quickly finished inputting the names, but she was taken aback upon seeing which five students were selected. To her, it seemed that students close to Sakayanagi were picked.
Defensive's Successfully Protected Members:
'Machida Kōji'
After much deliberation, a decision was made, and Class A was only able to successfully protect one student. But a problem laid ahead.
Correct Students:
'Kitō Hayato,' 'Kamuro Masumi,' 'Hashimoto Masayoshi'
Out of the remaining four, three got it right.
Giving the opposing class four points, they were only stuck with one; a bad start. Indeed, they were not promising. Hoshinomiya thought they looked surprisingly cool, which almost made her admire them. But inside, she realized that they weren't up to the task. It was unlikely that they'd crush Sakayanagi's class.
Ryūen's strategy, even after this, could hardly be called sharp. Most of the students designated were the same as in the first round.
Some changes were made to disrupt, but those were mostly kept at a rate of every other turn, continuing to nominate Kitō, Kamuro, Hashimoto, Yamamura, Machida, Sanada, Satonaka, and Matoba.
Sakayanagi too, of course, kept efficiently piling on the protections.
But still, Ryūen didn't significantly change his nominations.
Stuck at the bottom, they just kept racking up the turns.
But by the fifth turn, halfway through the first half, some students had already made two mistakes, and a sense of trepidation should start to creep in. At this time, Hoshinomiya noticed something puzzling.
"Everyone doesn't seem to be panicking at all..."
The reason they couldn't break free from being at the bottom had less to do with their attacks and more with their defense. Clearly, they had a lower percentage of correct answers than any other class, and they weren't earning the points they should. Normally, one would seek clues to find the correct answers every single minute and second.
However, there were students who weren't even tense.
Hoshinomiya pretended to keep watch, walking around the classroom, casually peeking at each student's phone.
They weren't playing around; they were browsing various websites and videos, gearing up for their weak spots.
Maybe they couldn't make a sound because they were under Ryūen's control and were too tense.
She thought about it, but—
"Kaneda-kun, it seems like you're not doing anything. Are you fully prepared?"
Among the students who were busy preparing, Hoshinomiya pointed out Kaneda, who wasn't even touching his phone.
"I've been focusing on studying, and I try not to unnecessarily cram knowledge. It's not good to disrupt the routine."
Lifting his glasses a bit, Kaneda smirked confidently.
"Oh, I see. Smart kids are strange, huh?"
Looking somewhat taken aback by his response, Hoshinomiya lost interest in Kaneda.
On the other hand, Ishizaki even dared to doze off during the waiting time.
He had already made two mistakes and seemed to have reached the point of giving up.
"What's going on with this class...?"
Feeling a bit disgusted, she continued to go through the turns as their supervisor.