"Huh? What is the school doing?! Doesn't this expose the identities of almost all the key figures in every class?"
Ibuki grumbled loudly in dissatisfaction.
However, no one echoed her.
Because anyone who understood the rules knew that even if an opponent with a special identity was identified, one couldn't jump to conclusions.
After some thought, Shiina decided to explain to Ibuki, otherwise, it would be troublesome if she let something slip later.
"Even if someone with a special identity is spied on, it's useless, because the infiltrator and the key card holder have equal authority and can also use the key card to punch in. So, even if an exchanged person is found to have a special identity, it looks more likely that they are the infiltrator. But perhaps the other party will use the trick of identity exchange, for example, the key card holder gives the punch-in authority to the infiltrator and acts as the exchange student themselves."
Shiina said, secretly glancing at Amane.
Her words now clearly had an intention to mislead.
After listening to Shiina's explanation, Ibuki understood the rules in this regard, but she still looked displeased.
"But even if we can't confirm the other party's identity, wouldn't they definitely be treated specially after being found to have a special identity? The biggest advantage of an exchange student is being able to observe the other class's situation up close, right? If they're treated specially, they won't be able to play their role at all."
Ibuki's words made some sense.
The infiltrator's reconnaissance privilege, to put it plainly, was an ability that was neither here nor there.
The advantage was that it allowed them to quickly identify people with special identities in the opposing class during the first few days.
Once all people with special identities were found, reconnaissance would lose its value.
What truly changed the value of the infiltrator's identity was that, in addition to having the same rights as the key card holder, they would lose all points except for stronghold points if their identity was guessed correctly, making them a key protection target.
Conversely, if one was lucky enough to guess the opponent's infiltrator directly, it could be said to be a huge profit.
Of course, this was on the premise that the opponent still had points.
And there was only one way to determine who the infiltrator was.
That was to first obtain the opponent's key card, which had the key card holder's name written on the back.
Then, find the other person with a special identity in that class.
This would allow them to pinpoint the infiltrator's identity.
It sounded easy, but it was not simple to obtain the key card of the opponent's class without anyone knowing. That's why each class had its own homeroom teacher stationed there.
The purpose was to prevent incidents of violent snatching.
This arrangement undoubtedly raised the difficulty of this exam to the highest level.
Without being able to rely on additional point income, most classes could only save points as much as possible while regarding the points generated by strongholds as an important source of points.
Class C was no exception.
Class C's punch-in times were clearly specially designed.
According to Amane's observations, the punch-in times should be from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, and from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM.
The reason the time spanned an hour was entirely because Class C would be exceptionally chaotic during that hour, with some people trying to obstruct Amane's observation, and others specifically blocking the entrance to the punch-in point.
The remaining people, crowding to punch in, would punch in at the stronghold one after another.
This made it impossible for Amane to confirm the exact punch-in times during these two periods.
Furthermore, these two periods were lunch time and evening roll call time.
These were times when Class C personnel were highly concentrated, making it incredibly easy to protect someone.
Therefore, Amane also gave up on finding the person with the key card during these two periods and changed her strategy.
According to the rules, one punch-in could last for eight hours.
A stronghold could be punched in a maximum of three times a day.
In other words, if Class C wanted to maximize the use of the stronghold, someone would definitely go to punch in during the interval from 3:30 AM to 4:30 AM.
Because once the punch-in time changed, all subsequent punch-in times would change, which was very troublesome. So, even though the morning punch-in time went against their routine, Class C could only accept it.
And during this time, it would be impossible to wake everyone up and make a big fuss about punching in.
In other words... this time slot was her only chance.
Class C had a total of four strongholds: by the lake in the woods, the beach, the sports equipment hut, and a small cabin not far away.
Sakaue-sensei lived in the cabin, and the punch-in point was by a well behind the cabin.
Class C's daily water supply mostly came from that well.
To better implement her plan, Amane went into the small tent with Shiina early, intending to sleep, but she saw that Shiina also intended to go to sleep.
"It's only just after roll call, Hiyori, are you going to sleep already?"
Listening to the sounds of chatting and playing on the beach, Amane was quite sure that everyone else outside the tent was still quite active.
But Shiina was unusually planning to go to sleep.
Could her luck really be this good?
Amane narrowed her eyes.
"Yes, I've been playing all day and I feel a bit tired. Usually, in my free time, I read books, and I rarely get a chance to exercise like today. My arms are a bit sore, but thanks to this, I discovered that beach volleyball is quite fun."
Shiina said, making a cute motion of swinging her arm to hit something.
However, after only a few swings, she was forced to stop due to the pain in her arm.
It looked like she had some muscle strain.
Someone who never exercised, playing hard for a whole day, would indeed feel more exhausted than usual.
In that case, going to bed early seemed perfectly reasonable... "Do you need me to give you a massage? My technique is quite exquisite; it can quickly relieve fatigue and pain."
Amane made massaging motions with her hands.
Her gaze, full of ill intentions, scanned Shiina's body.
"Hmph~ I won't fall for your trick, Amane. Good night, I'm going to sleep."
Because there was no blanket, Shiina slept covered with her school uniform, with a large number of bundled plastic bags placed underneath her, making it very soft.
In addition to preventing her sportswear from getting dirty, it also prevented dampness from encroaching.
It could be said to kill two birds with one stone.
Accompanied by Shiina's even breathing, Amane also had no choice but to lie down.
3:31 AM.
Amane opened her eyes.
Without an alarm clock, she simply used self-suggestion to her body to wake up when her sleep reached a certain level at approximately the right time.
The reason Amane could control the error within a minute was because she had undergone similar torture experiments a long time ago. She had experienced it countless times, to the extent that she could accurately "perceive" time purely by her body and brain's memory in a room without any time cues.
Thus, she could live for more than seven days with almost no deviation from real time, until after seven days, the time memory within Amane's body would begin to deviate.
However, coincidentally, a sound also came from Shiina's side.
The source of the sound was a watch that the school had given to everyone before the exam began, which could detect physical condition and send distress signals.
Such watches also had a timer function, with options for sound alerts and vibration alerts.
Just now, without a doubt, it was the sound of the watch's timed vibration.
It seemed Amane had guessed correctly.
Class C's other person with a special identity was Shiina Hiyori.
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