Hikigaya doesn't want to be a force of strength

It can't be that we are not in the same group, and the other party can still disgust us.

As for the last one, Koenji Rokusuke, Hikigaya had no idea what strategy the other party would adopt in this exam.

After all, the other party has always seemed to have no interest in class struggles and special exams. Could it be that he has done nothing from beginning to end?

No, I can't imagine that kind of situation at all.

Considering that his opponent's test scores were once comparable to Yukimura Teruhiko's, Hikigaya couldn't help but wonder if it was Koenji, he might have ended the test on the first day...

But that shouldn't be possible.

Entering the dormitory, Hikigaya quietly lay down on his bed.

Although this dormitory is full of weirdos with different personalities, this also brings one advantage, which is that the weirdos hardly bother each other.

Most of the time, everyone in the dormitory was doing their own thing, which made Hikigaya feel strangely relaxed.

"Hikigaya, you're back?" However, Hirata Yosuke didn't seem to want to remain silent, and took the initiative to speak, "Who are you in the same group with? By the way, I'm in the same group with Hasebe Haruka, Matsushita Chiaki, and Miyake Akito."

Hikigaya had some impression of the three names Hirata mentioned.

Although most people in the class have little sense of his presence, Hikigaya's own memory allows him to clearly remember every object in a class most of the time.

In Hirata's group, these students are all those who look simple but actually have extraordinary abilities.

This school is not divided into groups randomly.

So why should I be assigned to the Dragon Team? I'm just a lone ranger with no sense of existence!

Hikigaya complained madly in his mind, but he silently replied, "I was assigned to the Dragon Team, and my classmates are Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyo."

"Eh? This seems to be a very special grouping."

Just by hearing the names of these three people, Hirata realized that something was wrong with this grouping.

Hikigaya couldn't help but said helplessly in his heart, 'That's because you don't know what kind of monsters the other class members in this group are. Otherwise, you would know what true special means.'

"This exam is very boring. It's just about finding the liar hiding in the crowd."

Suddenly, Koenji, who had always done his own thing, joined the conversation.

"Exams can't be described as interesting or boring..."

Although Hirata is not good at getting along with Koenji, he is obviously trying to adapt to the rhythm of conversation with Koenji.

Although Hikigaya didn't dislike this attitude of forcing himself to work hard, Hirata's approach was a bit too persistent.

I always feel as if I am being driven by something to take action...

"According to the teacher, this exam tests thinking ability, which means you have to think, analyze the current situation, and get the answer." Ayanokouji also joined the topic, "In other words, during the exam, you have to imagine the possible actions that everyone might take, and make your own choices based on these actions, and finally achieve the results you want. It's really troublesome just thinking about it."

"That's right."

Hirata Yosuke smiled awkwardly, and it was clear from his expression that he did not fully understand what Ayanokouji said.

However, Hikigaya did not expect that Ayanokouji would say something like this, which sounded like a hint. Was he trying to give him and the others some hints to help them complete the exam?

As expected, I don't know what stimulated the other party, and now he is very proactive in intervening in the exam of Class D, and even hopes that Class D will get good results.

Fortunately, I was not assigned to the same group as him...

Yes, if he has to be in a group with Ayanokouji, then Hikigaya would rather stay in the current Dragon Group.

Human character is ultimately a compromise. If Hikigaya were asked to stay in the Dragon Clan where monsters and demons gather, he would definitely be unwilling to do so. But if he were asked to be in a group with Ayanokouji, he would be willing to stay in the Dragon Clan.

……

Early the next morning.

Hikigaya woke up from his sleep and found that the dormitory had become empty and he was the only one left.

Although he thought that most of the guys in the dormitory did what they wanted, Hikigaya still felt a little lonely when no one woke him up.

Just like an elderly widower left alone in an empty house... No way!

This feeling of quietness is really great for me as a lone ranger.

After getting dressed and washing up, it was already half past seven.

Hikigaya seemed to have mentioned before that the identity of the beneficiary would be revealed at eight o'clock today, and Horikita asked herself and Kushida to gather together at that time.

Hikigaya then went to the cafe on the cruise ship as agreed, and found that there were almost no students in the morning.

"Hikigaya-san? Here, here!"

Kushida Kikyo waved her hand and greeted with a smile.

Hikigaya then came to the other person's side and found that Horikita Suzune had also sat in the seat next to him, and there was just an empty seat left for him between the two of them.

Feeling a strong sense of déjà vu, in order to avoid repeating the same mistake, Hikigaya acted quickly this time and was about to sit in the seat opposite the two girls. Unexpectedly, Horikita just pushed away the stool he was going to sit on, while Kushida Kikyo pulled his wrist with a smile on her face and forced him into the seat between the two of them.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Hikigaya-san."

"This……"

Facing the not-at-all-real smile on Kushida's face, Hikigaya smiled awkwardly, his heart unable to help but almost boiling with anger.

He could understand that Horikita and Kushida had incompatible personalities, so they couldn't get along harmoniously.

But what do you mean by putting yourself in the middle as a shield every time?

Am I the legendary adapter, responsible for matching two different types of electrical plugs and sockets together?

Don't treat me as a tool!

However, although Hikigaya was complaining madly in his heart, he didn't dare to say anything on the surface.

Be it Kushida Kikyo, who was prone to fake smiles and had no idea of ​​her true thoughts, or Horikita Suzune, who always had a poker face and showed no emotion, they were not people he could afford to mess with.

Helplessly, he could only sit between the two beautiful girls, surrounded by them, enjoying the painful state that outsiders would be very envious of at first glance.

Just like that, time came to eight o'clock——

"Ding dong!"

The school’s email was sent to every student’s mobile phone on the cruise ship on time!

Chapter 352: Between Horikita and me, who would you choose, Hikigaya?

Hikigaya, Horikita Suzune, and Kushida Kikyo gathered at a coffee shop and waited for news from the school regarding the preferential treatment.

And at eight o'clock.

Everyone's cell phone rang with the sound of text messages on time, without even a second's error.

"I didn't expect the text message would come so soon."

As Kushida Kikyo expressed her feelings, several people opened their mobile phones to confirm the emails they had just received and check the contents sent by the school.

Hikigaya first checked his phone, which read:

"After serious adjustments, you were not selected as a preferential treatment. Please act as a member of the team and challenge the exam. The exam will start at 1 pm today. The exam will be held for three days from today. Students of the Dragon Team, please gather in the Dragon Room on the second floor."

After reading the email from school, Hikigaya looked up and found that Horikita Suzune seemed to have finished reading the email as well.

The black-haired girl calmly placed her phone horizontally, with the LCD screen facing Hikigaya so that the latter could see the contents clearly.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not the one who gets preferential treatment."

In response to Horikita's words, Hikigaya checked the other party's email and found that the two emails were almost identical, even the format and punctuation were the same, which made people instinctively suspect that this was a mass email.

However, this is because neither of them is a favored party. If they were, the content of the email would definitely be very different.

So, Hikigaya handed over his phone as well and replied, "It seems that neither of us has been chosen as the preferential recipient."

"You're not one either." Horikita read Hikigaya's email and sighed silently, "I don't know whether I should be happy or sad."

"It must be sad. If you are chosen as a favored person, you will have a chance to get one million points! Even if you can't achieve result one, you can still get half a million points as long as you are careful!"

"Humph, even if you are chosen as the preferential recipient, you won't have the chance to get those points! Because my goal is to pursue results three and four!"

Horikita Suzune decisively refuted Hikigaya's words and denied the other party's idea of ​​trying to earn points by taking advantage of his status as a favored person.

"By the way, this is a really unpleasant article... It seems to be saying that I am not qualified to be treated preferentially."

Horikita Suzune seemed a little dissatisfied with not being the favored one.

This kind of overconfident and narcissistic attitude will not make people feel obviously disgusted only when it comes from the other person's mouth.

She then went on to analyze the exam:

"There will be a huge difference in this exam if you are selected as a favored student or not. All students other than the favored students will have to run around to find the favored students. And if the favored students are not in their class, there is a high possibility that the gap with other classes will widen."

"We should consider that the leaders have already conceived several strategies. If we don't decide how to run this test in the early stages, the situation will become irreparable."

It was obvious that Horikita Suzune sincerely wanted to advance her class, and everything she thought about to achieve this was based on a complex plan to win this special exam.

Although Hikigaya had no idea about the class promotion, he couldn't help but admire Horikita's attitude of trying to do the impossible.

After all, he himself didn't have any hope of Class D being promoted to Class A.

The other party should be able to understand this, but she is still taking action. This is undoubtedly the growth of Horikita Suzune.

Doing something even though you know it is impossible is the manifestation of bravery.

While the two were discussing the exam, Hikigaya suddenly realized that Kushida Kikyo had not spoken much since the beginning.

He was about to remind the other party, but found that Kikyo Kushida raised her head first and looked at him with a strange and complicated look.

"Well, I have something to tell you."

"Kushida?"

After hearing what Kushida said, Horikita looked at him with a little hesitation.

Since neither she nor Hikigaya were chosen as the favored ones, Horikita instinctively thought that the third person here, Kikyo Kushida, would not be selected.

But what she didn't expect was that Kushida then showed his mobile phone and said with a subtle expression: "Sorry, it seems that I have been selected as a preferential treatment."

"what?"

After hearing what Kushida said, Horikita and Hikigaya were both shocked by the news.

Needless to say, Horikita Suzune never expected such a good thing to happen, and even went into a short downtime for a while.

Hikigaya was silently observing Kushida's expression, and found that a kind of joy that he didn't know how to describe was emerging on the other person's face.

That joy obviously did not come from the benefits that the status of a favored person could bring to the class, but from something else...

"Ahem." After a brief silence, Horikita Suzune quickly came back to her senses, "I didn't expect that you, Kushida, would be chosen as the favored one. This is very good news for us. Next, we just need to aim for result four. At the very least, we have to keep result two. That'll be good."

Horikita Suzune continued thinking along her original lines.

The advantage of having the favored ones in their own camp is that they only need to defend themselves to prevent their identities as favored ones from being discovered by others. They do not need to do anything complicated to test the identities of favored ones in other classes.

Therefore, outcome 4, where other classes misunderstand each other, and outcome 2, where no one discovers the identity of the favored class, are both acceptable outcomes.

No wonder Horikita Suzune, who usually has a stern face, would show such an almost excited look.

However, when Kushida Kikyo heard what Horikita Suzune said, the expression on her face did not show the same joy, but instead she looked a little embarrassed and stiff.

Hikigaya noticed this keenly, but he did not take the initiative to express his confusion, not wanting to ruin Kushida's intention to hide his thoughts...

"In this way, our policy is determined." Horikita Suzune said in a serious tone, "From now on, we must do our best to cover up the fact that Kushida-san is the preferential treatment recipient, and at the same time, we must make students from other classes misunderstand the true preferential treatment recipient as much as possible, such as making them mistakenly think that I or Hikigaya are the preferential treatment recipients."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right." Hikigaya nodded perfunctorily, "But what specific method should be used to make them misunderstand? Generally, they won't suspect that a person is a preferential treatment, right?"

"This……"

Horikita Suzune fell silent after hearing what Hikigaya said.

Although she had an idea about the direction, when it came to implementing it, she obviously couldn't come up with a good idea immediately.

For this, Horikita Suzune glared at Hikigaya fiercely, as if to say, "You are just blaming me. Can't you take the initiative to think of a solution?"

But as a representative of lazy people, Hikigaya obviously would not take the initiative to do such a waste of energy.

What's more, with the strength of the Dragon Group, a group of monsters and demons, he didn't think that he could deceive anyone with the so-called fraudulent means.

Not to mention Kōhei Katsuragi, Ichinose Honami and Ryuen Sho are both the best of the best.

Trying to deceive these people is just like asking the human combat troops in Ultraman to defeat monsters without the help of Ultraman.

Although it is not impossible to do, the difficulty is obviously a bit too exaggerated.