Cardfight!! Vanguard: Generations Volume 4 [Ryouta Rival]

- Part 5

After having our watches put on by Hiryuu-sensei, we had to wait for all the other groups to be done before the challenge could start. It took about twenty minutes, but I used that time to mess around with the functions of the watch and see what it could do.

In particular, the hiders had a function on their watches to set their hiding spots once they've decided on it, whereas us seekers had that omitted from our watches. Instead, it was replaced by a map function, showing us a detailed layout of the mountainside.

In addition, the group leaders received letters containing the full rules of the challenge. As usual, Shimada disregarded it, but I took a look at them for myself.

Survival of the fittest! Competitive hide and seek!
Rules!
● Each group has two hiders, and the rest are seekers!
● For each hider you find, your group earns 3 cumulative points!
● If all your hiders are found or retired, your group is eliminated!
● Hiders cannot move once they have chosen their hiding spot!
● You aren't allowed to enter the school unless you are eliminated or retired from the challenge!
● This challenge lasts until 8am the next day!
● You may communicate with each other on your smartwatches!
● If your smartwatch breaks or malfunctions, return to the school immediately to get it fixed!
● After 7pm, the "Give Up Button" will become available, but you'll lose 30% of what you earned this challenge!
● You may take food and drink rations from the meal station whenever you like!
● Violence between groups is prohibited!
● Bonus cumulative points will be allocated based on how long each group stays in!

As expected, violence wasn't allowed. I can't help but imagine this rule would get broken anyways without the faculty realising it, considering we're in the wild, and the only thing being monitored is our locations.

Once everyone was ready, the challenge began. Since knowledge of where our hiders were was necessary, everyone went out together at once, rather than just the hiders like a normal game of hide-and-seek.

This added another layer of difficulty of finding a hiding spot without being seen by other groups, especially since there were seventeen other groups that you could run into.

Thankfully, there was an hour grace period, meaning that there was plenty of time to adventure and explore the mountains to find a suitable spot for Yamamoto and Kishida to hide in.

However, because Shimada was calling the shots around here, he ordered the rest of us to stay behind and wait for him while he showed Yamamoto and Kishida where to hide.

In the meanwhile, our task was to fill rucksacks with food and water from the meal station. No one else was here except me, Kouji, Nakajima, and the two teachers in charge of overseeing distribution, Toujou-sensei and Akusa-sensei.

"I don't get the point of this... we can come here at any time, so why stock up now? It'll just make the bags heavier and make it harder to traverse the mountaintops..."

Kouji muttered as he tossed cans of luncheon meat, packets of crackers, and bottles of water into his bag. Nakajima was silently doing the same thing.

"Strategically, this is a sound choice. If any group wants a chance of winning this challenge, they'll need to realise that the meal station is going to play a key part of this challenge. What we're doing is simply getting ahead of the curve."

"What do you mean?"

Just as I was about to explain, Nakajima cut in.

"The most surefire way to win this challenge is to follow other seekers when they're collecting food and drink for their hiders. That's what Bla— Takanori-san means."