COTE: YEAR 2 REACTION

Chapter 9: Tug of War

At just before 7:00 AM the following day, the fifth of the exam, we were pushing south along the river from area D4 to D5. After we stepped foot in G3 yesterday, we decided to forgo our next designated area, H4, and travel due west on our way back to the starting area. As a result, we missed out on the next two designations — H6 and I7 — as well, meaning that we had now missed three areas in a row.

"The fifth day already?! We speedrunning this, boys!"

"The government be like, You know, I'm something of a speedrunner myself!"

"As cool as the rules and setting of this exam are, at the end of the day, it's just like a marathon," Akito said.

Unless a randomly designated area were to appear somewhere along our projected route by some miracle, that number would inevitably increase to four. Ultimately, the odds didn't play out in our favour, as when the clock finally struck 7:00 AM, the first designated area of the day was revealed to be I8.

Well, on the bright side, the designated area was so far away that it made it easier to detach from the matter since I wouldn't have to fret about going through the effort to get there.

Perhaps because it was so early in the morning, the gentle murmur of the nearby river was quite pleasant.

If it hadn't been for the bad news that came shortly thereafter, it would've been a pretty solid start to the day.

"Shinohara-senpai's situation doesn't seem very optimistic..."

"Wait, did something happen to her?!" Ike asked, looking a little concerned. Shinohara, too, started to look a little fidgety.

Shinohara had been left to fend for herself after Komiya and Kinoshita retired yesterday. Even though Ike and Sudō were doing what they could to support her, the number of points she could score on her own was, in the end, limited.

"HOLY SHIT!" "The heck, what happened?!"

"Rip Komiya and Kinoshita. F's in the chat."

"Wha? I'm not dead, you dingus!" Kinoshita cried out.

As of yesterday, her group hadn't been included in the bottom ten, but when we checked the rankings this morning, she had already dropped down to the bottom eight. From the fact that the groups ranked below her would earn points at a faster rate, she would probably sink down to last place by tomorrow or the day after at the latest. Thanks to this, in an ironic twist of fate, Akito's group had been spared from the bottom ranks, at least for the time being.

"Shinohara-san..." "Will she be fine?" Her classmates' faces seemed full of worry and anguish.

Sotomura rubbed his chin, while mutterting, "Is Kinu-sensei finally raising the stakes? About time another bit the dust..."

Meanwhile, there were the current rankings for the top groups that I hadn't gotten the chance to look at yesterday. In first place was Nagumo's group, made up entirely of students from Class 3-A, whereas second place was held by Kiriyama's group from Class 3-B. The two top representatives of the third year were fully accounted for.

"Ah, Senpai. There's someone fishing up ahead."

A lone student came into view ahead of us. They were sitting on a rocky sidebar, leisurely passing the time with a fishing rod in hand. Due to their distinctive outward appearance, I recognized them immediately. They were a member of the one group I wanted to meet more than anyone else right now. I didn't expect the chance to meet up with them to come so soon. Due to the nature of the exam and the size of the island, finding one specific individual was akin to finding a needle in a haystack. I had even considered making use of the GPS searching feature once it was made available tomorrow to attempt to meet with their group.