By 4:00 P.M. I had finished the event I was participating in. As I was getting ready to leave, I heard someone call out to me.
"A-Ayanokōji-kun?"
For the first time since we parted ways on day one of the special exam, Horikita and I met again. Although she looked surprised to see me, she didn't seem particularly tired.
"It's been eight days." I call out back to her.
"So it has."
We had met in the F7 area for the first time since the exam started.
"I came here to participate in this event. Where are you going?"
"I'm going to G8. I was just passing through here, and you?" She replied.
She seems to be heading in the same direction as me.
"I'm headed to F8. The general direction seems to be the same."
Since there isn't anything more inefficient than standing and talking, we naturally started walking side by side. Since our route was the same for a while, going together made sense.
"You're more energetic than I thought. It looks like you're still alone?"
I question her.
"Yeah. There are many difficulties, but there are equally as many easy aspects if you're alone."
It's true that if you're alone, you don't need to care about other people and match your groups pace. I hadn't seen Horikita in the bottom ten once, so she should be accumulating points smoothly. I was honestly surprised that she didn't look tired.
"Is it so strange to see that I'm doing well?"
"Many students in our class seem to be tired."
"Has anything strange happened?"
"Strange...? Oh, have you heard anything about Shinohara and her group?"
"Yes, I only heard about it today."
Horikita had stopped near the starting point where she was called by a second-year student from Class A. After Sakayanagi had shared my strategy with her, someone told her about Komiya's exit from the exam.
"You didn't say no, did you?"
"There was no reason to refuse. It was necessary to avoid Shinohara-san's withdrawal from school. I heard that you were the first to find out about their accident, do you know the circumstances of what happened?"
As someone who had witnessed the scene first-hand, I stated my opinion.
"No, not particularly. I think it was an accident but there could be more than what's on the surface."
Of course, I concealed the fact that Amasawa was hiding nearby.
"Shinohara's group dropped in one breath and is now in the bottom seven. If this continues, they will be in danger of being expelled from school.
We have to hurry up. If they don't find a group to merge with, I'll help her.
Before I met with you, I was lucky enough to complete an event that granted me spots for additional members, and now there are three vacancies."
That is good news. There are only a few challenges that raise the maximum quota for a group, and they're usually the most competitive ones.
Achieving first place in one of them is not an easy event.
"But if that happens, Shinohara and you will be the only ones who can accumulate points. If possible, I would like to work with Sakayanagi in a better way and let them be absorbed into a healthy group."
Horikita agreed and nodded gently.
From when I was walking around the island during the last eight days, I could notice many more groups with walkie-talkies, more than I had imagined. As Sakayanagi communicated the matter of Shinohara to her class A members, I noticed the communication in various places.
"I've seen a tendency to utilize walkie-talkie's in the upper classes as a method of communication and a unified leader to give out instructions. The walkie-talkie's can transmit information over long distances and can sometimes be surprisingly rewarding depending on how they are used."
"If... If we had trusted each other a little more, I wonder if we could have done that."
Perhaps this was quite hard to imagine as Horikita pursed the lips of her mouth tightly.
I took out my tablet and checked if any new events had appeared. To my luck, an event appeared nearby where you will be awarded food just by participating. The number of accepted groups was also quite large, fifteen groups in total for this challenge.
"Food is getting scarce. I'm going to take this event, what about you?"
If you were aiming to get placement points, it would be more efficient to give up on this event and proceed to the designated area.
"I don't have much food left either, so I suppose I'll participate in this too."
Since our priorities are the same, we simultaneously changed our route and headed for the event. An event like this is quite rare, so the competition to fill up the slots would be quite fierce.
Horikita and I both picked up our pace and headed towards the event location. On our way, we encountered first-years and third-years with the same mindset. Of course, the probability of the second-year groups appearing became higher, as all of them are flocking in the same direction. At this point, most of them have started running. When surrounded by enemy teams, they most likely feel the pressure and have a stronger desire to reach the event before others.
"Don't worry about me Horikita. Go on and run."
"If you don't have food either, shouldn't you run too?"
"I don't have the strength to run anymore."
"Well it's the same for me."
Although anxious, she seems to be following the same principle as me of not consuming physical strength at will. Horikita, who was able to move alone with some ease, must have been completing the uninhabited island exam at about the same pace as I was.
After that, we caught up with the event and talked for a while with classmates whom we hadn't seen for a long time. Even if we start running to the designated area now, the placement payoff is no longer necessary. The time saved to share information with classmates here will be more beneficial for the second part of the exam. Furthermore, many of the students still don't know about Shinohara's situation so it's best we fill them in.
Today, I earned 4 points for basic movement and 14 points for participating in the event. I've earned a total of 18 points today. That gives me a grand total of 96 points, and puts me in 23rd place. The students became a lot more active today than on the fifth and sixth day, but there were still groups that didn't move. Today was essentially the day to draw the line of distinction between the groups that have started pushing and the groups that are still warming up for the second half. The eighth day of the special exam battle was expected to be fierce, but in reality, it turned out to be quite a good day. The top ten groups score points did not change significantly.
Tenth place still belongs to Kuronaga's group with 111 points as of today.
Tomorrow I want to move up into a more desirable ranking, and I would like to see Sakayanagi in the near future if I can. I decided to fall asleep in the hopes that the designated area would head towards the starting point.