In the morning, I woke up on the right side of E3 and tried to check the map on my tablet. As a result of evading the first year's siege on me all day yesterday, I ended up not stepping on a single designated area yesterday.
Sakayanagi informed me that they had retreated immediately in the afternoon, but I didn't dare go to the designated area. I just participated in the challenges while I was on the run and scored the minimum amount of points.
The randomly designated area that was announced at 1:00 p.m.
yesterday was F3, followed by G3 at 3:00 p.m.
I opened the map and loaded the image from yesterday's GPS search at 1pm. There were a total of five groups of first-year students who had been following me and only Hōsen was coming towards me with his GPS turned off. There was no doubt about it. And after Hōsen was sidetracked with his confrontation with Ryūen, it was clear from the subsequent searchs that all the groups withdrew and returned to the special exam.
However... While Sakayanagi and I were focused on those enemies, several other groups of first-year students who had been scattered had gathered and were moving ahead of me to the designated area. The reason I thought these groups were suspicious was because as soon as 3:00 p.m. came around and my fourth designated area, G3, was announced, they started moving west towards F4. The road here is narrow, and it's difficult to escape if the road is blocked, but if you avoid it, you'll be forced to take a troublesome detour.
I avoided the risk just in case, but that cost me a lot on the previous day. As a result of avoiding risks, I've missed six designated areas in a row and have four consecutive penalties have accumulated. I need to get out of this situation as soon as possible. If you take three more penalties in a row, you will lose another 18 points from here.
The total score displayed is 119, but it's far from the safe zone for avoiding expulsion. The safety line I had set for myself was around 105
points. If I dropped below this point, it would not be surprising if I was expelled. That's why I forced myself to move in the middle of the night, and I succeeded in getting within range of G3, the area designated for the fourth time yesterday.
Since I couldn't see the rankings anymore, I had to imagine how I would do on this last day. There are 157 groups in total, which may seem like a good number, but in reality, many of the groups have already merged. In other words, the number of groups has already been reduced by quite a few.
Of course, on this last day, it is clear that some groups will move to rescue lower groups. If a group with almost 200 points picks up a lower group, they will surpass me at that moment.
Furthermore, on this final day, the impact of doubled scores cannot be ignored. The strategy of the first-year students is slowly driving me to the path of expulsion. There is still a possibility that the first-year students are still waiting for me, but the GPS search is no longer a possibility for me. I need to save every point I have.
At 7:00 a.m., the designated area was H3, which wasn't a great location because of the mountains, but there was nothing I could do about it. Even if I took the shortest route from here, it would take me almost two hours. There was no time to dawdle. On a day when many students would be taking on a task that had doubled in reward, I was going to have to fight to make it to the designated area. By noon, I might have dropped even further down the rankings.
As I was packing my bags and leaving, I received a call on my walkie-talkie from Sakayanagi.
"Good morning, Ayanokōji-kun. I'm sorry you had to go through so much yesterday."
"Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it could have been because you were there to help out."
"Will you be okay with the penalty? It looks like you moved around quite a bit during the night."
Seems like Sakayangi kept a watchful eye over me with the GPS.
"The first designated area is H3. There's not much room, but I think I can make it."
"H3... "
Since I didn't want to waste time, I started to move while talking to Sakayanagi.
"Ayanokōji-kun, I don't mean to burden you, but I have a slight issue.
It seems today at dawn, Ichinose-san disappeared."
I don't think you can classify that as a "slight" issue. This is a major problem, especially on the last day.
"What do you mean she disappeared? Was this accidental?"
"No, it seems to be a spontaneous action. She has been acting strangely for the past few days."
That's what Sakayanagi said, but there was still another problem at hand here.
"Why did you contact me? I don't think there's anything I can do to help you."
"I did a GPS search to find Ichinose-san's location and found out that she was in E3, the same location as Ayanokōji. However, she was near the border of D3."
Even though we are in the same area, there certainly is a distance between the two ends. And now, I've already stepped into F3.
"What was the last designated area for you and the others yesterday?"
"D5. I'm not sure what to do."
"Why would Ichinose leave the group early in the morning without telling anyone and end up in E3? When did you find out?"
"In the morning, I noticed that I had lost a point. I checked with the people in our group, but there was no sign that anyone had used the GPS
search. It seems that Ichinose-san used it, and although we currently don't know if she was heading for E3 or an area further away, it's normal to assume that she went to meet someone."
"I suppose so. If she had stepped on the fourth designated area yesterday, that's the only reason she would have moved early in the morning."
"I thought it might have been to meet Ayanokoji-kun, which is why I thought I should bring it up..."
"I'm sorry, but I have no idea. I haven't once seen Ichinose in this exam, and I don't have a clue what she might want. What are you going to do?"
"The first designated area for us to head to is E6. I'm not sure what to do, but I'm going to have to ignore Ichinose-san for now. If she retires in the worst-case scenario, it won't have a significantly negative impact since it's the last day."
Having said that, the Sakayanagi group is a precious seven-member team. By the end of the 12th day, they were in fourth place, a perfect position for a podium finish. It would be a blow to lose Ichinose here.
On the flip side, she was acting arbitrarily on such an important final day. It's an inexplicable action that Ichinose, who acts more for his friends than anyone else, can't imagine.
"You're in trouble it seems."
"Accidents happen, you know. Well, even if I leave her alone, the special exam will be over in half a day, so I don't think there will be any problem. If you do see her, please ask what happened.
Sakayanagi ended the communication, saying that anything further would be a hindrance.
"Where is Ichinose headed...?"
I put the walkie-talkie away in my backpack as I walk, and take out my tablet this time. It's the last day, and I don't need to think about charging anymore. With thirty-one percent left, I should be fine. The map on the screen shows the designated areas I need to go to and the challenges scattered around.
For the past two weeks, challenges had been popping up all over the deserted island. However, on this last day, I can see that there are no challenges at all in the northern areas of the island, from 1 to 3. On the contrary, the central and southern areas, from 5 to 10, and even more so from A to E, are where most of the challenges are concentrated. This makes sense when you consider that this is simply the last day of the exam and they are trying to get you to return to the starting point. It is wise to quickly step on the designated area and take on a task. I was tempted to use the GPS search to find out Ichinose's location, but I was now in danger of being expelled from school.
I need to save my points to increase my survival rate as much as possible.