I have a life simulator.

However, amidst these major changes, the situation of one particular group inevitably drew everyone's attention.

[Long Yuanxiang's group scored zero]

With even the second-to-last group having 200 points, the undisputed last place has emerged.

Immediately afterwards, the first place in the group rankings also changed, with Kitagawa Ryo's group being pushed down to second place.

Kohei Katsuragi's group once again came in first place.

"...It has finally begun."

Kitagawa Ryo took a big bite of the incredibly hard baguette, but the more he chewed, the more fragrant it became.

Although it's only the second day, it seems that quite a few people have already started taking action.

"Cough cough."

"The water is here."

Upon hearing Sakayanagi Arisu cough after choking, Kitagawa Ryo reacted quickly by pouring a glass of water from his water bottle and handing it to Sakayanagi Arisu's lips.

"Don't force yourself to eat if you can't finish it. That's not how you're supposed to eat a baguette."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head as he looked at the bite mark on the round end of the bread.

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Kikyo Kushida is heading alone to the nearby [Literature Knowledge Test] project. In this special exam on the deserted island, she and Kohei Katsuragi, the class representative of Class A, formed the ace team of Class A. However, in order to maximize their scoring efficiency, they would occasionally split up.

This time was no different. Katsuragi Kohei and Kamuro Masumi went to the other side of the rope skipping area, while Hirata Yosuke went to the impromptu speech area, which was a bit further away, as he had the best stamina in the group.

Although Kikyo Kushida always felt that her group's lineup was among the best in the grade, she didn't think she could definitely secure a top-three position. However, the group leader, Kohei Katsuragi, seemed very confident, and his words implied that he had already secured first place, not just the top three.

Thirty minutes earlier, Kikyo Kushida had finally grasped a bit of the truth of the matter.

Since none of the four had obtained enough food from the project by lunchtime, it seemed they would have to exchange points for it. Just as Kikyo Kushida was about to make a suggestion, Kohei Katsuragi suddenly returned with a large amount of food and drinking water.

“We have reached a cooperation agreement with Class C of the first year, and this was sent by Long Yuanxiang.”

Katsuragi Kohei said the following at the time.

The fact that Ryuen Sho's team has fallen to last place in the group rankings confirms Katsuragi Kohei's statement.

But he didn't seem to intend to reveal all the plans, simply indicating to the group not to be shy and to use the food and drinking water without worry.

However, Kikyo Kushida didn't really care about these things. Anyway, she was just pursuing a certain status in interpersonal relationships as enthusiastically as before. The so-called Class A and Class D were not very important to her.

If it weren't for the need to maintain a good image in the class, she wouldn't even bother agreeing to join Katsuragi Kohei's group.

"Tsk."

The path through the woods was not easy to walk on, and she tripped over it again if she wasn't careful. Although she didn't fall, she was still a bit embarrassed, and Kikyo Kushida clicked her tongue in displeasure.

After turning another corner, Kikyo Kushida suddenly spotted someone fishing by the river ahead.

Ryuen Sho.

Seemingly noticing Kikyo Kushida's approach, Ryuen Sho turned his head and grinned, revealing his teeth:

"Isn't this Kushida from Class A? Were you satisfied with the food I brought you earlier?"

It would have been better if they hadn't brought it up, because Ryuen Sho's mention of it reminded Kushida Kikyo of the fear she had felt being dominated by the baguette earlier. She stopped in her tracks and, trying her best to appear gentle as usual, smiled:

"Thank you so much for the food, Ryuen-kun! I just wonder what you had for lunch?"

"As you can see."

Long Yuanxiang curled his lip in disdain. A small fish was swimming in the bucket next to him, and there were traces of a campfire not far away.

Kikyo Kushida frowned and looked around, but she couldn't see any tents or large backpacks. Even though Ryuen Sho was traveling alone, this situation was still too unusual.

Aside from the fishing rod in Long Yuanxiang's hand and the bucket next to him, the only other things that seemed to belong to him were a pot next to the campfire ashes and a small backpack.

Compared to Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, who also travels in groups of one, Sho Ryuen's backpack was pitifully small.

"You haven't been drinking boiled river water all this time, have you?"

After a short while, Kikyo Kushida hesitantly stated her conclusion.

"Of course, otherwise where would we get the points to send resources to your Class A?"

Long Yuanxiang sneered; he was clearly very confident in his physical abilities.

"I'm really looking forward to your group's performance. Give it your all and get first place!"

He added another sentence fiercely.

"what happened?"

"Huh? Didn't Katsuragi tell you?"

Ryuen Sho found Kushida Kikyo's attitude strange, and he frowned as he added:

"All the 'hitchhiker' cards in our class were specifically for Katsuragi Kohei, so didn't he get a 'double' card?"

"Each member of the team ranked first in the group will receive one million personal points. The benefits of the Level 1 [Double] Card are doubled, while the benefits of the [Hitchhiking] Card are 25%."

"Even if Katsuragi can't upgrade his card, as long as we get first place, our class's [Hitchhiker] will still earn 500,000 points."

At this point, Long Yuanxiang rolled his eyes. If the class hadn't been unable to put together an ace team to compete for the top three in the group, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to collect individual points.

He had already devised a strategy before going to the island, and the guarantee that he dared to carry it out, besides his rich wilderness survival skills, was the special card he had drawn.

【resurrection】.

This is the trump card that allows Ryu Yuanxiang to team up solo and not care about the score at all.

However, the thought of having to endure eleven more days of such hardship made even the resilient Long Yuanxiang sigh.

But he quickly rallied.

If Katsuragi Kohei gets first place.

Everything will be alright!

I'm going back to school today, so I'm taking a day off.

School has started. After staying at home for more than two months, I was getting tired of it. Although it's the last semester of my senior year, I still have to go back to school.

While writing these past two days, I realized that I'm not really good at strategic battles. No matter what I do, it's just drawing a target based on bullet holes. So, the focus of this book later on probably won't be on strategic class competitions. I've decided to play to my strengths and avoid my weaknesses by writing about what I'm good at.

Attached is an official Valentine's Day greeting illustration by Arisu Sakayanagi.

Chapter 148: I Am the Chosen One

The second day of the exam on the deserted island, in the evening.

After completing two physically demanding challenges in the morning, namely the "Beach Flag Capture" and "Open Water Swimming," Kitagawa Ryo's team slowed down in the afternoon. While moving towards the center of the island, they only completed three nearby challenges, achieving two first-place finishes and one second-place finish.

Aside from losing first place in the archery challenge to Miyake Akito from their class, Kitagawa Ryo's group had a decent scoring efficiency this afternoon. It was just a pity that they didn't encounter any more challenges nearby that offered rewards of ingredients or opportunities to upgrade common cards. And challenges with such rewards were often too far away for them. Even if they could manage to get there, other groups might have already filled up their spots. Therefore, after much consideration, the group decided to give up.

Since it's only the second day since they arrived on the island, many students are moving quite quickly, busy running between one rewarding task after another. However, it is estimated that starting tomorrow, some teams will be forced to slow down.

Fatigue accumulates. The students who arrived on the island yesterday afternoon were full of energy and in high spirits, so they did not feel uncomfortable the next day. However, after running dozens of kilometers through the mountains and beaches all day the next day, it is almost predictable that a considerable number of students will experience muscle soreness as a sequela tomorrow morning.

The third day happened to be the same time when the first uninhabited island was being circulated.

While cooking, Kitagawa Ryo pondered the rules of the exam. Tonight, the group had chosen to camp on a narrow, shallow beach not far from the river. The place was quite secluded, and it seemed that Horikita Suzune and the others had put a lot of thought into preventing Karuizawa Megumi from finding them again.

Although in the end they still didn't achieve their original goal.

"This is really troublesome."

Not far away, a girl with short hair and a sporty look was smiling and greeting Horikita Suzune and the others with her hands clasped together.

"It's just a meal, and I also have some questions for Chiaki."

As she laid out the floor mat, Sakayanagi Arisu answered casually. After finishing her work, she stood up and gave Matsushita Chiaki a look. The latter understood and walked with her into a small grove of trees in the distance.

This is a group from Class D that Kitagawa Ryo and Sakayanagi Arisu encountered while fetching water by the river. The group leader is Onodera Kayano, the second best athlete among the girls in the class after Horikita Suzune, especially skilled in swimming. Her partners are Wang Meiyu and Matsushita Chiaki. In terms of both academic and athletic abilities, they are quite complementary and a pretty good group.

Before promising to change Class D with their homeroom teacher, Tomoya Mashima, Kitagawa Ryo didn't pay much attention to the other students in the class. He didn't even recognize their names very well. For example, he thought Wang Meiyu in this group was called Wang Xiaomei for a long time. Later he found out that "Xiaomei" was a close nickname her friends used to call her, not her real name.

Wang Meiyu is a Chinese exchange student whose grades are comparable to Yukimura Teruhiko's in Class D. She is particularly outstanding in English, perfectly inheriting the competitive spirit of the East Asian "monster room." In the English test that Ichinose Honami had not previously registered for, she came in first place.

Because it seemed that Sakayanagi Arisu had something to say to Matsushita Chiaki, and it would be impolite to invite only one person, and since they were all classmates, the three of them ended up being brought back by Sakayanagi Arisu and Kitagawa Ryo.

It's just a matter of adding three more sets of bowls and chopsticks.

While scores and the supplies tied to scores are of paramount importance to most groups on the deserted island, Kitagawa Ryo doesn't seem to care much about them.

He had already promised Majima that he would make Class D a normal class, so he naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity to interact with his classmates.

Besides, camping and having a meal together sounds like a great idea, and it would be even better if it could leave a wonderful memory for the classmates.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was rubbing his chin, considering whether to contact the other students in his class in the days following their time on the deserted island to organize a big get-together, the girls were already chatting away happily.

Although Sakayanagi Arisu pulled Matsushita Chiaki aside, Kitagawa Ryo's group still had Ichinose Honami, a girl who was extremely popular in the class. Under her guidance, Onodera and Wang Meiyu joined the conversation without any hesitation, chatting about their experiences on the deserted island over the past two days.

"Speaking of which, I met Hirata from Class A this afternoon."

"At the time, he was participating in a project on impromptu speaking."

"Although it's unclear what specific topic he drew, it seems to be related to the issue of school bullying. He performed exceptionally well and ultimately came in first place."

Wang Meiyu's tone was slightly excited, and Onodera next to her smiled teasingly:

"I knew you'd bring this up again."

"After all, it's Hirata-kun's business."

Honami Ichinose stood to the side, offering a kind smile:

"Actually, if Xiaomei really likes him, she can try to get to know him. Hirata-kun shouldn't be that difficult to approach, right?"

Then came a series of emotional counseling sessions.

Horikita Suzune listened for a while, propping her chin up, before realizing that it was because a girl named Wang Meiyu in her class had a chance encounter with Hirata Yosuke from Class A during the opening ceremony, and had always harbored a vague affection for him. However, because she was a bit introverted, she didn't dare to take that step.

Speaking of Hirata Yosuke from Class 1-A, he is indeed very famous throughout the entire grade. It is said that he is good-looking, virtuous, and academically excellent. He is also an official member of the soccer club and is gentle and humble. Many girls must be interested in him, which is one of the reasons why Wang Meiyu has hesitated to make further contact with him.

Unlike Honami Ichinose, who acts like a guest on a relationship talk show offering love advice, Suzune Horikita's own love life is a complete mess.

However, after hearing the keywords Hirata Yosuke and "school bullying," Horikita Suzune felt as if she had heard about this before.

"Come and have dinner. The conditions are rather simple; we only have stew."

Just then, Kitagawa Ryo's voice came over, and Onodera and Wang Meiyu thanked him repeatedly. After all, on this deserted island, a bowl of hot stew with both meat and vegetables was definitely the best meal available. Moreover, judging from the aroma and appearance, Kitagawa Ryo's culinary skills were definitely not low.

Horikita Suzune stood up to help Kitagawa Ryo, and the moment her eyes fell on the stew, she suddenly remembered when she had heard Hirata Yosuke's name before.

It must have been a winter day nearly three years ago, when everyone was in the second year of junior high school. Kitagawa Ryo came home much later than usual because of something.

When he went to exchange ideas with the drama department of another school, he saved a male student who was about to jump off a building in public because of school bullying. Because of the proper emergency treatment, the student, who was originally brain dead, was actually brought back to life by the subsequent rescue efforts at the hospital.

The person who accompanied Kitagawa Ryo to the hospital was a close friend of the student who jumped from the building, and also an eyewitness to the tragedy.

His name is Hirata Yosuke.

Horikita Suzune's eyes flickered slightly.

"What are you thinking about? It'll get cold if you don't eat it."

"If Lingyin doesn't want to eat, then I'll eat it."

Kitagawa Ryo's voice pulled Horikita Suzune back from her thoughts. Seeing that the other person was really serious about reaching out to her, Horikita Suzune hurriedly and clumsily shoveled a mouthful of food into her mouth.

"..."

Although I'm reluctant to admit it, Kitagawa Ryo's cooking skills are indeed far superior to mine.

Horikita Suzune used to have some competitive thoughts, but she has long since given up on them.

Anyway, she's the one eating it.

Horikita Suzune remained calm, but her hands moved with remarkable speed.

However, when she reached out to scoop some more, there was only a little left in the pot.

There are still too many people.

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