For the next two days, Hiyori and Symon's daily life passed peacefully with their three meals a day. The ship's casino was open for business during this time, but the two knew when to quit while they were ahead and didn't go back to press their luck.
Of course, although Hiyori didn't show her face much, the legend of the girl who got rich overnight continued to circulate among the student body. At least when 'they' were lurking in the chat rooms, they saw the topic brought up more than once.
Then, as expected, in this atmosphere of discussion, the vast majority of Class C students had lost almost everything they had in the casino over the short span of two days. The chat room was filled with voices of regret, for example:
『Daichi Ishizaki: Never again... I'm never going to the casino again...』
『Kyōgo Komiya: Didn't you lose everything on the first day?』
『Satoru Kondō: I think he borrowed 200,000 from Albert and won it all back yesterday, but then he tried to go for a big win...』
『Satoru Kaneda: What a classic story.』
『Kyōgo Komiya: What a classic story.』
...
In any case, amidst this collective mood, time moved on to August 15th, the school's originally scheduled date of return.
At nine in the morning, a familiar female voice echoed from the cruise ship's broadcast system:
『This is an announcement for all students. As originally scheduled, the cruise ship 'Hope' will officially begin its return voyage today at 4 p.m. The estimated time of arrival back at school is in three days.』
『In addition, we have just sent everyone an email containing the 'Supplementary Special Exam Regulations.' Please confirm the details carefully and gather in the Card and Game Room before 9:30. If you miss this announcement, please contact your homeroom teacher on your own.』
『I repeat—』
As the broadcast repeated itself, elsewhere—
In a room on the fourth floor of the cruise ship, Hiyori Shiina, barefoot in a white dress and curled up on the sofa reading a book, took out her personal terminal. Looking at the 'Supplementary Special Exam Regulations' written at the top of the email, she murmured to herself:
"So it's not over after all. Still, I don't understand—why would the school use such a method to reduce everyone's point balances? Do you have any ideas, Mr. Ghost?"
"I don't know, but I bet your school is planning to pull some kind of stunt again."
As he said this, Symon followed the girl's perspective and began reading the long and convoluted exam rules. After taking a good while to process them, he summarized them simply:
Exam Content: Texas Hold'em.
Exam Time: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
The exam will be conducted as follows:
[Preliminary Stage:]
At the start of the exam, the school will issue chips worth 100,000 points to all students. Students from the four classes will be evenly distributed among tables numbered 1-20 to play a total of 5 rounds of poker with a blind of 2,000.
At the end of the preliminary stage, all students will turn in all their chips. The student with the highest chip count at each table will advance to the next round of the exam.
(Note: In case of a tie in chip count, a tiebreaker round will be held until a winner is decided.)
[Main Stage]: The 20 students who advance to the second stage will receive chips worth 500,000 points and will be assigned to 4 tables according to the first-round table order (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20) to continue playing 5 rounds of poker.
From this stage onwards, the big and small blind betting rules will be replaced by the [Ante] rule.
That is: All players must bet 5,000 chips before the game starts. The player who is the [Dealer] for the round must bet an additional 5,000, for a total bet of 10,000 points.
Similarly, at the end of the main stage, all students must turn in all their chips. The first-place student at each table will advance to the third stage of the exam.
[Final Stage]: The four advancing students will receive chips worth 1,000,000. The ante will be changed to 10,000. All chips must also be turned in.
After the exam, the school will tally the total value of chips turned in by each class and rank the classes based on this total, awarding the following rewards or penalties to each class according to their rank:
First Place: +150 Class Points.
Second Place: +50 Class Points.
Third Place: -50 Class Points.
Fourth Place: -150 Class Points.
Additionally, the school will record the chips turned in by all students and exchange them for an equivalent amount of private points after the exam. At the same time, for every 100,000 in total chips, the corresponding class will be rewarded with 1 additional Class Point.
[Important Notes:]
① In each game, the school will take a 5% rake from the pot. The minimum rake is half the blind.
② All forms of cheating are prohibited. Cheaters will be unconditionally disqualified from the exam, and their current chips will be added to the ongoing or next pot.
③ All transactions, transfers, or gifts of chips are prohibited.
After carefully going over the exam rules, Symon thought for a moment and said thoughtfully, "Now I think I understand your school's intention behind collecting private points..."
"By using a three-day gambling period, they've left most students broke. When the time comes, they'll only have the 100,000 in gambling funds provided for the special exam."
"These 100,000 chips are both their entire personal fortune and equivalent to 1 Class Point, thereby tightly binding personal interests with class interests."
"But, I have to say—"
"The Uninhabited Island Exam focused on teamwork, the VIP exam highlighted individual heroism, and now this exam disperses the focus onto every single person in the group, allowing everyone to contribute to the collective."
"From that perspective, your school... probably... maybe... possibly... still has some semblance of self-awareness as an educational institution?"
Hiyori Shiina muttered under her breath, "I have a feeling you're not saying anything nice, Mr. Ghost."
"Okay, I know you're not."
"Pfft~!"
...
____
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