Now the exam had properly begun.

Responsibility had been handed over to the students and Hirata immediately stepped forward and started moving.

“There’s still time to think about who we’ll make leader so let’s decide that slowly. What matters first is the base camp location. Do we set up camp on the beach like this or go into the forest… Shouldn’t we think about the spot after that?”

The first decision is the base camp location.

If you look at the island map in the manual, it only shows the size and shape and there’s no information about area or slope.

In other words, we have to move around and find it ourselves.

They even included a ballpoint pen as if to make a point of it.

What matters is the existence of a spot and the environment.

We need to be able to secure extra points easily and reliably while also blocking the intense midday sun.

If there’s also a way to obtain nearby resources then it’s killing two birds with one stone.

Even so, deep forest is dangerous.

As long as we don’t know what variables exist on this uninhabited island, safety is the number one priority.

“Anyway, bathroom first. I can’t hold it anymore.”

In the middle of that, Sudō picked up the assembled portable toilet that Chabashira-sensei had put together, set it up and hurried inside.

Like the other girls, I sharply turned my head away with a face that said I didn’t want to see what I shouldn’t see.

Chabashira-sensei stepped back as if to say she wouldn’t get involved anymore and we should handle it ourselves, but honestly, she probably felt awkward too.

“Hey, Hirata? Wouldn’t it be better to decide the bathroom issue quickly too?”

In a way, this might be the most important issue.

A few days might be one thing but holding in bodily needs for a full week is ridiculous.

Sooner or later, having a proper bathroom will become necessary.

“Even if we decide, isn’t there no method except using that and just enduring it?”

“No, it’s not like there’s absolutely no method.”

Hirata opened the manual.

It was the section about the temporary toilet you can buy with points, something I’d checked earlier too.

The functionality was flawless and even the reference photo looked exactly like a home toilet, but the problem was the price, twenty points per unit.

Honestly, since I don’t know the production cost, I can’t judge whether it’s expensive or cheap.

“We totally need that!”

“Honestly I need that too but…”

“Without that, we can’t do this!”

“H-hey, wait! You guys, it’s twenty points?! For a toilet?! A toilet, who cares! We already got one! Points should only be used when it can’t be helped. Right now we have to save!”

“Can you not decide that on your own? The one organizing opinions is Hirata. Right, Hirata?”

Just as expected, starting with Shinohara and Ike, the clash of opinions began over whether we buy the toilet or not.

“Well... at least for the girls, having a proper toilet would...”

“You’re free to organize opinions but you can’t just decide everything however you want!”

“Ugh, this is annoying. Karuizawa, say something too. Tell them we need the temporary toilet.”

“Hm? Well, it would be inconvenient but we need class points too. I think we can just endure it. They said the school will prepare at least the bare necessities so I’m going to endure it.”

“No way... Karuizawa!”

Shinohara, who had been strongly pushing for buying the toilet, looked flustered by Karuizawa’s unexpected answer, since Karuizawa has a lot of influence among the girls.

Then Yukimura joined the fight.

“I’m not saying I don’t understand how the girls feel about wanting a temporary toilet. But even so, I can’t accept you trying to spend points that belong to us guys too, just because you feel like it. If you want the temporary toilet then at least gather a majority vote first before you insist on it.”

“I’m... just making a natural demand as a girl. It doesn’t matter to you guys anyway.”

“A natural demand? It doesn’t matter to men? I can’t understand that at all. Isn’t that just discrimination?”

“Discrimination… Ah, my head hurts. Hirata, ignore him. Okay?”

There’s no way Shinohara, an idiot like that, can beat Yukimura who has high academics and intelligence and can make a logical argument.

See, she’s already getting crushed in a war of words and appealing to Hirata with pure emotion.

“This exam is a heaven-sent chance to reduce the point gap with other classes. We can’t spend precious points on something like a temporary toilet. I have no intention of staying in Class D forever. If we give in to every individual thing Shinohara wants then nothing will ever move forward. So I want us to clearly decide a policy right here and now.”

“What? Are you saying I have no thoughts at all?”

“Even a monkey can just move on instinct. I hate how women move like this, all emotional.”

Yukimura has poor communication skills so he immediately says something that makes the situation worse.

I also agree Shinohara is a stupid idiot who only follows instinct like a monkey.

There isn’t a single wrong word in that.

But at least right now, you can’t say it.

You were doing so well so why are you suddenly stepping on the gas like that now...

“What did you say? It’s not like I’m saying spend all the points. I’m insisting there’s a minimum we need. I’m speaking logically, am I not?”

“Both of you calm down. I get what Yukimura wants to say but if you talk like you want to fight, isn’t that why it won’t get solved? Be a bit more calm...”

“Calm? Then you’ll make sure no matter what happens they can’t spend points however they want, right?”

“That’s...”

Caught between two people who were fired up, Hirata didn’t know what to do, but while trying hard not to let his troubled expression show, he was desperate to organize the discussion.

Class D is already full of incompetents and they can’t even be controlled so it’s a complete mess.

On top of that, Hirata is a pacifist so he can’t make a proper decision because he’s trying to care about everyone’s claims at the same time.

Looks like it’s about time for me to step in.

I walked over to Hirata and stood in front of him as he floundered.

“Ayanokoji...”

“Our incompetent Class D friends seem split so I’ll tell you the clear answer. We will install the temporary toilet.”

At that, the girls including Shinohara wore victorious expressions while the group of boys led by Ike and Yukimura looked like they couldn’t accept it.

“Are you serious right now? Are you saying we should install a toilet because you don’t even know what our situation is?!”

“I’m truly disappointed, Ayanokoji. So even you who acts like a capable person are thinking the same as Shinohara who’s trying to solve things emotionally?”

...I’m not letting that slide.

“Shut up, Yukimura. Don’t put me in the same category as that useless pumpkin woman who has no logic.”

“W-what!?”

“Incompetents stay out of it. If we need a toilet then from now on shut up and do nothing.”

I didn’t yield at all and instead started asserting myself in an even stronger tone.

“No matter how hard we try, it’ll be difficult to protect all three hundred points and spending will inevitably happen. If that’s the case, we need to prioritize the costs that are most necessary in a rational way. Top priority is bodily functions. In other words, the toilet.”

“That’s something you can’t know without trying! And there’s a perfectly fine portable toilet so how is a toilet top priority spending?!”

Even as Yukimura shouted his rebuttal, I was already prepared to respond.

“Then let me ask you, do you really think a portable toilet that forty people aren’t used to can run properly? No one here has ever used a cardboard-box toilet like that. If someone makes even one mistake, the worst-case scenario can happen.”

“T-that’s if you just use it properly...”

“Your words are logical, but at the same time, they’re unrealistic. In the worst case, even if we assume three minutes per person, that’s one hundred twenty minutes for the whole class. Do you seriously think that holds up?”

“That’s meaningless imagination. It makes no sense to begin with that everyone would use the toilet at the same time. The school judged it realistic so they only gave us one. Isn’t the point that we should use it ourselves?”

Yukimura really is logical and quick at reading situations, befitting his academic ability.

He’s even thinking about the school’s intent.

He’s one of the few strategic members we need to move Class D up to Class A later.

But unfortunately, I’m his opponent and I’m a capable one.

“No, one portable toilet is impossible from the start. If we reason from there then points aren’t meant to be suppressed meaninglessly, they’re a hint meant to teach us that spending a certain amount is efficient. In other words, this exam comes down to where you spend points. Look closely… The issued supplies are all ambiguous. The tents can only cover about half the people and the flashlights are in such tiny quantities that you can’t use them freely. Meaning this is evidence of an implication that point usage is required.”

“...That’s all just your speculation. And if another class installs a toilet based on your logic, if we endure well then we can close the gap by that twenty points. Isn’t that better in the end?”

“But the chance that enduring the toilet becomes a net positive is extremely low. If the toilet problem creates unnecessary stress and anxiety, it can damage the class’s stamina and mental strength and it can also cause hygiene problems. If that leads to poor condition and sickness that makes it impossible to continue the game then it’s minus thirty per person. In other words, it can create spending several times greater than buying a toilet.”

“That depends on how well you endure!”

“Do you have any confidence that you, who has low physical ability compared to your academics, won’t become the cause of that minus?”

“T-that’s...”

If we buy the toilet here, it’s only minus twenty.

But to save that twenty, we can’t risk creating a minus that could be one and a half times that or over three times that.

Even Yukimura couldn’t refute this logic.

And of course he couldn’t, because I hit his weakness, physical ability, so he had no way to answer.

Hirata listened to my words in silence, then nodded with a decided expression.

“I also think buying the temporary toilet is right, like Ayanokoji said. I know everyone wants to save points. But enduring with only one portable toilet is realistically difficult. Objectively, we need it. And having a toilet will also let the girls, who are relatively weaker than the boys, feel reassured and challenge the exam properly.”

With my perfect logic as a capable person plus Hirata’s appeal on top, there was no way left to deny it.

In the end, Yukimura lost steam and lowered his head.

“...Fine. Then we install the toilet.”

With Yukimura, basically the leader of the opposition, giving in, installing the toilet was confirmed.

Shinohara and her group, of course and even the groups watching from a neutral stance looked relieved.

To begin with, they probably never imagined I’d support installing a toilet.

The person most at ease would be Hirata.

“Thanks, Ayanokoji. Thanks to you, I was able to organize opinions properly.”

“I just made the most rational choice in this situation.”

“No. Ayanokoji is really an incredible person. Unlike me, you have decisiveness, you’re smart and you even have leadership. Hey, everyone, can you listen?”

No, no way!

It’s obvious he’s about to try to hand the Class D leader role to me and I absolutely refuse an annoying seat like that.

“The one suited to be the leader to guide Class D isn’t me but—”

“Hirata Yosuke. What I said is something you should have said in the first place.”

I cut Hirata off and kept talking so he couldn’t say anything else.

“Your academics and physical ability are both high across the board and you have the strongest influence in the class so without you, Class D becomes a minus. Especially as the central figure of the class, you have strong reliability and you can gather the entire chaotic Class D into one. You basically have the conditions to command Class D.”

Even though my face was blank, my tone was firm and strong and everyone started listening with serious expressions.

“But you care too much about everyone so you lack decisiveness and can’t make rational choices, you hate fighting so you don’t know how to respond to attacks from other classes and above all, you’re shortsighted and can’t build special schemes that fit the situation. I can say it outright, with you as leader, Class D will absolutely lose, whether it’s against A or C and even against B.”

Hit by the harsh criticism, Hirata lowered his head.

Through the truth I said, he must have realized his own weakness.

Everyone looked at me like I was going too far, but I immediately flipped the mood.

“But you don’t need to have those things. Because I can do all of them. I can present you with rational choices, I can instruct responses to attacks and I can build schemes that fit the situation because I’m superior in everything. If you’ve watched me for about four months, you should be able to be confident in my ability. In this exam, I’ll present you with rational schemes and you command the class based on them. And in the end, we will win.”

I grabbed Hirata’s shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Remember it. You’re the leader of Class D. So don’t say annoying things like you’ll hand the leader role to me again. If you understand, then pull yourself together and...”

And here came the final blow.

“Form a search team to find the best base camp land. Conditions are a spot we can occupy to gain points steadily, at least one resource secured and shade to block sunlight and even ground. Before another class takes it, as fast as possible. Now, begin.”

Hirata, who understood everything I said, nodded with eyes full of resolve and gave instructions to the class.

“Everyone, from now on we’ll start exploring the island to decide on our base camp! Depending on where we set up, it’ll greatly affect how many points we consume too. Can I get volunteers?”

With Hirata finally getting his head on straight, Class D succeeded in becoming one immediately, then they quickly formed temporary mixed-gender teams and started building groups centered on people with outdoor experience.

After giving those instructions, I watched them and calmly looked at the manual while thinking.

Regardless of class unity, this completes securing the toilet.

Points or whatever aside, that box toilet is physically impossible.

Watching Sudō come out of the toilet empty-handed, I shook my head.

At least inside that thing... no.

Don’t even try to imagine it.

All I have to do is prepare thoroughly on my own so I can move to the next step the moment my loyal pigs and dogs find a proper base camp.