It seemed the school wasn't content with the number of emails they'd been distributing already, so they decided to add one more.
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National High School
As some of you may have noticed, another attribute has been released in the Preseqta System. Use this attribute to help aid in choosing your teammate. Finally, the student who ranked first in the academic exam will be using the perk that they received.
The perk given was:
[You are allowed to pick anyone as your teammate with no exceptions. The student you select will have no choice but to accept your offer.]
Good luck, everyone.
-
The moment I read that email, I realised something. The first-ranked student in the last academic exam was Tachibana Emi.
Whilst the perk was made with the intention that the first-ranked student would be able to pick another strong teammate, I already knew that Tachibana was going to use it maliciously.
Ah, this was going to be a hassle.
As expected, I received another email a few moments later.
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National High School
To the student Mizuhara Ayato,
You have been selected by Tachibana Emi to be her teammate for the Chess Tournament Special Exam. The two of you have been automatically inputted into the system as a team. You do not need to take any further action.
You do not have the ability to decline this invitation.
-
Ah, man.
There goes my chance to relax during this special exam.
I decided to have a look at my bank balance.
-
Your Account
Current Points: 4,019
Owed: 27,780
Owing: 12,000
-
Looking at my current points, there was a chance that Tachibana might use a self-destructive strategy which would cause both of us to lose. Since you are instantly expelled if your bank balance ever goes below zero, she will almost definitely try to cause me to lose all of my points. Considering that she even thought of this plan, she must have calculated both of our balances.
Knowing that a class-A student loses 3,000 points per loss in the losers' tournament and a Class-C student loses 2,000 points. She would need to have at least 9,000 points which was definitely achievable for a class-A student like her.
With that in mind, I would need to find a way to break through her strategy.
Standard Transfer Chess is basically a two-player chess variant where every time your teammate takes a piece. You would be able to place it down. A loss is counted if either you or your teammate run out of time or get checkmated. Generally, you and your teammate would be of similar skill, so there would be no major issues.
However, if Tachibana was trying to trap me, she could simply never play a move and run down the clock, in which case we would lose even if our opponents were not skilled. Even if I played perfectly, my opponent could just not play moves or play them incredibly slowly so that Tachibana ran out of time first.
Tachibana has managed to trap me in a jail where I have nowhere to escape.
***
Looking around the library, I saw it filled with students for the first time ever. Not only students, the tables, couches, counters and even the floor were scattered with chess boards and small wooden chess pieces. Everywhere, people were practising for the tournament.
Well, that was to be expected, after all.
I had come into the library to read my book, but it seemed that it was much too cramped for my liking.
Ah, I guess I'll just go back to my dorm room.
In a different situation, I might be studying chess tactics, openings and strategies. However, those things were not going to be important to me. What is more important is how I'm going to deal with Tachibana's attacks, although I do have some thoughts.
Anyways, since the school released some more attributes, I might have a quick look through them to see if I can spot anything interesting.
-
Kimura Haruto - Second-Year Student
Overall Intelligence: **Unreleased**
Athletic Ability: **Unreleased**
Interpersonal Skills: **Unreleased**
Spatial Awareness: **Unreleased**
Lateral Thinking Capacity: A (Ranked #29 out of 417 in school)
_
Appearance: **Unreleased**
Cooperative Reliability: C (Ranked #209 out of 417 in school)
Creative Ability: **Unreleased**
~~~
Overall Score: A
Consistency: **Unreleased**
-
It seemed that following the trend of releasing attributes which were directly relevant to the special exam at hand, Lateral Thinking Capacity was released. As expected, Kimura had a pretty high score for his Lateral Thinking Capacity, considering that he was relatively smart and somewhat shrewd.
I decided to have a look at Tachibana next.
-
Tachibana Emi - Second-Year Student
Overall Intelligence: **Unreleased**
Athletic Ability: **Unreleased**
Interpersonal Skills: **Unreleased**
Spatial Awareness: **Unreleased**
Lateral Thinking Capacity: A+ (Ranked #6 out of 417 in school)
_
Appearance: **Unreleased**
Cooperative Reliability: D (Ranked #264 out of 417 in school)
Creative Ability: **Unreleased**
~~~
Overall Score: A+
Consistency: **Unreleased**
-
She had an even stronger Lateral Thinking Capacity score than Kimura. Normally, it would be a good thing to have such a trait in a teammate.
Well, her chess ability didn't really matter, although I could guess that she'd be quite good at it.
I scanned through a few other students before deciding to place my phone back into my pocket.
Making my way through the empty schoolyard, I walked through the main reception area of the dorm. Even there, there were a large number of students seated in the various seating areas, playing chess with each other. I guess people really were determined to do well on this special exam, considering how grave the consequences were on the last one.
Also, around now, some of the students in the lower classes would be beginning to feel the slow burn of the school's point system. Unless you managed to earn some points through the special exams or budgeted extremely heavily, the number of points you were distributed for being in a class was nowhere near enough to sustain yourself.
As a result, the points for the winning groups were all the more important for many students.
Well, I guess I'll lie on my bed and finish reading for now.
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