Chapter 73 Fear, Tension And Apathy - Part 1

Sometimes I wonder if I could ever care for someone.

Well, I've got two years to find out.

~

Several days passed, and before long, it was the beginning of the testing period.

​ The students walked into the class, taking their respective seats. Each table had an exam paper on it and a booklet and working out the paper.

All of the exams were back to back, so the entire day was spent doing them.

It took 5 hours in total.

*

Like my attitude during the Ideal Human Project, I neither enjoyed nor hated these tests.

The very next day, the results were posted on the board.

We received the class results, which included the results of every student in the class and the top and bottom of each of their other classes.

-

Class 2-C Exam Overall Results

1. Kaoru Hiroto - 327

2. Kai Furukawa - 310

~~

4. Aiko Hamasaki - 306

~~

14. Ayato Mizuhara - 250

~~

21. Akane Itsuki - 214

22. Honoka Airi - 211

~~

35. Lucy Kobayashi - 82

36. Kaito Takeuchi - 0

-

Well, this was the result that I expected.

Kaoru seemed shocked by Kobayashi's result. She rushed over to her and tried to figure out what had happened.

"Lucy! You always do so well when we do practice questions. What happened?"

"A lot... I can't tell you, though."

Kaoru looked at the clearly stressed Kobayashi, yet she knew better than anyone else that she couldn't do anything to help. To help without consulting the class would be a betrayal of their ideology—yet consulting the class would only make it worse for her.

Well, she should be somewhat grateful that I saved her.

*

It all started a few days ago.

After the incident with Fukuda, I started to think about what might be happening. I figured that there must have been something special about the student cards that I didn't know about—some features I was not yet aware of.

I decided to go out and test out things that the student card could possibly achieve. After some time of trial and error, I decided that I'd just wait for the rest of 2-C and see if they could find out. I didn't have any manpower to commit to big experiments, so I stayed stationary for a little while.

It was during those days that I noticed something very important.

Earlier in the term, we were told that whilst it was best to have our student cards with us during exams, it was not necessary. However, in order to participate in the exam without a student card, you need to pay a fine of 100 points. It was a very small amount, so it wasn't a big issue.

However, there was another condition, in order to participate, you needed to prove your identity in some way—however, they did not give the details on what they actually needed to provide. One would believe that it would need to be significant identification, such as their phone, with personal details in it.

I called Kobayashi's phone the day of the 'café date', yet it didn't go through.

I was just about to see Fukuda's plan.

**

It was the beginning of the first exam, Mathematics.

As I expected, Kobayashi was nowhere to be seen.

All the second-years had to take the exams in a large exam hall. There was a little ambient noise. However, as soon as the exam began, it was quiet enough to hear a leaf fall. There were a large number of teachers surveying the area, carefully observing for possible cheaters. I was positioned near a barrier that was set up to section out the students somewhat and prevent cheating.

Nearing the end of the test, the sounds of pencil scratching and page-turning became more and more obtuse. It was a time when the teachers were being extra-alert, denying any opportunity for students to look at others' exams.

This made it especially difficult for me to do what I needed to do.

Since Kobayashi wasn't here, I realised that Fukuda may have gotten someone to enter using Kobayashi's identity. Normally, that would be extremely difficult. However, Fukuda has been known to be able to have an extremely tight grasp on his classes. It was completely possible for him to organise several students to take specific exams, allowing for students in his class to do at least three of the four exams with the correct identity and one exam with Kobayashi's identity—subsequently giving her a score of zero or close to it.

The security of the examination was organised by staff members who weren't teachers. Therefore, they had no method of determining whether a student was lying or not about identity theft. There was also extremely little communication between faculty members, so it was extremely difficult to report.

This meant that if someone else entered with her identity, she could be completely denied access to the exam, subsequently receiving an incredibly low score—enough to cause her to drop classes, as Fukuda's pawns would purposely fail the exams for her.

As a result, during the exam, I needed to figure out who the imposters were. If I reported them specifically, it could be possible for the system to be involved and punish the offenders. However, in order to do so, I needed to pinpoint the exact students. It was almost impossibly difficult. The situation was too extreme; there were almost no opportunities to read people properly.

I was forced to subtly glance around and scan the area to locate any possible suspicious behaviour or movements. I was able to sneak in looks as the supervising teachers walked by. However, my vision was partially blocked by the barrier.

Suddenly, far in the distance, beside the arm of a class 2-D student, I managed to glimpse at their answers to ten questions on their answer sheet. B, B, D, A, D, B, B, A, D, C. I was able to tell that every answer they had placed was incorrect. The look on their face was also unusually calm, in contrast to the situation. There was also an overt lack of stationery on his table. He held only a single short pencil—he did not even have an eraser. The supervising teacher walked by, and I was forced to look back down at my exam.