<h4>Chapter 428: Chapter 3 Part II</h4>


    We arrived at the multipurpose room within the special building, the room that seemed to be the central hub for the special exam.


    "It seems like the other three have already arrived."


    The door was already open. Inside, I could see the homeroom teachers from the other sses, each apanied by a single student. From ss A, it was Sakayanagi. From ss B, it was Ichinose, and from ss D, it was Kaneda.


    Unsurprisingly, every single one of us had a protection point.


    There were also twoputers set up directly opposite of one another, each connected to a single,rge monitor.


    "Now that all themanders have gathered, let''s get started with deciding the ss match-ups. I''ll have each of you draw a slip from this lottery. The student who draws a slip with a red circle on it will be allowed to choose their opponent."


    Mashima-sensei presented us with a lottery box and prompted Sakayangi to draw from it. However, she refused.


    "As they say, good thingse to those that wait. I don''t mind goingst, so by all means, Ichinose-san."


    "Well, I don''t mind if I do!"


    Ichinose drew first, followed by ss C and D. Since the slips weren''t folded, we knew the results of the draw almost immediately. In the end, ss D''s Kaneda drew the winning slip with the red circle on it.


    That is to say, ss D had won the right to choose their opponent.


    "It seems there''s no need for me to check thest slip, right Mashima-sensei?"


    Mashima-sensei drew the final slip from the lottery box and, needless to say, there was no red circle on it.


    "It seems good things didn''te this time, Sakayanagi."


    "I wonder about that. I don''t necessarily have to draw the winning slip toe out on top in the end."


    "It sounds to me like ss A thinks they can rest easy no matter who they end up facing."


    "Oh, that''s not the case. If at all possible, I''d like to avoid confrontation with your ss, Ichinose-san."


    Sakayanagi''s response made it hard to tell if she was just being polite or if she had given her honest opinion.


    "Could you tell us which ss you''ll be choosing?"


    At Mashima-sensei''s request, Kaneda gave a small nod.


    At some point since this morning, even ss D had probably held a discussion to figure out which of the other sses to go against to secure the highest chance of winning.


    "I won''t hesitate then. ss D would like topete against... ss B."


    Kaneda dered war against an entirely unexpected opponent.


    "And you''re sure you want to choose ss B?"


    "Yes."


    Having confirmed Kaneda''s decision, Mashima-sensei finalized the ss matchups.


    With thepetition between ss D and ss B set in stone, ss C would naturallypete against ss A.


    "I was convinced you would choose ss C, but ss B? Why is that?"


    Sakayanagi asked a question, interested in finding out Kaneda''s reasoning.


    "In order to turn things around from how they are now, we have to take away as many points as possible from the upper sses. Having said that, we also want to avoid fighting against ss A for the time being."


    Since ss A was an understandably difficult opponent, they had opted to target ss B instead.


    "Is that so? As far as I''m concerned, you''ve saved us from the trouble of matching up against a formidable opponent like ss B. I wish ss D the best of luck."


    Sakayanagi offered her gratitude to Kaneda with a slight bow. Though, a little bit of trickery behind the scenes had led us to this current situation. While it goes without saying that Kaneda winning draw had been nothing more than a coincidence, this oue had already been arranged no matter who drew the winning slip.


    I had contacted Ichinose and Ishizaki before school had even ended for the day, telling them that I wanted ss C topete against ss A.


    Apparently, Ichinose had been genuinely interested inpeting against ss A and was even nning on doing so, but ultimately, she conceded because she owed me a favor. As for Ishizaki and ss D, they had apparently been nning on challenging ss B anyway, so there hadn''t been anyplications in the first ce.


    All of this just to secure my match with Sakayanagi and ss A.


    The only problem would''ve been if I had won the draw.


    Since Horikita had told me to choose ss D if given the choice, I would''ve needed toe up with a convincing excuse.


    However, my probability of winning was just one in four, so I wasn''t all too concerned. Put simply, the whole thing had been a fixed job from the start. I was also pretty sure Sakayanagi was aware that I had made some arrangements beforehand.


    In this way, the ss matchups had been decided ahead of time.


    "With that done, I''ll now exin the system you''ll be using on exam day. You''ll be in this room, using aputer simr to the two we have set up right over here. This is where you''ll be assigning your ssmates to the events in real-time."


    Chabashira went to the leftputer and broadcasted the screen onto therge disy.


    As Chabashira operated theputer, Mashima-sensei continued his exnation.


    "As an example, this is a catalog of all the ss A students. Using the mouse, you''ll drag a student''s portrait and drop it into the box of the event you''ll have them participate in. If you make a mistake or reconsider your choices halfway through, just drag and drop the photo out of the box and reselect from there. Alternatively, you can also do all of this with the touchscreen."


    "This kinda feels like a video game, right?"


    "It totally does, doesn''t it!"


    Ichinose and Hoshinomiya-sensei engaged in a fun little side conversation with each other.


    "There will be a time limit imposed on selecting the participants for each event, which is represented by the number you currently see counting down on-screen. The more students there are in a given event, the more time you''ll have to select them. You can expect to be given approximately thirty seconds per person."


    That is, given a ten-person event, we would have roughly 300 seconds to make a decision.


    "If you don''t make a selection within the provided time limit, any remaining spaces will be filled with somebody chosen at random, so do keep that in mind. Conversely, if you end up selecting too many students, the excess participants will be forced out at random as well."


    In other words, it would be strictly forbidden to go over the time limit.


    "Once an event begins, the match will be broadcast live on thisrge monitor."


    Stock footage of a shogi match began to y on the monitor, much like what one would see on TV.


    "The rules for how amander can participate in the current event will be listed on your screen after the event has started."


    The footage on the monitor changed over to show the screen of the leftputer once again, where the words


    『At one point during the match, themander can pause the game and re-do a move』 were disyed.


    "This was probably an example of the rules that Mashima-sensei had just referred to.


    "As themander, you can choose to intervene at any time by clicking on the rule you want to act upon. Be sure to keep this in mind."


    The monitor changed back to the shogi video once again.


    "You won''t be allowed to provide your ssmates with instructions over the phone. Instead, we will be adopting a text-to-speech system that will read out the messages you send them. After you type out your message and send it, it will be yed through your ssmate''s headset."


    This meant that a machine would be automatically reading out our messages after we sent them. This was probably done in order to prevent us from conveying more information than we were allowed to. Using the shogi match as an example, themanders are only allowed to intervene a single time to change one move on the board, but if they''re careful with how they phrase their instructions, they might be able to convey two or three move''s worth of instructions instead.


    "Should amander step out of line and interfere with an event in a way the rules don''t allow, their ss may be faced with disqualification and lose the event."


    I had expected this. It''d be safe to assume that a third party would be carefully checking every message we sent our ssmates.


    "For each event, only one person in each ss will be allowed to wear one of the headsets. Even in a team event, only one person will be allowed to receive instructions. As themander, you''ll have to choose who this person will be."


    From the looks of it, I had more on my te than I expected.


    While there were plenty of things we could decide on beforehand, we would always have to be ready for unexpected circumstances.


    "You''ll be allowed to send out your instructions whenever you want, so long as it abides by the rules."


    We could freely change our screenyouts whenever we wanted, including minimizing or maximizing certain aspects of the disy to show only the information we wanted to see.


    Between observing the students in the current event to making preparations for the next one, there would be plenty of stuff to do to keep us upied.


    "This wraps up my exnation of themander''s duties and procedures. Are there any questions?"


    Mashima-sensei did a quick nce throughout the room, but it didn''t seem like anyone had something they wanted to bring up.


    "Alright then, that''ll be all for today. If any of you want to go over the system or check on something, you''ll be allowed to visit the multipurpose ssroom under teacher supervision until one week before the exam. You''re all dismissed."


    With that, the exnation was finished and we all left.