"出る釘は打たれる" [The nail that sticks out gets hammered down] - Japanese saying
"枪打出头鸟" [The gunshot hits the bird that sticks its head out] - Chinese saying
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And we are back from the ad break.
Quick recap on the Coalitions options for Round 1
FRIENDS: Does not need to be created, instead just choose one person to befriend. If two people befriend each other, they get 6 points each. If friendship is unrequited, you get 0 points while the person receiving your friendship gets 2 extra points.
EVENS: Has to be created. If there are an even number of members in an evens Coalition, everyone gets 8 points. Instead, everyone gets 0 points.
ELECTION: Has to be created. Once created, each creator become a candidate for the election and receives 40 tickets which can be given out. Each participant in the election gets 1 vote and cannot participate in any other Coalition. The candidate with the most votes gets 10 points, and each ticket given out by the creator is worth 1 point each. The losing candidate and all their tickets will not receive anything.
In an event of a tie for the election, there will be a runoff election where every participant can cast a vote. If there still is a tie, candidates get 4 points each while every 2 tickets given out is worth 1 point.
Seeing these options, one Contestant has hatched a plan almost instantly.
"I will be creating an Evens Coalition," announced Albus, one of the shortest boys in the group, in a loud voice, "and I expect every single one of you to join my coalition since there are 40 of us. Whoever doesn''t do so would be announcing themselves as a threat, and we should all not work together with them and try to get them eliminated."
Everyone else turned silent, perhaps stunned by how quickly Albus has came up with something, or perhaps trying to think of a countermeasure to turn the tides in their favour.
<"Who the hell does he think he is? What gave him the confidence to call the shots here?"
-Madison>
Madison''s part of the stereotypical group of popular girls that you can see no matter in American shows or Japanese anime as long as it''s in a high school setting. You know what I mean. On a side note, she also has the 2nd most online followers among the ex-classmates, as she has quite a few viral short videos already.
For obvious reasons, the popular girls don''t like it when someone tries to take control.
Albus, meanwhile, would continue to elaborate, as he tries to get people on his side.
"We need an even number of people in Evens to get points, and it''s the exact same for the Friends Coalition option," continued Albus convincingly, "I don''t mind anyone who gets scared and opts for the 6 points given if you and someone befriend each other, but no matter how many pairs of Friends there are there would still be an even number of people left in my Evens Coalition."
Albus then gets into his main point, "I understand that there is a third option for the Election. But remember that this is a 24 round game. If you''re going straight for the high risk high reward option in round 1, you''ll just be seen as a huge threat in the future no matter if you succeed or not. It''s practically telling everyone else not to work with you."
The shot pans to the crowd. A few here and there can be seen nodding, Albus seems to have a point after all. Quite a few seem mad at what Albus is saying though as he is pretty much threatening people into listening to him.
"The gunshot hits the bird that sticks its head out." Albus finalises his speech with a mic-drop statement urging everyone else to keep in line. Of course he knows the Chinese saying, considering his intelligence.
"F**KING KNOW YOUR F**KING PLACE, YOU LOSER!" Zara instantly screamed out, the hot-headed person she always is, "LATER ON YOU''LL KNOW THAT I''M THE ONE WITH THE F**KING GUN INSTEAD OF YOU!"
Everyone knew better than to get into some pointless quarrel. Very quickly they split into groups and spread out across the lobby thinking of their next move.
<"Hey it''s not my fault if they don''t want to just listen to me and end up looking stupid. Especially Zara, she probably doesn''t even know how to factorise the number 91, does she even understand the rules?"
-Albus>
Unfortunately for Albus, he doesn''t know his classmates well enough.
Back during the first year of middle school, when they all first met, they had to pick 3 representatives to lead class 501 for an inter-class competition. 12 people volunteered.
This isn''t a group of people who are willing to just roll over and listen to orders.
Oh, and by the way, it just so happened that exactly 3 of the 12 volunteers back then were boys. And in an extremely strategic move, the remaining boys rallied behind those 3 male volunteers and got them chosen as the representatives as they made an educated guess that boys would be more lenient leaders.
Stories like this are exactly why Mr Johnny picked class 501 as participants for this show.
As the vast majority are discussing in groups, the camera instead focuses on one boy unassumingly leaning against the wall. He seems deep in thought.
<"As I expected almost everyone is going to act alongside their previous groups, we''ve all known each other for years after all. However, 1 selfish move by anyone else might make them a traitor, while I can just hop between different groups depending on the scenario. I''m probably the only mercenary, and I like my odds."
-Jakub>
A huge failure in socialising in early middle school meant Jakub is one of the very few who don''t have a set friend group that they are particularly close with. Simply put, all his friends have closer friends. Jakub is looking to use this to conveniently become a mercenary as he seeks to hop between alliances every turn to chase the highest points return. That said, a lack of close allies is likely to be a huge detriment.
<"Let''s look at this round. Friends is by far the safest option here, all you need is 1 person to go along with the plan and you are guaranteed 6 points. Evens is a 50/50 between 8 points or nothing unless you try to influence it like Albus. Meanwhile, Election provides by far the highest risk and reward, if you''re the only candidate you can just keep all 40 tickets for yourself, vote for yourself and get 50 points right away. However once there is more than 1 candidate there''s a very real possibility you get 0 points. I''ll most likely lose the election if I''m not the only candidate so I''m staying far away from that."
-Jakub>
Jakub''s analysis of all 3 options is very surface-level, which is normal as he''s acting by himself for now after all. The only reason his interview was used instead of anyone else''s is because it provides a good background understanding for the more complex planning.
In a sharp contrast to the loner, the next shot we see is the group of popular girls.
"Oh my God, I sure hope Professor Albus'' genius plan completely succeeds and no one dares to even disobey him!" the purple-haired girl Madison exclaims in a fully sarcastic tone, "so, Fiona, any ideas?" she asks as she looks towards the only girl of the 5 with short hair.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Lina, the tallest, slightly-tanned girl, responded first instead, "that bozo''s plan relies on there being an even number of people who don''t participate in his group. He thinks everyone''s too scared to run as a candidate in the Election and there being an even number of people who just become Friends with someone else."
"But what if I befriend Sie, Sie befriends Fio, and Fio befriends me? We''ll each get 2 points and suddenly evens turns into odd." Lina proposes, while conveniently skipping Sierra''s and Fiona''s names'' last syllables as she always does.
FRIENDS: Does not need to be created, instead just choose one person to befriend. If two people befriend each other, they get 6 points each. If friendship is unrequited, you get 0 points while the person receiving your friendship gets 2 extra points.
The option for Friends shows up on screen again. What Lina is suggesting is for there to be 3 unrequited friendships, which gives each of the 3 people 2 points.
"Not worth it," the suggestion is instantly shot down by Sierra who was standing next to her "we just end up pissing off everyone and only get 2 points more than the others. It just doesn''t make sense!"
"You''ve probably forgotten we can actually transfer points to each other," Fiona finally spoke up "as long as the four of you befriend each other in pairs, getting you all 6 points each, and I just befriend one of you, the 5 of us would have a total of 26 points. Then we just reallocate them and we each get at least 5 points each."
Fiona is the first contestant to mention the game mechanic where you can transfer points to a different contestant, and she plans to use this to even out the points between the 5 of them after someone makes the temporary sacrifice to end the round with 0 in order to sabotage Albus'' Evens Coalition.
"Ah I knew Fiona baby would come up with something!" the 5th girl of the group, Yvonne, said as she cuddled Fiona "my queen''s not the former number 2 for nothing!"
As Yvonne mentioned, Fiona used to semi-regularly have the second best grades among the classmates.
It turns out that the majority of friend groups have their own masterminds, either someone with good grades or street smarts.
And now two groups'' masterminds are looking over their options together as the next shot we see is four boys chatting.
"Yo, I know running in the Election is looking mad tempting right now," Simon pointed out, as he represents the Wolfpack "but other than extreme circumstances there''s only 50 total points there, so let''s just not clash."
ELECTION: Has to be created. Once created, each creator become a candidate for the election and receives 40 tickets which can be given out. Each participant in the election gets 1 vote and cannot participate in any other Coalition. The candidate with the most votes gets 10 points, and each ticket given out by the creator is worth 1 point each. The losing candidate and all their tickets will not receive anything.
In an event of a tie for the election, there will be a runoff election where every participant can cast a vote. If there still is a tie, candidates get 4 points each while every 2 tickets given out is worth 1 point.
The option for the Election coalition shows up on screen again. Simon is right, the only way more than 50 total points are given out to those who participate in the Election, either as a candidate or a voter, is for there to somehow be a tie of votes for 3 or more candidates even after the runoff election.
The optimal play for both these groups, therefore, is to not send one candidate each so they don''t end up fighting for the same resources.
"Actually I think Nico should run," Karl, the boy standing opposite of Simon responded "he''s rich anyways and he doesn''t even have a need for the prize money. He''s willing to take the risk."
Karl and Nico are both part of the other group of boys, the Backrow Boys. Interestingly enough, the Backrow Boys have never all sat in the last row of the class at the same time. The name was just coined in tribute to a certain boy band that was formed in 1993.
The Backrow Boys and the Wolfpack have great relations with each other despite being separate groups of close friends. Such is the solidarity between boys.
<"I was hoping to run as a candidate actually, but it''s just round 1 so I don''t mind someone else taking the risk first. Maybe the Backrow Boys can do us a favour too later on."
-Xander>
"So this is a coup, none of us like being told what to do and therefore we all look towards Election," the really tall Xander spoke up after a quick discussion with Simon "Ya we wanted to run too initially but no prob with Nico running. If there''s a similar situation in the future could we get priority?"
"Deal," as the other member of the Backrow Boys present, the equally tall Jordan spoke up "cheers guys, gonna let Nico know."
"Best of luck!" Simon wished the other group good luck before they all returned to their own groups.
<"F it boys, let''s just do this! I sure don''t mind the risk, but me and the boys are gonna look like geniuses if we succeed. I''ll just take the fall if things go wrong and if everything goes right I''ll split the points with the bros. Verdammt, let''s go!"
-Nico>
The only one with natural blonde hair, Nico is an ethnic German as his parents moved from Germany to Southeast Asia after they retired, and therefore he''s filthy rich due to the completely different salaries and cost of living in both regions. He''ll be a huge wildcard as so far he''s the only one who will sacrifice his points total to get his friends to win.
But obviously Nico is not the only one running in the election. We''re talking about class 501 after all. We pan to see another group of people who plan to run.
"I''ll run in the Election and you all vote for me if someone else is running too." Zara demanded, while the other 3 in her group just nodded in response.
"How many votes would we need, though?" Jessica, who looks just as athletic as Zara questioned "Considering Evens pays out 8 points per person, I don''t think it''ll be easy to convince people to join us if we give less than 8 tickets..."
A fellow athlete who''s a tennis player, Jessica has known Zara for years and is Zara''s trusty second-in-command. The Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes, the Robin to Batman, the Scotty Pippen to Michael Jordan... you get what I mean.
"I''m low-key confident I can pull Lina and Sierra to our side," the shortest in the group, Amelia, finally speaks up "no delulu here, they''re my baes."
"Yup yup, I''ll go along with her!" Kirsten, the fourth member, tags along with her best friend Amelia.
Neither Amelia and Kirsten play competitive sport, but they''re still good friends with the other 2. As two of the very few people who can put up with Zara, it comes to no surprise that they have quite a social circle.
"So it''s 5 votes and 6 of us in total," Jessica concludes "I guess it''s enough, too bad it''s not an odd number of people so we can''t really disrupt the Evens plan."
"I sure f**king hope that pretentious shit fails." Zara continues to swear like a sailor as the camera moves away.
<"I don''t know why, but I don''t have a good feeling about this..."
-Jessica>
While everyone else is scheming, one group remains shockingly chill.
"Oh my God, like, why is everyone else so anxious? It''s only round f**king one!" Damian, the only boy of the group, exclaimed.
The group "The Gay and the Girls", just as stated by its name, consists of the allegedly gay Damian, and girls. Damian, the only boy, has stereotypically female interests and manner of speech which made him fit in like a glove with the group of girls.
"It''s going to get real exciting when the groups get announced," the tallest of the girls, Carmen, who is nearly as tall as Damian responded "then we''ll plan our moves."
<"There''s no point rushing anything now. I know all of them too well, quite a few will try something, and we''ll know once it''s announced which coalitions were formed after the 1st hour."
-Melody>
As a bass player, Melody had been called up for temporary help with the bass in different bands multiple times, considering how rare bassists are in comparison to guitarists or drummers. She''s probably the one who is most aware of how crucial adaptability is.
Every round lasts 2 hours in length and we will play 2 rounds a day. Each round is split into two parts, creating and joining. Some coalitions have to be created and the first hour would be used to create these coalitions. After they are created, the creator is stuck in their own coalition and cannot join any other coalitions. In the second part of the round, coalitions can no longer be created, and everyone else is free to join any coalition there is.
Melody and everyone else in The Gay and the Girls are waiting until it is announced what coalitions have been created before deciding on what to do.
Right at this time, Mr Johnny who has previously left has returned to the lobby.
"Alright everyone, the first hour has passed," Mr Jeremy announced, as both the out-of-frame production crew and he himself are asking the contestants to quieten down, "and we will now announce the coalitions that have been created."
"You may now look at the screen."
Created an EVENS Coalition: Albus, Jacqueline, Joanna, Luna, Yuki
Running as candidate in an ELECTION Coalition: Nico, Zara
Most of the contestants did not look particularly shocked at the end result, almost all of them knew something was brewing behind the scenes.
Albus, though, felt completely blindsided.
"Huh?!" was all he could blurt out, as he stared at the group of girls standing right next to him, wondering when they too created their own Evens coalitions.
They are the Coral Cats, also known by their haters as the Teachers'' Pets as they are generally more obedient and therefore are on the teachers'' good side.
And of the 8 of them, 4 created an Evens coalition.
One of their members, Aislinn, let out a cheeky smile and stuck out her tongue to taunt Albus.
This, is Coalitions.