Classroom of the Elite

Day 11, just before 5:00 p.m. I had barely reached the last designated zone, J10, when I was startled by the sight. It is important to collect scores and homework objects, but even more important is to be careful with scoring. It's surprisingly difficult to keep 11th place at all times. You have to make sure you don't step on the designated area and get penalized, and you also have to keep up with those who score in 10th place.

Yesterday, on the 10th day of the test, the third designated area was announced as F4 followed by a random area in B9, and I gave up soon. I couldn't even get to C9, the fourth designated area, and had to pass twice in a row. I managed to get to the first designated area in the morning, C8, and avoided the penalty, but this time I couldn't get to the random area of H9, and had to get to I9, which was a tough day.

Once an area is designated as a long-distance destination, the next area continues to refer to it. I realized once again the main reason why my overall score was not increasing.

As I reached the end of the steep and rocky road I could hear a man and a woman talking to each other in front of me.

Maybe it's because the wind was blowing, but the voice was vaguely familiar.

I thought I might know them, so I decided to take a look. The voice comes from the west, the direction of the ocean. There, I caught sight of a group of three girls from 2nd year class B, consisting of Isoyama Nagisa, Morofuji Rika, and Shiina Hiyori.

… And there were three more from another group of sophomores. I haven't seen them since the first day of the exam.

It was Ishizaki Daichi, Takeko Nishino, and Hitomi Tsutsube.

I'm sure I've heard of them. The squares were supposed to be different at first, but did the designated zones overlap this time?