❂ Chapter 155 ➺ The ‘Very Much Used to It’ Invisible Girl ❂

Houtarou and the others had retrieved Rokusuke's phone from the safe earlier.

As the only son of a prestigious family, Rokusuke possessed natural talent and had received extensive training backed by his family's resources. Identifying people had been his first lesson, making the VIP test nothing more challenging than spotting an undercover agent.

Indeed... it was far too simple and boring for him.

According to Houtarou's deduction, Rokusuke's clever mind had likely figured out during the first discussion that the Monkey Group's VIP was in Class C. He had even confirmed their identity.

Like other students, he was using a backup phone, and these phones required adding each other as friends to enable location tracking.

Since he had only added Airi and Kikyō's backup phones as friends, locating Rokusuke took some time.

Still, his whereabouts were fairly predictable given his confident and narcissistic nature. If he wasn't admiring himself in a mirror, he was likely exercising and pushing his body to its limits.

The ship's basement level housed a fully-equipped gym, where Houtarou and the others quickly found him.

Only staff members and Rokusuke were present — no other students.

This wasn't surprising — girls wouldn't come here, and the regular male students were even less inclined to show up.

After all, they were here to enjoy themselves — who would want to work up a sweat, especially during exams?

"So, you want me to end the exam, right?" Rokusuke immediately grasped their intentions, "Indeed. This exam is tedious, and three days of discussions is truly a waste of time. I want a spa treatment tonight. There's no time for this exam. Besides, these discussions are meaningless — too childish."

Though he rarely spoke with regular classmates, Houtarou and Suzune were different.

During the previous exam, despite maintaining control, he had essentially been Houtarou's tool — and not by choice.

Now that the Island Exam was over and his 20 million Point plan secured, he wasn't as desperate. He could live life at his own pace.

Naturally, these school exams held no interest for him. Avoiding expulsion and using those 20 million points to transfer to Class A in his third year would suffice. As long as he graduated from Class A, regardless of which class earned that status, it wouldn't shame his family's business or the school.

As heir to a financial group, he acknowledged the school's ability to nurture excellent talent, like Student Council President, Manabu Horikita — whom he might recruit in the future.

Now, however, he wondered about recruiting Houtarou.

Though he was heir to a large financial group, he couldn't manage everything alone. He needed capable people. Yet Houtarou, who seemed both money-oriented and skilled at earning it, wouldn't be swayed by ordinary sums.

And if he tried using beautiful women as incentive...

Today Houtarou was accompanied by Suzune and a Class A girl — all of them quite attractive.

He always seemed to be in the company of beautiful girls.

"Then, same as before." Rokusuke said to Suzune. Since she was from Class D, "I'll take half of these 50 points."

"I'll report this to Hirata." Suzune replied calmly, "But we need to see the email you sent."

"No problem." He nodded.

With this, Houtarou confirmed the information about Class C's VIP in the Monkey Group.

The school broadcast responded within a minute of his message, followed by Tomonari's announcement.

[The Monkey Group's exam has ended.]

The exam rules allowed answers either by the final deadline or early submission.

While answering by the deadline wouldn't affect points, early answers would impact Class Points — a correct guess would add 50 points, but a wrong answer would result in Class D losing points.

Rokusuke, however, showed complete confidence as he returned to his push-ups.

Well, good for you.

Houtarou forwarded the Monkey Group's Class C VIP information to Kakeru, effectively signaling that he had decoded the VIP pattern.

Now that Kakeru had lost 50 Class Points, he had no choice but to figure out the VIP pattern himself — and that made him vulnerable.

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"By the way, you haven't looked well since we left." Houtarou observed.

He had noticed Suzune's stern expression.

Though this was her typical demeanor — like Masumi, she rarely displayed emotion — after spending considerable time with her, he could detect subtle changes.

"I'm thinking about the VIP pattern." Suzune said, her left hand on her elbow and right fingers supporting her chin, "I spent the whole afternoon on it but couldn't find the pattern. Sakayanagi only received your information at 6 PM, right? But in less than 15 minutes..."

She seemed somewhat frustrated.

"She figured it out."

"That's exactly why I considered pushing Class A to her side — because she's excellent."

"...Then..." Suzune looked over, "If it were you deducing the VIP pattern... How long would it take..."

She was curious.

Previously, when her brother had nearly gotten her expelled, he had praised Houtarou highly, noting his exceptional physical capabilities.

After interacting with him, she discovered his academic abilities were exceptional — particularly his ability to achieve perfect scores simply by reading books.

This had lingered in her mind, making her doubt his claim that he couldn't deduce the VIP pattern.

However...

"My principle is to not do unnecessary things, and to do required things as simply as possible. In other words, maximum energy efficiency." Houtarou said, "If someone else can figure it out, why should I spend time on it?"

Delegating tasks was sufficient.

Though some frustration remained, now that they had decoded the VIP pattern, all classes were vulnerable.

Cooperation was possible, but seizing their points would create resentment.

Yet what choice did they have?

Since the other side had already guessed the VIP information, refusing to cooperate would mean losing both money and class evaluation points. They had no option but to comply.

Next, they would need to confront the class representatives before collectively extracting the school's 80 million Points.

For now, though, they could let the troublesome Kakeru struggle a bit longer.

As dinner time approached, Suzune showed unusual consideration by taking the initiative to invite Houtarou to eat together. The two headed toward the restaurant.

Fifty centimeters behind them, someone followed — though the pair seemed oblivious to her presence.

Masumi: "..."

Once again, she found herself fading into the background.

But she was used to it. Even when Houtarou and Arisu dined together, they hardly noticed her presence.

Well — that wasn't entirely true. They did check to make sure she had gotten her food.