15.5 Chapter 5.2: The Treasure Hunt Of Troubled Women Part2

Now then, a sudden treasure hunting game until dusk.

There are some rules that must be followed, but they fundamentally only affect those who would violate them.

The only thing left is to carry your luck with you, but...

Since there were already 2D codes pasted around the starting point, my surroundings were in chaos.

Like locusts feasting on crops, they were examining it with astounding speed.

I won't have any space to wedge myself into from now on since I'm participating.

Just like a locust seeing a large swarm of locusts, there were also students who saw the crowd and started looking for other places to search in.

Students who contacted each other with their phones were even more common. They're probably sharing their findings with their pairmate while they both search at the same time.

Since a pair could be formed without meeting directly using the app, there was a way to split into two groups.

"Hey Mori-san, wanna look from above?"

Kei left the assembly hall late and walked with her classmate, Mori Nene. They seemed close.

Looks like Kei caught a classmate and made a pair immediately.

Since I was of course alone, I decided to go to the lowest level for now.

If I go to the top levels like Kei, we would end up sharing the same space, after all.

Anyway - I haven't received even a single message on my phone.

At a time like this, wouldn't it be okay for at least one person to invite me?

No. Don't think about it too much. I feel like if I think about it I'll lose something.

To begin with, there aren't many people who I mail or chat with.

From the Ayanokouji group Keisei was free, but it seemed like he wasn't interested in games like this. He said he wouldn't participate early on. Akito wants to rest, and Haruka and Airi seem to have made a pair in the beginning.

"Ah..."

When I started moving, I unexpectedly came across Satou-san.

I lightly raised my hand to give a greeting before trying to leave. But...

"Ah, wa-wait a second!"

She grabbed my arm and told me to stop while looking flustered.

"Hold on... Ayanokouji-kun, do you have a partner already?"

"No, I'm alone."

What I didn't say was that it was because I didn't plan to make a pair now or even before this.

The fact that I have more friends who can accompany me in events like this is a different matter.

Saying that to myself made me feel a little empty, but I endured it.

"Well then, well then you know? Won't you... make a pair with me?"

That proposal was unexpected. I was troubled on how to respond.

Last year, Satou was the first person to give me a confession since I was born. I couldn't answer her feelings so I refused, and from there I started going out with Kei. I thought it would be natural for her to hate me. I never thought that she would propose that we become partners.

I don't have any particular reason to refuse, but I honestly don't have any reason to accept either.

I know that since Kei was keeping up appearances and keeping her thing with me a secret, she took Mori as her partner just now. But whether or not that makes it okay to pair with Satou is a different matter.

"Are you worrying about Kei-chan...?"

It was hard to answer yes, but Satou seems to have guessed it right away from my attitude.

"She told me that she would tell everyone that you two are dating, you know."

"Is that so?"

From now, on the 2nd term, it looks like she'll be making the first move in revealing our relationship.

From what Matsushita said in the past, I've known that Satou was aware of Kei's relationship with me.

"Some time has passed since we started going out after all. It's not something we can keep a secret forever."

"Well there are couples who hide that they're going out, but I think that there are only a few people who can notice you and Kei-chan."

Satou was talking about the several girls Kei got along with doubting her relationship with me.

Of course it's not as if they asked from the person in question, but from the way Matsushita, who has seen us firsthand, speaks. That's no misunderstanding. Of course Satou is not at fault. What they're doing doesn't go past guessing as they like without knowing anything.

"Aah, but you know? Me asking you to be my partner is like, uh, because I thought you'd be reliable. There's no meaning aside from that... is that not okay?"

She stressed that there was no weird reason behind it.

"How many private points do you have?"

"Umm, it's a bit embarrassing to think about but... about 180,000 points."

That much definitely wasn't suitable for one person. But if you think about how she had just paid up, she didn't have much. Even if the risk was small, using up a precious 10,000 points to participate meant that she had some degree of determination.

So, since she wants to find rare 2D codes she also wants to pair up.

"Got it. If I'm fine with you then let's pair up, Satou. I can't promise anything though."

"Really!? Yay!"

Satou was happy so she honestly acted happily. That felt good even for me, her partner.

We took out our phones, applied to be a pair and got approved.

With this we're officially a pair, and we can get a reward scanned by either of our phones.

Next is to find a seal with at least 30,000 points.

"Come to think of it, you did get a weird piece of paper from the teachers right?"

Satou produced a crumpled paper from her pocket.

"Ah!?"

It was as if she herself had forgotten that she crumpled it. Seeing its state, she put it back in right away embarrassedly.

"Ah, uh, that was... I didn't understand even after I looked at it, see... ahaha. You have one too, right?"

It looks like she didn't think that she could solve the problem so she carelessly crumpled her paper.

I produced my paper which was folded in 4 layers and held it in front of Satou.

"This will show us the places with the three 3D codes right?"

"Yeah."

"So if we solve this, it's possible for us to receive 1,000,000 points?"

"No, probably not."

It was too bad that I had to shatter her hopes but I replied right away.

"Eeh? Really?"

Only three out of the 100 seals were indicated in these problems.

Because of this, people will want to place hope on the 2D codes that would come after solving these problems but...

"These three hints are similar in difficulty. So no matter which one we solve, the reward will probably be the same. It could be a 100,000 point seal, of which there were some... or it might possibly be a 50,000 point seal."

"Eeh? But couldn't these three seals be the three seals worth 300,000 points?"

"Indeed, it's easy to think that they have something to do with the seals that are worth 300,000 points. But the probability is low."

First of all, a large amount of private points wouldn't be here.

"Eehhh? Even if we solve problems as hard as these we wouldn't be able to get anything but those?"

"This treasure hunt is completely centered on luck. This is just a bonus game. If the students who are quick-witted and solve the problems get to have the rare seals with 1,000,000 points, 500,000 points, or 300,000 points as you said, many other students might be unable to consent. Don't you think so too?"

If all 300,000-point seals were contained here, then it would no longer be a luck-based game. That would be equivalent to failing as a game.

Until the end this should be seen as a sort of safety net with modest rewards.

"O-okay. Yeah, if those 2D codes were that valuable then I might have been annoyed..."

Thinking as someone who couldn't solve it, it looked like she understood right away.

"It wouldn't be a bad thing to find the codes related to these hints, but even if we scan them we wouldn't know how many private points we get until we receive them. We could be letting our chance go."

This treasure hunting game lasts for several hours, but many losses will be decided in the first one or two hours.

"So that means we can ignore this right?"

"If this paper had a use, it would probably be for if we weren't able to find a good-looking seal until the time ends. I know where these point to."

Well, by the time we would want to do that it would probably have been collected by other students though.

"...Ayanokouji-kun, did you by any chance solve this paper?"

"More or less."

"Amazi...!"

None of the hints were that difficult. Since everyone from the 1st to the 3rd years could participate, rather than a frontal attack the riddles were more subtle.

As we were talking about this and that, the students looking for treasure in the vicinity were looking for 2D codes with everything they had at hand. Even if the places were limited to an extent, if 200 people all start searching at once then most of them would be found right away.

It was also possible that a rare seal was hidden among those near the starting point.

"For now let's look in the lower levels."

"Got it. I'll leave where we should start searching up to you."

With Satou in tow, I went to the lower levels where I placed the scope of our search.

From there even though we looked for about five minutes, we were only able to find two obvious seals.

Was this a bad place? Or were they hidden more discreetly?

Not bearing any fruit, the number of students in our surroundings started to increase little by little.

"Um Ayanokouji-kun..."

"What, did you find something?"

"Tha-that's not it... ca, can I go to the bathroom for a little bit. This morning, I drank a lot... I really wanted to go before but..."

Looking extremely embarrassed, Satou told me such a thing.

"I see. You found me at that time right?"

She nodded with a red face.

"Sorry. We want to hurry as much as we can."

I don't have any intention of telling her not to go. I sent her off willingly.

"I-I'll come back right away!"

"Don't rush yourself."

Having sent Satou away for now, I restarted my search by myself.

"You were in the treasure hunting game too?"

When I peeked below the sofa, a voice called out to me from behind.

I wondered who stopped to call me. It was my classmate Matsushita.

Today I was called by a classmate I don't see often.

At the same time, a 3rd year who looked like he had been talking with her, Tatara, looked at me dubiously.

"...That Ayanokouji?"

"You know him? It's Ayanokouji."

When Matsushita looked at Tatara in wonder, he turned his face awkwardly.

Matsushita doesn't know this but right now all of the 3rd years have definitely been hearing something about me from Nagumo.

"Right now he's in a treasure hunting game so talk to him later. It's a waste of time so let's go alright?"

"That goes for you too, Tatara-senpai. Don't mind me and pair up with someone else."

Tatara, who suddenly appeared in this place, might present a good opportunity to look into Nagumo's plans.

"You're participating in the treasure hunt too, right Senpai?"

When I tried to plunge into the conversation, he made an openly displeased face and turned his eyes away.

Hearing him click his tongue, Matsushita also noticed that Tatara was acting differently.

"Is something wrong? Tatara-senpai."

When I called out to him once again, Tatara started to leave obviously.

I felt that he had some kind of goodwill for Matsushita even from his first impression.

Him avoiding direct contact with me more than wanting to form a pair with her definitely means that he's receiving orders to not speak to me unprepared.

"Matsushita, later."

"Ah, yes."

Smiling lightly while understanding nothing, Matsushita waved her hand to Tatara.

As if he somehow didn't know when to give up, even while looking at Matsushita he glared at me as he disappeared.

"Fuuu. I don't know how but you saved me. Did something happen between you and Tatara-senpai?"

Since she didn't know about the orders he had received from Nagumo, of course she would think that attitude is strange.

"Nothing. I've never even talked to him."

"Hmmm?"

It didn't seem like she understood. But as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, she patted her chest.

"Hey, could you be alone too? If you're alone, wanna form a pair?"

"Ahh no-"

When I was about to be invited by Matsushita, footsteps sounded from behind me.

"Hey Matsushita-san, Ayanokouji-kun is paired with me!"

Satou-san returned from the bathroom, dashed towards Matsushita and gripped both of her shoulders.

"Eh? Ah, is that so?"

While surprised at her abnormal speed and pressure, Matsushita turned her back.

"Actually I saw you with Tatara-senpai a while ago. Weren't you with him?"

"I'm not sure if I should say he was with me or just following me along..."

It looked like not only Matsushita but Satou as well knew about the 3rd year Tatara. He's a 3rd year in A-class, and his evaluation on the OAA averages from B~C, a little higher than average. His hairstyle is long for a guy.

What is that kind of hair called... I'm not familiar with things like that.

"His motion is so strong that I'm pulled along. I'm indirectly rejecting him though~"

"Ah~ I get that~"

I don't get that.

For now, I continued examining the underside of the sofa that I was in the middle of looking at.

"Actually Ayanokouji-kun, nothing is there isn't it? Even if there was, I think it would be a cheap code."

Indeed, underneath a sofa is a quintessential spot to hide a 2D code in.

In fact, if I crouch underneath this sofa at an angle, there is a visible 2D code. Of course, I wouldn't do anything like scan it.

"What we need are the patterns from the school."

"Patterns?"

"When they decided to carry out this treasure hunting game, they had to decide how to assign value to the 2D codes."

"Eh, so...?"

Satou didn't quite understand and tilted her head.

In contrast, Matsushita answered without particularly thinking.

"Of course, 2D codes with higher values are hidden in places that are harder to find."

"That's right. So the question becomes who decides what 『harder to find』 means."

"Teachers!"

As though she wanted to answer this time, Satou said it before Matsushita.

But Matsushita added.

"If you had to stick 100 seals to different places it would of course be difficult. I don't think we're mistaken that teachers placed them, but it probably wasn't one or two people. Even if they split up the work and started placing them since last night, they would have had to recruit people..."

"Did they carefully place them throughout this ship while the students were on the Uninhabited Island? Or did they suddenly have the homeroom teachers do it? If we know that then it will become easier to guess where the seals will be hidden."

"Sorry, I don't know what you're saying at all..."

"How you make a passage or where you place decorations are fundamentally the same thing."

"Do you understand what I mean now, Matsushita-san?"

"I guess."

"You're amazing Ayanokouji-kun!"

"I think what you're focusing on is interesting, but for a treasure hunting game don't you think it'd be fine to take it a little easy?"

"...Yeah."

Being told that, I was already unable to give a reply.

Though I more or less just thought that it wouldn't hurt to use some logic.

"But really? That's too bad. To think that there was someone before me."

"T-too bad?"

"I think I'll also look for a reliable partner. See you again."

She would be letting everyone here go by just standing around and talking after all.