After finishing breakfast, I quickly went to the toilet before heading to the hall. Usually, I would skip this, but due to the nature of today's challenge, there was a chance I wouldn't get an opportunity to use one until tomorrow.

Despite the horrible beatings they received yesterday, everyone in our group was still present, albeit more sluggish than usual from the pain. They all had good reasons to drop out, but were forced to continue to participate due to Shimada's influence.

Kouji, who's arm had been beaten to the brink of breaking, was wearing a jersey to cover the bruises. When he saw me, he casually greeted me while mid-yawn.

"Taka... nori-san... yo."

"Hey. Is your arm feeling any better?"

"No... it hurts more than before, actually. I really hope today's challenge isn't physical, or else I'm screwed."

I think that goes for everyone here. Kishida walked with a limp and Yamamoto was clutching his crushed ribs. The only one out of those four that actually looked okay was Nakajima, but with his durability, that was to be expected.

"Yeah. Who knows what this one will entail..."

So far, we've had a scavenger hunt, a cook-off, a business showdown, an auction battle, and a series of relay races. With such a wide range of abilities being tested, there was no telling what the school would demand from us next. It all seemed really random.

"Good morning everyone! I hoped you loaded up on breakfast today, because this challenge is going to be the hardest one yet!"

Once again, it was Hiden-sensei who was responsible for explaining the rules of today's challenge. A few students groaned at his liveliness so early in the morning.

Personally, I don't know how someone could be so energetic after getting up. Even after getting some sleep, I'm still feeling tired.

"That's right, for your penultimate challenge, we're pulling out all the stops! Not only is this challenge going to be the hardest, but it's also going to be longest— yes, even longer than the business challenge! Also, it's going to unlike anything you've done so far before too, for one simple reason!"

With a click of his fingers, the wall on our right hand side parted like a curtain. Everyone's eyes widened, staring through on what was on the other side, shocked to find out that the hall on the girl's side was actually connected to ours.

Suddenly, on this grand stage, the two halves of the outdoors school had become one.

Everyone on each side stared at each other, flabbergasted that the separation between them had come to an end. As I looked through the now non-existent wall, Yukina's eyes met with mine, and she smiled a little. I looked away, scratching my cheek.

"In today's challenge, both the boys and girls will be participating together! That's right, the division between genders is going to be torn down today, meaning you'll have double the enemies to deal with in this challenge, but double the opportunities to come out on top as well! Whether or not this is a good or bad thing? That's up to you to decide!"

If anything, it only made the atmosphere more tense, since the implication of this fact meant today's challenge must be quite grand if they were forcing us to participate together.

"Now, you all might be wondering, what is it that you'll be doing today which requires such a special exception? Well..."

Hiden-sensei threw his body forward and shouted into the mic.

"In today's challenge, you'll all be playing against each other in Hide-and-seek!"

The crowd boiled into chatter and dimmed into murmurs. A simple kid's game was the last thing anyone expected to be our last challenge before the special exam's final challenge. The only ones who seemed unfazed by this fact were the A Class students.

A loud groan of disappointment came from our group since a physical challenge was the last thing they wanted. Yamamoto especially looked like he wasn't looking forward to this. It seems those three are going to have to fight over who would be the hider.

Even so, Shimada smirked. Despite the fact we were at a major disadvantage compared to the other groups, he still felt confident he could win this challenge, with or without our help. I don't know whether to call his bravado a plus or a demerit.

"I assume everyone here knows what hide-and-seek is, but for the uninitiated and uncultured, it is a simple game where one person is the "hider" who must evade a group of "seekers" from finding them in the allotted time, usually before recess ends, by hiding! The same rules apply in this challenge, but with a few slight twists! Instead of trying to find a "hider" from your group, your tasks as "seekers" will actually be trying to find "hiders" from other groups! If you do that, not only will you earn cumulative points for your group, but you can also eliminate groups from the challenge in the process if you find all of their hiders!"

In other words, this is how we'd would compete with each other. As a seeker, your is to sniff out as many enemy hiders as possible to earn points and get rid of groups. As a hider, your goal is to make sure your group stayed in by avoiding being found.

"Now that you know the basic concept of this challenge, let's set up some base rules. Firstly, and most importantly, "hiders" aren't allowed to move at all from their spots once they decide on a hiding space. Once you choose your position, that's it! No switching, no changing, and no regretting about it afterwards!"

If this rule wasn't in place, this challenge would just be a glorified game of tag. Not like I know what playing tag is like anyways...

"Second of all, entering the school building is forbidden during the duration of this challenge! While everywhere else on the mountain range is fair game to seek and hide, that place is strictly off limits! The reason for this is because the school is where the losers will go to after they've been found, so once your group is eliminated, please head over there immediately. If you're caught lingering on the field when you're not meant to, a faculty member will personally escort you back here. Likewise, if anyone enters the school building when they're not supposed to, seeker or hider, that's immediate disqualification!"

That makes sense. There had to be one spot where those not participating in the challenge could go to. Hopefully I'll be able to return to that place early.

"Third of all, this challenge will be running all the way until 8am tomorrow!"

Leaving Hiden-sensei's mouth was the most outrageous rule yet. Everyone in the crowd went into an uproar, asking questions like "How can a game of hide-and-seek last that long?!" and "What about dinner?!". This was especially true for D and E Class.

They were all fair questions. However, once again it was the A Class students who all looked unbothered by what was being said. I also noticed that Machida, Ikeda, Zyriot, Satou, Kawaguchi, and Matsushita also remained composed.

"Hang on, don't worry! I hear all your complaints loud and clear, and I perfectly understand all your worries! In fact, the school does too, which is why we have prepared three measures to make sure everything is safe and goes smoothly! Chacha-sensei, if you may?"

Handing the microphone over to Chabashira-sensei, she took out a sleek digital watch from a suitcase and presented it to everyone.

"The first measure are these digital smartwatches, which we will be distributing to each one of you here in order to monitor your status. This way, we can check how you are doing in the special exam. Due to it's lock system, it's impossible to take off without a key one of the faculty members have. The primary feature of the watch is to act as a GPS tracker, sending us your current location in real time. This is both to enforce the rule of the hider being unable to move, as well as to ensure we can reach you in case of an emergency. As this device is a vital part of ensuring your safety in this challenge, if the watch gets damaged or broken, you will have to return to the school to get it fixed, but your group may continue. However, do note that if your last hider is retired, then the whole group is disqualified, as per rules of the challenge."

Chabashira-sensei continued.

"In addition, the watch also measures your body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen level, and stress levels to ensure they are all normal and not fluctuating. In the case any of these levels drop or increase beyond average, your watch will sound a Warning Alert for five seconds to make you aware of your condition. After ten minutes, if the condition doesn't improve or worsens, it will sound another Warning Alert for five minutes. Both Warning Alerts can be disabled manually. However, if your condition deteriorates beyond that point, or if your levels drop to life threatening levels, the watch will switch to an Emergency Alert. This alert cannot be disabled manually, and you must stay in position so a teacher or medical personnel can come reach you to check your condition. If we deem you unsuitable to continue, you will have to retire from the challenge, but your group will stay in. Likewise, if the last hider in your group retires, the whole group is eliminated."

It seems this challenge put a large emphasis on the hider, as the fate of the group tied intrinsically to their survival. I guess it was a fair trade off to give them such importance considering their role was to literally stay put doing nothing for hours on end.

"The watch also serves as a line of communication between students and faculty in this challenge. We'll be sending updates on your group's status on them, such as whether your hiders have been found or whether or not your group has been eliminated. You can also freely call members from your group on this watch, as well as the school faculty and leaders of other groups. You aren't allowed to contact anyone else on these however."

You can contact leaders of other groups with the watch, huh? That was interesting... and ripe for abuse. I guess that's one way to deter the leader from choosing to hide, otherwise you could get bombarded with calls and be found that way.

"Finally, the other major purpose of this watch is the "Give Up Button". After 7pm, the option to "give up" in this special exam will become available to all hiders and the group leaders. If the leader or all hiders in a group press the "Give Up Button", then that group will be eliminated from this challenge. So, if this challenge is too difficult for you to handle, you may opt out of it, but do note that you'll lose 30% of the cumulative points you win in this challenge as a demerit."

In that case, if you wanted to get out of the challenge early, it would just be easier to put your hiders in obvious places or tell the other leaders where they were hiding,

"Aside from that, the last measure we've taken is regarding food and drink. Adjacent to the school buildings will be a meal station handled by faculty members distributing food and drink for everyone over the course of this challenge. For seekers, you can come and go here as you please to refuel at any time, but for the hiders, you'll need to rely on the rest of your group to come bring the food and drink to you."

At first glance, it looked like another trade off for being the hider since you couldn't get food whenever you wanted, but really it was just another mechanism to make the hiders the most important members on your group because of the Give Up Button.

If you didn't keep the hiders satisfied throughout this challenge, they could sabotage your group by all agreeing to give up. This would be inconsequential if the leader was a hider, but the negatives of having them as one meant this was an ill advised strategy.

"I'll hand it back over to Hiden-sensei."

"Thank you very much for the explanation Chacha-sensei! Now, for the rewards of today's challenge, it's pretty simple. Each time you find a hider, your group earns 3 cumulative points! However, at the end of the challenge, instead of basing the bonus on how many hiders you find, the bonus is calculated by how long your group can stay hidden until 8am! Behind me, listed on this whiteboard, are the bonuses depending on which place you get!"

1st) 20 Cu
2nd) 18 Cu
3rd) 17 Cu
4th) 16 Cu
5th) 15 Cu
6th) 13 Cu
7th) 12 Cu
8th) 11 Cu
9th) 10 Cu
10th) 9 Cu
11th) 8 Cu
12th) 7 Cu
13th) 6 Cu
14th) 5 Cu
15th) 4 Cu
16th) 3 Cu
17th) 2 Cu
18th) 0 Cu

"With all that out of the way, please discuss within your groups and choose two people to be your hiders in this challenge! Once you have decided, please come to us and get a watch! Once everyone is ready, then we'll begin!"

That means in the most best case scenario, you could earn a maximum of 122 cumulative points.

While extremely unlikely to happen, the fact the upper limit was this high meant that the total payout you could earn here might even surpass the total payout you could get from the final challenge... fitting for a challenge that lasts eighteen hours.

Everyone in our group turned to Shimada, who was in charge of deciding who'd hide and who'd seek in our group. He turned to us with a bothersome look.

"Isn't it obvious? Sui and Yami, you two will be hiding."

Yamamoto breathed a sigh of relief while Kouji sighed.

"Figures I get screwed over..."

"Your legs work, you don't get to complain. I'll show you two where to hide when the challenge begins."

"No objections." Yamamoto said.

"Alright." Kishida said.

I glanced over at Nakajima. He looked at me and smiled a little, before following Shimada to get the watches put on.

While Yamamoto and Kishida are must unfit to seek in this challenge, I still think it would've been better to make Nakajima the hider to restrict his movements. As it is right now, he has even more reign to launch a sneak attack on us if we decide to split up.

...well, there's no point thinking about this now. Shimada's plan is already set in motion. All I have to do is see it through today.

I followed the rest of my group to get the watch put on.