After having our watches put on by Hiryuu-sensei, we had to wait for all the other groups to be done before the challenge could start. It took about twenty minutes, but I used that time to mess around with the functions of the watch and see what it could do.

In particular, the hiders had a function on their watches to set their hiding spots once they've decided on it, whereas us seekers had that omitted from our watches. Instead, it was replaced by a map function, showing us a detailed layout of the mountainside.

In addition, the group leaders received letters containing the full rules of the challenge. As usual, Shimada disregarded it, but I took a look at them for myself.

Survival of the fittest! Competitive hide and seek!
Rules!
● Each group has two hiders, and the rest are seekers!
● For each hider you find, your group earns 3 cumulative points!
● If all your hiders are found or retired, your group is eliminated!
● Hiders cannot move once they have chosen their hiding spot!
● You aren't allowed to enter the school unless you are eliminated or retired from the challenge!
● This challenge lasts until 8am the next day!
● You may communicate with each other on your smartwatches!
● If your smartwatch breaks or malfunctions, return to the school immediately to get it fixed!
● After 7pm, the "Give Up Button" will become available, but you'll lose 30% of what you earned this challenge!
● You may take food and drink rations from the meal station whenever you like!
● Violence between groups is prohibited!
● Bonus cumulative points will be allocated based on how long each group stays in!

As expected, violence wasn't allowed. I can't help but imagine this rule would get broken anyways without the faculty realising it, considering we're in the wild, and the only thing being monitored is our locations.

Once everyone was ready, the challenge began. Since knowledge of where our hiders were was necessary, everyone went out together at once, rather than just the hiders like a normal game of hide-and-seek.

This added another layer of difficulty of finding a hiding spot without being seen by other groups, especially since there were seventeen other groups that you could run into.

Thankfully, there was an hour grace period, meaning that there was plenty of time to adventure and explore the mountains to find a suitable spot for Yamamoto and Kishida to hide in.

However, because Shimada was calling the shots around here, he ordered the rest of us to stay behind and wait for him while he showed Yamamoto and Kishida where to hide.

In the meanwhile, our task was to fill rucksacks with food and water from the meal station. No one else was here except me, Kouji, Nakajima, and the two teachers in charge of overseeing distribution, Toujou-sensei and Akusa-sensei.

"I don't get the point of this... we can come here at any time, so why stock up now? It'll just make the bags heavier and make it harder to traverse the mountaintops..."

Kouji muttered as he tossed cans of luncheon meat, packets of crackers, and bottles of water into his bag. Nakajima was silently doing the same thing.

"Strategically, this is a sound choice. If any group wants a chance of winning this challenge, they'll need to realise that the meal station is going to play a key part of this challenge. What we're doing is simply getting ahead of the curve."

"What do you mean?"

Just as I was about to explain, Nakajima cut in.

"The most surefire way to win this challenge is to follow other seekers when they're collecting food and drink for their hiders. That's what Bla— Takanori-san means."

"...that's right. If you tail them, you'll discover the location of their hider, and eliminate them. Of course, if they notice you, they'll change course and not visit the hider, but that also works to our advantage."

"Wait... you don't mean it as in... starving them, do you?"

Kouji grimaced a little as he understood the implication of my words. Nakajima nodded in confirmation.

"That's exactly what Takanori-san means. The challenge lasts until tomorrow morning, so by denying them of food and drink, it'll increase the mental stress of the hiders, making them more likely to press the Give Up Button once it's available."

"The only issue with this strategy is that it's unreliable for us, mainly because we're one man down compared to everyone else. Most groups have five seekers, while we only have four. Even if each of us mark one seeker each, we can't completely stop a group from feeding their hiders."

"In the first place, I'm not sure if I could do something as cruel as that..." Kouji muttered.

"If it's someone you hate, I think you could."

He glared at me a little before sighing.

"...yeah, probably. Too bad guy isn't a hider though."

I would worry for Matsushita's safety if he was.

"Oh? You know who some of the hiders are?" Nakajima asked.

"Huh, yeah. Takanori-san caught a glimpse of a few earlier."

"You really are observant, aren't you?"

Nakajima, who was crouching, got up and looked down on me. I also stood from my knees.

"Not particularly. There were some obvious candidates, like Nora-san from Mitsuba-san's group, and Imaishi-san from Akihiro-san's group. The rest I based off how they acted in the hall around their teammates."

"Interesting. Do you have any information on Ryouta-san's group?"

Being the biggest threat, it was only natural Nakajima would want to know more about them. Thankfully, Matsushita told me who was hiding in their group before the challenge even started.

"Ikeda-san and Machida-san."

Nakajima looked confused for a second, before simply accepting it. In comparison, Kouji was quite surprised.

"Wait, did I hear you right? They're making that cuckoo a hider?"

"It's hard to believe, but yeah."

You would think Machida would be a seeker given how aggressive and confrontational he can get, but apparently he chose to be a hider to ensure their group wouldn't be betrayed by the hiders pressing the "Give Up Button" together.

"Honestly, I can see it. Do you remember when we first arrived here? Machida-san was sitting all on his own. Even if he talks big, he can also lay low and be quiet too." Nakajima said.

"Now that you mention it, he was acting weirdly at the start of this special exam..."

I had just finished packing my bag. As I was about to leave, Nakajima called out to me.

"Hey, where are you off to?"

"I'm going to start finding people."

"Isn't that a little pointless... we still have like, more than forty minutes of the grace period." Kouji said.

"The grace period only protects the hiders from being found. If a hider was foolish enough to choose their spot under the grace period, it means there's a chance we can find them before anyone else, take note of their position, and pick them off later once the seeking actually begins."

"While I would agree to doing this, since it gives us another head start... Shimada-san told us explicitly to wait here for him, so he could rejoin us when he's done." Nakajima said.

"Do you really think he'd live up to his words?"

"Considering what he did to us yesterday... yeah?"

Kouji nodded in agreement. Considering Shimada actually followed through with his threat and beat those two, I guess it made sense.

"He only did it because it was a chance to hurt you two. Shimada-san loves violence."

"I mean, you're not wrong. But if he really was going to leave us here, don't you think he'd at least let us know beforehand?"

"No. Probably because he thinks we're not worth his time at all."

It was a depressing reality, but the three of us were well aware of it due to Shimada's impulsive decision making and flippant personality.

"To Shimada-san, we're nothing but a distraction - both for him, and the other players. There's really no point sitting around doing nothing for us."

Nakajima, almost begrudgingly, understood what I meant, but Kouji still looked a little confused.

"I dunno... sure, he's a crappy leader, but he's not stupid. Shimada-san would gain way more value from using us as pawns instead of ditching us here. We won't be able to do anything if we just stand here and wait for tomorrow."

"That's the point, Kouji-san. Shimada-san had no intentions of using us from the very beginning. He was going to take on this challenge all by himself."

Kouji's face stiffened.

"...seriously? That guy's going solo, again?"

"Yeah. We don't have to do anything."

"Ehh, that sounds great to me... under normal circumstances."

Kouji looked back behind him at the school.

"If only we could go back to our room..."

"Considering this challenge lasts until tomorrow morning, I'm not satisfied just sitting here and doing nothing."

"I mean... yeah, I guess after awhile napping on the ground would get boring. We could always do the strategy Nakajima-san talked about."

"We could... but I feel like Shimada-san is just going to use us as emergency fuel supplies."

"I did think about that. If we stay close by to the meal station, we can get resources for the hiders to Shimada-san without him ever having to risk going to the meal station himself or being trailed, since he's the only one who knows where the hiders are. If we wants anything, he can just communicate over the watches a location for us to drop our bags at, and then later he can collect it for himself or the hiders." Nakajima said.

"So we're mules? Is that it?"

"More or less, unfortunately."

"Damn... this is more degrading than I thought."

"You get used to it." Nakajima said.

"That's exactly why I'd rather do anything but sit here and let Shimada-san get his way. Aren't you tired of him always getting what he wants? This is a chance for us to live for ourselves, and do what we want in this challenge. Unless Shimada-san actually comes here to speak in person to us, he won't know a difference. Plus, with how large this forest is, the chances of running into him in the wild are near zero."

"That's all well and good, but my question is, why don't you just contact Shimada-san and ask if it's okay?" Nakajima said.

"We all know he'd say no. It's better to just keep him in the dark about it. Plus, aren't you two partners?"

Nakajima raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, of course. This group would've never happened if we didn't mutually agree to team up."

"That means you're also a leader of this group. If I get the okay from you, then that's good enough. Right?"

He closed his eyes and chuckled a little.

"...sure then. Do as you like. I didn't feel like following through with that sort of plan either anyways."

Of course he didn't. Nakajima wants free movement in this challenge, so it's only natural he'd let me go off on my own as well.

"Then it's a deal."

Me and Nakajima went to leave, going two completely separate paths from each other.

"Guess I should also figure out what I'm gonna do..."

Hearing Kouji mutter to himelf, I looked behind me. Noticing my gaze, he glanced up at me.

"Sorry. I guessing you don't want me to follow you?"

"...yeah. It's better for everyone if we spread out."

"Nah, that's fair. I was just thinking about the strategy you guys talked about earlier. I think I might just do that, since I don't want to move around so aimlessly..."

"It's not a bad plan if you don't have anything better to do."

"Yeah. Plus, since you came up with it, then it must be good."

Likewise, me and Kouji also parted ways.

...alright, that's the first part of Shimada's plan completed.

Everyone in the group was now split up and on their own.

This will make cornering our target a lot easier.

But before that could happen, I had a couple of hours to kill.

I opened the map on my watch and entered the forest.

I could go find people, like an actual seeker, but I have no desire of helping this team earn more cumulative points when they're already so far ahead.

Instead, I think I'll just visit the waterfall to clear my mind. There were still plenty of hours before nightfall.