A New Masterpiece (COTE x OC)

Chapter 14 - Deserted Island Exam (1)

"We're getting a real toilet!"

"No! We should be saving points!"

The dispute between Ike and the girls, mostly Shinohara, had picked up again. Shinohara and a few other girls were adamant about not using a cardboard box for a week.

"Hirata-kun," the girls finally turned to Hirata for his aid. "You know we can't last a week with that. Tell this idiot we need a real toilet!"

"Well, I know it may be hard going a week without a real toilet, but let me check the manual first."

Hirata quickly flipped through the manual to check out how many points we would lose from buying the portable toilet.

"It says here it would cost us 20 points."

"See?! It's not that expensive, buy it already!"

"But," Ike jumped in, "using those 20 points is missing out on 2000 Private Points a month. Wouldn't you rather save them?"

It seems the girl's argument was based more on being comfortable and living a decent life while stuck on the island. While Ike's argument was about saving as many of the 300 S-points as possible for more Private Points in the future.

"I agree with Ike-kun."

A new voice had entered the argument. I turned and saw Yukimura stepping closer to Ike.

"What? How?!" Shinohara was leading the girl's attack right now and was obviously upset about the new rising opposition.

"It's simple. This is the only chance we have right now to close the gap between the other classes. By conserving more points and guessing Class Leaders in the end, it would put us in a close spot to overcome Class C."

So Yukimura was also someone who wanted to conserve the points we spent, albeit not for Private Points, but for a change in Class rankings.

Murmurs in consideration began to sweep the class after that idea. Everyone was now fully aware of the great opportunity in front of us.

"No! I will not stand for that!"

It was getting painfully obvious now that no matter what, Shinohara and some of the girls did not care if we closed the gap between classes or not.

"Hirata-kun!" Once again, the girls turned to Hirata's aid.

"Oh, um, well, I see the benefits of both sides of this argument. I agree this is our best chance at closing the gap, but we also want everyone to be safe and remain comfortable on the island, so..."

"So, you're getting the portable toilet?"

"So, you're deciding to save Points?"

Hirata, the appointed Class Leader, was in a dilemma now. He wanted to make a compromise for everyone and make sure no one would be on the losing side. But, with an argument with two strong and unchanging oppositions, it was hard to please everyone.

"Everyone, I think we need to put this matter to rest for the time being."

This argument was going on way too long and wasting precious time to get a head start.

Everyone in the class turned to look at me as I spoke up. "This test is designed, so we will have to use points. There's no way 40 people can survive on this island without using points. But this argument right now is wasting too much time. Look around, is there any other class still left on the beach?"

During this back-and-forth bickering, every other class left the beach and made moves to secure a campsite. Class D was the only one remaining.

"First, we need to find a good campsite for us. And during this test, we need to find sources of food and water, because those will prove extremely valuable in helping us save points where we can."