COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 4.5:Part 10

The next day, we all received an email about a treasure hunt game.

There were 100 stickers spread out across the ship. Each one can be scanned, and you'd gain anywhere from 5,000 points to 1,000,000. However, you'd need to pay 10,000 points to actually sign up. You could choose a partner, and you'd both receive the reward. So theoretically, you could end up with one million points each. Each group can only scan one sticker, though, which was fair.

I've never taken part in a game like this before, so I decided to try it out. We had to reach the meeting place and sign our names with Horikita before the time limit. So I made my way over there.

I saw quite a lot of people gathered, and of course, all the third years kept staring at me. I noticed Kei was also here and, surprisingly, Koenji as well. Kei tried to come up to me but was grabbed by another girl before she could reach me.

I made my way over to Horikita to sign my name.

"You seem to be enjoying the student council duties."

"Shut up."

"I want to meet with you tomorrow. It's important."

She was surprised at my request but nodded her head. I was about to sign my name when Sato came up to me.

"Ayanokoji-kun! Do you want to partner up with me?"

That was out of nowhere. I hadn't properly spoken to her since Christman, so I was taken aback.

"If you don't hurry up Ayanokoji-kun, then I will have to ask you to leave."

How rude...

"Sure, I guess."

After Horikita pressured me, I gave in and grouped up with Sato. After the time limit came, the class 3-A teacher came out and informed us about 3 riddles we could solve in order to get rewards. Each one would lead us to a sticker worth as many points as the difficulty level of the riddle. They passed around a paper with all 3 riddles, and I read through them all. They were all fairly simple, and I managed to solve them immediately, so I decided not to use them since I wanted to actually experience the game.

"Wow, these riddles sure are tough, aren't they Ayanokoji-kun?"

"Uhh,I guess yeah."

She looked at me with a somewhat surprised face.

"Can you solve them Ayanokoji-kun?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then why don't we?"

"Well, I want to actually experience the game. I already know what the riddles mean, so it would be boring if we used them."

I decided to be honest to save myself some time.

"What?? You mean you already know the answers to these riddles, Ayanokoji-kun?? That's really impressive!"

"I don't think so. But thanks."

She gave me an awkward smile and started moving. I followed after her.

I kept following Sato until she decided to leave to go to the bathroom. I waited for her and saw Matsushita coming up to me. She had a third year following her, and surprisingly, he spoke up first.

"Ayanokoji..."

Matsushita looked surprised when she heard that.

"Huh? Do you know Ayanokoji-kun from somewhere??"

He shook his head and left while giving me a disgusted look.

"That was weird."

"Yeah."