Some of the students who'd been rattled did actually return to the starting point. Among those who went back, some first refilled the distilled water in their canteens, while others went to the school to report the issue.
It was hard to tell whether they came back to file a complaint or just to replenish the distilled water they'd been burning through in the heat.
Soon, however, their class advisor Sakagami from Yukio's class stepped forward to explain: the port staff only came by once in a great while.
They'd been there several times before to handle early preparations, and to resupply and maintain power and water once the special exam officially started. Later, out of boredom, they'd acquired six off-road vehicles and kept them in the port warehouse. When bored, they'd drive them into the interior of the uninhabited island for a spin to blow off steam.
If the school could rent out an entire uninhabited island, keeping a few old off-roaders on hand was no problem. So Yukio's class had temporarily rented those vehicles using private points.
Other students were immediately upset. "Sakagami-sensei! That's against the rules—this is cheating! The school clearly required us to move on foot. Your class is using vehicles! That violates the rules!"
Sakagami glanced at the student, unconcerned. "Ahem. The rules only require that you reach a designated area within a set time."
"How you get there—walking, hopping, running, crawling, or using a vehicle—the school didn't restrict that."
"...!" That line drove the students mad—what did he mean by crawling? But facing a class advisor, there was nothing they could do.
One sharper student piped up, "Then we'll rent a car from the staff too! With a vehicle, we'd have a huge advantage in the movement scoring!"
Sakagami cut him off. "Sorry. There aren't that many staff cars. Across the whole port there were only six vehicles, and our class rented them all."
"One day's rental costs three hundred thousand private points. It's not cheap."
A day's rent of three hundred thousand—students weren't completely shocked. It was expensive—anyone could see that from the layer of dust on those old off-roaders—but a drivable vehicle on an uninhabited island was worth a lot. Points suddenly seemed less important.
Don't even mention the enormous private points Yukio got during the class vote; with the class's over 2,500 class points, just the monthly private point allowance was enough to cover things.
"Won't the school do anything?!" another student demanded. Even if they couldn't rent the cars, shouldn't the school forbid Yukio's class from using vehicles? Otherwise every move they made would scoop first place, possibly even sweeping the top three—what chance would the rest of them have?
Sakagami raised a hand and told everyone to calm down, then explained the school's arrangement. "The school hadn't expected this. Since it's a matter of members making clever use of the environment, the school imposed a limit."
"That limit is fuel. To get gasoline for the off-roaders, you must exchange special-exam points. According to the staff, the vehicles haven't been refueled in a long time—at most they'll run for two more days. That's why they were rented out."
At that, many of the students who'd returned to report the cars breathed easier. Without fuel, the off-roaders were just piles of scrap.
And who still had special-exam points to spare? Those points couldn't be replenished or converted into class points after the exam. Everyone had spent theirs on supplies before disembarking.
When Yukio's class exchanged for supplies, they were still on the cruise ship and didn't know about the old off-roaders in the port warehouse. In other words, Yukio's class looked like they had six cars and a big advantage—but only for the first day or two. If the gasoline couldn't be replenished, the rest of the special exam would still depend on personal ability, not vehicles.
Still, if the staff's estimate was right and those cars only had enough gasoline for two days, then a day's rent of three hundred thousand private points...
Those port staff were a little ruthless—way more profitable than highway robbery. But what did that matter to the other classes? Yukio's class was the one taking the hit.
That realization rekindled hope among many students: two days. Just hang on for two days, and they'd still have a chance to overtake Yukio's class.
"Everyone! Our classes should officially cooperate! If we don't work together to block them, Yukio's class will keep their early advantage and keep widening the gap. We have to stop them after two days!"
"Exactly. Count our class in. Two days from now, without cars, they won't be able to compete with all of us!"
"We can't let them keep doing whatever they want!"
Sakagami watched the noisy, fired-up students planning to team up against his class with no real worry, smiling as if he had complete confidence in Yukio and his own students.
After all, Sakagami knew a little-known fact these students didn't—but there was no reason to tell them.
...
The engine rumbled. Kaneda drove with a calm face, both hands gripping the wheel and eyes on the road. He looked composed, but the way he held the wheel betrayed his nerves.
It was his first time driving. Although the car was an easy automatic, they were on a wild island road—bumps and scrapes wouldn't matter as long as they didn't hit anyone.
Ishizaki in the passenger seat had no doubts about Kaneda—he trusted him one hundred percent—but he kept sniffing his hands and making sour faces. "It stinks. That gasoline smell—I've washed my hands three times and it won't come off."
Kaneda casually offered a solution. "Hold on to it. We'll find a thicket later; grab some leaves and rub them on your hands. It'll probably mask the smell."
Mentioning the gasoline smell, Kaneda inwardly had to admire Yukio's thoroughness. He'd known about the spare gasoline canisters in the cruise ship's lifeboats, which is why their class had confidently rented the off-roaders.
With the lifeboat spare fuel, they could stretch the second special exam on the uninhabited island for up to two weeks using the off-roaders.
That advantage wasn't minor. Compared to other classes, it was a solid edge.