Chapter 17: Chapter 4 – The Experimental Class

Ambition is the last refuge of failure - Oscar Wilde 

It's a brand new day so time to tackle the world. Remember, defeat isn't a choice and it will never be an option.

Did I sound like a motivational speaker there? I am pretty sure that I did so. If you aren't motivated by my golden words, then you're most definitely a lost cause.

The time is 7 a.m. and the school day is just beginning. As I fixed my school tie in the mirror, I heard my phone vibrate multiple times.

Okay, why are there so many messages coming through at once? I know we created a class group chat on Yodell, but it's too early in the morning for spam messages.

I walked over to my school-issued phone and input the password, then opened the group chat.

I narrowed my field of vision to one specific message that stood out for me.

Kyoko Takanawa -The results and the rankings have been released. Check your apps.

I immediately went back to the home screen and tapped on the Grades application. It instantly opened.

Name: Yuki Amaya

Student ID: 11992899-4.

Recent result: 50%

Hmm, a 50? I was pretty sure that I had passed the exam easily.

Onto the next app, I tapped on the Class Points application.

Current Year One Class Rankings

Class 1-1: 20 points.

Class 1-2: 15 points.

Class 1-3: 10 points.

*Class 1-4: 5 points.

Welp. We're dead last, and I see the asterisk is still next to our class. I relocked my phone and slipped it into my pocket, then made my way to class.

As I entered the classroom, the entire atmosphere was tense. There wasn't the usual talking and laughing. I can safely say that reality hit us like a brick.

I took my seat and exhaled. 

Minori observed me a bit and said, "You don't seem a bit concerned about our current class predicament."

I turned my head towards her and asked, "Which is? I know that we're basically dead last in the rankings."

Minori sighed and said, "It's not that. The majority of the class got a zero on their exam."

Heh? That was a simple exam. They should have at least scored some points. Unless something bigger comes into play.

I was about to reply with, "Did yo-"

Our conversation was then cut short by Miss Aiko walking in with a concerned look on her usually nonchalant face.

"Miss Aiko, what's the matter?" asked Kyoko, who tried to be a self-insert leader.

She gracefully took a seat at the teacher's desk, then exhaled a sigh of disappointment.

"It's regarding the recent class clash you guys were involved in."

The entire class became silent when she said that.

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Based on her facial expression, she is most likely disgusted with the class's performance in that and the test.

She continued, "3 out of 30 students managed to get the method for the exam correct." while rubbing her forehead.

The class was a bit shocked at this recent discovery.

Ichiyo Hisoka spoke up, "That exam was easy, so I don't understand how we placed last or how I got a zero."

So Ichiyo's intelligence was a mystery to me, so I have no idea how he got in. Maybe he is just downplaying himself so as not to stand out. Never the less, he is still a funny guy, so I'll give him a pass.

Eiko placed the palm of her hand on her face.

"Obviously, we placed dead last because the majority of us didn't get it."

Minori, who had an angry but disappointed look on her face, asked, "Miss Aiko, how did we place last?"

She seemed to have figured out how we came in last and just needed confirmation from an authority figure.

Miss Aiko sternly and swiftly said, "You see, the exam had a trick to it. For this class clash, the class that had the most number of students to solve it won, and that class was 1-1. As for your class, only 3 people out of 30 students managed to get it right. Such a shame because you're supposed to be the best and brightest. Then again, a hierarchy was always going to be established. Ironically, it went from class 1-1 to class 1-4, so congratulations on following the natural order of things," then began to clap.

She's right about that; a hierarchy was always going to be established even though we started off on equal footing. In life, there is always one person superior to another, and right now, 1-1 is the superior class. Which makes me wonder who exactly those students are in that class.

Ryoko got up from his seat to defend the class.

"Look lady, if you're supposed to be scolding us as a teacher, then you're doing a bad...

Miss Aiko locked her gaze on him, causing him to pause in mid-sentence.

"As I said since day one, I will not coddle you. I call it as I see it and you guys sucked. "

Miss Aiko then took her seat while Eiko asked with a curious expression, "What about the zeros?."

The students began to look around at each other.

Miss Aiko replied, "Those who failed to use the proper method to solve the exam all got zeros, no matter how correct the answers were. The ones who got it correct, all received 50's because that's how much the 5 questions were worth."

Yeah, if I remember correctly, the instructions were "Answer 5 questions and please show your complete working".

We were given the option of completing 5 out of the 10 questions that were provided. The first 5 questions were easy questions used to lure in students who wanted to take the easy route, but the trick was that each solution had to be used to solve the next question. If you answer one question incorrectly, then you fail the examination completely.

The other 5 questions were somewhat extreme challenges on their own and meant to make the first 5 questions seem more appealing.

Our brains are automatically wired to assume the entire test meant picking a section and completing it, even though the instructions were to solve just 5 questions. They deliberately left out the word "any" to further make you limit yourself to answering the questions solely on the first or second page.

So the correct approach would have been to answer the first question of the easy equations, then switch your focus over to answering the first four harder equations, three easy equations and two of the harder ones, three harder equations and two easy ones, etc.

It should have been easy for someone to pick up on if you were paying very close attention to the details.

Kyoko finally asked the one question that was bothering me for the longest time.

"Miss Aiko, why is there an asterisk next to our class?"

She laughed a bit and replied, "Might as well let the cat out of the bag. The asterisk is there because "class 1-4 is an experimental class."

Hmm, an experimental class?

Ichiyo shot up and said, "What the heck does that even mean?"

Miss Aiko said, "If you shut up and let me finish, then you'll know. Saikoyo Prep is a top educational institute, so your entrance exam score normally won't even be worth a first glance, but the board of directors had a fun idea for an experiment. It's something along the lines of, "What if we let inferior students into a superior environment? Will they adapt to it or will they crumble? " So the asterisk is there as a reminder that none of you students actually belong in this school."

So they purposely lower the pass mark for the entrance examination to allow us entry here so we can be used as guinea pigs? What kind of sick joke is that?

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