“Day Four has ended.”

The white room that was starting to feel familiar.

Just like always, once the dream had been going for a little while, words began to appear on the blackboard.

“We will now explain the details of the special Start Dash event.”

“Rules for the special Start Dash event

Once Day Five begins, everyone will wake up at five in the morning. You will be given ten minutes to prepare.After the preparation time ends, all participants will be teleported, by party, to random locations.Once teleportation is complete, spheres of light will appear in a form visible to all participants.If anyone obtains a sphere of light by the end of Day Five, that person will obtain the Right to Return.If no one has obtained a sphere of light by the end of Day Five, the reward will not be granted to anyone.”There was not much here that was newly revealed.

But it was important information.

We would all be waking up at five in the morning, and from there we would have to finish our preparations in ten minutes.

On top of that, if we were going to be forcibly teleported somewhere on the island, then it would probably be better to store the house away.

If there was no one who obtained one, then there would be no reward either. That made sense.

What bothered me was...

“Um, what exactly is a party?”

Minori asked.

Right. That was a term we had not seen before on this island.

“Party function

The minimum party size is one person.A party requires a leader.Anyone wishing to join may enter that party upon receiving the leader’s approval.Anyone wishing to leave may leave that party upon receiving approval from a majority of its members.The only party functions currently unlocked are: ‘being placed at the same coordinates during teleportation in events and similar situations’ and ‘being able to grasp the locations of party members.’”I see. The mystery blackboard had, of course, already taken into account that there were people who had formed groups.

So it was giving those people a choice: move separately, or move together.

“We’re forming one, right?”

“Yeah. Being able to teleport together and keep track of each other’s locations are both advantages for us.”

The moment I answered Shouko’s question, everyone nodded with relieved expressions.

Only Chiyu stayed expressionless.

“Points to note when attempting to obtain a sphere of light.

A sphere of light is a flying object about the size of a soccer ball.It possesses a field of vision and moves in order to escape from pursuers.A sphere of light will always remain in a position visible to at least one participant.Any participant who takes actions that harm others while attempting to capture a sphere of light will lose ‘100’ points.”A point penalty translated directly into days, one point per day.

If someone returned home with zero points gained, and they had “365” negative points, then based on the rules we had been given before, that person would remain comatose on Earth for one full year after returning.

That much we already knew.

“If participants are competing directly against each other in person, then clashes and mind games are inevitable. At what point does something count as ‘an action that harms others’?”

“Definition of ‘actions that harm others’:

An action that intentionally causes injury.The following do not incur penalties: ‘convincing someone through words to give up active participation in this event,’ ‘intentional interference that does not involve injury,’ and ‘cases where injury occurred but it was not intentional.’However, whether something was intentional or not will be judged by us.”“So they really do have the power to tell...”

Shion murmured.

They had gone so far as to grant her a Lie-Detection Ability, so it would not be strange if the mystery blackboards possessed a similar ability, or a superior version of it. I would not even be surprised if they could read what was in our hearts.

In any case, there would be no chance for some kind of trial. They would decide on the spot whether something had been intentional or not.

The classic I didn’t mean to do it would only work if it was actually true.

If it was a lie, they would read your mind and you would be out immediately. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

But knowing that interference itself was not a violation was huge.

Of course, that also meant we needed to be on guard against interference from the other participants.

As for things like the actual speed of the spheres of light, the answer we got was, “We cannot answer that.”

Still, they did clarify that they would not rise to an altitude no participant could reach by any means, nor would they dive underwater.

In other words, they did intend for them to be capturable.

Maybe because forcing an impossible game on us and killing our motivation would run contrary to whatever the mystery blackboard’s goal was.

“I want to know whether the name of whoever catches a sphere of light will be revealed ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) to the transfer participants.”

Chiyu asked something I had been wondering too.

“We will not disclose the identity of the person who obtains a sphere of light.

However, due to the nature of the event, there is a possibility that other participants may witness the moment it is obtained.”

If that happened, then it could not be helped.

I was just glad the mystery blackboards themselves would not be making the information public.

After struggling to obtain the Right to Return, the last thing we needed was to have all the participants resent us for it.

“Question: What is necessary for life from this point onward?”

—So there was one today too, huh.

“Rice / wheat”

—There it is...!

“I’m happy, but why now?”

“I-isn’t that a terrible either-or choice...?”

“You mean bread or rice? How are we supposed to pick!?”

“With rice, you get cooked rice, porridge, dumplings, mochi, rice crackers.”

“With wheat, you get bread, cake, baked sweets, flour dishes, noodles, and breading for fried foods, perhaps.”

Shion, Shouko, Chiyu, and Minori all reacted one after another.

Whichever one we chose, if it was combined with the Crafting Ability and Shion’s cooking skill, we would probably be able to use it in all sorts of ways.

Even the things Chiyu and Minori had mentioned would probably become possible before long.

“At this point, let’s just go with whichever one we want to eat more. So we don’t start fighting over it, vote in your hearts. It should understand that.”

After agonizing over it, I chose wheat.

I definitely wanted to shovel down white rice, but considering that we were high schoolers, I felt like wheat had more range in how it could be used.

From a guy’s perspective, there was bread, flour dishes like okonomiyaki, noodles like udon, pasta, and yakisoba, and fried foods like karaage, pork cutlets, and tempura.

From a girl’s perspective, there were baked sweets like cookies and cake-type things including pancakes.

Wheat covered a wide range of things that teenage boys and girls liked.

Not that I did not love Japanese sweets made from rice too.

It was a matter of balance.

Everyone probably had their own way of thinking about it, because this voting period lasted longer than any of the previous ones.

And in the end—

“As more than half have been reached, voting is now closed.”

“Beginning on Day Five, ‘wheat’ will be added to the environment.”

So wheat was what had been chosen.

And if the voting had ended, then...

“Oh, right. What happens to the participants after the event ends? It makes a big difference whether we’re dismissed on the spot or sent back to where we came from.”

“At the end of the event, all participants who are still alive will be promptly teleported back to the coordinates they occupied before placement.”

Some people would probably feel differently, but to me, that was good news.

If we were forcibly teleported back to where we had been, then we would not have to worry about being chased afterward.

If everyone was dismissed on the spot, there would still be some unease, even with Mashiro around, so being teleported back was a relief.

If we ran into someone who seemed like they could become an ally, we could have Mashiro memorize their scent and go look for them later.

Or if we had them join our party during the event, would the end-of-event teleport bring them back with us too?

I tried to ask about that, but my vision was swallowed up by white.

“Day Five will now begin.”

An event was about to begin in which one single person would gain the right to return to Japan.