The Coin Scramble Begins

Ten minutes before the exam began.

Bob. Bob-bob.

Simon waited on a floating platform out on the sea.

The platform seemed to be made from slime byproduct — flat and buoyant, riding easily on the water. Each one held around twenty to thirty students, all dressed in the diving suits Kizen had provided with protective vests layered over them and Tongue Pads strapped to their arms.

Looking around, it was clear there were countless more of these floating platforms scattered across the water.

In other words, this time all 847 first-years would be taking the exam simultaneously.

"Simoooon! I'm over here!"

From a platform far off to the side, Rick was waving his arms and shouting. Simon laughed and waved back.

Right. Time to focus.

Simon checked the Tongue Pad fastened around his wrist.

The design's different from the one I wore during the Island Survival exam.

Points earned from monster hunting were calculated remotely by the Tongue Pad and relayed to headquarters as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠data, where they were tallied. Both his current ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠point total and his overall ranking could be checked on the device as well. Simon had gone through its various functions before the match started.

Everyone seemed to be nervous — not a single word was spoken around him. Some silently loosened up their bodies; others took deep breaths, managing their mindsets.

[Kahaha! Nervous, boy?]

At Pier's voice, Simon shook his head with a smile.

'I'm fine. It's not time to be nervous yet.'

Vuuuummm!

A sound-amplification magic circle unfurled across the sky, and a great voice boomed over the water.

The students began following the count with full force.

The spectators watching from screens on Roc Island did the same. Regardless of status or nationality, everyone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was shouting the numbers together.

Booooooong!

With a ship's horn blaring across the entire sea, the students threw themselves into the water as one, as if they'd been waiting for exactly that moment.

Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash!

Hundreds of students crashing into the sea in unison, churning up spray — it was a magnificent spectacle.

"Yahaha! I'm taking the lead!"

Astonishingly, the one charging at the very front of the entire student body was Rick. When he chanted an enchantment on his swim fins, jet-black erupted from them like a booster.

"All these coins are mine for the taking…… huh?"

Twang!

Rick's lead came to an abrupt halt. He turned to look back and found a male student grinning smugly, holding what looked like a bizarre piece of equipment resembling a fishing rod.

At some point, a hook had snagged itself onto Rick's swim fins.

"Where do you think you're going!"

The moment he reeled in the rod, Rick's body was yanked through the water at tremendous speed.

"Waaagh! What the hell are you doing! Do you know who I am?"

"Nope! I'm just targeting whoever's in front!"

When the boy snapped the fishing rod upward, Rick — who had been in first place — went flying clear out of the water. The boy wore a satisfied smile.

Wham! Thud!

"Ugh!"

Jet-black arrows came flying from behind, and his Barrier Gauge took a massive hit.

"Who—?!"

He spun around to find even more students with their hands outstretched toward his back.

"You bastards……!"

"Should've watched your back, huh?"

In an instant, the sea turned into utter chaos.

The number of coins resting on the seabed was finite. The initial scattering totaled a mere 1,000 coins.

Given that each student needed to gather ten to pass, only around a hundred or so could realistically fight their way to the top early on.

Naturally, the competition was bound to be ferociously cutthroat.

Of course, Kizen kept seeding more and more coins onto the seabed as time passed, but the students burned all the hotter for the sake of the top-rank battle.

"Get that one!"

"I'm breaking through!"

"Now's not the time to fight each other! Grab the ones diving down first!"

Tangled and twisted, projectiles, curses, and dark spells stretched out from every direction.

And Simon — singled out by Jane during the daily commentary as one of the students to watch —

"……."

was simply crouched in silence atop his floating platform, gazing absently down at the state of affairs beneath the waves.

Booms rang out across the sea and spray rose into the air. The students were brawling with each other, raising one hell of a ruckus.

No need to jump in right away. Take the lead too early and you'll get focused fire — nothing but a waste of strength.

Indeed, it wasn't just Simon. Most of the strong performers in the upper ranks were watching from their floating platforms as well. Not wasting strength for nothing — waiting for everyone else's strength to run dry.

Simon decided he too would wait patiently while charging a wind magic circle.

[But the exam time is a mere four hours, boy. Aren't you being a little too leisurely?]

Pier said.

[Instead, I propose a change of order.]

'A change of order?'

[Precisely! Head out to the open sea first, hunt monsters, and rack up points — then come back for the coin scramble once it loosens up a little!]

'Ah, that actually is a solid approach.'

In fact, quite a few students were skipping the brutal coin competition entirely and heading straight for the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠open sea.

The waters here, where the coins lay on the bottom, were shallow — only about twenty meters deep — but cross over into the open sea and the depth dropped off sharply, with monsters aplenty.

The idea was to hunt monsters, secure points early, then return with a comfortable hour or so to spare and sweep up the coins. By that time, everyone else would have secured their coins and headed out to open water.

And of course, hunting other students out in the open sea to recover their coins was fair game too. Every student heading out there right now had exactly that in mind.

'Still, I'm going to wait a little longer.'

His side had a trump card: Deimos.

That said, the few training runs they'd managed together here and there had shown that Deimos wasn't exactly fuel-efficient. He had roughly two hours of proper combat time.

So Simon planned to grab his coins first and not come back until the exam was over.

'I built this plan down to the last detail the moment I heard the rules. This time, for certain!'

His face was calm, but Simon's fighting spirit burned white-hot.

With this Deimos, anything less than first place was meaningless.

"This 3rd BMAT is unfolding in a most peculiar fashion!"

The announcer shouted, worked up with excitement.

"With the match clock now past the thirty-minute mark, only two students have gathered eight or more coins! The checking is absolutely vicious!"

The students were far more fixated on their rivals than on the coins themselves.

They were pinning each other to the surface so they couldn't breathe, or focusing their fire on students diving down to fetch coins from the seabed.

"Aaah! The exam is veering in a completely unexpected direction! Under the rules, any student who fails to collect ten coins is disqualified — that is, expelled — no matter how high their score! Vice Prin…… I mean, Professor! If time keeps slipping away like this, won't we see a mass wave of eliminations?"

Jane, chin propped on her hand in the seat beside him, looked at the announcer with an expression of pure disdain. He shrank back sheepishly.

"The students are not fools, Konrad."

"Yes! Yes! Of course! As expected, Professor, you have faith in our students! So do I! Ah! The very moment I say that—!"

The feed cut to a new scene.

A boy was cutting through the water with breathtaking speed.

Dark-skinned, with white hair beneath a white swim cap — the moment he stretched both arms and legs out wide, projectiles flew from six magic circles simultaneously.

Bur-boom! Buroooom! Bur-boom!

Students swimming toward him were struck by the projectiles and swallowed up by 'snow', every one of them neutralized on the spot. What's more, the snow didn't melt even underwater.

In the gap that opened, the boy located two coins on the seabed.

"Aaah! That student! That's the very student Professor Jane highlighted earlier! Special Admission No. 8, Castellan of Snowfield Castle, Raheim! He's already gathered ten coins! Sole leader!!"

Only now that something visually satisfying appeared did the crowd erupt into loud cheers.

The announcer flashed a contented smile and turned to Jane.

"Professor! What on earth is the dark magic that student is using?!"

Raheim traced a magic circle onto the soles of his feet. Just like the projectiles he'd launched moments before, it vented bursts of vapor as he shot through the water at fish-like, superhuman speed.

"It's 'Gold Snow', the signature dark magic of the Snowfield Castle family. It looks like ordinary snow, but it has no melting point — and once it swallows you, the snow multiplies on its own and becomes crushingly heavy."

Students caught in Raheim's snow bombs were flailing as they sank helplessly toward the seabed.

For students like that, the only paths out were to send a distress signal through their Tongue Pad and be marked as out, or to run out of breathing magic and suffocate — at which point Kizen would process them out en masse and teleport them away.

"Truly the ultimate dark magic for underwater combat! But Raheim hasn't pushed out to the open sea even after finishing his coin collection. Watching him circle the inner sea like that — who could he be looking for? Ah! The very moment I say it, students hitting ten coins are starting to appear one after another!"

Starting with Raheim, the heavy hitters — the ones who actually deserved to be called by name — began diving in earnest.

Special Admission No. 7, Elisa, built a kind of 'submarine' that went beyond her Ghost Ship. Soaking up every attack thrown at her, she reached the seabed and swept up coins by the armful.

Special Admission No. 10, Malcolm, used his doppelgängers to rapidly locate coins across the seabed, while Camibarez sealed herself inside a giant droplet of blood, dropped to the bottom, and rolled around like a ball collecting coins as she went.

Serne simply sat quietly on her starting platform — and students began bringing coins to her of their own accord.

"The competition has suddenly caught fire! A considerable number of the students who were floating at the surface and blocking others are now diving down!"

"They were waiting for the coins to multiply."

Jane explained.

"The coins on the seabed increase steadily as time passes. One thousand more were just added. Collecting has now become more advantageous than blocking at the surface."

"I see!"

The spectacle grew richer, and the spectators looked thoroughly satisfied. The announcer redoubled his energy, spitting as he called the broadcast.

Just then, a teaching assistant approached and handed a sheet of paper to the announcer and Jane.

"Aaah, we've just received fresh statistics! Magic Combat and Toxicology hopefuls are currently in the lead — while the Summoning hopefuls are, statistically speaking, overwhelmingly behind! We're rooting for you, fight a little harder! Now, since the topic's come up — let's take a look at Special Admission No. 1, Simon Polentia, the so-called hope of Summoning!"

Pop.

The main screen rotated, revealing Simon still waiting at the starting line.

Simon was still waiting.

He'd built his strategy around cramming every point into the final two hours, so it couldn't be helped — but honestly, his body was getting restless.

Maybe I'll take a quick lap — nothing strenuous.

Just as he was weighing it, commotion suddenly erupted right beside him.

He turned his head.

"!"

Simon lunged backward.

Projectiles came streaking in and slammed into the floating platform, and boom! boom! — snow bursts exploded across its surface.

Don't tell me — that power.

Screeeeeech!

In an instant, the platform's weight tipped toward the side erupting with snow — and it capsized.

Simon saw the students who'd been sharing the platform with him scream as they tumbled into the sea.

He slammed his foot down on the jet-black and sprang, landing atop the overturned platform's highest point.

"Found you at last!"

A white-haired man, soaked head to toe, hurled his swim cap aside and grinned.

"Right here, right now — a duel, for Mayrin!"