Chapter 81: Side Story - The Synchronized Pause

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Side Story - The Synchronized Pause

Fāng Xuě’s monologue, POV

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??? INTERVAL 2 ??

?[TIMER: 0:00:30]

?Thirty seconds. The second interval had officially begun, and the silence in the room fractured instantly into a low, frantic hum of whispered strategizing. Across the hall, all three factions began executing their moves simultaneously.

?[Leaders must submit initial transaction intentions.]

?Three interfaces appeared.

?A.

?B.

?C.

?Each faction had sixty seconds.

?In Faction A’s section, Fāng Xuě leaned over her desk, her voice dropping into a rapid, hushed cadence as she addressed her core committee.

?Everything was done fast and efficiently; some actions were rushed but easily directed by the leaders.

?"We need a net inflow, but we can’t afford another heavy footprint," I murmured, my eyes flicking across my tablet’s transaction ledger. "If we sit still, B’s lead will become insurmountable. I’m opening a direct line to Ginton."

?Most importantly, the rules of the test’s final evaluation were completely unrevealed.

?What bothered me was ’Stability’ in this equation. Not only was there a possibility of it being calculated by the school, but as shown, it might be connected to our faction’s interaction with the test.

?"To C?" my second-in-command, Fred, whispered, his eyes widening slightly. "After what they pulled last round? You trust them?"

?"Don’t misunderstand me," I muttered.

?"I don’t trust them. But I do trust arithmetic," I replied flatly, my fingers already flying across my screen to draft an encrypted terminal message to the opposing faction leader. "C is sitting on zero prediction points and dwindling capital. They need us just as much as we need a buffer against B. Just watch the input."

?"I see, but C has more capital than us. The plan just sounds too stupid to actually work," Fred pointed out.

?"Yeah, they are down to over a thousand and fifty Liquidation Units," another added.

?"Not the Liquidation Units," I replied.

?"Wait, then... you mean the Prediction Points," a female student muttered for the group.

?"Correct, love," I slowly turned to her, her violet eyes and hair making her easy to spot.

?Her face flushed with embarrassment. "R-right, I just figured you had a plan."

?The girl in question, Kirimagi Suzune, had been on my side since I first started this school.

?Not like we had any choice not to be here; if I had any power of my own, my wish would be to get her out of here. Not like that even mattered now.

?"Fred, I need you to arrange something for me," I finally muttered.

?"What?" he asked.

?"Can you get someone from your little group to make an announcement?" I paused, seeing Fred’s confusion. "A public announcement declaring, ’A will not make a large transfer to B this interval unless B makes a large transfer first.’"

?I turned back to my tablet, pulling up a minimized chess game. Murmuring to myself, "That should cover that part."

?They didn’t ask what that order was for; Fred just nodded and walked back to his seat.

?A second later, the proposal zipped across the network straight to Faction C’s terminal:

?A will transfer 40 to C this interval if C transfers 180 to A. This balances the board against B and keeps C from being isolated.

?Down the aisle, across the polished floorboards, Ginton’s tablet chimed softly.

?He glanced down at the notification, reading my proposal with a slow, detached flick of his eyes. Around him, his own deputies were leaning in, their faces tight with anxiety.

?"What are they asking for, Ginton-san?" a student whispered urgently. "Are they trying to squeeze us while we’re dry on prediction points?"

?Ginton chuckled slightly and didn’t answer immediately. He leaned back, letting a faint, knowing curve touch the corner of his lips. He typed out his response with deliberate care, framing every syllable to strictly satisfy the Lex Veritas protocol while maximizing psychological leverage:

?C will transfer 180 to A this interval if A transfers 40 to C. This restores relative balance against B while keeping both of us solvent.

?It was a mirror image—controlled reciprocity wrapped in cooperative language.

?Across the room, I watched my terminal update on my desk. When C’s counter-proposal blinked onto my screen, a quiet flicker of satisfaction crossed my face.

?The net result was clean: Faction A would gain 140 units, bringing my total to roughly 840, while C would settle around 910, leaving B isolated at the top with 1,250.

?I slowly dropped my tablet on the desk and tapped on my screen to confirm the preliminary handshake. But as my eyes drifted to the system diagnostic panels running checks in the background, a sudden detail caught my attention.

?The system was logging C’s backend operational status—specifically, their prediction point regeneration metrics.

?My brow furrowed slightly. The system data indicated that a full PP recovery cycle for a completely drained faction would take approximately thirty uninterrupted seconds of administrative processing time. Because C had executed active transfers and adjustments right at the start of Interval 2, their regeneration clock was actively delayed.

?Faction A’s PP was also recovering, which wasn’t a problem either.

?"Fāng Xuě, is everything okay?" Suzune asked, noticing my slight frown.

?"Hm? It’s nothing too intimidating," I replied.

?"Uh, o-okay." Her eyes immediately drifted away from me. Was she that insecure around me?

?"You don’t have to worry, love," I added, reassuring her.

?She immediately stiffened up, flustered, and as if not wanting to embarrass herself, walked back to her seat.

?Not wasting a second beat, I continued analyzing my steps.

?They aren’t getting any prediction points back this interval, I realized, a sharp edge of clarity cutting through my thoughts. Ginton is flying blind for another entire round.

?I locked the transaction parameters: A to C: 40, C to A: 180. If C attempted to back out or if things turned hostile, my pre-planned fallback was locked and loaded—a single, non-round, non-repeating 37-unit transfer to avoid establishing any recognizable behavioral pattern, or absolute silence.

?Meanwhile, several rows away in Faction B’s section, the atmosphere was entirely different.

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