The Extra's Harem In Dead End Game

"What, what, what?!"

"Perfect score? Did she just say perfect score?"

"My ears... my ears... I think there's something wrong with my ears..."

"This isn't right...! It can't be!"

"Did we all just have a collective hallucination?"

The second-year students were engulfed in astonishment. To them, today's event was probably more shocking than if the sun were to rise from the west tomorrow.

The fact that a common class troublemaker perfectly solved a problem that even the royal class couldn't properly solve must have felt like an absolute impossibility to them.

"Pepepepepe...?"

On the other hand, there was someone who regained his senses due to the shock.

Sunny, who seemed to have reached enlightenment the moment he set the fire and was laughing blankly, suddenly came to his senses as soon as he heard the perfect score, only to mutter "pepepe."

...I'll correct that.

He still hasn't come to his senses. Ignoring him, Max spoke to Professor Karen.

"It's the expected result."

Even he found it an annoying thing to say.

But what could he do? To make sure everyone remembered his existence, he needed this level of character, didn't he? It's an eternal truth that boring people are unpopular.

...Of course, Max might have overdone it a bit because he was uplifted by people's astonished faces.

"Then, that's it."

Max forcibly dragged the mumbling Sunny to one side to rest. At that moment, Professor Karen's voice stopped him.

"Where did you learn that method?"

"It's not something I learned."

'Sorry, cheat sheet writer. This method is now my original now.'

"I just utilized the experience I had when I set fire to the fields before."

"I see. Experience is a good source of knowledge."

Professor Karen nodded with a smile, seemingly convinced. Getting a good impression from the professor must be what they meant by this.

"Good. I look forward to the next test."

Sunny still couldn't believe what was happening was real. When he pinched his thigh hard enough to hurt, the usual pain came through.

It hurts.

...This is reality.

***

"14 minutes have passed."

The teaching assistant's voice.

Only 6 minutes left. Students were still struggling to find the answer. Surprisingly, this included many from the noble class.

Talented individuals who had been in the same class as Sunny for a long time. Those talents were just pacing around, unable to find the answer.

On the other hand, what about Sunny, who had been with the two useless humans of the common class?

He had received a perfect score early in the evening and was leisurely sitting back, enjoying the view of the fire across the river.

Well, honestly, it was only Max and the frail outcast girl who were enjoying it.

Sunny felt more cautious around Max, who had achieved the feat of a perfect score, something he had never done before.

Anyway.

Is this reality?

The real reality?

Sunny felt like kicking reality for playing tricks on him.

"15 minutes have passed."

The last countdown of 5 minutes. Now was the time for the remaining students to feel an insane amount of pressure. Their pale faces and the cold sweat streaming down their faces said it all about their situation.

"There's no answer! Let's, let's set fire!"

Whoosh!

Someone desperately set fire. Was that the signal? Chaos erupted here and there.

"Let's, let's set fire too!"

"Us too!"

"It's fire, fire! Fire is the only answer!"

What a spectacle.

The exam hall had turned into a firesetting competition in an instant. But they understood those who had done it.

Setting fire was the method that even the troublemaker Max had used to get a perfect score.

It was the only way for those cornered to follow.

"Puhahat."

Max burst into laughter, seemingly enjoying the scene. On the other hand, the expressions of the royal class were rotten.

"Hmph, to imitate such a base and undignified method. The standards of the academy are falling."

"That's how the noble guys are."

There was one thing in common among those who said such things.

They were royal class students who had been outdone by Max. They couldn't accept being beaten by someone from the common class, and it was turning their stomachs.

But Max easily brushed off such shallow emotional outbursts.

"Does it seem easy? It's definitely not."

He muttered to himself. But everyone knew. That was meant for those who were gossiping about him to hear.

"Tch, if it's easy for you, it must be easy for everyone."

Dennis chimed in. His team had also been outdone by Max.

No, it wasn't just being outdone—they barely passed the test after more than 12 minutes. And it wasn't a perfect score, only two correct answers.

For Dennis, who had never imagined being outdone by Max, it was an unprecedented humiliation. He was already on the verge of exploding from the earlier incident, and this humiliation made him feel like he was going to lose his mind.

If the professor hadn't been there, Sunny probably would have exploded on the spot.

"You'll see."

Max let out a snicker. And not long after, everyone understood the meaning behind that laughter.

"I don't, I don't get it! What's different?"

"The, the color of the smoke? Isn't the color a bit different?"

"Now that you mention it... it seems to be subtly lighter and darker."

The students, who had set fire but didn't know what was different, were uncertain.

But even so, most of them focused on sight. It was a trap set by Max.

They had fallen for it because Max had made it look that way with the smoke. And once people believe something, they tend to convince themselves it's true.

"Is, is this...? It, it must be! This is it!"

"Ha... Hahaha, this was it! This was it!"

"I'm sure, I'm sure of it! Let's go now!"

Teams shouted as if they had made the discovery of the century.

They picked up the stones and ran energetically to the professor before it was too late. By their momentum, they all seemed to have already scored perfectly.

"Here it is!"

"Wait, wait a minute. Our team was first..."

"Don't we all have to arrive to be recognized?"

In front of the professor were noisy students. Professor Karen clicked her tongue.

"Everyone, calm down. I'm not the kind of professor who deducts points for being a little late."

The teams from the rush finally calmed down.

But.

"Then I'll start evaluating quickly."

As soon as the professor received the stones, she tossed them to the ground as if throwing away trash.

"0 points, strive harder."

Thud.

"0 points, strive harder."

Thud.

"0 points, strive harder."

Thud.

"1 point, well chosen."

Thump.

"0 points, strive harder."

Thud.

What is this?

An endless parade of zero points. The one point must have been lucky to have a correct stone mixed in.

One thing was certain. None of the second-year students... no, no student at the academy had ever seen such a rampant scoring of zero points. It was an evaluation that would go down in the academy's history.

In a bad way.

And one more thing.

Max's words were right.

---

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