"Treasure hunt?"
"Are you saying there's a treasure hidden somewhere in Hydeout?"
"To suddenly tell us to find a treasure without any explanation...?"

Murmurs spread.

It was probably due to Mira Valentina, the gourmet fixer, suddenly declaring a treasure hunt. The test-takers, who had been a bit excited meeting such a famous fixer, were now showing signs of confusion.

Well, thinking about it, maybe this reaction wasn't so strange. They had come for a serious exam, and now, out of nowhere, they were being told the first task was a treasure hunt. For the fixer hopefuls who had paid such an expensive exam fee, it probably felt like some wild nonsense.

Most likely, they had been preparing for the fixer exam for at least half a year, and in some cases, it had been years. It would be maddening if all their hard work for so long was suddenly thrown away like this.

But no matter what others thought, for me, this was quite good news. This was exactly like the fixer exam I had seen in the original.

"In the original, Alice and David also took the fixer exam as part of the New Year's episode. I had a feeling this would come up, so I meticulously prepared... but I never expected it to be exactly the same."