Chapter 088: The Dragon Boy's Resolution, the 0-point Operation!
The students in Class C didn't put on any pretenses. As soon as they vaguely realized that something potentially important was coming, they immediately closed the door.
Then,
Sato and Sudo, who had gone to close the door, returned to their seats.
Their eyes were now filled with anticipation.
Among them, Sudo, the hot-headed guy whom Hachiman was already familiar with, was someone who, although not academically strong, had exceptional physical strength.
From this written exam, it seemed that most of the school's evaluations were not standard assessments but rather tests or guidance based on students' thinking abilities or other factors.
However, Sudo's athletic talent was comparable to, or even surpassed, that of Class A's, which might prove useful in special exams such as sports festivals.
In contrast, Sato's only advantage was probably her cuteness.
She usually hung out with Karuizawa.
And it wasn't just once that Horikita Suzune had commented on how Karuizawa and the others weren't good at studying, but perhaps it was their common traits that allowed them to be friends.
Still, Hachiman thought it was remarkable that he could still be thinking about such things at this moment.
And now,
"Kushida-san, is this the exam paper?"
The sunny boy, Hirata Yousuke, stood up and looked at Kushida with some expectation.
Clearly, this cheerful boy hadn't been told everything.
"Yes, it is."
Kushida smiled sweetly. "This is our class's way of passing the exam."
"Earlier, Hachiman said he would share the old exam questions three days before the test."
"But because of what happened with Class D, then…"
Kushida's words suddenly stopped.
But everyone understood. In fact, if it weren't for Class D's foolish actions, they wouldn't have been dragged into this situation.
In a way, everyone had been attending the additional lessons over the past few days as agreed, but despite that, they hadn't reached the level needed to pass the exam.
The reason was simple… they had a guaranteed method to pass.
So, the extra lessons were for their own benefit, to learn something, but it wasn't with full commitment, and they likely couldn't catch up with the pace.
But everyone had been reassured.
Then, that reassurance disappeared.
The school was going to use a different exam paper.
So, during the supplementary lessons, those who were either tricked or fundamentally didn't understand the material, or those who could understand the questions but didn't have a deep grasp of the content, were now under immense pressure.
"Then…"
"Now, this paper is the B paper that the school is going to test us on. How did we get it?"
Wang Meiyu, sitting at the front, spoke up.
After she and Kushida had arrived at this school, they had hit it off right away and become very close. Wang Meiyu thought that she and Kushida were probably best friends by now.
Isn't a best friend's relationship supposed to be even stronger than that of just regular friends?
But,
She had no idea how Kushida had gotten her hands on the B exam paper.
So,
The petite and somewhat indecisive Wang Meiyu was now reflecting on the sincerity of her friendship with Kushida.
But Kushida looked in a certain direction.
Completely unaware that her good friend was questioning her, Kushida smiled sweetly, her big eyes curving into crescent shapes.
"This time, it's not because of me or Hachiman, it's because of Karuizawa. If it weren't for Karuizawa's hard work, I wouldn't have been able to get the exam paper. Everyone should thank Karuizawa properly."
"Karuizawa?"
"Kei? What did you do?"
"So it was Kei who did it?"
The moment the truth was revealed, the class was immediately shocked.
"Well... it's not like that..." Karuizawa, who had been sitting in her seat, seemed a bit uncomfortable under the gaze of her classmates. Her face flushed slightly, and she whispered, "Actually... it's just that... you know, I joined the student council recently, right?"
Karuizawa joining the student council.
Although it was posted on the bulletin board, not all the students in the class knew about it, but her little group of "bad girl" friends were aware of it.
"And then..."
"I thought, if we just went into the exam like this... a lot of people would be in danger. Even though I'm not close to many people, I don't want anyone in this class to drop out," Karuizawa said.
Eh!
When Karuizawa said that, the students in the class looked at her in surprise.
Because,
She didn't normally say things like this. Usually, she would complain about some of the boys, but now she didn't want them to drop out?
This surprised the boys who often got scolded by her.
Meanwhile, the girls were relieved.
Before, they didn't quite understand why they were associating with Karuizawa, but now things were much clearer.
It was probably Karuizawa who used her position to steal the exam papers from the student council!
Hey, hey, hey, could it be that she secretly took the exam papers?
For ordinary people, this kind of action would be a violation of the rules.
It might even result in punishment.
However,
"Karuizawa, I'm so touched."
Sato Maya suddenly jumped up and hugged Karuizawa tightly, nearly moved to tears.
Her grades weren't particularly good either, at best she was barely passing.
But Karuizawa's actions undoubtedly gave her more confidence in passing.
"Karuizawa, this is so great, thank you!"
Hirata also let out a sigh of relief, nodding seriously at Karuizawa, his face filled with gratitude.
With Karuizawa's "student council member" status and the fact that she had taken the exam papers from the student council, there was no doubt that the authenticity of the papers was almost guaranteed.
Now, they could confidently study the exam papers!
In other words, the students in the class were very pragmatic. Once they realized that the exam papers had been stolen by Karuizawa, their first concern was... their own safety.
After all,
If they failed, they would be expelled directly.
Now they could aim for Class A. If they got lucky and made it into Class A, it would be a successful reversal.
And even if they didn't succeed,
They would still get a monthly living allowance. Which other school could offer such a setup?
"Anyway, everyone, please, keep this a secret," Kushida said, watching the exam papers being distributed. She sighed in relief but still clasped her hands together and whispered, "If this gets exposed, not only will everyone likely fail, but Karuizawa will also be expelled from the student council."
"Don't worry, Kushida, Karuizawa, we owe you this. If anyone dares to betray you, I'll break their skulls," said Sudo Ken, the violent guy, who was now clenching his fists with a fierce expression.
He was truly the embodiment of the hot-headed guy.
His athletic talent was high, but his academic abilities were his weak point.
Having gone through the highs and lows, he realized that it was time for him to seriously focus on studying.
The only question now was whether Kanzaki from Class B would still be willing to tutor him after this exam.
The B exam papers were distributed.
And everyone realized that these exam papers were indeed taken covertly, as they were photo versions, but they came with corresponding answers.
In other words, they were definitely not old papers obtained from a senior, but rather, Karuizawa must have discovered the exam papers while passing through the student council office and seized the opportunity to take photos of them.
So, the authenticity of these exam papers was extremely high.
However, when Hachiman returned to his seat, he noticed that the black-haired girl sitting next to him was staring intently at him with sharp, fox-like eyes.
"Is there something wrong?" Hachiman asked.
Then, he looked at the exam paper in Horikita's hands. "If you don't want it..."
"No, I do want it." Horikita took the paper. "But I'm asking, is it really okay to publicize something like this in class?"
Yeah.
You guys are stealing exam papers! And you're announcing it directly in class?
It's important to note that there's a camera in the classroom.
"This?" Hachiman said. "I'm waiting."
"Waiting?"
"Now, it's been more than ten or twenty minutes since the B exam was revealed. If the school disapproved of this move, someone would have come by now." Hachiman said. "But no one has come."
He took out his phone to check.
Horikita noticed that the screen of his phone displayed a timer.
It had been 22 minutes.
"So what you mean is..." Horikita looked over at him.
"Just now, I was testing the school's tolerance," Hachiman said. "And the conclusion is that this school has its limits, but in some areas, they're quite lenient."
"Because what the school wants isn't necessarily students who look like model citizens."
"Rather, when it comes to society, there are very few positions or projects that truly assess things like academic ability or athletic ability."
"What's more important is the ability to handle troublesome situations, the way of thinking, and other such things."
"... uh..."
However, as Hachiman was speaking, he noticed that Horikita's expression seemed a little off.
"It seems like you're completely dismissing me," Horikita said.
Is that so?
Because her academic abilities were quite good and her physical abilities were acceptable.
In other words, she had all the standard attributes.
But now, he was saying those things weren't important.
She couldn't find her own advantage in this.
"I didn't say that," Hachiman said. "Your abilities are all the result of your hard work."
"And being academically good is definitely an advantage over being academically bad."
"Because I think, even though it's rare, the school may still assess students' basic abilities."
"..." Horikita.
Horikita felt like he was trying to comfort her.
But if you take away academic ability and athletic ability, then indeed, she didn't have much of an advantage.
Thinking about this made her sigh.
Maybe her brother saw this and wanted her to drop out.
And she didn't know anything about it.
Meanwhile,
Since the exam papers were distributed, and there was concern about potential consequences, many students decided to take the papers back to their dorms during the break, to store them safely.
This was the psychological trauma left by the student council investigation of Class D and the issue of stolen exam papers.
No one wanted to see their hard-earned "pass" fail.
As a result, the classroom became quite empty.
But there were still a few students remaining in the class.
"..." Kei.
"..." Sato.
"? Kei, what are you looking at?"
Sato had also received an exam paper. For her, whose academic ability wasn't great, Karuizawa's statement about "not wanting classmates to drop out" felt personal.
Because she had a good relationship with Karuizawa, her academic performance was poor, and just yesterday, she had complained to Kei about how she would fail if she didn't do well.
And today, it was revealed that Karuizawa had gone and stolen the exam papers.
So, Sato was a bit moved.
As a result, her way of addressing Karuizawa shifted from using her last name to calling her "Kei."
"Nothing." Karuizawa withdrew her gaze.
She felt that Hachiman and Horikita had a good relationship.
Speaking of which,
Her secret had been leaked earlier, and at that time, it was through borrowing Horikita's room.
Usually, when a girl lends her room to a boy, it's very strange, right? At least they must have a particularly close relationship.
So,
Could it be that these two were actually dating?
But then again, she couldn't imagine how they would date.
It was more like she couldn't picture Horikita ever being in a relationship.
Ah.
"This is so strange!"
Karuizawa thought.
Because it was all Hachiman's fault. By maintaining things in a way that made her think he had feelings for her, he had made her believe it.
But it turned out she was wrong.
Even though she was wrong, she still subconsciously cared about him.
She had stayed up late last night, so she was probably sick.
Karuizawa quickly tried to shake herself awake.
Thus,
Because they had received the exam papers, the actions of Class C were swift.
After school in the afternoon, they immediately rushed back to the dormitory.
As for Sudo, of course, he took the day off from club activities.
After all, studying for the exam was much more important than playing basketball.
On the other side,
"The exam papers, huh—"
Katsuragi's eyebrows twitched.
It was the exam papers made by students from his own class.
Sakayanagi Arisu had shared the exam papers with the students in Class A, and as a member of Katsuragi's faction, he also received a copy.
However, Totsuka Yahiko felt a bit resentful about this.
Because of the leak of the exam papers, and then Sakanagi's effort to make up for the potential situation of many students being expelled, it was like giving the school a favor. If Katsuragi had done this, perhaps he could join the student council.
However, what Katsuragi's faction thought was of no concern to Sakanagi.
She sat to the side, waiting for news.
But then,
"Unfortunately, the negotiations failed."
Kamuro brought back some bad news.
"Ryuen's side rejected the offer of 2 million points + 40 votes," Kamuro said. "He said he wants to pass the exam his own way."
"Well, that's something," Sakanagi Arisu said. "The Dragon Boy."
"Dragon Boy?"
"That's a nickname for Ryuen," Sakanagi Arisu said. "If you want, Kamuro, I can call you 'Little Dog Kamuro' instead."
"No thank you!" Kamuro immediately rejected.
Not only was the nickname "Little Dog Kamuro" unappealing, but even though everyone saw her as Sakanagi's dog and she obeyed her to earn lifestyle points... So the "Little Dog" role was real, but the reputation was bad, and she didn't want that.
"However, we need to keep an eye on Class D," Sakanagi said.
?
Kamuro looked over in confusion.
"Why do you think the Dragon Boy rejected the offer?" Sakanagi said. "The votes are meaningless for their class now because they can't run for election. And I still need 2 million points. If they get the points, they'll receive the reward of 100 points in class evaluation, which means they'll break even in just a few months."
"So,"
"I'm afraid,"
"Ryuen must have already gathered information on the next special exam and decided to go for a zero-point strategy."
"Go gather information on next month's special exam," Sakayanagi Arisu said.