Yamauchi refused to back down. "You mean you don't want to either? You were just a step slower. I saw everything. I noticed you were about to question Hirata first, so I beat you to it. Besides, rather than being dragged down by someone else, I'd rather drag someone else down with me."
"Ike!"
"Yamauchi!"
The two glared furiously at each other.
Dozens of people nearby were watching them, seemingly waiting for something to happen.
In this atmosphere, they felt that if they didn't fight, it would seem rude.
Hirata eventually stepped in to defuse the situation.
"All right. I'm sure Ike and Yamauchi have realized there was a problem with their behavior, so let's stop dwelling on it. Everyone can keep an eye on them and remind them to watch what they say in the future.
"Bai Lan deliberately played the villain, probably because he wanted everyone to learn from his example. If you have the fault, correct it; if you don't, take it as encouragement."
Also, everyone, the club orientation is starting soon. If you want to join a club, hurry up and go take a look. I'm thinking of joining the soccer club. Anyone interested?"
With Hirata smoothing things over, everyone cooperated and shifted their attention away from the lewd duo. They quickly left the classroom and went off to attend to their own business.
Ike and Yamauchi also breathed a sigh of relief. They found nearby seats, then quietly licked their wounds and cursed the people who had put them in such a miserable situation.
Gymnasium One.
Horikita followed closely behind Bai Lan as they arrived.
When they entered the gymnasium, someone handed each of them a brochure.
Bai Lan flipped through it a couple of times and found that it contained introductions to the various clubs, as well as information on how to join them.
He didn't read it carefully. Instead, he grabbed a passing boy wearing a soccer uniform and immediately began asking him questions.
Although this was a gymnasium, there was nowhere to play soccer.
Someone who had come here wearing a soccer uniform at this time—and whose uniform was exceptionally clean—was most likely a member of the soccer club sent to recruit new members.
Once he learned that Bai Lan wanted to ask about the clubs, the boy in the soccer uniform became very enthusiastic in order to recruit him.
After seeing Bai Lan start chatting with someone, Horikita walked off on her own. After all, she had already proven herself, so there was no point in continuing to follow Bai Lan. Besides, she had come here for a purpose of her own.
From his questions, Bai Lan learned that the soccer club was already one of the strongest clubs in the school. It was also one of the clubs that attended competitions outside school most often.
However, even the soccer club couldn't spend more than a few days away from school over the course of an entire year.
The first reason was to ensure that their competition schedule didn't conflict with important school events.
The second was that they had to consider whether the level of each competition matched their own strength.
As a result, there actually weren't many competitions they could choose from.
Moreover, even when they left school to compete, they had little freedom.
When they weren't competing, they were either on the bus or staying at their accommodations. During competitions, they couldn't wander around, and they weren't even allowed to have unnecessary conversations with outsiders.
After hearing this, Bai Lan instantly lost interest in traveling through club activities.
At this point, the club orientation had not even officially begun. The stage was still being set up.
But Bai Lan had already lost interest. Without waiting for the orientation to start, he turned around and left the gymnasium.
However, his trip had not been entirely fruitless.
He had noticed something interesting.
The club member had said that when choosing competitions, they had to consider whether they would conflict with important school events.
Looking at it from another angle, didn't that mean many competitions conflicted with the dates of important school events?
Bai Lan instantly sensed that something was off.
Since these competitions were for high school students, their schedules should normally have been arranged to avoid the dates of major high school examinations, shouldn't they?
If that was the case, then why did the Advanced Nurturing High School screen out so many competitions?
Bai Lan thought of one possibility. The Advanced Nurturing High School had many important events besides the major examinations held each term—events that couldn't simply be skipped, or that would have serious consequences if skipped!
Section 31: Kushida Loses Her Leverage
Bai Lan felt that he could use this to predict the approximate timing of those important events.
All Bai Lan needed to know was the schedule of every competition that each club could participate in this year.
Then he could mark all the competition dates on a calendar...
What could be confirmed for now was this: if there was a competition, there definitely wouldn't be an important school event.
From there, Bai Lan could deduce the reverse: if there was no competition, there might be an important event!
Once Bai Lan organized this information,
he would be able to predict the approximate timing of all the important events this year in advance!
Knowing when the important events would take place would allow him to make various arrangements ahead of time.
This was extremely valuable information!
As long as a class had even a little ambition, how could they refuse to buy it?
See? He had another new source of income.
Good grief, he still hadn't figured out how to spend the more than two million points in his possession, and now he was about to make another fortune.
But he was going to be expelled soon. How was he supposed to spend all this money?
What if he died before spending it all? Wouldn't that just leave the school with a windfall?
"What a bother~ Is this the trouble rich people have?
"By the way, can points be exchanged directly for money?
"They should be able to, right?
"After all, Teacher Chazhu said that 'points can buy anything' at this school, didn't she?
"They can't possibly be unable to exchange them for the most common thing of all—money, can they?"
With that thought, Bai Lan was even more motivated to gather information and earn points.
This was going to be his activity budget for roaming all over the world in the future!
In fact, information about the competitions each club could participate in this year was hardly a secret.
He could find it just by checking the clubs' official accounts.
The information was practically displayed in the most conspicuous places.
Those clubs wanted to make a name for themselves and attract new blood. They even applied to the student council for funding, wishing they could let the whole world know that they were qualified to participate in those advanced competitions.
However, Bai Lan had no intention of investigating it all himself.
His main concern was that it would be troublesome.
There were dozens of clubs in the school, and some of them participated in several competitions a year.
He would have to check them one by one.
By the time he finished, it would be time for a late-night snack.
Besides, earning points was only something he could do on the side. Dropping out was the priority.
He planned to outsource the collection of basic information.
He only needed to consolidate it, package it in the most valuable form possible, and sell it.
When it came to gathering information, the most convenient method was actually to buy it directly from the official source.
If the price was right, Bai Lan could avoid hiring anyone and simply buy it from the school.
If he hired people, there would be too many loose lips.
If others learned that he was collecting this kind of information, the smarter ones might connect the dots and figure out his plan. They might even follow his line of thought and obtain the information before him.
If that happened, his information would be devalued.
With this in mind, Bai Lan called Teacher Chazhu.
Since none of the information was confidential, the school could even retrieve it directly from the server data. It didn't need to search through each club's official account one by one.
It was incredibly fast.
In the end, Bai Lan spent only twenty thousand points to obtain the information he wanted.
Bai Lan felt that the twenty thousand points had been extremely well spent.
He would earn it back dozens or even hundreds of times over in no time!
After dinner, Bai Lan spent half an hour organizing the information and deducing the approximate timing of all the "important events" this year.
After seeing the results of his hard work,
Bai Lan was dumbfounded. "What the hell? They're actually holding those 'important events' during the winter and summer vacations, and attendance is mandatory? As expected of a school known for 'simulating society.' It even simulates 'working overtime during holidays'!"
Just imagine it: you were happily spending your vacation with your friends, and then the school suddenly announced that you had to "work overtime." How devastated would everyone be?
Fortunately, he was about to drop out. He wouldn't even make it to then!
Bai Lan did not sell the information immediately.
The bigger the storm, the more valuable the fish.
For now, the first-year classes had not yet realized how brutal class competition was.
After a few more days, once everyone had worked themselves into a competitive frenzy, he would sell it then and get a better price.
Of course, that depended on whether he had been expelled by then.
With that thought, Bai Lan called Kushida before going to bed.
When Kushida had asked Bai Lan for the textbooks, the two of them had added each other as contacts.
The call connected soon after.
Before you continue