Kushida came up beside Horikita's seat, naturally because she was looking for Horikita.
What else could Kushida want with Horikita?
Of course, she was there to roast Horikita!
Clearly, Kushida was a little unsure about formally roasting someone in front of everyone for the first time, so she had deliberately waited until Bai Lan arrived, intending to complete her first attempt under his watchful eye.
This was going to be fun!
Bai Lan chuckled inwardly.
At that moment, Horikita was reading.
Bai Lan looked toward Horikita, ready to enjoy the show.
Kushida also looked toward Horikita, ready to put on a good show.
Horikita was a highly vigilant animal. She had noticed long ago that someone was approaching her and had been standing beside her seat for quite a while.
But Horikita paid no attention to the other person and continued reading.
Horikita ignored Kushida, but Kushida was about to address Horikita.
Kushida put on a gentle, friendly smile, as if filled with wonderful anticipation. She leaned slightly toward Horikita and said, "Horikita, could you become my good friend?"
51, Horikita Suzune is an idiot! An idiot, idiot! A huge idiot!
Kushida: "Horikita, let's be friends, okay?"
Horikita: "No way."
Kushida: "Why?"
Horikita: "There's no need."
Kushida fell silent and did not say anything for several seconds.
Horikita thought she had successfully sunk the "Kushida."
Horikita: That's it?
With that thought, Horikita cast a provocative sidelong glance at Bai Lan, who was watching the show from the side, as if saying: See? I'm actually pretty impressive.
Hmm? Wait, why was that Bai guy laughing?
The mocking kind?
This was bad!
Something felt wrong!
Where had things gone wrong?
Horikita soon learned the answer.
The next moment.
"Horikita Suzune is a baka (idiot)! Baka, baka! Mega-baka!"
A tremendous voice exploded beside Horikita's completely unprepared ear.
It turned out that when Horikita's attention shifted toward Bai Lan, Kushida had taken advantage of her distraction, brought her mouth close to Horikita's ear, and shouted the above words at high volume.
When Horikita recovered from the huge "baka" and turned toward the source of the voice, preparing to strike Kushida with the edge of her hand—
At that moment, all she saw was Kushida's rapidly retreating figure.
As luck would have it, class started right then, and the bell rang loudly.
The class bell rang.
It was history class.
Chabashira, her hair tied in a high ponytail, walked into the classroom with the ringing bell.
Horikita had no choice but to suppress her urge to chase after Kushida and give her a vicious chop.
In fact, Kushida's tactic of "finding an excuse to roast someone, then running away afterward" had also been taught to her by Bai Lan.
When Bai Lan had told Kushida that he would send her some teaching materials, he had not merely been placating her or saying it casually.
He had actually sent Kushida the materials afterward.
This tactic had been included in Bai Lan's teaching materials.
Although Kushida had learned how to roast people online, roasting someone online and doing so in real life were actually governed by two different sets of rules.
Online, all that mattered was winning the argument.
In real life, she also had to consider the consequences after roasting someone and prevent the other person from being unable to win the argument and simply resorting to hitting her.
Bai Lan knew very well that Horikita might lose an argument, but she really would hit someone. He had even experienced it firsthand.
Moreover, reality differed from the internet. Online, roasting someone relied only on words and reaction images, while in real life, there were many more factors to exploit.
After Bai Lan sent over the teaching materials, Kushida immediately felt ashamed of her past ignorance. She had originally thought she was already at the pinnacle of the art of roasting people.
After all, she had once caused an entire class to collapse just by mocking people online. How many people could accomplish that?
After reading Bai Lan's materials, Kushida discovered that she had only just begun on the path of roasting people. She was merely an elementary school student in the "roasting world," and there was still a great deal for her to learn!
The more she knew, the more ignorant and weak she felt. That was why Kushida had not rashly gone to roast Horikita.
For her first formal attempt at roasting someone in real life, she would test the waters with a light jab, see how it went, and prepare an escape route in advance so she would not get beaten up.
In the end, Kushida had executed it perfectly.
Kushida had been extremely cautious. She had waited until Bai Lan arrived before making her move. If she really got beaten up, she hoped Bai Lan could stop Horikita for her.
In addition, she had accurately calculated when the class bell would ring.
Bai Lan was her first line of insurance.
The class bell, which was about to ring, was her second line of insurance.
With two lines of insurance, Kushida finally dared to roast Horikita without worry. Afterward, she did not dare to engage in a prolonged battle. She finished insulting Horikita and left, letting the class bell cover her retreat and escaping unscathed.
And all she had done was say one sentence.
Horikita had genuinely been angered by Kushida.
Bai Lan watched Horikita's mood and kept track of the time. He discovered that it took Horikita more than ten minutes to finally calm down and continue studying.
That meant she had to spend her free time making up for the study time she had lost. Horikita's already scarce free time for the day was suddenly reduced by more than ten minutes!
The results were spectacular!
In reality, Kushida was not the main reason Horikita had remained angry for so long.
Horikita had noticed long ago that Bai Lan was watching her, but she pretended not to see him.
It was not because she was aloof. It was because she felt she had "lost" in front of Bai Lan, her "rival."
Horikita thought: I wanted to put on a good fight in front of him, prove my ability, and win back some face. Kushida looked so soft and harmless, and it seemed like one sentence would be enough to silence her. She looked like an easy opponent, but it was all fake. She was only pretending to lose, and when I let my guard down, she ambushed me instead! Don't I have any dignity?
Thus, Horikita remained furious for more than ten minutes in a state of extreme anger.
It was only when she came to her senses that she realized she had unknowingly missed a considerable amount of the lesson.
Because of her long-established study habits, Horikita had an almost obsessive fixation on learning. Once she noticed that she had fallen behind in the lesson, she instantly set aside her emotional problems and hurriedly began listening attentively. She also planned to use her free time to thoroughly make up the knowledge she had missed by not paying attention.
In Horikita's view, the teachers at this school were highly skilled, and learning during class was more efficient than self-study afterward.
Therefore, after missing more than ten minutes of class, she planned to make up for it with half an hour of self-study after class, to avoid falling behind the expected pace!
So Bai Lan had been wrong. The sentence Kushida used to drain Horikita's free time had not cost her more than ten minutes, but half an hour!
The effect was astonishing!
Soon, the morning classes ended.
Lunch break.
Lunch break ended.
Afternoon classes began.
School let out.
The day's studies ended just like that.
Throughout the day's classes, Bai Lan behaved himself. He seemed not to have caused any trouble, forming a sharp contrast with the previous two days.
The reasons were as follows:
First, all of today's classes had been perfectly ordinary, with no stage like a "self-introduction" session for him to show off.
Second, Bai Lan had promised Hirata that he would not do anything to disrupt class unity.
But that did not mean Bai Lan had abandoned his plan to "lower everyone's favorability and sever his bonds with his classmates."
In reality, Bai Lan had still worked very hard today to lower everyone's favorability toward him!
It was just that Bai Lan's methods for lowering their favorability were relatively discreet.
In fact, he had spent the entire day doing things that could lower the whole class's favorability toward him, yet no one had noticed his actions!
What had Bai Lan done?
The answer was simple—
He had done nothing at all!
Doing nothing was equivalent to having done everything!
In Bai Lan's view, most high school students were creatures of fleeting enthusiasm. Favorability came quickly and faded just as quickly.
As long as he did nothing, everyone would gradually forget his existence and forget the "contributions" he had made to the class. In the end, their enthusiasm would inevitably cool.
After school, Bai Lan did not leave immediately. Instead, he secretly kept an eye on a certain blonde gal.
52, Investigating the Blonde Gal
To learn how to obtain Karuizawa's "loyalty," Bai Lan decided to investigate Karuizawa.
For that purpose, he had Kushida gather as much information about Karuizawa as possible before school let out.
Before you continue