And So, Class D is Pushed Down

Three days later, during lunch break, outside the corridor of Class A's classroom.

"Kagihara, here are the points you asked for—fifty thousand, not a single one missing."

Kushida Kikyo brought her phone close, and with a soft chime, a substantial sum appeared in Kazehara Tetsu's account.

Regarding the fundraising matter, Class D had proceeded with unusual smoothness under the immense temptation of Kushida Kikyo's claim that "everyone can be saved."

Almost no one raised objections; everyone willingly agreed.

"Thank you, Kagihara. The materials you gave us have been a huge help to our class!"

Her face beamed with a grateful smile as she bowed to Kazehara Tetsu.

"It was nothing."

Kazehara Tetsu put away his phone. "I'm glad I could help. After all, seeing a cute girl worry over exams would make me feel bad too."

"Don't say things like that... it's a little embarrassing."

Kushida Kikyo's cheeks flushed slightly, a hint of playful reproach in her tone. "Anyway, thank you so much! I'll leave you now—my classmates are waiting for me to study with them!"

With that, she walked away with light steps and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Kazehara Tetsu stood in place, watching her retreating figure, his smile gradually fading.

Fifty thousand points, secured.

But this money had never been his main objective.

It was merely the most insignificant appetizer in this plan.

The real main course was only just beginning to be prepared.

The reason the original work hadn't released the past exam papers too early was that for Class D—a group of students lacking self-discipline—they would develop the illusion that "as long as I memorize the answers, everything will be fine," and completely abandon reviewing the basics.

Especially students like Xuteng Jian and Chi Kuanzhi; they might even half-heartedly skim the answers.

This was a weakness of human nature, unavoidable.

In the original work, Class D only learned about the "exam scope change" by chance during a conflict with Class C. That process relied too much on coincidence.

Moreover, as things stood now, with the past papers in hand, most of Class D probably wouldn't bother attending the study group, making conflict with Class C even less likely.

Kazehara Tetsu disliked coincidences; he preferred to control the situation.

He needed a way to deliver the news of the "exam scope change" to Class D at a critical moment.

For this, he would have Sakayanagi Arisu send a few people to provoke a conflict with Class D.

And when the conflict reached its peak, some "kind passerby" would "casually" let slip the news of the exam scope change.

The most crucial link in all of this was Chabashira Sae.

That woman—another "flawed product" trapped in this school, desperately trying to claw her way back to Class A.

She had known from the start that the midterm exam scope would change, yet she chose to remain silent.

Chabashira Sae's purpose in doing so was to make them quickly adapt to the rules and understand the special exams, rather than foolishly burying themselves in rote learning.

But precisely because of this, a problem arose, conveniently providing an irreparable loophole for Kazehara Tetsu's plan.

What a foolish, and what a pitiful, strategy.

After throwing the issue of the exam scope change to Class D, the pre-obtained past papers took on a different nature.

Since the past papers predated the exam scope change, Class D would assume that the scope change had altered last year's past papers.

They would subconsciously think that last year's past papers were no longer useful—after all, the scope had changed—and wouldn't spend much time on them, especially the low-performing students.

But in reality, this year's midterm exam was almost identical to last year's.

This was Chabashira Sae's own blunder.

At the same time, relying on this alone wasn't enough; the pressure on Class D was still insufficient.

The passing score was not a fixed number.

Class total score / class headcount / 2 = passing score

It was dynamically adjusted based on the class's average score.

Class D students thought this exam would be like the quizzes—they just needed to memorize the answers to score over thirty points and rest easy.

But they would never anticipate that this time, the "passing score" might be exactly forty points, or even higher.

This would mean that even if someone memorized the past papers, memorizing too much would raise the passing score, putting the weaker students in the class at risk of expulsion.

Those who slacked off and only memorized part of the answers, those whose foundations were so poor they even memorized the answers wrong... would fall below the passing line in droves.

And so, the final step arrived.

Kazehara Tetsu's true goal, the one he had spent so much time on.

When the list of failures came out, Class D would face a hellish choice.

Save them, or not?

If they didn't, those students would be expelled, and Class D would become a class with reduced numbers.

The class points were penalized. Originally, they had hoped to earn some class points through daily performance and the midterm exam, but because a student was expelled, the points were zeroed out again, rendering an entire month's efforts wasted.

Moreover, it was unclear when the next opportunity to earn class points would come. It was possible that for months to come, no points would be credited.

To save someone, a huge amount of Personal Points would have to be spent.

According to the Original Plot, saving Xuteng Jian cost one hundred thousand points per point.

One student, one hundred thousand points.

What if this time, the ones who failed weren't just Xuteng Jian alone, but three people, five people, or even more?

The students of Class D, who had already spent nearly all their savings in the first month, would be forced to drain every last point they had, even borrowing from each other, to fill this enormous hole.

And the teacher responsible for all this, Chabashira Sae, the true "Flawed Product."

She couldn't possibly offer a "one hundred thousand points per point" plan like in the Original Plot. Class D simply didn't have that many Personal Points.

Although as the Class Advisor, Chabashira Sae could lower the points required for the transaction, she couldn't make the deal too cheap, given the pressure from the school above.

When the number of students needing to be saved was too large, such an obvious loophole in the rules would inevitably draw the School Authority's attention.

The room she had to negotiate would be compressed infinitely.

So she could lower the points needed to save someone, but it would have to be much higher than the one hundred thousand Personal Points in the Original Plot.

In the end, the students of Class D, after exhausting all their assets, would look at those "Underachievers" who had been "saved" and dragged everyone down.

Grateful that their classmates weren't expelled?

That didn't exist.

What remained was nothing but endless hatred and resentment.

The unity of a class would be completely shattered at that moment, and as long as those who failed weren't expelled, there was no hope of recovery.