After making an arrangement with the third-year students, Dokuho Kouya left the private room.
Getting upperclassmen to pool 20 million personal points for a lottery wasn't easy.
It would have been difficult even for Manabu Horikita, let alone Dokuho Kouya.
Most people would probably wait until all the Special Exams were over and pull this stunt shortly before graduation.
Fortunately, while they were in the teachers' office, Hoshinomiya-sensei had explained why no one in the upper years had ever done it.
Shortly before graduation, the school opened a channel for exchanging points for yen. This reduced the points graduating students had on hand, leaving them unable to pool enough for a lottery.
Chie Hoshinomiya had originally brought this up to discourage Dokuho Kouya from pursuing such an outlandish idea.
But instead, Dokuho Kouya had used it to persuade the third-years.
If they didn't pool their points now, it would be too late once graduation was near.
The upperclassmen, who had already spent two years at the school, should have plenty of savings—except for the Class D students.
Take Katsuragi of Class A in the original story, for example. After a year at the school, Katsuragi had over a million points left, even though he had to give Ryuen Kakeru 20,000 points every month.
The upperclassmen in Class B and Class C of the Third Year naturally received fewer points each month than those in Class A. But after two years, they should still have at least 500,000 points, no matter what.
Contributing 200,000 to 300,000 points to take part in this plan wasn't out of the question.
The students in Class D of the Third Year might pose a problem. They might not have saved much money over all this time, but they should still be interested in a plan that could let them change classes through luck.
Perhaps they'd live frugally in the coming days to scrape together the funds to participate.
"If each person contributes 200,000 points, we'll need a hundred people."
"If each person contributes 250,000, eighty will be enough."
"Even if Class D of the Third Year can't contribute much, we should still be able to pull this off."
After leaving the karaoke place, Dokuho Kouya headed toward the dorms, thinking as he walked.
Someone with a purple silhouette was following him.
When Dokuho Kouya turned a corner, the purple-haired girl quietly followed.
But after she turned the corner and started looking for him, she heard the boy's teasing voice.
"Masumi Kamuro of Class A of the First Year, what do you want with me?"
The boy was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, looking relaxed and carefree, as if he didn't mind being followed.
The purple-haired girl froze for a moment, then furrowed her brows and put on a stern expression. "I don't know what you mean."
"I just happen to be heading back to the dorms too. We're going the same way by coincidence. I wasn't trying to find you."
Masumi Kamuro said this without batting an eye, her expression perfectly natural.
But she was puzzled.
How had he noticed her?
How did her target know her name and class?
"Arisu must have sent you, right?"
Seeing that the girl's expression hadn't changed, Dokuho Kouya couldn't help but admire her.
She really was a girl with plenty of experience stealing things. Even after being caught following someone, she didn't panic.
No wonder Sakayanagi liked sending her out to tail people.
"You're close with Sakayanagi?"
Masumi Kamuro raised an eyebrow at the way the boy addressed her.
He'd called her by her first name.
He and Sakayanagi must be on good terms.
"I have her contact information." Dokuho Kouya opened his Student Terminal and showed the purple-haired girl his contacts.
A lot of people in Class B were good at socializing.
It hadn't taken long after the start of the school year for Dokuho Kouya to get everyone's contact information.
But among all those names, Sakayanagi Arisu's stood out in particular.
Masumi Kamuro rolled her eyes and complained, "If you know each other, why did you have me follow you?"
That was right.
Sakayanagi had sent her to tail Dokuho Kouya.
She'd followed him without a problem at lunchtime and after school, but that night, Dokuho Kouya had caught her.
"How did you notice me?" Masumi Kamuro raised an eyebrow and looked at the boy in confusion.
She thought she'd kept the right distance. He shouldn't have spotted her so easily.
"There were a lot of people around at lunchtime and after school, so it was hard to find you. But at night, it's much easier to notice you," Dokuho Kouya replied.
He hadn't actually noticed Masumi Kamuro all on his own.
Not long after leaving the karaoke place, he'd heard the system's voice in his mind: "Creating a special scenario."
Based on his past experience, that meant he'd encountered a key character from the original story.
But he'd looked around and hadn't seen anyone he knew.
So he'd thought that someone might be following him, hiding somewhere he wouldn't normally notice.
Once he'd considered the situation from that angle, he'd quickly spotted Masumi Kamuro sneaking along behind him.
"So you noticed me a long time ago." Masumi Kamuro might not have been good at studying, but she wasn't stupid.
When she heard the boy mention lunchtime and after school, she figured he'd actually noticed her much earlier and had only waited until now to catch her.
But that was entirely a misunderstanding.
Or rather, he'd deliberately led her to that conclusion.
"I don't mind you following me, but as compensation, I'm going to take a picture of you." Dokuho Kouya picked up his Student Terminal, opened the camera, and pointed it at the purple-haired girl.
Masumi Kamuro tensed. "You're not going to do anything weird with my picture, are you?"
Dokuho Kouya smiled. "Masumi, you're the one who did something weird first."
Seeing that the girl didn't object, Dokuho Kouya pressed the shutter and snapped a picture of her.
Masumi Kamuro looked awkward and uncomfortable, but she didn't lose her temper.
As Dokuho Kouya had said, she was the one in the wrong this time. Getting her picture taken wasn't a big deal.
"Hey." Seeing that the boy was still fiddling with his phone, Masumi Kamuro raised an eyebrow and asked nervously, "You're really not going to do anything weird with my picture, are you?"
Dokuho Kouya nodded slightly. "I sent it to Arisu."
"Huh?"
Masumi Kamuro's eyes widened, and she froze.
As a tail, she hadn't just been spotted and caught by her target—he'd even sent a picture of her to the person who'd hired her.
Could anything be more ridiculous?
It was humiliating!
A short while later, Masumi Kamuro's phone rang.
The caller was Sakayanagi Arisu.
When she answered, the white-haired girl's voice came through, calm and sweet.
"Masumi, I got your picture. It came out really nice."
"But you should smile more when you're having your picture taken, Masumi. You'd look even cuter that way."
Hearing Sakayanagi Arisu's voice over the phone, Masumi Kamuro's cheeks flushed.
This was... humiliating!
Before you continue