If We're Going to Treat the School as a Hypothetical Enemy

"Alright, alright, that's enough." Waving his freed hand, Asakusa Toru said in a shoo-in manner, "The exam results have been announced, and now it's time to enjoy a cruise vacation. Everyone has worked hard for several days on the Uninhabited Island, it's time to rest."

"If you have any questions or want to review the proceedings, you can have a brief discussion with the students in Class B and Class C. There's no need to hide these things."

"Let's just enjoy the show. It'll be boring if we take Ryuen's jokes seriously." He shrugged and turned to look at Ryuen: "How about we talk privately?"

With just a few simple words, Asakusa Toru quickly concluded that Shiina Hiyori's actions were a joke. Regardless of whether others had doubts or not, since he said so, they had to take it as a joke.

This 'authoritarianism' was established based on the results of an exam.

As to whether it was a joke or not, Shiina Hiyori knew, Asakusa Toru himself knew too.

"Oh, oh, oh, time to rest!"

"Yes, yes, yes, Asakusa- kun, you've worked hard too!"

See you tomorrow!

After a moment of stunned silence, the students nodded repeatedly and left the deck.

They can still understand who is speaking and what their words mean.

Especially considering that Ichinose Honami was holding him, for Class 1-A, the interpretation of 'goodwill' clearly has a sufficiently reasonable place.

They are even the group most tolerant of dictatorship.

So, in no time, the students in the class dispersed.

Asakusa Toru and three others were left in one corner of the deck, while some from the other three classes, who had overheard snippets of conversation, peeked out with a gossipy attitude, hoping to witness a good show, while others hid at the other end.

The exam results had only been announced recently, but suddenly it seemed that no one on the spacious deck cared about the astonishing outcome.

--Except for Ryuen Kakeru.

"Wow, such impeccable control, huh?" Raising an eyebrow, Ryuen Sho intended to put his arm around Asakusa Toru's shoulder again, but glancing at Ichinose Honami who was still clinging to him, Ryuen Kakeru turned around and leaned his back against the railing.

"Everyone says Class A has a harmonious and democratic atmosphere, but now it seems they're actually more dictatorial than I am."

He grinned.

"If you're going to talk about this, then get lost. If you're going to talk about something else, I might listen for a bit." Asakusa Toru said this without any politeness.

Whether it was due to masochistic tendencies or not, seeing his reaction, Ryuen Kakeru shuddered and exclaimed, "Hoo hoo hoo hoo, of course, of course I'm here to talk about the 'Special Exam'!"

Ryuen Kakeru clapped his hands repeatedly, giving a loud round of applause.

"One thousand one hundred and four, anyone can tell how terrifying that number is." His smile was bright, "You know, for the school, a 'major violation' only results in a deduction of one hundred Class Points."

"The school really has some guts."

After a slight pause, Ryuen Kakeru changed the subject and posed a question.

"Asakusa, guess... is the school trying to shut you up, or are they planning to create a supreme 'public enemy' for the first-year students?" He added with a laugh, "Oh right, maybe the school just wants to maintain the fairness of the rules, because you guys can actually get that many points, so the school really gave them to you."

"Hmm, that's not entirely wrong."

Hearing Ryuen Kakeru's mocking tone, which sounded vaguely familiar for some reason, Asakusa Toru frowned and blurted out again:

"If you repeat your father's words again, I'll whip you into a spinning top with this brass belt."

Ryuen Kakeru: "?"

After a moment of blank expression, Ryuen Kakeru finally understood the meaning behind those words.

So he dropped the pretense and blurted out, "Fuck you, that's how I talk! Who the hell copied your tone?!"

"Stop spouting nonsense, did you even understand what I meant?" After cursing, Ryuen Kakeru's smile vanished, replaced by a slightly serious expression. "If you chase me away, I'll really go and team up with that shorty and those idiots to kill you!"

Ryuen just mentioned three possibilities for why the school was so decisive in awarding such a high number of points, as mentioned in his conspiracy theory.

In reality, both the hush money theory and the fairness theory of maintaining the rules are just pretexts to highlight the most correct possibility, not his true intention.

What he really meant was, don't be fooled by the school's good intentions; the school just wanted to make you all the enemy of the entire grade.

I saw through this, and instead of secretly forming cliques with the other two classes, I approached you first and pointed out the problem.

This is clearly a sign of sincerity.

If you keep playing like this, don't blame me if I actually go and get those guys to gang up on you.

Even if you, Asakusa Toru, are strong enough, you might not be able to withstand the firepower of three squads.

However, to be honest, if possible, Ryuen Kakeru really wouldn't want things to develop to that point.

There are many reasons, such as resisting cooperation with Sakayanagi Arisu, disliking the idiots in Class D, and feeling that even if the three classes were combined, they might not be able to achieve a result greater than the sum of its parts.

But if I had to give a reason, there might only be one fundamental one.

He believed he could win.

Ryuen Kakeru believes Asakusa Toru will win in the end.

That's the kind of feeling he gave Ryuen Kakeru.

As for the claim that Class A, with nearly two thousand Class Points, will be the richest group of dog-like players from now on, and that they would be the most suitable candidates to steal some Private Points, etc.

These are all secondary reasons.

"That sounds exciting." Asakusa Toru nodded in deep agreement. "Will you come to beat me up with the Little Princess and your silly little sister?"

A Civil War Phantom God, and a foolish younger sister.

If a real fight were to break out, it would surely be a case of each of them using their own unique abilities.

"However, I appreciate your filial piety." Before Ryuen Kakeru could leave, Asakusa Toru changed the subject with a smile, "You truly are my good son."

"Immediately reward you with Twenty Million Personal Points, which can be used to transfer Shiina Hiyori over."

... Shiina Hiyori.

That's a really affectionate way of addressing someone.

A glint of shrewdness flashed in Ryuen Kakeru's eyes.

Shiina Hiyori: "Huh?"

Shiina Hiyori, was suddenly mentioned, which surprised her somewhat.

I transferred to Class A and ended up in the same class as Asakusa- kun.

... I think I'm a little tempted.

If we were to be in the same class, it would be easy to do things together, right?

Shiina Hiyori's heart skipped a beat; she was quite tempted by the proposal.

But Ryuen Kakeru immediately realized the problem.

It's not a question of whether Shiina Hiyori should transfer to Class A, nor is it a question of how serious Asakusa Toru was about what he said.

Instead...

"You fucking have twenty million right now and you're giving out rewards here?"

Ryuen Kakeru laughed angrily.

Chapter 240 If we were to consider the school as a hypothetical enemy

So far, the Advanced Nurturing first grade has completed four months.

Only considering the gains and losses of Class A, the first month's figure was 100,000, the second month's was 89,000, and the third and fourth months' were 90,200. At the beginning of August, the figures remained unchanged.

The total is 459,600.

There are forty students in the class. Even if all the points are collected and not a single point is spent, there will only be 18,384,000 Private Points.

We're still a little short of 20 million...

No, you can't just use "a little" to refer to it; that's 1,616,000.

Even a fraction of that is an unimaginable number for the vast majority of students.

Only through such careful and meticulous calculations could Ryuen Kakeru truly understand why he had that attitude when the class teacher mentioned the 'right to transfer classes in exchange for 20 million points' after the exams in April.

For a normal student, this is simply an impossible number.

Among previous students, the highest individual record was only tens of millions of points obtained through fraud, far less than twenty million.

It's easy to imagine how unattainable his dream of 800 million points was.

Not to mention the living expenses of classmates, Special Exam, and the various places where points might be used, the total amount is beyond imagination.

But it's not entirely without a chance.

They might not be able to raise 800 million, but raising 300 or 400 million is still possible.

The prerequisite is—to find a way to empty this guy's wallet.

"So I don't have 20 million after all." As if just reminded by Ryuen, Asakusa Toru realized, "Then there seems to be no way to resolve this."

"Well, I actually think this is a really good idea."

With a sigh, Asakusa Toru raised his hand and began to calculate for Ryuen.

"Think about it, your Class C has lost 100 points, which is only a little over 600 Class Points, right? The difference between you and our Class A is 1,300 points, which works out to a difference of 130,000 points per month. If we calculate based on the next two years and thirty months, the sooner we get people over here, the more we can earn from this price difference, and the lower the cost of transferring classes will be. We can save at least 3.9 million points."

"So why don't you try your best to scrape together the Shiina Hiyori and send Hiyori over?" he said.

It was quite reasonable and well-founded, but the tone sounded like Asakusa Toru's usual joking style.

But instead of uttering any more curses, Ryuen Kakeru fell into deep thought.

It seems, perhaps, maybe... makes a lot of sense?

For a simple arithmetic problem, ignoring other possible scenarios, this is indeed the most straightforward numerical difference.

Even considering potential future changes, switching to a higher-level class with established advantages in advance is undoubtedly the right move.

Even though only two Special Exam have been conducted so far, four months of testing have given Ryuen Kakeru a certain understanding of the Advanced Nurturing School.

The base score for the first exam is one thousand, but this does not mean that the score will fluctuate by one thousand or more in every exam.

The highest possible reward for the second exam is also one thousand, but this is clearly a variable introduced to compensate for the difference in the Behavioral Norms Exam.

A 'major violation' will result in a deduction of one hundred Class Points —this is the standard score adjustment.

In addition to these, there are also deductions for basic daily behavior. Although no detailed rules have been published, you can get a rough estimate by collecting a few data points on the control variables of your class.

Essentially, the school's distribution of Class Points is conservative.

In other words, Class A's position is unlikely to be shaken any further, especially with Asakusa Toru in the picture. Ryuen Kakeru can't think of any way the lower-ranked classes could reverse the situation.

What did he rely on? His third-rate tricks? His extraordinary wisdom? Hirata Yosuke 'Sakayanagi Arisu childish games?

Admit it, a difference of a thousand points is fatal.

Of course, this is just an instinctive intuition telling Ryuen Kakeru that this is the answer; whether it is actually true remains to be verified.

But the conclusion will not change.

He must carefully consider whether he should really do it.

What are the benefits? It's about bonding, going beyond simple verbal matchmaking. Ultimately, it's hard to say whether Shiina can beat Ryuen when facing a formidable rival like Ichinose Honami, but becoming classmates would obviously bring them closer.

Besides the bundling, there's also the benefit Asakusa Toru mentioned: sending it over in advance is equivalent to getting a discounted transfer right, with a discount of about 20%, and maybe even more room for discount. In short, transfer early to enjoy the benefits, transfer late to ensure stability.

What are the downsides? The downsides are obvious: the initial investment is enormous. Twenty million is not a sum that just anyone can come up with; even a single class, let alone any class, could raise that amount.

Furthermore, after Shiina Hiyori transfers to a different class, will she still cherish the friendship she shared with her classmates in Class C? Will she still be considered 'one of us'? Betrayal... While that word might not be the most appropriate, to put it extremely, what would he do if she betrayed him?

These issues are complex. If Ryuen Kakeru doesn't have 20 million, then all of this is nonsense, not worth considering or even thinking about.

But damn it, Ryuen Kakeru just happens to have 20 million in his hands!

Holy crap, the twenty million I just swindled from the chairman has already been targeted by that guy Asakusa Toru. If he hadn't kept quiet about it, Ryuen Kakeru Sho would have seriously suspected that this guy deliberately made this suggestion at this time.

I'm torn.

Dilemma!

"... Isn't it unnecessary to make a decision now?" As if offering a reminder, Shiina Hiyori, the person being discussed, suddenly said, "If it's about saving points, you can just decide before the end of the month."

More than the cost-effectiveness, she was slightly bothered that these two guys discussed her class transfer without ever asking for her opinion.

Of course, it's just a minor concern; if I could transfer to another class...

She probably still won't switch.