Classroom of the Elite: After the Information Update, They All Want to Win Me Over! Chapter 25

Kushida Kikyou was standing at the front of the classroom. She lightly straightened her skirt and flashed her signature sweet smile.

"Of course!"

"What did you want to say, Kushida?"

The girls responded enthusiastically at once. She was clearly very popular among them—her natural warmth was exactly what made her so at home in their circle.

"Well..." Kushida paused deliberately. Once she had everyone's attention, she lowered her voice. "Yesterday, I happened to learn an astonishing secret from someone."

She took a deep breath, her expression suddenly turning serious. "Besides Private Points, the school also has something called Class Points. And—"

"If our Class Points drop to zero, none of us will receive any Private Points next month!"

"Ah... that."

"Kushida, we already knew that."

But the uproar she had expected never came. Instead, subdued responses rang out from all around the classroom:

Hirata Yosuke stood up, looking a little awkward. He scratched his cheek apologetically. "Sorry, Kushida. I actually learned about it through another source yesterday, and I'd already discussed it with some of our classmates..."

Damn it...

Kushida cursed inwardly.

The "bombshell" she had so carefully prepared had turned out to be old news Hirata had already revealed.

What bothered her even more was this—who had Hirata gotten the information from?

044 We Can Win! Next Month, We'll Be Class A!

Shimizu Akira quietly turned his gaze away from the podium.

Just as I thought... Kushida was still too naïve.

He had expected things to turn out this way. The previous night, he had deliberately sent the hidden information to both Hirata and Kushida from the same anonymous account.

Chabashira Sae wanted him to pick a side?

Rather than let the homeroom teacher use him as a pawn, he would let these two "key figures" work things out between themselves.

As it turned out:

Hirata Yosuke had chosen the most practical approach. By sharing the information with some of his classmates overnight, he had strengthened their trust in him through his honesty.

As for Kushida Kikyou... she had clearly treated the information like a prop, planning to play the "savior" in front of the whole class.

Shimizu Akira glanced at the girl at the podium, forcing a smile. Her eyes, usually so full of cheer, now flickered with barely concealed panic.

What a shame. This carefully planned "information reveal" had ultimately become a stepping stone for Hirata.

Horikita Suzune had actually been watching the podium for quite a while. "Shimizu... was this your doing?"

She had witnessed the entire deal between Chabashira Sae and Shimizu Akira the day before.

She had assumed he would casually pick a side and brush the matter off. She hadn't expected him to send the information to both parties.

"Yeah." Shimizu Akira answered as he flipped through his textbook. "Please keep it to yourself, Horikita."

"...I have no interest in gossiping." Horikita snorted and turned away, but couldn't help sneaking glances at the unassuming boy sitting beside her.

Rather than a prank, this deliberate attempt to put both sides on equal footing with the information seemed like a subtle political experiment. It let him avoid the risks of taking sides while observing how the two "key figures" would respond.

Horikita Suzune's gaze lingered on Shimizu Akira's profile for a moment.

(All the information came from Shimizu Akira.)

(Hirata and Kushida were just messengers... The gap between them and him was immense.)

Even if she didn't know what those so-called geniuses in Class A were capable of, Shimizu Akira's intelligence was clearly far beyond what one would expect from Class D.

"If you're capable of this..." Horikita lowered her voice, showing a rare hint of curiosity. "Why didn't you come forward and reveal the information yourself?"

Chabashira Sae had actually given him three options. One of them was to come forward and reveal the information himself.

Shimizu Akira turned his head slightly. "Horikita, I've already told you once that I don't want to be anyone's 'blood bank.' By the way! Now that you know the whole truth, don't you have anything to say?"

Horikita Suzune fell silent for a moment. "...There's nothing to say. I shouldn't have been placed in this class in the first place."

"I see." Shimizu Akira raised an eyebrow.

It seemed that even now, she still hadn't given up.

Perhaps only a direct scolding from her older brother, the Student Council President, would finally make her abandon the idea.

From her brother's perspective, having such a stubborn little sister must be a headache.

Still, he took another look at the information and felt speechless all over again.

But that didn't mean he had to beat her up!

Seriously, what had Horikita Suzune said to get beaten up by her brother?!

He'd go take a look tonight if he had time.

"I still don't understand..." Horikita Suzune's eyes were clouded with frustration. "You... how can you stay so calm?"

Over the past few days, apart from her dissatisfaction with her class assignment, what confused her most was Shimizu Akira's indifferent attitude.

After all, his abilities far surpassed hers, and he had been thrown into the same "dump" of Class D.

Yet he always seemed so calm. He hadn't even complained once about his class assignment.

"I think it's fair," Shimizu Akira replied. "Given my performance on the entrance exam, Class D is the right place for me."

At the time, his entrance exam results had shown he was good at nothing except physical ability. It was only natural that he had been placed in Class D.

To Horikita Suzune, Shimizu Akira sounded completely calm. Though he was a high school student in the same year as her, he was unexpectedly open-minded.

For some reason, that nameless anger in her chest eased a little.

Meanwhile, Shimizu Akira paid little attention to Horikita Suzune's gaze and continued watching the podium.

Hirata Yosuke didn't seize the opportunity to take the stage and make a show of himself as expected. Instead, he voluntarily stepped aside and let Kushida Kikyou explain the information to the class.

Kushida Kikyou naturally took the opportunity. Under the gaze of the entire class, she clearly and methodically explained the hidden rules and the way the S System worked.

Some of the students already knew the details,

while others could barely hide their shock.

The classroom erupted into commotion, but with Hirata Yosuke's gentle guidance and Kushida Kikyou's patient reassurance, the students soon pulled themselves together.

Fortunately, it had only been a little over ten days since the start of school. That meant they still had plenty of time to recover their Class Points.

Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyou were also much cleverer than they appeared.

The two tacitly reached an understanding and deliberately kept the cruel truth about the class placement system from their classmates.

These students in Class D still didn't know they were defective. They assumed those who had been placed in Class A from the start were simply lucky.

The two revealed only the simplest details: as long as they followed the rules of everyday conduct, their class points wouldn't be deducted.

They even used the excuse that "the other classes might not know these rules yet" to motivate everyone, creating three great illusions: "We have the advantage," "We can win!" and "Next month, we'll be Class A."

However, this brief harmony in the class was doomed not to last.

The classroom door was suddenly flung open, and Chabashira Sae strode inside.

"You two." Chabashira Sae's sharp gaze moved between Hirata and Kushida. She impatiently tapped her arm with her fingertips. "Come with me."

Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyou were both taken aback, but she was their homeroom teacher, so they silently followed Chabashira toward the shadowed end of the hallway.

Chabashira suddenly turned around and leaned against the windowsill. "Tell me. How did you discover those hidden rules?"

Hirata paused for a few seconds before answering. "Actually... someone named Yueqing suddenly added me as a friend..."

"Same here... After I added someone named Yueqing, they suddenly sent me a lot of crucial information." Kushida chimed in. She glanced at Hirata, and a subtle expression appeared on her face.

Chabashira Sae's voice carried a clear note of disappointment. She looked like a gambler turning over their last card. "So... he didn't choose either of you. He sent the information to both of you?"

"Enough!" She suddenly slapped the windowsill. "I'm appointing you two vice class leaders. Your first task is to collect 25,000 points from every student as class funds."

Hirata frowned deeply. "Teacher, what do you mean?"

Chabashira Sae gave him a cold look. "One million points. That's what the information cost. Don't tell me you two were naïve enough to think there was such a thing as a free lunch. Why would someone give you the information for nothing?"

045 Horikita Suzune: What a Bunch of Idiots. Wait, I Have to Pay 25,000 Points Too?

"...I understand."

In the end, Hirata took a deep breath and looked up. The shock in his eyes had given way to understanding. "I'll explain things to our classmates and collect 25,000 points from each of them for the class fund."

At first, the figure of "one million points" had struck him like a bolt from the blue. But now, his mind was racing. If they hadn't learned about these hidden rules in advance, Class D's Class Points might have fallen to just two or three hundred next month.

And now, they had learned such crucial information in only their second week of school...

A glimmer appeared in Hirata's eyes.

This wasn't just a chance to limit their losses. It was an opportunity to turn the tables.

If they made good use of this information, surpassing Class C wasn't out of the question.

So one million points wasn't too much to pay for this information!

Each student only had to contribute a quarter of their points.

It was only their second week of school. He didn't believe the other students couldn't spare 25,000 points.

"Me too!" Kushida Kikyou quickly glanced at Hirata, then beamed with her signature sweet smile. "As vice class leader, I'll support Hirata, and I'll do an excellent job collecting the class funds!"

When she turned to Chabashira Sae, a flicker of curiosity appeared in her eyes. "Chabashira-sensei, thank you so much for helping us get in touch with the person we made the deal with. Don't worry. We'll all stick to the same story and say it was a normal transaction with a stranger."

Kushida lowered her head slightly.

To be honest, one million points was a staggering amount. But what surprised her even more was that their usually cold homeroom teacher had gone to such lengths for Class D—she had even personally arranged the deal.

Chabashira Sae cut off her thoughts coldly. "You two are reading too much into it! I didn't do this for you."

"But—" She suddenly turned around. "If you really want to be class leader, you'd better suck up to the mysterious person who sent you those anonymous messages."

Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyou froze again.

Their homeroom teacher was openly implying that the authority to appoint class officers rested in the hands of some mysterious person with no known identity?

So, was Chabashira Sae even a competent homeroom teacher?!

The homeroom teacher then led the two of them back to the classroom. She stood in front of the blackboard, swept her gaze over the class, and finally fixed it on Hirata and Kushida.

"I have an announcement." Her voice held no warmth. "Starting today, Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyou will serve as Class D's vice class leaders."

A smattering of applause rang out in the classroom.

The result wasn't surprising. Hirata's reliability and Kushida's warmth made them the most suitable candidates.

"I'll leave the class meeting to the two of you." Without even turning around, she tossed out the words and left.

Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyou stood on opposite sides of the podium and exchanged hesitant glances.

In the end, Hirata took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Everyone," he said, his voice a little lower than usual. "I'd like each of you to transfer 25,000 points to either me or Kushida."

The words exploded in the classroom like a bomb.

"What are you talking about?!" Yamauchi Haruki was the first to jump up. His chair scraped across the floor with a shrill sound. "25,000? Are you crazy?"

Kanji Ike immediately slammed his hands on the desk and stood up. "Even if it's you, Hirata, you can't just go making a decision like that!"

Whispers rippled through the girls' group. "That's ridiculous..."

"We're not an ATM..."

Kushida Kikyou hurried forward. "Everyone, please calm down! Actually... the information Hirata and I just told you about was something we bought."

"Bought it?" Shinohara stared at her in surprise. "Didn't you hear it from an upperclassman?"

Hirata smiled wryly. "A stranger contacted me last night and said... they had information worth one million points. After Kushida and I looked it over beforehand... and discussed it with each other, we decided to buy it."

The classroom fell into an eerie silence, which was soon followed by an even louder uproar.

"One million?!" Ken Sudō leaped out of his seat. "Are you crazy?"

"Hah? You've got to be kidding!" Karuizawa Kei folded her arms and sneered. "Why would you spend the whole class's monthly points without even asking us?! If it's a million, then pay it yourselves!"

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Hirata's forehead, while Kushida's smile had completely frozen.

At that moment, Class D was like a volcano about to erupt, with restrained anger burning in everyone's eyes.