Classroom of the Elite: After the Information Refreshes, They Always Want to Conquer Me! 45

After reading all the messages sent by the other party, Shimizu Akira replied smoothly: You in Class A have barely had any class points deducted, so there is no need to spend 3 million points to rent surveillance, right? This deal is not cost-effective.

Sakayanagi Arisu: Testing me again? You clearly know that I hate being spied on the most. What I value has never been the surveillance itself, but the surveillance data from the past two weeks. Two weeks is enough time to analyze the personality traits, behavioral habits, and academic performance of the vast majority of people in our class. Everyone's conversations, whispers, and privacy—this information is what matters most. If that mysterious person were to sell it to other classes, even as Class A, it would be difficult for us to maintain an advantage in the early stages. After all, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Shimizu Akira's gaze lingered on the words "two weeks" for a few extra seconds.

It seems the other party truly failed to find her father, the Chairman.

But only he knew that, in reality, there was only data from this week.

Naturally, it was impossible to tell the other party such information, as it would just mean losing the initiative for nothing.

Sakayanagi Arisu: In that case, I should go and have a detailed chat with that mysterious person about this matter. Goodbye.

After Sakayanagi Arisu said this, she went completely offline.

Immediately afterward, a message arrived on his burner account.

Sakayanagi Arisu: Can I rent it for just one day?

Shimizu Akira was slightly taken aback; the other party was quite clever.

Class A truly didn't care about others monitoring them, nor were they worried about point deductions; the only thing they cared about was the past surveillance data.

24 hours of access would be enough for her to delete the data.

Yueqing: You wish. I refuse. I don't offer one-day services here.

Sakayanagi Arisu: Can I pay you 500,000 private points to delete all surveillance data for Class A of the first year since the start of the semester?

Yueqing: Little princess, stop testing me. I'll tell you clearly: I only rent the whole package.

Sakayanagi Arisu: Hehe... So that's how it is? Then let me ask one more question: have you already sold the surveillance content of our Class A to other classes at a high price? If that's really the case, I won't be renting it.

Shimizu Akira fell into thought upon hearing this.

So that was what she was worried about.

After all, the surveillance access belonged to him, and the content recorded by the surveillance was valuable information in itself, which could easily be sold for money.

If Shimizu Akira had already leaked Class A's surveillance content to other classes, then her spending money to purchase the surveillance rights would be meaningless.

However, Shimizu Akira had already considered this; he never intended to sell any of the surveillance content from the start.

Yueqing: I don't sell surveillance content; I only rent the surveillance as a complete set.

Sakayanagi Arisu: That is somewhat beyond my expectations! You wouldn't be trying to deceive me, would you?

Yueqing: You can ask the Student Council; they will ensure the fairness of the transaction for both parties.

-- Regarding this, Shimizu Akira had long been prepared.

Sakayanagi Arisu: "The neutral Student Council? Hehe, I will go and ask tomorrow."

She paused, then asked: "By the way! Besides Class A, which other classes have you rented the surveillance rights to? I wonder if there are any classes other than Class A of the first year. You haven't notified all four classes about this news, have you?"

Shimizu Akira naturally could not answer such a question—this clearly exceeded the scope of the transaction.

Sakayanagi Arisu: Hehe... But then again, even if you have the surveillance rights for Class C, D, and B of the first year, I can't afford to buy them this month. But by next month, your so-called surveillance rights might be completely invalidated. After all, the school recently announced a ban on using points to purchase or rent school equipment. Even if you are the first to eat the crab, it's at most just a secondary sublease. I am very curious, which month will your rented access actually last until?

Shimizu Akira raised an eyebrow.

I have to admit, Sakayanagi Arisu's intelligence is indeed very high; she easily analyzed that the surveillance rights in his hands were actually rented as well.

However, he thought for a moment and slowly typed out eight characters.

Shimizu Akira: Take it or leave it. I'm going to sleep.

He had maintained the initiative regarding the surveillance rights from beginning to end.

Even if he couldn't sell them, there was still the official floor price of 400,000 per unit; from the start, this deal was a guaranteed profit.

One extra chapter for the recommendation votes.

078 Today's Intel: Shiina Hiyori will guess Shimizu Akira's identity

Time arrived at Friday.

When Shimizu Akira finished his morning exercise, fine beads of sweat still hung on his forehead.

He picked up his phone and first sent a text message to Student Council President Horikita Manabu:

[Before seven o'clock tonight, the leaders of several classes should be coming to the Student Council to sign formal agreements. Sorry for the trouble, President.]

After sending the message.

Only then did Shimizu Akira realize that he had indeed troubled this President quite a bit over the past few days. Although the other party had said he owed him a favor... but today was Friday, after all, and making someone work overtime felt rather embarrassing.

The phone vibrated quickly. Horikita Manabu's reply was short and forceful: [Understood.]

Shimizu Akira stared at the screen and muttered to himself.

"Sure enough, I made him work overtime again..."

(How about... taking care of his younger sister?)

He narrowed his eyes, seemingly seeing the gratified smile that might appear beneath the President's stern face.

But thinking about it carefully, he immediately felt that must have been his own fantasy.

The sight of Horikita Manabu smiling was truly terrifying.

That stern man didn't seem like the type who would ever break into a smile.

As he returned to his seat in the classroom, the familiar system notification chime rang right on time:

[Ding~ Today's intelligence has been updated]

[1. Kushida Kikyou's blood type is A]

[2. In May, the first person to deduce the disguised identity of Shimizu Akira was Shiina Hiyori of Class C, first year]

[3. To simulate society, the point system of Advanced Nurturing High School includes a loan function linked to the social credit system, which automatically deducts outstanding debts when points are distributed at the beginning of each month]

Shimizu Akira rubbed his eyes, doubting he had misread the second piece of information—how could his own name appear on the intelligence system?

Who said information about Shimizu Akira didn't count as intelligence? There didn't seem to be anything wrong with that.

But the other party had actually seen through his disguise? Did that mean she had seen through the identity of his alt account?

Class C, first year, actually had someone like that? Shimizu Akira couldn't help but mutter to himself.

It wasn't that he looked down on Class C, but when he watched the surveillance footage yesterday, his eyes were filled with Ryuen Kakeru suppressing the entire scene like a tyrant; as for the others, he hadn't paid much attention.

(Shiina Hiyori, is it? Deduction... Could it be that she is a detective-like character? It seems Class C isn't as weak as I imagined.)

After reading this, Shimizu Akira continued to the third item.

(Huh? You can take out loans? That's interesting.)

He had originally been wondering what would happen if other classes couldn't pay their personal points, never expecting the school to have such a policy.

After all, this was a simulated society; come to think of it, real society already had rules like this.

Student loans and the like weren't exactly rare.

"Remember to come to the tutoring session on time after school today," Horikita Suzune's cold voice suddenly came from his side.

"Yeah, I remember," Shimizu Akira replied softly, his gaze still fixed on the textbook in his hands.

The two of them had indeed agreed on a tutoring schedule for this week.

"Your math and English grades are clearly excellent," Horikita Suzune frowned slightly, her fingertips tapping the desk, "so why is your Japanese so poor that it reaches this level?"

As his desk mate, Horikita Suzune had seen it all these past few days.

In English class, the English Shimizu Akira spoke when answering the teacher's questions was even more standard than the teacher's; in math class, the answers he blurted out were ones she often had to ponder for over ten seconds to understand.

Shimizu Akira was clearly not stupid; on the contrary, he was very smart.

It was just that for some reason, his Japanese grades were always subpar; such extreme academic imbalance was truly baffling.

"Hmm... I guess I'm just naturally lopsided in my subjects," Shimizu Akira replied simply, his gaze falling on the rice ball in her hand—it had no convenience store packaging and was just held in a plastic bag.

"Is that a handmade rice ball?"

"...! After all, I gave all my points to you." Horikita Suzune put the rice ball into her mouth and chewed slowly.

Shimizu Akira thought about it; the girl probably really couldn't even scrape together five thousand points.

How truly pitiful.

For the sake of her brother, and because she was his future tutee, he might as well let her have a good meal.

"I'll take you out for a big meal tonight," he thought for a moment and said, seizing the opportunity.

"...Reason?" Horikita Suzune was startled. She wanted to refuse, but remembering she should learn to change her personality, she asked instead.

"To butter up my 'teacher.' After all, I don't want to fail the exam, so this will put my mind at ease. In the end, it's for my own sake," Shimizu Akira replied casually.

"...Butter me up? Then we'll see how much you're willing to bleed." Hearing this, Horikita Suzune thought about it and agreed.

Some people were indeed the type who felt uncomfortable asking for favors without treating the other person to a meal.

Shimizu Akira was likely lying, but she thought about it for a second: Shimizu Akira had already taken 105,000 points from her, so a single meal really wasn't a big deal.

"Filling your stomach shouldn't be a problem," Shimizu Akira calculated. With a large sum of points about to be credited to his account, he wouldn't have to be so stingy about spending them anymore.

In the middle of their conversation, Kushida Kikyou suddenly coughed lightly and walked slowly onto the podium.

"Um, everyone, starting today, I am the class representative for Class D, first year."

Hirata Yosuke also walked up, smiling as he said, "I've completely lost to Kushida-san this time. This month, I will serve as her deputy to assist with her work."

"Congratulations, Kushida-san!"

"Damn it, she was snatched up by Shimizu Akira first!"

"I wanted to go on a date with Kushida-san too..."

Some students applauded, while other male students looked at Shimizu Akira with envious eyes.

"A date? You helped her campaign for votes?" Hearing this, Horikita Suzune's gaze pierced straight at Shimizu Akira.

This wasn't out of jealousy, but purely an instinctive alertness to this abnormal behavior.

After all, based on her understanding of that person, he was definitely not the type to do business at a loss.

"She paid in points," Shimizu Akira gave a brief explanation.

"...How much?"

"Eighty thousand..."

"Eighty thousand?" As if something had just occurred to her, Horikita Suzune followed up, "I'll cover this amount. In next month's class representative election, you will help me gather votes."

Her tone was resolute; it was clear she had already calculated the value of this transaction.

"...You want to run for class representative too?" Shimizu Akira caught on immediately, his voice tinged with a hint of surprise.

"Of course." Horikita Suzune straightened her back. "I told you, didn't I? Since I've been assigned to Class D, I will lead this class—to the pinnacle of Class A."

"Pfft~" Watching her earnest expression, Shimizu Akira couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Although he had previously said that the future Horikita Suzune might become one of the leaders of Class D.

But as she was now, she was clearly nowhere near that level yet.

Had Horikita Suzune been drinking fake booze or something? How many peanuts had she had?

"What are you laughing at!!!"

"Nothing, I'm just laughing at you."

079 You're simply not as good as Kushida Kikyou

Horikita Suzune narrowed her fox-like eyes slightly, sweeping a cold gaze toward him.

"Are you questioning my ability?"

Shimizu Akira's expression remained unchanged. "Your academic grades are indeed excellent, but you are far behind in other areas. To give you the simplest example—you don't even know the basics of rhetoric; why would anyone be convinced by you?"

After a brief silence, Horikita said, "That is precisely why I need your assistance. I will formulate the plans, and you will execute them—we will each play to our strengths. That should work, right?"

She mused to herself that this was exactly how her brother led the Student Council.

Just like how that secretary assisted her brother, a clear division of labor was the most efficient way.

Shimizu Akira sighed softly, idly spinning the tip of his pen. "As your seatmate, I suppose I'll hear out your platform for class representative."