Classroom of the Elite: After the Intel Refreshed, They All Want to Conquer Me! Chapter 50

He carefully selected a few basic textbooks, finally pulling out an Introduction to Literature, and flipped open the title page to check the publication date.

"If your foundation in national language is truly lacking, I would recommend that Detailed Explanation of Modern Japanese Fundamentals instead," a gentle voice came from the side.

A voice as clear as a mountain spring drifted from behind him. Shimizu Akira turned around to see a silver-haired girl standing by the bookshelf.

The girl exuded an intellectual and quiet temperament. She was cradling a hardcover book in her arms, the gold-embossed title The Mystery of the Seven Black Cats standing out prominently on the cover, with the name Ellery Queen printed beneath it.

Shimizu Akira couldn't help but smile—what kind of day was it, to run into two girls reading mystery novels in a row?

"Thank you for the recommendation." He accepted the suggestion readily, returned the Introduction to Literature to the shelf, and replaced it with the Detailed Explanation of Modern Japanese Fundamentals she had suggested.

The girl's eyes suddenly lit up: "Ellery Queen's works are wonderful, you know. Would you like to give them a try, classmate?"

"Actually, I've already read them." Shimizu Akira responded politely, noticing her eyes widen slightly at the answer, as if she had found a kindred spirit.

"Really?" Her voice rose a fraction in volume before she immediately realized they were in a library and hurriedly lowered it, "Do you like mystery novels too, classmate?"

Shimizu Akira wore a nostalgic expression: "I was obsessed with them in the past, though nowadays I prefer reading lighter, more casual mystery light novels."

"Mystery light novels... like Hyouka, for instance?" The silver-haired girl paused slightly, her eyes brightening, though a faint layer of regret soon clouded them, "I'm so sorry, I seem to have gotten too excited..."

She shook her head slightly: "Because of class affairs, I might not be able to come to the library very often lately."

The girl suddenly raised her head as if remembering something, a polite and gentle smile appearing on her face: "By the way, I am Shiina Hiyori from Class C of the first year. I wonder, who are you...?"

"Hello, I am Shimizu Akira from Class D of the first year." Shimizu Akira paused for a moment, hesitated for half a second, and then began his self-introduction in a measured tone.

(Wait! She's Shiina Hiyori? The girl who will eventually see through my true identity?)

Thanks to reader Shiyeshang for the 10,000 cookie tip; here is the bonus chapter.

PS: The April storyline ends completely here; the May storyline officially begins tomorrow.

087 May 1st—Class D's Class Points are xxx

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the first day of May.

Shimizu Akira realized that he had already been in this world for exactly one month.

Counting from the day Horikita Suzune met Shiina Hiyori during their weekend tutoring session, exactly half a month had passed.

During these days, nothing worth mentioning had happened in the class.

After all, this was only the first month of school.

Schooling was generally like this, no different from working: attend a few classes, eat a meal, and in the blink of an eye, it was Friday; spend two days lazing around on the weekend, and a week would pass in a blur.

Although in an ordinary school, students aren't like working adults, and they don't get paid to attend class.

But! In this Advanced Nurturing High School, students really do get paid.

As long as you perform well, you are given points.

Thinking of this, Shimizu Akira subconsciously took out his phone to check his account balance.

The screen clearly displayed: 8.69 million.

Spending over 20,000 points in just two weeks was already considered quite extravagant in Class D.

One had to know that most students in the class were currently pinching pennies—some were collecting free ingredients to cook for themselves, while others only ate the free set meals in the cafeteria.

The reason was simple.

The vast majority of the points from all four classes had all transformed into the cold, hard numbers in Shimizu Akira's account.

His gaze swept to the top right corner of the phone screen: 6:59.

According to Chabashira Sae, the points would arrive promptly on the 1st of every month.

(Could it be... because the class points are zero, I won't receive any points at all?)

As soon as this thought popped up, Shimizu Akira couldn't help but shake his head.

That was unlikely.

Ever since he rented out the surveillance equipment two weeks ago, under the leadership of Kushida Kikyou and Hirata Yosuke, class discipline had improved significantly.

Even if there were occasional violations, they only needed to delete the surveillance records before the end of the month.

The only things that truly couldn't be changed were the surveillance content from the first week and certain violations that occurred outside the classroom's line of sight.

The moment the hour hand pointed to seven o'clock, the numbers on the phone screen suddenly jumped.

8,690,000 → 10,498,000

It had increased by exactly 1,803,000 points.

"I see..." Shimizu Akira narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, "So Class D's class points for this month are 530."

The calculation process unfolded rapidly in his mind:

Class points × 100 = individual student points.

According to the rental contract, because Class D borrowed three million points, they had to pay him 1.8 million individual points for the first month.

But as a member of Class D, Shimizu Akira also had to have 45,000 points deducted for basic fees.

The final remainder of 8,000 points, plus the 45,000 points deducted for basic fees, divided by 100, corresponded exactly to 530 class points.

"This result... is far better than I expected! If anything, Class D actually managed to secure 530 class points?"

You have to realize, just three weeks ago, the daily intelligence he received still showed Class D at zero points.

Now, they had suddenly jumped to 530 points, which equated to 53 points for the class total.

Converted, each student would receive 53,000 points this month. Although 45,000 points were forcibly deducted, at least 8,000 points remained for living expenses.

However, if you look closely... just from the surveillance footage of the first week and the rule-breaking behavior outside the classroom, Class D had been docked a full 470 points.

In a sense, Class D was actually quite capable.

(Who in the class was it last month that said they were guaranteed to get eight or nine hundred points?)

Shimizu Akira couldn't quite remember.

The other party was probably going to be deeply disappointed this time.

Actually, even if the school hadn't intentionally withheld the first week's surveillance footage, there were cameras in places other than the classrooms as well.

It could only be said that his own class surveillance had avoided over eighty percent of the potential deductions.

Shimizu Akira felt that, for Class D, 530 class points were truly perfectly acceptable.

Student Council President Horikita Manabu had once said that the average level for past Class D cohorts was around 350 class points.

That was nearly 200 points higher than the average.

"What about the other classes now? They should be higher than the original trajectory, right?" he whispered to himself, thinking of a piece of intelligence he had received last month.

Class point standings after the first month of school: Class A 940 points | Class B 650 points | Class C 490 points | Class D 0 points.

And now, Class D had already reached 530 points; there was no reason for the other classes to maintain the exact same class points.

Of course, it was unlikely that Class A had any major changes.

As for Class C and Class B, they should have gained at least 100 points or so.

(Come to think of it... does this scoring system have a cap? Is the maximum really only 1000 points? Or is there no limit at all?)

This question suddenly surfaced in his mind.

If a higher scoring standard existed, then looking at it this way, 940 points didn't seem like much.

By the way, the surveillance access for the four classes should have expired exactly today, officially reclaimed by the school.

At this moment, Shimizu Akira suddenly remembered his alt account, which he hadn't logged into for nearly two weeks.

Let's take a quick look.

Ryuen Kakeru: You bastard! How come the surveillance access suddenly disappeared today?

Ichinose Honami: So, you only rented it to us for three weeks?

Sakayanagi Arisu: Hehe... Just as I expected, it expired at the end of the month. You really are "short," aren't you?

Kushida Kikyou: ? Classmate?

"Fine, I knew this would happen."

Shimizu Akira was instantly caught between laughter and tears.

(The reviews are truly terrible!)

However, this couldn't really be blamed on him.

Because the access the school gave him initially was only for three weeks.

He actually wanted to make the surveillance duration longer too.

Especially Ryuen Kakeru, who kept sending various threats, saying he would definitely find out his identity and would even resort to violence to force him to cough up the 3 million points that should have belonged to Class C.

Shimizu Akira didn't take the guy seriously at all; his hidden identity shouldn't be that easy to expose.

However, he recalled something he learned last month -- Shiina Hiyori from Class C of the first year would eventually see through his identity.

"This is getting a bit troublesome now."

Information from the future, if left alone and ignored, often becomes an unchangeable fact.

In other words, if things continued this way, Ryuen Kakeru of Class C would inevitably discover Shimizu Akira's true identity through Shiina Hiyori.

He just couldn't figure out what method Shiina Hiyori used to deduce his identity.

He wasn't afraid of Ryuen Kakeru's physical threats, but what made the guy troublesome were those underhanded tactics.

That person had absolutely no sense of rules.

Shimizu Akira's sixth sense told him that getting entangled with Ryuen Kakeru would be a massive headache.

"It seems necessary to proactively approach Shiina Hiyori -- or rather, find a way to mislead her line of reasoning."

088 Today's Intelligence: 20 million points can transfer a student, can nullify an expulsion.

Chabashira Sae suddenly sent a notice in the class group: requiring everyone to gather in the classroom at 8:30 for a class meeting.

It is worth mentioning that this was only the second time Chabashira Sae had held a class meeting in the morning.

The last time dated all the way back to the first day of school.

It was likely a notification about something important.

Shimizu Akira put away his phone, changed into his school uniform, and hurried to the Class D classroom after a quick breakfast.

The moment he pushed open the door, he sensed an unusual atmosphere—the classroom was nearly full, but instead of the joy of receiving points, the students' faces were filled with confusion and unease.

"Did your points arrive?"

"They did, but only 8,000! The loan contract we signed last month deducted way too much..."

"But this doesn't make sense! Our class points should have been over 800. Even after deducting the 45,000 for the surveillance equipment rental, we should have had at least 30,000 left!"

"Class points are only at 530? That's not even the passing line." Horikita Suzune walked over carrying her shoulder bag, her brows furrowed as she spoke, "It seems that besides the class area, violations in other places also resulted in quite a few points being deducted."

But Shimizu Akira had no time to focus on her analysis—that familiar mechanical voice rang out in his mind:

[Ding~ Today's intelligence has been updated]

[1. 20 million private points can be used to transfer classes or to nullify the expulsion of any student once.]

[2. Sakagami Kazuma of Class C is tacitly approving of Ryuen Kakeru's violent behavior within the class.]

[3. Hasebe Haruka is the girl with the most outstanding figure in Class D.]

(Wait... you can transfer classes by spending 20 million points?)

Shimizu Akira blinked.

This piece of intelligence was like a heavy hammer, confirming most of his speculations from the past few days.

After all, the school's initial slogan was "As long as you have points, everything can be purchased."

Ever since he rented the surveillance equipment through the Student Council last month, the school had successively announced several "non-sale items"—surveillance systems, classroom seating, class ownership... these key resources had all been labeled as prohibited for trade.

The school was probably worried: what if another student appeared who could directly rent out a classroom? How would they handle that? It was simpler to just ban it all across the board.

Shimizu Akira had nothing to say about that.

He had already made a fortune from the surveillance system, and there was no need for him to keep picking at the school's equipment for scraps from here on out.