Classroom of the Elite, After the Intel Refreshed, They Always Want to Conquer Me!

It was like catching a glimpse of a chic accessory in a boutique window by chance.

The feeling of watching it get bought by someone else before you had even decided whether to purchase it yourself—a faint regret mixed with a touch of unwillingness.

From a certain perspective, the standards men and women use to choose partners are surprisingly consistent—just as the vast majority of women instinctively admire powerful, excellent, and wealthy men, men also tend to choose partners who are simple, cute, and provide emotional value.

This realization made her unconsciously purse her lips.

If she hadn't recognized the ability of Shimizu Akira, why would she have taken the initiative to propose that bet in the first place?

After all, in her eyes, there were not many people who could catch her eye.

However, the gaze of Sakayanagi Arisu was suddenly drawn to Kamuro Masumi not far away.

The purple-haired girl was sneaking her hand toward the beer shelf in the convenience store.

"Should I call out now?" Shimizu Akira asked in a low voice.

"Don't be impatient..." Sakayanagi Arisu shook her head gently, her silver-white hair swaying slightly with the movement.

"She's already reached her hand in, you know?"

"Classmate Shimizu," Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly turned her head, "please do not interfere with my judgment."

Shimizu Akira raised an eyebrow, simply crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, observing this silent game of chess with great interest.

A few minutes later, Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly spoke, her voice clear and firm: "Kamuro Masumi will steal that can of beer between 10:29:30 and 10:30:30."

Her tone didn't sound like a guess; it sounded like she was reading out an established fact.

The moment her words fell, Kamuro Masumi's fingers seemed to be under a spell, stopping precisely on that can of beer.

Shimizu Akira saw Kamuro's fingers tremble slightly, as if she were experiencing an intense internal struggle.

"28 seconds... 29 seconds..." Sakayanagi Arisu counted down softly, her voice carrying the composure of someone who had already won.

The instant she counted to "30 seconds," Kamuro Masumi snatched the beer and stuffed it into her school uniform jacket with lightning speed.

Sakayanagi Arisu turned around elegantly, "How about that? My deduction was completely correct, wasn't it?~" Her voice carried undisguised pleasure.

Shimizu Akira unconsciously reconfirmed the information that had appeared in his mind:

[Information 1: (Today at 10:30 sharp) After the entrance ceremony ends... Kamuro Masumi will "shoplift" a can of beer at the school convenience store.]

Every detail was exactly right.

He looked at the petite silver-haired girl in front of him, a complex sense of admiration welling up inside him.

Sakayanagi Arisu had not only perfectly predicted the theft, but she had even calculated the time down to the second.

"Brilliant!" Shimizu Akira applauded sincerely, "Classmate Sakayanagi, I must admit, you are the smartest girl I have ever met."

His gaze swept over the girl's delicate face, that eye-catching silver hair, and that expression that always carried a hint of arrogance.

Although she always maintained a high-and-mighty attitude toward ordinary people, she was unexpectedly sincere toward those she recognized.

This contradictory trait actually made her seem even more... charming.

Sakayanagi Arisu rested her slender fingers against her chin, "To receive such high praise from Classmate Shimizu, I am truly flattered."

Shimizu Akira spread his hands calmly, "However... I had already decided to give this can of beer to Classmate Kamuro at 9:55." He paused, looking at her with a calm gaze, "So strictly speaking, this does not constitute an act of theft. It seems Classmate Sakayanagi's judgment was off this time."

"What?!" Sakayanagi Arisu's pupils contracted sharply, then she returned to that composed smile: "Interesting... may I see the evidence?"

Shimizu Akira showed his phone screen without haste.

It was a short LINE conversation:

[Today 9:55]

Shimizu Akira: Teacher Chabashira, could I ask you to purchase all the loose cans of beer at the convenience store on my behalf?

Chabashira Sae: You want a teacher to buy alcohol for a minor? You had better have a reasonable explanation.

Shimizu Akira: It is not for consumption. I simply discovered that a certain female student plans to steal one, and I hope you can buy them first and then place them back on the shelf.

Chabashira Sae: And the reason for this unnecessary trouble is?

Shimizu Akira: A bet with someone regarding "whether a crime can be established."

Chabashira Sae:... In other words, the beer was bought legally by me, an adult, for you. Whether that girl's actions constitute theft depends entirely on your judgment?

Sakayanagi Arisu fell into a rare, brief silence.

"I see... so you began executing the entire plan at 9:55?" She suddenly chuckled, though her laughter carried a hint of complex emotion.

012 Kamuro Masumi: He didn't report me and even gave me the beer, could he possibly...

Before agreeing to the bet, Shimizu Akira had indeed spent a long time talking to someone on his phone.

Thinking about it now, that must have been when he was discussing this plan with their homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae.

Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly realized the perfection of this layout: the homeroom teacher, as an adult, had legally purchased the beer, and the ownership was indirectly transferred through Shimizu Akira.

This formed an exquisite legal closed loop—the establishment of the act of theft depended entirely on the subjective determination of ownership.

"Truly... a flawless, surefire method." Her voice carried a hint of trembling unwillingness, yet it was mixed with undisguised admiration.

What was most impressive was not the plan itself, but the fact that Shimizu Akira had already set a trap before even agreeing to the bet—he had managed to prepare a winning strategy the very moment she proposed the challenge.

This plan was so perfect that she felt ashamed of her own oversight: first, given her arrogant nature, she would never have thought to ask the homeroom teacher for assistance; second, she was too fixated on her contest with Shimizu Akira, causing her to ignore the most fundamental examination of the rules.

"I concede." Sakayanagi Arisu lifted her head, a forced smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Let's add each other as friends. One hundred thousand points... I'll transfer them to you right now."

"Sure." Shimizu Akira raised an eyebrow, looking slightly surprised.

He had expected her to keep pressing for details, but upon reflection—given Sakayanagi Arisu's intelligence—she had likely already grasped the entire layout.

After the two exchanged contact information, the one hundred thousand points were transferred immediately.

"Making a net profit of eighty thousand points on the first day of school, this feeling isn't half bad." A pleasant arc formed on Shimizu Akira's lips.

After deducting the ten thousand for the errand fee and beer money given to Chabashira Sae, this was indeed a considerable income.

More importantly, he had successfully made this arrogant silver-haired girl taste the bitterness of defeat.

It was just... she wouldn't hold a grudge against him for this, would she?

Just as he was pondering this to himself, he met Sakayanagi Arisu's complex gaze.

Her eyes were a tangle of confusion, unwillingness, and a trace of indescribable emotion.

"I truly cannot understand." Her voice carried a rare tremor. "With your intellect, how could you be assigned to Class D?"

"I didn't perform very well during the interview." Shimizu Akira brushed it off casually, naturally not mentioning the absurd truth of his transmigration.

"...Just how poorly did you perform!? To the point of ending up in Class D!... Wait, could it be that the interviewer didn't like you and gave you a low score? Regardless, I will investigate this matter thoroughly." Sakayanagi Arisu's voice turned cold in an instant, but when she looked up at Shimizu Akira again, her face had returned to its usual elegant smile: "Shimizu-kun, I won't lose next time."

"You're welcome to try anytime." Shimizu Akira shrugged lightly. "As long as you're prepared with an interesting game and enough points." For this kind of "sponsorship" delivered to his doorstep, he naturally wouldn't turn it away.

However, the girl's remark about "investigating thoroughly" did catch his attention.

Why did she suddenly sound like someone from the school administration?

Could Class A be hiding some sort of special privilege?

Could this seemingly frail young lady actually be the apple of the director's eye, or perhaps even his granddaughter?

If that were the case, hadn't he offended the daughter of the school's top brass on his very first day?

On the other side, Kamuro Masumi pretended to be calm as she blended into the crowd of students.

The canned beer in her bag felt inexplicably heavy, as if it might tear through the thin fabric at any moment and be exposed to everyone's sight.

(Was someone looking at her just now?)

She glanced slightly to the side, her peripheral vision sweeping behind her.

A few blurry figures moved between the shelves, but no one stopped, and no one stared.

(Was it... just my imagination?)

She let out a soft breath and unconsciously quickened her pace the moment she stepped out of the convenience store's automatic doors.

The refreshing summer breeze filled her lungs, slightly diluting the tension in her chest.

Feeling the cold touch of the beer can inside her bag.

Kamuro Masumi's lips curled upward involuntarily, a strange thrill surging through her chest.

(I succeeded again!)

She cheered silently in her heart, her tongue tasting a subtle sweetness.

This was far from the first time—ever since that sweltering afternoon in middle school, when she first stuffed an eraser from a stationery store into her uniform pocket, that thrill of her heart almost jumping out of her throat had been deeply etched into her memory.

She had just taken a step when a strange male voice suddenly came from behind her—

"Kamuro-san, wait a moment."

Her spine stiffened instantly, and her blood seemed to freeze in that very moment.

(Could it be... have I been discovered?)

Turning around slowly, a strange male student came into view.

"Is there something in your bag?"

His gaze landed lightly on her shoulder bag.

Kamuro Masumi's throat tightened slightly, but she maintained an indifferent expression on her face. "...What are you talking about? I don't understand."

The male student took a step forward. "Your technique is quite clean; this shouldn't be your first time, right? But why beer? Do you like drinking that much?"

(...This guy! He even knows what I stole?!)

Her pupils contracted sharply, and her heart gave an involuntary tug.

—This was the first time in her life she had been caught red-handed.

"Take it... if you want to report me, do it now!" She yanked the beer can out of her bag and handed it over, almost as if out of spite.

The other party was stunned for a moment, then showed a look of being unable to laugh or cry. "...Wait, why are you handing the evidence to me? You're surrendering way too easily, aren't you?"

"Enough!" She turned her face away, her earlobes flushing red with embarrassment and annoyance. "You saw the whole thing anyway, didn't you?!"

"Are you really a student from Class A?" The male student suddenly looked her over with a strange expression. "This reaction... it's almost like you're in my class."

Kamuro Masumi felt her temple throbbing.

(How could he know my class? He even knows my name?!)

What annoyed her even more was his gaze—that look of astonishment mixed with a hint of disdain.

Was he actually looking down on her reaction time?!

"What exactly do you want?! If you aren't going to report me, then I'm going to contact the school!" Her voice rose slightly, and the beer can in her hand began to warp under her grip.

"I never had any intention of reporting you from the start; in fact, I came here to give you a cut of the profits." The other party suddenly chuckled and, with a rustle, unzipped his shoulder bag—

Clatter! Clatter!

A dozen cans of beer rolled onto the ground.

"Thanks to you, I made a small profit—a total of 100,000 points." He shrugged. "I don't drink, so here, they're all yours. You seem to like beer quite a bit."

"...Huh?!" Kamuro Masumi stared wide-eyed at the pile of beer on the ground, her brain momentarily short-circuiting.

(He isn't reporting me... and he's giving me beer? A cut of the profits? What did I even do?! And which idiot lost 100,000 points to this guy!)

The other party turned to leave, but suddenly stopped and raised a hand, waving it—

"Let me give you a quick lesson while I'm at it."

"First, the beer you took had already been bought by me, so it wasn't technically theft at all."

"Second, points can buy anything at this school; you could have just bought your way out of this theft incident directly from the administration."

"Third, you could have used points to bribe a witness or buy the convenience store's security footage. In short, there are plenty of ways to solve a problem... just don't let others get a handle on you."

Kamuro Masumi froze in place, the beer can in her hand emitting a faint metallic creak from being squeezed too hard.

(These loopholes... why would he go out of his way to tell me this?)

(Not only did he not report me, he gave me beer... and even helped me avoid the consequences of theft... he's actually kind of a nice guy!)

As she watched his retreating back, an absurd thought suddenly flashed through her mind—