Classroom of the Elite: I Can Gain Unlimited Points

What the hell do you bastards mean? Are you all treating me like a fool?!

"So, what about you, Horikita President? Haven't you always maintained that competition between different grades is meaningless? What are your considerations in appearing here and interfering with the decisions of Class 2-C and Class 2-D?"

With a cold expression, Nagumo finally looked at Manabu Horikita, the respected senior he had always wanted to challenge.

I didn't perform well this time, which led to my well-planned scheme being undermined by Aragaki Shun just as it was being implemented.

It's truly disheartening that the showdown we once longed for has turned into such a predicament!

261. Tachibana Akane's super easy to handle; the goal of the Borrowing Race.

Why does this Miyabi Nagumo seem to have some strange tendencies?

Isn't his obsession with Manabu Horikita a little off?

Watching the two amuse themselves, Aragaki Shun couldn't help but have this strange and inexplicable thought.

Thinking of this, the boy instinctively felt a chill. Seeing that Miyabi Nagumo had no other way to reverse the situation, he simply stretched and broke away from the crowd of onlookers, intending to return to the group of Class 1-A.

But after taking only two steps, a voice suddenly called out from the side:

"Wait a minute, Aragaki."

The Leader of Class A looked in the direction of the sound and saw a Bun-haired Senior hairstyle running over from more than ten meters away. When she stopped in front of the boy, she was slightly out of breath and gently patting her chest with her notebook, which she never parted with.

Her rapid breathing from running caused her shoulders to rise and fall slightly beneath her uniform jacket, and the neatly tied ribbon at her collar trembled gently. Strands of sweat clung to her pale pink cheeks, forming wisps of hair on her forehead.

"Tachibana Akane, it's rare to see you so lively. You're quite adorable."

Aragaki Shun smiled, reached out a hand and paused briefly on her forehead to wipe away the sweat.

The secretary, who had been only breathing lightly, held her breath at that moment.

The boy then chuckled mischievously, and with a flick of his wrist, pinched the two buns on either side of her hair with his thumb and forefinger.

The bun hairstyle is actually softer than I imagined, with a faint scent of sun-dried shampoo and a touch of post-workout warmth. Applying a little pressure with your fingertips feels like pinching two little bunny ears hidden in the hair.

To be honest, he had wanted to do this for a long time, and now he finally satisfied his long-standing curiosity.

"...!"

Tachibana Akane's ears instantly flushed a deeper blush, and she hurriedly hugged the notebook even tighter, almost embedding it into her chest.

My fingertips unconsciously tightened around the leather corner of the notebook, making a soft "click" sound.

Those almond-shaped eyes, usually so calm and collected, now darted around, first staring at Aragaki Shun's collar, then unconsciously gazing at the ground, her voice softer than water:

"Junior... no... not in a place like this..."

Halfway through her sentence, she lost her confidence, and her voice trembled slightly at the end.

Aragaki Shun lowered his eyes and saw the girl's toes slightly raised due to nervousness. After the bun was released, the hair tie was slightly crooked, and a strand of purple hair fell down, sticking to her burning red earlobe.

With such a charming demeanor, saying "no" is utterly unconvincing.

"I'm sorry, the occasion is indeed a bit inappropriate," he chuckled, but his voice held no apology. "Then could I ask my senior to schedule a time, just the two of us?"

"A... a date..." Tachibana Akane pursed her lips and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. She subconsciously wanted to take two steps back, but found that her legs seemed to go weak and she had no strength to move.

Aragaki Shun's knuckles slowly stroked down her hair, the movement almost agonizingly slow. When his fingertips brushed against her burning earlobe, Tachibana Akane shrank back as if burned, letting out a very soft whimper, almost like a coquettish complaint.

"No, don't do this..."

"So, what's your answer, senior?" The boy leaned closer, his breath brushing against her ear. "The class is supposed to have a celebration party tonight, but school's closed tomorrow. Could you accompany me for a walk?"

"Take a walk..." Tachibana Akane's eyelashes fluttered like startled butterfly wings, then drooped down, obscuring her almond-shaped eyes, which were almost wet with panic.

Aragaki Shun waited patiently with a smile, but his fingertips mischievously continued to pinch her earlobe, causing the girl to involuntarily shrink her shoulders.

"I... I don't have club activities tomorrow..." Seemingly a little dizzy, the senior bit her lip, then, as if finally regaining some composure, added softly, "... Tomorrow, there are no club activities."

After she finished speaking, she was stunned.

Does that mean I've agreed?

Why does it sound like you can't wait?

The temperature at the tip of my ear instantly rose another degree.

"It's settled then. We'll meet at the shopping mall at 10 a. m. tomorrow." Aragaki Shun nodded in satisfaction, finally releasing the girl's increasingly hot earlobe.

"...Mmm." Tachibana Akane answered almost in a breathy voice.

This response seemed to have exhausted all the girl's courage. She didn't dare to look up, clutching the notebook to her chest as if it were her last shield, and turned to run away.

But after taking just one step, as if remembering something, she turned back and quickly added:

"No, no lateness allowed!"

After saying that, she practically fled.

Her bun was tilted halfway, and the purple ends of her hair swayed gently in the wind. Her slightly clumsy appearance was truly pleasing to the eye.

Only after hurriedly returning to the Class A of the Third Year did the girl pat her blushing cheeks, calming her overly excited emotions, and realize what had happened.

I think I called out to Aragaki-kun just now because I wanted to ask him some serious questions about the second half of the Sports Festival, right?

Before she could even say anything, her thoughts were easily thrown into disarray... Ugh~ Am I an idiot? Why am I so easily manipulated?

So, if I have a date tomorrow, should I prepare a suitable outfit in advance?

I have no relevant experience growing up, so what should I do...?

After easily dealing with the super-easy-to-handle Bun-haired Senior, Aragaki Shun happily walked back to his own classroom, feeling the lingering touch of her hair on his fingertips.

Although he didn't know why Secretary Tachibana Akane had called him, it was definitely better to talk about personal matters and not business at this time.

After all, there can only be one winner from the three grades in the Sports Festival, and Aragaki Shun would never harm the interests of his class for his own selfish reasons. So, chatting with the cute upperclassman about romance and nature is the best choice.

"It seems like the all-participation events at the Sports Festival are almost over. Next up should be the [Borrowing Race] event, right?"

Upon arriving at the camp, next to Sakayanagi Arisu, who had been sitting in a chair as a spectator, Aragaki Shun asked the silver-haired girl about the current status of the match.

Because of her illness, the little princess needed to substitute for the Leader of Class A in all her events. Seeing how bored she was, Aragaki Shun simply handed over the work of observing and recording to her. If anyone in the class was injured during a competition, he was also required to pass on the information to her immediately.

Naturally, the situation in first grade is thriving right now.

"If things continue at the current pace, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the winning group is practically ours, the middle group will most likely go to the Third Year, and the second year has essentially secured the losing group."

Aragaki Shun nodded, having no doubts about Sakayanagi Arisu's assessment.

Looking only at the scores on the central screen, apart from the first grade being far ahead, the second grade, overall, still leads the Third Year by a considerable margin.

After all, with Class 3-B and Class C of the third grade causing trouble in the morning, it would be difficult for Class A and Class D to achieve a high ranking, even with Manabu Horikita's strong organizational skills.

So he had no choice but to resort to drastic measures and drag the second-grade students into it as well.

If the situation in second grade is worse, then even if Third Year is the worst, it won't be the worst!

It is known that during the afternoon competition, the number of absent students in Class 2-A increased again, while most of the absent students in Class C and Class D returned.

However, instead of trying to score as hard as they did in the morning, these two classes simply gave up and deliberately committed fouls to disqualify themselves from each exam, clearly not intending to compete for a higher ranking.

If nothing unexpected happens, Manabu Horikita probably made a deal with Kiryuuin Fuuka and Kiriyama Ikuto, instructing them to intensify their attacks on Miyabi Nagumo's class during the lunch break and to release some of the Class 2-C and Class D.

The main issue is that there aren't many students in Class 2-B. At most, we can only stop about forty people from participating at the same time, so we have to make some choices.

However, for Kiriyama Ikuto and his team, since they were determined to use the Zero-Point Strategy, the best outcome would be to drag down the remaining three second-year classes. Therefore, they did not target only Class 2-A.

As for now, as long as Manabu Horikita is willing to provide the conditions, Class 2-B is naturally willing to slightly shift its strategy and direct all its firepower towards the class where Miyabi Nagumo is located.

In this way, Manabu Horikita could go to Class 2-C and Class D of the second year and ask them to concede defeat in the afternoon's competition.

The reason is simple: on the one hand, missing the Sports Festival will result in a deduction of Class Evaluation Points, and these two classes do not want to be like in the morning, where a large number of participants were prevented from participating.

On the other hand, the second-year students are clearly no longer in the winning group, so the higher their ranking, the more points they will lose.

Seeing the fierce competition between Class A and Class B, Class C and Class D, who could potentially play the role of opportunists, inevitably began to harbor some ulterior motives.

In short, by the time the Sports Festival resumed in the afternoon, only a team of less than ten students from Class A remained from the second year, and they were still seriously participating in the competition.

"It's really interesting. What should have been a competition of pure strength has turned into a contest of chances for a group of people to drag the team down in the second half."

Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled softly, a mischievous grin spreading across her face.

"It's a bit of a shame I didn't go to the second year with Aragaki-kun to see what kind of expression Nagumo- senpai has right now."

Looking at the second grade alone, Class A still has the best results in the competition. Therefore, even though she knows that the other three classes are dragging her down, Miyabi Nagumo can only ask the less than ten participants in her class to bite the bullet and fight desperately for a good ranking.

After all, those three classes hadn't scored any points since the afternoon. If Miyabi Nagumo's class also started to slack off, then the entire second year would inevitably fall into the failure group based on the current internal rankings.

As the first in the losing group, Class 2-A will have 400 Class Evaluation Points deducted.

On the contrary, if we give it our all, we might have a chance to make the second grade the middle group, and the first place would only have to deduct 200 Class Evaluation Points.

To some extent, this is also what he and Manabu Horikita are vying for, so the Yellow-haired Senior will never easily admit defeat.

"In this situation, Class C and Class D of the second year have become the key to the outcome of the competition between the second and Third Year. Both Nagumo and Horikita are scheming around them. I felt bored, so I came back early."

The punishment for the losing group is too severe. The Class Evaluation Points deducted for each ranking are twice that of the middle group. In theory, Nagumo is confident that he can persuade Class 2-C and Class D of the second grade to continue to work hard.

After all, within the second year, it was already determined that Class B would inevitably be last. Even if Class C and Class D became the first in the middle group and had their evaluation points deducted, they would not be higher than the third place in the losing group.

Therefore, it is the right thing for them to do their best together to defeat the Third Year.

Unfortunately, Class 2-B is now a mole recruited by Manabu Horikita, and if they are dragged into absences, their evaluation points will also be deducted.

This makes the pros and cons extremely complex, and it's uncertain how things will develop under the power struggle between those two.

The only thing that can be confirmed right now is that the first-year students have already secured the victory!

--[The Borrowing Race is about to begin. Participants, please take your positions.]

With the school's public address system activated, the all-participation program came to an end, leaving only four recommended events for the Sports Festival.

More importantly, these projects often award relatively high scores.

As always, to boost morale, Aragaki Shun took to the field in the first round of this event.

Before the match officially began, the referees provided supplementary explanations:

"The obstacle course in the Borrowing Race has some challenging elements. Although you can redraw, you have to wait 30 seconds. If someone wants to redraw, they should tell the referee standing at the drawing point. The race ends when eight students reach the finish line."

After confirming that everyone understood the rules for this round, the group began to prepare at the referee's signal.

As the signal gun fired, Aragaki Shun took the lead and, unsurprisingly, was the first to reach the table at the finish line. On the table was a special box containing various slips of paper to choose from.

This is what makes the "Borrowing Race" different from a regular race. Participants need to draw lots to determine which item they will borrow, retrieve it, and run back to the finish line. Only after the judges confirm the item can the results be calculated.

Judging from these rules, this event is a competition that relies heavily on luck. If you're unlucky, even the world's fastest runner won't be able to win.

However, Aragaki Shun was confident in himself, so he didn't hesitate and pulled it directly into the box.

Without any skill, relying solely on innate intuition, the boy's hand glided past sheets of paper folded into quarters, selecting the appropriate target.

[Kikyo]

Um... Upon seeing the paper, Aragaki Shun was confused for half a second, momentarily unable to tell whether it was about a person or a herb.

But who cares!

At least, this thing didn't make any weird requests like "10 female friends," right?

262. Kushida Kikyo was taken away in front of everyone; the Sports Festival ended.

The designated goal for the Borrowing Race has been determined.

So here's the question--

Should I borrow the other person as requested, or wait 30 seconds to draw lots again?

There's absolutely no need to hesitate about this!

Upon noticing that other contestants had already come to the table to draw lots on both sides, Aragaki Shun abandoned his concerns and rushed straight towards the Class 1-D's location without saying a word.

"Kushida, could I borrow you for a moment?"

As he said this, Aragaki Shun's lips curled up slightly, deliberately giving off a dazzling smile that, with the blessing of [Sun Kin], instantly maxed out the little angel's dizziness level.

The afternoon playground looked like a dazzling silver foil baked by the sun, with waves of heat rising from the grass and the rubber track. Colorful flags fluttered in the stands, and the faint beat of drums came from the loudspeaker; all sounds merged into a distant buzz.

The world in Kushida Kikyo's eyes seemed like a dream, suddenly bursting with countless lights. Faced with the boy's casual question, she instinctively raised her sweet smile, which she had practiced a thousand times. "Um~ Of course you can--"

Before the last note had even finished, the world suddenly spun around.