Chapter 246

Although changing policies frequently is a serious taboo for those in power, it is still better than stepping down immediately after the exam.

Not to mention, if Aragaki Shun really managed to create the huge mess of giving every first-year student a Protection Point, the Advanced Nurturing Board of Directors would immediately shift all the nominal losses onto him.

He was absolutely certain that, given their shamelessness, they would demand that he invest 3 billion in cash into Advanced Nurturing to cover the deficit... Even if they could gradually strip away these Protection Point later using Special Exam rules, the Board of Directors would absolutely not mind using that excuse to make him and the White Room bleed money!

That's 3 billion yen. Even if he has a considerable fortune, he couldn't possibly come up with that much cash flow all at once.

The value of the White Room may be far more than 3 billion, but it is mostly intangible assets, shares, real estate, connections and influence. If Ayanokoji Atsuomi loses so much cash as soon as he joins the company, he might be torn apart when he leaves.

Therefore, when faced with two evils, he chose the lesser one. Since the consequences of continuing the Class Vote had become unbearable, he had no choice but to cancel the temporary exam.

Anyway, this thing isn't part of the inherent competition in Advanced Nurturing, so whether to continue or cancel it is entirely up to him.

However, power originates from the hearts of the people, and such frequent changes in policy could easily damage his prestige as Board Chairman, so it's best to avoid going down that path.

"Today is only my second day on the job. If I missed it this time, I can always design Special Exam at a suitable time in the future. I'm not in a hurry."

It is obvious that Tsukishiro Tsunenari has the mindset of a seasoned working person, and he does not have the awareness to give up everything in order to complete the mission for Ayanokoji Atsuomi.

Or rather, in his own perception, Tsukishiro is actually more like Yorozuya that does everything), only contacting clients with whom there is mutual value, and discarding them without hesitation once they can no longer provide value.

"Well, that's fine. If you're not in a hurry, then I'm not in a hurry either. Let me see what kind of grand scheme Chairman Tsukishiro will devise next."

At this point, Aragaki Shun stood up, as if to leave.

Tsukishiro Tsunenari, a headache throbbing. Knowing that the Student Council President truly didn't care about the Class Vote, he finally sighed and couldn't help but lower his head.

"Hey~ let's be frank, what exactly are Aragaki -san's true qualifications?"

Human nature is always about compromise. Even though Tsukishiro knew that Aragaki Shun had made two impossible requests in a row, just to have the roof removed before opening the windows, there was nothing he could do.

After all, the one who is currently being pressured is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, while the Student Council President, who has already gained control of the Advanced Nurturing program and governs two grades, can naturally sit back and relax.

"Hehe~ Do you really want me to tell you?" Aragaki Shun's voice was particularly teasing. "You know, once is okay, twice is okay, but not a third time!"

Tsukishiro Tsunenari: "..."

"Don't worry, if we still can't reach an agreement this time, I will immediately announce to all faculty and staff that all ongoing examinations are cancelled."

Although doing so would immediately cause his prestige at the Advanced Nurturing to plummet, and he would likely be looked down upon by many mid- to high-level personnel, he might face considerable resistance from faculty members if he wanted to continue to order them around.

But now that things have come to this, there's no time to worry about that anymore.

Having understood this, Aragaki Shun smiled knowingly, appearing quite pleased.

"Alright, then my final condition is..."

As the saying goes, "things shouldn't be done more than three times," and after the final negotiations, Tsukishiro Tsunenari finally agreed to the conditions proposed by Aragaki Shun.

With the encouragement of the Board Chairman and the Student Council President, this Class Vote Exam was officially established and quickly implemented.

Two more days passed, and it was March 2nd.

Chie Hoshinomiya walked up to the podium with a serious expression and began the class meeting.

"Everyone, I have some bad news to tell you."

Gone was his usual carefree smile; the Class A teacher's tone was unusually somber.

"As is customary, the final Special Exam of this academic year will begin on March 8th, just as I told you yesterday. After this Special Exam, everyone will be considered to have advanced to the second year."

With his back to the students of Class A, Hoshinomiya picked up the chalk and began to write and draw on the blackboard.

"However, the situation this year is a little different from that of last year."

"Isn't it the same?" Sensing that this was no small matter, someone in the class asked the question uneasily.

"Yes, not a single first-year student has dropped out during Special Exam so far, which is unprecedented in Advanced Nurturing."

Hoshinomiya's voice sounded somewhat helpless. After a moment's pause, she continued, "... Because it differs from the original plan, as an exceptional measure, the school has urgently decided to hold additional Special Exam starting today."

The homeroom teacher of Class A wrote "Tuesday, March 2nd" and "additional Special Exam" on the blackboard, looking dejected, indicating that she was powerless to do anything about it.

Upon hearing this, all the students in the classroom were somewhat taken aback.

Because all the first-year students are excellent and no one has dropped out, they're adding a Special Exam... Doesn't that logic seem a bit strange?

Everyone instinctively turned their gaze to the core of Class A, their leader.

"It's alright, the matter has already been decided and cannot be changed. Let's all listen to the exam rules first."

After receiving a calm and composed reply from Aragaki Shun, everyone felt reassured. It seemed that the class monitor had made arrangements in advance, so everything was fine.

Seeing that the students in the class were not panicked, Chie Hoshinomiya breathed a sigh of relief, and her face once again showed the energy of a young girl.

"The Special Exam is extremely simple, and the dropout rate, calculated by class, is less than three percent. Only students who pass this Special Exam can participate in the promotion exam on March 8th."

The dropout rate is less than 3%?

In other words, some students may drop out of school during this Special Exam.

This is really bad news.

"What exactly is being tested? There are only a few days left until March 8th. Is it even possible to complete a Special Exam in such a short time?"

"Regarding this," Chie Hoshinomiya turned around again and began explaining as she wrote the rules, "The name of this Special Exam is [Class Vote]. The school wants you to evaluate your classmates over four days. On the day of the official exam, what you need to do is..."

The class teacher of Class A briefly introduced the assessment content: Each student must select three classmates worthy of praise and three classmates worthy of criticism within their class, and then select one classmate worthy of praise from the other three classes. The vote will then be held on Saturday, the day of the exam.

In the final exam results, regarding rewards and punishments, the rule that the person who voted last would be expelled remains unchanged, but the reward for the person who voted first has changed:

"... In short, the student who receives the most praise votes will not receive Private Points from the school, but will be rewarded with one [Protection Point] or one [Permanent Transfer Quota]. You can choose one of the two, but once you decide, you cannot change your choice."

At this point, Chie Hoshinomiya subconsciously glanced at Aragaki Shun.

As the first-year homeroom teacher assigned to Tsukishiro Tsunenari on the very day she took office, she was certain that the first-hand rules she obtained did not include anything like a [Permanent Transfer Quota] in the reward program.

In other words, did that child, as Student Council President, negotiate with the Acting Board Chairman for the relevant terms?

Sensing the gaze of their homeroom teacher, Aragaki Shun nodded slightly to Chie Hoshinomiya, as if in response to her question.

That's right, the condition he negotiated with Tsukishiro that day was to change the first-place reward to a choice between Protection Point and a Permanent Transfer Quota.

Protection Point aren't entirely useless, but for Aragaki Shun, who has already dominated the first-year class, they're practically worthless.

However, if he were to switch to Permanent Transfer Quota, he could recruit three more combatants from lower-ranked classes, further increasing the number of students in Class A.

Not to mention, he also accepted the Twenty Million Personal Points promised by Tsukishiro Tsunenari without hesitation.

Finally, if anyone from Class C or Class D drops out during this Class Vote, Tsukishiro is willing to provide them with cash subsidies after they leave Advanced Nurturing.

In this way, the last place in Class A can be offset with 20 million, and Classes Class C and Class D only need to find two students from average families who voluntarily drop out of school. All of these expenses will be paid by the generous Chairman Tsukishiro.

In this Class Vote, Aragaki Shun essentially gained three more fighters for Class A without contributing anything.

The only problem is, whose names should be filled in for these three spots?

In short, the Student Council President is satisfied with the result, while the Acting Board Chairman may face some criticism from the school's higher-ups, since Class 1-A will inevitably become even more powerful and difficult to manage after this incident.

However, Tsukishiro Tsunenari wouldn't stay at the Advanced Nurturing for long. Once he achieved his goal, he would simply leave, and there would be no need for him to care about the so-called competitive balance that the school's higher-ups needed to be concerned about.

Therefore, Tsukishiro's bottom line is that he cannot make any major mistakes that would lead to his resignation.

In this situation, after some consideration, Aragaki Shun ultimately decided not to use the [Special Exam Rule Modification Authority (One Time)] --

In any case, this Class Vote was not part of the school's original plan. If the consequences were too serious, Tsukishiro would definitely cancel the operation and choose other methods to put pressure on the Masterpiece.

To maximize the benefits of this privilege, it seems we'll have to wait for the next opportunity, such as the Uninhabited Island Exam or the VIP Exam.

"... Protection Point and Permanent Transfer Quota?"

While Aragaki Shun was lost in his memories, the other classmates were somewhat confused by the two rewards proposed by Chie Hoshinomiya.

Although the punishment for being last in the class is severe, Class A's rules and regulations already included relief measures for this situation, and they had enough Private Points to implement them, so no one was worried about being expelled for it.

On the contrary, the two-option reward— the Permanent Transfer Quota is easy to understand, but is the Protection Point what I imagined?

Everyone is very interested in this.

"The so-called Protection Point are the right to invalidate a student's status in case of expulsion. The number of points determines how many times the points can be used to invalidate the status. Like Permanent Transfer Quota, they are both worth exactly twenty million, but neither of these rewards can be transferred to others."

Upon hearing this explanation, everyone in the classroom couldn't help but have a variety of thoughts.

The person who gets the most votes receives either Protection Point or Permanent Transfer Quota, while the person who gets the least votes is expelled. In a way, the value is equal... at least that's true for Class A, who has enough Private Points to avoid expulsion.

"Speaking of which, we're already in Class A, so nobody wants to transfer to another class, right? So we can only choose Protection Point. It's probably better to vote for Aragaki in first place."

Shibata Sou suddenly raised his hand to make the suggestion, and it was immediately approved by everyone in the classroom.

In the minds of the Class A members, as long as Aragaki Shun doesn't fall in some unexpected event in the future, their positions are unshakeable.

Therefore, Protection Point should naturally be given to the other party as a Protection Talisman.

Aragaki Shun was pleased with this scene, but then decisively refused:

"No need! Before the official vote, just use two million to temporarily bring someone over, and then give her Permanent Transfer Quota."

"Protection Point is meaningless. With such a good opportunity, of course we should add three more combatants to Class A."

Of course, it could also be four?

328. The sacrifice of Class 1-B; Hashimoto Masayoshi should drop out of school.

In the first grade, each of the four classes needs to vote to determine the first place, and in the end, there will be Permanent Transfer Quota.

Of the three, Aragaki Shun has decided to select suitable fighters from Class C and Class D to transfer to Class A.

As for that spot in Class B... if Koenji Rokusuke, he certainly wouldn't mind poaching someone from elsewhere.

Although Tsukishiro Tsunenari did not agree to add a mechanism where each student Criticism Vote from another class, the rules regarding praise votes from other classes still exist.

Aragaki Shun controls a total of 118 students across three first-year classes, which is equivalent to 118 votes from other classes. He can randomly vote for any student in Class B and make them the number one student, securing Permanent Transfer Quota.

In this situation, if the Leader of Class A were to pay another 20 million to help them break the contract they previously signed with Koenji, would Koenji be willing to switch sides and join the victors?

Haha~ He's really looking forward to it.

"I see. So, before the official vote, we can use two million Private Points to temporarily bring in someone and then cast all the praise votes for that person."

Upon hearing Aragaki Shun's words, everyone in the class's eyes lit up.

"In this way, once the other person becomes number one, they can use their Permanent Transfer Quota to officially become a member of Class A."

This approach is equivalent to achieving the effect of a 20 million permanent transfer fee with only 2 million Transfer Ticket.

Compared to the Protection Point, which are not very useful for Class A, this strategy is indeed more in line with the class's interests, since everyone has already fully experienced the benefits of having a larger class.

Currently, there are 48 students in Class 1-A. If three more strong candidates can be added in this Class Vote, the class size will immediately become 51. Coupled with Class A's large Class Evaluation Points, even just looking at the increase in monthly class fees, the returns will be quite good.

Therefore, all the students in Class 1-A readily accepted Aragaki Shun's arrangement for first place.

However, there seemed to be some doubts about the punishment of expulsion for the last-place student.

"Teacher, I'd like to ask, what should we do to offset the punishment of being expelled for being last in the class? Also, will there be any additional impact on the class because of a student dropping out?"

Kanzaki Ryuji, who was in charge of the class funds, stood up and asked this important question with great concern.

During the Mixed Training Camp Exam, any student who drops out of a class will have 100 Class Evaluation Points deducted. In addition to Twenty Million Personal Points, 300 Class Evaluation Points will be consumed to cancel the dropout penalty.

In other words, in that assessment, a total of Twenty Million Personal Points and 400 Class Evaluation Points were needed to provide relief to those who dropped out of school.

I heard that the rules for each Special Exam are different, and the consequences of losing money vary. So what about this Class Vote?

"Don't worry, everyone. Even if some students drop out this time, the class itself will not be punished."

Chie Hoshinomiya pouted and couldn't help but complain, "After all, this Special Exam was arranged on short notice so that each class could identify students who would drop out. If the school is going to deduct Class Evaluation Points for it, then the school is being unreasonable."

"Therefore, by spending only Twenty Million Personal Points, everyone can protect the student who came in last place in the vote."

Upon hearing this answer, all the students in the classroom breathed a sigh of relief.

Class A may not have much else, but they have plenty of Private Points. Since the school is still allowing relief, there shouldn't be any major problems with this Special Exam.

"Fortunately, I thought the school felt that Class A's evaluation score was too high, so they wanted to use such underhanded methods to deliberately target us."

Kanzaki gave a cold smile, clearly displeased with the school's sudden action.

From his perspective, the first-place winner in the Class Vote gets Permanent Transfer Quota, while the last-place winner has to pay 20 million to avoid being expelled. On the surface, it's neither a gain nor a loss, but this kind of unpredictable situation involving expulsion is still too frightening.

However, it's not the worst-case scenario—if the school directly stipulates that canceling the expulsion penalty requires expending one or even two thousand Class Evaluation Points, then Class A's excellent situation will be immediately cut in half.

Of course, it's unlikely that the school would be so shameless. If that were to happen, he would have to suspect that someone in higher-ups was deliberately targeting him and Aragaki.

"Haha~ This Special Exam that was added on the spot is indeed a bit strange, but it shouldn't be targeting our class."

Chie Hoshinomiya couldn't help but smile, as if she had thought of something interesting.