Yabu Nanami and Yamashita Saki, standing nearby, saw their friend wearing a rare, embarrassed expression. They exchanged a surprised glance and began a silent conversation with a practiced look.
"This is unbelievable. Shiho actually made that face? I've never seen that before, have I?"
"Shiho's just too innocent. She can't bring herself to lie with a straight face."
"Shiho? Innocent? Saki, are you joking? How in the world does that word apply to Shiho?"
"Come on~ Just look at her. Doesn't she fit the description perfectly?"
"She's just been bewitched by Aragaki's looks. So Shiho really is in heat. When I heard her say she'd stay behind alone and sacrifice herself, I was actually touched for a while."
"Exactly! She's throwing her friends aside for a pretty face and trying to keep him all to herself. Give me back my touching moment!"
"Hm? You're acting weird too!"
Watching Manabe Shiho try her best to look unbothered, Aragaki Shun's lips curled into a faint smile. It felt pretty good to leave an opponent speechless with the very thing they'd tried to use against him.
But the girl looked ready to lose her temper from embarrassment, so he didn't dwell on the subject. He casually brushed it off. "If you don't think so, then just assume I'm talking nonsense."
"Let's stop wasting time. Manabe Shiho, Yabu Nanami, and Yamashita Saki, I know Ryuen sent you to follow Class A students. He wants you to provoke and cause trouble until Class A can't take it anymore and starts a violent confrontation, right?"
"How did you know?"
Manabe Shiho's eyes widened. Then she immediately realized what she'd done and clamped her mouth shut, glaring at Aragaki Shun instead.
"Good. It was only a guess before, but now you've helped me confirm it."
Aragaki Shun put on an expression that said, "I owe you one."
In truth, even if Manabe Shiho hadn't reacted at all, Aragaki Shun could have figured out what Ryuen Kakeru would do.
After all, he was the kind of person who used violence to force his classmates to obey him. There were only a few possible reasons he'd send his lackeys to follow and monitor Class A students. It wasn't hard to guess.
But since Manabe had taken the bait, Aragaki Shun didn't mind misleading her a little and making her think that he'd uncovered Ryuen's plan because she'd let it slip.
The girl clearly believed him. Her face paled as she stood there, at a loss.
"What? Worried Ryuen will find out you leaked the plan and have someone beat you up?"
Aragaki Shun's gloating remark enraged Manabe Shiho. Or, well... she got angry for a moment, then stared at him with red-rimmed eyes.
"Look on the bright side. Do you think Ryuen Kakeru expected you to get the better of me? He couldn't even do it himself!"
"Just tell him you were hanging out with Shiro-nami and the others today, and that's how I found out about you and took the information from you. What unreasonable demands could that man possibly make of you after that?"
The Manabe trio: "..."
What you're saying is true, but aren't you worried you'll get beaten up for being so cocky?
Oh, right. You're the strongest in the whole school. Never mind.
"So, getting tricked into giving up information isn't a big deal. What you should really be thinking about is how to spend this reward wisely."
Before the three of them could figure out what Aragaki Shun meant, he took out his phone and tapped the screen a few times.
A moment later, all three phones chimed in turn with notifications that Private Points had been deposited.
87. Anonymous Point Cards; You've Got the Wrong Idea
The three of them stared dumbfounded at the extra ten thousand Private Points on their phones.
Ten thousand Private Points might not seem like much, but everyone in Class C had only twenty thousand points to spend freely in May.
In other words, the Private Points Aragaki Shun had casually transferred to them amounted to half their living expenses for the month.
"W-what do you mean by this?"
Manabe Shiho and her two friends exchanged bewildered looks. Finally, Manabe asked Aragaki Shun what he was up to.
"Things aren't easy for your Class C, are they? You've only got twenty thousand Private Points for living expenses this month. You have to budget carefully even for food and drink just to make it through to next month."
Aragaki Shun looked at the three girls, a deliberately sympathetic glint in his eyes. "You walked around the shopping center with us today, but you never picked anything up. Was that because there was nothing you wanted to buy?"
Manabe Shiho and the others flushed. "And whose fault do you think that is? If you hadn't thrown that Class D student, Kanji Ike, at us and extorted our Private Points, would we have ended up in such a sorry state?"
Faced with the girl's resentful accusation, Aragaki Shun simply smiled faintly and continued, "That's right! I did it. But the school's competitive rules have always been like this. I even left you with twenty-three thousand Private Points, so you can't say I didn't do enough."
"But I'm a kind person. I can't stand seeing fellow students so poor that they come to a clothing store and can't even afford a new outfit. That's not the kind of treatment a cute girl should have to put up with."
"Don't pretend to care after the fact." Manabe Shiho lowered her head, her voice stubborn. "You don't need to concern yourself with Class C. We can deal with our own problems. We don't need Class A's charity."
Aragaki Shun shook his head. "This is your reward for giving me information. How you use it is up to you. If you really don't want to accept it, you can go back to your class and come clean to Ryuen Kakeru, then hand over the points to show your loyalty to the class."
Hand them over to Ryuen Kakeru?
The Manabe trio decided they'd rather spend the points on food and shopping while they were out.
They didn't have any unusual kinks. How could they be loyal to someone who ruled the class through violence?
After all, the way to lead people was to offer both rewards and punishments. Ryuen Kakeru, on the other hand, only had his fists. He never handed out any favors.
Since taking charge of Class C, he hadn't given them any hope of defeating the other classes. Instead, Aragaki Shun had outmaneuvered him, leaving everyone with just twenty-three thousand Private Points to spend this month.
Even worse, that bastard Ryuen had squeezed them for even that little bit, forcibly taking three thousand Private Points from each Class C student as a "remainder."
Why couldn't that useless bastard, who was weak against outsiders and exploited his own classmates, just die already?
Thinking of that, Manabe gritted her teeth and made up her mind: she might as well take the money.
She stared hard at Aragaki Shun. "What exactly are you after? Don't give me any nonsense about being generous. If you were really that nice, you wouldn't have plundered the upperclassmen last month and then forced three classes to sign those contracts!"
"You don't need to be so wary of me." Aragaki Shun took several cards from his pocket and motioned for the three of them to take one each. "The ten thousand I just transferred really was just a reward. The deal I actually want to make with you is right here."
"What are these?"
Manabe Shiho and her two friends exchanged glances, then took the three cards and examined them from every angle. They were certain they'd never seen anything like them before.
"These are Anonymous Point Cards," Aragaki Shun explained. "Think of them as checks or bank cards from the outside world."
"Just enter the corresponding account number and password on your phone, and the money on the Point Cards will be transferred into your personal accounts. Of course, you can also transfer money from your account onto the cards."
After deciding yesterday to place people in Class C, Aragaki Shun had specifically asked Chie Hoshinomiya for these cards, which could store Private Points.
They were easy enough to get. Advanced Nurturing was designed to simulate society, and modern society couldn't function without institutions like banks. It was perfectly normal for ordinary people outside to have several savings and credit cards.
So the school had already accounted for students who wanted multiple accounts. All it took to apply for a Point Card was a small processing fee.
"I put fifty thousand Private Points on each card. Just hide them in your dorm rooms. Even if Ryuen forces you to show him your personal accounts, he won't find the money you've stored on the cards."
Hearing how thoroughly Aragaki Shun had thought this through left the trio with mixed feelings. They exchanged glances, then Manabe Shiho looked at the handsome boy with an odd expression. "Are you trying to keep us? Keeping three people at once is a bit much, don't you think?"
Besides, fifty thousand Private Points seemed a little low for that sort of arrangement. But since he was such a catch, they could probably work something out...
"Stop right there! I just want you to do some things for me in the future. If Class C has any important information, you can secretly send it to me."
"The fifty thousand Private Points are an advance. Every time you give me useful information, I'll add an appropriate reward to the cards. The more valuable the information, the greater the reward."
The Manabe trio: "..."
"What? So you want us to be spies."
Yamashita Saki looked a little disappointed. For a moment, she'd genuinely thought the most handsome boy in the school was going to keep her. Her heart had been pounding with excitement.
She'd just gotten the wrong idea.
"Saki, have some self-respect!"
Manabe Shiho shot her friend a furious look. Once Saki had been cowed, she curled her lip at Aragaki Shun. "You're actually trying to use Private Points to make us betray our class. Do you think we're that kind of people?"
"Do you really think Ryuen has a chance of beating the Class A under my command?" Aragaki Shun didn't even want to try to figure out what was going on in the three delinquents' heads. He spoke bluntly. "If there's no chance of winning the class competition, why not save up some Private Points?"
"Even if the homeroom teacher said Private Points can't be converted into cash, you can still trade the points you've saved for gold and take it outside. Once you're out of school, you can exchange the gold back for yen and at least make a little extra money for living expenses."
"If you follow Ryuen's orders, you'll get nothing, and he'll still take your Private Points by force. What are you even hoping for?"
88. The 100 Private Points Tipped to Ryuen Kakeru
After explaining the pros and cons to Manabe Shiho and the others, Aragaki Shun didn't bother with their complicated feelings any longer. He promptly left the secluded alley.
If he stayed any longer, he worried the lovestruck delinquents might take a fancy to him and make some demands with a distinctly Sakurajima flavor.
He only wanted to recruit a few spies. He was happy to spend some Private Points, but he had no intention of personally using his looks to seduce them.
They weren't particularly important people, anyway. Since he'd run into them, he might as well make a few casual moves. Even if Ryuen Kakeru found out, it could still stir up trouble within Class C and weaken its unity. All Aragaki Shun would lose was a few Private Points.
Besides, it was money he'd been taking from Class C every month anyway. He'd collected those Private Points, then helped the Class C students redistribute them and, in the process, maintained friendly relations between some Class C students and Class A. In a way, everyone won.
"Shiho, are we really going to become Aragaki's spies?"
After Aragaki Shun left, the three delinquent girls stared at one another for a long while. Finally, Yabu Nanami nervously looked toward the group's leader.
"If Ryuen finds out, he'll definitely have Yamada Albert beat us to death."
Yamada Albert was a towering Black man who looked like a small mountain at first glance. He was also the strongest in Class C in terms of physical ability. In a fight, even Ryuen couldn't beat him.
But he couldn't match Ryuen's ruthlessness and persistence. Ryuen had harassed him with all kinds of underhanded ambushes for days. In the end, Yamada had finally had enough of being afraid even to use the toilet, submitted to Ryuen, and become his loyal enforcer.
If even a big guy like Yamada Albert couldn't withstand Ryuen Kakeru's methods, ordinary delinquents like them had even less chance.
If word got out that Class A's leader had bought them off and they'd agreed to spy on Class C, they'd be in for a terrible time. Ryuen would retaliate against them viciously.
"What's there to be afraid of? Aragaki Shun said there are plenty of people in Class C who don't want to obey Ryuen. Even if we don't agree, someone else will betray the class."
Manabe Shiho stroked the Anonymous Point Card in her hand as she entered the account number and password on her phone. When she saw that it really held fifty thousand Private Points, the corners of her mouth curled up.
She waved her hand dismissively, not feeling the slightest shame about becoming a traitor. Class C's life was nothing but enjoying no benefits, taking every beating, and constantly getting saddled with a pile of tasks. Who cared about being a spy?
Damn Ryuen Kakeru, always saying that if they followed his orders, he'd lead them to victory over the other classes. Now Class C had only twenty more Class Points than Class D, and the students couldn't even count on their monthly living expenses.
"Nanami's right. It'd be a waste not to take the money," Yamashita Saki added, soothing her friend. "Even if we don't spy for him, Aragaki Shun can find someone else in Class C. People like Tokito have been secretly defying Ryuen for ages. Do you think they'll turn down Aragaki's offer?"
If someone was bound to betray the class, why couldn't it be them?
Better to take the initiative and earn the money themselves than let someone else sell them out for Private Points.
"But..." Yabu Nanami wasn't especially loyal to Ryuen. She was just worried about what would happen. "What if we get caught?"
Manabe Shiho wasn't bothered in the slightest—
"According to Aragaki Shun, he's already put ten thousand Private Points into everyone's account in Class C. We just have to hide the Point Cards in our dorms. No one will find any proof that we're spies."
Aragaki Shun had looked so rich and generous at the time, she'd been insanely jealous. But now that she thought about it, hadn't all those Private Points come from their Class C?
The money on the cards in their hands, though, had nothing to do with Class C. In other words, only the three of them had actually made a profit.
"Enough. We've already taken the money, so there's no point regretting it now. Keep this to yourselves, or your worst fears will come true."
Manabe Shiho reached over and pinched Yabu Nanami's cheek, warning her fiercely. "The three of us are in this together now. If you drag Saki and me down, I'll strip you naked and throw you onto Aragaki Shun's bed. Then you can pray he'll protect you from Ryuen's revenge!"
"Eek~" Yabu Nanami flushed bright red. Forgetting all about worrying that their spying would be exposed, she squirmed and playfully tussled with Manabe. "Don't! You're the one who wants to go, Shiho. Why are you blaming me?"
"What did you say? Say that again!"
"Isn't it true? Saki and I both saw the embarrassing look on your face."
"I was angry! Stop making things up!!"
"Hehehe~ Really? There's no one else around now. Who are you trying to fool in front of your sisters..."
While the Manabe trio were still horsing around, Ryuen Kakeru was patrolling the Advanced Nurturing grounds with his followers. His mood, however, had suddenly turned extremely dark.
[Aragaki Shun]: "Ryuen, your methods are a little boring. But since you've worked so hard to entertain me, here's a hundred Private Points as a tip."
After reading the email from that Class A bastard and checking that the hundred points had really arrived in his personal account, Ryuen Kakeru's expression twisted into a snarl.
"Interesting! This is just too interesting! Hahaha~ So you're Aragaki Shun, huh? You actually dare treat me like some circus clown... Hahaha~ I'll make you regret it!!"
Before Ryuen Kakeru could finish venting his anger, the panicked voice of his follower Ishizaki Daichi suddenly came from nearby. "This is bad, Boss Ryuen! Aragaki Shun from Class A suddenly sent me this."
Ishizaki Daichi hurriedly showed his phone to Ryuen Kakeru, like he'd just been stung by a poisonous bee. He was afraid that even a second's delay would make him look guilty.
Ryuen Kakeru looked gloomily at Ishizaki's phone. It showed an email from Aragaki Shun and a transfer of ten thousand Private Points—
[Aragaki Shun]: "Ishizaki, I've sent you the fee for the information. I hope you can bring me even more surprises next time."
[Aragaki Shun]: "Class A sincerely welcomes outstanding students from every class to join us. We hope we can continue working together in future Special Exams. Class A won't be stingy with rewards in Private Points, and if you make a major contribution, we can even offer you twenty million Private Points to transfer classes."
88+1. Horikita Suzune Gets Doxxed
"Boss Ryuen, I absolutely didn't betray you! I don't know why Aragaki Shun suddenly sent me an email like this and transferred ten thousand Private Points, but this so-called information fee is definitely a lie. I haven't traded any information with him!"
Ishizaki Daichi hurriedly explained himself to Ryuen Kakeru, silently cursing Aragaki Shun for playing dirty.
If you really wanted to recruit me, couldn't you at least pick a better time? Couldn't you wait until the middle of the night to transfer the Private Points?
Before you continue