The current test was based on the written exams everyone had already taken, and the upcoming midterm would use last year's exam papers too.
So perhaps that was the message Chabashira-sensei had been trying to convey.
She'd deliberately withheld the details about the exam's scoring, hoping the one person who'd seen through it all would come to her.
In the original story, the Class A teacher was upright; the Class B teacher was laid-back but still shared necessary information, even passing along some intelligence about Class D. The Class C teacher protected her students regardless of whether they were in the right, while the Class D teacher seemed like a slacker.
But now it seemed Chabashira-sensei was the most tenacious of them all.
Still, no matter what trap she set, it wouldn't change anything. In the original story, the Class D students got their hands on the exam papers the protagonist had bought, yet Sudo still failed by one point. Even after they bought a point to help him pass, the class only received an evaluation score of 87 points.
What did that prove?
Even if you gave them the exam papers—the exact same exam papers—the students in this class still couldn't get full marks, or even guarantee themselves a score of 90 or more.
There was no saving them.
So there was no way this class could handle it.
Still, even if the class was beyond saving, this exam could at least earn him a little spending money.
"Come with me after school," Nakano Yuu said to Horikita Suzune, glancing toward Kushida.
"?"
Horikita seemed confused, but quickly caught on. Was he hiring her again today?
"I'm not hiring you today. There's something I need to take care of with you. It may only be a tiny bit, but it's still money, so we might as well get it."
She didn't quite understand, but Horikita got that he seemed to be planning to make some money.
But could they really earn anything from this exam?
It was only a written test.
So after school, Horikita Suzune quickly followed Nakano Yuu out of the classroom.
Quite a few students remained behind, and Kushida's gaze followed Nakano and Horikita as they left.
"Kikyo?" Wang Meiyu, Kushida's close friend, noticed that Kushida seemed to be staring blankly.
"Horikita and Nakano are so close," Kushida remarked, as if the thought had just occurred to her.
"Yeah. Nakano never really stood out before, but I suddenly think he's pretty handsome. He's almost as good-looking as Hirata," Wang Meiyu said. "And his grades in the class chat are amazing too."
"..." Kushida.
Kushida didn't respond.
[Kushida-senpai seems a little lost in thought.]
The voice of her junior, Amasawa, sounded in Kushida's mind.
That was right.
Kushida was like an open book to Amasawa. She couldn't hide anything from her; Amasawa was inside her body, and could see everything.
It was an awful feeling.
Still...
"What's going to happen to me in this midterm?"
Kushida was most concerned about herself.
In the past, she would have worried about Horikita Suzune first, afraid that Horikita might reveal her dark history from middle school. But now, after learning from that wicked underclassman who the real threat to her was, she knew it was Nakano Yuu.
Nakano.
Nakano-kun.
So, Nakano Yuu, you're already with Horikita Suzune. Why don't you just get Horikita pregnant and have her expelled? Why do you have to do something so awful to me?
Or are you just so damn unsatisfied that you want both of us?
Kushida was in a complicated mood.
Chapter 027: The Plan to Pass, Acquired!
Meanwhile, Horikita Suzune had already followed Nakano to the school cafeteria.
It was after school, and some students were heading to club activities, while most were going home. With dinner time approaching, plenty of students were also going to the shopping district.
The shopping district was bustling.
From large discos and karaoke bars to all kinds of shops—bakeries, pastry shops, supermarkets, bubble tea shops, cafés, shopping malls, movie theaters, bathhouses, and more—it had everything.
In that respect, the school was pretty well equipped.
Although it kept students on campus, it also provided them with almost everything they could need.
Still...
Nakano Yuu had chosen to go to the school cafeteria.
He headed to the first floor. Aside from being convenient, it had the most free meals—the school's relief station.
Nakano didn't have to wait long before he found an upperclassman with a bland vegetable set meal. She sat in a chair, staring at her food with an utterly defeated look. It probably tasted awful and had no oil in it either. She looked like she was eating livestock fodder.
"Are you planning to approach students who aren't doing well academically?" Horikita's younger sister suddenly asked beside him.
?
No.
Nakano turned to look at Horikita Suzune. Who knew Horikita's little sister had such a sharp eye?
Yes, Nakano was planning to approach an upperclassman.
And there were better choices for this kind of social interaction, such as Kushida Kikyou.
But something about Kushida felt off today, so he'd decided to bring someone else.
That was why he'd brought Horikita Suzune along. But now it seemed her little sister was surprisingly on the ball.
"That's right," Nakano Yuu said. "To prepare for this Special Exam, I've decided to approach upperclassmen and make a few points. But first I need to see whether they're taking the same written exam as us."
More precisely, he needed to find out whether the upperclassmen were also being tested on old exam papers.
Chabashira-sensei's actions had revealed that the first-years were being tested on old questions, but it was hard to say whether the upperclassmen were too. The school was meant to cultivate students, so each year's Special Exams might be different.
But there was another possibility. If all the students were taking old exams and only the first-years had no idea, the upperclassmen would have a chance to relax.
They could simply buy the papers from their seniors, pass the exam easily, and get a free 100-point class evaluation score.
That would count as a benefit the school was giving them.
But for Nakano, if all three years were taking the same exam and it was based on old papers, he might be able to make an unexpected windfall.
So he needed to confirm the information. That was why he was approaching upperclassmen.
Still...
"Why did you say you were looking for students who aren't doing well academically?" Nakano Yuu asked, curious about Horikita's earlier remark.
"You said you wanted to earn a few points," Horikita Suzune replied. "Tutoring students who aren't doing well academically could earn you some money."
?
No, was that what she thought he meant?
Had she considered that the students they were seeing were upperclassmen? Was she planning to tutor them?
She hadn't even covered the material they were studying yet.
Still, starting a tutoring service might earn a little money. It was one way for top students to make money.
But this school's evaluations weren't based only on written exams. The students who struggled academically were mostly in the lower-ranked classes, and they had little money. Meanwhile, Horikita couldn't keep up with the curriculum in the top classes. So her idea could only fall apart halfway through.
"Since you've come to this school, you need to adapt to it instead of relying on the way you used to think," Nakano Yuu said. "Take this midterm, for example. How do you think you should prepare for it?"
Since it was a written exam, the obvious answer was to study hard, review according to the teachers' study guide, and then take the test.
That was the normal way to think.
But Horikita had already learned that lesson the hard way.
"What do you mean?" She raised her head slightly and looked at him intently.
"I got some information," Nakano Yuu said. "The exam will use old questions. Like the test we took today, it'll be based on past papers."
"In other words, if we buy the papers the upperclassmen took during their first year, we can pass this exam," Nakano Yuu said.
Horikita Suzune's expression changed instantly.
She'd already been shocked to learn from Nakano and the teacher about the school's unusual rules. Now she was finding out that the exams were just as unexpected.
"Think about it. The school started testing the new students in their first month, then told them the truth about how the school worked after the exams."
"So why would it reveal all the information in the second month?"
"Clearly, it wants students to apply what they've learned in the upcoming Special Exam. The school is meant to cultivate capable people, not bookworms who only know how to study. So the new students' second Special Exam is related to this. Now that they know what makes this school unique, how will they handle its exams—for example, a written test?"
Nakano Yuu explained.
His reasoning was so convincing that Horikita Suzune fell silent.
Horikita's younger sister was quiet. It seemed she was only now realizing how little she understood about this school.
Still...
"Why do you know so much?" Horikita Suzune asked, her beautiful eyes full of curiosity.
You may look beautiful right now, but do you think I'll tell you just because you're making that lovely face?
"That's a secret," Nakano Yuu said.
He couldn't exactly tell her he'd watched the anime.
So, without much trouble, Nakano brought Horikita to the senior who was staring grimly at her free vegetable set meal, looking as if the meal were her sworn enemy.
In the end, he paid 30,000 points in exchange for the papers she'd taken the previous year.
To keep things safe, the senior had provided photos, so Nakano and Horikita still had to turn them into printed copies.
That meant going to a print shop in the shopping district.
The two of them took another ten minutes or so to get there. They found a copy shop and printed the materials.
The papers covered five subjects: math, physics, chemistry, biology, and English.
That matched the subjects they were supposed to take.
The titles on the papers also caught their attention.
[First-Year First Midterm Physics Exam]
Unfortunately, the senior's grades had been average—just over 50 points—so some of the answers were wrong or left blank. She said the teachers had handed back the papers but hadn't gone over them, so she still didn't know how to solve some of the questions. They would have to fill in the answers themselves.
Still...
Horikita Suzune quickly skimmed a math paper and noticed that most of the questions were covered in the teachers' study guide.
But some went beyond the material they'd been taught.
The proportion worked out to around 73 points.
"There's actually this much material beyond the syllabus," Horikita said.
With her academic ability, she would probably score around 70 if she took the test as it was. She hadn't studied the material beyond the syllabus, so she could only guess at those answers.
"If there were nothing beyond the syllabus, it would just be an ordinary exam. I asked the senior just now, and their textbooks are the same as ours. That confirms that buying past papers from upperclassmen is a way to pass and get the maximum 100-point class evaluation score," Nakano Yuu said.
The two of them walked out of the copy shop together.
Just then, Katsuragi and Sakayanagi from Class A happened to pass by.
Chapter 028: Sell Them to Anyone Who Needs Them!
Shopping district.
Before you continue