So It's a Seven-Nation Free-for-All?
"You dare speak to me like that, even Kiriyama? Don't forget I'm the next Student Council president, the de facto leader of the second year."
"You'll regret this, Nagumo!"
Seeing the atmosphere suddenly starting to resemble a scene from the Naruto anime "Hidden Leaf Village," the Student Council secretary of Class 2-A, Tonokawa, quickly stood up to mediate:
"Kiriyama, there's no need for you to get so worked up. You've already betrayed the class and Horikita Manabu to get the Class A Transfer Ticket that Nagumo promised, so why are you worrying about a few million Private Points?"
Tonokawa's words only fueled Kiriyama's anger, which had just begun to calm him down, causing him to immediately erupt in a tirade:
"It's okay? I did get the ticket to Class A from you. But do you know how much mental burden I carried for that? Including President Horikita, so many students believed that I, the former Leader Class A, could change the current situation. I even had to comfort them and put on an act. Do you know how much mental pressure I was under?"
From Kiriyama's glare at Nagumo, one could sense the genuine anger and emotions he had never revealed before.
"Just a few million? Even if it's only a few hundred thousand, that's still Private Points you, Nagumo, spent for your own amusement. Didn't you ever think that if you used more of those points on your fellow students, you could increase the number of students who get promoted to A? But instead, for your own desires, for the battles you wanted, for your title and empty name as the ruler of the second year, you so casually squandered the Private Points that embody the expectations of all the second-year students? Enough already!"
Perhaps he had been absorbed by the forum's rhythm lately, or perhaps he had been thinking about something similar from the beginning, Kiriyama seized the opportunity to launch an attack without hesitation.
Faced with his righteous and stern words, Miyabi Nagumo merely retorted with sarcasm:
"I never knew before, Kiriyama. You're so considerate of others. I thought those who got Transfer Ticket from me were all self-centered, power-hungry types who didn't care about anything else as long as they graduated from Class A."
"From Horikita Manabu to Kiryuin, I'm just annoyed that second-year students have to waste unnecessary points fighting unnecessary battles for you."
"So, can I take what you're saying now as meaning you've decided to betray me?"
Faced with Miyabi Nagumo's direct confrontation, Kiriyama inexplicably became timid again, his earlier assertiveness vanished, and he began to stammer.
"... I was just pointing out your mistake, Nagumo."
"But hasn't your underlying message always been that you don't think I'll win?"
Miyabi Nagumo stood up and patted Kiriyama on the shoulder. Now that he had calmed down, he was not so averse to the other party's defiance. After all, this was the process of training a dog, and it was the same for him, Kiriyama, and Tsukishiro.
"We will win."
He made that promise.
Although his arrogance had been shattered by Tsukishiro on both a physical and mental level, it had in turn fueled Miyabi Nagumo's competitive spirit, especially in his second year when he was certain of victory.
Upon hearing this, Secretary Tonokawa merely twitched the corner of his mouth, feeling as if the film set had suddenly jumped from Naruto to Jujutsu Kaisen, and the remark itself seemed rather ominous.
Since the guessing game officially started, the students on the forum haven't put down their juicy gossip. They're not updating daily; if they don't refresh the posts every hour, they feel like they'll miss the latest trending news.
While the buzz surrounding Kitagawa Ryo (5 million), Miyabi Nagumo (4 million), and Kiryuin Fuka (2 million) hadn't yet died down, another bombshell was leaked by an anonymous account:
"Ninety percent true, insider information: Ken Sudō will be first in the first heat of the First Year boys' 100-meter race. Those who know, know why. I won't say more. Just wait and see."
There's been a lot of insider information circulating on the forum lately, but unlike many posts that offer a quick fix, this account has posted several detailed supplementary explanations:
"I don't recommend betting on any of Shibata Sō's events from Class A, because he'll be unable to compete due to an ankle injury the day before the Sports Festival, and someone is already planning to mess with him."
"100% genuine insider information, which I bought for 5,000 Private Points, is now being shared for free: In multiple relay training races between Class B and Class D, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Kitagawa Ryo's split times were neck and neck. As long as they don't run into each other, I suggest betting on one of them without hesitation."
"Bonus, a piece of funny news that's probably 50% true: Class 3-C is broke for this year's Sports Festival; the whole class barely participated in the prediction contest."
"For more insider tips and accurate betting information, join the group below. You only need 20,000 Private Points to join. All our carefully selected insider information is 90% accurate. Wishing everyone great success and prosperity during this Sports Festival!"
Please take one day off.
Something urgent needs to be taken care of, so I won't be able to update today.
The short-haired Suzune looks pretty good in the anime, but unfortunately I'm a long-hair fan and can't give up Suzune's long, straight black hair.
As you can see, there's still a lot left to write in the outline of this book, and even some foreshadowing, including the second year, has already been laid. Based on past lessons, I definitely won't be starting a new book until this one is finished. So please stop asking me to write fanfiction of Mygo or any other twisted works in the group or in private messages, even though I do like them quite a bit myself.
After the Sports Festival comes the Cultural Festival. I still hope to write my own things within the framework of the original work, and I also hope to witness this story with everyone to the end. Thank you all for reading and supporting me so far.
Chapter 292: Was it really a war between seven kingdoms? (4k5)
The day after the anonymous post was published, Shibata Sō from Class 1-A, who was mentioned by the post, was suddenly injured during the Soccer Club's daily training. In the presence of many eyewitnesses, he was immediately rushed to the school clinic on a stretcher by other members of the Soccer Club and the instructor.
Although subsequent updates revealed only a minor ankle sprain that would resolve itself after a few days of rest, Shibata Sō's injury, identical to the one previously reported, still caused a huge uproar at this highly sensitive time. Even though the exact timing didn't match up, many people still pushed the post to the forum's homepage through the latest comments, urging the poster to reveal two more.
In this atmosphere of inexplicable fervor, where those who bet on Class A were filled with regret and those who bet on other classes were beaming with pride and certainty of victory, for a time no one, except for the students of Class 1-A, cared about the specific circumstances and cause of Shibata Sō's injury.
As the class representative of Class 1-A, Karuizawa Kei rushed to the infirmary to visit him as quickly as possible. When she arrived, the other students from Class A were already gathered around Shibata Sō's bedside with concern, but upon seeing her in person, they immediately made way for Karuizawa Kei to get close.
"Are you alright? What exactly happened? Was this done on purpose?"
Karuizawa Kei walked to the bedside and first glanced at Shibata's right calf, which was still swollen and looked quite serious despite the treatment. She also remembered the post that had caused such a stir on the forum yesterday.
"It's nothing serious, just a minor injury. That's how it is when you play soccer. It should be fine in a couple of days. The Sports Festival is still five or six days away, enough time for me to recover."
Despite his injury, Shibata Sō's face still wore the same sunny smile as usual, which unconsciously put the other Class A students around him at ease. As the vice class president Kanzaki Ryuji, very perceptively asked the other students to go out first so that Shibata Sō could rest quietly for a while, soon only he, Karuizawa Kei, and Shibata Sō on the hospital bed remained in the infirmary.
At this point, Shibata Sō's smile, which had been comforting his classmate, vanished, and he frantically scratched his hair.
"... Actually, I also want to think that this was just a simple accident. After all, as I said, injuries often occur during our Soccer Club's practice. But yesterday's post is right there, and it does feel a bit strange."
"From the very beginning of training today, whenever I dribbled the ball, several second and third-year students kept trying to tackle me. The competition felt much more intense than usual. I ended up twisting my ankle because I was tripped while dribbling, but in the end, it wasn't a second or third-year student who tripped me, but Yamanaka from Class 1-C."
After listening to Shibata Sō's account of the incident, Karuizawa Kei and Kanzaki Ryuji feeling troubled. According to Shibata's account, it seemed as if a small group of students from three different grades were targeting him.
Whoever profits the most from the incident is naturally the most suspicious.
Since her closest lovers and friends are all die-hard mystery novel fans, Karuizawa Kei was also able to come up with some ideas in this regard. However, this statement obviously couldn't solve the current problem, because if that were the case, every student who hadn't bet on Shibata Sō could have profited from this.
Not everyone would openly reveal their betting page on a forum like Ryuen Kakeru. When anonymity is possible, almost all students choose to bet anonymously. In such cases, even the person involved often doesn't know who they are betting on.
"Kanzaki and I will investigate this matter carefully. Shibata, you should just focus on recovering. But don't push yourself too hard. If this Sports Festival causes any hidden dangers or greater damage to your body, it would be a loss."
Unable to find a solution, Karuizawa Kei could only offer Shibata Sō a word of comfort before leaving the infirmary with Kanzaki Ryuji.
"Kanzaki, what do you think about this?"
When asked by Karuizawa Kei, Kanzaki Ryuji also squinted and pondered for a while before slowly revealing his thoughts:
"Shibata participates in many events, but if we only look at the most popular predictions, it's nothing more than the first heat of the boys' 100 meters, which is the first event of the entire Sports Festival; then there's the mixed 1600-meter relay, which is the last event of the entire Sports Festival and the only event with cross-grade competition; and finally, there's the First Year top scorer, in which Shibata also ranks very high."
"And among these, if we were to pick the event where Shibata has the greatest competitive advantage, it would definitely be the 100-meter dash."
Karuizawa Kei quickly understood Kanzaki Ryuji's meaning. To put it bluntly, in the latter two projects, Shibata Sō and the overall level of Class 1-A were actually not up to the standard of competing for the championship. Therefore, it was not worthwhile for others to target Shibata personally, as the benefits and risks were not symmetrical.
If Kanzaki Ryuji's reasoning is correct, then the small group targeting Shibata is eyeing the first 100-meter race for the First Year boys. Shibata's most direct competitors in that race are Ken Sudō from Class 1-B and Hirata Yosuke from Class 1-D, both in terms of actual ability and the prediction data.
"I remember that anonymous post on the forum yesterday also mentioned this match, and it said that Sudo would definitely get first place. If they wanted to manipulate the match results, targeting Shibata would make sense."
As if to further strengthen his persuasiveness, Kanzaki Ryuji brought up yesterday's post again.
"But I don't think the person who posted the message and the person who attacked Shibata are necessarily the same group, because I remember that post specifically pointed out that Shibata would get injured the day before the Sports Festival."
Upon hearing this, Karuizawa Kei simply shook her head, calmly pointing out a misconception revealed in Kanzaki Ryuji's statement:
"Even without this post and without Shibata's injury, if we only consider actual strength, Sudo from Class 1-B was the strongest contender for first place in this event. Based on that alone, the other party was simply making the most reasonable assumption that most people could come up with."
"I see."
Kanzaki Ryuji nodded, somewhat realizing what was happening.
"It seems that many students have been misled by this post. In that case, Sudo must be under a lot of pressure. After all, at first glance, people will think that he was the one who did it, which makes them forget that he actually has the advantage in a fair fight."
Just as the two were vaguely sensing that they had grasped a clue, another bombshell piece of news reached their ears.
Also a seeded player in this Sports Festival, Hirata Yosuke from Class 1-D seems to have accidentally eaten some expired food and developed symptoms similar to food poisoning, including vomiting and diarrhea. They were taken to the infirmary for treatment in the afternoon.
Before the troubles surrounding Hirata Yosuke had subsided, Shibata Sō was now embroiled in controversy. The moment these two names appeared together, even the most oblivious students couldn't help but turn their attention to the project in which the two were appearing together, and then naturally looked at the only one of the three favorites who was still unscathed.
Thanks to the fact that Sakayanagi Arisu, who was in charge of the Sports Festival, had already predicted to the whole class that Hirata Yosuke might also be in trouble as soon as the news about Shibata Sō Ken Sudō out, and expressed his support for Sudo Ken's innocence, and everyone had seen the changes in Sudo himself in the past few months, the atmosphere and mood of Class 1-B remained stable overall.
"Aren't you going to the Basketball Club today?"
The school bell had just rung when Kitagawa Ryo quickly packed his bag and walked straight to Ken Sudō, who was still sitting in his seat, chin in hand, staring blankly out the window.
"Oh, it's Kitagawa. Hmm, I won't go today."
Ken Sudō, who was somewhat lost in thought, paused for a moment before snapping back to reality. He casually waved his hand, glanced at Kitagawa Ryo's face across from him, and gave a wry smile.
"Now I think I understand what you meant by what you said to me before, or rather, I've truly experienced it."
When the betting rules were first announced, Kitagawa Ryo said some things to Ken Sudō Takeru, who at the time was only focused on winning everything. At the time, I couldn't quite understand what he was saying. But now, the scenarios he described have actually come true for Ken Sudō.
"Is it because of Shibata Hirata?"
"Well, although no one in the class suspects me, I still feel a bit lost. I don't know how to describe it, but I just feel that things shouldn't have developed to this point... Now I don't want to, or rather, I'm afraid to go to the Basketball Club."
In front of Kitagawa Ryo, Ken Sudō slowly revealed his thoughts, his usually straightforward and cheerful face now showing a rare hint of confusion and melancholy.
"The Basketball Club's instructor sent me a message before school ended, telling me not to participate in club training before the Sports Festival, saying it might cause unnecessary disputes and accidents."
He's protecting you.
Kitagawa Ryo offered this words of comfort to Ken Sudō.
With Hirata Yosuke's incident, all the criticism on the forum has now been directed at Ken Sudō, and there has been a noticeable increase in students rushing to join the attack, blatantly lying.
The reversal of public opinion was that easy, because when only Shibata Sō was in trouble, the group celebrating with champagne were mostly students who had bet on Hirata Yosuke or Ken Sudō, making the odds two to one.
With Hirata Yosuke's downfall, the only ones left to open the champagne were the students who had bet on Ken Sudō, instantly turning the tide from one to two and reversing the tide of the game.
Nobody wants their bets to go down the drain. As the saying goes, it's not scarcity that's the problem, but inequality. The forum is now filled with the atmosphere of settling scores with Ken Sudō. There are many voices calling for Ken Sudō to prove his innocence and to "voluntarily" get hurt so that the betting can be fair again. Various anonymous accounts are also making a lot of harsh remarks, implying that if you're not dignified, we'll make you dignified.
However, despite these words, a look at the real-time updated betting data reveals that, with both Shibata Sō Hirata Yosuke unwell, the amount placed on Ken Sudō is unsurprisingly growing rapidly. It's fair to say that despite the criticism, everyone's hands haven't stopped placing bets for a moment.
Ken Sudō himself had also noticed this, and until five minutes ago, the heavy expectations he carried had reached two million.
He was betting on himself to win, because Ken Sudō didn't think he would lose the 100-meter race, even if his opponents were Hirata Yosuke and Shibata Sō.
However, with the dramatic changes in the situation, what Ken Sudō is now facing is a somewhat ironic reality: as more and more people favor him, if he ultimately wins, the Private Points he can obtain will actually decrease.
Because the total prize pool amount has almost stopped increasing, since no one would bet on someone else at this time. As a large number of Private Points are flowing into him, the proportion of Private Points he has bet on himself will become smaller and smaller, and his profit will naturally become smaller and smaller.
Just before school ended, another anonymous message was sent to Ken Sudō's phone along with the club's advisor:
[For example, if the 100-meter race is deliberately lost to Class D, and the Private Points earned are split 50/50, the total is estimated to be no less than one million.]
Just as Kitagawa Ryo had predicted, when the benefits of match-fixing were significantly higher than winning a match normally, someone did contact him, and he did indeed have a fleeting moment of temptation.
But it was only for a moment.
So, after a brief hesitation, Ken Sudō finally spoke up and explained the matter to Kitagawa Ryo, scratching the back of his head and smiling as he gave his answer:
"It has nothing to do with Private Points or Class Points. I just feel that if I agree to fix a match now, I'll never be able to become the professional athlete I always wanted to be as a child."
"Although I don't know exactly what you and the others are planning, this is my action plan for this Sports Festival."
"I bet on all the games I played, and I believed I would win."
"Then, I won't think about anything anymore."
"For me, all I need to do is run my best on the day of the Sports Festival and surpass my past achievements."
Finally, Ken Sudō grinned, seemingly regaining his spirits, and quickly packed his schoolbag.
"If club activities are suspended, I'll just go to the gym to work out. There should be fewer distractions there. I can always get a membership. Bye."
Bye-bye, good luck!
Watching Ken Sudō quickly pack his bag and leave the classroom, Kitagawa Ryo nodded with a hint of satisfaction. Sakayanagi Arisu, who had been watching the whole thing from behind, quietly approached and gestured with her chin.
"I thought Ryo would have Sudo pretend to agree to go fishing."
"He's not cut out to be a spy. Just like he said, he just needs to stay focused, which will actually make it easier for him to surprise the class at the Sports Festival."
At this point, Kitagawa Ryo glanced at Sakayanagi Arisu with a hint of suspicion:
"While I don't intend to interfere in your girls' affairs, it's best not to actually harm the mental or physical health of other students."
"Tch, Ryo doesn't think we did what Shibata Hirata did, does he?"
Responding to Kitagawa Ryo words, Sakayanagi Arisu rolled her eyes at him, then sat sideways on the desk next to him. While staring at and fiddling with the sports ring on her left middle finger, she dismissively retorted:
"Whether it's me, Ichika, Honami, or Megumi and the others, none of us should be the masterminds behind this. Rather, this incident clearly involves upperclassmen and should be within Ryo's purview."
"I was just asking. Of course I know who did those two things; I've already had others handle it."
Kitagawa Ryo just smiled when he heard this. What he said just now was indeed just a test, but he didn't expect to extract a huge amount of information from Arisu's answer.
At first, he genuinely thought it was just a battle of 20 million between Karuizawa Kei and Ichinose Honami. Turns out, it wasn't a duel between two titans at all, but some kind of seven-nation war?
Zhang Tui <The Afterglow of the Lamp>
Book Title: The Last Glow of Light
Synopsis: When humanity first looked up at the sky, it longed for the stars. But after the stars fell and the Outer Gods tore the world apart, no one dared to look up at the starry sky again.