What If They Really Find Something? (4.5k) / You're Really Starving, Huh (4.5k)

"In fact, I think that compared to the top students in the class who receive a lot of praise and Criticism Vote, it is more likely that the students in the lower ranks will be the ones who get hurt in the end. Because we want to protect the elite students in the class, we must give them as many praise votes as possible and avoid giving them as many Criticism Vote as possible."

"But the three Criticism Vote within the class must be cast, so some students will inevitably end up with several Criticism Vote, while they won't get many praise votes. Therefore, their final scores will most likely be lower than those of the top students who were targeted. It's a very simple math problem."

After Horikita Suzune finished speaking, Kitagawa Ryo nodded in agreement:

"Indeed, so it's very difficult to completely control all the votes of every student in the class, because everyone is afraid of becoming the student that Suzune mentioned who gets caught in the crossfire. It's more likely that small groups will form and protect each other in advance."

Kitagawa Ryo knew very well that although they had changed from Class 1-D to Class 1-A, many deeper or more general things could not be changed in just a few months. Just like other classes, there were various cliques among the boys and girls in Class A. The specific details could be seen as early as the selection of riders in the Cavalry Battle competition during the Sports Festival. However, Kitagawa Ryo did not care much about it on a daily basis, and he was also very popular among both boys and girls, so he did not feel it particularly obviously.

If it weren't for Horikita Suzune's outstanding contribution to the class at the Cultural Festival, Kitagawa Ryo would probably have suspected that she would have received quite a few Criticism Vote from within the class. After all, Suzune's social circle in the class was so narrow that she was basically the only one left, and she couldn't compare to Ichinose Honami, Sakura Airi, or even Sakayanagi Arisu, who each had their own small groups.

Moreover, this is still an ideal situation. After all, under the premise of anonymity, when it comes to actually voting, many students are probably more driven by emotions than by rationally analyzing everyone's daily performance and voting cautiously. They will likely make an emotional choice based on the idea that "I know so-and-so is not very useful in class, but he is my good friend."

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo even felt a little nostalgic for the group of six, including Yamauchi Haruki Kanji Ike, who were expelled midway through the first semester. After all, it was quite difficult to find such a ready-made, easy-to-use, and stress-free defensive position.

"The deadline for voting is December 20th of next month. We hope everyone can be patient and consider it a little longer. At least for the time being, please do not submit your voting results to the school."

While Kitagawa Ryo was still talking with Horikita Suzune, Ichinose Honami, who was sitting in the front row and was used to being the class's unofficial commander, gently asked the whole class for a favor. She quickly received a response from the entire class, and in this respect, her words were almost more effective than Kitagawa Ryo herself.

However, Kitagawa Ryo didn't have any objections to this. After all, Ichinose Honami was indeed capable enough to be the Leader of Class A at this stage. Her performances in the Sports Festival and Cultural Festival were both remarkable and even amazing, which alleviated the awkward situation where Kitagawa Ryo had to shoulder everything in the first semester of Class A.

"Besides the class competition model, there might also be a class cooperation model. Because Class C in the first year—no, now it's Class D —does have this need. After all, Class D suffered a lot in the Sports Festival and the Cultural Festival, and now it has fallen to the bottom."

After discussing the competitive model, Horikita Suzune began to methodically analyze the possibilities of cooperation. In her view, the key to breaking the deadlock was the situation of Class 1-D.

Although Ryuen Kakeru Sho regained his Leader of the class after the Sports Festival by signing a debt contract with most of the class, he suffered another crushing defeat at the Cultural Festival. The Class Points were surpassed by Class D, causing the class to drop in rank. The previously stable situation undoubtedly became restless again, especially with the Special Exam that offered the opportunity to eliminate students in the class through Criticism Vote.

"Yes, I think so too. If we really want to talk, it can only be up to Ryuen Kakeru to take the initiative or make concessions. But it's hard to say right now. Let's ask Hiyori during lunch."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded in agreement, and prepared to use his lunch Shiina Hiyori's current situation in Class D.

Mentioning Shiina Hiyori's name reminded Horikita Suzune of the confession incident at the Cultural Festival that had been trending on the school forum these past few days, so she casually asked:

"You two haven't finished that feeding game yet?"

"I feel like I haven't gotten tired of the Hiyori yet, so there's nothing I can do about it."

"I feel that Liang can't be pampered and cared for like this forever, let alone for a lifetime. It feels too heavy."

"Indeed, but it's enough to live each day peacefully and enjoy every moment. Accumulating these moments day by day might just build up into a lifetime."

"I don't understand."

"Hmm... let me think, how about this?"

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo casually took out his phone and tapped it a couple of times:

"If Suzune is interested, she can join us too. After all, I really enjoy Suzune's cooking. Here, your food allowance has already been sent."

As he finished speaking, Horikita Suzune's phone pinged, and a large transfer of Private Points from Kitagawa Ryo immediately appeared on the main screen.

"How about this? This should be enough for a while. Let me think... based on what Hiyori said to me back then, should I say 'Suzune, take care of me' now? Hmm, Suzune, take care of me! As for time... how long do you think these Private Points will last, Suzune?"

It turns out that humans are creatures who unconsciously apply double standards.

Faced with Kitagawa Ryo's combo attack, Horikita Suzune was stunned for a while before slightly averting her gaze and replying in a very soft voice:

"... the rest of my life."

Please take one day off.

Nannan is taking a day off today.

Chapter 359: What if they actually find out something? (4k5)

"In our class... it seems that Ryuen's intention is that no one can vote without his consent before he has finalized the entire plan."

As soon as lunch break arrived, Shiina Hiyori had already made her way to Class 1-A's classroom. When Kitagawa Ryo asked about the current situation in their class, she paused in her action of opening her lunchbox, and while thinking, she recounted what had happened in Class D that morning.

"So, Ryuen is still planning to force all the students in the class to fill out the praise and Criticism Vote according to his wishes this time."

That should be it.

With that, Shiina Hiyori solemnly clasped her hands together in front of her chest, whispered, "I'll begin," and then picked up her chopsticks.

"After all, our class came in last place at yesterday's Cultural Festival, and our Class Points was surpassed by Class D."

The class's drop in rank was indeed an obvious failure, and Ryuen Kakeru, as the Leader, was naturally to blame. After all, if he hadn't cheated and been exposed, Class D wouldn't have suffered such a crushing defeat yesterday.

In theory, Ryuen Kakeru still has room to shift the blame in this matter. After all, compared to the other three classes, the previous Class C and the current Class D received significantly less additional funding during the Cultural Festival preparation phase. Not to mention compared to a monster like Class A, even Class B and the previous Class D received twice as much. It can be said that they were at a disadvantage in terms of funding from the very beginning.

However, this has been one of the hidden problems in Class D since the beginning of the semester. There are too many students in the class who are idle and just getting by. Not only are they consistently at the bottom of the class academically, always barely passing with low scores, but they are also lacking in club activities. The reason why they received less additional funding in the past is also due to this. Class C, on the other hand, knows how to get two students into the Student Council.

"Speaking of which, as soon as class ended today, some classmates came to find me. I knew what they were talking about without them even saying anything. They just wanted me to lead a small group to vote for Ryuen. I'm not doing that."

After the Sports Festival, Shiina Hiyori had pretty much seen through the true nature of many of the students in her class. Rather than supporting her, they simply wanted to raise a flag against Ryuen Kakeru.

As I said before, the entire Class D has been deeply imprinted with Ryuen Kakeru's personal mark since the beginning of the school year. As long as he is still in this class, a new Leader will probably never be able to emerge.

From this perspective, Ryuen Kakeru is probably the only Leader of Class 1-D, but many students in the class are unwilling to admit this fact.

Just like now, when they talk about the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, Ryuen Kakeru only blame it on Long Yuanxiang's absurd actions of being fickle, going about things haphazardly, and ultimately being sent to the school's headquarters. They never mention that after he was framed, most of the group in the class scattered like birds and beasts, a pure rabble.

To put it bluntly, if Ryuen Kakeru hadn't drawn the Resurrection card and volunteered to take on the huge penalty of being expelled from school for the last-place group, then their Class D group would have been one of the most likely to end up in last place on the Uninhabited Island at that time.

Kitagawa Ryo had taught Class C for over a semester in the simulation, so he knew these students' true nature quite well. Otherwise, he and Ryuen Kakeru wouldn't have been the only ones to take the Uninhabited Island Special Exam during the simulation, while the others relaxed on the beach and went straight back to the cruise ship.

Who's leading this?

When Kitagawa Ryo asked him a question, Shiina Hiyori tilted her head back slightly and thought for a moment before giving a name that didn't surprise him.

"Manabe Shiho."

This is a heavyweight who was completely outmaneuvered by Miyabi Nagumo and the other second-year students during the Sports Festival and openly betrayed the class. Kitagawa Ryo remembers that it was Ryuen Kakeru who personally followed and taught him a lesson. It seems that Manabe -kun still can't get over it to this day.

"If we don't consider the votes from other classes, Manabe still has a chance to vote Ryuen out of the competition."

Shiina Hiyori simply gave Kitagawa Ryo a math problem:

"Class D currently has a total of thirty-nine people. If we divide them into smaller groups, there are about ten people in Ryuen, about seven or eight people in my group, and the rest are likely to join Manabe."

"Indeed, we could see that at the Sports Festival."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded in agreement. He still had a deep impression of Class D's large-scale defection during the Sports Festival. Ryuen Kakeru's final solution was to use his Private Points to collect the students' debt bills, directly strangling them economically. His carrot-and-stick approach to rewards and punishments was actually quite effective. Anyone who opposed him would have to live on campus with zero allowance, while those who made contributions would pay back fewer Private Points.

It's fair to say that if it weren't for the school's sudden addition of this Special Exam, Ryuen Kakeru would have been able to bring the entire class under control again in a while. But plans can't always keep up with changes, and the current situation is likely to give Ryuen a real headache. After all, the voting period lasts for a whole month, and he can't possibly confiscate all the students' phones for that long.

At this very moment, sharing the same worry as Ryuen Kakeru, was Karuizawa Kei, the class representative of Class 1-B.

Firstly, Class B is undoubtedly the class least accepting of having a dropout at this stage. It's fortunate that the current rule is that the bottom three students in the grade drop out instead of one student from each class. Otherwise, their class would probably be fast-forwarding to how to raise 20 million rescue points.

Secondly, what's making Karuizawa Kei even more upset right now is that she just unlocked the "night raid" gameplay mode from Amasawa Ichika yesterday, and her first attempt that night ended in failure, finding nothing in Kitagawa Ryo's room 408.

Although she quickly noticed the sheets and blankets temporarily hanging in the hallway and the bare bed with only the mattress remaining, and roughly understood the fact that Kitagawa Ryo hadn't slept in her room tonight, the question immediately followed: where had he gone?

As a result, Karuizawa Kei's sleep quality last night was also not very good.

"In my opinion, if we want to ensure that no one in our Class B is expelled in this exam, relying on our class alone is far from enough; we need at least the cooperation of both classes."

But it doesn't matter, Kanzaki Ryuji will consistently provide the assists.

"Therefore, if possible, I hope Karuizawa can contact the Leader of other classes and, ideally, come up with a solution that everyone can accept."

"Indeed, I went to find Liang after school."

Although it's unclear how the title "Leader of other classes" in Kanzaki Ryuji's words came out as referring specifically to Kitagawa Ryo in Karuizawa Kei's mouth, the students of Class 1-B tacitly pretended not to hear it, and could only assume that they did have a cooperative relationship with Class A before.

As for where this initial foundation of trust for cooperation came from, Kanzaki Ryuji only wanted to play a few clips from a certain couple's bible on the spot, and humbly stated that this matter was also recorded in search engines such as Yahoo and Sogou, as well as in encyclopedia entries.

Unlike Class A and Class B, who are currently maintaining a calm demeanor, the atmosphere in Class C is more similar to that of Class D, which they have just surpassed. Just as many students in Class D are eager to make a move against Ryuen Kakeru, Class C's patience with Totsuka Yahiko has also reached its limit. However, proportionally speaking, there are probably more students in Class C who want him to drop out than those in Class D who want Ryuen Kakeru to drop out.

At this moment, even Totsuka Yahiko in Class 1-C with both low IQ and EQ, whose very existence seemed to be questioning the mysterious evaluation mechanism used by Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School for class placement, felt a sense of panic. After all, since the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, the exclusion of him in the class had become increasingly obvious. Now, upon hearing that this kind of exam could result in students being expelled without deducting Class Points, they all turned to look at him, making Totsuka Yahiko feel a chill down his spine.

Now that things have come to this, Totsuka Yahiko has no choice but to cling to Katsuragi Kohei, Katsuragi something!" at any second.

"I think there's a problem with how people are approaching this Special Exam."

In this situation, Katsuragi Kohei decided to try to help his underling. After all, the other guy might be a bit stupid, but his attitude and loyalty to him were perfectly fine. Even Gin knew to keep a Vodka driver by his side.

"Although this Special Exam seems to be a way for the school to eliminate the bottom performers through inter-class voting, it is also a great opportunity for us to target important figures in other classes."

Just as Katsuragi Kohei opened his mouth to try and divert the students' dislike for Totsuka Yahiko, Kamuro Masumi, already somewhat impatiently resting her chin on her hand, retorted:

"But that doesn't mean we can't vote for Totsuka, since votes from inside and outside the class are counted separately."

As she spoke, Kamuro Masumi waved her phone again, giving him a speechless look that said, "No, buddy."

"Anyway, I don't think it's necessary to keep a student who's at the bottom of the OAA rankings. Your stats are even worse than many students in Class D."

Hearing Kamuro Masumi mention the OAA System, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced thoughtfully at his phone. If the system had been launched in the first semester, he, who had been hiding his grades in all aspects, would probably have been on par with Totsuka Yahiko. However, after putting in a little effort during the Uninhabited Island Special Exam in the summer and the subsequent Sports Festival, his stats had risen to the upper-middle tier of the class, to the point where Totsuka Yahiko couldn't drag him down with him.

After Kamuro Masumi made the first move, many other students quietly added details about each other's 'glorious achievements' during special exams on deserted islands. The continuous mental blows made Totsuka Yahiko's face grow increasingly grim.

However, Totsuka Yahiko was indeed Totsuka Yahiko. He quickly employed the current version of the T0 strategy, launching an attack that, "Ignoring the facts, doesn't the other students bear any responsibility for how the class has become like this? Even if he is 99% at fault, doesn't everyone here bear 1% of the responsibility?" He then skillfully resorted to labeling, loudly accusing Kamuro Masumi of being the spy from another class that had been kept hidden, and claiming that these words were merely attempts to sow discord among the students and incite internal strife within the class.

"Everyone, please calm down."

With a slightly annoyed expression, Katsuragi Kohei rubbed his shiny bald head and had no choice but to step forward again to try and end the discussion, which was quickly turning into a shouting match and one-sided attacks.

As the class Leader, Totsuka Yahiko and Kamuro Masumi were quite considerate and kept quiet. However, the atmosphere remained very tense. It was clear to everyone that expelling Totsuka was not Kamuro's idea alone; in fact, most of the students shared this sentiment.

However, just as Katsuragi Kohei was pondering how to persuade her again, the quick-witted Totsuka Yahiko, having caught his breath, remembered another reliable person in the class and hurriedly spoke incoherently to Kushida Kikyo was pretending to be invisible in the front row of the classroom, pleading:

"Kushida Kikyo, you wouldn't want to expel me like they do, would you? You have the most friends in the class and grade, so please help me this time!"

Kushida Kikyo, who had never wanted to get involved in this mess from the start, cursed inwardly upon hearing this, but since the other party had already publicly called her by name, she risked ruining her image if she didn't respond. Therefore, she could only put on a standard business smile and respond to Totsuka Yahiko in a gentle tone:

"I think if Totsuka can work hard to show everyone how much he contributes to the class, they definitely won't let you drop out."

Although it was just a polite remark without any promises, Kushida Kikyo pointed out the root of Totsuka Yahiko's current predicament. Apart from his truly annoying personality, the main reason was that he had never made any outstanding contributions to the class or played any important role since entering the school.

These former Class A students are actually quite rational in their thinking. If Totsuka Yahiko is indeed a rare talent, then it doesn't matter if his personality is a bit lacking. But unfortunately, he is also an absolute mediocre person in terms of ability.

Seeing that Kushida Kikyo had thrown out this stepping stone, Katsuragi Kohei quickly caught it, cleared his throat, and continued:

"This voting period lasts a full month, so let's not make any decisions too early. We need to give Totsuka some time to prove himself..."

Before Katsuragi Kohei could finish speaking, Kamuro Masumi interrupted him again:

"How can you prove it? Can he find the spy in the class or take down Kitagawa from Class A?"

Spurred on by Kamuro Masumi's words, Totsuka Yahiko immediately swore an oath:

"What's so difficult about that? If you ask me, I already have a few key suspects among the spies in the class, but it's just that we're all classmates, so it's hard to investigate them, especially you, Kamuro, who is highly suspicious."

After hearing Totsuka Yahiko's speech, Katsuragi Kohei sighed helplessly for the first time, after all, he himself had received a shocking secret from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka after the Cultural Festival.

The spy in Class 1-C was none other than their class Chabashira Sae himself.

To be honest, upon hearing this information, Katsuragi Kohei almost fainted on the spot. If he hadn't had such high trust in Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's abilities, he probably would have thought it was a belated April Fool's joke. After all, the idea of a homeroom teacher betraying the class was just too bizarre. What was the point of all this?

In response to his question, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka simply replied, "Do you know how many girlfriends Kitagawa Ryo has?"

Katsuragi Kohei gasped in shock.

At this moment, all he wanted to say to Totsuka Yahiko was this:

... Maybe we shouldn't investigate anymore. What if we find something suspicious?

For example, the scandalous news about our beautiful homeroom teacher?

Chapter 360: You're Really Hungry (4k5)

The day after the Special Exam rules were announced, some of the students from Class 1-A gathered together in a karaoke room at the Keyaki Mall at the call of someone. By the time Ken Sudō, who had just finished his club activities, rushed over, the rest of the students had already arrived.

Looking around, the only other boy besides him was Miyamoto Kurashi. This guy was a relatively marginal otaku in the class, but compared to the tech and electronics Sotomura Hideo, he was a more pure anime otaku. Ken Sudō didn't interact with him much on a daily basis, since they weren't in the same circle.

The remaining students were all girls in the class: Shinohara Satsuki, Sato Maya, Wang Meiyu, Maezono Yoshiko, Onodera Kayano, and Hasebe Haruka. There were eight girls in total, which was quite a number in the 34- Class 1-A.

In fact, when Ken Sudō received the invitation from Maeda, he didn't expect that these students would be the ones to come. After all, the other party had said with certainty that it was an important discussion about the future of the class. However, when he looked at the list of attendees, he didn't see the names of Kitagawa Ryo, Ichinose Honami, and Sakayanagi Arisu at all. It was as if these main figures in the class had been deliberately excluded.

However, most of the eight people who were called over did not strongly resist the gathering itself. After all, Maezono herself Sakayanagi Arisu good relationship with Matsushita Chiaki, and Matsushita Chiaki was very close to Sakayanagi Arisu. Perhaps it was Sakayanagi's idea to call them over.

Of course, some girls simply thought it was a normal gathering of classmates playing around. To be honest, they didn't really expect Maezono to make any important decisions about the future of the class.

Just as Ken Sudō began to think for the Maezono, the initiator of the meeting, warmly invited him to sit down. So, with these doubts, he could only sit in a corner for the time being, ready to see what the other party was planning to do.

"Everyone arrived on time today, thank you so much."

After Ken Sudō arrived, Maezono himself first expressed his gratitude to the seven classmates who had arrived on time as promised.

"Gathering together is fine, but why are only these people discussing the future development of the class? Shouldn't this be a very important matter?"

As soon as Maezono finished her opening remarks, Sudo Ken couldn't wait to ask a question. Mainly, he felt that the atmosphere here was a bit strange. Although he was not familiar with the small groups among the girls, he was still aware of them. At present, none of the three big names, Sakayanagi, Arisu, Ichinose, Honami, and Sakura Airi, were present. Instead, Hasebe Haruka, who had always been a loner in the class, had been pulled over.