Soon.
Prince Ganlongdao received 1.9 million points,
bringing the total in his account to 2.09 million.
Quite a few people had complaints, but when they saw that most of the class—including Kaneda, Ibuki Mio, Albert, and Ishizaki—had agreed, they chose to agree as well.
It had to be said.
Most people were just a mindless mob, swept along by the crowd.
To avoid being ostracized and seen as an outsider, they could only follow everyone else.
Once he had finished all that,
Prince Ganlongdao walked over to Kaneda.
Smack.
A sharp slap rang out.
Prince Ganlongdao struck him across the face again.
"What are you doing?"
Kaneda clutched his cheek and glared at him, then turned to look at Kazuma Sakagami. The teacher had turned his head away, pretending not to see.
At once,
Kaneda felt a surge of resentment. His gaze toward Kazuma Sakagami grew reproachful.
What kind of teacher was this?
Letting a student beat someone up was practically aiding and abetting him.
In reality,
Kazuma Sakagami was a teacher who protected his own, but he wasn't a teacher with any sense of professional ethics.
Kaneda actually thought Sakagami would stand up for him?
Dream on!
After all,
siding with Prince Ganlongdao brought Sakagami far more benefits!
As long as he knew how to go with the flow
and understood what each person stood to gain,
Sakagami wouldn't interfere even if Prince Ganlongdao beat Kaneda up right in front of him.
"That's your punishment."
Prince Ganlongdao rubbed his wrist and glanced at Kaneda with indifference.
"When I explained things to you, I wasn't hoping you'd understand. I just felt sick looking at those pig brains of yours. But having to explain myself every time is a hassle."
"From now on, when I say one, you just do it."
"If you dare nitpick again, things won't be this simple."
"Understood?"
"..."
Kaneda clenched his fists and glared coldly at him.
The thing was,
Kaneda knew how to weigh the pros and cons.
The more outstanding someone's grades were, and the more rationally they tended to think,
the more likely they were to make the choice that benefited them most.
For now,
everything Prince Ganlongdao had done benefited the class—and Kaneda himself.
Once he thought of it that way,
even Kaneda couldn't help feeling that he could put up with it.
Smack.
Another slap.
"I asked you a question. Did you already forget what I told you yesterday?"
"Understood..."
Kaneda lowered his head,
a trace of venom hidden in his gaze.
He was a man who could bend and bend and bend and bend and bend.
Just wait.
When Prince Ganlongdao could no longer bring him any benefits,
Kaneda swore
he'd crush the man standing before him.
However,
Prince Ganlongdao actually liked people like that best.
Given a good enough reason, someone like Kaneda would be loyal enough. He could beat him whenever he pleased and dump any dirty or exhausting work on him.
"That's more like it."
Prince Ganlongdao nodded with a smile.
He sent Ishizaki to the cafeteria to save them seats, then left the classroom with Kazuma Sakagami.
In the hallway.
"Sakagami."
Prince Ganlongdao stood in Kazuma Sakagami's way, his hands in his pockets.
"When you stopped Kaneda just now, you wanted to say something, didn't you?"
"..."
The corners of Kazuma Sakagami's mouth lifted uncontrollably.
It was harder to suppress than an AK.
Supporting Prince Ganlongdao had indeed been the right move. With such sharp insight,
how could he fail to make it into Class A?
"Maybe you're reading too much into it, Ganlongdao. I just happened to have a bit of a cough then."
"..."
Prince Ganlongdao raised an eyebrow.
If he really had been reading too much into it, Kazuma Sakagami would more likely have made a statement instead of asking a question.
Besides,
he hadn't specified when.
Sakagami had steered the conversation straight toward the moment he'd been coughing. It was clearly an assumption—and a hint.
But
he could have answered directly.
Why had Sakagami gone out of his way to be so roundabout?
There was only one reason.
Prince Ganlongdao glanced up at the security camera overhead.
The rules restricting teachers were far stricter than those restricting individual students.
Even now,
Kazuma Sakagami might be under surveillance and being monitored.
For example,
through a recording app on his phone.
Since he couldn't answer directly, he had to use hints like these.
There might well be
information that teachers were only allowed to reveal when a student asked about it first.
The key was asking the right question.
Remembering that Sakagami had hinted at this just as Kaneda and the others were about to hand over their points, Prince Ganlongdao tested the waters:
"What's the most points can buy? It's not like I can just buy any beautiful girl or teacher I take a fancy to, right?"
"Of course not."
A glint flashed across Kazuma Sakagami's glasses.
"Even this university's S System is bound by the constitution. Anything involving another person's human rights is naturally off-limits."
"But there's no problem with using points to hire teachers."
So you really could?
Prince Ganlongdao raised an eyebrow.
And it surely wasn't limited to hiring teachers; students could be hired too.
Sakagami had deliberately mentioned them separately, hinting that teachers had no right to refuse being hired.
That made
Prince Ganlongdao all the more curious.
Did this university have any pretty female teachers?
Rules and regulations came second to the law.
Prince Ganlongdao naturally pretended not to hear that part. It was the sort of thing people said to fool children.
"As for what points can buy, there's quite a lot."
Information poured from Kazuma Sakagami's mouth like beans from a sack.
"At the highest level, you can even change the university's rules. But the number of points required is beyond anyone's imagination, so ordinary people shouldn't even think about it."
"Oh?"
Prince Ganlongdao played along. "Then what's the most ordinary people can buy?"
"Hmm."
Kazuma Sakagami nodded approvingly.
"Judging from past results, the most ordinary people can buy is the right to transfer classes."
"The right to transfer?"
Prince Ganlongdao raised an eyebrow. "How many points does it take?"
"Twenty million!"
The corners of Kazuma Sakagami's mouth lifted. "With twenty million, you can transfer to the class of your choice."
"Looking at it this way, then..."
Prince Ganlongdao rubbed his chin.
"This university is competing class against class. So the chance to choose your own career must only be available to a few classes, right? The top two classes, or just the top one?"
"Ganlongdao, you really are sharp."
Kazuma Sakagami's eyes lit up as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
If the right to transfer classes existed,
and it cost that many points,
there had to be a reason people would want to buy it.
"That's right. Only students who graduate from Class A get the chance to choose their own careers."
"I see."
"You don't look surprised at all."
"Obviously. There's no such thing as a free lunch."
Prince Ganlongdao scoffed.
The university's promises were only good enough to fool children. He'd never believed them in the first place.
He asked meaningfully,
"What happens if you lose the competition?"
Before you continue