A Rather Conspicuous Score

"Finally, there's one more unfortunate piece of news to tell you. These are the results from the last quiz! Take a look for yourselves!"

With that, Teacher Chazhu directly pasted the poster paper onto the blackboard.

Mu Tianchen glanced over it briefly. The top few students in the class seemed to have done fairly well—Horikita, Takagahara, and Yukimura all scored over 90 in every subject.

This proved they had solved one, or even several, of the final difficult problems. Without having studied the material beforehand, they still managed to get them right. Mu Tianchen was impressed. Beauty Bro, though he seemed to be coasting, had taken second place—pretty good. He really was strong after all.

However, aside from them, most of the class scored only around 60 points. Mu Tianchen himself scored over 80, ranking just behind Hirata, which was considered above average.

The rest further back had scores of only 40-something, 20-something, or even 10-something. But when Mu Tianchen saw Ayanokouji's results, he was genuinely shocked—every single subject was exactly 50 points.

Could there really be such a coincidence in this world?

He didn't believe it. After all, someone who came from that place couldn't possibly be at this level.

That meant he had deliberately scored to hit the average.

Still, scoring exactly 50 in every subject—wasn't that a bit too conspicuous?

"Isn't this just wonderful? If this were the midterm exam, seven students in our class would be expelled from the start!"

With that, she picked up a red pen and drew a long dividing line across the poster.

"What? Ex... expelled? What's going on?"

"Teacher, you can't be serious, right?"

"You never mentioned this before! And it's not in the handbook either!"

Hearing the word "expelled," the students erupted into commotion again, especially those below the dividing line—Ike, Sudo, and Yamauchi.

Come to think of it, their grades had always been poor. Even next time, they might not pass the passing line, so of course they'd rather believe the rules were wrong.

"Oh? I never said that before? Then let me tell you now! Listen up!"

"In this school, for any major exam like midterms or finals, if you fail even one subject, you're expelled! Based on this test, all students scoring below 36 points would be expelled!"

She then swept her gaze over the students who had just asked questions:

"You people really are foolish."

"..."

But speaking of which, Mu Tianchen was puzzled by the passing line being 36 points. Back in his home country, for a 100-point test, the passing line was usually 60. Even if you divided by two, it would be 30.

After examining the score sheet again, he came to a conclusion—

It was the class average divided by two. That wasn't hard to guess. Surely others had figured it out too.

Mu Tianchen scanned the classroom and indeed noticed Horikita Suzune sitting next to Ryoji, pen in hand, scribbling something in her notebook.

"Alright, that's all for today. If you understand your situation, I don't need to say anything more. It's not too late to work hard now. If you want the benefits this school offers, then climb your way up."

Leaving those words, Teacher Chazhu walked straight out of the classroom, and the homeroom meeting ended.

Though everyone was annoyed by Teacher Chazhu's string of taunts, they couldn't deny it—this was the truth.

No points had been transferred. Only Class A could enjoy the school's benefits. Final exams might mean expulsion...

The stark contrast from last month's life left the class speechless. The room was dead silent.

"Aaaah, why didn't I notice it back then? How could this school be so kind? Damn it!" A regretful voice broke the silence in the classroom.

Like a fuse being lit, discussions erupted one after another.

"What are we going to do next month? I've used up all my points."

"Me too. We can't just keep going like this until graduation..."

The students were already worrying about their living situation. Though they wouldn't starve to death, that was all.

"Points don't matter at all! What matters is the class! Why was I placed in Class D... What a joke!"

The one who said this was Yukimura. He was speaking in a rough, angry voice, sweat beading on his forehead.

Mu Tianchen remembered his score was near the top of the quiz results—pretty good grades. That was probably why he felt so unwilling to accept it.

But from what Mu Tianchen had observed over this period, he felt that this kind of class placement wasn't based solely on grades.

"Everyone, listen to me. I understand how you feel, but we need to take action quickly, don't we?"

At that moment, Hirata stepped up to the podium, drawing the students' attention.

"What action can we take? Even if we improve our classroom behavior, it won't increase our points!" someone retorted.

"But if we keep going like this, we'll have even less chance of earning points. We might even go into negative."

"Tch. So studying hard in class doesn't earn points at all."

"Maybe the school sees it as something we should be doing as students anyway."

Seeing Sudo complain, Kushida took the initiative to explain to him.

"Discuss it among yourselves. I'm not going to waste time on something pointless."

With those words, Sudo walked straight out of the classroom.

Mu Tianchen didn't think this discussion would yield any useful result anyway. He glanced at Beauty Bro beside him, who was already lying face-down on the desk, asleep. Maybe he felt the same way.

The discussion dragged on for a long time, only stopping when the bell for the next class rang.

As expected, no good conclusion came out of it.

However, after learning that classroom rule violations would deduct class points, the discipline in the following lessons noticeably improved.

"Hey, I've been spending my points too recklessly. Could you lend me some? Just two thousand points, please. I'm begging you."

After school, Karuizawa Kei didn't leave. She stayed in the classroom to borrow points from her close friends. For someone with a wide social circle and a certain standing in the class, this was a decent approach.

"I... I don't have much left either."

"I see. What about you, Kushida?"

"Sure, no problem."

Kushida agreed without hesitation when Karuizawa came to borrow points.

From Mu Tianchen's perspective, she really had it tough—not only did she have to maintain her popular facade, but she also had to constantly uphold her image.

Even if she felt reluctant inside, she still had to put on a happy expression on her face...

"Arigatou."

After borrowing from Kushida, she moved on to her next target.

Others were also taking action for points. For instance, Yamauchi was trying to sell the game console he'd bought just last month. But from the looks of it, no one seemed willing to buy after he asked a few people.

He even went to ask Ayanokouji. In a situation like this, most people prioritized their own quality of life. There was no way anyone would buy it. And unlike Karuizawa, he didn't have a wide social circle or any standing in the class.

While Mu Tianchen was still thinking and observing the class, the school broadcast suddenly rang out.