The 100-Meter Race Ends, with the Red Team in the Lead by a Slim Margin! (Continued)

As required, all students changed into their sportswear and then lined up to enter the field, just as they had practiced initially.

This custom is even present at the Olympics, so no one showed any impatience, because the best was yet to come.

Although they were supposed to line up to enter, most students just walked into the field in a very ordinary way. It didn't look very orderly, but it wasn't very chaotic either. After all, it was just a school Sports Festival, not the Olympics or the Asian Games.

At the opening ceremony, Fujimaki from Class 3-A gave the opening speech, and Horikita was once again disappointed not to see her older brother.

Besides the students, there were even spectators on the playground, but it's easy to guess that these people weren't from outside the school, but rather school staff.

At least Shuichi Kanda had seen a few familiar faces, such as the sales clerks at the supermarket he frequented, or the waiters at the restaurants he often ate at.

In addition, the school's teachers were watching the students' situation with serious expressions, and among them was a person in a white coat, who was probably a medical worker in charge of student safety.

After all, sports are often accompanied by injuries. Even school Sports Festival cannot guarantee that no one will get injured, especially since there are tough Pole Toppling and Cavalry Battle.

In addition, the school has built small huts that can accommodate about twenty people, equipped with air conditioning, water dispensers and other facilities.

It's called a hut, but it's really just a temporary room, the kind of place where you just pile up the prepared materials and it's ready to use immediately.

There are two such small houses in total, belonging to the White Team and the Red Team respectively, and they are quite far apart, so the two teams should not be able to meet except on the competition field.

"The preparations are really thorough; they even have a camera installed to determine the results."

Not only are there cameras used for counting results, but similar cameras are also set up in many places on the playground, seemingly to prevent students from cheating.

"In other words, the school should absolutely avoid misjudgments or vague conclusions."

Yes, that's true. After all, it's a competitive school, so at least a semblance of fairness can be maintained.

After Fujimaki from Class 3-A finished her opening speech, the first event for the first-year boys, the 100-meter dash, immediately began.

Small-scale competitions, such as the 100-Meter Race, individual or three-legged races, are all conducted sequentially starting with the first-year students.

Starting with first-grade boys and ending with third-grade girls, the next activity begins immediately afterward, so the rest time in between is very short. If you don't have enough energy, it can easily affect your performance in the subsequent activities.

The competition order is based on the participation forms submitted by each class in advance. The competition will be conducted according to the determined groups. If a student is more than one minute late, he/she will be immediately judged as having forfeited and will automatically be ranked last in his/her group.

If more than one person abstains, the last person in each district will receive the points, ensuring absolute fairness.

Each class that received the signal selected two students, and a total of eight students lined up in a straight line, with Sudo being one of them.

That's right, he was assigned to the first group, naturally to give the other classes a hard time, which also shows the students of Class D's trust in Sudo's abilities.

"They all seem to be pretty mediocre guys, and there are a lot of fat guys and nerds. Sudo's definitely in first place now--"

That's right. Although it sounds like good news, it's not actually that good. It would be a waste for Sudo to have such strong combat power if he didn't encounter and defeat the strong fighters from other classes.

But what can be done now? All the students lamented their bad luck.

On the other side, Sudo adopted a crouch start position at the starting line, his profile exuding absolute confidence and composure.

Then, as the referee fired the starting pistol, all the students immediately rushed out.

No, only Sudo made a perfect dash forward; everyone else was more than a beat too slow. Sudo broke free from the start and dashed Sudo, leaving all the boys behind as he raced forward.

Shuichi Kanda watched with envy at their lightning speed.

Meanwhile, Yukimura, another contestant in the same group, also performed well and at least didn't come in last place, which shows the composition of this group.

But before the students could even cheer for Sudo, the next group's match was about to begin.

That's right, Shuichi Kanda was a student in the third group, but he wasn't nervous at all. After the referee's gun went off and everyone else started running, Shuichi Kanda slowly walked forward.

That's right, just walk there.

While everyone else had already reached the finish line, Shuichi Kanda had only walked less than ten meters.

Seeing this, the referee's brow twitched a few times, but there was nothing he could do, since the competitor intended to finish the competition.

Referees do not have the right to disqualify a contestant from the competition.

As a result, Shuichi Kanda wasted more than a minute on a distance of 100 meters.

Then the whole place fell silent. This is just too ridiculous!

The originally tense and exciting Sports Festival immediately turned into a farce because of Shuichi Kanda's actions.

The victory of the first three groups was almost certain when everyone stepped up, but when the members of the fourth group stepped up, the first-year students immediately started whispering among themselves.

First up is Kanzaki Ryuji from Class A. This guy's athletic ability is definitely top-notch; he's one of the best even in Class A, making him a sure-fire seed player.

Then there's Katsuragi Kohei from Class B. His physical abilities are so good that they're obvious to the naked eye; he's probably one of the top athletes in Class B.

It's quite interesting that these two actually bumped into each other here.

However, Kanzaki was clearly faster, so he took first place, with Katsuragi coming in second.

Next, in the fifth group, Class D sent out Koenji and an inconspicuous boy named Nishino. Nishino was slower than Sudo, Hirata Miyake, and Makita, and belonged to the second tier of players.

Considering that Koenji is unlikely to participate in the competition, Nishino was placed here in the hope that he can achieve a good ranking.

As expected, Koenji was currently indoors fixing her hair and occasionally filing her nails.

To everyone's surprise, Nishino, whose athletic ability wasn't exactly top-notch, won first place in this group.

It was truly eye-opening, and I was amazed at how incredibly lucky this guy was.

While luck certainly played a part, it was mostly predetermined.

For example, Class D had already told Class A that they would send a seeded player from an odd-numbered group, and they weren't lying, because they did indeed put Koenji in.

As for Class C of Ryuen, they saw that Koenji was in this group, so they just randomly sent two people over, whose running speed was no match for Nishino.

It was pure luck that Class B didn't send anyone...

So the 100-Meter Race for the first-grade boys lasted only five minutes, and then it was the first-grade girls' turn. It would take about half an hour for all the races to be over.

In the subsequent competition, Hirata, Miyake, and even Makita all won first or second place in their groups, earning a lot of points for the class.

As for Ayanokoji, he slacked off in Hirata's group and only managed to get fifth place.

While the others were competing, Sudo found Koenji in the Red Team's hut.

"You bastard! What do you mean you won't participate in the competition? Don't look down on me!"

However, Koenji didn't care at all about Sudo's questioning, and just kept looking in the mirror, admiring her own beautiful face.

"Looks like you won't budge unless I give you a good beating, Kouenji."

"No! Sudo! What if the teacher finds out—"

Just then, Hirata rushed over from outside out of concern and quickly stopped Sudo.

"It's so noisy! This is a class issue, so it's okay to beat him up, as long as he doesn't come crying and begging the teacher."

Sudo is right; there won't be any problems if issues within the class aren't reported to the teacher.

Just like when Class C was first established, Ryuen used violence to unify the class; the principle is that if the people don't complain, the officials won't investigate.

"You're still as slovenly as ever. I came here because I wanted some peace and quiet, but as you can see, I'm not feeling well today. I only left to avoid causing any trouble."

Upon hearing Koenji's explanation, Hirata once again expressed his admiration for Shuichi Kanda, as everything was within Shuichi Kanda's prediction.

"Stop lying! It would be different if it were just practice, but you skipped the official competition! And it's just a mandatory event, and you didn't even want to participate?"

As he spoke, Sudo, unable to contain himself any longer, raised his fist and punched Kouenji in the face. He probably intended to use the punch to bring Kouenji to his senses.

"No, Sudo!"

Hirata, who was some distance away, hurriedly tried to stop him, but it was too late; Sudo's fist was already upon him.

However, Kouenji, a man beyond imagination, beyond convention, and beyond common sense, caught Sudo's powerful punch with his bare hand.

Bang!

The feeble sound echoed throughout the small hut.

Kouenji made this assertion without even looking at Sudo's face:

"I advise you to give up; you can't beat me."

"You bastard, aren't you perfectly healthy?"

Based solely on that one strike, Sudo was able to determine that Koenji's body was absolutely fine.

"Honestly, whether it's you or her, do you really want to rely on my power?"

"Her? Who do you mean?"

"It's that cool girl you're obsessed with. She even gave me a lecture today; she wants me to take the Sports Festival seriously."

"That Horikita guy...?"

"Anyway, you can leave now. I'm not feeling well."

"You bastard—!" Sudo turned to Shuichi Kanda, who was watching the scene unfold, "Kanda, why don't you try to talk some sense into him?"

"I can't persuade him. The only reason he cooperated with Class D before was because I threatened him. Now there are four students in the class waiting to drop out, and he doesn't lack personal points, so he probably won't participate this time."

Although Shuichi Kanda's words sounded helpless, they were actually a subtle reminder to Sudo.

It's fine if Koenji doesn't participate, you can just put him on the withdrawal waiting list, right? I promised him, so I can't target him, but it's different for you guys.

However, Sudo didn't understand at all, only showing a disappointed expression before looking at Koenji.

"Sudo, calm down. While Kouenji's attitude is also problematic, since he said he's not feeling well, he has the right to rest. Besides, no matter who the other person is, you cannot resort to violence."

At this point, Hirata paused, then continued, "Actually, we didn't consider Koenji as a combat force from the beginning of the operation, otherwise we wouldn't have put Nishino and Koenji in the same group."

This surprised Sudo and the other boys present a little.

Even so, Sudo could not suppress his anger towards Koenji.

It's like a ranked match where your team has a top-tier player who's AFK because the opposing team is too weak and you don't care to beat them.

And how could you not be angry about this behavior, given your strong desire to win the game?

"The next competition is about to begin, Sudo. If you, as the leader, aren't there, it will affect morale."

Seeing that Sudo was still unwilling to give up, Hirata immediately changed his tune, and this proved to be very effective.

"... Okay, I'll go back now."

"Thank you."

Hirata, as if taking care of Sudo, accompanied him out of the hut.

Back in Class D's camp, Sudo was very anxious, but he still sat down on the folding chair.

"Damn it! I'm really going to beat that guy to a pulp next time!"

His anger was unlikely to subside, so he vented his pent-up emotions everywhere.

A wise person does not stand under a crumbling wall, and everyone intentionally or unintentionally moved away from Sudo's vicinity.

Then the girls' competition, which was attracting much attention, also began.

Horikita Suzune stood on the fourth track of the competition field, and next to her was Ibuki from Class C.

Horikita had no recollection of Ibuki; she only knew of her because she had spent a few days with her at Class D's camp on the Uninhabited Island.

But for some reason, Ibuki gave Horikita a provocative look.

Frowning, Horikita assumed the starting position.

The starting signal gun fired, and at the same time, seven girls ran out.

That's right, there are seven. I probably don't need to say who the absent one is.

Of these seven, Horikita Suzune and Ibuki Mio were the first to stand out.

Ibuki had a great start, while Horikita was a bit slow to react and started later.

However, once she started running, Horikita immediately increased her speed, closing in on Ibuki with a beautiful run, then overtaking her in the middle and taking first place by a very short margin.

After the match ended, Horikita stopped, took a few breaths, and returned to Class D's team. As for Ibuki, he kicked the ground in frustration.

After the first year, the competitions for the second and third years will begin.

These things wouldn't normally concern first-year students, but it's different for Shuichi Kanda, since he knows people from both the second and third years.

Miyake usually seems very aloof, and even the students in his class have that impression of him. However, he quietly found a senior from the same club in his second year and made her his girlfriend.

Right now, everyone's focused on the arena, waiting to see what Senior Hashikura Huan will do in her match.

Although Kyudo, which Hashikura Huan practiced, wasn't a particularly physically demanding sport, it still provided an advantage in physical fitness, which is why she easily won first place.