Kushida Kikyo Becomes the Biggest Winner

However, Chabashira Sae did not immediately announce the results. Instead, she smiled and, unusually, praised them.

"You guys really exceeded my expectations this time, you did a great job."

Upon hearing her praise, the classroom immediately erupted in cheers.

Since she said that, doesn't that mean they really did very well on the test this time, and at least they won't lose any more points?

Almost everyone shared this idea and began to cheer for it, but Hoshino En was different.

He knew very well that opening champagne at the halfway point usually resulted in a defeat. Chabashira Sae didn't immediately release the results, but instead made these ambiguous remarks, which must be suspicious.

Moreover, he wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Chabashira Sae glanced in his direction when she was praising him.

Are you looking at him? Or the person next to him...?

He glanced at Ken Sudō, who was grinning excitedly to himself, and a bad feeling immediately arose in his heart.

Seeing the happy faces of everyone in the class, Chabashira Sae smiled even more broadly.

She slowly used magnets to stick the five report cards onto the blackboard.

Without exception, everyone achieved high scores in all five subjects; even the seven students who failed the quiz improved their scores from the 10s and 20s to over 30s with the help of the practice questions.

Seeing the scores, which were significantly higher than in the previous quiz, the atmosphere in the classroom exploded, with almost everyone's face beaming with excitement.

Successfully passing this exam means they'll get a boost in Class Points, and next month they'll start earning Private Points... which means they won't have to endure those awful Vegetable Set Meal anymore!!

Although people without money each have their own ways of managing, they couldn't change their extravagant spending habits overnight, which forced them to eat the free Vegetable Set Meal at the end of the month because they didn't have enough Private Points.

That's something no normal person could possibly handle!

While the others were delighted, Hoshino En's gaze remained fixed on the English report card, silently calculating the class average.

He, Kiyotaka, Horikita, and Kushida all controlled their scores, which brought the class average down to nearly 80 points. However, the final score should not have been lower than 80 points, so the passing score this time should be around 40 or 41 points.

But...

He looked at Sudo's score.

[English - Ken Sudō, 39 points]

Although his score was much higher than his previous test score of 21, it seems he still failed this time.

This is terrible.

When the class's excitement reached its peak, and everyone even started discussing how to spend their points next month, Chabashira Sae continued with a strange smile.

"Although it's not good to bother you at this time, but--"

Holding a red pen, she drew a red line across the last name on the English report card in full view of everyone, just as she had done when announcing the results of the quiz at the beginning of the month.

"Sudo failed the English exam this time, and he will be expelled from school."

"It's a pity, Sudo, you've worked hard these past two months."

She looked at Ken Sudō, her face showing no disappointment at her students being expelled, only schadenfreude at seeing him finally get his comeuppance.

"Hurry up and pack your things, you still have two hours left at school."

But Ken Sudō didn't respond. He just stared blankly at the blackboard, at his reflection separated by the red line, looking dazed.

The atmosphere in the class plummeted to freezing point amidst Chabashira Sae's schadenfreude.

After more than two months of experience, they have all come to understand, to varying degrees, that this school practices collectivism and meritocracy, and that everyone's treatment is related to their class's status within the school.

Similarly, each individual's performance will affect the school's evaluation of the class.

Now that Ken Sudō has failed, he will be expelled, but Class D will also be affected.

As Chabashira Sae had previously stated, each withdrawal would result in a loss of 300 Class Points. This meant that even if they managed to retain their rewards from this Special Exam, they would lose them all next month due to Ken Sudō's withdrawal, without even retaining their original 30 Class Points.

They're going to have zero points next month!!!

Not only did they have to endure being looked down upon by other classes, but they also wouldn't earn any points and could only eat wild vegetable roots every day.

As a result, almost everyone cast resentful glances at Ken Sudō.

A new round of verbal and written criticism is about to begin.

"Wait! Chabashira-sensei, the passing score last time was around 32 points. Sudo should have already passed!"

However, before the resentment could erupt, Hirata Yosuke suddenly stepped forward and asked Chabashira Sae a question.

His voice extinguished the spark that was about to ignite the explosive barrel.

Who said the passing score is 32 points?

But his question only earned him undisguised mockery from Chabashira Sae.

"The passing score at this school is half of the class average. Your average score this time is 80, so half that's 40. Sudo is one point short."

Hirata Yosuke has stalled.

Ken Sudō entered an uncontrollable state of emo.

One point... just one point short...

He was only one point away from his dream...

His appearance was observed by Hoshino En.

Hoshino En: "..."

He didn't dislike Sudo. The guy just had a short temper and wouldn't intentionally do anything to annoy others. It was usually Ike and Yamauchi who dragged him into things, and because of his tough attitude, he had a bad reputation.

Rather, how can we let Yamauchi and Ike become the first victims when they haven't even dropped out of school yet?

No, no, this is not good.

So he sent a message to Kushida Kikyo.

Hoshino Hoshino En: [I'll ask Chabashira-sensei if we can use our Private Points to buy the point Sudo is missing; if so, I'll encourage the rest of the class to help Sudo collect points, since someone must have some saved up.]

[Now that I've spent points to protect Sudo, my Class Points are saved, and I'll earn even more next month. No normal person would refuse such a deal.]

[And you, who made this suggestion, will receive everyone's gratitude and support.]

Because it wasn't during regular class time, Kushida Kikyo had put her phone on vibrate mode, but she had placed it somewhere she could reach it, so she quickly saw the message sent by Hoshino En.

She would naturally not refuse anything that could improve her reputation in the class.

Just as the classroom was finally brewing a second wave of verbal attacks against Ken Sudō, she stepped forward again and extinguished the sparks.

"Chabashira-sensei, can we use our Private Points to buy the one point that Sudo is missing?"

3. First Semester of Grade 1:

Chapter 81, Section 76: Kushida Kikyo Becomes the Biggest Winner

Kushida Kikyo's words caused a momentary pause in the class atmosphere.

When many people heard this news, their first reaction was to question: Why would they waste points to save Ken Sudō, who's already a terrible guy, now that he's dragging everyone down?

However, some people realized something and cast hopeful glances at Chabashira Sae.

Chabashira Sae: "..."

Were we really mistaken? Is Kushida really that amazing?

Despite her doubts and uncertainty, she still admitted it.

"Everything at this school can be purchased with Private Points, including exam scores. But the price is beyond your means. Are you sure you still want to ask?"

Her answer brought smiles to many faces, especially Hirata Yosuke.

If he could use his Private Points to prevent a classmate from being expelled, he would be the first to wholeheartedly agree.

"Of course, if spending some points now can prevent Sudo from being expelled and the Class Points from being lost, I think it's worth it."

Upon hearing her mention Class Points, those who had previously raised doubts withdrew their impending outbursts.

Although I don't want to spend points on Ken Sudō, if we can keep the Class Points, they can get more Private Points next month, wouldn't that be a great deal?

So, they all turned and looked expectantly at Chabashira Sae Saezo.

It was rare for the students in Class D to cooperate like this, and seeing this, Chabashira Sae didn't keep them in suspense any longer.

"Midterm Exam scores, one point equals 100,000 PowerPoint slides, can you still produce those now?"

100,000 points is indeed a lot for Kushida Kikyo right now—because she helped the other students in her class, plus two months of daily expenses, she has now used up all but 100,000 to 20,000 points from the 100,000 points she had at the beginning of the semester.

"Everyone, although I personally don't have that many points, if we all pool our resources, we should be able to come up with 100,000 points!"

But she has her fame and popularity, which are her best weapons.

"That's right, and although it cost 100,000 points now, I'll receive more than 100,000 Private Points next month, so I think it's worth it."

Hirata Yosuke also stepped forward to lend his support, and anyone with eyes could see the excitement on his face.

With both of the class's "adhesives" stepping forward, Class D' s agenda was essentially approved.

Soon, the 100,000 Private Points were collected and transferred to Chabashira Sae.

Chabashira Sae: "..."

"Sudo, you're really lucky."

She said something that sounded sarcastic, then took the report card off the blackboard and left without saying a word.

However, judging from her brisk pace, she seemed to be in a good mood.

After Chabashira-sensei left, the students rushed to Kushida Kikyo's side, cheering for the person who had come up with a way to save the class.

"That's great, Kushida!"

"That's right, we'll have some numbers next month!"

"As expected of Kikyo, she actually came up with such a method!"

"..."

As for Ken Sudō, who almost got expelled... no one cared about him, not even Yamauchi and Ike, who usually got along well with him.

However, he doesn't have the time or inclination to worry about such things now.

The tall, muscular young man was like a fish out of water, panting heavily, his face showing the joy of surviving a close call.

That's great... I'm so glad I don't have to drop out of school!

Kushida, thank you so much!

His expression was very easy to understand, and Hoshino En understood it immediately.

This guy doesn't seem to have any intention of reflecting on his actions. If he doesn't want to become the target of everyone's criticism again, he should at least use the time he spends hanging out with Yamauchi and Ike to study!

Moreover, the three of them seemed completely oblivious to Horikita, who had worked so hard to tutor them... Horikita is so pitiful.

Forget it, if Horikita feels wronged, that's her own business, it has nothing to do with him.

After observing the Hoshino En of the students in her class, Hoshino Enishi quietly stood up from her seat and slipped out of the classroom without a sound.

During the holiday, the morning is perfect for working up a sweat at the Swimming Club, the afternoon is for relaxing at the library, and maybe catch up on Shiina. As for the evening... I'll finish my workout in Karuizawa, then go find A-Sho for a personal test.

In the evening, I went to the shopping center.

"A-Sho, I've transferred the points to you. I'll borrow Ibuki now."

Standing outside the gym, Hoshino En looked at Ryuen Kakeru in front of her and reached out to pat him on the shoulder, but he dodged away with a look of disgust.

"Don't touch me, I'm not gay."

But Ryuen Kakeru reacted strongly, immediately hiding behind Ibuki Mio, who had followed him.

"Anyway, I've received the points. Ibuki, you can take her. She's yours tonight, you can do whatever you want with her."

"Hey! Ryuen, you..."

"I have something to do, so I'll be leaving now."

Ignoring the seemingly resentful Ibuki Mio, Ryuen Kakeru walked quickly into the crowd at the Shopping Mall and soon disappeared from sight.

Then, Hoshino En turned to look at Ibuki Mio, whose face was filled with shock and bewilderment.

Noticing his gaze, Ibuki Mio immediately took a few steps back, hugging her chest with both hands, her beautiful cheeks flushed.

It wasn't the blush of a young girl, but pure anger at being sold out.

"Don't come any closer, don't touch me, I won't give in!!"