An Unexpected Invitation

After Horikita Suzune finished speaking, the entire classroom fell somewhat silent.

"Since Yosuke has spoken up, I'll contribute a little too." Karuizawa Kei, the leader of another girls' group in Class D, spoke as well.

As Hirata Yosuke's girlfriend, she had always followed his lead.

With several class leaders speaking up, quite a few students in the class still scraped together some points. However, for Class D, which had gained nothing in the second month, there were only so many points they could squeeze out.

In the end, Class D gathered 240,000 Private Points, most of which came from Horikita Suzune, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and Kushida Kikyo's savings. But it still was not enough. Kushida Kikyo knew more people, so she planned to borrow some from other classes during lunch break.

Meanwhile, Horikita Suzune returned to her seat and tapped Ayanokoji Kiyotaka on the shoulder.

"Do you know something?"

"..." Ayanokoji Kiyotaka turned his head. After hesitating for a while, he finally said, "That night, I went downstairs to buy a drink and saw what happened with your brother."

That explained it. Horikita Suzune withdrew her gaze. She had just thought of what happened that night as well.

Back then, Shiraishi Makoto had threatened her with these exact words: "Your academic ability may be good, but what about an exam involving teamwork?"

It was because she remembered those words that she said, "We can't give up on Sudo Ken here."

She did not know whether doing this would benefit the class, but she could not remain unchanged forever.

The first period began, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka turned toward the blackboard and focused on the lesson.

During lunch break, Kushida Kikyo was the first to approach Ichinose Honami, hoping to borrow some points.

It could only be said that she had indeed found an easy target. For Class A, where nearly everyone was a good person, borrowing money was not difficult at all.

When Ichinose Honami brought the news to the class, Shiraishi Makoto did not stop his classmates from helping Class D, though he did offer a reminder.

"Everyone, I need to make one thing clear first." Shiraishi Makoto clapped his hands. "Class Funds are absolutely not to be lent out. After all, they are our class's safeguard."

"The points you control yourselves are naturally yours to use as you wish. However, you need to keep in mind that Class D currently has no Class Points, and their exam results were also poor. Over the next two months, they will most likely receive no points at all to repay you with. Don't make your own lives difficult just because you want to do a good deed."

Despite Shiraishi Makoto's reminder, most Class A students considered that new points would be distributed tomorrow and generously lent out their money anyway. Shiraishi Makoto also gave them 20,000 points.

It was not because he felt guilty about what he had done. He simply felt that this would benefit Class A's image and help strengthen the class's internal unity.

Publicly, Class A had provided support when Class D was in trouble. Secretly, he could direct Kushida Kikyo and cooperate with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. In future exams, it would be more convenient for him to draw upon Class D's strength.

By approaching just Class A, Kushida Kikyo had gathered all the points she lacked.

"Thank you all so much." After receiving the points from Ichinose, Kushida Kikyo spoke with tears in her eyes.

However, Shiraishi Makoto did not think they were tears of gratitude. They looked more like tears of sorrow over taking on such a huge foreign debt. The look Kushida Kikyo had secretly shot him earlier had practically been murderous.

Still, congratulations were in order. Class D had successfully weathered this crisis.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived—the time for the points to be announced.

"105,000 points?" Based on the Class Points they received, Shiraishi Makoto deduced the rankings.

In this Midterm Exam, Class A's average score ranked second in the grade. They received 75 Class Points and had not lost points for any other reason.

If Class B had taken first in average score, then the gap between Classes A and B was only a negligible five points.

"Shiraishi, what do you think we should do?" Watanabe Jinji stood beside Shiraishi Makoto, operating his phone as he asked the question.

Because new points had been distributed, the students who came to class had all gathered around Shiraishi Makoto, handing over their Class Funds.

40,000 in the first month, and 60,000 in both the second and third months. In other words, Class A would have 6.4 million points in Class Funds this month as a safeguard.

"I'll say the same thing as before. Running fast does not necessarily mean you'll win. Success means not falling down."

Shiraishi Makoto did not think it was a problem that Class B had caught up by a few points, but he still reassured them somewhat. "Whether we're A or B, there won't be any difference until graduation. The gap between us was small to begin with. We should have prepared ourselves for a long battle long ago."

"Exactly." Kanzaki Ryuji nodded lightly. "As for academic performance, everyone will need to continue working hard from now on."

There was no doubt that Class B had taken first place in this Midterm Exam. Their class's overall quality surpassed that of the other classes by a considerable margin, with academic performance being their most outstanding advantage.

Hoshinomiya Chie also entered the classroom with the score sheets.

However, to the students' surprise, Class B's results this month were not as high as they had expected.

Class A: 1055, Class B: 1035, Class C: 500, Class D: 0.

Class B had not reached the expected 1050, but 1035 instead. It seemed they had lost 15 Class Points last month for other reasons. Class C had also lost 20 Class Points last month, then received the 50-point reward for placing third in the exam.

"Why did Class B lose so many points?" This was the question on every Class A student's mind.

Even without knowing the rules, they had only lost 50 points in a month. Yet after learning the rules, Class B had somehow still lost 15 points.

Had Sakayanagi Arisu made her move? Even Shiraishi Makoto could not make sense of it.

In any case, Class A's students felt a stronger sense of urgency.

"The gap is closing little by little..."

Seeing that the students remained positive, Hoshinomiya Chie was pleased as well. She merely announced a few routine matters before ending the class meeting.

"Remember to vote in the class group. Anyone who has something to do should also request leave in advance." Ichinose Honami started a poll in the class group chat. To celebrate successfully holding onto Class A's position and perfectly overcoming the Midterm Exam expulsion crisis, they were voting on a place to gather after school today.

Shiraishi Makoto casually voted for a board game café, then looked through his phone.

Having collected so much money, he had to keep proper records. Otherwise, it would be easy to lose track of what belonged to the class, what he could spend himself, and what came from other sources.

"Shiraishi... are you free the day after tomorrow?"

A private message from a classmate rose to the top of Shiraishi Makoto's chat list.

The name on it surprised him.

"I should be free. What is it, Sakura?" Shiraishi Makoto replied quickly.

"Well... I want to take some photos around the school this weekend, but it might be a little inconvenient by myself..."

What was this about? Shiraishi Makoto lightly tapped the desk.

However, the message on the other end was quickly withdrawn, followed by another one: "Sorry... I bothered you."

"It's fine. I'll go with you."