Chizao Li's Open Scheme

Chihaya Rei agreed to Ken Sudo's request.

He really was not a harsh person, and he believed the students of Class D had all seen that for themselves.

Furthermore, considering that Sudo was a regular member of the Basketball Club and possessed decent athletic ability, he would be able to earn points during the upcoming Sports Festival.

Chihaya Rei was not worried about him being unable to pay it back.

Upon hearing that Chihaya Rei had agreed to help Sudo, Hirata Yousuke also revealed a joyful smile.

He also did not wish for the pressure of the 500,000 points to rest solely on Chihaya Rei's shoulders.

Thus, Hirata took out the vast majority of his own personal points and also did his best to borrow some from others.

At the same time, he helped collect points within the class from those students who were willing to lend to Sudo because of the change they had just witnessed in him.

Seeing this, Chihaya Rei had no intention of stopping Hirata Yousuke's actions.

Because no matter how many points Hirata managed to raise in the end, he would still make a lion's share demand of Arisu Sakayanagi, extracting those 500,000 points from her.

Heh heh, since Arisu Sakayanagi thought he was a poor student destined to be expelled from Class D, he could simply play along with her scheme.

He would let Arisu Sakayanagi foot the bill for the personal points to save Sudo.

Next, it would depend on Arisu Sakayanagi's choice.

If she paid, she would lose those 500,000 points for nothing.

Because this sum was equivalent to the cost of Sakayanagi buying Sudo's stay in Class D, and he had no intention of returning it to her.

If Sakayanagi did not pay, because she was still unaware of what had just happened in Class D, she would conclude that Sudo was going to be expelled.

Then, she would assume that her attempt to prevent a Class D student from being expelled had failed.

In that way, she would have lost to him once again and would also lose face.

Therefore, Chihaya Rei felt that Arisu Sakayanagi would, in all likelihood, accept her defeat and choose to provide the points.

Consequently, with his fingers tapping at lightning speed on his phone keyboard, Chihaya Rei sent the following message to Arisu Sakayanagi.

[Chihaya Rei: Sakayanagi, Class D is in danger, reply quickly!]

To ensure Arisu Sakayanagi saw it as soon as possible, Chihaya Rei also dialed a voice call to her.

It rang a few times before he hung up.

In the Class A classroom, because all members of Class A had passed the midterm exams with high scores, their homeroom teacher, Tomonari Mashima, let the students engage in self-study after finishing his announcements.

Seeing that Chihaya Rei had actually called her, Arisu Sakayanagi felt a surge of energy.

She smiled knowingly, pondering the situation in her heart.

Could it be that after seeing the entire Class D pass the exams, Chihaya Rei was feeling increasingly frustrated and could finally no longer resist coming to challenge her?

Thus, after Arisu Sakayanagi retrieved her Bluetooth headset from her drawer and was just about to step outside the classroom to answer, the call hung up.

This caused Arisu Sakayanagi to knit her delicate brows slightly.

However, she still replied to Chihaya Rei's message.

[Arisu Sakayanagi: What happened to Class D?]

[Chihaya Rei: Ken Sudo's English score is failing. If you don't make a move, Sakayanagi, he's going to be expelled.]

[Chihaya Rei: Image.jpg]

[Chihaya Rei: The passing grade for our class is 44.]

Back in the Class D classroom, Chihaya Rei suppressed his laughter as he sent the English report card he had just photographed to Arisu Sakayanagi.

In the image, one could even see the expressionless Sae Chabashira, who had also been captured in the shot.

Therefore, as soon as Arisu Sakayanagi looked at it, she knew the image was not faked.

"..."

Arisu Sakayanagi froze for a moment.

Her slender fingers zoomed in on the image to the maximum, her eyes fixed intently on Ken Sudo's score of 39, terrified of missing a single detail.

After confirming there was no mistake, Arisu Sakayanagi opened her mouth and remained silent for a long while.

She truly had not expected such a thing to happen...

How could someone fail even with the answers in hand?

How could there be such an idiot?

She had given them a full month to memorize the answers, yet he still couldn't even score half of the average?

It wasn't just this guy named Ken Sudo.

There were also those named Koji Ike and Haruki Yamauchi—were they all pigs?

Forty-eight points, forty-nine points; they were all nearly failing as well.

[Chihaya Rei: Sakayanagi, could you give us 500,000 points? With 500,000 points, we can buy 5 points for Sudo to reach the passing grade.]

[Chihaya Rei: Otherwise, Sudo will be expelled. You did say that no one in Class D would be expelled during the midterm exams, didn't you?]

Chihaya Rei was twisting the knife, baring his fangs as he demanded points from Sakayanagi.

Sakayanagi Arisu stared at these messages, which seemed polite on the surface but were actually filled with provocation toward her.

Her heart began to pound rapidly in anger.

Asking her for 500,000 points?

That was 500,000, for heaven's sake!

How could he even say that with a straight face?!

Moreover, the most crucial point was that Sakayanagi Arisu could see through it.

Once this sum of points was handed over, Chihaya Rei would never pay her back.

Others might not know if Chihaya Rei had points, but she certainly did.

Chihaya Rei was not short on private points, yet he came to ask her for this amount.

This was an open conspiracy aimed at her...

He was forcing her to choose whether or not to keep the underachiever Ken Sudo in Class D!

That detestable guy, Chihaya Rei, was too despicable.

Sakayanagi Arisu thought with annoyance and replied:

[Sakayanagi Arisu: I don't have that many points, 500,000.]

[Chihaya Rei: You do.]

[Chihaya Rei: Didn't you just win 500,000 private points in the Chess Club?]

Sakayanagi Arisu: "?"

He knew about that too?

She felt that Chihaya Rei was truly going too far.

That was something she had earned through her own ability.

[Chihaya Rei: Sakayanagi, the time Chabashira-sensei has given us is limited.]

Chihaya Rei had already seen that Sakayanagi Arisu wanted to save Sudo, but since she wanted to negotiate the price, he applied further pressure.

[Sakayanagi Arisu transferred 500,000 private points to Chihaya Rei.]

[Sakayanagi Arisu: Chihaya-kun, you are very good!]

Leaving those words for Chihaya Rei, Sakayanagi Arisu angrily gripped her phone and turned off the screen.

She realized that after giving Chihaya Rei those 500,000 private points, she had very few left for herself.

There was no helping it; as a young lady from a wealthy family, Sakayanagi Arisu's living expenses were quite high.

Furthermore, she sometimes needed to use points to carry out her plans.

But Sakayanagi still decided.

She had to keep this useless student named Ken Sudo in Class D.

The fact that he could still fail an exam even after being given the answers a month in advance just proved that this Ken Sudo was a useless guy.

That was exactly why he had to stay.

Let him remain in Class D to hold them back.

Sakayanagi Arisu admitted that she had been outplayed this time.

She thought she had already underestimated the students of Class D, but it turned out she had still overestimated them.

Besides, she didn't consider this a loss to Chihaya Rei.

There was one thing Sakayanagi Arisu could be certain of: Chihaya Rei couldn't have controlled the scores those underachievers in Class D produced.

So, it was just bad luck; she had lost due to these uncertain external factors.

Whatever Chihaya Rei had taken from her, she would definitely make him pay it back double next time!

Sakayanagi Arisu gritted her teeth slightly, feeling stifled and depressed.

[Chihaya Rei: What a truly exhilarating battle of wits!]

In Class D, Chihaya Rei replied to the points sent by Sakayanagi Arisu and then collected them.

He couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips, inwardly marveling that Sakayanagi Arisu was quite the straightforward person.

She had let him make a cool 500,000 points again.

He even suspected that once Sakayanagi discovered later on that Ken Sudo was actually a useful person, she would likely regret this deeply.

However, Sakayanagi's heart was already frail to begin with; surely she wouldn't be angered into an even worse condition by him, would she?

Chihaya Rei thought to himself, then looked up at Hirata Yousuke, who was busy working in the classroom.

Soon, thanks to Hirata's efforts, over 150,000 private points had been raised.

The bulk of this came from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Horikita Suzune, who contributed 100,000 between the two of them.

As for the other students, they didn't have many points to begin with and only provided small, scattered amounts.

Chihaya Rei transferred 350,000 points to Hirata, telling him to take them to Chabashira Sae to buy points for Sudo; he wouldn't bother doing such a trivial task himself.

"Sudo, you need to pay these points back to us as soon as possible."

Chihaya Rei wasn't about to let Ken Sudo slack off by telling him to take his time; instead, he applied pressure with that single sentence.

From now on, Sudo would have to work hard to earn points and pay everyone back.

"Yeah!"

Sudo's expression was solemn, his face streaked with a mixture of sweat and tears.

Sudo understood that he had been saved entirely thanks to everyone, and without a doubt, Chihaya Rei had contributed the most.

"I will pay it all back as soon as I can."

"From now on, the monthly points issued by the school, as well as the points I get from the Basketball Club, will all go toward paying everyone back first."

Sudo made his promise with an unprecedented tone of seriousness.

Club activities provided a certain amount of points each month, and for someone like him who competed on the court, there were additional point rewards as well.

The students of Class D, sensing this attitude from Sudo, didn't say anything more and chose to believe in him.