"Ms. Hoshinomiya, what are these publicly displayed points? They're different from Personal Points. Are they points the class owns?"
Ryuji Kanzaki hadn't noticed Chie Hoshinomiya's condition. He was the first to raise his hand and ask.
Seeing that Class B was only thirty points behind Class A, he was already brimming with fighting spirit.
"That's right. These are Class Points."
"The Personal Points everyone receives each month are calculated by multiplying the Class Points by one hundred."
"The class with the most Class Points becomes Class A."
"If you all manage to make a successful comeback, your teacher's salary will go up too."
As she spoke, Chie Hoshinomiya made an encouraging gesture.
She wasn't especially attached to becoming Class A, but who didn't like getting a raise?
It wasn't just her. Seeing that they were only thirty points away from Class A, the students in Class B were all fired up too.
"It's a shame we're just a tiny bit short."
"If only we'd followed the rules more closely. Maybe we could've turned things around in the very first month."
"We have Nishikado to thank, too. Without him, even if we'd been suspicious, we wouldn't have followed the rules so strictly."
If they hadn't realized from the start that something was off with the school rules, the students in Class B wouldn't have managed to stay completely disciplined without anyone keeping them in check.
But Nishikado Makoto, the center of attention, didn't look particularly pleased. Instead, he reminded Chie Hoshinomiya, "There's another one, teacher. That should be the results of our mock exam, right?"
Nishikado Makoto could see another poster inside the tube.
The results of the mock exam they'd taken earlier should have been available by now.
"That's right, Nishikado. Don't rush me. Girls don't like boys who are too impatient."
"These are indeed the mock exam results. Everyone did very well."
"Now, I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news."
"The bad news is that in every midterm and final exam from now on, you'll be expelled if you fail even one subject."
"The good news is that the passing score is half the average. If our class can maintain its current performance, no one will be expelled."
Chie Hoshinomiya spoke of something harsh.
Being expelled for failing just one exam was certainly cruel.
The fact that the school stated it so bluntly meant that everyday life at this school had officially come to an end.
"Do we really get expelled if we fail?"
Honami Ichinose was worried.
According to the information she'd recently bought with points, it took a full Twenty Million Personal Points to exempt one student from the expulsion penalty.
Even if Class B was united enough, gathering twenty million points wouldn't be easy.
And there was no telling how many expulsions Class B might face in the future.
She'd made a point of investigating this at Nishikado Makoto's request.
Miyabi Nagumo, the leader of Year Two's Class A and the current vice president of the Student Council, was a student who believed in putting individual ability above all else.
Under his influence, Year Two had expelled a double-digit number of students in just one year.
For comparison, Year Three had only expelled eleven students over two years.
Once Miyabi Nagumo became student council president, things would go very badly for Class B.
Honami Ichinose instinctively looked toward Nishikado Makoto. Seeing that he was still calm, she felt somewhat reassured.
As for the other students in Class B, after their initial surprise, they didn't seem worried.
Thanks to Nishikado Makoto, they'd already started taking their studies seriously.
As long as they maintained their current attitude, they wouldn't be expelled for failing an exam.
"Himeno, go up and take a picture."
Nishikado Makoto studied the results a little longer and memorized everyone's scores.
But he didn't think that was enough, so he turned and reminded Yuki Himeno.
Things like this would become routine in the future, and Yuki Himeno needed to get into the habit.
Then, after getting the teacher's permission, Nishikado Makoto sent a message to Karuizawa Kei.
He needed her to take a picture of Class D's results too.
"Yes, teacher. May I go up and take a picture?"
After getting permission, Yuki Himeno went up and photographed the results for the students in Class B.
She knew even without Nishikado Makoto telling her that she'd have to organize the data in a spreadsheet and hand it over to him later.
Fortunately, the mock exam covered five subjects, with only four questions per subject, each worth five points.
So this time, they only needed to record the results from one test paper.
Yuki Himeno remembered that the exam had been very strange.
The first seventeen questions were incredibly easy—so easy they hardly seemed like high school exam questions.
But the last three were extremely difficult and completely beyond the syllabus.
While taking the picture, Yuki Himeno subconsciously looked for Nishikado Makoto's score.
He'd scored ninety-two this time, putting him near the top of Class B.
Scoring ninety-two meant Nishikado Makoto had earned points on at least two of the three questions beyond the syllabus.
Yuki Himeno returned to her seat, thinking her work this time would be easy.
That was, until Nishikado Makoto raised his hand to ask a question.
"Teacher, can we get our mock exam papers back and see what we got wrong?"
"Of course. But there's a fee. Let me think... four hundred points for forty students."
Chie Hoshinomiya didn't make things difficult for Nishikado Makoto.
The school deliberately withheld completed test papers to make things difficult for the students.
But as long as the students realized that and wanted to do something about it, the points required weren't much.
"I'll pay."
Nishikado Makoto seemed very generous. He wasn't short on points at the moment.
And if his plans worked out, he'd have even more Personal Points to spare.
"Everyone, once you get your papers back, report exactly which questions you got wrong and how many points you lost."
The actual exams wouldn't be like the mock exam. They'd cover all five subjects.
The mock exam results didn't specify each subject's score.
Everyone had to report their own results so Honami Ichinose could focus on helping those who needed it most.
"Himeno, sorry for the trouble. Keep a record for me."
The light faded from Yuki Himeno's eyes.
"Boss, are you making extra work for me on purpose?"
Yuki Himeno had plenty of reservations about the task Nishikado Makoto had assigned her, but she didn't refuse.
Even so, her workload had just increased dramatically.
"Do you know where I lost points?"
"On the last three questions, right?"
Yuki Himeno said it as if it were obvious.
"No. I checked. I lost six points on the modern literature questions and another two in sociology. I got full marks on the last three."
Nishikado Makoto spread his hands, his face showing a mix of helplessness and smugness.
Although the last three questions were beyond the syllabus, unfortunately for the exam, he knew how to solve them.
He'd once experienced rote learning firsthand and survived the hell of his senior year of high school.
The academic workload at Sakurajima's regular schools wasn't light, but it was still less demanding than Tokyo University.
For Nishikado Makoto, studying here was easy mode.
As for those three questions beyond the syllabus, he'd already studied them in his previous life.
Instead, he'd lost quite a few points on the easy questions at the beginning.
In other words, looking at the overall score from this mock exam wouldn't reveal which subject someone was struggling with.
The same was true of everyone else, of course.
They'd already collected and organized the Class B students' data once before, but personal data had to be updated in real time.
"Boss, is it normal to get those questions wrong? I don't want to work overtime..."
Now Yuki Himeno had no grounds to refuse at all.
At the same time, Nishikado Makoto's Personal Terminal received a series of messages.
One was from Horikita Manabu.
[Horikita Manabu: Your application has been approved. You're now a member of the Student Council. Report in after school.]
[Nishikado Makoto: No problem. I'll be there as soon as school lets out.]
Another was from Karuizawa Kei. She'd sent a picture of Class D's results.
Nishikado Makoto opened the image and couldn't hold back a laugh.
"Good grief, seven people failed a test like this?"
With this important information in hand, Nishikado Makoto knew what he needed to do in the Student Council.
Before you continue