Time Skip

"This is bad! Sudo's been expelled!"

Kushida Kikyo ran into the stairwell of the abandoned school building and shouted at Ayanokoji and Horikita Suzune.

"What?" Horikita Suzune asked in disbelief. "What on earth happened?"

Ayanokoji silently watched Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyo, his expression unreadable.

Meanwhile, elsewhere~

"Then thank you for the points," Sakayanagi Arisu said. She turned and walked away with her cane, a contract in hand.

"Interesting."

Ryuen Kakeru sat at the table, watching the figure walk away. He was quiet and composed, without a trace of his usual temper, but his expression was unusually gloomy.

[ Ding! Interfering with the plot complete ]

[ Ding! Reward: Double Points Card. ]

In his dorm room, Long Aotian looked at the system notification before him and smiled faintly.

The phone in his hand suddenly lit up with a message.

[ Sakayanagi: It's a pleasure doing business with you. ]

Three days earlier~

At the scene of the incident in the abandoned school building

Long Aotian was hiding in the shadows, recording the fight between the four people ahead.

This time, Long Aotian hadn't brought Sakura along. He was afraid of scaring her, and it would've been inconvenient to act with her there.

"They call this a fight, but one side is putting on an act, while the other side is stupid enough to fall into the trap." Long Aotian shook his head and adjusted the angle of his phone.

Before long, the farce came to an end. Long Aotian used [Flying Thunder God] to leave, returned to his dorm, and opened his computer. He searched the school system for several people's accounts and began the next stage of his plan.

"I've got the video now. I just need to send it to Sakayanagi Arisu in a day or two."

He recalled their conversation during Swimming class~

"Yeah..." After thinking it over, he turned to Sakayanagi Arisu. "Would you be interested in working together on something?"

"Work together?"

"That's right."

"Sure. Let's hear it." Sakayanagi Arisu rested both feet lightly on the edge of the chair, swinging her little feet and making her uniform skirt sway gently.

"I'll help you get rid of someone in Class D, and we'll earn points from Class C, too."

"Oh?" Sakayanagi Arisu looked at Long Aotian with interest. "What would I have to do?"

"When the time comes, you'll have to personally secure the points from Class C. We'll split them fifty-fifty." Long Aotian noticed her skirt swaying and turned his head away as soon as he finished speaking.

Seriously, sitting on a tall chair was one thing, but she was swinging her feet, too—and from where he sat, he could see...

"Interesting. I accept."

The girl's voice rang out once more~

Two days earlier~

Note: Pay attention to how many days back the timeline goes, or it's easy to get confused.

"Why'd you call us here, Ayanokoji from Class D?"

The three boys from Class C walked into a pitch-black warehouse and shouted.

With a bang, the warehouse door suddenly slammed shut. The air inside the deep, dark warehouse seemed to freeze, heavy and oppressive. The faint light was almost completely swallowed by the thick walls, leaving only patches of deep black, like an invisible giant beast silently devouring every inch of space.

The three boys' breathing rang out clearly in the silence, trembling almost imperceptibly.

"Who's there? Who is it?!"

The biggest of the three shouted nervously, trying to sound brave.

"Ah! Ahhh!"

Suddenly! A sharp, desperate scream tore through the silence, so abrupt and shrill that it sounded like a wail from the depths of someone's soul. It sent a chill down their spines.

The cry was full of helplessness and terror. It echoed through every corner of the warehouse, amplifying the eerie, despairing atmosphere. The other two shuddered at the sudden scream.

Then another scream rang out from the right~

"Stop! Don't hit me in the face! Ah! Ah!"

The third boy trembled all over and shouted in panic, "Who's there?! Who are you?! Are you two okay?"

Long Aotian suddenly leaned close to his ear from behind, grinning wickedly. "I'm here! Oh~"

The voice in his ear made the boy's legs go weak. He collapsed to the ground and passed out.

After scaring the boys, Long Aotian opened the warehouse door, then used [Flying Thunder God] and vanished.

Scaring them was enough. There was no need to get rough, since he'd need them again tomorrow.

In the anime, the three boys from Class C had been tricked by Kushida Kikyo, using an anonymous name, into going to the stairwell in the school building.

Long Aotian had originally planned to use the boy-who-cried-wolf trick, luring the three of them to different places several times so they'd probably stop falling for it.

But then he realized that he couldn't go easy on the people from Class C—and this was a chance to get Sudo expelled.

One day earlier~

This time, Long Aotian used the name "Ryuen Kakeru" to message the three boys from Class C.

The three boys from Class C arrived at an abandoned indoor sports area. Unlike the warehouse the day before, this place was brightly lit in every corner, a stark contrast to the darkness of the warehouse.

"Didn't Ryuen tell us not to wander around yesterday? Why's he calling us again all of a sudden?"

"Doesn't this feel kind of weird to you?"

"Weird how?"

"Like we've been here before?"

Long Aotian shook his head. He almost wanted to laugh. No wonder the three of them had been tricked by Horikita Suzune and Ayanokoji in the anime.

I bet you could fool them into handing over their underwear with a story about a gambling-addicted dad, a sick mom, a rebellious little brother, and a broken-hearted girl.

Suddenly, another figure walked in.

The three boys recognized him immediately. They knew him all too well.

"It's you! So it was you Class D guys behind all this! And I won't forget that Ayanokoji guy from yesterday, either!"

One of them pointed furiously at Sudo.

Sudo stood there, looking confused. Hadn't Horikita Suzune called him here? Why were these three here?

That's right! Long Aotian had lured them here using the name "Horikita Suzune." After the incident where she'd protected Sudo by buying his points, he trusted her a lot—and maybe even liked her a little.

With a bang, the door suddenly slammed shut, leaving only the four of them inside.

Long Aotian kicked the door from outside. Once he saw it close, he used [Flying Thunder God] to return to a corner inside and quietly pulled out his phone to record. Suddenly, the screen displayed the National Anti-Fraud App.

Ahem, ahem~ Back to it.

"Fine! You're pulling this trick again, huh? Get them!"

The three boys charged forward, unable to hold back any longer. One had a bandage wrapped around his hand, one was hopping on one leg, and the third had a face covered in bruises. Long Aotian was pretty impressed by their spirit.

Sudo was completely baffled. First, Horikita Suzune had called him over, but she was nowhere to be seen. Then these three had inexplicably chewed him out, and now they were rushing at him to beat him up. Obviously, he wasn't going to let that slide. He already had a short fuse.

This time, unlike their earlier outburst of courage, the three boys fought Sudo—but they still lost.

Sudo was naturally in good shape and played Basketball often. Most importantly, his opponents were all injured!

As he recorded, Long Aotian offered his commentary. You, the one hopping on one leg—try a flying kick! Can't you fight? And you, with the bandaged hand—you've already powered up, so why not try a Rising Dragon? And you, with your face covered in bruises, you're the lamest of the lot.

Before long, Sudo left victorious. Long Aotian happily used [Flying Thunder God] to return to his dorm, leaving behind only the world of the three boys sprawled on the ground in pain.

Back in his dorm, Long Aotian sent Sakayanagi Arisu the video of the fight from two days earlier, so she could use it to threaten Ryuen into handing over points.

There was no doubt he could get points out of this. During their first negotiation, the Class C homeroom teacher had punished Sudo with a month's suspension over the fight. The three boys from Class C had been so lame that otherwise, they would've been expelled.

PS: The protagonist interfered with the plot, so Sakura never showed up. That's why there was only one negotiation.

They'd all been punished without any evidence, but things would be different if Sakayanagi Arisu took the video to them. The three boys from Class C would be in serious trouble, so Ryuen would definitely agree to the terms.

After that, he would use an anonymous account to send the edited video of the fight to Student Council President Horikita Manabu and let him handle it. If he refused, Long Aotian would threaten to send the video to everyone. If the school stepped in, Horikita Manabu would be done for, so he'd have no choice but to intervene. After all, Horikita Manabu had been the judge from the beginning.

If this were the only evidence, Sudo still might not be expelled. But he'd already been punished once, and now there was another fight—with video evidence. Sudo was finished.

Back in the present, Long Aotian smiled faintly in his dorm as he looked at the points display before him.

[Points: 29.7 million originally → 30.15 million now (excluding 50,000 points in fake accounts) (buff bonus: 300,000 → 450,000) (not shown later; too much trouble to calculate)]

The 300,000 came from the contract Sakayanagi Arisu forced Ryuen Kakeru to sign using the video as leverage.

The contract's basic terms: in exchange for keeping the video from being leaked, Ryuen Kakeru would give Sakayanagi Arisu 600,000 points every month.

It had absolutely nothing to do with Long Aotian providing the video of the fight, so the three boys from Class C would also be expelled.

[Using Double Points Card!]

[Points: 30.15 million originally → 60.3 million now (excluding 50,000 points in fake accounts) (not shown later; too much trouble to calculate)]

Back with Horikita Suzune~

The three of them stood in an unusually tense silence.

Horikita Suzune wondered whether this would affect their chances of advancing to Class A.

Ayanokoji felt rather indifferent about it all.

Kushida Kikyo put on an act of concern.

The three of them went to the office and found their homeroom teacher, Chabashira-sensei.

"Teacher, why was Sudo expelled?"

Kushida Kikyo stepped forward and asked in confusion.

Chabashira-sensei didn't waste any words. She took out the video of the fight.

Ayanokoji watched the video play on her phone. This was clearly a calculated move. The video benefited neither Class D nor Class C. So, was it Class B or Class A?

Horikita Suzune was at a loss. No matter how she looked at it, they'd been set up. But who could've done it?

"You're all quite something. Sudo and those three students have all been punished with expulsion, but you still haven't figured out who did this." Chabashira-sensei smiled as she spoke, then put away her phone and shook her head.