Chapter 371

So, Hachiman grabbed his phone and pressed the reject button.

He then called back, and the other person kept calling. He called back again.

"..."

Hiyori, looked puzzled.

"This person is troublesome," Hachiman said. "Not only does his phone number not display, but he also keeps harassing me."

"If the harassment was for getting things done, that would be fine, but the other party transferred money to me three times, each time 10,000 points."

"I have no interest in doing things for Hachiman said.

Aren't you interested in such a small amount?

Indeed.

Because this is Hachiman.

He's already reached the point where he can spend 20 million points to support a female classmate. So a mere 30,000 is really nothing.

Hiyori understands.

Only.

It seems that Hachiman has also received the same request.

"Actually," Shiina explained, "Ryuen also received the same transfer and phone call."

"Oh?" Hachiman looked over.

"Ryuen did not refuse the 10,000 points."

"But what interested him was the other person's actions. Since they could manage to hide their number, they must be an interesting person. So it was necessary to test their patience by rejecting their calls a few more times. That's why Ryuen rejected more than a dozen of their calls before finally getting through."

"After the call connected, the other party didn't say anything. But they quickly sent a message."

Hiyori said.

"The information says that the next batch of first-year students will have a Class Vote on withdrawal, and each class will be forced to have one student withdraw. However, the opinions of students from other classes can also influence who withdraws. Each student from another class has one Appreciation Vote and Criticism Vote. He wants to cast all his Criticism Vote on a student in your class named Kiyotaka Ayanokoji," Shiina said.

"And a ticket is worth 10,000 points."

"He wants to buy 40 Criticism Vote from my class."

"If he agrees, he'll send a deposit of 100,000 points first," Shiina said. "The balance will be paid after the exam."

Oh.

Oh, I see.

Hachiman understood.

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, also known as Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.

I knew it!

He remembered that Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's father had a powerful father who wanted him to drop out of school.

Keep in mind that it's the 31st now.

There is one day left until the announcement of the content and rules of the Special Exam on the 1st.

Ordinary students don't have the authority to know.

In other words, the person making the money transfers and harassing phone calls may be a staff member of the school.

But Hachiman doesn't think so.

Because the school staff also have some income, after all, it's their salary.

So it couldn't be that shabby; it was just a matter of taking out ten or twenty thousand points.

In other words, although they obtained an unknown number, the other party is likely a student, and not even a very popular one.

"So, did Ryuen agree?" Hachiman asked.

"I agreed," Shiina said. "After receiving the 100,000 points, I blocked the other party."

"..."

As expected of Ryuen.

Knowing that this kind of transaction was shady, and that transactions between students usually start at millions, a mere 400,000 was meaningless, so after scamming 110,000, I blocked the other party.

However, while it's possible to swindle money from Xiaobing, the fact that the other party went on to harass Ryuen after failing to harass him suggests that there's something wrong with this Special Exam.

In other words...

Unfortunately, my prediction came true.

I didn't see Chairman Sakayanagi eating on the third floor during lunch break yesterday and today, so something must have happened.

And very quickly.

After parting ways with Shiina, Hachiman received a file from his Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.

The other party said that he also received a harassing phone call.

The other party's number is unknown.

The students' phones were specially modified so that they couldn't call people outside the local area, and people from the outside couldn't call in either. In other words, the person who just called him was from this school.

Hachiman clicked on the audio message sent by Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.

It contains only five simple words.

[Kiyotaka Ayanokoji]

Judging from the other person's voice, they seem quite young, so there's a high probability they're a student.

We need to investigate this.

That evening, Hachiman arrived at the girls' dormitory.

Because Horikita went to buy things, Hachiman had no choice but to go to Kushida's room.

"Hachiman, is there something you need?"

Kushida, who opened the door, was like a little angel. Boys are allowed to go into girls' rooms, but they usually don't unless there's something special. And they leave around 8 PM to avoid suspicion.

It's already 8:07.

It's obviously going to run out of time.

But Kushida is still like an angel.

"Um, there's something I need to talk to you about, it's about Horikita." Noticing a girl passing by carrying a water bottle and glancing in their direction, probably curious Hachiman usually hangs out with Horikita, "It's like this, it's great that no one dropped out after this tutoring session, and Horikita saw the positive effects of the tutoring on me, hoping it can continue, blah blah blah—"

Hachiman spoke in ambiguous but serious terms, which made the girl, who was initially curious about Hachiman and Kushida meeting so late, immediately lose interest and even leave quickly.

These are the girls in the class.

At the same time, his face was gloomy.

Why do we need to continue with extra classes when the exams have just ended?

And Hachiman Hikigaya probably got high scores because he studied for 10 hours a day, but who wants to study for 10 hours a day!

No, no!

It was only at this moment that Hachiman was able to formally enter Kushida's room.

"So what's the matter so late?"

As Kushida the little angel understands that Hachiman's words were meaningless.

They definitely came with a purpose.

Actually, Kushida is somewhat uneasy right now.

After learning that Ichinose had also signed the same agreement with her, she wondered if she had become a meal replacement.

Because.

I seriously considered whether there was any aspect in which I could surpass Ichinose, but I couldn't find anything.

Isn't this going too far?

Doesn't that mean I could be abandoned by Hachiman at any time?

So even if he doesn't come to her, she's still considering having a serious talk with him.

"So, is something the matter?"

Kushida repeated it again.

"I took on a task, something like after-sales service," Hachiman said. "Remember when I asked Kiyotaka Ayanokoji to participate in the Sports Festival?"

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji?

It has a very low profile.

But she's quite good-looking.

Kushida just felt that the other person was an autistic person who was not good at expressing himself.

However, they didn't expect their opponent to be so physically fit, and he became the most outstanding player in the Sports Festival, completely overwhelming Sudō.

"His background is unique. His father has a lot of power and wants him to drop out of school, but he is unwilling."

"However, his father has connections at the school and wants him to drop out," Hachiman said.

"Oh." Kushida nodded calmly.

Then.

Look at him.

"Aren't you very interested in other people's secrets?" Hachiman looked at Kushida with some curiosity.

Because what he just said was revealing Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's secret.

However, Kushida showed no expression.

"You said his father has a lot of power, so he's a troublesome person. Why should I pay attention to him?" Kushida said. "Or rather, I should avoid him. Although I want to collect a lot of people's secret information, I don't want to crash right away."

"You're quite smart." Hachiman noticed that Kushida also had some bright spots.

"Now it's time for you to prove yourself," Hachiman said. "He received a call from someone whose name wasn't displayed."

"That can't be right."

Kushida blinked. As a social expert, she had made many phone calls and received a lot of calls every day. The school had forced them to enable caller ID on their phones, so even if they didn't want to know, the other party's number would be displayed directly when they answered a call.

But not displaying the name is different.

"That's just how it is." Hachiman handed his phone to Kushida.

"I also received an unknown phone call."

Kushida first tapped on her student ID, then disgustedly glanced at the 36 million figure. Adding another 4 million would allow Hachiman Hikigaya to support two girls in Class A. Next, she checked the number of received calls.

All the numbers in the row are in the same state.

It displays symbols like???.

It is an unknown number.

"It's probably some kind of special treatment that cost some money," Kushida said. "It's like how email addresses can be anonymous."

Regular email accounts are pre-installed on mobile phones and are linked to the phone number. You cannot apply for a new anonymous email account yourself. However, you can purchase a corresponding email account from your teacher by spending some points. The same applies to phone numbers.

"That's what I thought too." Hachiman nodded.

"Then it could be a prank by a second or third-year student?" Kushida asked again.

"It shouldn't be a prank, because this same phone call was made to Ryuen, and Ryuen points were paid, with the request being to help Kiyotaka Ayanokoji withdraw from school."

"So although I didn't answer, the other party probably meant the same thing: they also want to drop out of Kiyotaka Ayanokoji."

"But the reward is very low," Hachiman said. "He transferred 10,000 points to me three times."

Oh.

30,000.