When he woke up the next morning, Kaoru was the only one left in the room.
Although Kushida had intended to entice Karuizawa, even she herself was a bit shy.
A threesome was clearly not something that could succeed right after they met.
Kaoru looked at the calendar.
After Christmas ended, the New Year was just around the corner.
Since the Christmas gift hadn't been given, changing it to a New Year gift would be about the same.
However, the arrival of the New Year also meant that the new semester was about to begin.
Just then, Kaoru received a call from Kiriyama Ikuyo.
"It seems Nagumo met with Ryuen from your year. Someone saw Ryuen enter the Special Education Building today."
The student council office and the teachers' offices were both in the Special Education Building, but it was currently winter vacation.
The teachers wouldn't be at work, so it could only be that Nagumo Miyabi had intentionally summoned Ryuen Kakeru.
"Is there any news from Tonokawa-senpai and the others?" Kaoru asked.
"I've asked. Nagumo had previously commissioned Ryuen for something, and now they might be collaborating more deeply. He once gave Ryuen several million private points, being exceptionally generous," Kiriyama replied. "However, Tonokawa and the others are all being excluded by Nagumo now, so they don't know the content of their conversation."
Kaoru pondered for a moment.
Nagumo had actually scouted several candidates among the first-years: Sakayanagi Arisu, Ichinose Honami, and Ryuen Kakeru.
And now, Nagumo must have realized that both Sakayanagi and Ichinose were unreliable, so he chose Ryuen Kakeru.
No, it was more like he had no other choice.
Even if Ryuen Kakeru were to blackmail him or just take the money and slack off, there was nothing Nagumo Miyabi could do, unless he supported another agent to deal with Kaoru Mitoma.
Due to the difference in school years, Nagumo Miyabi indeed couldn't find an opportunity to enter the fray himself.
"Has anything happened in Class 2-B?"
"Yes. Nagumo demanded they hand over their private points, keeping only enough for living expenses. Many people are dissatisfied now, but they don't dare to say anything."
Was Nagumo short on money now?
Just as this thought emerged, Kiriyama added, "It's not just Class 2-B. Nagumo is also extorting Class 2-C and Class 2-D, forcing them to submit a blood oath, while continuing to tempt them with twenty million private points to work for him. To that end, he specifically rewarded a certain student with one million private points."
"His methods have become more drastic," Kaoru somewhat understood Nagumo's current anxiety.
To attack him, Nagumo had to at least suppress his own backyard, or else it would be easy for his base to be taken.
"Yes, the entire year is dissatisfied with him now." Kiriyama paused.
"Moreover, the school's exams are getting more and more dangerous. Just last semester, quite a few people were expelled. Some in the lower-ranked classes have already given up struggling."
Although Nagumo had united the entire second year to deal with special exams, given his personality, he would obviously not save students who were about to be eliminated.
In his eyes, anyone who could be eliminated was trash, not worth saving.
The spark of hope, so painstakingly ignited during the sports festival, was now being snuffed out by a massive wave of expulsions, causing the lower-ranked classes to fall back into a perpetual slump.
Seeing no possibility of advancing and facing expulsion at any moment, what else could they do but give up?
Wait, Kaoru understood why Nagumo was collecting Private points.
What does a group of students who have given up need the most?
To live in the moment, of course.
As long as Nagumo could let them enjoy their lives, they would naturally work hard for him.
In other words, all these people wanted right now were Private points.
Kaoru didn't ask Kiriyama how many Private points he had.
Their entire class combined probably had less than Nagumo Miyabi alone.
"Kiriyama-senpai, can you do me a favor in a bit?"
After getting his agreement, Kaoru logged into the school forums and skillfully began editing his new post.
[Help, does anyone get it, fam? I was changing in the mall dressing room today when I ran into this super creepy guy. He didn't even ask, just barged right in, and even said he was the Student council president and wanted to get to know me…]
[Posting anonymously, there's this blond senpai who talks a good game, but he's actually Losing potency. Sisters, you'd best avoid him, it's just disgusting.]
[Hehehe, this is the first time I've been so disappointed in the school and the Japanese education system. They really are a bunch of tax evaders. For example, the current Student council president is lavishly renovating his office and has cut funding for club activities, transferring it all to his Balance.]
[Why hasn't Nagumo deleted his history of being in Class B?]
[The strongest student in the second year, usually so high and mighty, has now lost even his childhood friend. I heard he secretly transferred tens of millions of points to the other guy, asking him to treat his childhood friend a little better.]
[Why is Nagumo collecting everyone's Private points? It's simple, he's broke now. He lost his previous tens of millions of Private points to a first-year. He's just a fox borrowing the tiger's might. He has no money at all, otherwise, why hasn't he enabled a single person to transfer classes?]
[You've all been deceived by Nagumo. Nagumo isn't the leader of the second-year Class B anymore. The school is also planning to remove him from his position. Even Tonokawa and the others have abandoned him. Nagumo is planning to take the money and run!]
[It's true, I just saw Nagumo's Balance. It's less than a hundred thousand!]
...
After publishing these anonymous posts, Kaoru had Kiriyama help bump them to the top, hoping to get as many people as possible to see them.
All sorts of strange rumors suddenly appeared on the forums, all targeting Nagumo alone, which easily attracted the attention of gossip-mongers.
Of course, to prevent Nagumo from tracking him down, Kaoru specifically applied to the school for ID protection, spending a million Private points to prevent Nagumo from Doxing him.
Compared to Private points, Kaoru was more interested in the effect of "The Midas Touch."
As long as the words he personally wrote could be widely disseminated, they could eventually blur the line between fiction and reality.
....
In less than an hour, Nagumo quickly learned of the news on the forums.
He opened the forum page, absolutely furious.
The moment he saw the titles and content, he seethed with rage.
Since when was he Losing potency?
Harassing female students? Cutting club activity funds? Maliciously getting a classmate expelled out of jealousy? He liked men?
These posts were simply shocking.
The more Nagumo read, the more alarmed and uncertain he became.
Had he really done these things?
Although it was true he hadn't been very interested in women lately, that didn't mean he was losing his potency, did it?
Nagumo's face flushed an ugly shade of red.
The few underlings beside him were extremely cautious, not daring to breathe too loudly.
"Na-Nagumo-kun, should we issue a clarification to debunk the rumors and have the school delete these posts?" someone suggested.
"What rumors!" Nagumo glared fiercely at the person who had just spoken. "Most of this is true! How do you expect me to explain it!"
"Ah, most of it is true?" The other person was stunned. "No wonder it looked so familiar."
Nagumo's expression was grim.
He knew who was behind the leaks on the forum, mixing partial truths in with the rumors and even exaggerating the original facts, making it difficult for him to issue a clarification.
For example, the part about losing potency.
Was he really going to clarify that?
The more he tried to clarify, the more the gossip-mongers' imaginations would run wild, wouldn't they?
Or another example: he had indeed lost a considerable amount of private points to Kaoru.
Was he supposed to clarify that he had only lost a few million, not tens of millions?
Nagumo Miyabi felt that would only be more humiliating.
So, in his capacity as the student council president, he contacted the school and demanded they delete the posts.
However, the posts' effects had already secretly taken root.
Nagumo was completely unaware.
He even planned to use even more explosive news to cover up his own scandal.
....
Meanwhile, in the coffee shop, Kaoru listened to the students' discussions, most of which were about the rumors surrounding Nagumo Miyabi.
With a circulation of only four or five hundred people, the effect of "The Midas Touch" hadn't been maximized.
It had merely made most students very interested in the content, constantly imagining the truth behind it and trying to piece together the facts.
Even Nagumo subconsciously believed that although the rumors were exaggerated, parts of them were true.
Kaoru suddenly felt a strong urge to issue his own declaration of independence to the entire world.
However, the effect of "The Midas Touch" was to make people believe something was true, not to make wishes come true.
Without sufficient facts to support it, it would quickly become a castle in the air.
In other words, to achieve the best effect, this reward had to be used in conjunction with facts.
As Kaoru was browsing the forum, he suddenly discovered that all his posts had been deleted by an administrator.
Then, a non-anonymous post was pinned to the top of the forum.
[A Twenty Million Point Bounty on Kaoru Mitoma!]