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★★★
This school operates on a meritocratic system, with special exams conducted every month, where students compete as a Class.
And it's not limited to typical school written exams.
This time's behavioral conduct exam is an example of that.
It's clear that this school aims to cultivate all-around talented individuals.
To achieve this goal, they likely design various special exams to guide students' development.
This is from the school's perspective.
From the students' perspective, their classes are assigned from the beginning, likely based on the same evaluation standards, so students in higher classes are generally excellent, strong in various aspects, while students in lower classes are the weakest among their peers, or similar to 'bombs.'
So, being assigned to Class D was a disadvantage from the start.
Not to mention anything else, the school's advertised 100% employment and university admission rates after graduation would definitely not be fulfilled for Class D.
However, this probably made no difference to Hachiman.
Because he didn't want to go to work as a corporate drone like his father.
Compared to such a conventional life experience, he preferred to be supported by a rich woman.
Of course, he wasn't completely shameless.
He would become a house husband.
Because in a family, someone definitely earns money outside, and someone also needs to manage the inside, right? So, this wasn't a bad idea.
It was just a division of labor.
And now.
Although he hadn't yet met a rich woman who could and was willing to support him and his younger sister, Komachi, the special rules of this school allowed him to accumulate a vast amount of points here.
Especially after receiving the bargaining chip from Chabashira Sensei: a reward of 10 to 30 million points for leading Class D to Class A once.
So, even without a rich woman, the funds obtained would allow him to live a leisurely life.
Therefore, today was also a fantastic day for the Class D student's path to reversal.
This month's special exam, the behavioral conduct exam, was known throughout the school and would last for one month.
The countermeasure had already been put into effect: signing an agreement with the Class students, which concerned everyone's living expenses and the unpalatable mountain vegetable meals.
However, this was just one countermeasure.
This school had many other special exams.
Therefore, the countermeasures also needed to be adjusted.
So, before the next month's special exam arrived, it was crucial to acquire [partners] as much as possible.
This was Hirata's suggestion.
Hachiman did not refuse.
And starting with people one is interested in, indeed, if you are interested in someone, then you will also be more attentive.
However.
"Good morning, Sakura."
The next morning, Hachiman arrived in the classroom early and began acting as a 'Hachiman camera.'
With his arms crossed and his head slightly bowed, but leaving enough field of vision not to obstruct his observation, he began to gaze in one direction.
Hachiman's seat was by the window, and Horikita Suzune was next to him, but next to Horikita was Sakura.
So, usually, if he wanted to look at Sakura, Horikita would be in the way.
However, Horikita hadn't arrived yet.
So there was no obstruction.
And Hachiman's target, Sakura Airi, had already quietly entered the classroom through the back door, carrying her school bag.
She pulled out her chair and sat down.
Her presence was very low, and she was timid and somewhat introverted, so she didn't get along well with the other girls in the Class.
However, thanks to the assistance of Kushida, whose function was similar to Hirata, Sakura was not ostracized.
However, it was true that she often acted alone.
But she didn't seem to feel lonely.
She felt at ease even when alone.
Hachiman had noticed that she didn't return to the dorm immediately after school but instead carried a small camera around, taking pictures.
Perhaps she was interested in photography or wanted to record beautiful moments.
She must be a sensitive person.
The above was the information Hachiman had gathered.
He didn't know Sakura very well.
But.
...
"Good morning, Sakura."
Today, Hachiman made a change.
He greeted Sakura Airi, who had just sat down, put down her school bag, and taken out her textbook.
"Eek…!"
But to Sakura Airi, this seemed to be somewhat surprising, and... startling!
Because, apart from Kushida, almost no one in the Class spoke to her.
So, suddenly being called out, she was slightly stunned.
Then she realized that the person who greeted her was Hikigaya, who usually stared at her.
Hikigaya's attack power was strong yesterday.
He was accused of destroying the camera and telling Kouenji to drop out.
But Sakura felt that he might not be such an excessive person.
"Eh…"
She looked over timidly.
"Good morning." Hachiman said.
"Uh, good... good morning." Sakura replied, seemingly trying to be polite, then stood her book up and hid her face behind it.
So cute.
So, even though Sakura is afraid of him, isn't it interesting to playfully tease her every day like a little squirrel?
...
Lunch break.
Hachiman was not invited by Sakayanagi Arisu today.
No free meal.
Actually, Hachiman realized yesterday that Sakayanagi didn't charge him.
While there's nothing wrong with being supported, Sakayanagi Arisu is not some main character.
Hachiman had no doubt that this ill-tempered, trashy loli, even if she promised to support him before marriage, would contradict him once married and make him go to work.
Of course.
He also didn't think he was her type.
But that didn't matter.
Today, he was having lunch with the most beautiful girl in the entire school.
To be precise, he was watching her eat.
The location was the classroom.
As soon as the fourth period ended in the morning, the students left the classroom.
They were preparing to go to the cafeteria.
After all, it was only the 7th day of school, so even though everyone was spending money wildly, they at least had enough for food.
Thus.
As for the wild vegetable set meal...
Hey, hey, hey, it's really hard to eat, okay?
So after eating it once yesterday, well, only Kouenji said, "Isn't this good too?"
Saying that food is just for filling the stomach, and even expensive meals are nothing special.
It sounded like he had eaten something extremely delicious.
However, thanks to last night's wild vegetable set meal, everyone was full of appetite today and wanted to eat normal food.
Thus.
The classroom emptied out.
Hachiman watched the girl sitting next to him.
The fox-eyed girl with long black hair.
Although the boys had previously ranked beautiful girls and included some body shape evaluations.
While Horikita's body wasn't the best, Hachiman once again admitted that Horikita was indeed beautiful.
Since it was lunchtime, she took out her bento.
Her fair fingers opened the bento box, which contained broccoli, fried crispy pork, and small octopuses.
The color combination was pleasing and made one feel very hungry.
But Horikita, can you understand a little bit about atmosphere?
Since your lunch is so rich and his is only rice balls, won't you show some humility?
If it's just like this, it looks like he really wants to eat her cooking.
So his lunch was seaweed rice balls, purchased from a convenience store, obtainable for 300 private points, very convenient, and the taste was also good.
And this was just the main course.
For a drink, a regular one would also cost 120-220 private points.
And if you control the price further, a meal would be at least around 300 points at its cheapest.
And breakfast could be skipped, so in this school, the cheapest daily expense was around 600 points.
At least 20,000 points had to be spent per month.
Normally, cooking for oneself would be much cheaper, but that would require wanting to or knowing how to cook.
As for Horikita, Hachiman had noticed that she wasn't short on points.
Even when acquiring supplies, she would take those that could be used for free, and only after confirming their safety and shelf life would she use points.
She was very frugal.
But this kind of girl probably ranks very high among the marriage prospects boys want.
...
"So, this is why you looked at Sakura an extra dozen times today?"
Horikita said calmly.
Hachiman had just told her that to aim for Class A, Hirata had become an assistant.
And he had also accepted Hirata's suggestion to gather information on the classmates.
And the first one he gathered information on was Sakura.
It's just that.
"..." Hachiman.
So, was it really that obvious?
Hirata was like this, and so was she.
Oh no.
Because Horikita was sitting between Hachiman and Sakura, if he wanted to look at Sakura, his gaze would first fall on Horikita.
And Horikita probably wouldn't think he would look at her, so she directly assumed he was looking at Sakura.
Hachiman wanted to say that sometimes he would also look at Horikita.
After all, when Class was difficult, there was nothing wrong with enjoying the beauty with his eyes.
However.
Regarding their constant slander that he wanted to bully Sakura.
"This was Hirata's suggestion." Hachiman said.
"He also chose to assist us in getting promoted to Class A. You saw what happened yesterday, right? Hirata is very popular in the Class, so matters requiring the cooperation of classmates can be entrusted to him."
"..." Horikita. "Popularity? It's a place for reasoning, but our Class depends on popularity. It's truly regrettable."
"It's just that." Horikita Suzune said,
"Hirata makes me unable to trust him. I think he's more enthusiastic about dealing with the various troubles of the classmates than about Class promotion."
Then you're doing great.
Hachiman said in his heart.
Yes.
Hirata cared most about his classmates.
It's just that.
Hachiman believed that as long as Hirata's bottom line wasn't crossed, then Hirata would help like a mother.
But once his bottom line was crossed, for example, when he suggested expelling Kouenji yesterday, Hirata immediately stopped him.
So, perhaps that was his bottom line.
As long as the classmates weren't expelled, Hirata could be an assistant.
He had to apply this rule flexibly.
"You also know that neither you nor I have friends in the Class, so if we want to speak and be acknowledged, we have no popularity." Hachiman said.
"So, this Class actually needs popularity to be acknowledged, instead of being convinced by reason. Are the classmates all people who can't distinguish right from wrong?" Horikita Suzune expressed her dissatisfaction with this.
"There's nothing we can do, because in these few days since admission, our Class has already split into several small groups: Hirata's group, Kushida's group, the girls' gyaru group, and then those who performed poorly like Ike, Yamauchi, Ayanokoji and Sudo also formed cliques."
"So why don't you try to integrate into a circle?" Hachiman suggested.
"That's not necessary." Horikita Suzune said.
"Speaking of which, aren't you also alone?"
Him?
He knew Sakayanagi Arisu from another Class.
He wondered if that counted as a friend.
After all, she bought him a drink, and people who do that are usually already friends, right?
It's just that even if this relationship could be called friendship, it wasn't the kind of true friendship Hachiman wanted.
"A solitary soul needs no bonds." Hachiman quoted his famous saying, since his sister wasn't present.
"But now that we have Hirata's assistance..."
Hachiman thought of Kushida, who had a similar role to Hirata.
Kushida Little Angel also had high popularity.
Moreover.
The last time Horikita brought her out to spread rumors, she completed it very quickly.
Although she might not be smart enough, her efficiency was very high.
She directly made the classmates panic because of the rumors, and even made them start exploring the school.
This was unavoidable.
If they didn't give the students in the Class A heads-up, even if the Class evaluation points were exposed, they wouldn't feel threatened and wouldn't self-regulate.
"Speaking of which, what's going on between you and Kushida Kikyo?" Hachiman asked.
Previously, Hachiman accepted Chabashira's request to investigate and obtain information on the classmates to update their student files.
It has now been confirmed that Chabashira-sensei was misleading him.
Investigating student information was one thing, but what she truly wanted was to dig out these people, remove their bomb-like attributes, and then apply them to the Class.
And now.
Hachiman had accepted her Class promotion plan and signed the agreement, so logically, there would be no more rewards for investigating students.
But this was the difference between a watermelon and a sesame seed.
Because investigating one student gave 200,000 points, and Chabashira-sensei would definitely want him to investigate people who could be useful for Class promotion.
Then most of the classmates would be passed over.
So, Chabashira-sensei's budget might have only been one or two million, but now it was directly increased to ten or twenty million.
For Hachiman, it was clearly more profitable now.
Moreover.
If they truly reached Class A, this Class would definitely not be able to withstand so many exams, but as long as they became a threat, then the original Class A would surely be willing to pay them to slack off.
So, with a simple transfer, there was a lot of room for manipulation.
And now.
Recalling his initial investigation of Kushida, Hachiman concluded that Kushida had an unspeakable dark past, and once her dark past was exposed, Kushida would become a bomb.
And through contact with Kushida, it had been confirmed that Kushida and Horikita came from the same junior high school.
"..." Horikita, "I can't understand her. She seems to want to be friends with everyone, but I refused."
Oh.
"She comes to my dorm door every day, and after school in the afternoon, she follows me back to the dorm." Horikita Suzune said.
"When I ask her, she says she wants to get along with me."
"I think she might have some purpose."
Is that so.
This was Kushida's usual hard life.
He could actually analyze Kushida's motives.
She already knew that Horikita Suzune and she came from the same school.
And Kushida had a dark past that couldn't be told, at least not to everyone currently.
Therefore, to prevent this, making contact with Horikita Suzune is a good move.
1. If they become friends, she can be stopped from speaking carelessly. (Normal response)
2. If they become friends, then even if the other party reveals a dark past, it can be dismissed as a friends' quarrel. (Common response)
3. If they become friends, the other party can be made to lower her guard, and then... the other party can be driven away. (Ruthless handling)
These are all cold strategies.
Kushida is currently stuck at strategy 1: hoping to build a good relationship with Horikita, and progressing slowly.
After all, if it had truly gone smoothly, she wouldn't have been so proactive in spreading rumors to gain Horikita's favor last time.
And now, even though she helped last time, Horikita still hasn't opened her heart to Kushida.
Poor Kushida.
Hachiman also felt that Horikita was not easy to approach.
In fact, if he hadn't stumbled upon her meeting with Horikita's brother, and if Horikita's brother hadn't led Horikita to him, then he and Horikita might not have even exchanged words.
So, what Kushida's strategy reveals now is how difficult it is for an ordinary person to get close to Horikita Suzune.
"By the way, do you have any impression of her?" Hachiman asked.
"What impression?" Horikita asked, puzzled.
None.
Horikita was probably the type of person in junior high who focused only on her studies and ignored everything else.
So, let alone Kushida's dark past, she probably doesn't even know that Kushida is from the same junior high as her.
So.
Kushida, you should let yourself off the hook.
There's no need to stake out Horikita Suzune every day.
You're disgusted, and Horikita also finds you annoying.
However.
Hachiman was slightly curious.
If that's the case, what exactly is Kushida's dark past?
And if he were to use her dark past to manipulate her.
Would it be effective?
But he felt like it would just explode.
Hachiman quickly pushed down the strange thought.
After all, Kushida only needs to be approached normally, showing a desire for her help, and she will assist.
Because she, like Hirata, presents herself as a saint, a Little Angel.
Always ready to help.
So there's no need for extra payment. It's free.
Therefore, there's no need to detonate her, this bomb.
...
"Speaking of your brother." Hachiman took out a point card from his pocket.
"In my agreement with Chabashira-sensei, she paid a 1 million point deposit in advance."
"And your brother paid 1 million points for informing the School about the rules."
"And if you assist me in fulfilling the agreement with Chabashira, then these one million points can be yours." Hachiman pushed the point card towards Horikita Suzune.
He wasn't an unreasonable person.
If Horikita assisted, he could still offer 10% of the remuneration.
After all, aiming for Class A isn't something that happens overnight.
It requires long-term assistance.
Hirata and Kushida were free, but Hachiman decided to pay Horikita Suzune some money.
"..." Horikita.
Horikita glanced at the point card.
But Horikita Suzune did not accept it.
"Because of my recklessness, my brother lost 1 million points." Horikita Suzune said.
"But I will earn those 1 million points through my own efforts and return them to my brother."
It should be said that after a few days, Horikita now seemed much more assertive.
She didn't mention at all how useless she was in front of her brother.
But Horikita, your statement is assertive, but it's meaningless.
Because.
You haven't understood what your brother wants you to learn and experience.
That is smoothness.
Being too rigid breaks easily, and now he is directly offering you 1 million points.
If you accept it, you would have already learned smoothness.
So, Horikita, you might have failed again.
However, Hikigaya is not a bad person like Sakayanagi Arisu who likes to bully people.
"Then you should adapt more to this School." Hachiman said calmly.
"Methods of acquiring points seem to include performing exceptionally well after joining a club to receive extra rewards from the School, or the School should also give point rewards when dealing with special exams."
"Among the lower Classes, I noticed a few students could afford decent meal sets."
"So perhaps some exams will offer rewards to some lucky individuals." Hachiman said.
"I'll consider it." Horikita nodded.
And this means that you, Horikita Suzune, will fully support the next exam and the one after that, right?
He offered her the point card, but she didn't take it.
So it was free.
Thus, Hachiman put the point card away.
...