Chapter 045: Class C, Give Me a Straight Answer: Do You Want to Become a Subsidiary Class?
Hikigaya didn't ask Kushida to do anything outrageous; he simply informed her that a shortcut existed for this exam.
He deduced that the exam would use last year's test papers, so they only needed to find an upperclassman to obtain a copy of the old questions.
"How do you know we can buy the test papers?" Kushida didn't believe him immediately.
"It's simple," Hachiman explained.
"I've counted the number of students in the 2nd and 3rd-year C and D classes. Their retention rate is significant; no mass expulsions occurred. However, the school couldn't possibly have given only one or two written exams. For these academic failures to survive so many tests, they must have used unconventional means.
Your class should have learned the truth about the school today—the rules here are special.
Therefore, you can't judge things with conventional logic.
I then gathered intel from the senpais: they are facing written exams this month too, yet they aren't panicking at all because they're being tested on old questions.
They discovered during their own first year that the actual exam content differed vastly from the syllabus provided by the teachers, making it impossible to get high scores through normal study," Hikigaya added.
"The content of the paper and the syllabus were vastly different...?" Kushida was particularly concerned about this.
She had been studying hard lately; if the syllabus was wrong, her plan to secure a top score would be thwarted. For her, living in Class D while maintaining her "honor student" halo, this was unacceptable.
"Yes. Afterward, the teachers promised the school would provide compensation: exams for the same period in the second and third years would follow a similar pattern," Hikigaya said.
I see.
The school was buying the students' favor.
They tricked the students in the first year, then compensated them with exams in the second and third years. Since a single perfect exam reward is 100 Class Points, that totals 200 points across two grades.
However, while the school does compensate, students have to wait until next year or the year after to cash in.
From this perspective, for them as freshmen to handle the exam, they just needed to ask a senpai for the "test papers."
If this was true, the school's operations were truly bizarre.
"So," perhaps because she received good news, Kushida folded her hands over her chest and put on an adorable expression, "Hikigaya-kun's purpose for finding me is—"
"Naturally, for you to go and buy the papers," Hikigaya said bluntly.
"We in Class B need to protect our reputation."
Kushida: "??"
Wait.
Class B needs to protect its reputation, but Class D doesn't? You know Class D has... Class D has 0 points.
Well, 0 points is the limit.
Kushida wasn't stupid; she didn't think the class had exactly 1,000 points deducted to hit zero. There was likely a negative balance, but the counter stopped at 0. So, Class D couldn't get much worse than 0 points.
"Besides, if you get the papers, your Class D can use them too," Hikigaya said in a persuasive tone.
Kushida: "..."
Kushida began to think. If Class D's evaluation points went up this time and they secured the full 100-point reward, it would benefit her too.
After all, there was no income this month. As a member of Class D, she certainly wanted living expenses.
Then there was the reality of Class D. This time the school wasn't too cruel; they hadn't specified what the passing mark was.
Although Class D was full of academic failures, their scores would naturally be low. However, failures would definitely occur, and they likely wouldn't get the full 100-point reward. Thus, she could use the purchased papers to win over her classmates' hearts, bringing her one step closer to her grand ambition of "becoming friends with everyone in school."
"Hikigaya-kun, today—"
Kushida finally showed her first sincere smile of the day, looking like a little angel, because Hikigaya-kun hadn't tricked her today.
Perhaps, she could continue to associate with him.
.
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Kushida's efficiency was extremely high.
Hikigaya had originally invited her to dine on the third floor, but she felt that since it was lunchtime, it was better to act immediately rather than finding another time to meet a senpai. By targeting senpais who were eating the free meals, the amount of private points required to buy the papers would be even lower.
And that proved to be the case.
She traded 20,000 points for the test papers.
After school, Hikigaya and Kushida met again and went to a copy shop to process the materials.
The senpai had sent her photos of the papers, so they were now printing them out.
They printed two copies.
What came out were sets of papers covering Math, Physics, Japanese, Geography, and English—totaling five subjects, which were the exact subjects for this month's assessment.
Kushida took a quick look at the Physics paper she held and found that there were indeed discrepancies between the paper and the syllabus the teachers had announced. If she had taken the test according to the original syllabus, she probably wouldn't have reached 80 points; she would have only scored in the 60s.
And this was someone who usually scored in the 80s.
So, perhaps as Hikigaya said, this school was very special.
"That's it then." Hikigaya handed over the papers.
"It's best if you don't give these old questions to the Class D students until the final week before the exam."
"Mm-hmm." Kushida understood. she knew her classmates' personalities well. If they knew they were testing on old questions, they definitely wouldn't study. More likely, they would pull them out in the middle of the classroom to memorize them or blabber about it everywhere.
That would lead to unnecessary complications.
Moreover.
For Kushida, it was only the 1st of the month. Giving the papers to the students now would just be "adding flowers to a bouquet." If she waited until the limit when everyone was having a mental breakdown, it would be "sending charcoal in a snowstorm."
To maximize goodwill, she obviously had to choose the latter.
Hikigaya's advice coincided perfectly with Kushida's thoughts.
"However, you bought papers from a poor student. His class clearly hadn't discovered the school rules in their first year, so his grades weren't good—only in the 40s—and nearly half the answers are blank. The workload is too much for one person; I suggest you ask Horikita to help you fill them out."
'Dammit.'
Kushida nearly jumped up to glare at him.
Doesn't he know her secret? He knows she's worried that Horikita knows it too, which is why she's tried everything to get on Horikita's good side to keep her quiet.
But Horikita ignored her completely, so Kushida was ready to give up on her. Now he wanted her to contact Horikita?
This was torture.
"Don't worry. Horikita just suffered a blow; she shouldn't be as difficult to deal with or as prone to ignoring you as before," Hikigaya consoled her.
"And since this is a contribution to the class, she might actually look at you with more respect."
"Oh?" This was something Kushida hadn't considered.
Horikita had indeed looked soul-crushed this morning.
.
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After seeing Kushida off, Hikigaya looked at the exam materials in his hand.
He returned to the copy shop and made two more copies of the papers.
Then he sent a message to Ichinose, asking her to come over. After she took one set back, he took the other two and set out on his move.
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