Chapter 133: Ryuen, we’re such close partners!

After leaving the awkward situation, Kanda Shuichi let out a long breath. The cool evening sea breeze helped calm his slightly restless body.

Thankfully, the clothes he wore today were suitable. It was backlit, so Hasebe probably couldn't see very well. Otherwise, it would have been awkward.

Once he calmed down, Kanda Shuichi took out his phone and sent an email to Hirata, asking him to meet on the second-floor deck. He planned to tell Hirata about how he cracked the rules.

If he didn't have Hirata's cooperation, the next steps would be difficult.

[Can we meet on the second-floor deck? I have something to discuss with you about this exam. If possible, just come alone.]

After enjoying the sea breeze for a little while, Hirata arrived alone on the second-floor deck as Kanda Shuichi had requested.

When Kanda Shuichi saw Hirata's figure, he checked the time. There was less than half an hour before the next discussion, but there was enough time to go over some basic things.

"Kanda-san, have you made any progress on your end?"

Hirata, with the same calm smile as usual, walked over and sat down across from Kanda Shuichi.

"Yeah, I've figured out the rules for how the school selects the special students for this exam," Kanda Shuichi said as he pushed the cold drink he had pre-ordered toward Hirata, explaining the purpose of calling him out.

"Is that true?" Hirata's usually calm face showed a hint of surprise. "No, it's not that I don't believe you. It's just that... this is really fast."

Indeed, a four-day exam, and here he was, already knowing the final answer before even finishing the first day. 

Just like Ichinose in the afternoon, Hirata was also very surprised.

If it were someone else, Hirata might not believe it, but Kanda Shuichi had already created so many miracles in Class D that Hirata Yosuke had developed a kind of blind trust in him.

"Actually, I only noticed it by chance. I already confirmed with Ichinose this afternoon about the privileged students in her class, so there's no mistake. As for the specific rules, I'm afraid I can't tell you the details right now."

Hirata nodded in understanding. "Mm, after all, we're outside, and we don't know if someone might overhear us, so it's better to be cautious."

"Now, here's my plan…"

Kanda Shuichi lowered his voice and laid out his full plan for Hirata.

"Wouldn't this…" 

When Hirata learned about Kanda Shuichi's plan, he hesitated. Isn't this just completely villainous?

In reality, if Kanda Shuichi really wanted to be the bad guy, he had more than just this trick up his sleeve.

He only needed points for now. If this plan succeeds...

Thinking about it, Kanda Shuichi's heart burned with excitement.

"It's okay, compared to directly exposing all the leaders, we're really giving them face," Kanda Shuichi shook his head, his tone growing a bit more serious.

After hesitating for a long time, Hirata nodded. "Kanda, I'll cooperate fully with you."

"That's the best," Kanda Shuichi said, relieved. 

If Hirata hadn't agreed, Kanda Shuichi would have had no choice but to use the method of offending all the first-year students.

At 8 PM, in the Dragon Team's room, the second discussion meeting began.

[Now, we'll begin the second round of group discussions.]

With the school's brief announcement, the second discussion of the privileged student test began.

However, unlike the first round, the expressions on the A-Class students' faces were even worse now.

Because in the first round, Kanda Shuichi and Ryuen had teamed up to set a trap for their class, resulting in A-Class losing another 50 class points.

Their total dropped from 892 points to 842 points. Compared to B-Class's 969 points, they were now over 100 points behind.

But with the current situation, no one wanted to step up and face the combined attack from the three classes.

Even Katsuragi could only defend under such circumstances, let alone those who were even weaker than him.

"Hey, Class A, you guys didn't lose money, did you? You look so miserable." Ryuen immediately struck at Class A's weak spot, making sure they felt the pain.

"Ryuen! You did that on purpose this afternoon, didn't you? And you too, Kanda!" 

Shinji Matoba, who had been the victim of the two's scheme, was naturally burning with anger.

"What does it have to do with me? In the end, you didn't follow the school rules. If you had done the self-introduction when you came into this room, even if Ryuen and I tried to trick you, you wouldn't have lost anything, right?"

Kanda Shuichi glanced at Shinji Matoba and said casually, 

"Or do you think you're such an elite that you don't even care about the school's rules anymore? Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if Mashima-sensei's eyesight is failing, putting someone like you in this room."

"What did you say?"

Kanda Shuichi's taunt made Shinji Matoba even angrier, but he didn't dare to act out in front of everyone.

"Um, guys, can we please stop arguing?" 

Seeing the tension in the room, Ichinose quickly stood up, trying to calm things down.

"Shut up! Ichinose! If you hadn't ended the self-introduction early without permission, I wouldn't have…" 

Hearing this, Ichinose's expression became awkward, as she realized she had unintentionally become an accomplice to the two.

"Hahaha!" 

A sudden burst of laughter came from C-Class's Ryuen Kakeru.

"Katsuragi, is this the kind of idiot in Class A who calls himself an elite, but refuses to admit his mistakes and lacks responsibility, instead shifting all the blame onto others? If that's the case, do you want to join my Class C? You probably won't last long in Class A anyway, right?"

Ryuen boldly tried to poach someone right in front of Class A. 

"I refuse." 

Without thinking, Katsuragi rejected Ryuen's offer. Even though Class A had temporarily dropped in rank, and despite the students in Class A acting poorly, their basic qualities were still evident. They were far better than the people in Class C. 

So, Katsuragi still believed that once back at school, Sakayanagi would surely lead the class back to Class A. At that time, for the sake of Class A, he would have no choice but to be a pawn. 

"Is that so? That's really too bad." 

Ryuen dropped his smile, but he didn't give up. There were too few useful people in Class C, and if he could recruit Katsuragi, he wouldn't mind spending 20 million points. 

"Alright, everyone. The farce is over. Let me give you all some surprises." 

Once the room calmed down again, Kanda Shuichi stood up, placed his hands on the table in front of him, and leaned slightly forward, looking at everyone except for Class D. 

"About this exam, I've found all the privileged students from twelve groups!" 

Kanda Shuichi's words caused both Ryuen and Katsuragi to change expressions immediately. The students from Class B also turned to look, and even Horikita Suzune and Kushida Kikyo from Class D looked extremely surprised. 

"What did you say?" 

Ryuen glared at Kanda Shuichi with a dark expression, while Katsuragi stared intensely, as if trying to find some flaw in Kanda Shuichi's face. 

"Don't look at me like that. No matter how much you stare, it won't make me forget your class's privileged students. Isn't that right, Ryuen?" 

Saying that, Kanda Shuichi took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and tossed it in front of Ryuen. 

"This is from your class. Do you want to double-check?" 

Then he pulled out another piece of paper and tossed it toward Katsuragi. 

"This is from yours." 

"No need. Our class hasn't compiled the information." 

Katsuragi had no intention of picking up the paper in front of him. 

"Is that so? Aren't you worried that Ryuen will confirm it and snatch the paper away?" 

These words made Katsuragi frown. He then stretched out his hand, took the folded paper, but had no intention of opening it to check. 

On Ryuen's side, he had already picked up the paper Kanda Shuichi threw at him, unfolded it, and confirmed the names listed. 

It was exactly the same as the list he had checked before. There was no doubt that this was the list of privileged students from his class. 

"Did Hiyori betray us?" 

Ryuen's voice was unusually low, as if filled with brewing anger. 

"Shiina? What does she have to do with this?" 

Seeing Kanda Shuichi's puzzled expression, Ryuen frowned. 

After collecting the list of privileged students, he had deleted the information from everyone's phones. 

So right now, the situation in Class C was that the regular students had no idea who the privileged ones were. Only Ryuen Kakeru, Shiina Hiyori, and Kaneda Satoru knew. 

Therefore, when Ryuen saw the names, his first thought was that Hiyori had betrayed them, secretly giving the list of privileged students in Class C to Kanda Shuichi.

But Kanda Shuichi's reaction earlier was too natural, not like he was pretending. Could it be that he really figured out the pattern on his own?

No, it would be too hard for just one class's favored students to figure it out. Could it be...?

Ryuen turned his gaze to Ichinose.

"Did you tell him about your class's favored students?"

Ichinose smiled bitterly and shook his head. "No, not at all. When Kanda-san suddenly sent me the information about our class's favored students this afternoon, I was shocked too. At first, I wondered if someone in the class leaked the info, but..."

At this point, Ichinose once again smiled wryly and shook his head.

Hearing the conversation between Ryuen and Ichinose, Katsuragi's frown deepened. Are they serious? Are they not just messing with me?

Thinking this, Katsuragi took out the note from his pocket to check, then found the contact information for the three people and started sending messages to confirm.

Soon, he got responses.

[How did you know? I've never told anyone.]

[Did you figure out the pattern for selecting favored students?]

[Why do you, Katsuragi, know that I'm one of the favored students?]

Seeing these three messages from different people, Katsuragi once again put on a painful expression. What kind of nonsense is this school putting in Class D?

Is this really the quality of Class D students? Did we sign up for a fake school? Damn!

Noticing Katsuragi's changing expression, Kanda Shuichi smiled. "Looks like you've confirmed the truth of the information, Katsuragi."

Katsuragi sighed helplessly and nodded. "How did you manage to do this?"

"Maybe it was just a flash of insight."

A flash of insight, my ass! Katsuragi was at a loss for words.

"So, why haven't you finished any of the group tests yet? What's your goal?"

Ryuen had regained his calm. Now, even if he suspected the class's students, it wouldn't help. It was better to understand Kanda Shuichi's intentions. 

If they can't come to an agreement, this meeting would be the last, and Kanda Shuichi would definitely organize a team to finish all the tests after the discussion.

This could be seen from Hirata, who had been sitting next to him without any change in expression.

As for the three groups of favored students from Class D, the outcome wasn't that important anymore. In fact, this guy might even give the points back to Class B.

This could be inferred from Ichinose's actions.

When Kanda Shuichi figured out the pattern this afternoon, he didn't go to Ryuen but instead sought out Ichinose. That already pointed to some issues.

In your eyes, is Hiyori not as good as Ichinose? You idiot!

Not just Ryuen, but Ichinose and Katsuragi were also looking at Kanda Shuichi, wanting to know what he would do next.

"It's simple. I told you from the start that I want the entire group to get a perfect score." Kanda Shuichi smiled, then showed his teeth. "But it seems that the students from Class A didn't give me much face at lunch today, so I plan to take all the points from Class A this time."

"What did you say?" Katsuragi could hardly contain his emotions anymore.

"I said, I want all the groups to get a perfect score, and all the points Class A earned should be handed over to me. Did you understand that?" 

Kanda Shuichi's tone was full of disdain. He really looked down on the students from Class A. This is Class A? After a little setback, they're already beaten down? Seems like months of elite life has made them weak.

"If you're unwilling, just be ready to lose 150 points. There's nothing more to say."

A threat, a naked threat, but the students from Class A had no choice but to accept it. Right now, Class B had already surpassed Class A by over 100 points. If they lost another 150 points, the consequences would be unthinkable.

At that point, even Sakayanagi might not be able to turn the situation around instantly.

Thinking of this, the students in Class A started sweating profusely.

"You can take your time to think it over; there's plenty of time left." Kanda Shuichi ignored them and instead smiled at Ichinose. "As for B-Class, I'll only take half of it."

"Well, thank you in advance."

Ichinose didn't know how many times she had shown a helpless smile. It felt like she had won so easily before.

But in order to quickly gather the 20 million points for the class to get an exemption from expulsion, Ichinose had no choice but to accept Kanda Shuichi's offer.

As for Kanzaki Ryuji and another girl, they had no objections. After all, D-Class was just their ally, not their subordinate.

"So, how many points do you plan to take from me, Kanda?" Ryuen asked with a teasing smile.

When Kanda Shuichi heard Ryuen's words, his smile became even more sincere.

"Stop talking nonsense. Why would I take your points? We're close partners, after all."

Ryuen's face twitched at Kanda's words.

Close partners?

What nonsense is this?!

Do you even believe what you're saying?

If we're close partners, why didn't you consult me this afternoon?

"Hmph! Stop saying useless stuff. You should know, I don't care about the measly 150 class points." Ryuen scoffed, acting as if Kanda should pay him in order to get his cooperation.

Ryuen was right. He was different from Ichinose and Katsuragi. Ichinose and the A-Class students were very attached to the reputation of their class. Since the gap between the classes wasn't large, just one exam could reverse the situation.

But C-Class was different, or rather, Ryuen was different. This guy didn't care about class points at all. He trusted private points more, because class points were unreliable and could drop drastically due to one exam or one violation. Private points, on the other hand, were far more stable.

"So, I already told you, I'm not taking your points. You can keep your 20 million private points." Kanda Shuichi shrugged.

"Hmph, that should be mine in the first place. Are you planning to keep all the points you took from A-Class and B-Class for yourself? If you give me half of those, I'll agree to this plan, and I promise I won't betray you."

Ryuen's intentions were clear. In addition to the 20 million private points from his own class, he also didn't want to miss out on the total 30 million private points that Kanda Shuichi took from A-Class and B-Class.

"Ryuen, I advise you not to be too greedy. The rules of the privileged student test were calculated by me, and I came up with the plan too. You're getting 20 million private points without doing anything, and you're still not satisfied?" Kanda Shuichi replied.

Kanda Shuichi admitted that he had underestimated Ryuen's greed. Ichinose had gotten 10 million points, and she was already satisfied with that. Katsuragi and the others would quickly cave under the threat of losing 150 class points and agree to Kanda's demands.

But Ryuen was different. Kanda hadn't expected this guy to be so greedy. Was he testing my limits?

Although Kanda had known this guy wouldn't be easy to deal with, he didn't expect him to be this difficult.

He had offered 10 million as a token of appreciation for their past cooperation, and the extra 10 million was meant to commend his courage. But this guy had pushed for even more.

Now, Kanda Shuichi had no choice but to bring out Plan B. Ryuen, you forced me into this. This wasn't a Plan B that I had prepared, knowing your move!

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