Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 142: Ryuen: The Least Trustworthy Thing Is a Man’s Words!

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At Advanced Nurturing High School, in the Student Council office.

“……”

Almost as soon as Sakayanagi calmly voiced her prediction about the first-year students’ exam results, everyone was stunned.

Because—

What does it mean to say that because you didn’t participate in the exam, the exam results turned out as you expected?

In other words—

“Sakayanagi, you don’t seriously think that just because you weren’t present, your class collapsed, right?” Nagumo said. “And do you really think Hikigaya from C-Class is that strong? Can that broken class really rise up?”

Nagumo himself was part of the rare successful reversal in the school.

Last year, he was also in B-Class, but by the end of the first year, he managed to turn the tables and stabilize his class’s position.

But the truth is, he knew his class’s internal strength played a huge role.

Although the school promoted class competition, from the start, the quality of students in each class was different.

The lower-ranked classes had more students dragging them down.

And C-Class, where Hikigaya was, originally came from D-Class.

So—

Trying to climb up, with people dragging you down, could end in failure.

“Then, Nagumo-senpai, do you think Hikigaya is just an ordinary student?” Sakayanagi asked politely.

But her simple question made Nagumo start to rethink.

He had already seen Hikigaya a few times and had initially misjudged him as just a troublesome underclassman, but soon, he was proven wrong.

He had even gotten more information from Horikita-senpai about him.

Sakayanagi then continued—

“On the first day of school, my class pooled together 2 million private points from all the students to buy the school’s actual rules from the teachers.”

“Then, logically, we should’ve easily passed the first month’s behavioral exam.”

“And left the other classes behind.”

“But because Hikigaya broke the monitoring system, the actual rules of the school were forced to be exposed.”

“And that’s how A-Class lost the upper hand in the behavioral norms exam.”

“In other words, the 2 million points we invested were wasted.” Sakayanagi Arisu said.

Hmm.

From this angle, it does seem pretty impressive.

Nagumo rubbed his chin and silently evaluated the situation.

But Sakayanagi, you’re also quite poisonous.

Because based on your own account, Hikigaya ruined your A-Class’s plans.

Yet you don’t seem angry at all.

And then Nagumo remembered the intel he received about Sakayanagi Arisu being regularly seen eating with a certain dead-eyed boy in a room on the third floor.

So, Sakayanagi, you’re playing with fire.

Nagumo couldn’t help but wonder.

“You hold Hikigaya in such high regard,” he said. “But we are rival classes, so overstepping boundaries could be a problem.”

“Rival, yes, for now,” Sakayanagi said. “But the school has already given us a solution, right?”

“As long as we have 20 million points, we can jump classes or avoid the punishment of expulsion.”

“And if Hikigaya can prove that he has the ability to bring a garbage class to A-Class, then our class will just gather 2 0million points and bring him over.”

“And once the enemy joins my class, there’s no longer any rivalry, right?” Sakayanagi said with a light smile.

Oh.

So that’s it.

No wonder you’re after 20 million points.

So, I misjudged you.

At first, Nagumo thought Sakayanagi Arisu was a weak, innocent girl, then he realized her apparent weakness was just a facade hiding a strong attacking force.

But now—

She had become a fire-playing youth.

Nagumo knew that his philosophy was not approved by Horikita, which was why he wanted to become Student Council President, but Horikita didn’t agree with him.

But you, Sakayanagi, have now also shown that you are a problematic existence.

Didn’t you notice that President Horikita sighed lightly just now?

Because the potential successors are all dangerous people.

“So…”

Nagumo looked at Horikita, “How did the first-year uninhabited island exam results turn out?”

“Well then, you can go update it,” Horikita handed a piece of paper to Nagumo. “Go update the four classes’ results on the first-year blackboard.”

And Nagumo saw the scores written on it:

First-Year A-Class +70 points
First-Year B-Class +170 points
First-Year C-Class +491 points
First-Year D-Class +0 points

“……”

“This can’t be true!” Nagumo almost blurted out.

What is going on here? How did these scores come about?

And on the beach, Katsuragi and Ryuen also wanted to know the answer.

“First place, First-Year C-Class, 491 points!” With a megaphone, Teacher Mashima announced the final results.

The air seemed to stagnate for a few seconds.

Then—

A huge uproar followed.

Especially from C-Class students, who couldn’t hold back their excitement.

“We’re number one!”

“491 points! 491! As long as we give 100 points to Koenji, our living expenses will increase by 39,000 next month!”

“We’ve hit the jackpot! We don’t have to save money anymore; I can finally buy the PSP I’ve been wanting!”

“How is this possible?! This can’t be!”

Katsuragi, like a gambler who had lost everything, widened his eyes. “I demand a detailed public breakdown of the scores!”

“Unfortunately,”

Mashima-sensei shook his head. “You’ll have to think for yourselves.”

“And not just this time, the detailed scores won’t be announced in the future either.”

He directly closed off any escape route.

After announcing the exam results, Mashima-sensei lowered the megaphone, leaving time for the students.

Although they could arrange for the students to board the transport boats and return to the ship, the students’ emotions still seemed far from calm.

Of course, they couldn’t calm down.

“Why did this happen, Katsuragi?!”

The students behind Katsuragi started to stir up, and it wasn’t just Sakayanagi’s faction; even Katsuragi’s faction was in an uproar.

Because the difference between the 70 points and the 338 Katsuragi calculated was a whole 268 points!

At the same time—

They had signed a contract with Ryuen.

They were required to pay Ryuen a monthly living expense equivalent to 300 points of class evaluation points.

That means—

Aside from the 70 points which could go toward living expenses, each of them would need to deduct 23,000 private points from their personal accounts every month and give it to Ryuen!

They didn’t earn any points, but now they still had to pay out of their own pockets!

It was a pretty bad deal.

“Let me think this through,” Katsuragi obviously realized this was a major mistake.

But since Mashima-sensei hadn’t made the scores public in detail, he had to think for himself.

He took out a small notebook and pen and started calculating.

Starting with an initial score of 220 points confirmed.

Then, the base points were 17 points.

For the team leader guessing part, he had guessed B-Class and C-Class.

But the final score was only 70 points.

So, the 268-point difference came from… the team leader guessing part, maybe… and Koenji from C-Class wasn’t on the beach.

“You all calm down!”

Seeing Katsuragi start thinking, Katsuragi’s biggest fan, Yahiko, quickly stopped the surrounding students. “Let Katsuragi think!”

“……” The students of A-Class.

This time it was Katsuragi’s mistake, and he was taking the blame. But everyone didn’t understand exactly where it had gone wrong.

So, they gave him the time and space to think, watching as Katsuragi wrote in his notebook.

“That’s hilarious,” but at this moment, a man in a tracksuit with a little stain walked over.

“Still haven’t figured it out?” the man said. “We were all fooled by C-Class.”

“Ryuen!” The surrounding students of A-Class stared at Ryuen like they were ready to explode.

“I came to check if you were going to go back on your word,” Ryuen said. “I also messed up in this exam. I got zero points.”

“But—”

“Every month, you’ll need to give me private points, as written in the contract.” Ryuen pulled out a contract. “And just to remind you, starting from the 1st of next month, you’ll all give your points to Katsuragi, and then he’ll transfer them to me. It’s a hassle to do individual transfers.”

“Ryuen!” X number of students in A-Class.

In other words, Ryuen was here to collect the payment.

“So Ryuen, were you the Leader?” At this moment, a student from A-Class spoke up.

This was a handsome guy with a golden single ponytail, Hashimoto Masayoshi.

He was the class heartthrob of A-Class.

He was also part of Sakayanagi’s faction.

And it was half an hour ago that he reminded Katsuragi that the team leader from D-Class might be Ryuen.

So, Ryuen could be the answer.

But at that time, Katsuragi didn’t choose him.

In an instant—

Sakayanagi’s faction students looked at Katsuragi with dissatisfaction.

Because if Katsuragi had written Ryuen’s name back then, their class would’ve earned an extra 50 points, avoiding the current loss.

Although Katsuragi was the representative, students from Katsuragi’s faction also felt a bit regretful that Katsuragi didn’t make the correct choice this time.

“Don’t act all righteous, Ryuen.” But at this moment, Katsuragi said. “You’re a traitor.”

“I knew you were the team leader of D-Class so I didn’t guess you, but you… this guy…”

Katsuragi publicly showed his small notebook.

A-Class’s score.

70 points = 270 points (base score) – 50×3 (guessed by three classes) – 50 (penalty for operation error) + 50 for guessing B correctly – 50 for guessing C wrong

“So, the team leader information of my class was guessed by three classes.”

“And those three classes… include you, Ryuen!” Katsuragi said!

After saying this, the situation, which was previously unfavorable to him, immediately turned around.

The students of A-Class immediately glared at Ryuen.

“Looks like you’re all angry now,” Ryuen said. “You’d better read the contract we signed carefully. The agreement only covers the exchange of initial points this time.”

“And there is no clause about guessing each other’s team leaders.”

“Rather, not obtaining points from the other side can only be done by real allies,” Ryuen said. “Or do you want to form a real alliance with me?”

“And forming an alliance with my class is also possible. You’d need to pay an additional 400,000 points per month until second year, or provide 4 million points in one lump sum to my class.” Ryuen continued.

“Absolutely not!”

Most of A-Class students immediately rejected Katsuragi.

Because this was essentially paying a protection fee to Ryuen.

The students of A-Class couldn’t bring themselves to accept this.

Looking at the students of A-Class, Ryuen turned and left.

Ryuen was just confirming if Katsuragi had guessed him, but the result was that Katsuragi, being honest, didn’t guess him.

So—

The only reason his score of 201 became 0 was clear…

Damn it.

Hikigaya Hachiman!

Ryuen realized he had been tricked.

Because he had traded with A-Class, but had allied with Hikigaya Hachiman from C-Class, and the result was… the other side had betrayed him.

Not only did Hikigaya guess him, but he had also likely convinced Ichinose from B-Class into guessing him as well.

Damn it!