Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 157: Horikita from C Class vs. Shiina from D Class! A Race Against Time!

The morning discussion in the Dragon Group ended in discord.

Katsuragi remained silent as he left the room, but before that, he had already obtained his class’s privileged student information.

The students in Katsuragi’s faction naturally supported him. Everyone must have understood that this exam had to be handled cautiously, or else A Class’s position might be in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the students from Sakayanagi’s faction, upon receiving the privileged student information, also came to him with their phones for verification.

It could be said that this exam had strengthened the cohesion of the class.

Following Katsuragi’s plan, all students adopted a stance of non-participation.

This was unavoidable.

A Class was like a juicy piece of meat that everyone had their eyes on, so they had to consider the worst-case scenario—where the other three classes might unite against them.

Since the class was split into 12 groups, it was impossible to keep track of everyone. To avoid exposing the privileged students’ identities and losing points, Katsuragi decided on a strategy of refusing to participate in the exam.

However…

Something still felt off.

“Katsuragi! Ryuen is here!”

At that moment, his follower, Totsuka Yahiko, rushed over and reported.

“Ryuen?”

Katsuragi frowned.

Being a member of the Dragon Group, he was aware that Ryuen had openly tried to form an alliance with B Class or C Class during the discussion.

His goal was to obtain the privileged student information from other classes.

“Let him in,” Katsuragi said with a furrowed brow.

“But Ryuen betrayed us last time!” Totsuka protested.

“I haven’t forgotten that,” Katsuragi replied.

Oh.

So they were going to let Ryuen in just to mock him?

The students in Katsuragi’s faction would love to see that.

After all, Ryuen was truly despicable.

Back during the deserted island exam, he had pleaded with them to convert their starting points into living expenses. But when it came time to guess the leaders, he turned around and betrayed them. He even helped B and C Classes identify A Class’s leader, which was downright disgusting.

If they could cut ties with Ryuen, that would be ideal.

And so…

When Ryuen arrived, he saw that more than 20 A Class students were gathered, staring at him menacingly.

“Oh? Is this how you’re welcoming me?”

Ryuen had come alone, but he showed no sign of fear.

In fact, he even smirked.

“What a warm welcome.”

“But I have no time for your petty antics,” Ryuen said. “Let’s form an alliance for this privileged student exam.”

“Impossible!”

The moment Ryuen mentioned an alliance, A Class’s students immediately erupted in anger.

“You said we were allies before, and then you turned around and betrayed us! You’re completely untrustworthy!” Totsuka shouted at Ryuen.

“Did I write in our contract that I wouldn’t guess your leader’s identity?” Ryuen replied. “I only trust contracts.”

“And don’t even think about tearing up our contract. There are still dozens of special exams left. If you break a contract now, no class will trust you when you actually need an alliance.”

“That’s your problem to worry about, Ryuen.”

Katsuragi looked at him coldly and sternly.

“Even if you try to align with B Class or D Class now, they won’t trust you.”

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have the nerve to crawl over here,” Katsuragi said.

“…”

Ryuen chuckled.

But he knew Katsuragi was right. That was precisely why he had no choice but to come here.

His reputation was too tainted. He was being rejected for normal alliances.

“I’m willing to sign an agreement this time,” Ryuen said. “Mutual non-aggression.”

“I want the information on one of your class’s privileged students.”

“In exchange—”

“You’re offering information on two of your class’s privileged students?” Katsuragi interrupted.

“You’re quite greedy,” Ryuen said. “Fine. I can agree to that.”

“A 1-for-2 trade,” Ryuen continued. “But we must include a clause stating that we won’t guess each other’s privileged students.”

In other words, it had to be written in black and white.

A Class would only have to give up one privileged student’s information in exchange for two from D Class, making it seem like a great deal.

Seeing the reaction from the A Class students, Ryuen could tell they were tempted.

That meant the deal might go through.

But—

“Then you can leave.” Katsuragi spoke coldly. “Ryuen, don’t think you can manipulate A Class.”

“You sure about that?”

Ryuen narrowed his eyes at Katsuragi.

This was a written agreement. He wasn’t even attacking A Class, and in the trade, his class was at a disadvantage.

And yet…

Katsuragi still refused?

“I’m sure,” Katsuragi said. “Or would you prefer that we escort you out?”

This was A Class’s territory, with 24 students surrounding Ryuen.

Indeed… he was outnumbered.

“Don’t regret this,” Ryuen spat before angrily kicking a chair and leaving.

The A Class students watched his retreating figure.

But soon—

“Katsuragi, why did you let Ryuen leave?” a student from his faction asked.

If they had signed an agreement with Ryuen, A Class would have had the advantage. With the written clause preventing him from guessing their privileged students, he wouldn’t be able to break it.

Overall, A Class would have benefited.

“Haven’t you noticed?” Katsuragi frowned. “Our class has three privileged students.”

“And if the other classes are the same…”

“It’s almost evenly distributed.”

“So why would Ryuen specifically offer a 2-for-1 trade? What does he gain from it?”

“Ryuen is a dangerous guy. Does he really look like someone who would take a loss?” Katsuragi said. “That’s why I suspect this exam isn’t as simple as it seems.”

“Maybe… there’s a shortcut.”

“That’s why Ryuen wants our privileged student information. From the group discussion earlier, B and C Classes won’t ally with him anytime soon.”

“But Ryuen still wants at least one of our privileged student names,” Katsuragi said.

“So, what are you suggesting?” Hashimoto from the Sakayanagi faction asked.

“I suspect there’s a pattern to the privileged student list.”

“And just looking at your own class’s privileged students isn’t enough to verify it. At minimum, you need another class’s data to test or deduce the pattern.”

“That’s why Ryuen was so generous—offering two of his own privileged students’ information for just one of ours.”

“So basically, Ryuen wasn’t just after one privileged student,” Totsuka Yahiko immediately realized. “He wanted to use that one as a stepping stone to figure out the other two!”

“But didn’t he say he’d write in the contract that he wouldn’t guess our privileged students?” Totsuka continued.

“He could still sell our privileged student information to another class,” Hashimoto pointed out.

Ryuen can choose not to guess the VIPs in his own class, but he never said that other classes couldn’t guess them.

Therefore, Class A was still in danger.

“However,” Katsuragi said, “since Ryuen can use this strategy, we can use it too. If we can obtain the VIP information from other classes…”

Wouldn’t that mean Class A could also deduce the pattern of VIPs and start guessing the VIPs from other classes?

And once they obtained information on the other nine VIPs, Class A would gain 450 points.

At that point, what would there be to worry about? Class A’s advantage would be restored!

The students of Class A immediately understood the logic.

Now, the next step was to seek VIP information from other classes.

As the students of Class A began to take action, Katsuragi did not move. Instead, he approached a girl with long purple hair and a hair clip, who had come over when Ryuen arrived.

This was Kamuro Masumi, a close aide of Sakayanagi.

If the VIPs followed a pattern, then had he agreed to Ryuen’s terms, he could have likely deduced the pattern himself.

However—

Katsuragi couldn’t guarantee that he could deduce the pattern faster than Ryuen after making the trade.

And if he was slower, his class would be the one to lose.

So, he couldn’t take that risk.

“Kamuro, what do you think Sakayanagi would do in this situation?” Katsuragi asked.

In truth, he already had a vague idea of the answer.

“Sakayanagi believes,” Kamuro Masumi said, “that you are incapable of defending Class A.”

I see.

Sakayanagi didn’t trust his ability.

And judging by the results of this exam so far, he really hadn’t demonstrated the leadership necessary to guide Class A.

“If Sakayanagi was here…”

What would she do?

Katsuragi already knew the answer—Sakayanagi would have immediately allied with Class C.

Sakayanagi was confident, arrogant, and highly aggressive. She would never let an opportunity like this slip away.

But—she wasn’t here.

—

Meanwhile.

Although Ryuen had hit a wall and left, Hachiman and his group were still hard at work.

They had already obtained information on the three VIPs from their class.

Now, there was only one task left—

Deducing the VIP information.

They had the full list of students. If they were lucky, they might be able to deduce the entire list of VIPs just from the three VIPs they knew.

And if they weren’t lucky—if they couldn’t deduce the pattern quickly—they would need to acquire more VIP names from Class B.

It was like solving a problem: if you couldn’t figure it out, you just needed to add more known conditions.

That was why Horikita was currently at work.

Since the information was confidential, even the student lists had to be carefully guarded.

The other classes likely hadn’t compiled the names of each small group yet, which meant Hachiman’s class had the advantage.

Thus—

Sakura was standing at the door.

She seemed timid, but she was actually quite reliable.

“I’m not sure if this counts as information,”

Kushida, who didn’t believe she had the talent for deduction and wasn’t involved in that process, spoke up.

“Someone from the Mouse Group didn’t show up.”

“They didn’t come?” Hachiman looked over.

“Yeah, Mei-yu is in the Mouse Group. They have 12 students, but only 11 showed up at the final gathering. The one missing was a Class D student named Shiina Hiyori.”

She was the class’s English prodigy and Kushida’s close friend.

According to the exam rules, one of the conditions was that if a student refused to participate in the group discussions, they would be penalized, or even lose points.

For example, Sakayanagi Arisu had been penalized during the deserted island exam, causing Class A to lose 30 initial points for her absence.

The same applied here.

In this exam, unless Class A decided not to earn any points at all, as long as they gained points, they would also face deductions.

And the rules didn’t specify exactly how many points would be deducted—it could be a little or a lot.

Now, someone from Class D—Ryuen’s class—had also failed to show up for their group meeting.

Wasn’t that just giving away free penalty points?

Of course, Ryuen’s class was already at zero points, so they had nothing to fear.

But Hachiman suspected that, similar to the deserted island exam, this time the penalties would only apply if points had been earned.

So—

Would Ryuen allow his classmate to do this because he didn’t plan to earn any points this time?

Or was it—

“Unlucky for us,” Hachiman said. “If Shiina didn’t show up, it might mean that Ryuen is trying to do the same thing as us.”

“Hmm?” Kushida blinked.

She had an adorably puzzled expression.

You don’t actually need to act cute—he’ll explain it anyway.

That was what Hachiman thought to himself.

But for now, he continued,

“Today, Ryuen invited Class B and our class to form an alliance because he discovered that the VIPs follow a pattern.”

“And given Ryuen’s personality, he must have already gathered all the VIP information for his class.”

“Then he started assigning his students to deduce the pattern? To the point where they even skipped group activities?” Horikita Suzune, who had been deep in thought, suddenly looked up.

Horikita had beautiful, straight black hair and delicate features.

She was already like a painting on a normal day, but when she was deep in thought, her aura became even more refined.

A serious girl is beautiful.

But the fact that she was distracted by these thoughts meant that she was completely lost when it came to deducing the pattern.

Their progress was terrible.

“That’s a possibility,” Hachiman said. “So we can confirm that among the intelligent students in Class D, Shiina is one of them.”

“Shiina?” x2

Horikita and Kushida both looked at him.

They seemed to be wondering why he spoke as if he were so familiar with her.

“I’ve met her twice,” Hachiman explained. “Once was in the library. She even recommended drawing as a way to relieve stress, so I borrowed a few books on drawing at the time.”

Oh.

So that’s how it was.

Hearing this, Kushida immediately lost interest.

After all, Hachiman actually thought she would learn to draw to relieve stress?

Drawing required talent. If she didn’t have it, how was she supposed to do it?

Not everyone could just be ordered to get into Tokyo University and actually do it.