Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 171: Please Enter the Trap

On the roof of the teaching building.

“That’s quite a surprise.”

Ryuen from Class 1-D came up to the rooftop as the sun was setting. He saw a girl with short golden hair, her back to him, seemingly lost in thought as she stared at something.

Immediately, Ryuen recognized her.

“Kushida Kikyo.”

“You, the beloved white lotus who everyone loves, are actually going to become a spy? How unbelievable,” Ryuen said.

Kushida had sent him a message saying that if Ryuen needed it, she could provide him with information about Class B during this exam.

Of course.

It wasn’t reasonable to contact Ryuen directly. The only reason she was able to meet him was because they had worked together once before.

Although, it wasn’t exactly a collaboration.

During the preferential treatment exam, Hikigaya Hachiman did something malicious.

That was to confiscate all the mobile phones from the class except for his own, and then have the students use backup phones while he kept the others.

Because of this, ordinary students had no idea whether they were the preferential treatment students or not.

However, Kushida was involved in that act. Therefore, she knew who the preferential treatment students in her class were.

Then, during lunch break that day, she contacted Ryuen.

She was willing to sell out one of her class’s preferential treatment students to him.

She herself was one of them.

At the time, however, Kushida didn’t have her own phone to prove her identity to Ryuen.

Ryuen was also caught up in his betting agreement with Sakayanagi Arisu, so he was in a race against time. Since Kushida couldn’t provide evidence, he naturally didn’t pay much attention to her.

But later, when he figured out the rules of preferential treatment, he deduced that the information Kushida gave him was correct.

She was indeed one of the preferential treatment students in her class.

So, from this perspective.

Kushida was willingly to be a spy.

And she had voluntarily sold out her class.

“I have my reasons,” Kushida said. “And I don’t want Hikigaya and Horikita to climb up.”

“If we give them more time, they will definitely aim for Class A,” Kushida added. “I can’t accept that!”

“Is that so?” Ryuen thought for a moment.

It was strange that Kushida, who was in the same class as Hikigaya and Horikita and was one of the representatives, didn’t want her class to rise. But Ryuen felt that it was reliable.

Because Kushida’s betrayal during the preferential treatment exam had already caused Hikigaya and Horikita’s class to fall behind.

So, her betrayal was real.

It seemed that she probably had some grievances with Horikita and Hikigaya.

Perhaps there was some sort of entanglement between them.

However, Ryuen was not one to believe others easily.

“And for this sports festival, Koenji has already openly stated in class that he doesn’t care to participate,” Kushida revealed another piece of information.

Hearing that name, Ryuen couldn’t help but touch his hair.

Because Koenji was known as a monster, and if Koenji didn’t participate, it would indeed be very good for the other classes.

“You’ll need to bring me another token of trust,” Ryuen said. “Bring me the entry form for your class. Hmm… Before that, bring me the recording of your class’s discussions.”

Although Kushida seemed a bit strange, if used well, she could help the class rise in this sports festival, and even put Hikigaya Hachiman’s class at a disadvantage.

Ryuen was not willing to be continuously outplayed.

Because.

Ryuen truly regretted it.

He had been too greedy in his bet with Sakayanagi Arisu. The bet with Sakayanagi was that if Ryuen could figure out the rules before Sakayanagi left the ship, then Sakayanagi would stop interfering. But if Ryuen failed, he would have to work for her.

If he had listened to the information Kushida provided earlier, using her knowledge about privileged students to deduce the rules, he might have been able to learn ahead of time.

That was a loss of thirty million points.

Then, it wouldn’t have been about him having to give points to Hikigaya; it would have been Hikigaya who had no choice but to cooperate.

Ryuen decided that he couldn’t afford to miss any more opportunities for information.

…

Soon.

After leaving the rooftop, Kushida continued to act as usual, hanging out with her friends.

There was nothing strange about her actions.

However.

Later that evening, she returned to the dormitory and sent a message to Hikigaya.

“He wants recording evidence? Then give him the recording,” Hikigaya said. “You can secretly record it during the class meeting the day after tomorrow.”

“Why not tomorrow?” Kushida had just finished showering, sitting on her bed with her phone’s speaker on, talking to Hikigaya.

Occasionally, the sound of a fan blowing her hair could be heard.

“Ryuen wants you to bring him a token of trust, and give it to him right away. Don’t you think that’s a bit too smooth?” Hikigaya said. “Ryuen is a cunning person. So, you need to put on an act.”

“Oh?”

Kushida put away her electric fan.

“But haven’t you already outsmarted him several times?”

“And you, you’re very scheming.”

“You clearly teamed up with Sakayanagi during the privileged exam, and then arranged for her to intentionally leak the information that she was a preferential treatment student to Ryuen. You should know that’s a very dangerous move.”

“If Ryuen had accepted that information, Hikigaya, you might have lost.”

“And in fact, Ryuen didn’t accept that information.”

“So, haven’t you done a good job of controlling Ryuen’s thoughts?”

“Then…”

“You used the fact that Ryuen didn’t believe her earlier to cause a loss, and now he trusts her more.”

“So…”

“Hikigaya is really an annoying guy.”

Kushida had originally placed Hikigaya at the top of her “dislike” list, but suddenly she felt that it wasn’t necessary to keep antagonizing him.

So she moved him off the top spot and put Horikita Suzune back in the position instead.

…

And likewise.

“Ryuen, do you think Kushida is trustworthy? Is it possible she’s lying? How could Kushida betray her own class?”

At Ryuen’s little base, he gathered his small team and informed them about Kushida’s plan to betray her class.

Ishizaki Daichi scratched his head. He was one of the ordinary people who had been approached by Kushida. He thought Kushida was an angel, considering she would talk to someone like him, who only seemed capable of fighting.

He had even regarded her as an angel.

But now.

Now, from Ryuen’s side, he heard that… Kushida was a spy.

He suddenly felt disillusioned.

“What do you think, Ibuki?” Ryuen turned to Ibuki.

“Me?”

Ibuki thought for a moment.

Before the uninhabited island exam, Kushida was probably the only girl from another class who had interacted with her.

And during the uninhabited island exam, she even gave her fruit.

She was a good person.

But now, was she a traitor?

“At first, I thought Kushida was a good person,” Ibuki said. “So I don’t really understand why she would do something like this.”

“But getting information from Class B would be very beneficial to us, wouldn’t it?” Ryuen said.

“Actually, I want to take action,” Ryuen said. “We’ve been outsmarted by Hikigaya several times, and now we have an opportunity to completely suppress his class.”

“I don’t want to give up.”

“He’s desperate for a position in Class A, right?” Ryuen said. “Then let’s make sure he falls back down to the lowest position.”

Saying this, Ryuen looked at Kaneda.

Kaneda seemed to be thinking, so Ryuen looked at the girl with silver-white straight hair.

Shiina Hiyori.

“Shiina, what do you think?”

Shiina had already gained Ryuen’s approval, being considered the smartest person in the class besides him. So, Ryuen decided to listen to his opinion.

“If we have help from a student in Class B, it will be much more efficient.”

“I also think that Hikigaya’s class might be the most troublesome one. We need to defeat him before he grows stronger.”

“Trust those you use, and don’t use those you doubt.”

“And even if we fail,” Shiina paused, “we won’t lose much.”

“Mm.” Ryuen nodded.

He agreed with Shiina.

Currently, Class D’s evaluation score was 145 points.

Class D was in the red group, meaning they were in the same group as the student council president, Horikita Manabu, and also with second-year Class A, led by Nagumo Miyabi.

Among the information gathered from the second year, it seemed that the second-year students followed Nagumo.

Would Nagumo let his class lose?

Obviously, that was impossible.

So.

This time, their class had a guaranteed +200 points reward.

Even if their operation caused them to fall to last place, the deduction would be only 200 points. So, they wouldn’t lose points, meaning their class’s strength would ensure that this result wasn’t likely.

So, in this battle, their class was already at an advantage, and acquiring the entry forms from Class B could allow them to make targeted moves.

They could take revenge on Hikigaya.

…

The day after tomorrow, in the morning, during the class meeting.

Hikigaya was hosting the class meeting.

Actually, he had gathered information from his own class and students from other classes, and was preparing to arrange the competition forms.

He wrote the four characters of “Tian Ji’s Horse Racing” on the blackboard.

Hikigaya said,

“Our class’s physical test data has been posted in the class group, please take a look.”

“Now, let’s talk about the plan for this sports competition—‘Tian Ji’s Horse Racing,’ which is an ancient phrase from China. If we divide the strength into three levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then our class would be 1, 3, 5, and the opponent would be 2, 4, 6. So overall, our strength can’t match theirs. But if we change the order, have our 1 face their 6, our 5 face their 4, and our 3 face their 2…”

“Then, we can win two rounds easily and get a high score.”

“It sounds like it makes sense.”

“Maybe we can give it a try.”

The students below started whispering. In the previous exams, Hikigaya had organized things, and they had mysteriously advanced, so they were somewhat accepting of him.

Therefore, no one clearly opposed it, but some still frowned, as if they had other opinions.

There were 13 events in total.

Among them, 9 were mandatory to participate in.

As for the recommended events, although a person could participate in multiple events or even spend points to serve as a substitute, their stamina might not keep up.

“Does that mean we’re going to be used as cannon fodder?”

Shinohara, a girl who usually got along with Karuizawa, suddenly stood up. “Winning two rounds is fine, but what about the ones who lose? Doesn’t the loser fall to last place? Won’t they lose points?”

“Yeah, the bottom ten seem to lose ten points!”

“My grades aren’t that good; I can’t really be used as cannon fodder!”

“Otherwise, I’d be expelled!”

Since the physical test scores had been posted in the class group and everyone could see them, many students figured out they were the cannon fodder. So, Class B started arguing again.

“Can’t you guys think a bit about the class?” Some people supported the idea.

That was Yukimura Teruhiko.

He was a top student, but his physical strength was terrible.

If he had to be used as cannon fodder for the class, it seemed like something he could accept, thinking he was helping.

“I’m thinking about the class, who’s thinking about me?” Yukimura was quickly retorted.

“I definitely can’t be at the bottom! If I get minus ten points for every subject, I’ll fail and get expelled!”

“I don’t want to be expelled!”

Class B had many selfish people.

Although this was a normal human reaction, people who were both selfish and lacked brains were very likely to hold everyone back.

“Everyone!”

Good-natured Hirata once again called out, “This is a class-wide competition. To maintain our class score and avoid deductions, it’s our responsibility, isn’t it?”

“Eh-ha!” Sudo also stood up. “Anyway, I’ll just participate in all the events!”

“Stop.” Hikigaya said. “Don’t forget, I applied for a life-saving token for you.”

“Even if we become cannon fodder, with Class Ichinose’s existence, we can still earn some points for the cannon fodder group.”

“So, don’t worry about falling into the bottom ten.”

“As for Sudo,” Hikigaya continued, “I don’t recommend you participate in all the events.”

“Ha?”

“Although we have you and Koenji, it’s hard for other classes to compare with us, but our overall strength is too weak.”

“However, I have a surefire plan.”

“The recommended events don’t require a person to participate in just one, but I also don’t suggest you do all of them. Instead, I hope you conserve some energy for the mixed-gender two-person three-legged race and the school-wide mixed relay.”

The recommended events were:

• Object Competition
•
• Four-way Tug of War
•
• Mixed-gender Two-person Three-legged Race
•
• School-wide Mixed 1200-meter Relay
•
Since they were recommended events, the scores were higher: the first-place in a regular required event was 15 points, but the first-place in a recommended event was 50 points.

Among the recommended events, the Four-way Tug of War and the School-wide Mixed 1200-meter Relay were one-time events.

But the Object Competition and the Mixed-gender Two-person Three-legged Race allowed each class to send 5 groups.

There was a substitution rule for the recommended events.

If a participant couldn’t participate, someone else from the class could take their place.

But the substitute needed to pay a 100,000-point fee.

However, if they were sure to win first place and get the high score, the fee could be ignored.

So, Hikigaya said,

“Tian Ji’s Horse Racing ensures that our class’s overall score won’t be too far behind other classes. As long as you put all your effort into winning five first places in the Mixed-gender Two-person Three-legged Race, we can earn 250 points for the class.”

“Does this mean I can grind points for the class?” Sudo was somewhat stunned.

He hadn’t realized this method of point-grinding.

“Yes.” Hikigaya nodded. “Tian Ji’s Horse Racing is to protect the points most students can get. And this point-grinding could potentially lead our class to victory.”

“Originally, I was worried about your stamina, so I also arranged for Koenji…” Hikigaya paused. “Koenji, are you really not participating?”

“I won’t participate. If I do, I’ll definitely get first place, but I’m not interested in bullying ordinary people,” Koenji said. “And even if I contribute to the class this time, I won’t get anything, because in the red-white competition, the chances of losing are 99%.”

“What if I offer you one million points?” Hikigaya asked.

After Hikigaya said this, the surrounding students quickly looked over.

Since Hikigaya was offering such a high price, perhaps it wouldn’t be Hikigaya paying it himself, but rather the class would have to chip in?

This involved their own interests.

So, some looked nervously.

They were also worried that Koenji would agree.

“One million?” Koenji paused while holding his comb. He glanced around at the classmates, then shook his head. “I don’t need it.”

Thus.

Kushida sent the recording to Ryuen.

After the discussion ended, Koenji promptly transferred 500,000 private points to Hikigaya.