Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 172: Everyone is Training Hard, but You…

[Beep! Your private account has received 500,000 private points. Transfer from GYS1001]

[Current account balance: 15,024,000]

Hmm.

After the class meeting ended, Hachiman glanced at his phone.

This was the amount transferred by Koenji after the discussion ended.

It seemed like the plan was progressing quite well.

In Hachiman’s class, there was the dark horse Sudo and the well-recognized monster Koenji. So, once they faced Hachiman’s class, these two were not to be underestimated.

Koenji had caused a strong sense of unease during the deserted island exam.

That was why Hachiman deliberately had Kushida leak the news that Koenji wouldn’t participate, to ease Ryuen’s mind.

Knowing Ryuen’s personality, he wouldn’t sit idly by, so Hachiman guessed that he wanted to seize this opportunity and directly bribe Koenji.

Hachiman then talked to Koenji about this matter. If an outside class contacted him and asked him not to participate, he could agree.

However, he would have to give him half of the points they offered.

And in return, Hachiman would handle the public opinion surrounding Koenji in the class.

That led to the current situation.

Koenji didn’t want to participate in the first place, but since there was money involved, he took it.

Although he was assigned to this class, he didn’t have high hopes for the class graduating with an A grade. So, he chose to gather points for himself and leave the class.

However…

There were special exams every month, and he also worried about some exams where class students could potentially influence expulsion.

At times like these, he, as someone who borrowed points from classmates every month, became very vulnerable.

At least a third of the students in this class weren’t exactly normal, and they couldn’t be understood with normal reasoning. Being voted out of the class by these people would be the greatest humiliation for him.

He definitely didn’t want to spend 20 million points for that reason.

So, when Hikigaya brought this matter up, the two immediately hit it off and reached an agreement.

As long as someone from another class contacted him, gave him money, and asked him to abstain from participating, he would give half of the points to Hachiman.

And Hachiman looked at his account.

500,000 points had been deposited into his private account.

Now, seeing this, it really seemed like Ryuen was a cute little treasure, actually going to Koenji to try to get him to withdraw by offering him money.

And thinking like this, Hachiman noticed that his phone vibrated again.

[Beep! Your private account has received 500,000 private points. Transfer from GYS1001]

[Current account balance: 15,524,000]

Hmm.

The transfer was still from Koenji.

“…” Hachiman.

“Wrong transfer?” As Hachiman was preparing to privately message Koenji, he noticed that Koenji had sent over a transfer record of the 1,000,000 points that had just been deposited.

Clearly, this was a new deposit.

This meant that someone other than Ryuen had transferred money to Koenji.

Hachiman didn’t think that Ichinose’s class would engage in such activities, so it must be A-class students who were being so spineless.

They were planning to stop Koenji from participating in the sports festival.

They believed that having Koenji, this monster, participate would be too dangerous.

Unfortunately, they didn’t know that Koenji had no intention of participating in the first place, so this money was essentially a free gain for him.

…

Probably because he had gained some free money and was in a good mood, Hachiman treated Horikita to lunch during the break.

This surprised even Horikita Suzune.

Of course, Kushida, the contributor, was also with them.

At the cafeteria, from a distance:

“Kushida and Hikigaya, along with Horikita, are eating together.”

“They seem to get along well.”

“I still can’t believe that someone as angelic as Kushida would betray her class,” a few students from D-class gathered at a corner of the cafeteria.

They were part of Ryuen’s small group.

Previously, Ryuen had deliberately beaten up Ibuki on the ship, and later, Kaneda on the deserted island. But now, these two were walking confidently by Ryuen’s side.

The one speaking was Ishizaki Daichi.

He was a skilled fighter, and apart from speaking with the girls in his class, the only other girls from outside the class who spoke to him were Kushida and Ichinose.

So, he couldn’t believe that Kushida, someone who seemed so kind-hearted, would actually betray her class in this way.

“Don’t bring this up so casually,” Ryuen scolded his subordinates. “Besides, isn’t this exactly what this damn school wants? Otherwise, why would they have so many anonymous point cards?”

“And didn’t you hear from the seniors? At graduation, the school will redeem the points from the students.”

“So, becoming a spy or earning money in this way is not bad at all,” Ryuen said. “If we follow your idea that no one can be a spy, then we wouldn’t even be able to gather information from their class.”

“Then we wouldn’t be able to get this contract either,” Ryuen continued.

He had a contract he had just completed yesterday.

The parties involved were him and Koenji.

Ryuen would pay Koenji 1,000,000 private points, and Koenji would not participate in any of the events during this sports festival.

It was as if 1,000,000 points had sealed Koenji’s participation.

“Koenji is indeed terrifying,” Kaneda adjusted his glasses and said quietly. “Although 1,000,000 is a lot, it’s also valuable.”

“Although, Ryuen, you don’t have many points left now,” Kaneda remarked.

Kaneda was the third smartest person in Ryuen’s class.

The first was Ryuen, the second was Shiina Hiyori, and Kaneda considered himself to be third.

However, since Shiina was having bread in the classroom today and wasn’t there, Kaneda was the one who could discuss plans with Ryuen.

So, he immediately recognized the remaining points Ryuen had.

“I’m still owed 1,000,000 points from Hashimoto,” Ryuen said. “The 1,200,000 points I got from A-class this month, I gave 1,000,000 of it to Koenji.”

“Now, only 200,000 is left.”

Kaneda nodded and suggested,

“Then everyone still has the 100,000 from the special exam for the privileged, plus the 14,500 points we got this month. If we only keep 20,000 points for food, everyone could still gather 90,000 points, which would bring our total to over 3,000,000 points.”

“Forget it,” Ryuen shook his head.

He rejected the idea of scraping together points in such a desperate manner.

Besides.

“From the recording I got from Kushida, Hikigaya’s class is much worse off than ours. It seems their class has no other way of uniting except through using threats and benefits.”

“Although Hikigaya came up with the idea of the ‘Tian Ji’s Horse Racing Strategy,'”

“And arranging Sudo to try and exploit the point bug is pretty brilliant,” Ryuen said. “Sudo’s individual strength is really strong. If we don’t remove him, their class could really win.”

“So.”

“I’ve already thought of a plan targeting B-class. It will require cooperation from people outside of our group, so if we collect everyone’s points and then distribute them as rewards, they won’t be happy about it,” Ryuen said. “So, I’ll temporarily borrow some points from Sakayanagi.”

Seeing that Ryuen had already made arrangements, the people around him naturally had no objections.

They would support Ryuen, partly because they couldn’t beat him, and partly because their minds weren’t as sharp as his.

Thus, in preparation for the school-wide sports festival three weeks later, each class began to make its own plans and take action.

Hachiman’s class quickly submitted their list of participants.

However, the list would only be officially submitted on the last day, but the students were informed early about the events they would participate in, so they could gather for targeted training.

Of course, this list was also given to Ichinose.

Hachiman had marked the “cannon fodder” from his class, asking Ichinose to let them off when arranging for her class’s participants.

The training would take place after school.

The duration was set to one and a half hours.

This was the first training session.

It seemed like everything was developing smoothly.

But that was only the surface appearance.

“Alright, next group.”

On the playground, Hirata organized the boys’ training, while Kushida organized the girls’ training.

The results from the previous physical test had already been released, and the seed candidates had been selected.

So now, the general events were being trained for.

This was a mandatory event for everyone, and naturally, the individual students who were required to participate in certain events had to train hard.

1. 100-meter sprint
2.
3. Hurdles race
4.
5. Pole vaulting contest (for boys only)
6.
7. Ball throwing contest (for girls only)
8.
9. Tug-of-war (separated by gender)
10.
11. Obstacle race
12.
13. Three-legged race
14.
15. Horseback battle
16.
17. 200-meter sprint
18.
There were a total of nine events. While the students were familiar with the sprints, the hurdles event… well, that would definitely require some practice.

You couldn’t just push the hurdles down one by one.

The pole vaulting equipment might not even be available, so understanding the rules of the contest was important.

And the horseback battle event still needed to decide who would be the rider and who would be the horse.

However, after reviewing the events, it seemed that the main training would focus on the running, hurdles, and three-legged races.

The boys were training for the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints.

Though it was just practice, the boys seemed unusually enthusiastic.

Because.

“Hey, shouldn’t we show off our skills a bit?”

Yamauchi Haruki suddenly suggested.

“I think that’s a good idea.”

“Yeah, maybe the girls will notice us. I didn’t give my all during the physical test. Now’s the perfect time to show what I’ve got.”

“And the girls are just over there.”

“Eh? If that’s the case, should we…”

The boys grew more and more excited, all ready to showcase their ‘true abilities.’

However, Yukimura Teruhiko’s face was completely darkened.

Because, weren’t they just making things difficult for little Yukimura?

It was normal for the boys to want to show off their skills in front of the opposite sex.

This kind of courtship behavior often happens in the animal kingdom.

However, this only works if you actually have the necessary strength.

But Yukimura… well, he didn’t.

If it was about academics, he was miles ahead of these slackers—Hirata couldn’t even compare to him.

But in sports…

He might be at the very bottom among the boys.

And now he had to show this in front of the whole class of girls…

But Hikigaya’s group had already started running.

He was the next group, so he hurried to catch up.

Meanwhile, for the girls…

“Horikita, could you slow down a little?”

Karuizawa Megumi was out of breath, holding her knees as she looked at the cold-faced Horikita.

“Sorry, this is just my pace.”

Although it sounded like an apology, Horikita’s tone was still as cold as ever.

This was the difference with Horikita.

It was also the reason why people misunderstood her relationship with Hikigaya—she wasn’t as cold toward him, but toward others, she was extremely icy.

It gave off a strong sense of favoritism.

However, Karuizawa had once borrowed Horikita’s room and had gotten to know Horikita a little better than others, so she didn’t take Horikita’s attitude personally.

Horikita Suzune, however, slightly frowned.

She had already realized what Karuizawa’s complaint was: they didn’t have any rapport.

Or rather, she basically wouldn’t have any rapport with others.

The three-legged race requires mutual understanding and cooperation.

But Horikita couldn’t cooperate with others.

Even though she had deliberately slowed down her pace, others still couldn’t keep up.

Karuizawa, who had average stamina, was naturally being dragged along and almost tripped.

“Geez…”

Karuizawa rolled her eyes, a bit frustrated.

The three-legged race was a mandatory event, and she had initially chosen to team up with Horikita because she thought Horikita’s speed was quite good, and Horikita’s cold and solitary aura made her less approachable to other girls. After considering it, Karuizawa decided to team up with her.

However…

Is it too late to regret now?

“Eh.”

Hikigaya had just finished the 200-meter sprint and was taking a break. He was quietly observing everything from a distance, but he didn’t step forward to help.

He admitted that before the uninhabited island exam, Horikita had undergone some changes that made people think better of her.

But Horikita Suzune hadn’t fully matured yet. She wasn’t yet at the point of understanding people’s hearts.

Didn’t she see how Karuizawa, who was paired with her, was almost at her wit’s end?

“I’ll do it.”

Seeing Karuizawa looking exhausted, Hikigaya decided to step forward.

After all, he had promised Karuizawa that he would protect her. If she kept struggling to cooperate with someone like Horikita, Karuizawa would close herself off.

The three-legged race was a test of teamwork.

There were no restrictions on whether it had to be boys or girls participating. In fact, boys didn’t necessarily have an advantage over girls in such events.

On the contrary, perhaps girls’ coordination was even better, and their speed might be faster.

However, Horikita didn’t understand how to cooperate.

“Alright.”

Horikita nodded coldly, not refusing.

She didn’t think she was doing anything wrong; rather, she felt it was only natural.

“Ready?”

After tying their legs together, Hikigaya looked at the girl next to him and asked.

“Mm.”

Horikita’s response was still cold, and then, in the next moment, she couldn’t maintain her usual cold demeanor.

Because Hikigaya suddenly moved forward quickly, causing Horikita’s whole body to lean forward.

She almost lost her balance and fell to the ground.

“Ugh!”

Horikita clenched her teeth stubbornly, trying to keep up with Hikigaya’s speed.

But she couldn’t.

No matter how hard she tried, it always felt like she was being dragged forward by Hikigaya, barely managing to avoid being pulled down.

“What are your thoughts? What you’re experiencing now is exactly what Karuizawa experienced earlier.”

Finally, when they reached the finish line and Horikita could catch her breath, Hikigaya suddenly asked.

“I understand now.”

Horikita nodded slightly, not discouraged, “I’m still too weak. I can’t compare to you.”

“…”

Hikigaya opened his mouth, but for a moment, he was speechless.

“What I mean is, how did you feel about my speed just now?”

Hikigaya had to clarify and ask in more detail.

“Mm.”

Horikita thought for a moment before replying, “It was a bit fast, I couldn’t keep up, but I was trying my best to match your speed.”

“…”

Hikigaya was completely silent.

So this is the difference in thinking.

“No, what I mean is, I hope you can cooperate with others a bit more.”

Hikigaya said helplessly, “You can’t expect others to keep up with your pace; you need to adjust to others a bit.”

Not everyone is exceptional.

You can’t expect everyone to try hard and keep up with your steps.

Horikita thought she was weak.

So she would try to match Hikigaya’s pace.

But she never expected Hikigaya to slow down a little and adjust to her pace.

Just like she did with others, she expected them to try hard to keep up with her pace.

She didn’t try to accommodate others.

“I don’t understand.”

Horikita said with a slight hint of confusion in her eyes, speaking softly.

“Well then, let’s leave it at that.”

Hikigaya shook his head, “Think about what I said carefully. Once you understand, continue training. If you still don’t get it, go talk to your brother.”

With that, he glanced at the golden ponytail girl sitting on the grass with her knees hugged to her chest.

“Thanks for your hard work today. Go ahead and rest,” Hikigaya said.

“Oh.”

Karuizawa nodded.

So, Hikigaya thought Horikita wouldn’t be able to understand today, right?

By the way, did Horikita’s brother go to this school too?

While thinking about this, Karuizawa heard Hikigaya’s voice again.

“Since we’re not training anymore, do you want to go eat together?”

Eh?

This made Karuizawa blink.

Was this an invitation for a date?

Everyone was working hard on their training, and now he wanted to do this…?