Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 178: Hiyori’s Clever Strategy Strips Class A, Sakayanagi Continues to Take Pictures

I, Ryuen Kakeru, representing the entire Class D, sign this agreement to transfer the 300 evaluation points agreement with Class A to Hikigaya Hachiman for free.

That’s all.

Signature.

Ryuen Kakeru.

After signing this agreement, Hachiman released the dejected Ryuen.

This tragic news was quickly brought back to Ryuen’s class.

There was a terrifying calm in the base of Class D.

Then, a strong commotion erupted.

Because this meant that their class’s stable source of income was gone.

“Ryuen, you failed again.”

In the break area of Class D, Ibuki Mio was also looking at Ryuen with crossed arms and a furrowed brow.

Before, it was thought that relying on himself would never allow them to rise to Class A, so the class had to rely on Ryuen’s leadership to advance. But the reality was…

They had fallen to Class D.

Their class’s evaluation points were almost gone.

That meant that if it weren’t for the preferential treatment exam, where each person received +10 points, they would have nothing left for their living expenses.

So, even someone as foolish as Ibuki started to think about whether it was better to keep following Ryuen’s orders.

“…” Ryuen had no words to respond.

Because.

This time, it was a huge loss, even wiping out all the spoils they had gained from previous exams.

And.

He still owed Hikigaya 8 million.

Plus, he owed Sakayanagi Arisu 3 million.

A truly nerve-wracking number.

But.

“It’s not completely hopeless.”

Ryuen’s face looked a bit unpleasant, but he forced a smile, “Although I did lose to Hikigaya and couldn’t get Horikita Suzune to fall, B Class is definitely going to lose.”

Yes, B Class was definitely going to lose.

Ryuen was confident about that.

Although he hadn’t managed to bring Horikita to the student council.

Horikita had been injured and lost the ability to continue competing.

And B Class’s trump card.

Sudo had already been driven off by him. As for Koenji, that monster, he had taken the money and withdrawn.

So, although they lost some points, B Class didn’t get off easy.

“Rather, although we’ve suffered great losses,” Ryuen continued. “We still have B Class to drag down with us.”

“And I’ve also realized that Hikigaya is the type of person who doesn’t care about his class as long as he gets the points.”

This statement won Ryuen quite a bit of favor.

Because the reason Ryuen had compromised was largely to protect the students in his class. The fact that Hikigaya had placed a recorder on the flagpole during the pole vault competition had already been exposed.

If reported, they might not get expelled, but it was very likely that the results of the sports festival would be nullified.

That would mean… the students who participated would definitely occupy the bottom 10 spots, and in the next written exam, all subjects would be penalized by -10 points.

With everyone being academic failures, they would certainly be doomed.

They would be expelled.

So, while some students were initially angry that Ryuen had lost again, now, some of them, surprisingly, quieted down.

However.

“Ryuen, you’ve failed this time, last time, and the time before that.”

“Could you please resign as the leader?”

“You’re leading our class to destruction!”

There were still opposing voices.

These were the troublemakers that had appeared when Ryuen had been trying to consolidate the class.

His name was Masashi Sonoda.

And during the preferential treatment exam, when Hikigaya Hachiman was able to identify the preferential student of their class, Ryuen thought that there might be a spy in his class.

After investigating thoroughly, Ryuen discovered that Hikigaya had contacted Masashi.

However, no evidence of information leakage to Hikigaya was found on Masashi’s phone.

So, does that make you a traitor?

And now, is there still opposition against him?

“This time, Hikigaya can make such a big response,” Ryuen said. “A large part of the reason is that I trusted you all too much.”

“Someone leaked our class’s plans!” Ryuen declared.

“Well, it’s unavoidable,” Masashi responded. “Because Ryuen, your plan was definitely going to bring disaster to the class.”

Damn it.

So, is this guy really a spy for the class?

Ryuen’s eyes immediately locked onto this traitor with a fierce glare.

Masashi’s ability in class could be considered average at best. His academic performance was mediocre, but he probably wouldn’t fail.

But it was exactly this type of person that was the most annoying.

“Anyway, I oppose Ryuen’s manipulation of the whole class,” Masashi said. “Ryuen, step down!”

Step down?

Have you seen anyone else stepping up?

“What about you, spy?”

“Why did you leak our class’s information to Hikigaya Hachiman?” Ryuen walked directly toward Masashi, bringing the heavy pressure of a former tyrant.

“This…” Masashi hesitated, at a loss for words.

“Spit it out,” Ryuen urged. “What kind of deal did Hikigaya offer you to make you betray the class?”

“I didn’t betray anyone,” Masashi replied. “I just wanted everyone to see…”

“Stop with the useless talk,” Ryuen interrupted. “How much did Hikigaya give you?”

“500,000,” Masashi answered.

What an idiot.

Ryuen thought to himself.

This guy betrayed the class for 500,000, causing a loss of over 30 million in class value—not to mention the debt he owed, which brought the total loss close to 40 million.

“Shiina.” Ryuen looked in another direction. “Since the plan has been fully exposed, pretending to be injured is pointless now. Go ahead and participate in the competition.”

The physical fitness of the students in Ryuen’s class was overall superior to that of Hikigaya’s class and wouldn’t lose to Ichinose’s class either, but only a few were outstanding. Albert, a power-type, was probably comparable to Koenji, but there weren’t that many monsters at the same grade level.

So, Albert could be arranged to score points.

The girls’ points couldn’t be neglected either.

Kinoshita had to drop out due to her injury, but Shiina’s speed was still decent, so her strength could still be put to use.

“Got it,” Hiyori nodded.

However, her mind wasn’t completely focused here.

Because she had been thinking.

Originally, because of Hikigaya, her trust in the class had already decreased. She even felt that even under Ryuen’s leadership, the class would never be able to break through and get promoted to Class A.

Nearly four months had passed since the start of the school year, and their class’s evaluation points were on the brink of collapse, and Ryuen had accumulated debt.

That meant, as a member of this class, she wouldn’t even have enough money for living expenses in the future, right?

This kind of hard life… she wasn’t eager to experience it.

After a bit of thought,

“Ryuen,” Shiina suggested. “Since the class is facing difficulties now,”

“Why not apply for a subsidy from the cooperative Class A?”

“Oh?”

Ryuen looked at her.

Shiina continued, “Right now, our class is being held hostage by Hikigaya, meaning we can’t be reported for rule violations. If we get reported, our ranking will plummet, and we won’t be able to face the next written exams.”

“But there’s still one class that can’t let us face a disastrous outcome,” Shiina said.

“There are 20 boys who participated in the flagpole competition. If these 20 boys are reported for beating up Sudo, the result is something we definitely can’t handle, so we compromised with Hikigaya.”

“And once it’s successfully reported, your scores will be nullified, and the scores of all 20 boys will be nullified.”

“This would be a huge blow to the Red Team,” Shiina added.

Oh?

Ryuen raised an eyebrow.

Because…

This was actually a good plan.

Ryuen still owed Hikigaya 8 million yen.

Out of the 3 million yen he owed Sakayanagi, he had already spent 1 million yen to compensate Kinoshita for her injury, so now he owed 11 million yen in total.

Additionally, he still owed 1 million yen from the desert island exam where Hashimoto betrayed Katsuragi.

And he was still in debt.

Meanwhile, the 20 boys in his class, including him, would have their scores nullified until the end of the exams, which would at least be around 700 or 800 points.

If more, it could even reach 1,000 points.

This would definitely affect the Red and White competition results.

“Anyway,” Ryuen concluded, “continue participating in the exams.”

“Since we’ve paid such a heavy price this time, there’s no reason to back down!”

“And boys, just as Shiina said, in the upcoming recommended events, give it your all to rack up points.”

“The higher the points you get, the more it will be your lifeline!” Ryuen commanded.

At this moment, Masashi, who had just been pointed out by Ryuen, frowned.

“But Ryuen, you’ve made leadership mistakes multiple times…”

“Shut up!” Ryuen snapped. “If the class evaluation points go back to zero, I will step down. Before that, redeem yourself!”

Having a traitor in the class was a troublesome thing.

Unless there was an immediate exam to vote someone out and expel them, they couldn’t afford to not convince the other party. Ryuen had already made Masashi submit long ago, but even now, Masashi was still dissatisfied.

It was clear that he had forgotten the pain after the wound had healed.

It seemed like Ryuen had been too gentle before.

But…

Since he had failed a few times, Ryuen had also made a military pledge.

Anyway, based on the current situation, at worst, it could be +200 – 200 = 0.

Then the class evaluation score wouldn’t change and would still have 145 points.

So they wouldn’t lose.

And based on the current scores of each class, their Class D’s score wasn’t low either.

There were still four matches in the afternoon, and the advantage was still on their side!

…

On the other side,

Class A, first-year.

“Now the scores of the four classes are as follows.”

In the A-Class tent, Katsuragi was fiddling with a small blackboard.

The blackboard was recording real-time scores.

Yes.

Although the competition was mandatory for everyone, Katsuragi was still meticulously arranging the students to record the scores of the four classes.

“Our class holds the advantage. Although it’s not huge, if we maintain it, we still have a chance to take first place this time,” Katsuragi said.

“Especially since Sudo from Class B seems to have completely given up on the sports festival.”

Sudo was a weak link. Katsuragi had tried to pair up Hashimoto, the athletic student from Class A, with Sudo for the 110-meter hurdles, but he couldn’t match Sudo.

So, if Sudo, the weak link, automatically dropped out, Class A still had a chance.

Hikigaya Hachiman’s mixed gender three-legged race point-boosting plan would also fail.

So, Class A had a great chance of winning.

The 1 million yen spent to buy Koenji had been worth it.

But…

“This kind of calculation doesn’t mean much,” Sakayanagi said.

Sakayanagi was also in the main camp, but she seemed to be reviewing the photos she had taken.

She frowned when she saw one of the photos, then the conversation continued.

“Why?” Katsuragi frowned.

“Something happened during the flagpole competition,” Sakayanagi said. “Ryuen’s class violated the rules and beat up Sudo, the main competitor from Class B.”

“…” The boys in Class A were speechless, because it was true.

And then, Class A benefited from it.

So, everyone acted as if nothing had happened.

“But when I saw the flagpole competition in the second round, Class B’s White Team was guarding it, and Hikigaya approached the flagpole and attached a voice recorder to it,” Sakayanagi continued.

“And this is the photo of him attaching the voice recorder,” Sakayanagi said.

She raised her hand lightly, and Kamuro immediately took her camera and displayed the image on the screen for everyone to see.

It was a photo of Hikigaya attaching a voice recorder to the flagpole during the competition.

“So, once the voice recorder records something… it’s likely to have recorded something,” Sakayanagi said. “Then, it can be used to report Ryuen’s class for violating the rules.”

“A severe violation would lead to the nullification of points.”

“Does this mean…” Katsuragi understood.

“This is like a ticking time bomb,” Sakayanagi said. “And Hikigaya can use this bomb to threaten Ryuen. If Ryuen gets hold of it, he can use it to threaten us.”

“So, once the Red Team wins the Red and White competition, and their points are close to ours, Ryuen’s class can use it to threaten us.”

“At that point, he’ll demand 5 million, 10 million points. How could we refuse?”

Can we refuse?

We can’t refuse.

Because the winning side of the Red and White competition gets +200 points, but if Ryuen were to blow himself up, then the scores of the boys in Ryuen’s class would be nullified, which could potentially reverse the results.

So, at that time, as the Red Team, they would need to deduct 200 points.

That would drop them to Class B.

Thus,

Even though Sakayanagi’s voice was cute and sweet, her words were deliberate, and the listeners understood the underlying meaning.

In an instant,

A noticeable dissatisfaction spread among Class A’s ranks.

Because…

Damn!

So, we really shouldn’t have been placed in the same group as Class D.

As expected, we were dragged down.

Ryuen is really disgusting.

…

After lunch,

The four recommended events were held in the afternoon.

1. Object Competition
2.
3. Four-way Tug of War
4.
5. Mixed Gender Two-Person Three-Legged Race
6.
7. School-Wide Mixed 1200-meter Relay
8.
Except for the 1200-meter relay, where the entire grade participated on the same field, the other events were still divided by grade level.

The event where points could be boosted was the Mixed Gender Two-Person Three-Legged Race.

Originally, Hikigaya’s class had arranged for Sudo and Onodera to compete together, but by the afternoon, there was no sign of Sudo at the main camp, so it was clear that this plan was no longer viable.

As for Horikita, she was participating in the Object Competition, but her leg was injured now.

She could choose to forfeit,

or choose to have someone replace her, but if someone replaced her, points would need to be paid, and the score would be counted toward the person who initially signed up.

Therefore,

The points required to replace someone were generally paid by the person who originally signed up.

“Then, I’ll leave it to you, Hikigaya.”

Horikita took a deep breath, looked at Hikigaya, and said calmly and seriously.

It was actually a bit regrettable.

Because she had also signed up for the 1200-meter relay, but now with her injury, she naturally couldn’t participate.

“Got it,” Hachiman responded, feeling quite good.

Because this time, they were winning by a landslide.

As for the final victory, they just had to wait.

“Good luck, Chiaki. You’ve been selected to replace Horikita in the 1200-meter relay.”

Meanwhile, on the girls’ side, someone was encouraging Matsuhita Chiaki.

Horikita Suzune’s left leg was injured and she couldn’t participate in the 1200 meters, but Horikita had already paid the cost for the replacement.

This was Matsuhita’s opportunity to shine.

But…

“Ah, haha…” Matsuhita let out a nervous laugh.

Actually, she felt that Hikigaya might have some issues.

Because,

Although Horikita was injured and needed a replacement,

Sato’s speed was obviously faster than hers. So, why did Hikigaya choose her instead of Sato?

Could it be that… he had already seen through her? Seen that she was hiding her true abilities?

He knew that she was actually the fastest runner among the girls in the class.

If she slacked off, would she be reported by others?

Then she would become the sinner of the class.

But if she unleashed her true abilities, her teammates would think that she had been pretending all along.

So, what a terrifying choice this was.

However, at this moment, Hikigaya had already arrived at the starting point of the object competition.