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Dinner time arrived.
The two tacitly ended their conversation and went their separate ways.
Akira watched Shiina's receding back, a hint of doubt arising in his heart.
She hadn't pressed for the identity of the current Class D core members—this was unexpected.
Perhaps this was due to considerations of class competition.
Before parting, Shiina told him that she would inform him by text message before the next investigation.
Akira nodded in agreement, but secretly calculated in his heart: Next time, he absolutely couldn't let her obtain information so easily.
He had to admit, Shiina's reasoning was indeed very sound.
From an objective point of view, if Ichinose knew almost all the students in the grade, then the "mysterious person" indeed had no reason to only ask for Ryuuen Kakeru's contact information.
After all, Class D also rented surveillance equipment.
All of this pointed to an obvious conclusion: the mystery person must know the core members of Class D.
As expected, he hadn't made the same request to Ichinose precisely because he'd already befriended Kushida.
Akira felt he'd been a bit careless, not making the plan completely watertight.
He truly hadn't expected a detective-like character to be hidden among his classmates.
But on second thought, even if his identity was revealed, it didn't seem so bad.
Ichinose of Class B had already told him that she didn't take it to heart at all.
As for Class D, Kushida had clearly stated in yesterday's class meeting that getting five hundred thirty class points was already very good—after all, previous Class D's only managed around two to three hundred points.
As for Class A... Sakayanagi was definitely full of mischievous ideas, just waiting to see him make a fool of himself.
And then there was Ryuuen of Class C. These two would absolutely not let him off easily.
Especially Ryuuen. Akira really couldn't understand what this person was thinking.
'Who would send classmates to investigate such a thing for no reason? That Ryuuen Kakeru is really idle!'
Wasn't it just taking three million of his private points? Their class points also increased, didn't they?
Was it necessary to chase him so relentlessly? Did he value private points that much?
He should prioritize improving class points and striving for promotion to Class A.
Or was he planning to save up twenty million points and transfer to another class by himself? But judging by his usual demeanor, it didn't seem likely.
Akira had seen his performance on the surveillance—although his actions were indeed quite violent, for Class C as a whole, he was a genuine booster, clearly pushing Class C forward by himself.
He couldn't possibly be planning to save up eight hundred million to buy all forty classmates into Class A at once, could he?
...
As he pushed open his dorm room door, his phone screen lit up at the opportune moment.
Akira swiped to unlock and found that the club president Sato had already sent him the monthly and midterm exam papers from their first year—albeit in screenshot form.
'As expected, it's impossible to get the original papers directly...'
He completely understood her concerns.
After all, this was free information, and if the school authorities discovered physical papers circulating, it would inevitably cause trouble.
It was already difficult to get clear screenshots. If he wanted paper copies, he'd have to print them himself.
Akira sat cross-legged on the bed, his fingertips gently sliding across the screen, examining each precious document.
The club president's transcript was very pleasing to the eye—every subject score was consistently above ninety-five points.
However, on second thought, as an elite of Class A who could also refer to past exam questions, achieving such grades was reasonable.
Placing his phone aside, Akira pulled out several exam papers from his shoulder bag that had just been handed out last week.
The teachers of each subject were incredibly efficient, having already graded and distributed them yesterday.
He laid the new and old test papers side by side on his desk, his gaze moving back and forth between them.
'The similarity...'
While not completely identical, at least ninety percent of the questions were exactly alike.
There were occasional changes in the basic questions, but the challenging grand finale questions that troubled most students—from the question stem to the solution steps, and even the punctuation—were replicated verbatim.
Akira gently placed the papers on the desk, lost in thought.
'This way, at least I don't have to worry about passing the midterm exam...'
He roughly estimated—even with slight changes in the questions, any student who could completely memorize the past exam papers could easily score ninety points, conservatively speaking.
However...
'English is another matter entirely.'
For students with weak foundations, English would likely be the biggest stumbling block.
If they couldn't even understand the most basic words and could only mechanically memorize every letter, it would be a nightmare—it might even be more difficult than all other subjects combined.
Akira couldn't help but shake his head.
Even if the struggling students fortunately got the old questions, facing English, they'd probably have to rack their brains and expend double the effort to slog through it.
This was probably the so-called knowledge barrier...
Akira stared at the exam paper in his hand, his brow unconsciously furrowing.
'This level of test... isn't it too simple?'
He absolutely didn't believe that the school authorities would design such a straightforward assessment. On second thought, the leaders of other classes should have also noticed—the last few grand finale questions on the paper couldn't be mastered by conventional study alone.
Although it wasn't difficult to reach the passing line with the basic questions.
'But is merely passing enough?'
Students from the four classes only needed to pass to avoid expulsion, but... what if they scored better? Would there be additional rewards?
As this thought flashed, Akira immediately grabbed his phone and quickly sent a message to his homeroom teacher, Chabashira:
{Will there be additional point rewards for the midterm exam based on the class's average score?}
It's worth mentioning that ever since Akira bluntly told her last month, "Don't come to me about class affairs anymore," the two had barely communicated.
He just didn't know if she was still angry about it and would deliberately ignore his question.
But Akira didn't care too much—as a student, it was perfectly reasonable for him to ask the homeroom teacher about rules.
On the contrary, it was the homeroom teacher who, despite having a class representative to consult, repeatedly asked for his opinion, which clearly didn't make sense.
Unexpectedly, Chabashira's reply came unusually slowly. When his phone finally vibrated, the screen prominently displayed:
{50,000 private points, and I can answer this question.}
Akira's fingers froze in mid-air.
'Is this... an indirect admission?'
The teacher's reaction was essentially an indirect confirmation of his guess, wasn't it?
However, he thought carefully and realized he still needed to pay points to purchase the information.
After all, admission was one thing, but how many class points the school specifically gave as a reward, and what the specific assessment entailed, was also very important information.