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Akira stared at his phone screen, pondering for a moment, and finally transferred fifty thousand points from his backup alternate account.
As the successful transfer notification sounded, he let out a soft sigh—this information was indeed worth the price.
Chabashira's reply quickly popped up:
{You guessed correctly. The school will reward class points based on each class's average midterm exam score, with a maximum of 100 points.}
This brief message made Akira instantly understand the school authorities' deeper meaning.
'But a perfect score... one hundred points, that's probably not possible.'
Every class inevitably had struggling students. A perfect score in a single subject was difficult, let alone all subjects.
However, if they could make good use of past exam papers, referring to old questions and studying diligently, it shouldn't be a problem to pull the class average score to around ninety points.
It seemed that merely passing wasn't enough. Every class that wanted more class points had to make an effort as a whole.
Akira thoughtfully stroked his chin.
'It seems the tactic of suppressing scores won't work...'
The score suppression tactic, as the name suggests, was to have high-achieving students deliberately keep their scores near the passing line—this way, with a lowered average score, struggling students might only need to score twenty points to ensure the class as a whole passed.
But now it seemed this clever method would backfire, as class points would also decrease accordingly.
'What a dilemma...'
Deliberately lowering scores could help struggling students pass, but it would lead to a decline in the class average score, thereby affecting the acquisition of class points.
And if the top students strived for high scores, the average score would indeed increase significantly, but then the struggling students would find it very difficult to pass.
In other words, it seemed the optimal solution was to buy old questions from the upperclassmen and have the students with poorer grades memorize them well.
Then again, he wasn't the class representative of Class D...
The overall interests of the class? That was never something he needed to worry about.
Suddenly, Horikita Manabu's profound words from back then finally became clear in his mind—
"A class can never get zero points."
Indeed.
It's impossible for everyone in the class to submit blank papers and score zero! Even Class D would have one or two top students.
A new question suddenly surfaced in Akira's mind. He quickly picked up his phone:
{Do second and third years have a similar mechanism?}
Chabashira's reply came quickly:
{Both second and third years retain this mechanism; it's considered an additional reward.}
Akira thoughtfully twirled his pen, suddenly realizing the subtle differences between the grades in this school.
'The second-year position... is surprisingly comfortable.'
As the middle grade, second-year students indeed held all the advantages—they could buy old questions from third years to ensure high scores and sell their own old test papers to earn points.
This month alone, just by reselling test papers, they could easily earn two substantial incomes.
In contrast, the third years' situation was completely different.
The graduating upperclassmen could no longer buy higher-level old questions, as if a crucial resource supply had been suddenly cut off.
'But... this is also reasonable.'
After all, for graduating students about to leave school, midterm exam results were no longer important.
The school authorities' arrangement seemed like a kind of invisible graduation ceremony—allowing third-year students to gradually detach from this test paper trading cycle, preparing them for university or society.
...
Akira was about to continue questioning Chabashira when his phone suddenly vibrated twice.
The club president's message abruptly popped up:
{By the way, Karuizawa Kei, whom you introduced. She didn't come to the boxing club today.}
{She didn't ask for leave either. Could you help ask about the situation? Is she not feeling well?}
He stared at the screen, momentarily stunned.
Now that he thought about it, when he went to the boxing club this afternoon, he indeed didn't see the lively figure who always had her hair in a ponytail.
Normally by this time, Karuizawa should have already been busy—counting attendance, distributing mineral water and towels, recording the physical condition of new members, and so on.
He quickly switched back to the chat interface, his finger hovering over the keyboard for a moment, and finally replied to the club president first: {Okay, I'll contact her now.}
After all, she was someone he'd brought, and being questioned by the upperclassman like this, Akira felt a little embarrassed.
The club president had been quite good to him.
He opened his chat history and dialed Karuizawa's number.
"Beep—" The call connected surprisingly quickly.
"Hello! Shimizu-kun?" Karuizawa's voice came through the receiver, clear and bright. "Is there something you need me for?"
Her energetic tone left Akira momentarily speechless—clearly, the excuse of not feeling well was completely invalid.
Faint sounds of noisy music and laughter came from the other end of the line, making him unconsciously furrow his brow.
"Where are you right now?" His voice held a hint of confusion.
"Karaoke!" Karuizawa replied casually, and in the background, he could still hear Mori's off-key singing. "I'm singing with Mori-san and the others!"
Akira explained the reason to her. "You didn't go to the boxing club this afternoon, and the club president specifically asked me about it. It doesn't seem like you're feeling unwell."
The other end of the phone suddenly went silent for a few seconds.
"It's too tiring to help out at the boxing club every day~" Her voice carried a flirtatious, almost spoiled tone. "So today, I wanted to relax for a day."
"Then at least you should take a leave of absence," Akira replied rationally.
A brief silence followed from the other end of the phone, then a careless chuckle. "...I just happened to forget today."
"Alright, I understand." Akira nodded. "Then remember, when you don't want to go, take a leave with the club president. I won't disturb your fun, goodbye."
After hanging up the phone, a hint of confusion immediately appeared on Akira's face.
'What's wrong with her? For the first two weeks of last month, she even actively reminded me to report to the boxing club.'
'Why did she suddenly not go today? And didn't even take a leave of absence.'
Recalling carefully, ever since she came to his dorm that day and finished talking with Matsushita, her attitude had become exceptionally brazen—as if she suddenly had some backing.
'It seems like, yesterday she also successively borrowed some points from several people in the class...'
He narrowed his eyes, recalling Karuizawa's recent abnormal behaviors.
It felt like she was slowly changing into a different person.
"She should understand that she and I only signed a one-month protection agreement—once the deadline is up, if she can't produce eighty thousand points, I won't protect her anymore."
Akira thought for a moment, and based on this month's points, Karuizawa might not actually be able to come up with eighty thousand points. In a sense, the boxing club could actually completely replace him in protecting her.
Those eighty thousand points were no longer as important to him as they were last month.
Last month's agreement started on the first Friday, which meant that once this weekend passed, he and she would have absolutely no relation to each other.