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After leaving the Class D classroom, Sakayanagi went straight to Class B and also informed them about the special exam.
This time, she naturally didn't collect points—since Class D received it for free, there was no reason for her to charge Class B. She wouldn't do such an inconsistent foolish thing.
Ichinose indeed showed a sincere expression of gratitude, and most of the other Class B students looked at her with appreciation, with little of the self-evident frankness seen in Class D.
Sakayanagi felt a slight relief—so not all classes were full of vampires like Class D.
It was really good that most people in this school were normal.
However, Class B didn't truly let her make a wasted trip. Ichinose specifically added her contact information and insisted on transferring 200,000 points.
Sakayanagi didn't accept them—compared to these few points, letting Class B owe her a favor was a more worthwhile deal.
The favor of Class B was the biggest gain Class A could get from this month's special exam.
Finally, it was Class C.
As Sakayanagi reached the classroom door, before she could even raise her hand to knock, she saw Ryuuen leaning against the doorframe, his eyes fixed on her with a cold, deep gaze, a mocking smile playing on his lips.
"The surveillance rental last month, was that your doing?" he asked directly.
"Hehe." Sakayanagi's fingers, gripping her cane, paused slightly. "I'm afraid the person who did that wasn't me."
"Then why are you here to see me?"
"Naturally, I'm here to tell you about this month's special exam."
"Oh?" Ryuuen raised an eyebrow. "You would voluntarily give information to other classes? Is it because that guy went online and sent a message yesterday? Or—is this all a play you directed yourself from beginning to end?"
"You suspect all of this is my doing? Interesting. In that case..." Sakayanagi tilted her head slightly. "What is your evidence?"
Ryuuen scoffed, looked up at her, and uttered two words. "Your father."
As soon as the words fell, the air in the corridor seemed to freeze for a moment.
The smile on Sakayanagi's face completely vanished.
This guy! How dare he say she was a little princess relying on her father?
Actually, this matter couldn't be hidden for long—the Chairman's name was clearly printed in the freshman handbook, and anyone with a bit of thought could guess it.
But this also showed that Ryuuen must've deliberately investigated her.
'To think that a mere hooligan... I underestimated him before!'
...
After school, Kushida had already sent photos of several exam papers to the class group chat.
Several students in the class with less-than-ideal grades immediately perked up, their faces showing obvious excitement—with these ready-made answers, as long as they memorized them well, they'd likely pass the exam at the end of the month.
"Sakayanagi-san is truly a great person."
"Yes, yes, as expected of someone from Class A, their perspective is just different."
At this moment, Yamauchi rubbed the back of his head and smiled, a hint of unrealistic expectation in his tone. "By the way, my private points are almost at rock bottom... How about I go ask her to borrow some? Since she's willing to give us the exam papers, she should agree, right?"
As soon as he said this, Ike was stunned for a moment, then slapped him irritably. "Don't push your luck. It's already good enough that she gave us information for free. You still want to borrow points?"
But Yamauchi clearly didn't listen, still staring at the exam paper photos in the group and muttering. "Just try it, what if it works?"
Seeing his matter-of-fact attitude, several more clear-headed students nearby silently averted their gaze.
Akira felt that this was probably one of the main reasons why Class D would never climb up and become Class A.
"Exam papers?" Horikita looked at the photos in the group chat and murmured to herself. "The school authorities actually prepared something like this... This way, even poor students can barely pass."
"All four classes should've received the message," Akira added from the side, his gaze sweeping over the students in the classroom who were still discussing the exam papers.
Horikita turned to look at him. "You suddenly said you weren't tutoring these past few days. Could it be because you knew about this in advance?"
"I'm not as omniscient as you think." Akira shrugged, his tone betraying little emotion. "It's just that I had other things to do."
What the other party said was indeed true; he'd learned about this on Tuesday.
But there was no need to go into too much detail with Horikita.
However, thinking about it, since Sakayanagi had already informed the other three classes, all four classes now knew about the existence of the "exam papers."
Was this considered public cheating?
A thought suddenly occurred to him: if someone reported this to the school authorities, would the school authorities still use the original exam papers?
After thinking about it carefully, he found the matter quite interesting. He picked up his phone and sent a message to his homeroom teacher, Chabashira, specifically asking this question.
He quickly received a reply.
{Class A actually shared the information with Class D?}
{However, regarding the question you asked, my view is that—if there isn't enough public pressure, the school authorities won't easily change the exam papers.}
{Because purchasing old exam papers from the second and third years is not a violation.}
{This is different from "the school's current midterm exam papers being maliciously leaked"—after all, the final authority to set the questions still rests with the school.}
Akira looked at the screen and felt that what the other party said made sense.
Ultimately, the four classes were merely reviewing with old exam papers from the second and third years, which didn't count as the school authorities "deliberately leaking questions."
In that case, if nothing unexpected happened, the school authorities would not change the exam papers.
'Perhaps similar things happened in previous years, and there are already established rules for dealing with it.'
Perhaps what the school truly wanted to test was never "whether one could pass by memorizing old papers," but rather whether students could break out of the "rote memorization" framework and actively seek problem-solving approaches outside the rules.
Come to think of it, it's also unknown how many years this school's second-month special exam has been running. They wouldn't use the same set of papers for seven or eight consecutive years, would they? Thinking about it this way, it's quite interesting.
It was hard enough for a few students to see through this implicit rule and be willing to put in the effort to prepare in advance using past exam papers, only for the papers to be changed because of someone else's report—this would undoubtedly be a great injustice to those who actively discovered the rule, and certainly not the outcome the school wished to see.
Of course, some students with good grades also felt this was unfair—they'd maintained their grades through daily hard work, so why should others easily get similar scores by memorizing purchased exam papers?
Some people felt that such "trickery" should be reported, but others believed that those who could find exam papers from older students and see through the rules also put in a lot of effort, and it wasn't necessarily easier than those who studied diligently.
Looking at it this way, it seems that no matter which side one leans towards, absolute fairness cannot be achieved.
In the end, the assessment method for the school's second-month special exam itself was somewhat "unreasonable." Normally, academic ability, as the most basic skill, should be a genuine competition, allowing no room for shortcuts.
Why specifically use old questions?
However, upon closer thought, this "unfairness" somewhat resembled a microcosm of society—in the workplace, leaders never just look at your diligent work; those who understand how to observe rules and find efficient paths often gain recognition.
Perhaps the school authorities set up such an exam precisely to let students understand this principle in advance?
