In practice, I originally just wanted to be a slacker.

"Class D's scores are somewhat disappointing, but don't let your guard down."

It's not great, haha.

It seems that it won't be long before they fall behind.

Chapter 264 Class Voting

The morning meeting is short. Generally, the person on the board will explain some simple things and then leave. There is only one situation where the person will leave later, even taking up part of the first class period.

That is when a special exam is to be announced.

Today is February 28th, and tomorrow will be March. Based on the frequency of previous special exams, there will be a special exam at the end of March, which is the last day of first grade.

So the students weren't surprised; on the contrary, they were quite eager to try it out.

Because of their consecutive exam victories, the students in Class C developed an unwarranted confidence.

However, facing the students' gazes, the board fell into an unusual silence.

"As per usual practice, the school will announce the content of the final special exam for first-year students next week, on March 7th."

Hearing the words on the board, the students in Class C finally felt relieved.

"We were prepared for this, don't worry, Mr. Banban. As long as Ryuen and Kamio are here, we'll definitely find a way to win!"

I don't know where Ishizaki got his confidence from, but he directly agreed to take on the responsibility of the special exam for Kamio Tatsuya and Ryuen.

"Perhaps, I believe in you all too." The person on the board nodded. "However, today's situation is a bit special. Before the final special exam, there's another exam..."

After a moment of silence in the classroom, someone stammered out.

"So, does that mean we're going to face two special exams in a row?"

“That’s right.” Ban straightened his expression and glanced at Kamio Tatsuya and Ryuen. “This extra exam is called the class vote.”

Two special exams will be held over the next month, and even with some confidence, students will inevitably experience some wavering.

"This year's first graders are much better than in previous years. Not only did they achieve an unprecedented first place in the group in the preferential treatment exam, but they also performed exceptionally well in subsequent exams."

"Isn't this a good thing?"

The students' subconscious answer.

"Yes, the school agrees with that. Under normal circumstances, this should be a happy thing."

The entire first-year class performed better than previous years, and we, as the school, hoped to graduate as many students as possible... However, the current situation is different from what we expected, which has caused some problems.

Therefore, under these circumstances, the school has arranged a new special exam for you.

As he spoke, he turned around and wrote a few large characters on the blackboard: "Class Voting".

"Class vote..."

Some students read it aloud without thinking.

"You may not know this, but in the past ten years, the dropout rate of first-year students after the end of the final exams has generally been around three percent."

At the start of the school year, there were 160 first-year students. This means that, typically, around this time, five first-year students will drop out.

Upon hearing this on the board, Tatsuya Kamio immediately had a bad feeling.

Seriously? This lousy school actually has a dropout rate policy?

"No, they don't mean they have to make all five of us drop out of school before they're done, do they?"

Some students also read the meaning on the board, and thus felt worried and nervous.

"Although it's not that strict, it's actually pretty much the same."

He took a deep breath and began to explain the content of the exam.

"This special test is extremely simple. It does not test your physical strength or intelligence, nor does it involve teamwork. It is a test that anyone can easily do, such as writing your own name on a piece of paper."

"Next, I will explain the exam rules. From today until this Friday, you will be evaluating your classmates."

Then, three students worthy of praise and three worthy of criticism are selected, and a vote is held on Saturday, the day of the exam… That’s the rule.”

The rules are simple and easy to understand, but that's not important; the result is what matters.

"Stop talking nonsense and get straight to the result."

Longyuan was also well aware that the most important thing about this exam was the result, because according to the rules, there would inevitably be a most popular person and a most disliked person in the class.

The outcome for these two individuals is the most important thing.

"Before I explain the results, there is something I need you to know."

Next, another word was written on the blackboard: "protection points".

"This exam will introduce a new concept: protection points. The student who receives the most praise votes in this exam will be given a special reward called protection points."

"Teacher, what is the purpose of these protection points?"

This is a completely new term that no one in the class has ever heard of before, and everyone in the class is very interested in it.

"Students with protection points can be exempted from one penalty of expulsion due to failing an exam. Protection points can be accumulated, but cannot be transferred to others."

Wow, amazing!

This is what almost everyone is thinking, and they are also eager for this protection point, since no one can guarantee that they will not be expelled from school.

No one can say for sure whether an accident or tomorrow will come first.

Furthermore, as mentioned on the board, the number of protection points can be accumulated, which means that the school should have considered introducing this concept into future exams.

Could this be something that resulted from Nagumo's reforms?

If used properly, this number of protection points can definitely produce special effects, just like the operation that Tatsuya Kamio performed during his forest test.

Sacrifice protection points and then gain benefits from other classes.

"Now that we've talked about the reward for the person with the most praise votes, shouldn't the person with the most criticism votes also be subject to a corresponding punishment?"

"That's right, the student who receives the most criticism votes in the class will be punished, since the topic of this special supplementary exam is 'choose the first place and then decide the last place.'"

Therefore, when calculating praise votes and criticism votes, one praise vote and one criticism vote will cancel each other out, and then the remaining votes will be calculated.

If a vote of approval increases the score by 1, then a vote of criticism decreases the score by 1. The final score is calculated based on all the votes.

For example, if you receive ten criticism votes and thirty praise votes at the same time, after offsetting them, you have twenty praise votes, which is recorded as twenty points.

Furthermore, neither praise nor criticism votes can be cast for yourself, and it is forbidden to vote for the same person multiple times. You should understand what I'm saying.

"What happens to the student with the lowest score?"

"I think you all understand." There was a pause on the board, then two words were uttered: "Expulsion."

Although everyone was mentally prepared based on the previous preparations, the class still fell silent when those two words appeared.

"What if, after the exam results come out, it's discovered that multiple students in the class received the same number of points?"

"If that happens, the vote will be restarted until a last-place candidate is chosen," the teacher on the board said calmly. "So don't think about trying to circumvent the punishment for this exam by controlling the vote."

Moreover, no matter how united the whole class is, the probability of actually accomplishing that is infinitesimally close to zero.

No, no, no, let's put Class C aside for now. As for Class 2, it's not necessarily impossible, right?

So, what is the reason?

"The reason is... you need to choose one student from the other three classes whom you think deserves praise and vote for them."

This vote is included in the results, meaning that even if someone is disliked in their own class, they still have a chance to receive votes of appreciation from other classes.

I see. No wonder it was said to be almost impossible.

Because if students from other classes are included, it becomes impossible to control the final score. Even if everyone's final score is positive, there will always be one student who comes in last place.

"So, what about relief measures? There should be a way to avoid this expulsion, right? As long as it costs 300 class points and 2000 million personal points..."

"Yeah, we shouldn't have to worry about being expelled, right?"

As the students spoke, their eyes all turned to Ryuen and Kamio Tatsuya, even though they didn't know how many points Ryuen currently had.

However, they knew that during the forest exam, Kamio Tatsuya had taken 15 million private points from both Class 1 and Class B.

In other words, Tatsuya Kamio has 2000 million yen, and as for class points, he currently has 501 points, which is more than enough to cover his expenses.

"That's right, but because this exam came so suddenly, the school decided that class points are not required, only 2000 million private points are needed to avoid expulsion."

It only requires 20 million private points, which one person in Dragon Garden should be able to come up with.

Starting in September, and continuing until March tomorrow, that's seven months. He can get 2.8 million from Class D every month, which is 19.6 million over seven months. Adding that to the 5 million he received from Class D before, he can easily afford it.

Upon hearing the words on the board, the students in Class C instinctively looked at Long Yuan, their eyes filled with anticipation.

"Hehe, don't worry, I have more than 2000 million personal points. Even if something happens to me, it's not a problem at all."

Hearing Longyuan's assurance, the students in Class C breathed a sigh of relief, and they were no longer worried that Longyuan would break his promise.

"However, there is one thing I need to make clear beforehand: you, Shi Ren, are not entitled to any of this 2000 million."

"What did you say?"

Yuya Tokito, with his slicked-back hair, stood up from his seat in shock and anger after being called out by Longyuan.

"You haven't forgotten, have you? When I collected points from the class, you were the only one who didn't hand them in."

Yuya Tokito was immediately rendered speechless by the rebuttal.

"So, you don't have the right to use those 20 million private points." Long Yuan grinned mischievously. "So, you should work hard and not become the most hated person among your classmates."

"Are you kidding me? You're definitely the most hated person in Class C, right?"

Tokito Yuya pointed to Ryuen.

"Hehe, who knows? Just keep up the good work."

Long Yuan looked completely unconcerned.

Compared to the minor chaos in Class C, Class B and Class C were basically unaffected because Class B had decided from the beginning to use points to avoid expulsion.

And coincidentally, the class still had enough points.

Although Kamio Tatsuya took 15 million yen during the forest exam, thanks to the fact that the students in the class had been saving money since the beginning of the semester, they still had about 20 million yen in personal points.

As for Class B, although they were being relentlessly drained of blood by Ryuen because of the two contracts, they didn't squander the points they earned from the previous preferential treatment test.

Adding to the 5 million private points Katsuragi received from Nagumo during the forest exam, raising 20 million points was more than enough.

Therefore, Class A and Class B face only one problem: who should receive the protection points?

Needless to say, Ichinose's previous self-disclosure has further enhanced her standing among the students, so the protection points will definitely go to Ichinose.

The key is Class B. Although there's no need to worry about anyone being expelled, who will get the protection points?

In the past, the choice would have undoubtedly fallen to Sakayanagi, but her major mistake during the previous forest exam caused many students to lose confidence in her.

Instead, Katsuragi returned to the students' sight.

In this situation, it would be extremely difficult for Sakayanagi to secure the protection points.

Furthermore, students can receive praise votes from other classes.

If Longyuan encourages students in a class to vote for someone in another class, that would be forty-one votes, which would very likely result in the highest score for the class.

This allows you to manipulate who gets the protection points. Giving protection points to a useless person is completely different from giving protection points to the class leader.

However, compared to the ease with which the higher-ranked classes were handling the situation, Class D was in a much more precarious position, as they simply couldn't gather the required 2000 million private points.

Indeed, Class D should have received 2000 million private points during the preferential treatment exam, but at that time they owed money to Dragon Garden.

So after paying back all that money, the class only had about 1500 million left. For the next six months, Class D didn't have any income.

Therefore, they can only use the private points they obtained from the preferential treatment test as living expenses.

Therefore, as of now, Class D can only gather less than 10 million private points, and even only more than 7 million, leaving a difference of 13 million.

It's safe to say that with 1300 million, it's almost certain that someone from Class D will be expelled in this exam.

"So, we owed Class C five million yen back then because of Sudo, right?"

"That's right. If it weren't for Sudo, we wouldn't be so far behind in points right now, would we?"

"I think you've lost your memory. Horikita said it during the sports festival, right? That was his misjudgment, which is why people were able to use it against him."

"Come to think of it, it seems there really is such a thing."

……