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

An hour later, Tatsuya Kamio closed the book, feeling a bit dizzy from absorbing so much knowledge that day.

"It's just a fair trade."

Horikita Suzune didn't wait any longer today; as soon as the time was up, she packed her things and left.

Meanwhile, Tatsuya Kamio left his seat, intending to find an extracurricular book to read and relax.

The school library had a very rich collection of books, including not only various well-known comics and light novels, but also past issues of Jump, which was something that Tatsuya Kamio really didn't expect.

Surely the school isn't encouraging students to become addicted to this kind of thing?

But then I thought, among so many graduating classes, maybe some students aspire to become comic book artists or light novel authors?

If it's about providing them with material, then it's not impossible.

After having this idea, Tatsuya Kamio immediately felt that it made sense.

Chapter 40 Sakayanagi: What a pity!

Although the school had a lot of light novels and manga, Tatsuya Kamio had no intention of reading them.

In any case, reading these things is too relaxing. He's currently in the exam preparation stage, so he plans to find some extracurricular books that require mental effort to relax a bit.

After filtering through these options, Tatsuya Kamio felt that mystery novels might be a good choice.

Because most of the first-year students were preparing for exams, these extracurricular books were left unused, and Kamio Tatsu easily found what he wanted.

Looking at the book "Murder on the Orient Express," Tatsuya Kamio shook his head, put it down, and picked up the one next to him.

These are not the books he is looking for. He is looking for "And Then There Were None", but it doesn't seem to be here. Has it been borrowed by someone else?

Although there is a backup copy, it is entirely in English, and Tatsuya Kamio says he doesn't quite understand it yet.

Finally, he left the area with "The ABC Murder Case" and returned to his previous seat.

Before he knew it, it was six o'clock. Tatsuya Kamio put down his book and started packing his things. He decided to borrow "The ABC Murder Case" so he wouldn't have to look for it again tomorrow.

Back in his dorm, Tatsuya Kamio took out his phone and checked it. Still, no one had stepped forward to extort money from the classes in front of them.

Class D is indeed a bit boring.

Anyway, the enemy will be polite here from now on.

The next day, as soon as Tatsuya Kamio arrived at class, Horikita approached him.

"Are you aware of what happened on the forum?"

"The forum stuff?" Tatsuya Kamio asked curiously. "You mean that anonymous post?"

Upon hearing this, Horikita nodded.

"Someone has sent a request for assistance to the three higher-ranking classes in our class's name, hoping that they will provide each of us with 10,000 personal points as living expenses out of humanitarian spirit. If we don't do this, someone might try to harass them, just like what Yamauchi did yesterday."

Kamio Tatsuya nodded to indicate that he knew about it, because it was he who did it.

Moreover, he did not threaten them, but only asked them for living expenses, and explained one possibility—if Class D continued to be without living expenses, then the students in Class D might do something irrational.

Although it is essentially a threat, they put on a very good show. Even if they take this to the teacher, the teacher can't do anything about it.

Because the students in Class D haven't done that yet.

On the surface, Tatsuya Kamio is merely describing a possible future situation that could be unfriendly to the higher-ranking classes.

Moreover, he also wanted to use this incident to conduct an experiment: whether the school would so easily reveal the anonymous user's real information.

Do you know who posted this?

Horikita Suzune shook her head.

"I heard that other classes have reported this to the school, asking who posted this message, but the school has not released the other party's identity."

Tatsuya Kamio nodded, then suddenly smiled.

"So who do you think did it?"

The sudden question startled Horikita Suzune, who then looked at Kamio Tatsuya with some suspicion.

"It can't be you, can it?"

Wow, you have a great eye for people.

Just as Tatsuya Kamio was about to retort, Suzune Horikita immediately shook her head again.

"It shouldn't be. You're not short of money, and you're not the kind of student who would work hard for the sake of the class."

Upon hearing this, Tatsuya Kamio shrugged and pouted, indicating his speechlessness.

Other classes also had their own reactions to the anonymous post by Tatsuya Kamio.

"They made their move so quickly, and just as I expected. How interesting."

Long Yuan smiled as he looked at the posts on the campus forum.

Because the school term had been short and they lacked understanding of the students in Class D, even if Longyuan wanted to find this anonymous person, they wouldn't know where to begin.

So after he thought of this, he immediately dragged Class A and Class B into the mess.

And it worked immediately.

Similarly, the students in Class A naturally learned about this as well.

"What are you going to do?"

Looking at the posts on his phone, Katsuragi said to Sakayanagi.

"Where is Katsuragi-kun?"

Sakayanagi did not answer, but instead asked a question.

"Class A consists of excellent students; they won't be easily provoked by the other side."

"Is that so?" Sakayanagi's smile remained unchanged. "But I think it's better to just pay up."

"Are you scared?"

"Think what you want." Sakayanagi clearly didn't want to say too much to Katsuragi. "Masumi-kun, let's go to the cafeteria for lunch."

Watching Sakayanagi's departing figure, Katsuragi's expression was very serious.

"Masumi-san, who do you think did this?"

"Huh? How would I know who did it?"

Masumi Kamuro looked annoyed, as if she had gotten her period.

In fact, she had been ordered around by Sakayanagi these past few days because, for some reason, Sakayanagi had found out about her kleptomania.

Although I wasn't threatened, I somehow ended up being bossed around by them.

"It's very simple, you should recognize this one."

"I know him?" Kamuro Masumi was taken aback. "Wait, you're not talking about Kamio, are you?"

"In my opinion, it's very likely him. This kind of behavior, which makes people uncomfortable but also forces them to follow the nose, is very much in line with his style." Ayatsu Sakayanagi's face showed a happy expression, as if she had found a toy.

"But that guy shouldn't be short of numbers, right? What's the point of doing this?"

Masumi Kamuro knew that Tatsumi Kamio had over three million private points, so she thought that Tatsumi Kamio would look down on his mere tens of thousands of private points.

Sakayanagi couldn't understand it either, but she had a vague feeling that Kamio Tatsuya was doing it just on a whim.

Even so, their methods are all interconnected, and the only way to break the deadlock is to completely control the students in their class, just as Katsuragi said.

But students are human too, and humans make mistakes.

Therefore, to some extent, Tatsuya Kamio's plan was unsolvable. You only had two choices: either obediently pay up or obediently be taken advantage of.

In fact, if Katsuragi had just chosen to pay the money, Sakayanagi would have had another way to further solidify Class A's position.

That is, after paying the protection fee, they would spend another sum of money to hire students from Class D to cause trouble for Class B and Class C.

Unfortunately, Katsuragi is far too conservative and somewhat lacks self-awareness... I won't associate with such a scoundrel.

Hopefully, no one from Class B or Class C will think of this and turn around to target Class A.

No, while Ichinose from Class B might not be capable of such a thing, Ryuen from Class C might be.

Chapter 41 Let's get some protection money.

Soon, the class bell rang, and Tatsuya Kamio also entered study mode. Whether the other students in the class wanted to listen or not, they at least looked quite serious at this moment.

Except for one person, Kenji Sudo.

Although this guy wasn't late, he would lie on his desk and fall asleep without restraint as soon as he arrived in the classroom.

Hirata had tried to persuade him several times, but to no avail.

After school in the afternoon, Tatsuya Kamio packed his things and prepared to go to the library, but before he could leave, a guest came to visit Class D.

Ryuen from Class C, but this time he didn't come alone. He was accompanied by Ishizaki and that burly black man.

Through inquiries, Tatsuya Kamio learned that his name was Yamada Albert and that he was of mixed race.

Wow, mixed race, Black people's genes are really outrageous.

Upon arriving at Class D, Ryuen barged in with his men.

"What do you want to do, Ryuen-kun?"

At this moment, the one who naturally stepped forward was Hirata Yosuke, the leader of Class D.

Long Yuan was clearly up to no good, and in order to prevent a repeat of yesterday's brawl, he stepped forward immediately.

"Don't be so nervous, Hirata. I just saw something someone posted on the forum, so I came over to say hello."

While speaking, he also brazenly observed the students still in Class D.

Kamio Tatsuya was speechless. He wanted to go to the library, but now didn't seem to be the right time.

Being too arrogant will attract the attention and suspicion of Longyuan.

Although he wasn't afraid, it was still troublesome.

He was afraid of trouble.

So he simply stood by the table, just like everyone else, watching Long Yuan and his group.

Ryuen's gaze swept across the faces of the students in Class D one by one, without pausing when he passed by Tatsuya Kamio.

Unfortunately, Ryuen Sho is not Conan Edogawa and does not have the ability to find the culprit immediately.

"Please leave our classroom. The person you are looking for is not in our class."

Fearing that it would cause even greater trouble, Hirata immediately asked him to leave.

However, Longyuan cannot simply be discouraged from leaving.

"Oh? You actually said something like that? In that case, can you guarantee it?"

"what?"

"We guarantee that the students in Class D will not harass our other classes."

"I……"

Hirata wanted to make a guarantee, but he wasn't an idiot. Although he was willing to protect the students of Class D, how could he not know what kind of people they were?

What guarantee can he offer given that the incident in the mountains happened just yesterday?

Furthermore, he couldn't force the students in Class D to do anything, so he couldn't guarantee that they would behave themselves.

Since the methods were made public on the forum, they have been very effective in deterring students in Class D even if they do nothing.

If Hirata makes such a guarantee and demands that the students in Class D behave themselves, it would be tantamount to cutting off his own arm. As a top student, Hirata Yosuke couldn't possibly be unaware of this.

Although he rejected this approach, he knew very well that it was the best way to resolve Class D's predicament.

A brief stalemate ensued in the classroom of Class D.

The one who broke this state was the unrestrained man—Kōenji Rokusuke.

During Ryuen and Hirata's conversation, he remained unaffected, tidied his things, picked up his bag, walked past the two of them, and left the classroom.

Well done, Koenji!