I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

"This isn't actually difficult. As long as we know their ten competition events, we can make targeted observations. If Class A continues as usual, then we'll most likely have to start with their academic ability test questions, since they have an absolute advantage in that area. But if they suddenly start practicing some sports, they'll definitely reveal their weaknesses..."

Horikita judged that Sakayanagi was more likely to use his high average academic ability to attack Class B. If Sakayanagi wanted to start with physical fitness, he would definitely be able to find clues by training on the playground. However, it might be a bit troublesome if the other side booked the entire gymnasium.

A rather strange situation has arisen: even though the opponent for the match has not yet been decided, Class B has unanimously agreed to set the opponent as Sakayanagi Arisu.

Perhaps the pressure that Sakayanagi put on them was far more intense than that on other classes.

"I get the feeling you guys are implicitly treating Class A as our rival? How about we try challenging the easier Class D or Class C?"

Chapter 182: The Ultimate Problem, Who Will Drop Out? (6K)

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and discovered that the one who had proposed to fight against Class C or Class D was none other than Tianyin, who had just fallen asleep instantly.

At this moment, Tianyin looked no different from usual, both in spirit and appearance, a stark contrast to her drowsy state about twenty minutes ago.

"But...we're in Class B now, isn't it a bit much for us to bully classes below us..."

Tianyin looked at the person who spoke and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

If it were anyone else, Tianyin would immediately judge that the other person lacked the most basic common sense and was naive to an extreme.

The person who said such a thing was actually Ichinose.

Ichinose couldn't possibly be unaware that Class A, with Arisaka Yanagi present, had a higher chance of winning against Class C or Class D. Although Ichinose himself seemed quite naive, he was actually not a pedantic person.

Therefore, Ichinose's words were clearly intended to have ulterior motives.

Has anyone come looking for you, Fanbo?

"Huh? Tianyin, how did you know?"

Ichinose's face showed a surprised expression.

So it really was Class D who sent people to persuade Ichinose? But the question is... why would Ichinose so easily agree to speak well of them? There might be more to the story.

"If no one else interferes, I believe you, Fanbo, can tell which class, A or D, is easier to bully. Let me guess, it wasn't Himeno who persuaded you, was it? The excuse they came up with was that in the future special exams, Class D would hold off Class C, so we could deal with Class A without worry, right?"

"Wow, that's amazing... If Himeno-san hadn't come to my room to talk to me, I probably would have thought Amane was right next to me. I feel really bad for everyone. As a member of Class B, I'm still speaking up for the previous class. The main reason is that three people from Class D just dropped out. Although Shibata-san's overall abilities aren't top-notch in the school, he's still a very good student and very important to Class D."

"With Shibata gone, Class D is no longer capable of threatening the other classes. Seeing how badly they're doing, that's why I..."

Ichinose lowered her head apologetically.

Upon seeing this, Hirata quickly offered words of comfort.

"Anyone would feel bad if their former classmates were expelled, and we all understand that. Besides, Himeno only asked you to plead with us to let Class D off the hook. However, the outcome is not something that Ichinose-san can control by yourself alone. In other words, Ichinose-san, you did not do anything to wrong Class B, did you? So please don't blame yourself so much."

Hirata's words of comfort eased the slightly tense atmosphere in the class. After all, they were already members of Class B. It was fine for them to play with their friends from other classes, but this was a special exam. If someone showed favoritism and leaked information, it would make things very difficult to proceed.

Tianyin, however, sensed something unusual.

Ichinose probably didn't come to plead for Class D, but rather... wanted Class D to die.

Since Class D no longer has the ability to threaten other classes, it means they cannot effectively restrain Class C. So what value does Class D still have?

Ichinose's words seem to imply that Class D is already a sitting duck, and if they don't do it now, when will they?

Then an even more important question arises.

Why did Ichinose make such a hint?

A. Ichinose's action was unintentional and did not actually imply anything.

B. Ichinose judged that the chances of defeating Class A were a bit low, but since she had only been there for a short time, she didn't want to speak rashly on important matters. So she wanted to steer the conversation to Class D and then imply that Class D was weaker, making people feel that it would be more worthwhile to defeat Class D. Moreover, by doing this, she was also indirectly fulfilling Himeno's request.

C. Kanzaki's previous actions displeased Ichinose, and it was purely a matter of personal revenge.

Which answer would be?

Based on Ichinose's past performance, A is the most likely candidate, since Ichinose seems like an innocent girl with no guile.

Having spent so much time with Ichinose, how could Amane not realize that Ichinose's innocence and gentleness were merely a 'persona'?

Therefore, option A should be eliminated first.

Although the real Ichinose is not as perfect as she appears to outsiders, she is not so despicable as to be petty or hold a grudge against someone to the point of wishing that person dead.

Therefore, option C is clearly too extreme.

The answer is obvious.

Ichinose probably wanted to propose attacking the lower-ranked classes during the last special exam, but due to Horikita Suzune's insistence, she was somewhat helpless as her voice was no longer as strong as it was in Class D.

After Horikita Suzune's defeat, Ichinose became convinced that she had a better chance of winning by playing against the lower-ranked classes.

It seems that Ichinose probably wants to reach Class A as soon as possible.

To be honest, Amane agrees with Ichinose's idea. This is a school where strength is paramount, not some child's play. If you want to achieve your goal, you have to use any means necessary.

If she were to lead the class without any constraints, she would probably try to subdue the opposing team's key members the night before the match or add something to their food to make them unable to fight.

However, Tianyin could only think about such things; if she actually did them, she might get arrested.

"While Hirata-san is right, I still don't recommend that Ichinose-san participate in the following discussion. People who are not firm in their stance are prone to causing problems, aren't they?"

Yukimura proposed excluding Ichinose from the decision-making process for this special exam.

Such a request sounds perfectly reasonable, and Amane has no reason to object unless she insists on arguing that she believes in Ichinose. However, Horikita just suffered a defeat last time, and if she does this again, it will make everyone feel uncomfortable, right?

Amane looked at Ichinose.

The moment their eyes met, Ichinose seemed to immediately understand the meaning behind Amane's gaze.

"Yukimura-kun is right. I'm a bit confused right now, and I don't think I can offer any good advice. So I'll leave this special exam to you all. If there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know, and I'll do my best!"

Ichinose's open and frank announcement that she would not participate in the next decision-making process made Yukimura feel a little embarrassed.

"Tianyin, what do you think?"

Hirata seemed somewhat uneasy about losing Ichinose, such a powerful ally, so he looked at Amane, hoping she could find a way to retain Ichinose.

"Let's leave it at that. If we force Fanbo to continue fighting against Class D, she'll probably suffer. Besides, there are so many people in the class, we'll find a way to pass this special exam. Let Fanbo get some rest."

Since Amane had said that, Hirata had no choice but to accept reality.

Teacher Chabashira waited until everyone's discussion temporarily stopped before continuing to speak.

In the past, Chabashira-sensei might have scolded him for wasting time on explanations, but when Class B was only eight class points away from Class A, Chabashira-sensei became surprisingly considerate.

"Your ideas are all good, but which class you choose as your opponent will depend on your luck when you draw lots."

Teacher Chazhu is right. Since the rules state that only those who draw lots can be assigned to classes first, then all their discussion here is just a matter of fate if they don't draw lots.

If Class A has no reason to compete with Class B, they will most likely choose to challenge the class below them.

This would further increase the distance between them.

However... while you can't cheat at drawing lots, you can at least have a little chat with the person drawing the lots.

"Next is the reward and punishment system for this special exam, which I believe is what you are most concerned about. The school will select seven events from the five favorite events chosen by each class as the competition events for both classes. Each competition event will add or subtract 30 class points. If you win all seven events, you will get 210 class points. The school will also give an extra 100 class points to the class that wins all seven events, which means the maximum reward is 310 class points."

Upon hearing that the exam could award up to 310 class points, many people's eyes lit up.

"310 points! I didn't expect the school to be so generous!"

"It's said to be 310 points, but it's probably very difficult to win all of them. If you draw five competitions that test your academic ability, it's unrealistic to expect to win them all, so it's best not to have too high hopes."

Horikita Suzune surprisingly remained calm at this moment, clearly believing that obtaining all 310 points was virtually impossible.

"It is worth noting that there is no such thing as a tie in this special exam. That is to say, when you design the rules of the competition, there cannot be any tie. Basically, the first class to get four wins will be the winner. However, even if the first class gets four wins, because the competition is closely related to the points, the winner will not be declared until all the competitions are over."

Teacher Chazhu added some details to the rules.

This made many people feel much less pressure. After all, even though everyone wanted to get 310 class points, the chance of winning all seven competitions was extremely low, which brought immense pressure. If they underperformed in the competition because they were afraid of making a mistake and losing the seven-win reward, it would be a loss.

"Then let's set our goal as achieving four wins."

"Four wins? If we win four times, we'll only get 30 class points. We go through all that trouble to participate in the special exam, and all we get is 30 class points..."

Sato didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.

This exam involved almost the entire class, and many people found it hard to accept that after a month of hard work, the result was only 30 class points.

After all, losing a match will also deduct class points. Aiming for only four wins means accepting three losses, and after three losses, the class points that can be obtained are limited, so Horikita has no choice.

"Even a small profit is still a profit, but even a small loss is still a loss. Sato-kun, you must know that, right?"

Horikita glanced around the classroom.

Many people agree with Horikita's explanation. In essence, the students in Class B relied too much on Amane and other strong students in the class, neglecting their own growth, which led to them not having much confidence when facing students from other classes.

This led to widespread acceptance of Horikita's proposal that three failures were acceptable.

After all, nobody wants to work so hard to take a special exam only to be held responsible for failing in the end.

"I think Horikita's plan is good. The lower the expectations, the less helpless we will be when failure comes, and the less pressure we will put on everyone. Don't underestimate the effect of just reducing pressure. If we encounter an opponent who is under great pressure during the competition, it may produce unexpected results."

Katsuragi highly approved of Horikita's plan. He himself had a conservative personality, and Horikita's plan happened to coincide with his own.

After seeing that Katsuragi also supported Horikita's statement, Sato sullenly hummed, but did not refute Katsuragi or Horikita.

"Horikita's plan is indeed good, but it also depends on the actual situation. If the opponent is weak, it would be good to earn more points."

When there are no points available, Chabashira-sensei usually doesn't easily interfere with students' decisions when explaining special exams. However, in this special exam that determines which class will receive the Class A title, Chabashira-sensei naturally hopes to earn more class points to increase the chances of becoming a Class A student.

In other words, no matter which class B chooses to compete against in the end, it is actually competing with Class A for the most class points.

"By the way, when you set the rules for the competition, in addition to remembering to set a rule that there cannot be a tie, you also need to add a rule that allows the Command Tower to intervene. This way, the Command Tower will have a way to directly intervene in the course of the competition. In addition, you also need to prepare a 1v1 competition rule, in addition to the Command Tower's intervention, there will also be a match between generals."

"general?"

Everyone voiced their questions in unison.

"It's roughly similar to the one-man showdown during the sports festival. Each class has to select a commander and a general. These two students cannot participate in any events, but the commander and general can interfere when others are competing."

"The Command Tower can intervene in many ways, such as providing advice, changing players, or substituting for others to participate. However, there is only one way for the generals to participate, which is that each of the seven events can choose the 'General Showdown' mode, which means that the winner is determined directly through a 1v1 duel. For example, in football, normally the class that scores the most goals within a specified time wins. But in the General Showdown mode, it might become a matter of how many times the ball is juggled or whether both sides shoot at a goal with a goalkeeper and see who scores the most goals."

"The Command Tower can intervene in normal matches, but it cannot interfere with the generals' duels. If a match is won in a generals' duel, in addition to the normal class points, there will be an extra personal points reward. Each one-on-one duel win will give 100,000 personal points. This number of points increases with each match. For example, winning the second one-on-one duel will give 20 points. If all seven matches are won in one-on-one duels, the general will receive 2.8 million personal points. At the same time, the school will give an additional 500,000 personal points as a reward, which is a total of 3.3 million personal points."

The sheer number of personal points made everyone in Class B eager to try it out. Although Class B had this title, they never had many class points, so they only received about 50,000 to 60,000 personal points each month. It was only recently, after the forest training camp, that their personal points increased to 90,000.

However, prior to this, the students in Class B had a disastrous level of personal savings.

Aside from two instances where Horikita emptied everyone's personal savings to collect points in order to win the competition, the fact that the students in Class B basically had no concept of spending was also one of the reasons.

Most people are spendthrifts, spending every penny they earn in a month and not saving a single cent for the next month.

This consumer mindset led the students in Class B to have an unusually strong desire for personal points.

"The rewards are plentiful, but winning seven one-on-one matches is no easy feat. The opposing class will definitely send an all-around student to lead the team."

"But there's no punishment for failure."

"Is there no punishment? Don't forget that losing a match will deduct class points. To put it bluntly, every battle between generals is just a gamble on those thirty class points."

As more and more people join the discussion, it's clear that this special exam reward is indeed tempting, but it's also not easy to obtain.

"The details are all written here. You can discuss it in a safe place during break time or after school."

After finishing speaking, Mr. Chabashira handed a piece of paper to Hirata, who was sitting in the front row.

Then, while everyone else was waiting for Chabashira-sensei to hand out the instruction manuals, Chabashira-sensei actually packed up his things, turned around, and left.

"Isn't the school being incredibly stingy? So many people and they only give us one sheet of paper?"

Even the increasingly low-key Shinohara couldn't help but complain about the school's stinginess.

Hirata first took out his phone, took a picture of the instruction sheet, and uploaded it to the class group to make sure everyone could see it before taking the sheet to the back row.

People like Yukimura, Matsushita, and Katsuragi immediately gathered around.

"Tianyin, look, this is the explanation and rules for this competition. Right now, the most urgent thing is that the draw will be held this afternoon, which means we need to select the commander and general before noon."

Hirata laid the instructions out in front of Amane for her to read.

When Tianyin saw that there was only one piece of paper, she immediately thought of another purpose of this thing. Because only one piece was distributed, everyone had to gather together to discuss the details and whether they had been assigned any tasks.

Unfortunately, Hirata took the photo and posted it directly in the group chat. This might cause some people to choose not to participate in the discussion and just wait for the final discussion results and arrangements from Amane and the others.

"I originally thought there wouldn't be any punishment even if we lost, but it says here that the generals and commanders will be expelled from school after losing the game and will not be allowed to use points to save them. Tsk tsk, doesn't that mean there must be two to four people who are expelled?"

Tianyin pointed to one of the rules above and showed it to everyone.

Tianyin originally thought it made no difference who was the commander or the general, but now it seems that this is a special test that must be won, and the instructions list in detail various situations that lead to dropping out of school.

Firstly, regarding the participants, regardless of winning or losing, they will not be expelled from school. However, regardless of whether the Commander Tower provides assistance to the participants, if the Commander Tower loses to the opposing class in the special exam, the losing Commander Tower will be directly expelled from school.

And no rescue efforts can be provided.