In fact, I can add unlimited points

What the hell do you bastards mean? Are you all making a fool of me?!

"So, what about you, President Horikita? Haven't you always maintained that competition between different grades is meaningless? Then what are your considerations in appearing here and interfering with the decisions of Class 2-C and Class 2-D?"

With a cold expression, Nagumo finally looked at Horikita Manabu, the respected senior he had always wanted to challenge.

I didn't perform well this time, which led to my well-planned scheme being undermined by Shun Aragaki just as it was being implemented.

It's truly disheartening that the showdown we once longed for has turned into such a predicament!

261. Akane Tachibana, who's super easy to handle; the goal of the race against time.

Why does this Nan Yunya seem to have some strange tendencies?

Isn't his obsession with Horikita a bit strange?

Watching the two of them amuse themselves, Aragaki Shun couldn't help but have this strange and inexplicable thought.

Thinking of this, the boy instinctively felt a chill. Seeing that Nan Yunya had no other way to reverse the situation, he simply stretched and broke away from the crowd of onlookers, intending to return to the group of first-year Class A.

But after taking only two steps, a voice suddenly called out from the side:

"Wait a minute, Junior Aragaki."

The leader of Class A looked in the direction of the sound and saw a senior girl with a bun hairstyle running over from more than ten meters away. When she stopped in front of the boy, she was slightly out of breath and gently patting her chest with her notebook, which she never parted with.

Her rapid breathing from running caused her shoulders to rise and fall slightly beneath her uniform jacket, and the neatly tied ribbon at her collar trembled gently. A few strands of sweat clung to her pale pink cheeks, forming wisps of hair on her forehead.

"Senpai Tachibana, it's rare to see you so lively. You're quite adorable."

Shun Aragaki smiled, reached out a hand and paused briefly on her forehead to wipe away the sweat.

The secretary, who had been breathing lightly, held her breath at that moment—

The boy then gave a mischievous laugh and, with a flick of his wrist, pinched the buns on either side of her hair with his thumb and forefinger.

The bun hairstyle is actually softer than I imagined, with a faint scent of sun-dried shampoo and a touch of post-workout warmth. A slight pressure from my fingertips feels like pinching two little bunny ears hidden within the hair.

To be honest, he had wanted to do this for a long time, and now he finally satisfied his long-standing curiosity.

"...!"

Akane's ears instantly flushed a deeper blush, and she hurriedly hugged the notebook even tighter, almost embedding it into her chest.

Unconsciously, my fingertips tightened around the leather corner of the notebook, making a soft "click" sound.

Those almond-shaped eyes, usually so calm and collected, were now darting around, first staring at Shun Aragaki's collar, then unconsciously gazing at the ground, her voice softer than water:

"Junior...no...not in a place like this..."

Halfway through her speech, she lost her confidence, and her voice trembled slightly at the end.

Aragaki Shun lowered his eyes and saw the girl's toes slightly raised due to nervousness. After the bun was released, the hair tie was slightly crooked, and a strand of purple hair fell down, sticking to her burning red earlobe.

With such a charming demeanor, saying "no" is utterly unconvincing.

"I'm sorry, the occasion is indeed a bit inappropriate," he chuckled, but his voice showed no apology. "Then can I ask my senior to schedule a time when it's just the two of us?"

"A...a date..." Tachibana Akane pursed her lips and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. She subconsciously wanted to take two steps back, but found that her legs seemed to go weak and she had no strength to move.

Shun Aragaki's knuckles slowly ran down her hair, the movement almost agonizingly slow. When his fingertips brushed against her burning earlobe, Akane Tachibana shrank her shoulders as if burned, letting out a very soft whimper, almost like a coquettish complaint.

"No, don't do this..."

"So what's your answer, senior?" The boy leaned closer, his breath brushing against her ear. "The class is supposed to have a celebration party tonight, but school's closed tomorrow. Could you take a walk with me, senior?"

“Take a walk…” Tachibana’s eyelashes fluttered like startled butterfly wings and then drooped down, obscuring her almond-shaped eyes, which were almost wet with panic.

Shun Aragaki waited patiently with a smile, but his fingertips mischievously continued to pinch her earlobe, causing the girl to involuntarily shrink her shoulders.

"I...I don't have club activities tomorrow..." Seemingly a little dizzy, she bit her lip and, as if finally regaining some rationality, added in a low voice, "...Tomorrow, there are no club activities."

After she finished speaking, she was stunned.

Does that mean I've agreed?

Why does it sound like you can't wait?

The temperature at the tip of my ear instantly rose another degree.

"It's settled then. We'll meet at the shopping mall at 10 a.m. tomorrow." Shun Aragaki nodded in satisfaction, finally releasing the girl's increasingly hot earlobe.

“…Mmm.” Tachibana Akane answered almost in a breathy voice.

This response seemed to have exhausted all the girl's courage. She didn't dare to look up, clutching the notebook to her chest as if it were her last shield, and turned to run away.

But after taking just one step, as if remembering something, he turned back and quickly added:

"...No, no lateness allowed!"

After saying that, she practically fled.

Her bun was tilted halfway, and the purple ends of her hair swayed gently in the wind. Her slightly clumsy appearance was truly pleasing to the eye.

Only after hurriedly returning to the third-grade A class did the girl pat her blushing cheeks, calming her overly excited emotions, and realize what had happened—

I just called out to Aragaki-kun, it seems I wanted to ask him some serious questions about the second half of the sports festival, right?

Before she could even say anything, her thoughts were easily thrown into disarray... Ugh~ Am I an idiot? Why am I so easily won over?

So, if I have a date tomorrow, should I prepare a suitable outfit in advance?

I have no relevant experience growing up, so what should I do...?

.........

After easily dealing with the super-easy-to-handle senior with her bun hairstyle, Shun Aragaki happily walked back to his own classroom, feeling the lingering touch of her hair on his fingertips.

Although he didn't know why Secretary Tachibana had called him, it was definitely better to talk about personal matters and not business at this time.

After all, there can only be one winner from the three grades in the sports festival, and Shun Aragaki would not harm the interests of his class for his own selfish reasons. So, chatting with the cute upperclassman about romance and nature is the best choice.

"It seems like the all-participation events at the sports festival are almost over. Next up should be the recommended events, like the 'Borrowing Objects Race'?"

Upon arriving at the camp, Shun Aragaki, sitting next to Arisu Sakayanagi who had been watching from the sidelines, asked the silver-haired girl about the current state of the match.

Because of her illness, the little princess needed to substitute for the leader of Class A in all her events. Seeing how bored she was, Shun Aragaki simply handed over the work of observing and recording to her. If anyone in the class was injured in the competition, he was also required to pass on the information to her immediately.

Naturally, the situation in first grade is thriving right now—

"If things continue at the current pace, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the winning group is already ours, the middle group will most likely go to the third year, and the second year has basically secured the losing group."

Shun Aragaki nodded, having no doubts about Arisu Sakayanagi's assessment.

If we only look at the scores on the central screen, apart from the first grade being far ahead, the second grade is still significantly ahead of the third grade overall.

After all, with Class B and Class C of the third grade causing trouble in the morning, it would be difficult for Class A and Class D to achieve a high ranking, even with Horikita Manabu's strong organizational skills.

So he had no choice but to resort to drastic measures and drag the second-year students into it as well—

If the situation in the second grade is worse, then even if the third grade is the worst, it won't be the worst!

It is known that during the afternoon competition, the number of absent students in Class 2A increased again, while most of the absent students in Classes C and D returned.

However, instead of trying to score as hard as they did in the morning, these two classes simply gave up and deliberately committed fouls to disqualify themselves from each exam, clearly not intending to compete for a higher ranking.

If nothing unexpected happens, Horikita Manabu probably made a deal with Kiryuin Fuuka and Kiriyama Ikuha, instructing them to intensify their attacks on Nangumo Masaru's class during the lunch break and to release some of the second-year contestants from Class C and Class D.

The main issue is that there aren't many students in Class B of the second grade, and at most forty people can be prevented from participating at the same time, so some choices have to be made.

However, for Kiriyama Ikuha and his team, since they were determined to use the zero-point tactic, the best outcome would be to drag down the remaining three second-year classes. Therefore, they did not target only second-year Class A in the morning.

As for now, as long as Horikita Manabu is willing to provide the conditions, Class 2-B is naturally willing to slightly shift its strategy and direct all its firepower towards the class where Nangumo Masaru is located.

In this way, Horikita Manabu could go to Class C and Class D of the second year and ask them to concede in the afternoon's game.

The reason is simple: on the one hand, missing the sports festival will result in a deduction of class evaluation points, and these two classes do not want to be like in the morning, where a large number of participants were blocked from participating.

On the other hand, the second-year students are clearly no longer in the winning group, so the higher their ranking, the more points they will lose.

Seeing the fierce competition between Class A and Class B, Class C and Class D, who could play the role of opportunists, inevitably began to have some ulterior motives.

In short, by the time the sports festival resumed in the afternoon, only a team of less than ten students from Class A remained in the second year, and they were still seriously participating in the competition.

"It's really interesting. What should have been a competition of hard skills turned into a contest of chances for a group of people to drag the team down in the second half."

Sakayanagi Arisu pursed her lips and chuckled, a look of obvious mischievous pleasure on her face.

"It's a bit of a shame that I didn't go to the second year with Aragaki-kun to see what kind of expression Nagumo-senpai has now."

Looking at the second grade alone, Class A still has the best results in the competition. Therefore, even though she knows that the other three classes are dragging her down, Nan Yunya can only ask the less than ten participants in her class to bite the bullet and fight desperately for a good ranking.

After all, those three classes hadn't scored any points since the afternoon. If Nan Yunya's class also started to slack off, then the entire second year would inevitably fall into the failure group based on the current internal rankings.

At that time, as the first in the losing group, Class A of Grade 2 will have 400 class evaluation points deducted.

On the contrary, if we give it our all, we might have a chance to make the second grade the middle group, and the first place would only have to deduct 200 class evaluation points.

To some extent, this is also what he and Horikita Manabu are vying for, so the blond senior will never easily admit defeat.

"In this situation, Class C and Class D of the second year became the key to the outcome of the competition between the second and third years. Both Nagumo and Horikita were scheming around them. I felt bored, so I came back early."

The punishment for the losing group is too severe. The class evaluation points deducted for each ranking are twice that of the middle group. In theory, Nan Yun is confident that he can persuade Class C and Class D of the second grade to continue to work hard.

After all, within the second year, it was already determined that Class B would inevitably be last. Even if Class C and Class D became the first in the middle group and had their evaluation points deducted, they would not be higher than the third place in the losing group.

Therefore, it is only right for them to do their best together to defeat the third graders.

Unfortunately, Class 2B is now a mole recruited by Horikita Manabu, and if they are dragged into absences, their evaluation points will also be deducted.

This makes the pros and cons extremely complex, and it's uncertain how things will develop under the power struggle between those two.

The only thing that can be confirmed right now is that the first-year students have already secured the victory!

.........

— [The obstacle course race is about to begin. Participants, please take your positions.]

With the school's public address system activated, the all-participation program came to an end, leaving only four recommended events for the Sports Festival.

More importantly, these projects often award relatively high scores.

As always, to boost morale, Shun Aragaki took to the field in the first round of this project.

Before the match officially began, the referees provided supplementary explanations:

"The obstacle course has some challenging elements. Although you can redraw, you have to wait 30 seconds. If someone wants to redraw, they should tell the referee standing at the drawing point. The race ends when eight students reach the finish line."

After confirming that everyone understood the rules for this round, the group began to prepare at the referee's signal.

As the signal gun fired, Shun Aragaki took the lead and rushed out, unsurprisingly being the first to reach the table at the finish line. On the table was a special box containing various slips of paper to choose from.

This is what makes the "Borrowed Item Race" different from a regular race. Participants need to draw lots to determine which item they will borrow, retrieve it, and run back to the finish line. Only after the referee confirms the item can the score be calculated.

Judging from these rules, this event is a competition that relies heavily on luck. If you're unlucky, even if you're the fastest runner in the world, it won't help.

However, Shun Aragaki was confident in himself, so he didn't hesitate and pulled it directly into the box.

Without any skill, relying solely on innate intuition, the boy's hand brushed past sheets of paper folded into quarters, picking out the appropriate target—

【Platycodon grandiflorus】

Um... Upon seeing the paper, Shun Aragaki was confused for half a second, unable to immediately tell whether it was about a person or a herb.

But who cares!

At least, this thing didn't make any weird requests like "10 female friends," right?

262. Kikyo Kushida was carried away in front of everyone; the sports festival came to an end.

The designated goal for the obstacle course race has been determined.

Then the question comes-

Should I borrow the other person as requested, or wait 30 seconds to draw lots again?

There's absolutely no need to hesitate about something like this!

Upon noticing that other contestants had already come to the table to draw lots on both sides, Shun Aragaki abandoned his concerns and rushed straight towards the first-year Class D's location without saying a word.

"Kushida, could I borrow you for a moment?"

As he said this, Shun Aragaki's lips curled up slightly, deliberately giving off a dazzling smile that, with the blessing of [Sun's Kin], instantly maxed out the little angel's dizziness level.

The afternoon playground looked like a dazzling sheet of silver foil baked by the sun, with waves of heat rising from the grass and the rubber track. Colorful flags fluttered in the stands, and the faint beat of drums came from the loudspeaker; all sounds merged into a distant buzz.

The world in Kushida Kikyo's eyes seemed like a dream, suddenly bursting with countless lights. Faced with the boy's casual question, she instinctively raised her sweet smile, which she had practiced a thousand times: "Um~ Of course you can—"

Before the last note had even finished, the world suddenly spun around.