In fact, I can add unlimited points

Even though they had already decided on the dropout and the first place winner when the exam rules were announced, the fact that they were one less fighter before the official voting began still made the members of Class B not optimistic.

Before everyone knew what move Shun Aragaki, who had amassed a large number of praise votes from other classes, would make, everyone present couldn't help but tense up until everything was settled.

Soon, Majima Tomoya entered the classroom as the bell rang announcing the exam results.

This usually calm man, even at this point, didn't seem to have many thoughts on his face.

Perhaps it's just a habit.

After all, this was Majima's fourth year as a teacher at Advanced Education, and before that, he had seen several students drop out.

"Next, I will announce the results of the supplementary special exam. First, the student who received the most praise votes, the first place is..." The B class teacher paused for a moment before continuing, "Nishikawa Ryoko, you received 39 votes."

A pretty girl with two braids hanging from her chest stood up, hesitated for a long time, and finally said nothing.

The other students in Class B understood the other party's choice and were very unwilling, but they didn't know what to do.

Perhaps directly calling the other party a traitor would vent one's anger, but at this point, is it still meaningful?

Moreover, the most important thing now is the selection of the last representative to drop out of school.

"Next, I will announce the name of the student who received the most criticism votes in the class. After that, please have the student whose name is called pack their bags and come with me to the staff office."

Majima Tomoya sighed and fell silent for a moment.

"...The last one is the student who received 8 criticism votes—Totsuka Yahiko."

An unexpected name echoed through the silent classroom.

"How is this possible? What's going on?!"

After the results were announced, Katsuragi Kohei exclaimed excitedly and stood up.

"Huh? It's me. Why?"

Totsuka himself found it hard to believe and immediately looked at one of the traitors.

“I don’t know the specifics either,” Ryoko Nishikawa said, unconsciously fiddling with her braided hair as she felt the gazes coming from all directions. “All I know is that the person President Aragaki wants to drop out of school in this vote is actually Katsuragi.”

In other words, Totsuka Yahiko inexplicably took a bullet for Katsuragi Kohei.

338. Ryoko Nishikawa was used to being disliked; the first thing she did after getting ashore was...

Shun Aragaki wants to expel Kohei Katsuragi from school in this class vote.

As a result, Totsuka Yahiko suddenly appeared and took a bullet for the latter.

Upon hearing the truth from Nishikawa Ryoko, the students of Class B all felt a chill run down their spines.

That student council president was indeed no pushover. Totsuka was just a little unlucky; he was caught in the crossfire because the city gate caught fire.

"Are you kidding me!"

When he realized that his friend had been forced to drop out of school because of his own actions, Katsuragi's face immediately showed an expression of unacceptable anger.

"Ms. Mashima, what exactly are the voting results? Is there any chance to salvage the situation?"

"The only solution is to allocate 20 million personal points. Other than that, no other relief measures are supported for this special examination."

The homeroom teacher of Class B calmly replied to Ge Cheng's question.

"As for the more detailed voting results, you can tell me if you want to know—including Ryoko Nishikawa who received 39 votes, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji who had 10 praise votes, and Sho Ryuen who had 9 praise votes, these three are the top three in this special exam."

"Masayoshi Hashimoto, who originally received 35 criticism votes from within his class, ended up with only 1 vote due to 36 praise votes from other classes, thus rising to the middle level in this vote."

Upon hearing this, everyone in Class B immediately turned their gaze to Hashimoto Masayoshi, who seemed unsure of what expression to make.

Good news: since Totsuka Yahiko got caught in the crossfire, he won't be expelled from school.

The bad news is that he is still the most unpopular student in the class, and if there is another exam for dropping out, he will most likely become the victim again.

Even killing someone is just a matter of beheading them!

Rather than staying here and becoming an eyesore, not knowing when he might be kicked out, Hashimoto felt that leaving Advanced Nurturing after this exam would actually be a good outcome.

After all, if they leave now, they can still get compensation from the Koenji Zaibatsu; staying would just be a pointless ordeal.

"As you know, I really offended that student council president. Anyone in Class B could collude with Class A, but I have absolutely no chance."

With a pained expression, Hashimoto Masayoshi offered a weak explanation, and the others in the classroom looked away.

Because what the other party said made so much sense. Aragaki Shun had the upper hand in the first and second year students, so there was no need for him to win over someone like Hashimoto who had spread rumors about him. With so many personal points, wouldn't it be better to invite other students who were both talented and had good character? Why waste them on such a fickle person?

The truth is simple: the reason the other side gave Hashimoto so many praise votes from other classes was simply to attack Katsuragi, disrupt Koenji and the others' plans, and incidentally annoy the other students in Class B.

In this process, Totsuka Yahiko unfortunately became the final victim... He could only blame his bad luck.

"Damn it, shouldn't they have made me drop out of school? Why did they have to involve Totsuka!"

Kohei Katsuragi understood the situation and looked at Ryoko Nishikawa with red eyes, seemingly finding it even more difficult to accept than Yahiko Totsuka himself.

And that was indeed the case—Katsuragi came from a poor family and had a twin sister who was entrusted to relatives for upbringing. He didn't mind dropping out of school and taking 20 million yen in cash from the Koenji Zaibatsu to go home.

Similarly, he didn't think there was anything wrong with Aragaki Shun dropping out of school because he was the one being expelled; after all, class competition was always like that.

However, Totsuka Yahiko was one of Katsuragi's few good friends at the school, and the fact that he was hurt because of him made Katsuragi feel an overwhelming sense of guilt.

"I don't know," Ryoko Nishikawa shrugged, indicating that she was just a tool and her knowledge was limited. "As instructed, I cast the three praise votes in my hand for Masayoshi Hashimoto, Koji Machida, and Sanada."

"The criticism votes were cast for Koenji, Ryuen Sho, and Katsuragi. As for the final praise vote from other classes, I followed orders and cast it for Karuizawa Megumi from Class D."

At that moment, the B-class students who were called out by the girl all showed different expressions.

After a moment's thought, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji looked directly at Tomoya Mashima on the podium and asked a question:

"Teacher, I'd like to ask, what were the vote counts for Karuizawa Kei and Hondo Ryotaro from Class D? Who is the number one voter in Class D?"

"The exam results for the other classes will be posted on the bulletin board, but I can tell you in advance now," Majima Tomoya said expressionlessly. "Karuizawa Megumi got 37 votes, and Hondo Ryotaro got 36 votes. They are the first and second place in Class D, respectively."

They were just one vote short?

Because it was pre-arranged, the students of Class B knew that their votes for praise from other classes were cast for Hondo Ryotaro, with the aim of sending Aragaki Shun and Class A a useless student from Class D who would inevitably have a negative impact.

But now it seems that this plan has ultimately failed.

Should I say I was just unlucky?

On the surface, it seemed that as long as they could find a way to cast one more vote, they could tie the votes between the other side and Karuizawa... So a small number of students in Class B immediately looked at Ryoko Nishikawa, thinking that it was the other side's betrayal that caused the class's plan to fail.

"Why are you looking at me like that? You don't actually think this plan can work, do you?"

The girl with two braids hanging from her chest crossed her arms, raised her eyebrows, and exuded an imposing aura. "Even without my vote, can't President Aragaki transfer two more praise votes from other classes to Karuizawa from either Class A or Class C?"

That seems to make sense.

Even if Aragaki Shun didn't notice, as long as the other party takes this shortcoming into account, they will definitely give Karuizawa enough praise votes from outside the class. With the support of praise votes from Class D, it would be a piece of cake for them to surpass Hondo Ryotaro, who is supported by Class B.

"I think I roughly understand what tricks Aragaki was playing in this exam!"

Long Yuanxiang's eyes suddenly sharpened, his tone cold and filled with deep resentment.

Not only him, but also intelligent people like Rokusuke Koenji and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji quickly deduced the tactics used by the student council president from various clues—

It's actually quite simple. After Shiraishi Asuka transferred to another class and Nishikawa Ryoko betrayed them, the number of students in Class 1-B who could still carry out orders dropped to 36.

Based on this, within Class B, an individual can accept a maximum of 35 votes for praise and 35 votes for criticism, but can cast 36 votes for praise in other classes.

The number of students in Class A and Class C both exceeds this number, so Shun Aragaki only needs to cast 6 praise votes for Karuizawa Megumi from Class D to raise her total number of votes to 37, and then Class B's plan to target other classes will inevitably fail.

On the other hand, including Shiraishi Asuka and Nishikawa Ryoko, Aragaki Shun has amassed a total of 120 praise votes from outside the class. Even after subtracting 6, he still has 114 votes left.

All things considered, the bargaining chips he can use to attack Class B are 114 praise votes from other classes, 3 praise votes and 3 criticism votes from Nishikawa Ryoko within her own class.

The opponent's goal is to vote out Kohei Katsuragi, so they first cast 36 votes for Masayoshi Hashimoto, who has 35 criticism votes, to increase his praise votes to 1.

I cast another 37 votes for Ryoko Nishikawa, which, combined with the original 2 votes from the class, made her the number one.

With the remaining votes, we can simply give one or two praise votes to each of the ordinary students in Class B, and then have Ryoko Nishikawa give one criticism vote each to Koenji, Ryuen Sho, and Katsuragi... With this back and forth, there is indeed a chance to push down the rankings of the core members of Class B.

"In fact, if Class B hadn't temporarily switched to a conservative tactic, and had followed the original plan to concentrate all the praise votes on Koenji, Ayanokoji, and Ryuen, then Katsuragi would have had a very high chance of ending up in last place."

Ryoko Nishikawa looked around, sensing the suffocating atmosphere in the classroom, and suddenly spoke up to advise, "The gap between the two sides is too great. We can't beat Chairman Aragaki."

The girl was naturally lively and extremely disliked the decadent atmosphere that had accumulated from the class's repeated defeats.

More importantly, since Arisu Sakayanagi, Masumi Kamuro, Ai Morishita, and Miki Yamamura left, there were hardly any good girls left in Class B who were worth befriending.

Now that even her close friend Shiraishi Asuka has run away, what is she still doing here?

Although she was used to being disliked, it didn't mean she liked it. She also had a need to socialize with her friends... So, she could only apologize to the other students in Class B.

Katsuragi Kohei: "..."

The bald man who was called out was immediately speechless.

If we really follow the original plan, we should concentrate all the praise votes on Koenji, Ayanokoji, and Ryuen, and do our best to get them permanent transfer slots.

If everyone else in the class receives a vote of praise from another class, and even Hashimoto Masayoshi gets a vote, and then Nishikawa Ryoko casts a vote of criticism on him, he will almost certainly end up dropping out of school.

However, upon entering the classroom that morning, they discovered that Shiraishi Asuka had transferred to another class. Naturally, they could no longer stick to their original plan, so they temporarily changed their voting strategy to a conservative approach.

The voting was conducted in tiers based on the students' importance to the class. For example, Ayanokouji and Ryuen, who both won first place and saved six million yen, each received 10 praise votes. Koenji received 9, Katsuragi and other talented students received 7, and so on down the list.

When it came to the criticism vote, Hashimoto Masayoshi, who was originally slated to be last, directly took one-third of the votes, winning 35 votes. As a result, the three B-class students who were tied for second to last only received 9 votes each.

Totsuka Yahiko has 8 criticism votes. Although he is ranked last, there are still 4 people behind him. Normally, his situation is actually quite safe and he is not likely to become a dropout.

But who could have gotten to Aragaki Shun's sudden intervention, which completely disrupted the rankings?

Perhaps it was because they felt that even if they couldn't expel Katsuragi, they should still give him a heavy blow.

In short, Totsuka, like the four core members of Class B, was also a member who received no praise votes from other classes, and ultimately became a victim of the offensive of the Class A leader.

After figuring out the hidden game, no one in the classroom knew what to say.

Should they be grateful?

After all, Totsuka Yahiko isn't considered a particularly strong fighter, and he's not of much use to Class B.

Katsuragi Kohei has always been a core figure in the class. He is responsible, calm, and athletic, and can be useful in various situations.

Since there will definitely be students dropping out of the class, whether from a rational or emotional perspective, it's a good thing that the former can shield the latter from attacks from Class A.

That makes sense, but it's just too cruel!

"You probably can't handle the compensation for 20 million personal points, can you?"

Looking around at the silent students in the classroom, Majima Tomoya, while hiding a sigh in his heart, spoke up to break the awkward atmosphere.

"...Class B cannot come up with this funding right now."

No matter how unwilling he was, as the class's financial manager, Katsuragi Kohei couldn't possibly lie through his teeth.

"Then I regret to inform you, Totsuka, that the method to overturn this decision... no longer exists."

"..."

Totsuka Yahiko didn't know what to say, so he turned his gaze to Koenji Rokusuke. After receiving a nod from the other man, he walked to Katsuragi's side as if resigned to his fate.

“Brother Katsuragi, no matter what, the happiest thing for me at this school is being able to meet you.”

"Actually, after thinking about it, being expelled from school now might not be a bad thing. My first year is almost over. Once I get the 20 million from Koenji, I can transfer to a high school near my hometown and start my second year directly. Not only can I become rich, but I can also spend time with my family anytime."

Totsuka got more and more excited as he spoke, and the lingering look of disappointment on his face quickly disappeared.

He deliberately punched Ge Cheng in the chest, gradually getting into a joking mood:

"Even if I graduated from Class A and landed a job at a top company, it would normally take several years to earn 20 million. Now I can earn that much money just by changing schools. If my family knew, they would probably think I won the lottery..."

After comforting Katsuragi, the man he regarded as an older brother, Totsuka said a brief goodbye to the other friends in the class, and finally walked briskly to Majima Tomoya's side.

"Then I'll take Totsuka to the staff office first."

Seeing this, and confirming that his students were not forcing a smile, the homeroom teacher of Class B felt relieved.

In any case, it's good that you can get out of the shadow of dropping out of school and face the future positively.

Just as the two were about to leave the classroom, an unexpected voice suddenly rang out:

"Wait a moment, Mr. Mashima, and all the students of Class B, would you be willing to make a deal with our Class A?"

The newcomer was none other than Kanzaki Ryuji, who had been instructed by Aragaki Shun. Behind him followed several physically gifted boys from Class A, including Shibata Hayate and Kito Hayato.

Seeing Totsuka following behind Majima Tomoya, Kanzaki roughly guessed what had happened here and first nodded to Nishikawa Ryoko.

"Nishikawa-kun, you should go back to Class A's classroom first. Kito-kun will help you move the things you need to move, and Shiraishi-kun has been waiting for you for a long time."

"I understand. I'll go meet up with Shiraishi now."