In practice, I can issue tasks to my master.

Collaborating with Class C inevitably involves Dragon Garden, so the only option left is to meet this tyrant.

"Oh, by the way, how's Long Yuan doing now? He shouldn't be too angry, right?"

"..."

Shiina Hiyori was somewhat speechless at Nangong Cheng's erratic thinking, but still answered him: "He was resting in his room yesterday, but I don't know about today."

"If you want to find him, I can put in touch with him for you."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Shiina-kun."

Nangong Cheng stroked his chin, and after watching Shiina Hiyori take out her phone and type, he quickly added, "Let's meet at the rooftop pool. I'll wait for him there."

Seeing that the latter nodded, he then said to Karuizawa Megumi and the others, "You guys go back first, it's time for the men now."

"Message me if you need anything."

Horikita Suzune was the most decisive in leaving, but before she left, she left a message, clearly implying that Nangong Cheng should share the information with her afterward.

However, Karuizawa Megumi and Sakura Airi didn't think too much about it. They just gave Nangong Makoto a subtle look and then left together.

"Ryuen agreed, but the time is set for 1 p.m., is that alright?" Shiina Hiyori looked up and gave Ryuen her reply.

"can."

Nangong Cheng stood up and stretched, then waved to Shiina Hiyori.

"See you next time, Shiina-kun."

"..."

Shiina Hiyori silently watched Nangong Cheng's figure disappear from her sight before standing up and walking back the way she came to meet up with Ibuki Mio, who had been waiting for a long time.

"Let's go."

Ibuki Mio nodded.

...

...

After lunch, Nangong Cheng arrived early at the top deck of the cruise ship—the outdoor swimming pool area.

There are no swimmers here yet, but it's hard to say what will happen in a while.

"Long Yuan, do you have an exhibitionist tendency?"

Nangong Cheng walked to the edge of the pool, looked at Long Yuan under the parasol wearing only swimming trunks, and spoke first.

"..."

Long Yuan lowered his sunglasses slightly, revealing his sinister eyes, and said, "Stop talking nonsense, Nangong Cheng. If you have something to say, say it. If not, get lost."

"Oh my, you have quite a temper."

Nangong Cheng wasn't angry. After all, if he had suffered two losses in a row, he would definitely be furious. But that didn't mean he would speak to Long Yuan calmly.

After all, he's already prepared to become a big shot. When they meet again, they'll probably be enemies who are extremely jealous of each other, so there's no need for him to pretend anymore.

"Let me interview you. What makes you so sure that choosing yourself as the key card holder won't be a surprise? Seriously, I'm really curious."

"..."

Long Yuan remained silent, staring intently at Nangong Cheng.

But soon, he suddenly regained his calm expression and said, "You don't need to deliberately provoke me; such tricks won't work on me."

"I already asked Shiina when I came here, and she said you wanted to team up with Class C for the next exam..."

Halfway through his sentence, Long Yuan suddenly paused, a look of inquiry in his eyes: "According to your speculation, there is indeed a possibility of a second exam on this study tour, but why did you choose to cooperate with Class C instead of Class B?"

Nangong Cheng did not answer immediately, but instead walked to another sun lounger not far from Longyuan and lay down.

"I just don't want to play those scheming games with you anymore, and frankly speaking, our positions aren't necessarily completely opposed."

"What do you mean?"

Long Yuan frowned.

In his view, the four classes are in opposing positions. So even if they choose to cooperate with each other before graduation, it is essentially an exchange of various interests. In the end, they will fight to the death for the only spot in Class A.

But Nangong Cheng said no.

Are you just making fun of him again?

"Because the school's statement is that only those who graduate from Class A can enjoy the various benefits promised by the school."

Nangong Cheng crossed his fingers in front of him and stretched, then explained, "But the school didn't say that the maximum number of people in a class is only 40."

Long Yuan was a smart man and understood the meaning behind Nangong Cheng's words, but—

"Changing classes is very expensive, so your idea is not very feasible."

After all, his own idea was to go through the personal points route, which meant accumulating 800 million personal points to change the classes of all students in Class C.

But this amount... to be honest, he himself felt it was an almost unattainable goal.

Of course, this is only the final solution.

After all, there are three years in total. If there is a possibility of winning the final victory by relying on class points, then there will naturally be no need for such trouble.

"Besides, would you really be that kind?"

Long Yuan was reluctant to admit that he had developed a slight psychological shadow over Nangong Cheng, but in fact, he had not yet gained any benefits from the latter, so it was only natural for him to suspect that Nangong Cheng was up to something again.

"Is my credit score really that low?"

Nangong Cheng didn't care about Longyuan's slander against him. Time would prove everything. For now, he just needed to keep throwing out temptations.

"Think about it, if a class has 1000 class points, then the total personal points earned by four classes in a month would be 16 million, 1.92 million in a year, and 5.76 million in three years."

"Even if the school arranges special exams that reward individual points, it is almost impossible to gather enough points for 40 students in a class to switch classes."

"So why are we so fixated on the rule that personal points can be used to change classes? Can't we think about it another way?"

Long Yuan did indeed do some mental calculations based on Nangong Cheng's words and knew that they were all true.

Similarly, he was also pondering what Nangong Cheng meant by "changing one's perspective."

After all, there are only two ways to graduate from Class A, and even Nangong Cheng can't change the rules set by the school, right?

So he also played the straight man.

"so?"

"Therefore, we can control the score."

Nangong Cheng proposed a groundbreaking yet highly imaginative idea for advanced training—

"If all four classes (A, B, C, and D) have the same score by the time they graduate from third grade, then which class is actually Class A?"

"..."

Long Yuan's eyes lit up, but he immediately frowned and began to consider the feasibility of this operation.

Because, well...

Nangong Cheng's idea was a bit of a clever trick, since the final interpretation right would definitely be in the hands of the school. If a so-called "additional exam" were to be held, they would have no recourse.

But on the other hand, what if the school condones their actions?

It's a viable option, even if a special exam is added at the end to determine the sole winner. The four classes are on the same starting line, which is an absolutely fair competition. Even if someone loses, it can only be said that they are not as skilled as others.

After all, normally, Class C and Class D would have completely lost their competitiveness by the time they reached the second year, so having such a best-of-one opportunity to decide the winner was naturally a pleasant surprise.

In short, Longyuan was tempted.

But he also knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch, let alone such a practice of sharing the benefits equally with other classes, so he still believed that Nangong Cheng had ulterior motives.

In fact, his suspicions were correct, because Nangong Cheng did indeed have ulterior motives, but what he wanted was people.

"How about it?"

Seeing that Long Yuan hadn't said anything for a while, Nangong Cheng became curious about what the man was imagining, so he took the initiative to set the tone.

"Want to pull off a big heist with me?"

"As the saying goes, the timid starve while the bold feast, and besides, in the worst-case scenario, none of us will suffer, right?"

"..."

Longyuan certainly understands this principle.

Putting aside the fact that he was originally a radical, not a conservative like Ge Cheng, even he felt that Nangong Cheng's idea was too... ahead of its time.

After all, achieving the same score across all four classes is no easy task. The most crucial point is that the person in charge must be able to persuade the other three classes to willingly agree to the plan.

Otherwise, it's all just utopianism.

However, if it's Nangong Cheng, Long Yuan doesn't deny that this man has the ability.

"Class A has already agreed?"

"not yet."

Nangong Cheng was just telling the truth.

Because he only came up with this idea on a whim, whether to implement it and how to implement it at that time all need to be carefully considered, so he could only give a conservative answer.

"But I figured Class A wouldn't agree so easily, so I came to you first."

"...Then come back and talk to me about this after you've convinced Class A."

Upon hearing that Nangong Cheng had not yet contacted Class A, Long Yuan immediately breathed a sigh of relief and gave a reply that was neither a rejection nor an acceptance.

Of course, this was also within Nangong Cheng's expectations.

But if that's the case...

"Alright, you can go now."

Nangong Cheng got up from the sun lounger, walked to Long Yuan's side, and extended his large hand to the latter.

What are you going to do?

Long Yuan reacted quickly, rolling off the bed and creating distance between them.

"I have an appointment to meet someone here, but it's not convenient for you to stay here, so I'd like to ask you to leave first."

"..."

Are you polite?

Long Yuan really wanted to curse, but he held back in the end, snorted coldly, and then turned and left.

But by sheer coincidence, he ran into someone as he was going downstairs.

"Oh~ it's the Dragon Boy~" Koenji Rokusuke walked towards them, revealing what he thought was a beautiful smile.

At this moment, he was also only wearing swimming trunks, but his bare chest and abdominal muscles were even more visually striking than Ryuen's.

"..."

Long Yuan remained silent and quickened his pace to leave.

He had considered eavesdropping on Nangong Cheng and Koenji Rokusuke's conversation, but if Nangong Cheng's idea was actually feasible, there would be no need to go to all this trouble with these fancy maneuvers.

Now, he just needs to wait.

After Nangong Cheng persuades the group in Class A.

"Don't let me down, Nangong Cheng..."

-----------------

the other side.

Nangong Cheng watched as Koenji Rokusuke walked towards him, then turned around and took off his jacket, leaving only the swim trunks he had already put on.

Faced with the intense gaze he received from the latter, he quickly explained the purpose of the meeting.

"Gōtenji-kun, let's play a game first."

"If I win, I need you to promise me something... and if you win, I can promise you something in return, how about it?"

Koenji Rokusuke looked at Nangong Cheng with the eyes of someone admiring a work of art, then smiled and nodded.

"Of course, Cheng boy~"