I have a life simulator.

Hirata Yosuke was naturally spotted among the crowd running on the field. However, since the soccer club members were a mix of first- to third-year students, there were quite a few students that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was unfamiliar with.

Soon, it was the left team's turn to take a corner kick. The members of the football team slowly moved to different positions, vying for their spots. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the player taking the kick, and the air was filled with a tense atmosphere that seemed ready to erupt at any moment.

But Totsuka Yahiko was clearly not interested in the training session. While continuing to search for Nagumo Masaya with his eyes, he subconsciously asked a question:

"Will Nagumo really come? I remember that student council members can't participate in other club activities, right?"

"Yes, this was explained to me when I applied to join the student council. You could say that not being a member of any other clubs is a prerequisite for joining the student council. But that's to be expected, since the student council's work is quite busy, and it has the power to monitor other clubs and allocate club funds."

Although Katsuragi Kohei was somewhat speechless about Totsuka Yahiko's abilities and personality, he patiently explained it to him, considering that the other party was, after all, his staunch supporter.

"However, Senior Nagumo is an exception. He was the ace of the soccer club before joining the student council. He only left the club later. But even after leaving, he was still the best. Plus, he is really passionate about soccer, so he still seems to show up for practice and give various kinds of guidance."

"Tch, in the end it's because this Nagumo is not only the next president of the student council, but also the behind-the-scenes controller of the entire second year. Of course he doesn't care about this matter, otherwise he would have been reported long ago."

Totsuka Yahiko scoffed dismissively:

"Just like Horikita from Class B, she's a member of the student council but no one says anything about how close she is to the drama club. Isn't that just because her older brother is the current student council president?"

"Let's say less of these things..."

Looking at Totsuka Yahiko, who was once again complaining and blaming, Katsuragi Kohei gave a wry smile, but then immediately touched his shiny bald head:

"Has the rumor that Nagumo is the mastermind behind the second-year students spread this far...?"

Forced to swallow the rest of his sentence, "You even know about Totsuka," Katsuragi Kohei began somewhat uncertainly:

"Although I've heard rumors about this before, this is the first time I've heard something so detailed. I remember the person who leaked this on the forum even published the contents of a contract signed between a second-year student and Nagumo, right?"

"Yeah, it's so satisfying to watch. He must be getting millions of personal points from other students every month. And I've also heard that this Nan Yun really likes pretty girls and has dated who knows how many."

When this topic came up, Totsuka Yahiko immediately showed an excited expression. Although his tone was still cursing, it revealed a strong sense of wanting to take his place.

However, as the corner kick officially began, Katsuragi Kohei stopped paying attention to Totsuka Yahiko's complaints and subconsciously shifted his gaze to the football field.

The ball, kicked from the corner, flew smoothly to the teammates waiting nearby. The clubs at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School are among the best in the country, and the soccer club is no exception. The technical and tactical skills of the regular players are all excellent.

The student who formed a clever passing combination with him was Hirata Yosuke. As one of the outstanding students who were selected as a regular team member as soon as they entered the school, just like Sudo Ken, his talent was obvious. With a stop, a dribble, and a kick, he accurately passed the ball to another teammate. The opponent smoothly took the opportunity and, at the perfect moment, stretched his foot forward and beautifully sent the ball into the goal.

"It's Shibata Hayate from Class A."

Seeing the boy in the arena who had given Yosuke Hirata a high-five with a smile, Kohei Katsuragi's gaze sharpened, and he spoke the boy's name.

In the predictions that haven't even started yet, the most talked-about question is "who will win the overall score for the whole school or grade?" As a result, the school forum has seen many professional analysis posts in the past two days, and Shibata Hayate's name has been mentioned repeatedly. It is believed that this sports star from Class 1-A is undoubtedly one of the strong contenders for the overall score of the grade.

"Ayanokouji, who do you think is better, him or Hirata?"

Perhaps because the two were competing on the field at the moment, Katsuragi Kohei stroked his chin and asked Ayanokoji Kiyotaka this question.

Watching Shibata Hayate swiftly dribble past opponents across the opponent's territory after the match resumed, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka quickly made his judgment:

"In terms of short-range speed and explosiveness alone, he is a little faster than Hirata."

"Hmm...it seems I should avoid events like the 100-meter dash."

Just as Katsuragi Kohei muttered those two words, he heard a cheerful male voice behind him.

"Oh—the game's already started! Great shot! Everyone's got so much energy today, awesome!"

A tall boy in the soccer club uniform walked past the group of spectators, his blond hair, which shone brightly in the sunlight, instantly attracting everyone's attention.

"Good morning, Senior Nagumo."

"Good morning, Senior Nagumo."

As soon as Nan Yunya arrived at the soccer field, the other soccer club students respectfully stopped what they were doing and greeted her.

"You're a little late today, Nagumo."

It was probably a third-year student who spoke up. Faced with the senior's question, Nan Yunya simply waved her hand dismissively:

"Oh, I overslept a bit, sorry, sorry."

"Can you go on stage right away, Nagumo?"

A man who looked like a club advisor walked over, his face full of smiles.

Everyone is waiting for you.

"Sure, I just ran to the track and my body is warmed up, so I'll go straight to the field."

As he spoke, Nan Yunya naturally clapped hands with a student on the field to make a substitution. As he entered the field, the atmosphere on the entire field changed again. After the game restarted, the ball and players almost immediately began to gather around Nan Yunya, treating him as the absolute core of the team.

Hirata Yosuke and Shibata Hayate, who had just performed exceptionally well on the court, were easily overshadowed by him. After being toyed with by his opponent like beginners, the audience outside the court naturally erupted in cheers and applause.

"Those are all second-year girls, tsk."

Watching Nagumo Miyabi flaunting herself with unrestrained swagger, Totsuka Yahiko couldn't help but make a sour comment:

"What's so great about it? There's no soccer event at the sports festival."

Unlike Totsuka, who was initially filled with envy and jealousy, Katsuragi Kohei was relieved by Nagumo Masaru's arrival and began to mentally prepare his communication plan, intending to ask her some questions after the training session.

Since it was just a routine training session, the soccer club didn't plan to play the entire match. After waiting for about half an hour, the morning's training ended with the instructor's whistle. Just as Katsuragi Kohei was about to step forward, Namigumo Masako stepped out from among the girls who were handing him towels and water and came over to them.

"I remember you are Katsuragi, Totsuka, and Ayanokouji, all first-year students, right? We are all in the Red Team for this sports festival, nice to meet you."

Somewhat surprised that the other person would come over and greet him first, Katsuragi Kohei was taken aback for a moment before belatedly extending his hand to shake his:

"I also hope that Senior Nan Yun will give me more guidance."

"It's nothing, it's nothing. Speaking of which, the last time I saw Katsuragi was during the student council interview at the beginning of the semester. Although the final result was a bit of a pity, in my opinion, with your talent, you are fully qualified to serve in the student council."

It must be said that Nan Yunya's demeanor in front of the public is as elegant as ever, and her handsome appearance easily gives people a pleasant feeling.

"After the sports festival in October, the student council will recruit one last batch of new members. If you haven't joined another club yet, Katsuragi-kun, would you be interested in giving it another try? Of course, Totsuka-kun and Ayanokouji are also welcome to join."

"Y-really?"

Seeing Katsuragi Kohei completely caught up in the other's rhythm and being led by the nose, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka also slightly looked away, already sensing that the other's last seemingly casual remark was actually his real purpose.

He was inviting himself to join the student council.

Although Kiyotaka Ayanokouji and Masaru Nagumo had already crossed paths at the beginning of the school year and had indeed obtained a lot of information from each other afterward, this was the first time that Kiyotaka Ayanokouji had been invited to join the student council so directly.

After a little thought, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji understood the other party's intention. It was simply that he felt it was a bit inappropriate for the student council to only have two first-year members from Class B. Horikita Manabu knew that he was supporting another vice president, Kiriyama, to limit him, and he certainly couldn't allow a situation where one of the first-year members would become too powerful.

While Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was lost in thought, Katsuragi Kohei also snapped out of his reverie. After all, student council recruitment wouldn't happen until after the sports festival, and the most important thing right now was the matters related to the sports festival. Therefore, he quickly gathered his thoughts and lowered his voice to ask Nagumo Masashi:

"Nagamo-senpai, do you have any leads on the information about the upperclassmen that was recently leaked by Kitagawa from Class 1-B?"

"Kitagawa? He's Horikita-senpai's boyfriend, right? I can't say for sure what secrets he might have, as a third-year student, but it's definitely not something a second-year student would know."

Upon hearing this, Nan Yunya simply shook her head dismissively, seemingly unwilling to delve any further into the matter. Smiling, she approached Katsuragi Kohei and countered with a question:

"Katsura asked this, does it mean you're also interested in the betting? But I still suggest you only bet on your own grade. After all, you've only been in school for one semester since you were first graders, so you probably don't know much about the older students. It's quite difficult to win by pure luck."

"Especially projects that your class is particularly confident in... I heard you guys suffered a big setback on the deserted island, so this is a great opportunity. And if you encounter any difficulties, you can come to me directly, after all, we are all allies of the Red Group."

At this point, Nagumo Masaru patted Katsuragi Kohei on the shoulder with the air of a senior.

Kiriyama had already informed him that Kiryuin Maple Flower Club would be fully committed to the Sports Festival, but Nangumo Masashi couldn't completely trust him. He did acknowledge Kiryuin's physical attributes and athletic abilities, but he was also well aware of Kiryuin's carefree and irreverent personality. Therefore, he couldn't rule out the possibility that this was also a trap she had set.

However, it cannot be denied that with the addition of Kiryuin Kaede as a variable, it is actually more difficult for Nanono Masaru to perfectly control the entire second year as before. This is because there are already inter-grade competition events such as the 1600-meter relay race. Adding these two together, there are countless unexpected situations that will arise.

That's why Nan Yunya was even less willing to put his personal points into the second-year contest. Besides, the prize pool for the second-year contest was already shallow because of his mismanagement of the second-year contest. Rather than paying the school a handling fee, he would rather focus on the first and third-year contests.

In addition to this, Nan Yunya also made more prudent preparations.

There's never a guarantee of profit in betting, but there is.

He could easily use the tens of millions of personal credits he has accumulated to lend money out and collect interest.

In a sense, this market was indeed created for him by the betting, since thanks to the school's free support, there were really not many students in Tokyo Advanced Educational High School who were so destitute that they had to borrow points from others to make ends meet. Even if there were, Nangumo Masako herself wouldn't care about such a small amount of money.

But guessing games are different.

Human greed is endless and has no limit. In Nan Yunya's eyes, no matter what kind of embellishment the school puts on this event, its essence is gambling. He had already seen too many adults who gambled away their fortunes before he enrolled, let alone high school students whose minds are not yet mature.

Watching from afar as Nagumo Masaru chatted amiably with Katsuragi Kohei, Kitagawa Ryo could almost guess what the two were talking about.

If Nangumo Masa really intends to lend money to first-year students, the easiest targets would definitely be Class C and Class D. The former goes without saying, as many of those delinquent teenagers had already been taught horse racing, betting on football, and pachinko before entering school. In addition, with Ryuen Sho absent and Shiina Hiyori not in charge, the situation is naturally rampant.

As for the latter, the main reason is that the class's situation has dropped to Class D. Just like a gambler who is desperate to win back his losses, many people would probably be tempted. Moreover, if Kitagawa Ryo's prediction is correct, there will also be exchanges of benefits related to the student council involved.

From any perspective, it's unlikely that the incoming student council president, Nagumo Masaru, would have only two first-year members: Horikita Suzune and Sakayanagi Arisu. After all, that would mean the next student council president a year from now would have to be either of them.

Nan Yunya wants to promote his meritocratic philosophy throughout the school, so he must be worried about the situation where people leave and things cool down.

Just as he is currently only the vice president but still tries to make a good impression in front of the president, Horikita Manabu, it is conceivable that when he steps down as student council president in his third year, he will definitely want to support his own people.

However, neither Horikita Suzune nor Sakayanagi Arisu are on the same page as him. Considering the actual situation of the first-year students, it is easy to turn one's attention to Class D, which is currently in trouble and urgently needs external help. Moreover, Class D, formerly Class A, has a certain level of overall quality and will not turn the student council into a mess.

As Katsuragi Kohei and Nagumo Masaru parted ways, Kitagawa Ryo slowly walked out of the playground, his thoughts turning to something else entirely.

Although he had discussed the 20 million yen transfer with Megumi on the cruise ship, Kitagawa Ryo was well aware that this was not something that could be achieved in just one or two months. In his view, no matter how hard Megumi tried, it would be possible to achieve that at least by the end of the current second semester.

Without the preferential exams that allow students to exploit loopholes in the rules to rack up large amounts of personal points, coupled with the school's deliberate encouragement of students to spend their personal points, and the fact that Class A currently only has a little over 600 points, the total personal points earned by the entire class each month are just over two million.

With all these factors combined, 20 million is indeed a rather distant figure.

But now there is an opportunity to quickly close this long distance.

Perhaps... Long Yuanxiang, who entered the game with five million personal points, is not necessarily the gambler with the strongest gambling instinct in this contest.

Chapter 281: Cross-Class Romance is the Most Troublesome

At dusk, on his way back to the dormitory, Kitagawa Ryo once again encountered Chashu Sae, who was watering the plants and bouquets in the green belt, about one or two hundred meters away from the dormitory gate.

Since the start of this semester, it seems like the other party has been eyeing him. Through this position, in Kitagawa Ryo's eyes, he has almost become a wild NPC that refreshes at a fixed time and place, and even the opening dialogue is the same.

"Are you practicing on the playground this late again today, Kitagawa?"

As always, she took the initiative to talk to him. It can only be said that it was fortunate that Chabashira Sae had already abandoned her usual icy image since being assigned to Class A and had been practicing a more approachable approach. Otherwise, this excessive, almost obsequious, sense of incongruity would have drawn suspicious glances from other students nearby.

"Yeah, the sports festival is coming up soon after all."

If it were Kitagawa Ryo from yesterday, he probably wouldn't have added that second half of the sentence. At most, he would have just nodded and said "hmm," and then prepared to quickly get rid of the other person's entanglement.

However, because he made a promise to the members of Class A today, he could only go into full "fraudster" and "movie star" mode and unleash his veteran acting skills that shocked Zhang Yimou.

"I know that Teacher Chazhu has something she wants to say to me, but it's inconvenient here with so many people. How about we go to the special teaching building to talk after we finish our work?"

Chabashira Sae herself didn't expect that Kitagawa Ryo, who had always been unyielding, would suddenly say such a thing to her today. After a slight pause, she immediately nodded in agreement, because just as Kitagawa Ryo said, she really wanted a situation and opportunity to talk to him alone.

"See you in half an hour."

After saying that, Kitagawa Ryo waved his hand, stepped over the water pipe that had somehow been hanging down from Chabashira Sae's hand onto the lawn and was now flowing with water, and walked straight back to his room.

As it turns out, thanks to the spare keys that were scattered around at some unknown time, Kitagawa Ryo's room has become like Schrödinger's cat box, where you never know whether there is a girl inside until you open it.

Just like today.

"I am back."

When Kitagawa Ryo habitually opened the door, changed into his indoor shoes, and greeted him, it wasn't Hotaru who responded, but rather Ichinose Honami, who had somehow arrived at the living room sofa.

"Ah, Ryo already knows I'm here?"

Honami Ichinose, clearly unaware that Kitagawa Ryo's daily "I'm home" was actually directed at Hotaru, smiled somewhat confusedly, then picked up the kitten enjoying the pampering in her arms and waved her two front paws in front of Kitagawa Ryo:

"Yes—welcome back."

"Fanbo's here today, what would you like to drink?"

Dazzled by the girl's smile, Kitagawa Ryo bent down to neatly arrange his shoes, then walked familiarly into the kitchen next to the door and began to take out tea sets from the cupboard.

How is Coco?

"Well, do you want me to help?"

"It's alright, it'll only be a moment."

"Oh oh."

A few minutes later, Kitagawa Ryo came out with two cups of cocoa that had been prepared, placed them on the coffee table, gestured for Ichinose Honami to make herself at home, and then leaned back and lay down on another small sofa, stretching vigorously.

"It feels like the weekend flew by, and tomorrow it's back to school."

"I think Liang has been on the playground for almost a whole day. It doesn't seem much easier than going to class."

"It was alright. This morning I went to the karaoke bar at Keyaki Shopping Center with Kanzaki and the others from Class A to relax."

Kitagawa Ryo made no attempt to hide his whereabouts from Ichinose Honami. After all, when it came to intelligence networks, this person was even more impressive than Sakayanagi Arisu, who only had one informant, Matsushita Chiaki. Perhaps the relationship between Kitagawa Ryo and Amakura Asako, whom he had met today, was much better than that between Kitagawa Ryo and Amakura Arisu.

In terms of interpersonal relationships, Honami Ichinose is definitely at the top of the class, just like Kikyo Kushida. It's just that she doesn't like digging up secrets to satisfy some strange fetish in her heart.

"Ryo is going to karaoke with the students from Class A... That's pretty unusual. Could it be that Megumi is there too?"