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Chapter 23 - Chapter 023: Nagumo’s Double Defeat—What’s Up with This Year’s Freshmen?

At the same time, a bright and confident-looking senior with short blond hair appeared at the entrance of Class 1-A's classroom. 

Nagumo Miyabi and Tachibana Akane had received an assignment from Student Council President Horikita: to confirm whether the freshman's report about the electronics store clerk secretly taking photos was true. 

After an investigation, they verified the claim, and the store clerk was officially fired. 

As for the student who filed the report, they would receive a reward. The president had decided to escalate the matter, meaning the school would also issue an official reward. 

But Nagumo was ambitious. 

After successfully leading his class to a surprise victory and reaching Class A, the student council president appointed him as vice president, acknowledging his abilities. 

Once he joined the student council, Nagumo quickly realized just how much power it held. 

It had far more influence than he had imagined—it could even affect the special exams that took place every month. 

And that realization changed everything. 

It wasn't just about getting to Class A and staying there. 

A new goal had taken root in his mind. 

To achieve that goal, he first needed to become student council president. 

So once Horikita-senpai stepped down, Nagumo intended to take his place. 

However, there were conditions to becoming the next president: 

1. A recommendation from the previous student council president. 

2. Holding the position of vice president, which would automatically qualify him as a candidate when the current president resigned. 

But even with those two requirements met, it only meant earning the right to run. 

The final decision came down to votes from the entire student body—the candidate with the most votes would win. 

So, there was one more thing he needed to do: campaign for votes. 

Votes from second-years, votes from third-years, and votes from first-years. There was still a year left before Horikita would step down as student council president, but he could start preparing now. 

That's why he was making contact with first-year students—to gain their support. 

Of course, he couldn't just openly approach first-years for votes. Instead, he was using the excuse of handing out rewards. 

There were actually two students receiving rewards: one was Shirogane Miyuki from Class 1-C, and the other was the purple-haired girl with the hairpin that Miyuki had mentioned. 

From the investigation report, that girl was a first-year from Class 1-A—Kamuro Masumi. 

So that's how things ended up like this. He chose to notify Kamuro from Class A, while his senior, Tachibana Akane, went to Class C to deliver Miyuki's reward. 

From Nagumo's perspective, even though it was the first-year from Class C who reported the incident, 

the one who initially noticed the store employee taking secret photos was probably the purple-haired girl from Class A. 

The first-year from Class C just happened to stumble upon the evidence and turn it in to the student council. 

So the person truly worth reaching out to was the student from Class A. 

After all— 

Unlike the new students, he already understood how this school worked. He knew that Class A was the strongest and that lower-ranked classes, like Class C, were just leftovers. 

What was the point of dealing with trash? 

So naturally, the students he wanted to recruit were from Class A. 

Of course, if he approached first-years too directly, it would draw attention. But if it was done under the pretense of official business, there wouldn't be a problem. 

In fact, this would be a perfect chance to establish contact and exchange information, making things easier down the line. 

And that was why Nagumo Miyabi was standing outside the first-year Class A classroom. 

Though, it was a little disappointing. 

That super cute silver-haired girl he saw at the student council office wasn't here. 

Nagumo felt a slight sense of regret. 

"Excuse me, who are you?" 

A male student from Class A suddenly spoke to him. 

Nagumo turned and saw a tall, muscular guy—completely bald, yet giving off a sharp and intelligent vibe. 

"I'm Nagumo Miyabi, vice president of the student council," Nagumo replied. "I was the class representative of the former second-year Class B, but two months ago, our class moved up to Class A." 

Oh. 

But isn't that a weird thing to say? 

After all, these were all first-years—fresh faces. 

Yet here he was, casually mentioning how his class was originally Class B and successfully moved up to Class A. 

Did that mean class rankings could actually change in this school? 

Nagumo knew full well that saying something like this would get him punished. 

But in this school, points could buy anything. 

If you had enough points, you could even pay to avoid punishment. 

So revealing this bit of information, even though it wasn't much, would likely cost him around 300,000 points. 

Spending 300,000 points on just one sentence—it did sting a little. 

But if he wanted the votes of Class 1-A, he needed to get their attention. 

If the first-years didn't think carefully about the information he just revealed and ended up losing points because of it, they'd realize how valuable his words were. 

And if some of them actually caught on and used this knowledge to help their class get through the month smoothly, they'd remember him even more.

Looking at it this way, spending just 300,000 points to build a good relationship with Class 1-A was almost perfect. 

But— 

What made Nagumo uncomfortable was that, despite revealing this information, the expressions of the first-year Class A students weren't what he expected. 

There was no confusion, no deep thinking—just… a bit of excitement. 

Yes. 

Excitement. 

Nagumo couldn't understand what part of his words could possibly be exciting. 

Logically, shouldn't they be wondering why Class B had become Class A? 

Shouldn't they be worried that they might also get switched around like that? 

"So, may I ask what your purpose is? Did something happen in our class that requires the student council's involvement?" The tall, bald student who had been talking to Nagumo spoke up. "I'm Katsuragi Kohei. If there's something going on, you can tell me." 

"..." Nagumo. 

He found the whole situation bizarre. 

His original goal was to leave an impression on the first-year Class A students, yet somehow, he ended up remembering the name Katsuragi Kohei instead. 

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. 

It wasn't Nagumo's fault for feeling thrown off—this class really was unusual. 

More than just unusual. 

Yesterday at noon, Sakayanagi Arisu had already shared a document in their class group chat. 

She explained that it was obtained from a senior in third-year Class D in exchange for 1.2 million points. 

Part of it revealed the true nature of the school. 

Another part explained that, in their first month, the new students would undergo a behavioral deduction exam. 

That's right—point deductions. 

Each class started with 1,000 points. 

All four classes had the same starting points, but over the course of the first month, they would lose points for poor behavior. 

And this score would be the only thing determining the class rankings. 

In fact, only the students who graduated in Class A would receive the rewards the school had promised. 

So if they wanted to claim those rewards, they had to stay in Class A. 

And since all four classes started with 1,000 points, it meant everyone was on equal footing. 

Which meant— 

There was pressure. 

But whether Sakayanagi's information was completely reliable was still up for debate. 

However, when Nagumo mentioned that his class had moved up from Class B to Class A, the eyes of the Class A students lit up. 

In other words, Nagumo's information didn't impress them—it only made them even more certain that the intel Sakayanagi had obtained was real. 

As a result— 

Sakayanagi gained even more followers. 

At the same time, Katsuragi felt the pressure. He was a cautious person. 

Although Sakayanagi's performance was undeniably impressive, her decision to openly suggest spending points to buy information from the homeroom teacher was too bold for his taste. 

With his careful nature, he couldn't fully trust her. 

And the class itself was beginning to split into different opinions.

One group supported his steady approach, while the other backed Sakayanagi's more aggressive methods. 

"Yesterday, a student submitted an SD card containing evidence of a store employee secretly taking photos of customers. The school has already fired the person involved." 

"The first person to get their hands on this SD card was actually someone from your class." 

Saying this, Nagumo finally stepped into Class A's classroom and walked straight toward a tall girl with purple hair. 

She was sitting on a desk, her face expressionless. She had good looks, but her cold demeanor made it clear she didn't welcome strangers. 

"The school rewards students who make significant contributions." 

"This anonymous point card is a reward for the student who played a role in this case." 

"There are 30,000 private points loaded on it." 

Nagumo stopped in front of the purple-haired girl and pulled a special-looking card from his pocket. It resembled a phone card but had a QR code on it, likely making it reusable. 

"This is your well-earned reward, Kamuro Masumi," Nagumo said with a smile, holding out the point card. 

"I didn't do it. You've got the wrong person." 

Before Nagumo could even finish his sentence, the purple-haired girl interrupted him, sounding uninterested. She even looked at him with a hint of annoyance. 

"And you're blocking my view." 

"..." Nagumo. 

Huh? 

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