Classroom of the Elite, Kusuo Saiki

The atmosphere within Class B has been getting better and better.

Firstly, because everyone was promoted to Class B during the summer vacation, almost all of them believed that being promoted to Class A was no longer a pipe dream, so everyone was working hard towards that goal.

If it's a goal that seems unattainable, most people are likely to give up halfway through.

But if the goal is really close to them, then they are more likely to work harder to achieve it.

Almost no students in the class were late or left early, and few people were playing on their phones or daydreaming during class. The students achieved decent results in the subsequent exams.

Meanwhile, Ken Sudo's performance at school has improved considerably.

On one hand, Kenya Sudo sensed the possibility of being promoted to Class A.

On the other hand, the class united after the sports festival, and Sudo Ken's status in the class improved considerably. Perhaps because of this, his temper became much milder, and he became much more enthusiastic about the people around him.

All these changes were observed by Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.

At this moment, inside the classroom, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji sat in his seat, observing the entire class without making a sound.

Both Sudo and Horikita have grown considerably after experiencing the sports festival.

[I originally thought that people needed to be placed in adversity or even desperate situations to grow, but Qi Mu's idea is different from mine. He created an absolutely comfortable environment for Class B, and in this environment, Qi Mu helped them grow. This is something that wasn't taught in the White Room before.]

However, recently, Class D has been making more and more moves. They've been tracking our students—especially Yamauchi. Was all of this orchestrated by Saiki?

"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't do anything!"

Hearing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's thoughts, Saiki Kusuo felt somewhat helpless.

During this time, Kusuo Saiki was quite busy. Every day after school, Maya Sato would often send him messages, asking about his various hobbies and interests, just to get to know him better.

Kusuo Saiki certainly didn't like to interact too much with others, nor did he like to chat too much with them—but Maya Sato would occasionally bring Kusuo Saiki some sweets in the mornings, so Kusuo Saiki would still chat with her for a while each time.

However, all of this was observed by Karuizawa Kei, who would bring Saiki Kusuo some pudding every day as well.

Soon, the bell rang for class, and Chabashira Sae walked in.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze sweeping over the entire class.

"Everyone looks very serious, completely different from the old Class D."

Chapter 105: The Coming New Exam, Paper Shuffle

Our class's points are steadily increasing.

[These guys' grades have also improved dramatically. Although their scores in these few quizzes haven't closed the gap with Class A, they haven't widened it either.]

And perhaps next, we'll have a chance to overtake Class A!

Saiki Kusuo clearly heard Chabazusa's thoughts.

Kusuo Saiki was actually somewhat speechless about his teacher, Sae Chabashira.

She wanted to move the class up to A-level, but initially she did nothing and didn't fulfill her responsibilities as a teacher. Instead, she chose to deceive the students with lies.

At the same time, Kusuo Saiki could also guess from the other party's mind that some special exam was probably going to be held later.

"Now we're announcing your midterm exam scores. Anyone who doesn't score above 40 will be expelled."

Chabashira Sae said with a smile, while posting the results of this exam.

After looking at the report cards, many people showed expressions of surprise.

Takeru Sudo, who should have consistently held the last place position, is now close to the middle, while the last place position has been taken by Haruki Yamauchi.

[Shudo isn't last this time?]

[Since the sports festival, Sudo has been completely transformed.]

[Yamachi has become the last place.]

Everyone was surprised by the change in Sudo Takeru's performance. In fact, Sudo Takeru had changed a lot since the sports festival.

Adversity isn't necessary; favorable circumstances can also foster growth. It was precisely because he felt respected and appreciated by others that Sudo responded by changing himself. It seems that Saiki possesses more—and perhaps more effective—abilities than Shirafusa.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was talking to himself.

'I wasn't thinking about any of these ridiculous things at all!'

Kusuo Saiki wanted to defend himself, but he couldn't.

"I've broken my own record in one go! See? And I almost averaged 60 points!"

Upon seeing his results, Takeru Sudo jumped up from his seat in excitement.

[Seriously, it's not like we came in first place, why are we so happy!]

Meanwhile, Haruki Yamauchi glanced at Ken Sudo out of the corner of his eye with a disdainful look, his gaze twitching slightly.

Is this how you think of your friends?

[This is infuriating... Does this mean I'm in last place?]

'Haven't you considered that it might be your own problem? Even Sudo has improved, don't you have any self-reflection?'

Honestly, nothing seems to be going right lately... I don't know why, but it feels like someone's been following me... Am I just imagining things?

"No, that's not it. Someone is indeed following you."

Kusuo Saiki answered in his mind.

Since the last incident, Class D has been targeting Class B more and more. If it were any other time, Ryuen Sho would probably have had people use 'physical means' to deal with Yamauchi Haruki.

However, Ryuen Sho is now very wary of Yamauchi Haruki, believing that Yamauchi Haruki may have made full preparations. Moreover, Yamauchi Haruki usually acts with Ike Kanji, so they cannot easily take action. They can only secretly monitor Yamauchi Haruki for the time being to see if they can obtain more valuable information.

Kusuo Saiki looked up at his report card, where he saw that his grades were still in the middle range—Kiyotaka Ayanokouji had almost the same score as him.

"I'm really looking forward to my personal points next month, teacher!"

Overjoyed, Sudo propped his elbows on the table and said with a laugh.

In a regular school, speaking to a teacher like that would definitely be punished, but Chabashira Sae clearly didn't care and didn't lose her smile.

"Yes, you did well in the sports festival, and your exam results were also decent. You can probably have some expectations for your individual points next month. You were originally in Class D, but now you're keeping Class A very close. You've done a great job."

Chashu Sae praised the students in her class, a rare occurrence for her.

At the same time, her gaze also shifted to Kiyotaka Ayanokoji in the audience.

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji also looked at her expressionlessly.

Chabashira Sae quickly shifted her gaze:

"As you all know, the school will be holding quizzes on eight subjects next week in preparation for the second semester's final exams. I imagine some of you have already started reviewing for the exams, but I still want to give a little reminder to those who don't know."

"Huh? Midterms just started, and now there are already more exams?!"

A look of surprise appeared on Ike Kanji's face.

"Don't worry, Chi. First of all, the quiz has a total of 100 questions and a total score of 100. The content is very simple. In other words, it's just a test to confirm whether you have learned the basics well. Also, like the quiz in the first semester, it will not have any impact on your grades. It doesn't matter if you get zero or 100. This is just to see your current strength."

Chabashira Sae's smile held a meaningful quality.

[This exam, while seemingly insignificant, is actually quite important. It will affect the group assignments for the final exam.]

'Oh dear, I knew it! How could this school possibly do something that wouldn't cause any harm?'

Saiki Kusuo thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, upon hearing these words, also sensed something was amiss.

[It's unlikely that this school would have such an arrangement that 'wouldn't cause any impact,' so there's probably more to this quiz than meets the eye.]

"Oh my, you're a superpowered person too."

Kusuo Saiki thought to himself.

"However—I must tell you first that the results of the quiz are not meaningless. The reason is that the results of the quiz will have a huge impact on the next final exam."

At that moment, Chabashira Sae continued, saying that something that could be explained in a single sentence was being deliberately made mysterious.

"What exactly does that mean?"

"I asked Sudo Ken with a puzzled look on his face."

"If only I could explain it to you in a way that would be easier to understand, Sudo—the school rules stipulate that you will be paired up with someone in your class based on the results of this quiz."

Chabashira Sae's expression gradually became serious.

"The pairings will take the final exams as a team. There are eight subjects, with a total score of 100. Each subject has 50 questions, for a total of 400 questions. There are two possible scenarios that could lead to expulsion. One is similar to the previous ones, where a minimum score of 60 is set for all subjects. If either partner scores below 60 in any subject, both partners will be expelled. This 60 refers to the combined score of the two partners. For example, if Ike and Hirata become a pair, even if Ike scores zero, as long as Hirata scores 60, they will be safe."

What? A pairing test?

"So I just need to team up with the person with the best grades, right?"

Never team up with Yamauchi!

The look of surprise was immediately apparent to everyone.

"The other one is the total score of all subjects. Even if you pass the score in each subject, if you don't pass the total score, you will still be expelled. The school hasn't released the passing score yet this time, but based on previous years, it should be around 700 points. I've already told you that if either of these two situations is violated, both of you will be expelled. For example, in previous years, during this special exam—commonly known as the Paper Shuffle—there would be one or two groups of students who were expelled."

As he listened to Chabashira Sae's words, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's mind began to work.

[Paper Shuffle? Does it mean shuffling the exam papers? Judging from the name alone, this exam is definitely more than just matching. However, the teacher just mentioned that this quiz will affect the final exam... Does this mean that the quiz results will influence the final exam pairings? It's very likely that high-achieving students will be paired with lower-achieving students... So this quiz, which seems very simple, is actually just a pairing arrangement, and the pairing results will directly affect the class's final exam scores.]

"Wow, you analyzed it so quickly?"

Kusuo Saiki's gaze involuntarily shifted slightly towards the direction where Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. First, you'll be asked to think of and create the questions for the final exam yourselves, and then assign those questions to one of the three classes outside your own class—meaning you'll be 'attacking' other classes, and the class that attacks will be 'defending' against you. When comparing our class's total score with the other class's total score, the winning class will receive 50 class points from the losing class."

"In addition, if two classes attack each other, then that class's points will become 100 points."

"Furthermore, the questions you complete will be rigorously and fairly checked by all our teachers. If there are any questions that are beyond the scope of teaching or that cannot be answered from the content of the questions, we will ask you to revise them and repeatedly confirm them, so that students can gradually complete the creation of questions and answers, thus ensuring the fairness of the exam."

Chasaki Sae explained further.

'Oh dear, I knew it! This school just loves to complicate simple things.'

Kusuo Saiki thought to himself, and sighed inwardly. However, compared to the school suddenly organizing some kind of desert island survival event, this exam was considered normal.

"This is the specific situation for the next few exams. After that, you can figure out what to do on your own."

......

After class, a few students, led by Hirata Yosuke, immediately gathered more students to discuss strategies for the upcoming exams.