People bring their own maids to the training camp

"How much?"

"I'll transfer 10000 points to you first."

"Done."

Class 69.A

"Thank you for your hard work, Hashimoto-kun," Sakayanagi Arisu said to Hashimoto Masayoshi.

"It's my pleasure." Hashimoto smiled slightly. "But Katsuragi should have gotten his hands on it too. It's only 2000 points, there's no reason for him not to buy it, right?"

"Don't worry, it's just a normal exam. Class A won't have any problems even without this set of past exam questions." Sakayanagi glanced through the exam questions that Hashimoto had just bought, thought for a moment, and then spoke again, "Try to get a set of their questions from the people over there in Katsuragi."

"I understand." Hashimoto nodded. "Are you worried about buying fake exam questions?"

"If the papers are different, then there is a problem with the papers; if they are the same, we will continue to check other people's papers."

"You are so meticulous," Hashimoto praised.

"Tch." Kamuro, who had been silent for a long time, was very dissatisfied with Hashimoto's appearance, but Sakayanagi didn't care - she actually liked Kamuro's "unruly" yet obedient manner.

"On the other hand, recently many other upperclassmen have also been trying to sell their exam papers," Hashimoto continued, "most of them are above 15000 points."

"The difference between a 15000-point deposit and a 2000-point deposit is too big, isn't it? And the fixed price is so high, are they trying to scam points?" Kamuro blurted out. "And it's impossible that they're both the same questions, right?"

“If information gathering is the assessment criterion, then it is a very reasonable test. As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome.” Hashimoto also expressed his thoughts, “After all, the school has been using information asymmetry to mislead us from the very beginning.”

"But is it possible for the content of the midterm exam to remain unchanged for each year's first-year high school students? Even if it tests the ability to gather information, it's unlikely that it will remain completely unchanged, right?" Kamuro still insisted on his point of view.

"These things can't be determined until the day of the exam, right? The school can change the exam papers at any time."

“Alright, you two, this is a question that cannot be answered at the moment.” Sakayanagi stopped their discussion. “Next, I hope you can actively reach out to the upperclassmen. If they have past exam questions, ask about the price and then ask to see the questions.”

"I think I understand now," Hashimoto said, feigning sudden realization. "It's about going to look at the last big question, right?"

“That’s right. You can’t remember the questions just by glancing at them, but you can definitely find differences between the two test papers,” Sakayanagi said.

"Then maybe we could try treating Class 2-D to a meal, and then look at a few questions from each of the five subjects," Hashimoto suggested, drawing inferences from one instance to another.

"Please feel free to elaborate on the specifics," Sakayanagi said with a smile. "Anyway, I'm counting on you?"

In the end, only Sakayanagi and Kamuro remained.

"Has Masumi-san been hanging out with Himegami-san lately?" Sakayanagi asked.

"Yes, but her routine is still the same, except that she's recently added visits to the library."

“Class B is having a study session, so it’s perfectly normal for her to go to the library.”

"Apart from that, there's nothing else. Club activities, grocery shopping, or chatting at coffee shops..." Kamuro listed Chihaya's activities. "She's just an ordinary high school student, right? Just a pretty, popular girl with lots of activities."

"..." Sakayanagi did not reply immediately, but tapped the ground lightly with his cane, as if he was thinking about something.

“Should we continue tracking this? To be honest, it’s a complete waste of time,” Kamuro said again. “We might as well find out the midterm exam questions.”

"Oh? Is Masumi-san worried about her grades?"

"Tsk, it's normal to have subjects you're bad at, right?"

"That's true, but Masumi-san, please don't worry. Even without the standard answers, I won't let you be expelled for failing." Sakayanagi laughed. "I'll personally tutor you, you know?"

Kamuro did not answer, but he did not refuse either.

Although she wasn't exactly a genius, she understood what Sakayanagi had been up to: the midterm exam answer key she had bought was likely flawed.

"Hmm, that's settled then—from now on, Masumi-san's target for stalking will be Katsuragi-san~"

"Huh? It's come to this?" Kamuro was a little surprised, but it wasn't unreasonable.

Katsuragi, as Sakayanagi's most direct rival in Class A, didn't follow her immediately, which puzzled her.

"Yes, I'd also like to know a little about how Katsuragi-kun views this midterm exam."

"Doesn't he organize study sessions?"

“No matter what you do, you can’t compete with someone who has the standard answers,” Sakayanagi said. “If the increase in class points is related to the average score, then the class with the standard answers will have an absolute advantage.”

“That’s true…” Kamuro nodded. “So the goal is for us to verify the other midterm exam papers before Katsuragi gets them?”

“No, I want Katsuragi to believe that the one he bought is the real one,” Sakayanagi said. “Tell Katsuragi that we bought the test papers from three different people, and after verification, they are exactly the same, so that he won’t waste any more points.”

"Will he believe it?" Kamuro thought to himself, "Katsuki isn't stupid."

“I will forge two more copies using different handwriting,” Sakayanagi said. “Whether he believes them or not is up to him.”

"What if our exam papers are different from Katsuragi's?" Kamuro asked, remembering that the exam papers he bought might also be problematic. "Wouldn't that immediately expose us?"

“Tell him that the second and third grade versions are different and cannot be exactly the same.”

"...Does this really make sense?"

"Of course, we actually have spies in Katsuragi, you know? I got hold of the exam papers from Katsuragi a long time ago and modified the two different papers."

"...You're really something." Kamuro finally managed to squeeze out those words.

"Hehehe, we're bullying those who use their brains." Sakayanagi revealed a devilish smile. "Whether the test paper is real or fake doesn't matter. The point is that Katsuragi will definitely be very wary, and will shift his focus to tutoring instead of getting the standard answers."

"Is your goal to lower the average score of Class A?" Kamuro belatedly realized.

"That's right! As long as I prove that Katsuragi-kun is not suitable to lead Class A, won't I naturally win?"

"Tsk."

"After all, we only have a two-point average score with Class B! Let's leave it to fate this time."

Class 70.C

Class C, a room in a KTV.

"Did you buy Albert?" Long Yuanxiang asked, sitting imposingly in the middle of the sofa.

“Yes, I get it,” replied Albert Yamada, the Black exchange student.

"Send it to me," Long Yuan continued.

The Black international student nodded and started using his phone.

"Kondo, come over here and compare them." Ryuen said, throwing his phone at a boy in Class C. "Compare them one question at a time. Make sure the order of A, B, C, and D is the same for the multiple-choice questions."

"I understand, Ryuen-kun!" Kondo immediately compared his phone with the one Ryuen had thrown at him.

"Hey, pick some songs that are louder, don't give me those boring ballads," Long Yuan then shouted. "Pick rap, pick rock, anything, make it as loud as possible!"

"Yes!" Ishizaki immediately ran to the karaoke machine and quickly switched off the ballad that was playing.

The sound system was working hard, blasting high-decibel songs that echoed throughout the entire private room—even climbing onto the door or trying to eavesdrop with a cup would be nearly impossible; all that could be heard was the screaming singing.

This is precisely why Class C chose a KTV for their meeting.

"Kinda, what do you think of that test paper I showed you before? Could it be a midterm exam question?" Ryuen continued to ask.

"I think the probability is very high. The questions test very precise knowledge points, and there are no questions beyond the syllabus. There will be some challenging questions, but they are not impossible to answer," said Jin Tian, ​​who has a beetle-like hairstyle and wears glasses.

"Okay, I understand. You can refer to the questions in the review materials, but tell the idiots who bought the test papers not to blindly believe them."

“I completely understand what Mr. Ryuen is saying.” Today, he adjusted his glasses. “After all, it’s a large-scale anonymous email marketing campaign. It’s clear that the other party knows a lot about first-year students.”

“That’s right, that’s exactly it. If I hadn’t checked my phone, I probably wouldn’t have realized that he wasn’t sending a mass message but rather sending them in batches with a specific purpose.”

After discovering the anonymous text message, Long Yuan immediately checked all the mobile phones in Class C. He found that some people had received the message and completed the transaction, while the core members of Class C, including himself, were among the last to receive the message.

Albert Yamada was the representative sent by the core group of Ryuen to make the purchase.

“It’s obvious that this was done by the second-year students and the first-year students working together,” Long Yuan analyzed. “They took advantage of the first-year students’ knowledge of their grade and then sold the products under the name of the second-year students. Otherwise, it would be impossible for only the second-year students to know so much.”

"Could there be a traitor in our class?" Ishizaki asked. "Should we check again?"

“No, it shouldn’t be a traitor, because other classes also received the text message.” Ryuen refuted Ishizaki’s speculation. “This level of treachery can be determined with just a simple chat; there’s no need for a traitor.”

"So, were we just played?" Ibuki Mio said unhappily. "We can't all be being manipulated by someone, can we?"

“That’s possible, but his goal is simply to prevent everyone from using the archaeology questions,” Long Yuan replied. “There are more than one set of archaeology questions circulating in the market right now. Regardless of whether the questions are real or fake, no one would dare to bet on them.”

"But didn't the upperclassmen say that all freshmen would have the same first midterm exam papers?" Ibuki asked again.

“But recently there have been rumors that ‘every year there are a few questions with problems, supposedly to find students who copied answers,’” Ishizaki interjected. “That sounds like something a school would do.”

“The more you think, the more mistakes you make. You can’t overthink things at a time like this,” Ryuen said, then turned to Kondo, “How is it, Kondo?”

“Ryuen-kun, although I haven’t finished reading it yet, the Chinese and English are exactly the same,” Kondo quickly replied.

"Did you hear that? It's highly likely they sold one version to Class C and another version to the other classes," Long Yuan sneered. "I got my hands on a copy of the Class A exam paper, and it's different from the Class C one."

“How about we compare several papers and find the overlapping parts?” Jin Tian said. “That part should be correct.”

“Not necessarily. We need to confirm with a few more upperclassmen. There might be a slight difference between the second and third years.” Ryuen added, “...Here’s what we’ll do: Jintian, you go find someone and ask about the price. If the price is too high, tell him he doesn’t have enough points and take him to Albert’s place to get the points—we’ll be waiting for you in a place without surveillance.”

"I understand."

No one dared to object to Longyuan's simple and brutal strategy, after all, their class's core strength lay in fighting. It was perfectly normal for their strategy to be based on the fighting spirit of the martial arts faction.

Class C's month-long investigation of all the cameras was not in vain.

"Interesting, there's someone like this hidden in the first grade." Long Yuan developed a considerable interest in this mysterious "businessman".

Because he had no information, he had no way of knowing which class the other person belonged to. The student council didn't have any first-year members, so class lists and grades couldn't have been obtained through the student council.

Although points can buy everything, the other party's methods are clearly not for making money; the 2000-point deposit is just for show.

"Interesting, very interesting!" Long Yuan was very satisfied. This was what a competition based on merit should look like: buying past exam questions and comparing average scores? How boring! This kind of competition is much more interesting!

"It's decided. The next step is to find this unscrupulous businessman and then crush him!"

----split line----

"Ah! Ahh!"

Chihaya sneezed twice in a row.

"You don't have a cold, do you?" Hayasaka asked.

"It's May, how could I possibly catch a cold?" Chihaya waved her hand. "I'm perfectly healthy."

"Please be careful, I will make you a cup of cold medicine."