Sword Art Online Crossover: They're all close friends, how did I become a player?

"Dingling bell~"

As the bell rang, the students in the classroom busied themselves, organizing their books and preparing to find a comfortable corner to enjoy their lunch.

Many students at Sakura bring their own lunchboxes from home to school before leaving for school in the morning. At lunchtime, they take their lunchboxes and find a place to eat with a few friends.

Most of the time, their bento boxes look very exquisite. Just from their appearance, they certainly look very appetizing.

In reality, these bento boxes were prepared in the morning. By the time they were eaten at noon, the food inside had long since gone cold.

Most students don't choose to reheat their lunchboxes with a microwave or other appliances; instead, they just eat them cold.

This was a bit hard for Yu Bai, who had a sensitive stomach, to accept; he didn't want to eat cold food every day at noon.

Fortunately, Hyotei Academy is a well-known aristocratic school, so it naturally has a very good cafeteria.

Not to mention that when Keigo Atobe entered the school, the Atobe family spent a lot of money to completely upgrade Hyotei Academy, from club facilities to cafeterias and sports fields.

Hyotei University's cafeteria is now the envy of many other schools, offering cuisines from different countries.

You can even order food, but that's at a different price. Basically, as long as you have money on your meal card, you can eat whatever you want.

Therefore, most students at Hyotei University tend to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

"...Oh, right, everyone, please wait a moment."

Just as everyone was preparing to leave the classroom for the cafeteria, the teacher, who was busy tidying up his lesson plans at the podium, suddenly remembered something. He looked up at the students of Class 3-A and gently pushed up his glasses.

The lenses flashed a dazzling white light under the illumination, instantly concealing the subtle emotions in his eyes.

Then, he flashed a standard eight-tooth smile at the students, his tone slightly teasing: "The exams are coming up soon, so please study hard, especially those of you with club competitions. Failing the exams will mean being kept after school!"

Boom!

These words were like a bolt from the blue, instantly resounding throughout the classroom.

After delivering a devastating blow to the students, the teacher packed up his things with satisfaction, a barely perceptible smile on his lips, and slowly left the classroom, leaving the students looking on in astonishment.

Yu Bai, Atobe Keigo, and Shinobu Yuushi quickly exchanged glances, all sensing something ominous in each other's eyes.

The holidays at Sakura School are a little different from those at schools in China; they usually have three holidays.

First is the Spring Festival break: usually from late March to early April, generally lasting two weeks.

Then comes summer vacation: usually from mid-July to early September, generally a break of three to eight weeks.

Finally, there's the winter break: usually from mid-December to early January, generally lasting two to three weeks.

Summer and winter vacations are arranged flexibly according to the region. In cold northern regions like Hokkaido and Nagano Prefecture, summer vacation is shorter and winter vacation is longer; in hot southern regions like Kyushu and Shikoku, summer vacation is longer and winter vacation is shorter.

The club's national competitions are mostly held during these three holidays, especially the national competition in the summer. At the same time, various schools also offer voluntary domestic and international study tours and summer camps; the clubs also hold summer camps.

Hyotei won the Tokyo qualifiers last month, in May.

In just a few days, the Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament finals will be held, followed by the Kanto Tournament in July and the National Tournament in August.

Let's not talk about the national competition yet, let's talk about the Kanto competition, which actually starts just a few days after the exam.

Furthermore, the "detention" mentioned by the teacher earlier is not the usual after-school detention, but rather a special arrangement made by Sakura's school after the exams for students who failed to return to school during the holidays for tutoring and retakes.

As for whether there is a time limit? Of course there is, but that depends on you. As long as you pass the retake, you don't need to come back.

In other words, if any club's top members fail their final exams, your teammates will be competing outside during the summer vacation, while you'll be stuck at school taking make-up classes. You can only go back and compete with everyone once you've passed the make-up exams.

Of course, Yu Bai and his two friends, as students in Class A of the third year, could be considered top students, so they were naturally not afraid of any exams. With their excellent grades, they never needed to worry about being kept after school for failing an exam.

However! Everyone should know that not everyone has excellent grades; where there are top students, there are also struggling students.

For example, the tennis club.

Furthermore, Hyotei is a genuine aristocratic academy, and its curriculum goes far beyond the basic courses found in ordinary schools.

Apart from Keigo Atobe and Yuushi Oshitari, who are both well-rounded academic geniuses, most of the other students have subjects they struggle with.

But compared to those who can pass the exam simply by working hard, such as: Chotaro Ootori, Ryo Shishido, Takahiro Kabaji, and Wakashi Hiyoshi.

What's even more intriguing are the two little creatures, Mukahi Gakuin and Akutagawa Jiro. One's political and economic achievements are always barely passing, constantly teetering on the edge of danger. The other is completely hopeless when it comes to classical Chinese, and you even have to make sure he doesn't fall asleep during exams and get a zero.

If either of them fails the exam, Hyotei will lose a singles player and a doubles player in the Kanto Tournament.

If Hyotei loses the game, what if other schools ask: How did Hyotei lose?

How did they answer?

The answer was: Oh, because two of the regular players didn't take the exam and failed, so they had to stay after school. Our regular players' strength was weakened, which is why we lost.

Just thinking about Atobe Keigo makes me feel ashamed. And if he really can't participate in the competition because he failed the initial test, then the elegant Atobe wouldn't mind letting his teammates know what love from the captain really means.

"This is so unglamorous! Let's find some time to tutor those two, and call everyone else in as well. Make sure everyone passes every subject!"

Atobe Keigo, agitated by his own imagination, rubbed his aching temples, feeling increasingly exhausted the more he thought about it.

"Okay. Yue Ren has indeed been slacking off on his studies lately, he should tighten things up a bit."

Yuushi Oshitari adjusted his glasses, and a deep, cello-like voice rang out. He thought about his partner, Jiro, who had recently become obsessed with sweets and loved exploring new shops. He had already begun to plan their study schedule for the next period of time.

"Let's go to Xiao Jing's house then. I'll personally supervise their review until they can recite it perfectly." Yu Bai said this with a very gentle smile.