Hachiman Hikigaya, who returned from his studies after completing his training.

"Then prove it to me, Hachiman Hikigaya." Horikita Manabu pushed up his glasses and waved to stop Tachibana Akane, who was about to say something with a long face.

"There seem to be a few second-year students at the opening ceremony. Vice President Nagumo is quite something." Horikita Manabu's expression remained as calm as ever, and Hikigaya, who was staring at him, failed to glean any useful information.

"But I think Horikita-senpai is still more impressive. No one in Class 3-A has dropped out yet, making it the only class among the upperclassmen without any dropouts."

“Interesting, Tachibana, send the student council invitation to his phone.” Horikita Manabu turned to look at Tachibana Akane, and the purple-haired girl with two buns quickly indicated that she understood.

The aloof and serious student council president, and the adorable girl whose admiration is overflowing, give Hachiman a feel of a domineering CEO falling in love with me comedy.

"As far as I know, there is also a secretary position in the student union." A regular student union member position is not enough for him.

To gain decision-making power from Class B, he first needs to prove his abilities. The fact that he was able to enter the student council as secretary after the entire first-year class was wiped out is undoubtedly an affirmation of his abilities.

"Hachiman, are you serious? The student council of this school isn't as simple as you think." Akane's dissatisfaction was written all over her face, though Hachiman found it quite cute.

Akane Tachibana is about the same height as her younger sister Komachi, and their face shapes are somewhat similar. She's so cute that Hachiman wants to pat her head.

“You can buy any personal data at this school.” Akane Hikigaya nodded and then looked at Manabu Horikita. “Please sell me a position as student council secretary.”

"Wow, you're terrible. The student council president would never do that..."

“Sure, I’ll sell you this position if you can come up with 100,000 personal points right now.” Horikita Manabu interrupted Tachibana Akane and took out his phone, opened the payment barcode, and handed it to him.

"Thank you for your kindness, President. You truly are my most respected senior."

Hikigaya took out his phone and scanned the code to pay without hesitation. His act of borrowing 50,000 points from Kushida last night had not been in vain. He had originally expected to pay at least one million points, but it seems that Horikita Manabu must have broken his bones.

Such a good leader is hard to find even with a lantern. Hachiman decided to properly express his unwavering loyalty to Horikita Gakuen, a loyalty that would never change even if the sea dried up and the rocks crumbled.

Recalling a scene from a Korean movie where loyalty was expressed, Hikigaya stood at attention with his legs together and raised his right hand, pointing his fingers together at his temple.

"loyalty!"

"..."

"..."

Hikigaya could read Horikita's speechless expression from his blank face, and Tachibana Akane also had a hesitant look on her face.

"Let's go, Orange."

"Good, good."

"What am I doing?" Hachiman thought to himself as he watched the two walk past him and leave. Only when the footsteps faded into the distance did Hachiman lower his raised right hand and look up at the sky.

The weather is really nice today; it's a good day to drop out of school.

"What were you doing just now?" A cold voice interrupted Hachiman's daydreams.

Horikita Suzune was very happy today. She saw her older brother on stage, whom she hadn't seen for two years since she entered the school. Her brother, who had become the student council president after two years, was still as aloof and outstanding as she remembered.

Although my older brother distanced himself from me during junior high school, it must be because I wasn't good enough to stand beside him. He's never wrong. If I become better, he'll definitely acknowledge me.

After enjoying the praise from others for her brother's speech in the gymnasium, Horikita Suzune walked out of the gymnasium with her head held high. She then saw her classmate talking to her brother from afar, and even making a strange gesture and shouting loudly.

Because the word "loyalty" was spoken quite loudly, Horikita Suzune heard it too. Being an excellent student in Chinese, she understood the meaning of those two words, but she didn't understand their application to her classmate.

With questions in her mind, she approached the unremarkable and somewhat gloomy Hikigaya.

“I was praying, but you didn’t hear anything.”

“In fact, I heard it, Hikigaya Tadashi-kun.”

"..."

Dead Fish Eye Ray! Hachiman activated his signature move.

"Hmm?" Horikita Suzune held up two fingers and narrowed her eyes slightly. Hachiman immediately understood what she meant.

"I just got the student council secretary position from your brother." Since it wasn't a secret, Hachiman didn't mind telling anyone.

Chapter Four: Secretary Hikigaya

The Advanced Training Student Council was even more efficient than Hachiman had anticipated; the updated information on the student council members was posted on the bulletin board of the teaching building the morning after the recruitment event ended.

The white paper had many names followed by their respective classes, and at a glance, they were all second and third-year students. The one that attracted the most attention was not the student council president, Horikita Manabu, at the top, but the only student council secretary whose name had "first year" written on it—Hikigaya Hachiman.

"That Hachiman must have gotten in through connections. Even someone as outstanding as Katsuragi was rejected. How could he possibly become the student council secretary right away?"

Among the crowd, a boy with a buzz cut expressed his dissatisfaction to the tall, bald boy next to him. Because of the bald man's towering height, Hikigaya quickly saw and recognized him.

Kohei Katsuragi, one of the two leaders of Class 1-A, stepped down from his leadership position after failing two special exams in his first year. He is calm and his tactics tend to be conservative.

"Don't say such baseless rumors. Watch your words and actions." Katsuragi reprimanded his classmate Totsuka Yahiko in a deep and powerful voice before the two left together.

"It's a little hard to believe, but you weren't lying after all." Horikita Suzune appeared behind him at some point and sighed somewhat uneasily. "You shouldn't be causing trouble for the president, right?"

While admiring Horikita Manabu, Horikita Suzune was also afraid of causing trouble for him, so she asked him yesterday not to tell anyone about Horikita Manabu being her brother.

"I think he would be happy if you caused him trouble."

"How is that possible? Are you an idiot?"

"You're the idiot!" Hikigaya thought to himself before turning away. Horikita Suzune was someone who would actually hit someone if provoked.

Judging a person requires not only looking at what they say, but also what they do. Yesterday, Horikita Suzune praised Horikita Manabu as a cold, ruthless, academically and physically excellent domineering CEO, claiming that their discord was entirely due to Horikita's inadequacy.

However, in Hikigaya's eyes, Horikita Manabu was only cold on the outside. The existence of some dropouts in special exams would not bring any disadvantage to the class. On the contrary, it would provide the class with an opportunity to eliminate 'inferior' students. Even Class A has inferior students.

Just like Totsuka Yahiko, who spoke recklessly in Class A, Horikita Manabu could have more easily maintained his position as Class A's leader until graduation by abandoning these people, but he didn't.

Horikita's reason for distancing himself from his younger sister was definitely not because he disliked her for not being good enough. In fact, as far as Hikigaya knew, Horikita Suzune was an excellent person. Her only shortcomings were a lack of empathy in dealing with people and being immersed in her own world.

Her appearance is beyond description; simply being good-looking is not enough. Her long, slender legs, encased in black over-the-knee stockings, reveal an absolute territory. Her smooth, long black hair cascades down her back, with a small braid tied in a bow on the right side. Her delicate face features a pair of beautiful fox eyes that are glaring fiercely at him.

Having been discovered, Hikigaya quickly turned his head to look at the corridor outside the classroom. His seat was in the last row by the corridor, and there was Sakura Airi between him and Horikita.

"Good morning, Hachiman."

Sakura, who always arrived at the classroom just before class started, had no choice but to greet Hikigaya, whose gaze met hers. Hikigaya's long, fiery red hair with bangs almost covered his eyes, and behind his tacky red glasses were slightly panicked eyes.

"Good morning, Sakura-kun." Hikigaya smiled. "Would you like to come with me to the cafeteria for lunch? I found a pretty good set meal yesterday."

When he dropped out of school, two people accompanied him. Although he didn't have much of a relationship with them while in school, after dropping out, at the initiative of one of them, Hikigaya became friends with them.

"Ah... um, at noon..." Sakura shrank back, a wavering expression on her face.

Sakura Airi is well-behaved but extremely shy. If you don't approach her, she will just stay quietly in a corner. Although she longs for friends, she is also afraid of being hurt.

Being invited to dinner by a classmate for the first time was a challenge for Sakura, and Hikigaya, who planned to stay in Class D for a long time, did not intend to put too much pressure on Sakura.

"If you have something to do at noon, you can come back another time."

"Okay... okay."

As the bell rang, the homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, who was never early, walked into the classroom. Even though she saw some students playing on their phones, she ignored them and began lecturing like a programmed robot.

Today is the fourth day of school. Some students who were initially quite attentive in class have gradually let themselves go after finding that no matter what they do in class, the teachers won't reprimand them. Some are playing on their phones, while others are sleeping.

Students' violations of school rules will result in the deduction of class points. Fewer class points will also reduce the number of individual points given to students. For Hachiman, who needs to collect a large number of individual points, the more points Class D loses, the more difficult it will be for him to get points from Class D.

Having already donned the tiger skin of the student council secretary, Hikigaya, believing the time was right after class, used his phone to notify Kushida to arrange meetings with the class leaders to sell information. The order of appointments was: first, the easiest to deal with, Class B; second, Class A; third, Class C; and last, the most difficult to deal with, Class D.

After receiving a reply from Kushida that he understood, Hikigaya turned off his phone screen and put it back in his pocket.

"I heard you got the student council secretary position through connections." Haruki Yamauchi, who was sitting at the table in front of Hachiman, suddenly turned around. "Is the student council president someone you know? Why don't you introduce me to him too?"

"The student council isn't a place for someone like you who plays on their phone during class." Horikita Suzune stood up abruptly.

"If you can convince Horikita, I'll help you with the introduction."

Since someone stood up for his brother after he was humiliated, Hachiman thought it best to leave Haruki Yamauchi, this overly familiar and ungrateful problem student, to Horikita-sama, who is obsessed with his brother.

"You can't just join the student council whenever you want?"

"The president of our secondary school student council also invited me, but I just didn't join."

"I was the ace pitcher in the baseball team when I was in junior high school, but I was injured during the high school league and I am still recovering."

Haruki Yamauchi's voice grew louder and louder, and he stood up.

“Hachiya isn’t the only first-year student council applicant; you can’t just get in whenever you want.” Horikita crossed his arms. “Besides, the high school league isn’t for junior high students. If you’re going to lie, at least be serious.”

"Huh? I just misspoke. No wonder no one wants to be your friend with such a sharp tongue."

"I just think that friends are unnecessary. Only a pathetic man like you would think that you can't live without friends."

Bypassing the huddled-up Sakura Airi, Yamauchi, his face flushed, reached out and tried to grab Horikita's collar, only to be thrown over Horikita's shoulder as Hikigaya had expected.

Horikita-sama is awesome!

He stood up gently and Hachiman vanished from the classroom in a flash.

Chapter Five: I'll Pay You Twenty Million

Students in advanced education programs live in single dormitories off-campus. Boys and girls live in the same dormitory building, with girls living on the upper floors and boys on the lower floors. Although the dormitories are small, they are fully equipped.

In the dormitory rooms, each about the size of a tatami mat, Hikigaya had already seen off the first group of visitors.

At around 6:20, thanks to Kushida's connections, Ichinose Honami, the central figure of Class B, and her strategist-like assistant Kanzaki Ryuji visited his dormitory and completed an information exchange worth two million personal points in less than half an hour.

Ichinose and Kanzaki are both students with strong judgment. Even though Hachiman revealed the information first, they quickly realized that the value of the information was far more than two million to them.

The competition among four classes to rise to the top is valuable in itself, especially in terms of learning how to motivate students to attend classes attentively to avoid losing class points, which is worth more than two million points.

After placing the intelligence transaction contract signed with Class B on the table, Hachiman soon arrived in his room along with Class A's two leaders, Arisu Sakayanagi and Kohei Katsuragi. Hachiman continued his plan of revealing the intelligence first and then asking for money.

The leader of Class B was kind, so he revealed the intelligence first, while the leader of Class A was arrogant. Intelligence is the foundation of decision-making, and Hachiman knew the personalities of the group, which is why he dared to do this.

"As expected of the only student in the first year to make it into the student council, Secretary-kun." The petite girl sitting gracefully by his bed smiled elegantly. "May I ask how many points it cost to buy a student council secretary position? I'd like to buy one for Katsuragi-kun, who didn't get elected."

Class A is still divided, with the two candidates having roughly equal support, so their relationship is not harmonious.

"Katsura's failure to be elected was not due to his personal reasons. If the deal is completed, I can give you some information about the student council as a bonus."

Hachiman has no intention of getting involved in the leadership battle between the two; he's only interested in making money today.

"Although I'm sure I'll be able to deduce this information about the school in a few days."

The girl with shoulder-length silver hair took off her beret, placed it in front of her chest, and bowed slightly. "You won this time. I agree to the deal."

“I agree to the deal, but I would like to propose another deal.”

Kohei Katsuragi also had his own ideas. If the information provided by Hachiman Hikigaya wasn't sold to Class B, it would be extremely beneficial to Class A. However, Sakayanagi was very dissatisfied with this aspect of his thinking; she wanted the thrill of battle.

"Don't do anything unnecessary, Class B is nothing special."

"It's not a good thing to underestimate others. As a leader, I have a responsibility to the students in Class A."

“Class B came before you.” Hachiman picked up the contract on the table and waved it around. Wanting to finish the transaction quickly, he directly revealed the student council’s information.

"There is an ideological conflict between Horikita Manabu, the student council president of Class 3-A, and Minami Miyabi, the vice president of Class 2-A. The president is afraid that the first-year students will be led astray by Minami Miyabi, so he rejected all the applications from the first-year students."

"I got the position of student council secretary through private communication with the president. It didn't cost any points. Once you get his approval, you can join the student council, or you can join Vice President Nanyun's side."

Although Hikigaya gave him 100,000 points, Horikita Manabu returned them that very night. Horikita Manabu's condition at the time was merely to test his abilities; a mere 100,000 points were not enough to leave him with the stain of selling positions.

"The student council has a lot of power, and can even get involved in special exams that involve class points. Horikita Manabu promotes the philosophy of teamwork, while the next student council president, Nagumo Masaru, promotes individual strength above all else."

"That's about it." Hachiman picked up his water glass and took a sip; he was getting thirsty after talking so much.

"Personal meritocracy, huh? Not bad." Sakayanagi used the cane beside her to stand up; she was weak due to a congenital heart condition and could only walk with the help of a cane.

After signing the contract prepared by Hikigaya, Sakayanagi took his leave, followed closely by Katsuragi.

Next up is Ryuen Sho from Class C. After seeing the two off, Hikigaya lay sprawled on the bed, recalling the softened look in Katsuragi Kohei's eyes when he saw Sakayanagi's back.

As expected, Katsuragi Kohei is also a gentle man. Although he has a stern and dignified face and a shiny hard-boiled egg on his head, he will criticize his classmates for saying hurtful things in the morning and hope that they will correct their mistakes. He will not hold a grudge against Sakayanagi, who is at odds with him.

If only I could get Katsuragi under my control. Back at the end of my first year, Katsuragi was also lured into transferring to Class C by Ryuen Sho because his friend Sakayanagi was expelled, hoping to teach Sakayanagi a lesson. Unfortunately, he definitely didn't have 20 million yen at that time.

The special exam at the end of the first year is purely designed to disgust students; without 20 million yuan, a student will definitely be expelled.

"Explode, you trash school."

He sat up and sent a text message to Ryuen Sho from Class C, inviting him to come along with Shiina Hiyori and her classmates from Class C.

Ryuen Sho is a thug who uses violence to rule over the intelligent people in Class C. Hachiman is also afraid that he might suddenly act recklessly and beat him up. Shiina Hiyori is his insurance policy.

I first met Shiina Hiyori at the library, where I often saw her reading. I got to know her better after we talked during a conversation when Class C attacked our class. Through that conversation, I learned that she was a smart girl and a steady type.

After the two arrived, Hikigaya didn't want to exchange pleasantries with Ryuen Sho. He directly showed them the contracts that Class A and Class B had already signed to purchase information, so they could decide whether they wanted to buy it. Ryuen Sho's credibility was too low, and Hikigaya dared not do the "goods first, payment later" deal.

"Just sign this contract, right?" Ryuen Sho plopped down on his desk with a nonchalant air. "You should know the consequences of fooling me, right, since you even have information about Shiina."