I have a life simulator.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but recall another matter that Chabashira Sae had told him the day before yesterday: that someone in the grade had most likely already noticed their secret relationship, and had even edited it into an anonymous text message and sent it to Totsuka Yahiko. However, the other party didn't take it seriously at all, thinking it was just someone's prank, and even showed it to Chabashira Sae herself as a joke.

However, Chabashira Sae's reaction to this sudden incident was not one of cold sweat after her secret was exposed. Instead, she felt a strange excitement. In fact, when she called Kitagawa Ryo to tell him about it, she made a subtle statement that she wouldn't care even if he made their relationship public. Her tone was ambiguous yet firm, as if she didn't care about defying the whole world for it. It almost made Kitagawa Ryo think that he and Chabashira Sae were already in a confirmed teacher-student relationship.

Fortunately, Karuizawa Kei was unaware of the many details of his communication with Chabashira Sae. The class representative of Class 1-B was currently most worried about her homeroom teacher, whose private life was extremely immoral. She had even secretly decided that she would keep a close watch on Ryo after he transferred to another class. If he dared to take any outrageous actions, she would seriously consider how to replace him.

After discussing matters related to the homeroom teacher, Kitagawa Ryo reconfirmed the tentative plan with Karuizawa Megumi, only for the latter to immediately become troubled and concerned:

"But if that's the case, it will be difficult for Ryo to get first place in this special exam, and he won't get the protection points reward this time. Ryo should really need this... Including this drama club's trip to the competition, it's all so that he can go and celebrate Hotaru's birthday, right?"

"Yes, it is indeed to celebrate Ying's birthday."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded in agreement. Besides Karuizawa Megumi, Honami should have guessed his thoughts as well, since the other party's plan actually included this purpose. However, he still didn't say it out loud in front of Megumi.

"Then, I'll ask Ryo to take my gift with him."

Karuizawa Kei is also quite concerned about her future sister-in-law.

"Okay."

So, all the serious topics for the day came to an end. Feeling a bit cold, Karuizawa Kei casually rested her head on Kitagawa Ryo's lap, raised her hand to block the light from the ceiling chandelier, and stared blankly as her breath turned into a thin white mist in the air and then disappeared without a trace.

Even though winter has only just begun, she is already looking forward to next spring.

Her birthday is March 8th, in early spring.

By then, Liang should have been sitting next to him in the same row, flipping through the same set of textbooks.

Chapter 371: Because of Liking, Because of Love (5k)

This weekend, the leaders of the first year gathered again in a karaoke room at the Keyaki Shopping Center, just like before. However, unlike last time, only Kitagawa Ryo from Class A, Ryuen Sho from Class D, and Katsuragi Kohei, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and Totsuka Yahiko from Class C were present.

"They didn't call the students from Class B this time, so it seems they've given up on that 'win-win' solution?"

Having also noticed this, Long Yuanxiang walked in and unceremoniously spread his arms and crossed his legs, dramatically occupying a large portion of the middle sofa, a playful smirk playing on his lips.

"Or have you already spoken with them privately?"

"I did send an invitation to Class B, but they politely declined. They must have found a way to pass this special exam on their own, so there's no need to push them too hard."

Kitagawa Ryo, who initiated the discussion, quickly offered his explanation, but Ryuen Sho himself didn't seem particularly satisfied with the answer, his smile somewhat sinister.

"What's a good idea? Don't they want to not give up on any student in their class? If our remaining three classes immediately cooperate and throw all the criticism votes at the students in Class B, what can they do?"

"Since the parties involved are not here, let's put away these unrealistic threats, Long Yuan. Putting everything else aside, if you can manage to avoid expelling any student from your Class D during this special exam, then you might as well quit being the boss."

Upon hearing about Ryuen Sho's instigation of Class B, Kitagawa Ryo retorted just as bluntly.

He knew very well that Ryuen Sho's position as the class leader in Class D was based on his ruthlessness. Violence was the method he was most comfortable with, but ultimately it was to instill fear in the students. Only through fear could respect be earned. Now that Manabe Shiho and her group had essentially dared to challenge him, if Ryuen Sho failed to swiftly and decisively eliminate her without delay, even if he passed the special exam safely, his fearsome facade would be torn away. This was something she absolutely could not tolerate.

After all, if Shiho Manabe can pass this special exam normally and stay in Class D, then every minute and every second she exists is actually showing the whole class one thing: even if she offends Ryuen Sho, it's not a big deal.

"Speaking up for Class B like this, you must have made some secret agreement with them, right?"

"No way, you know Long Yuan, I'm dating the class monitor of Class B. It's not a problem to give him a little preferential treatment."

"Tch, if that's the case, then Shiina from our class is also dating Kitagawa, right? Why don't you seem to be favoring our Class D?"

Just as the topic was about to continue its downward spiral into the months-long, still-engaging discussion among the students of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School about 'how many girlfriends Kitagawa Ryo has,' Katsuragi Kohei, who had come with an important mission to do serious business, quickly stepped in to separate Kitagawa Ryo from Ryuen Sho:

"Alright, alright, it's fine if Class B doesn't come this time. At least we're here today to make a deal with your Class D."

As he spoke, Katsuragi Kohei turned his gaze to Ryuen Sho and asked somewhat anxiously:

"Longyuan, the price you mentioned last time shouldn't have changed, right? It's the one where you exchange 100,000 points for one external praise or criticism vote."

"Oh, you mean this? It's not changed, it's still 100,000 per card. What, have you raised enough personal points to trade this time?"

Faced with this business opportunity that had come knocking on his door, Ryuen Sho remained quite friendly. He had barely finished speaking when Totsuka Yahiko, who had been standing next to Katsuragi Kohei and hadn't dared to show any sign of his presence until now, immediately revealed a hopeful expression. However, he still didn't dare to speak rashly, because Ryuen Sho immediately gasped for breath and finished the second half of his sentence:

"but--"

"Katsura, you know the current situation of our Class D. Students like Manabe who openly oppose me are definitely not easy for me to control in terms of their votes. So, although theoretically there are 39 votes, there will probably be an error of 5 or 6 votes. But I can definitely give you at least 30 votes. If you can accept that, we can continue the transaction. Of course, we will still calculate the price based on 39 votes."

Faced with Ryuen Sho's expected escalation and greed, Katsuragi Kohei also took a deep breath and attempted to negotiate:

"Of course I know about the situation in your Class D. After all, aren't you, the class leader, also on the potential dropout list? Don't you want to add an extra layer of insurance for yourself? I can exchange the praise votes from our Class D for yours on a one-to-one basis, and they will all be cast for you."

"Ha, I do want your Class C's praise votes, but wasn't your purpose in making a deal with me to save Totsuka? Are all the students in Class C schizophrenic and insane? On one hand, you're voting for Totsuka to be eliminated, and on the other hand, you're following your instructions to vote for me just to save Totsuka one last time?"

At this point, Long Yuanxiang also looked distrustful:

"You can't tell me that you, Katsuragi, have such a strong grasp on Class C that you don't even need a plausible reason anymore, and all the students in Class C will obediently follow your orders as soon as you give them, right? I can't do that right now."

Faced with Ryuen Sho's questioning, Katsuragi Kohei gritted his teeth:

“You’re right, but of course there are also students in the class who will unconditionally trust and support me. They can’t possibly produce the same number of votes as your Class D. Although it’s only about a dozen votes, it’s still an extra layer of insurance for you, right? We’ll calculate the difference based on 100,000 per vote for the rest.”

"Is that so? Well, that doesn't seem like something we can't rule out."

Although he was still deliberating, Long Yuanxiang quickly pulled out a folded paper contract from his pocket, seemingly having prepared in advance and anticipated the other party's actions.

"Alright, take a look at this contract. If you think it's okay, you can sign it."

Katsuragi Kohei reached out and took the contract. The contents of the contract were quite simple. It even took into account that they would use praise votes to exchange for one vote. In short, his Class C would provide the votes and points, while Class D would guarantee to collect at least thirty praise votes for Totsuka Yahiko.

After making some confirmations and modifications to the specific terms, and feeling that there were no problems, Katsuragi Kohei readily signed the contract amidst Totsuka Yahiko's expression of near-death experience, marking the successful completion of this transaction.

With at least thirty praise votes from Class D, Totsuka Yahiko is almost guaranteed to stay in school. Even if all the other students in Class C vote for criticism, with the praise votes from his small group and the support from Class D, Totsuka Yahiko's final score can at least stay around 0 points. Although it's not high, it definitely won't lead to him being expelled from the bottom three.

Of course, Katsuragi Kohei couldn't come up with those nearly two million personal points. He borrowed them from a third-year student with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka as guarantor, but the price was equally troublesome: Totsuka Yahiko had to expose the ambiguous relationship between Kitagawa Ryo and their homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae.

Although this was tantamount to social death for Totsuka Yahiko himself, he was now only thinking about staying on campus and couldn't care less about anything else. After all, as long as he was alive, he could always find a way to survive. Getting through this crisis was more important than anything else.

After resolving the matter with Totsuka Yahiko, Katsuragi Kohei visibly breathed a sigh of relief and began to share news from his side:

"Actually, I had a guess that Class B might not come this time. Their strategy for dealing with this special exam seems to be that everyone protects each other to control their scores, and then raises as many as possible 20 million personal points as emergency funds. If something unexpected happens, and someone gets targeted and ends up in the bottom three of the grade, they can still be brought back."

"They're quite like the students in Class B, but if they're willing to spend 20 million just to protect themselves, that's the limit for this class."

Just as Katsuragi Kohei finished speaking, Ryuen Sho suddenly whistled, seemingly extremely disdainful of Class B's cowardly response strategy.

He dared to make a bold move and stir up trouble during the Sports Festival when he only had four or five million personal points. Seeing that Class 1-B had a full twenty million personal points but only thought about dealing with emergencies and saving people, he felt a little bored. After all, this special exam at least had a prediction game.

So, the group chatted for a while about Class B. Seeing that Kitagawa Ryo and Ryuen Sho seemed to be having a private meeting, Katsuragi Kohei got up and said goodbye, leaving the private room with Totsuka Yahiko and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

As soon as the group from Class 1-C left, Ryuen Sho hesitated, wanting to speak, but Kitagawa Ryo only gestured for him to be quiet, while silently starting a three-minute countdown in his mind.

As expected, with only a few seconds left on the clock, the door to the private room was pushed open once again, but this time only Ayanokoji Kiyotaka walked in.

"Let's make another deal, Dragon Garden."

Upon entering the private room, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji went straight to the point, extending an invitation to Ryuen Sho to make a deal:

"How about you sell me all the criticism votes issued by Class D to outsiders?"

Seeing the second customer approaching, Long Yuanxiang continued to wear a very friendly smile, but then calmly and deliberately stated his requirements:

"That's possible, but Kitagawa's name cannot be written on any of these forms."

"...Don't look at me and him with those strange eyes. This is just an additional part of another deal between me and Kitagawa."

Noticing the momentary shift in the gaze of legendary observer Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, Ryuen Sho grunted twice, leaned back on the sofa, and casually waved his hand.

"There's nothing I can do. I would like to make a deal with your Class C, but unfortunately, almost all the criticism votes for your Class C are now in Nan Yun's hands."

When he met with Katsuragi Kohei, the latter had already honestly told him about the fact that the student council president, Minamigumo Masayuki, had already used the threat of debt to directly seize almost all of the external criticism votes for Class C, and the right to fill them out was now in the other party's hands.

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji's gaze sharpened, sensing that he had vaguely grasped the details of the deal between Ryuen Sho and Kitagawa Ryo, but he remained outwardly calm, merely shaking his head slightly and presenting his backup plan, number two:

"Sure, I wasn't planning on using Kitagawa's name anyway."

This time, it was Ayanokouji Kiyotaka who decisively pulled out the pre-prepared contract from his pocket. As he handed it to Ryuen Sho, he added:

"I want your Class D to write Totsuka Yahiko's name on these external criticism ballots."

As soon as he said that, Kitagawa Ryo lowered his eyes slightly, while Ryuen Sho grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth:

"It should have been done a long time ago. If you were the leader of Class C, wouldn't we have saved millions of points by going back and forth?"

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka did not respond this time. Instead, Kitagawa Ryo glanced at him several times with some concern, because he knew that the meaning behind Ayanokouji's seemingly meaningless act of tricking the class leader was actually quite obvious.

The other side probably really sensed some kind of crisis and wanted to try to lead the class forward to advance.

Against this backdrop, Totsuka Yahiko and Chabashira Sae are both obstacles that must be eliminated. And since the special exam for students who drop out of the class will not affect the class points, there will only be one more time in the short term. That is why Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is so determined to take this opportunity to remove Totsuka Yahiko from the class.

By doing so, he also preserved Katsuragi Kohei's reputation within the class, because if Totsuka Yahiko hadn't dropped out, he would have been the one criticized for rigging the results, and Class C would undoubtedly have become even more chaotic.

Moreover, even now, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji is still trying to target him.

The situation in Class C is quite clear: Kiyotaka Ayanokouji has won a covert victory, and even the nominal class leader, Kohei Katsuragi, is being remotely controlled by him. Purchasing praise and criticism votes from Class D is a step he had planned long ago.

In fact, if Katsuragi Kohei really wanted his class's praise votes to save Totsuka Yahiko, given that Class B was currently completely closed off and not participating, the only other parties he could trade with were Ryuen Sho's Class D and Kitagawa Ryo's Class A. However, it seemed that the other party had forgotten about this and had never asked about it even once.

Because Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was very clear that this special exam was actually still a zero-sum game, his purchase of all the praise and criticism votes from Class D and giving them to Yahiko Totsuka seemed like a complete waste, but it also potentially eliminated the possibility that these votes would be used by Ryo Kitagawa.

Praise votes can boost your score, while criticism votes can undermine your direct competitors. To reach the top of the grade, you must control all the limited resources available on the field. This is the key to victory.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka knew very well that, if he was not mistaken, the deal that Ryuen Sho made with Class A was that he hoped the other party would cast all the criticism votes for Manabe Shiho, because this person had to be expelled. Class B was now completely refusing to communicate, and the criticism votes for Class C were under the control of Nagumo Masaru. Therefore, Ryuen Sho could only make a deal with Class A. This was the reason why he seemed a little uncomfortable just now. He must have been ripped off by Kitagawa Ryo as well.

However, there is still some regret, because in Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's first plan, if all the criticism votes from Class D could be used to fill in Kitagawa Ryo's name, then his situation would undoubtedly become much worse. After all, considering that Nagumo Masaru, who is also full of malice towards him, also has a class's worth of criticism votes in her hands, even if all the students in his class vote for him, Kitagawa Ryo, who has to withstand more than 70 criticism votes from two classes, might still fall to the bottom three.

Unfortunately, Kitagawa Ryo had also anticipated this move and added a clause to the deal with Ryuen Sho that D-class's public criticism votes could not include his name, forcing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to use his second plan.

Even at this point, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji still felt a sense of helplessness.

In a sense, this special exam was actually testing interpersonal skills. Students with good interpersonal relationships not only had their own safety, but also had more opportunities to form small groups and take the initiative. Therefore, even in the initial hand stage, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji could already feel the innate gap between him and Ryo Kitagawa.

Indeed, Nan Yunya holds a stronghold of criticism votes from an entire class that could potentially be detrimental to Kitagawa Ryo, but Kitagawa Ryo also has a stronghold of praise votes from an entire class of Class 1-B.

As a legendary observer who had observed Karuizawa Kei and Kitagawa Ryo for a long time and even went to Kanzaki Ryuji's school for further training several times, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka knew all too well that given the friendship and relationship between the two, Karuizawa Kei had no reason not to let the students in her class shower all their praise on Kitagawa Ryo.

But this is precisely the kind of action that neither open nor covert schemes can stop.

Perhaps he should change his approach to this special exam.

Before leaving the private room, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka gave Kitagawa Ryo, who was sitting there with a half-smile on his face, one last deep look.

There was no such thing as a closed system in Class B of the first year. The so-called 20 million personal points for dealing with emergency situations were just a pretext.

Those were points used for Kitagawa Ryo's transfer.

In this respect, it seems that he has also finished reading the page about Karuizawa Megumi in Kitagawa Ryo's encyclopedia of love.

Of course, this matter is also recorded on the title page of Ryuji Kanzaki's notebook.

The answer to "why," the reason for doing so.

Because it's cold.

Because of liking and because of love.

Take a day off

I have something urgent to attend to and need to take a day off. Sorry.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Chapter 372: Our Telepathic Combination Skill

After seeing Ayanokouji Kiyotaka off and confirming with Ryuen Sho the various deals made by Classes A and D during the special exam, Kitagawa Ryo got up to leave. However, he had only taken a few steps out of the karaoke bar when he stopped as if sensing something, turned slightly to the side, and called out somewhat helplessly to a spot behind him:

"Stop hiding, we've seen it all along."

"Wow, Liang found me so quickly? I thought I was doing pretty well learning in the white room."

Seemingly trying to conceal her stalking behavior, Amaze Ichika, following behind him and using the crowds and vending machines to hide her presence, responded with an exaggerated expression, taking only a few steps to reach Kitagawa Ryo.

Perhaps it was a deliberate disguise, or perhaps it was simply because of the cold weather, but Tianze Yixia was wearing a wide-brimmed white cotton hat and a beige scarf, which made her already delicate face look even smaller. When she came closer, she casually pulled down the tightly wrapped scarf by half and gave Kitagawa Ryo a playful smile.

"Actually, it's not that obvious. As long as you don't try to follow me or Ayanokouji, the chances of being discovered are basically not high."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo was also a little melancholy. He probably didn't know which part of the past had gone wrong. Anyway, by the time he realized it, Amasawa Ichika had become the girl he knew who liked to stalk and follow him the most. On the deserted island, she followed his group with Horikita Suzune, Ichinose Honami, and Sakayanagi Arisu. On the cruise ship, she followed his date with Karuizawa Megumi. Before the sports festival, she played the stalking game again because she was worried that Sakura Airi's personal points would become a variable. During the cultural festival, she and Arisu chased him all the way to the stadium. She can only be described as experienced in every sense of the word.

"Well, since we're already here, how about we go shopping together, Ichika?"

However, Kitagawa Ryo could understand the other's psychological issues. It was nothing more than the fear that he would suddenly disappear one day, so he had to keep an eye on him to feel at ease. Compared to Arisu and Yuki, it was a fairly normal behavior. After all, if we were to talk about stalking, Arisu was actually quite a heavyweight. However, due to her physical condition, she usually had Matsushita Chiaki do it for her.

"Yeah."

Faced with Kitagawa Ryo's invitation, Amasawa Ichika naturally revealed her overflowing joy, but just as she took Kitagawa Ryo's right hand, she belatedly realized:

"No, I came to see Liang today because I have something to tell you."

"Hmm? What's up? Let's talk at the restaurant over there, I'm getting a little hungry around lunchtime."

Seeing that Ichika was unusually serious, Kitagawa Ryo chose a restaurant nearby, booked a quiet private room, smiled and confirmed the order with the waiter before nodding to Ichika and saying:

"Ichika, you can tell me what's on your mind."