As Yamauchi attacked the food in front of him as if he had been hungry for many days, he heard a chuckle.
"I didn't know you could cook so well!"
He said before biting a huge chunk of chicken in front of him.
"How the hell did you think I became the club representative then, huh?"
Mai snapped after gulping down the food she made.
"Anyways, did anyone from your class get expelled during the midterms? Or were the rules different during that time?" He asked.
"Nah, no one from our class failed. We had the second highest marks after class A, thanks to me, of course."
"Oh yeah? And how'd you do that? Even if you score 100, you'll contribute like 2.5 to the overall marks. Don't tell me you expect me to believe you taught your classmates now."
Yamauchi laughed, thinking she was joking.
"Heh, as if I would just give you that secret. Send me 20k points and it's all yours!"
When Mai shamelessly asked for private points, he realized that her words were not a lie. At least not completely.
He was again reminded of the fact that the girl in front of him was not primarily a cook, but a class leader. One of the few elites of this school that still managed to surpass twice all his stats. Ironically, the only ones who could brag about the same in his grade were all in the class of defects.
"Well, if you are talking about calculating the passing marks, we already found that out. So yeah, it is mostly a guarantee that no one in class D and B is gonna fail."
Hearing that, Mai was quite surprised. While it certainly wasn't that difficult to find out how the passing marks were calculated, no students from other classes shared information during this time. They had just learned that they were in an all-out war against the other classes, after all.
The new first years, just learning the ways of school, thought that the competition was mostly a free-for-all, and all classes were opponents.
And they were correct, to a certain extent. But the school's history spoke differently. Firstly, no class C or D had even managed to reach the position of class A for even a second. That was not to say they were useless, though.
In fact, the only times the original class A was overthrown were when class B had managed to unite both other classes against them. Well, that wasn't very advantageous to the lower classes, but they could at least have a decent chance to fight for class A or send a select few students of their class to the new class A.
With a faint smirk, Mai spoke:
"Interesting… Seems both our junior years are full of crazy madlads. Well, passing marks are a part of it, but there's still more. It would explain how no one from my class was expelled, but what about achieving the second-highest score? Just to let you know, our class is academically the worst in our year."
Initially, she had never planned to reveal this much information. But she understood that at this rate, Yamauchi was going to understand about papers sooner or later, so she decided to push it a bit and sell him the papers right away.
And while mostly useless to her, she could also understand Yamauchi's thought process this way. So it was merely for her curiosity.
…and some private points.
"Hmm… That seems useful. But there's no way that I am paying 20k points for that and you know it."
Mai laughed and said:
"Sure. Here's the deal then, if you manage to find what the 'secret' is within the next 2 days, I'll send it to you for a mere 5k points. And when I say that it usually costs from 10k to 15k, I mean it."
"But yeah, if you don't find it, you'll have to buy it for 20k." She added with a smirk.
Yamauchi frowned upon hearing that. Since there weren't many risks involved and the deal was only promised via words, she wouldn't try to scam him. More to that, he already had a vague idea of what that 'secret' would be, so he felt reluctant to disagree.
"Hmm… alright then. It's a deal. Thanks for the meal! Wait… that kinda rhymes."
———
4th May, Saturday
Chabashira left the class as her class was over and lunchtime started. Yamauchi quietly went out of the class to find her waiting for him.
"So? What questions do you have?"
Chabashira asked in a disinterested voice.
"Well, firstly, I'd like to confirm if the passing marks in the previous exams were half of the average of the class, rounded off."
Yamauchi knew Chabashira's personality good enough so he didn't dare beat around the bush.
Upon hearing that, Chabashira's eyes glistened, but her expression didn't give a single hint of interest to Yamauchi.
"Yes, that is indeed the case."
She gave a curt nod.
"Then, are they also calculated in the same manner in midterms?"
With his conversation with Mai yesterday, he was mostly sure about it, but didn't want to risk it given that there were no drawbacks in asking.
"Of course. That test was supposed to be a mock for the midterms, so it is the same."
"Alright, thanks. Just one last question. Are the marks in midterms going to affect the class points?"
"Again, yes. However, I am not allowed to give you any more details about it."
"Oh… that'll be all then. Sorry for taking up your time."
Yamauchi quickly bowed and left.
Looking at the retreating figure of Yamauchi, Chabashira smirked.
Not only did her class manage to get two wildcards, but the student who was supposed to be the biggest hindrance to her class was now suddenly one of the top few and a fully cooperative students.
'Heh, despite having the worst start ever, this class might just have the highest chances of reaching class A compared to any of my previous classes.'
As Yamauchi reached the cafe, he easily spotted his classmates whom he had called yesterday. It was a rather peculiar group, after all.
They were Mii-chan, Hirata, Kushida, Ayanokoji and Horikita. Since Mii-chan knew about the topic, she had made them pick a table in the corner, making it impossible to eavesdrop on their conversation without them noticing.
"You are quite late for the person who called everyone here."
Horikita said, noticing Yamauchi reach towards them.
"I did mention that I had some other work beforehand, though. Forget that now, the matter at hand is quite important."
"I would suggest you all to keep whatever I say here strictly a secret, for now." He added.
He and Mii-chan explained to them about passing marks and class points quickly, earning surprised expressions from most of them.
"Brilliant! This solves our biggest problem. We just need to tell toppers to hold back on the tests during the test day to decrease the average, and everyone will easily pass."
Hirata muttered with a bright expression.
Since everyone here, apart from Mii-chan, was technically smarter than Yamauchi, he didn't need to tell them why it would be a bad idea to give the information to the rest of the classmates already.
"That wouldn't be very good either. We need to ensure everyone passes the test, true. But we also need the maximum marks we can get."
Horikita said in a firm tone.
As everyone except Ayanokoji argued back and forth while adding their ideas, Yamauchi slowly started realising that all the questions he had till now- the very difficult questions, fairness about exams, and how Mai's class managed to score so high- all were much more closely related than they seemed.
"Wait… What if we can just buy the previous papers? I think they'll be greatly similar, if not the same. That would even explain how we could solve the super hard questions!"
There was a stunned silence for a few seconds after Horikita uttered those words.
"Was it… that simple?"
Yamauchi couldn't help but chuckle.
"But won't that be cheating? What if the school catches us?"
Kushida asked, a bit concerned.
"I don't think that would be the case. Even if it is, the seniors would simply refuse to take the test then. Even they would be punished if they got caught."
Hirata said after thinking a bit.
"Agreed. And I do have a pretty reliable senior, I think this was what she meant to sell me for 5k private points, so it won't be much of an issue."
Yamauchi added, "Kushida, can you ask a few other senpais for the paper? If they offer lower than 5k, you can just buy them right away."
"Don't distribute them already within our class, though."
Ayanokoji said, refusing to elaborate further.
Though everyone here didn't take long to understand what he meant and quickly agreed.
"Yeah, if we give them this, they will stop studying and just rely on them entirely. It'll be bad in the long term."
Hirata said, nodding.
"Moreover, there's a small chance that someone leaks the paper too. We can't afford to lose this advantage. What we can do, though, is make study material with similar topics that they will ask in the exams and give it to all the tutors. No one will even bother to share something like that."
As Yamauchi said that, Hirata felt a bit reluctant to believe that someone would betray the class, but agreed with him nonetheless.
"Sigh… I guess I would be the best for that. As long as I can get the question paper by evening, I'll complete it by tomorrow morning, before school."
Horikita said hesitantly.
Everyone instantly agreed to let her handle this. Her marks spoke for themselves, after all.
After quickly completing lunch, Kushida managed to use the remaining time to contact her long list of senpais. And even before the bell rang, she had already messaged Yamauchi:
Kushida: Sorry, Yamauchi-kun, I couldn't find anyone offering their question papers at a lower price. The best I got was 8k. Though I think this confirms that the paper are indeed same for all the years!
Yamauchi sighed. It seemed like he would have to spend nearly a quarter of all the points he had.
'Maybe I should have just said 10k. Then Kushida would have to buy it for 8k.'
He replied, thinking to ask her for points, but then decided against it.
Yamauchi: Woah, that was quick, Kushida-chan! I'll buy the paper right away after the school ends, then. Thanks
[A/N: Thanks for the support you guys have given me! Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to upload chapters at this rate for long, since I am having quite a difficult time irl, and am busy because of other works too.]