Saiki Kusuo's gaze shifted, landing on Horikita Suzune.
At that moment, Horikita Suzune was intensely focused on solving the exam questions.
Earlier, Kushida Kikyō had offered to copy the test for her, but Horikita Suzune declined. However, she did transfer her own points to Kushida Kikyō.
Even without the test, Horikita Suzune possessed one of the highest academic abilities in the class. Saiki Kusuo glanced at her paper and saw that her answers were almost all correct, with a higher accuracy rate than most students who had seen the test in advance.
Just then, Saiki Kusuo heard another voice.
"What's the average academic ability of a normal high school student?"
"After seeing the test, what scores would they typically get? I'm not entirely sure."
"Oh well, just like during the entrance exam, I'll keep each subject at 50 points. This one's correct, this one's wrong..."
Saiki Kusuo recognized the lazy tone—it was Ayanokōji Kiyotaka.
'He's definitely an odd one,' Saiki Kusuo thought.
He could confirm that Ayanokōji Kiyotaka was far from an ordinary student. Using telepathy, Saiki Kusuo knew that Ayanokōji could easily solve every question but intentionally answered a few incorrectly to control his score precisely.
'Is he trying to avoid standing out, just like me?'
Saiki Kusuo's lips curved slightly as his gaze returned to his own test paper.
'But when it comes to hiding yourself, Ayanokōji, you're still far from my level.'
'To truly avoid drawing attention, you don't aim for a middle score—you aim for a mid-tier rank. Keeping every subject at 50 points only makes you more noticeable.'
'And it's not just about ranking. Knowing which questions to answer correctly and which to get wrong—that's the core of this exam.'
For Saiki Kusuo, the questions were effortless. He wasn't sure how difficult they were for average high school students.
But he had telepathy.
Using this ability, he could gauge which questions other students found difficult or easy, helping him decide which ones to intentionally answer incorrectly.
Only then could he appear as ordinary as possible.
'Since everyone has the test, the first few questions have a high accuracy rate—no point in getting them wrong.���
'But even with the test, the later questions are harder, with complex steps and lower accuracy... I'll get this one wrong on purpose.'
'Let me estimate—the average score won't be low this time, so I'll aim slightly higher.'
Saiki Kusuo thought this, picked up his pen, and quickly filled in his answers.
.....
After several hours, the bell rang, and Chabashira Sae began collecting the tests.
"Strange. These 'defective products' don't seem panicked at all. Not even surprised."
Chabashira Sae's expression was puzzled. From her experience with previous classes, students were usually shocked to hear about a surprise exam.
But Class D remained calm throughout, as if they'd known about the test in advance.
After gathering the papers, Chabashira Sae skimmed through them and noticed her students' accuracy rates were much higher than expected.
"Hmm?"
She raised an eyebrow, quickly checking several more papers. The accuracy was consistently high, and some students had even solved the most difficult questions.
'Interesting. This is a class of "defective products," and I know their academic abilities well. Given their attitude in class, these scores are impossible.'
'So, they bought last year's test and realized that in this school, anything can be bought with points?'
'They're not as foolish as I thought. At least one of them has excellent intuition or observation skills. Maybe this class isn't as worthless as I imagined.'
Chabashira Sae's lips curved slightly as she scanned the classroom.
...
Before they knew it, a month since the start of school had passed.
For nearly two weeks, Chabashira Sae hadn't released the class's initial scores. Life returned to normal, and everyone seemed to have forgotten the exam.
May 1st, early morning, in the classroom.
"Did you get the points transferred from the school?"
"I did, but only around 50,000? Wasn't it supposed to be 100,000?"
"Is it because of our exam scores? That can't be right. We studied with the test in advance, so we shouldn't have lost so many points. Unless other classes also bought the test and scored higher than us?"
During the pre-class study period, students discussed the points system.
Saiki Kusuo's expression remained unchanged as he looked at his nearly 100,000 points.
While exam scores affected class points, they weren't the only factor. Clearly, their class had lost points elsewhere.
For Saiki Kusuo, this wasn't a bad thing.
Just seconds before the bell rang, Chabashira Sae entered the classroom.
"Teacher, is there an issue with this month's points?"
A student raised their hand to ask.
Chabashira Sae smiled knowingly.
"I thought you'd understand the school's S system by now. Seems I overestimated you."
"S system? What's that?"
The students exchanged confused glances.
"Maybe some of you realized that monthly points are tied to exam scores, so you prepared for this test. But—"
Chabashira Sae narrowed her eyes.
"The S system reviews students in real-time and calculates scores based on multiple factors, not just exams. Tardiness and absences—98 instances. Talking in class and using phones—391 instances. All these behaviors are reflected in your points."