Chapter 34: The Ticket to Class A Graduation
Hearing Sakayanagi's words, Yukinoshita nodded and got straight to the point: "When Sakayanagi-san and I went to the Student Council to submit the application for establishing the Service Club last Friday, we met President Horikita and Vice President Nagumo there. The latter seemed to be fully aware of Class A students contacting second-year students, and he made no attempt to conceal his intention to interfere with the first-year midterm exams. He even hinted that we could buy the actual exam questions from him."
"So, the mastermind is the second-year Nagumo Miyabi? What should we do now?" Kamuro asked with a curious expression.
"We don't need to worry about him. We already obtained the exam questions, and the application to establish the Service Club has been approved. For now, all he's done is simply block the information. Besides, once the Service Club recruits a few more second-year students in a few days, he won't have time to interfere with the first-year exams."
Hearing Yukinoshita's words, Kamuro's slightly tense expression relaxed a little.
Yukinoshita took a folder full of exam papers from her bag and placed it on the table. Hikigaya reached for it, casually flipped through a few pages, and put it down. Just as Mashima-sensei said, the exam questions were all content covered during this time, and compared to the previous quiz, the difficulty of the midterm exam questions was significantly lower.
With the secret to passing the midterm exam easily right in front of them, Kamuro couldn't help but ask: "So, now that you have the exam papers, what are you planning to do?"
"I suggest we spend the next few days mixing these actual exam questions with some knowledge points, rearrange them to create practice exams, and then distribute them to the students a few days before the exam. This way, as long as they seriously complete the practice exams, they should be able to pass this midterm exam smoothly," Yukinoshita said while gathering the folder.
That certainly seemed like a good plan. It avoids giving the students the exam papers directly so they don't gain points without effort, and it also prevents the leakage of the actual questions by distributing them too early. More importantly, even if someone were to report it to the Student Council, they could brush it off with an excuse like, "These are practice exams I created myself."
"Yes, let's proceed with Yukinoshita-san's plan," Sakayanagi lightly nodded, approving Yukinoshita's proposal.
"Next is the matter of the Service Club. Last weekend, we negotiated with several shops that needed extra hands, allowing the students of Class A to try their first... club activity. The result was a little better than expected."
Yukinoshita propped her chin with her left hand, sketching on her notebook with a black pen: "A rough calculation shows that the hourly wage for each club member is around 800 to 1,000
points. For normal jobs like a waiter, full-time work for a month can bring the club about 100,000 in... funds. Coupled with the 5,000-point subsidy the school provides every month, even if we take a 20% cut, they still receive a substantial amount of point subsidy each month."
'Wait? You guys had already started club activities last weekend?'
Because he had fully entrusted the matter to the three people in front of him, Hikigaya was completely unaware that the club activities had begun. He looked at Yukinoshita with curiosity and asked: "Yukinoshita-san, how many people has the Service Club recruited so far?"
"I've recorded it all on this paper..."
Saying this, Yukinoshita took out a folded piece of paper from her portable notebook and handed it to Hikigaya, who was sitting opposite her. The latter hesitated for several seconds before reaching out to take it.
How should he put it? The paper looked exactly like a note passed around during class. It reminded Hikigaya of his middle school days when he would "stupidly help pass a note, unaware that it contained bad things written about him, and then hear faint snickering from the back of the classroom."
'So, Yukinoshita-san, it's probably best if you don't fold notes like this in the future.'
Hikigaya slowly unfolded the paper in his hand. It clearly and logically recorded the number of students who joined the Service Club, the locations of their volunteer work, the income obtained after negotiating with the shops, and the expenditure for distributing point subsidies to the students.
"Let me see... The current number of people who have joined the Service Club is twenty-eight from Class A, and twenty-one from the upper grades combined, totaling forty-nine people."
"Forty-nine people, that's already more than the total number in one class. If all the club members were put into one class... Hikigaya-kun, your Service Club has effectively increased the class points for that class by at least 800 points..." Sakayanagi squinted slightly, showing a smile of keen interest.
"Forty-nine people, with a commission of 20,000 points per person. That means this man, without moving or doing anything, can get one million personal points every month. If the Service Club doesn't run into problems, even if he were in Class D right now, he could securely obtain a ticket to Class A graduation just by avoiding expulsion." Yukinoshita gently bit her lower lip, looking at Hikigaya with a complicated expression.
'No, it's more than that. The Service Club can continue to recruit more members, accelerating the speed of collecting twenty million points. This guy just casually suggested the idea of establishing a club, and he's already paved the way for his entire future.'
"Th-That much?" Kamuro's eyes widened in shock, hearing the conversation between the two.
Hikigaya was also somewhat stunned and distracted upon hearing such a large sum.
"Hikigaya-kun, what are you thinking right now? Are you dumbfounded after hearing such a high profit?" Sakayanagi gently poked Hikigaya's shin with her cane. "You don't have to be so surprised; this is a testament to your own ability."
Hikigaya was indeed thinking about something, but his thoughts were different from the people in front of him—If I can get a large sum of points this month, won't I be able to leave the school to see my sister?!
...It can only be said that Hikigaya is still the incorrigible little sister complex he always was.
Hikigaya snapped out of his daze, shaking his head to clear his scattered thoughts. He took out a few pre-prepared contracts from his school bag: "No, I already promised you guys. I'll only take half of this commission; the other half will be split equally among the three of you."
Hearing this, Sakayanagi, Yukinoshita, and Kamuro frowned simultaneously, looking at Hikigaya strangely.
"I believe I only did a trivial amount of work..." Yukinoshita awkwardly tucked the strands of hair behind her ear and gently shook her head: "Besides, this idea was yours. I can't take this much compensation."
"Y-Yeah, that's right." Kamuro forcefully slammed the table: "That's a ticket to Class A graduation! Are you crazy, thinking about splitting the money?"
For some reason, even though they were Hikigaya's points, Kamuro seemed more agitated than he was.
Sakayanagi smiled broadly: "Well, that is Hikigaya-kun's style. But I also think it's a bit hasty for you to give away so many points all at once."
"No, this is the compensation I promised you earlier." Hikigaya scratched his head, looking away a little awkwardly, "A-And, well... without your help, I couldn't have gotten so many people to join the Service Club by myself..."
"I see. If it's you, you really couldn't do it... but I still insist that I can't take this many points."
"No, if possible, I wish, Yukinoshita-san, you wouldn't say that just to hurt my feelings."
The four haggled for a long time. In the end, it was Hikigaya who proposed that in addition to managing the Service Club's affairs, the three of them also had to ensure Hikigaya avoided expulsion for the duration of the club's existence. Only then did they finally agree to sign their names on the contracts.
Carefully putting away the contracts, Hikigaya picked up his cup, took a sip of his drink, and let out a long sigh of relief.
'I'm so tired. What's going on? I feel like signing a marriage contract wouldn't be this exhausting, and I'm the one giving the money here.'
"Well, now there's only one last problem left. Nagumo-senpai has already 'kindly' helped us block the information. How can we make the maximum profit from these exam papers?"
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