Classroom of the Elite: Surviving with the Intel System — Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Ayanokoji and Matsushita Are Serious? Suppressing Scores Like This?

At 8:30 AM sharp, Chabashira Sae stepped into the first-year Class D classroom. Her sharp gaze swept over the seated students, lingering for a fraction of a second on Shimizu Akira before she tapped her fingernail against the wooden podium. “The morning assembly will now begin. Before we get into the details, does anyone have any questions?”

Silence settled over the room. Most of the students exchanged confident glances, tacitly shaking their heads.

“Hmph.” A low, breathy laugh escaped Chabashira’s lips. “Of course. You all believe you’ve figured out the S-System completely.”

She suddenly lifted the manila folder in her hand, letting it drop onto the desk with a heavy thud. “You did well this time. Last month, you pooled your resources to buy information and rent surveillance equipment. Thanks to those two active measures, your penalty count was significantly reduced. However, there were still a total of twelve late arrivals and absences, eighteen instances of whispering and using mobile phones during lectures, plus a handful of other violations outside the classroom.” She paused, letting the tension build. “In the end, first-year Class D’s class points for this month sit at 530 points.”

The classroom instantly erupted into an uproar.

“Wait a second! Didn’t we rent the surveillance cameras?” Yamauchi Haruki shot up from his seat, his face twisted in bewilderment. “How could we still be deducted points for being late or absent?”

“Exactly! Weren’t the surveillance logs deleted?” Several other classmates immediately chimed in, their voices thick with panic. “How did they still catch us playing on our phones?”

Chabashira crossed her arms, her cold eyes scanning the restless room until the noise died down. “The surveillance authority was indeed yours last month. But couldn’t the School Administration simply save the first week’s surveillance data before you bought the rights? Use your brains.”

“What?!” Yamauchi’s eyes bulged comically. “Then what was the point of us spending so many points to rent the system in the first place!”

Chabashira rapped her knuckles impatiently against the podium. “That is your problem, not mine. Don’t ask me. Are you entirely incapable of thinking for yourselves?”

Her tone shifted, growing even more severe. “One of the main purposes of today’s homeroom is to show you exactly how massive the gap is between Class D and the other three classes.”

She pulled a small magnet from her pocket and slapped a printed report card onto the blackboard. “Class A currently holds 950 points. Class B has 790 points. Class C has 640 points. And Class D has 530 points.” She let the numbers hang in the air. “In other words, Class D is still sitting at the very bottom. Even if you try your absolute hardest, you can, at best, nip at the heels of Class C. Don’t even dream of touching Class B or Class A.”

Sitting near the back, Akira raised an eyebrow.

Class A maintaining their absolute lead was expected. Class B and Class C had also seen significant increases, each gaining over a hundred points from the previous month.

It was almost exactly as he had calculated.

“How are the other classes scoring so high too?” a student muttered.

“Did they figure out the hidden rules as well?”

“That’s impossible! We even used the surveillance equipment to cheat the system, how could we still be in last place?”

Chabashira swept her gaze over her panicking students, a faint, mocking smirk playing at the edge of her lips.

“Moving on to the second matter,” she announced, cutting through the chatter. “Last month’s exam results are out. To be perfectly honest, your scores are terrible. One could even call them appalling.”

She paused briefly, pulling a second sheet of paper from her folder and pinning it next to the first. “You should already be aware that if you fail even a single subject in the midterms or finals, you will be expelled immediately. As for this specific mock exam, if it had been the actual midterm, any student who scored less than thirty-two points in Japanese Language would be packing their bags right now.”

A heavy, suffocating dread washed over the room.

“However, I certainly didn’t expect there to be quite so many of you hovering near that line,” Chabashira continued, her voice dripping with disdain. “It truly is a result fitting for a gathering of defective products.”

She didn’t give them time to process the insult. “Finally, the third matter. This month, we need to re-elect a class representative. Whether Kushida Kikyo continues in the role or someone else takes over, that is entirely up to you.”

She gathered her folder, her heels clicking toward the door. “In any case, if you don’t want to be expelled, I suggest you study hard for the next three weeks. At the very least, try to survive the midterm.”

With that final warning, Chabashira walked out, sliding the door shut behind her.

The moment she was gone, Class D exploded.

“What the hell is the deal with the surveillance?!”

“Kushida-san… this is completely different from what you told us…”

“What did she mean by ‘defective products’? Does that mean the class assignments weren’t random at all? That would explain why Class A has so many points right out of the gate!”

Standing near the center of the room, Kushida and Hirata Yosuke exchanged helpless, strained glances. The well-intentioned lie they had woven to maintain class morale now looked incredibly fragile against the iron-clad reality of the report card.

The boomerang had finally come back to strike them.

Akira paid absolutely no attention to the mounting panic. He pushed his chair back and walked straight to the front of the room, his dark eyes locking onto the exam results posted on the blackboard.

‘Since things have come to this, I should see where the pieces lie,’ he thought.

The school curriculum tested five core subjects: Japanese Language, Mathematics, English, Sociology, and Chemistry.

Scanning the columns, Akira noted that the top performers aligned perfectly with his expectations. Horikita Suzune, Kouenji Rokusuke, and Yukimura Teruhiko boasted outstanding scores, all clearing the 90-point mark across the board, firmly securing their spots in the top five.

However, as his gaze drifted further down the list, two highly unnatural rows of numbers caught his attention.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: exactly 50 points in every single subject. Total: 250 points.

Matsushita Chiaki: hovering precisely around 60 points in each subject. Total: exactly 300 points.

‘Is this some kind of joke?’Akira mused, his eyes narrowing slightly.’One flatlines at 250, the other at exactly 300?”As for Matsushita… she might be aiming slightly higher than Ayanokoji, but it’s still a completely manufactured average.”Are you two seriously this blatant about manipulating your scores?’

Akira suppressed a dry scoff, glancing back over his shoulder at the two culprits.

Ayanokoji sat quietly at his desk near the window. Catching Akira’s gaze, the brown-haired boy subtly scratched the back of his head, pasting on a perfectly awkward, embarrassed expression that screamed, I studied so hard but still failed.

Across the room, Matsushita was already blending into Karuizawa Kei’s loud clique, smiling sheepishly as she claimed she had “barely managed to pass.”

The deliberate, synchronized mediocrity was almost amusing.

But Akira didn’t have the luxury of critiquing their terrible acting for much longer. His eyes finally found his own name on the printout.

Mathematics: 100 points

English: 98 points

Sociology: 91 points

Chemistry: 93 points

Japanese Language: 29 points

The total placed him comfortably within the top ten of the class. Not that being in the top ten of Class D meant much of anything.

Aside from the glaring red flag in Japanese Language, the rest of his subjects were flawless. Acing Mathematics and English was a given—those were practical skills he had used daily in his previous life’s career. Handling a high school exam was trivial.

Chemistry didn’t pose a threat either. As a former science student, reviewing the material had easily awakened his dormant memories, making the formulas and equations second nature.

Sociology was largely objective, relying on rote memorization with a few open-ended short answers. Zero pressure.

‘But this Japanese Language score…’Akira stared at the damning “29 points” printed next to his name, slowly lifting a hand to rub his aching temples.’As expected, I still can’t do it, huh?’