"This time, everyone did an amazing job on the exam! The whole css passed, and every subject scored above 60 points. What an outstanding achievement!"

  Hoshinomiya-sensei stood at the podium, hands on her hips, ughing heartily.

  "This is all thanks to everyone's hard work!"

  Ichinose, seated at her desk, cheerfully responded to Hoshinomiya's praise.

  Meanwhile, Uesugi sat in his seat, silently compining.

  I'd be more surprised if someone actually failed. The school already lowered the difficulty significantly after scrapping the leaked test questions. If someone still managed to flunk, well… guess it was just meant to be.

  "As a reward for everyone's efforts, I've decided to take the entire css on a summer vacation to a private isnd in July! What do you think? Exciting, right?"

  Hoshinomiya-sensei suddenly dropped a bombshell.

  "For real?!"

  "A vacation on a private isnd?!"

  "Wouldn't that be too expensive for you, Hoshinomiya-sensei?"

  …

  The students of Css B were completely floored by this unexpected announcement, their excitement overflowing.

  Oi, oi… are you really okay with this, Hoshinomiya-sensei? You're basically handing out a school-sanctioned special exam as a vacation reward.

  And just so you all know, you probably shouldn't get too hyped about this "vacation."

  Uesugi smirked internally, fully aware of what this so-called private isnd trip actually entailed.

  After css, the door suddenly burst open as a student rushed in.

  "Did you hear? Three students from Css D failed their exams and are getting expelled! Their guardians have already been contacted, and they're being taken away after school."

  At that moment, every student in Css B simultaneously turned their heads toward a certain direction in the cssroom.

  More specifically, the members of the Uesugi Group cast particurly complicated gnces at him.

  You sneaky bastard. We agreed to carry Css B's burden together, and yet you went and got three students from Css D expelled without saying a word?!

  Feeling the weight of their stares, Uesugi sighed in exasperation.

  "What are you looking at me for? This wasn't my doing. All I did was suggest removing the leaked test questions."

  No wonder Hoshinomiya-sensei was so cheerful earlier… turns out, Css D had some dropouts.

  The student who had delivered the news hesitated before adding in a timid voice,

  "Um… but everyone's saying that the three who got expelled had offended Uesugi-kun, and that he used his authority as the Student Council's vice president to have the leaked test scrapped."

  Uesugi froze for a moment.

  Wait… don't tell me the ones who got expelled were those three idiots from Css D?!

  His vision darkened slightly as he realized a massive scapegoat had just been dumped onto him.

  ---

  Meanwhile, Css D had descended into chaos.

  Yamauchi: "I don't wanna get expelled! This is so me!"

  Sudō: "How… how can my dream end like this?!"

  Ike: "Expulsion? No way! Getting kicked out after just a month and a half? I'll be the ughingstock of my old cssmates!"

  Horikita Suzune, standing in the corner, clenched her fists tightly. After all her effort, this was the result? Pathetic.

  "Wait! This is all Css B's fault! That bastard promised the test wouldn't be harder, but he went back on his word! We… we have to report this to the school! If we compin, maybe we can get our expulsion canceled!"

  Yamauchi Haruki clung to his st shred of hope, shouting incoherently.

  "Don't be stupid."

  Horikita Suzune ruthlessly shattered his delusions.

  "Did you even notice that this exam was actually easier than the leaked one? He even went easy on us. The truth is, this happened because you're all too weak. If you were competent, you wouldn't have needed those test answers in the first pce."

  Yamauchi's face twisted in disbelief.

  "No… no way!"

  He turned toward Sudō, his face full of resentment.

  "This is all your fault, Sudō! If you hadn't caused a scene in the library and drawn his attention, none of this would've happened! He wouldn't have changed the test!"

  Ike chimed in angrily.

  "That's right! It's all on you, Sudō! I've always hated how reckless you are! Now look—because of you, we're all screwed!"

  "I… I didn't know this would happen! If I had known, I would've gotten on my knees and apologized to him back then!"

  Sudō shouted in despair.

  He never expected that the guy who always smiled like a harmless fool actually had enough influence to get the school to change the test.

  "I don't want Sudō-kun and the others to be expelled! Isn't there anything we can do?"

  The Accomplice—in a stunning dispy of award-worthy acting—shed a few fake tears as she pleaded.

  Even though she had been compining about these three idiots to Uesugi nonstop just a few days ago.

  "That's right! There has to be a way to save Yamauchi and the others!"

  Hirata Yōsuke, who had been silently lowering his head, muttered in a broken voice.

  "That's impossible, Hirata. Did you not hear Chabashira-sensei earlier? As soon as their guardians arrive, they're out."

  "Shut up! That's not true! There… there has to be a way!"

  Hirata Yōsuke yelled, refusing to accept reality.

  As Css D's chaos spiraled further out of control,

  A cold voice suddenly brought everyone back to their senses.

  "Points."

  Horikita Suzune's gaze was heavy as she stared at her phone.

  "Chabashira-sensei once said that personal points can buy anything in this school. If that's true, then exam scores should be no different. We can use our points to buy back Sudō's scores."

  For a moment, a flicker of hope ignited in the eyes of Css D's students.

  "I see! So that's the answer! Horikita-san, you're amazing! I'll go ask Chabashira-sensei right away!"

  Hirata Yōsuke dashed out of the room.

  However, he soon returned with devastating news—

  The price was 100,000 personal points per exam point.

  Sudō and the others needed a total of 26 points to pass. That meant 2.6 million points.

  For a css that had already squandered all their points and was currently sitting at negative 100 css points, the amount might as well have been infinite.

  More importantly, Css D was not as united as Css B. Not everyone wanted to help the three failures.

  "Why should we use our points to save them? This happened because they didn't try hard enough."

  "Yeah! Our css points were already in the negatives because they kept breaking school rules!"

  "If they get expelled, so be it. I'm not wasting my points on them."

  …

  "No… I refuse to let any of my cssmates get expelled! If you won't help, then I'll go borrow the money myself! No matter what, I won't let them be expelled!"

  Hirata Yōsuke's furious outburst stunned the entire css into silence.

  Without looking back, he stormed out of the cssroom.

  But in the end, despite exhausting all his connections, he only managed to borrow 700,000 points.

  Meanwhile, the three expelled students—now clinging to this st sliver of hope—began turning on each other.

  ---

  T/N: an easier test... and they still failed...