Who wants to work hard for nothing?
Besides,
Students like Ichinose or President Horikita, who really care about the class and are willing to sacrifice for their classmates—those kinds of people are rare in this school.
In the upper grades, only the third-year Class A is full. That says it all.
They're on a really tough path.
"Here's some new info: if you collect 20 million points, you can cancel one expulsion penalty or even skip grades."
"But if someone gets expelled during a special exam, and we've been collecting points every month..." Shirogane said, "Ryuen, would you spend 20 million points to save that student?"
"Heh."
Ryuen answered quickly.
"Then it's obviously expulsion," said Ryuen. "If it were me, I'd do the same. What's the point of holding on to 20 million points? To stay? Can you guarantee you'll graduate as a Class A student? That's a gamble I wouldn't take. The chances of losing are way too high—it's like buying a lucky bag. You've already paid 1,000 and haven't even pulled one E-card. You're already down 500!"
It was a pretty harsh take.
"But this info you brought up, Shirogane, about using 20 million points to move up a class—that's not bad," Ryuen added. "That means if you can gather 20 million points, you're basically guaranteed to graduate from Class A. That's definitely one way to do it."
"But I don't think it's that simple," Shiina said, shaking her head. "So we should be cautious."
"Right now our class has 700 class points. Even if Ryuen wants to take 10%, that's 280,000 per month, about 3 million in a year, and 10 million in three years."
"We're still halfway from 20 million."
"And if you try to take more than that, the other students will start to push back."
"Even if they go along with it for now, over time, problems will show up," Shiina explained.
In other words, gathering points this way brings a lot of pressure.
"So, what do you think, Shirogane?" Ryuen looked over. "You probably want to secure that 20 million-point safety net first, right?"
With 20 million points, you could avoid getting expelled and move up to a higher class.
Who wouldn't want that?
But Ryuen was too late to ask—because Shirogane already had someone rich backing him who was willing to pay the cost.
Still, Sakayanagi and Ryuen had the same idea about how to collect the points.
Relying on your own school stipend to gather 20 million points? Nearly impossible.
But if you spread the effort among others and work together, it becomes much easier.
For example, if a class has 40 people, then each person only needs to contribute 500,000 points.
And if the class point score is high, it could be done in just two or three months.
So even though Ryuen still acted like a thug in some ways, he wasn't totally clueless. He knew that in a school setting, you have to think long-term. And to do that, you need to raise the class's point score. To raise the score, you need to perform well in every special test and earn more rewards.
That's why he planned to take a cut from the students' living stipends instead of demanding a set number of points.
Now, if you really want to gather 20 million points and transfer classes, the easiest way is to take points directly from your classmates.
But that's just exploiting them.
And it would lead to resistance. Shiina's analysis was right.
Still, there are people doing exactly that.
In Sakayanagi's case, though, it's different—her classmates give her points willingly. That's trust and respect. They want her to lead, and they give her "a salary" on their own.
So when Sakayanagi accepts money, she doesn't feel guilty at all.
"..."
Shirogane was thinking.
But to gather points, he couldn't do it alone—he needed help.
And the easiest, most direct, and most logical way was to collect from his own class. But pushing too hard would lead to rebellion, and that would feel wrong too. On the other hand, convincing the class to give money willingly? That wouldn't be easy either.
After all, it would mean giving up part of their monthly living money.
As soon as that transfer shows up in their accounts, they'd start to resist.
And many of the students in this class are troublemakers, so it's hard to expect them to follow orders for long.
So is there really no other way?
How can you get the class to agree—and give money—willingly?
But even if the class agrees with you now, they won't keep giving you money forever.
You can't force them, and you can't talk them into it either.
So—
Is there a way to keep things going steadily while taking care of everything?
"Collecting a large number of points through the class is definitely the most effective plan," Shirogane said. "But I don't think the way you're splitting things, Ryuen, is fair."
"What do you mean?" Ryuen asked. "I know you don't like the idea of protection fees, but a little adds up over time. And like Shiina just said, even just 10% could add up to ten million points. And besides, the class can still keep moving forward."
In other words, Ryuen was still aiming to take 10% of the class's points.
It was a plan that could possibly bring in 20 million points, so there was no way he would let it go easily.
"If the students respect you as a leader and give you some of their points on their own, I think it's fine to accept that," Shirogane said. "But if it's being collected like protection money, I don't agree with it."
"You're really stubborn. So what's your plan then?" Ryuen said as he waved his hand.
"You should already know, right? If the students in this class were really reliable, there would be more people here now," Ryuen said.
In short, Ryuen wasn't happy that only a few people could be brought together to help plan for the special test.
That just showed the class didn't have much talent.
So if just a few people have to come up with the strategies and deal with everything, but the rest of the class still gets the same rewards, of course it's going to feel unfair.
"More work, more reward. Reward people based on what they did," Shirogane said. "Every special test gives chances to earn points or lose them—and sometimes, it can even lead to expulsion."
"If someone does well on the special test and helps the class get ahead—for example, by earning evaluation points or winning a large reward in points—"
"Then they should get a reward for that."
"For example—"
Shirogane said, "Let's say someone helps the class earn 100 class evaluation points. Then 50% of the value from those points could go to that student as a reward."
"As long as those 100 points haven't been lost or taken away, the reward can keep coming in, over time."
Shirogane saw everyone deep in thought and added,
"In other words, we're the ones coming up with the plan for this special test."
"So if our plan brings class evaluation points to the class, then we'll get 50% of the reward from that."
"The other 50% stays with the class as shared value."
"And if anyone isn't happy with the 50/50 split, we can adjust it too," Shirogane added.
In short, this plan makes sure that the value created for the class is officially counted as part of your own reward.
If someone helps the class a lot, is it wrong for them to get something back? No, it's not.
Even regular students won't complain about that.
Because to them, it's like they just happened to be on the same ship as you—and got carried forward by your effort.
And there's another good thing about this kind of reward system—
It gives people real motivation.
"We can even make a more detailed plan."
"For example, like Ryuen said about collecting 25% of the class points—I think we could even raise that to 30%. But this part shouldn't be called protection money."
"Instead, it should be used as class savings to help with future exams. And if someone ends up getting expelled, this fund could help cover their costs."
"This is something that affects every student."
"I think even if we raise it from 25% to 30%, the classmates won't really complain."
"And I suggest we keep that extra 5% for the members of the think tank. There's no limit on who can join the group—if other students are invited because of their skills, they'll get the same treatment."
In other words, even students who aren't picked at first still have a chance to move up.
It's not as intense as a final elimination, but it's still a positive motivator, so at least the better-performing students would support it.
"Of course."
"There might be some students who feel like they're getting nothing out of this. That could lead to some complaints."
"But in times like that—"
Shirogane stopped talking, but Ryuen already knew what he meant.
That's when someone like him, who uses more forceful methods, steps in.
People who still refuse to cooperate and don't want to put in effort are just being dumb and selfish.