COTE: Popularity System

Advanced Nurturing High School welcomes new students in April.

Now, it was already March. Third Year students were about to graduate. First Year students were also about to be promoted to the Second Year.

Takada Hikaru came to the cafeteria alone today to eat. After searching for a while, he quickly spotted the conspicuous bald head.

"Kōhei-san, do you mind if I share your table?" Takada Hikaru asked.

"Hmm?" Katsuragi Kōhei, who was eating, showed a look of surprise.

Before he could speak, Totsuka Yahiko, the subordinate sitting next to him, shouted discontentedly, "Takada-san, did you know Katsuragi-san is about to be expelled, so you came specifically to mock us?!"

Katsuragi Kōhei was about to be expelled. This was a rumor circulating among the First Year students.

At the end of the semester, the school added a special exam for all First Year students.

The Class Poll.

An exam where every class must select one student to be expelled.

Since no First Year student had been expelled due to a special exam yet, the school's new Chairman, Tsukishiro, forcefully introduced this exam despite the teachers' objections.

All First Year students would receive 3 Praise Votes and 3 Criticism Votes, which they would use to anonymously vote for their classmates.

After the voting concludes, the person who received the most Praise Votes would be given a "Protection Point," which could be used to nullify the expulsion penalty.

The person who received the most Criticism Votes would be selected as the target for expulsion. If the expulsion penalty isn't canceled using 20 million private points, then that student will be expelled from the school.

For Class A, which had been saving private points early on and whose Class Points had mostly remained above 1,000, canceling the expulsion penalty was an extremely simple matter, and they didn't need to worry about any classmate being expelled.

But for the people in the other three classes, it was not so easy. Even Class B currently had no way to produce 20 million private points to cancel the expulsion penalty, so they could only comply with the school's requirement and select a student to be expelled.

Katsuragi Kōhei was the student Class B had chosen for expulsion. Even though he was once the class leader, because he signed a contract harmful to the class with Ryūen Kakeru, coupled with his terrible performance in the Deserted Island Exam and the Sports Festival, most of the students in the class felt disgusted toward him, making it perfectly normal that they wanted him expelled.

"Totsuka, if my words still carry any weight, please be quiet for now."

Although he was about to leave the school, Katsuragi Kōhei's emotions were remarkably stable. Perhaps he had already adjusted his mindset and was ready to start life at a new school.

"Takada-san, this must be the first time we've met since the Mixed Training Camp." Katsuragi Kōhei folded his arms, his usually solemn expression now replaced by a relieved smile.

"I didn't expect you truly wouldn't intervene in the special exams."

About a month after the Paper Shuffle ended, the school organized the Mixed Training Camp, a special exam that all students had to participate in.

At that time, Takada Hikaru did not devise strategies for Class A, which resulted in Class A being jointly targeted by the remaining three classes and losing 180 Class Points.

Takada Hikaru smiled when mentioning this. "I promised Honami and the others that I would only lead two special exams. I didn't expect that the points I helped the class earn would all be lost in the blink of an eye."

Takada Hikaru first led the class to first place in the Sports Festival, and then defeated Class B in the Paper Shuffle, gaining a total of 150 Class Points.

However, the hard-earned Class Points were all lost due to the defeat at the Mixed Training Camp, and they even ended up owing 30 points.

Currently, the Class Points situation for the First Year classes is as follows.

Class A: 1140

Class B: 900

Class C: 250

Class D (Ryūen Kakeru): 245

During the Mixed Training Camp, the three classes ranked lower all made progress, while Class A, which previously had the most Class Points, had a large number of Class Points deducted.

Class A originally had to use all its strength just to deal with one class. Facing the remaining three classes simultaneously, they were naturally destined to be slaughtered.

Takada Hikaru said with a light chuckle, "Honami and Ryūji still have shortcomings, so taking this as a lesson is not a bad thing."

Not long after he finished speaking, a young man's voice, full of disdain, rang out.

"I think you yourself didn't have the ability to solve that problem, did you?" Totsuka Yahiko said, his face full of scorn.

During the Mixed Training Camp, the school required all First Year students to form teams.

However, Classes B, C, and D colluded, forming teams with their most capable students first, leaving only the worst students for Class A.

If they refused these students, the students of Class A would be ruthlessly expelled by the school for failing to meet the teaming requirements.

Faced with this difficulty, Honami and Ryūji at the time were helpless. They could only hold their noses and recruit the worst students, which subsequently caused their results to fall behind.

In Totsuka Yahiko's view, even Takada Hikaru would be useless against the siege of three classes.

"Kōhei-san, don't you usually guide your subordinate?"

Sensing Totsuka Yahiko's contempt and hostility, Takada Hikaru didn't get angry, merely smiling lightly. "I believe Kōhei-san should know the method to break that situation."

Hearing this, Totsuka Yahiko was slightly stunned and looked at Katsuragi Kōhei in surprise. "Katsuragi-san, is that true?"

Katsuragi Kōhei nodded slightly, then said with a complex expression, "At that time, Class A should have saved up 20 million points. As long as they used expulsion as leverage, the joint plan of the other three classes would fail."

During the Mixed Training Camp, a failing group would have its group leader expelled. At the same time, the group leader had the authority to drag one student down for expulsion, which was the "Burial" mechanism.

Class A could exploit the Burial Mechanism, threatening that if the other three classes continued to collude, they would deliberately choose a random student from one of those classes for burial expulsion.

Class A already had the 20 million points needed to cancel the expulsion penalty at that time, so they didn't have to worry about anyone in their class being expelled.

However, people in the other classes couldn't remain indifferent to this, especially those weak students who were sent over to drag down the team.

Realizing they might be implicated and expelled, those people would absolutely refuse to continue executing the plan. The alliance of the three classes would naturally collapse because of the possibility of someone being expelled.

Unfortunately, Ichinose Honami and Kanzaki Ryūji couldn't think of this.

"It could actually be solved this way?" Totsuka Yahiko suddenly realized.

Katsuragi Kōhei's expression didn't change. Instead, he turned to look at the boy from Class A. "Takada-san, is there something you need from me?"

Takada Hikaru asked, "I just wanted to ask you, how do you feel now that Arisu-san has persecuted you to this extent?"

Katsuragi Kōhei's failure was largely related to Sakayanagi Arisu. Even without Takada Hikaru and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, these two cheats, he would have constantly failed in special exams due to Sakayanagi Arisu's backstabbing. And now, he was even being forced into expulsion.

Katsuragi Kōhei shook his head. "I have no feelings about it. Although Sakayanagi's actions were improper, it is an undeniable fact that I caused losses to the class. I have nothing to say about their desire to use this opportunity to expel me."

In other words, he had accepted his fate.

Takada Hikaru smiled slightly. "That's the answer I expected. But after the exam is over, I doubt you will still feel that way."