Check out advanced chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari
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[BIG CHAPTER]
Akira had just returned to his dorm when he suddenly received a notification.
It was from Horikita Manabu.
{Nagumo conceded and sent me ten million private points directly.}
{He also specifically requested a set of second-year midterm exam papers from me, and pre-ordered the third-year midterm exam papers.}
It was exactly as Club President Sato had said.
Nagumo ultimately couldn't outplay Horikita Manabu.
Akira unconsciously nodded, silently agreeing with this outcome.
To be honest, the difficulty of this plan lay in Horikita Manabu immediately sealing off the four classes, strictly prohibiting Nagumo from privately purchasing test papers.
If even one class, or even one person, failed to comply, the entire lockdown plan would be completely ruined.
He couldn't immediately think of what benefits Horikita Manabu had promised the four classes to achieve such strong execution.
Looking at it this way, Horikita Manabu was indeed a rare talent.
With such prestige and methods, many adults he'd met in his previous life might not have been able to match him.
Such a person, even if he didn't graduate from Class A, would surely find it easy to achieve great things once he entered society.
However, Nagumo even specifically asked Horikita Manabu for two sets of the student council president's second and third-year midterm exam papers?
If he remembered correctly, the student council president seemed to have mentioned to him last time that Nagumo had bought first-year test papers from Horikita Manabu when he was a first-year.
'Nagumo, you guy... even if the student council president scammed you out of 10 million private points, are you still planning to collect a complete set?'
Just as that Asahina had said, Nagumo truly held some special feelings for Horikita Manabu.
{3 million private points, please check.}
{This is my reward for you.}
As soon as the message dropped, Horikita Manabu sent the reward points he'd promised earlier.
Akira hesitated for a moment but decided not to refuse anymore.
Since the student council president wasn't planning to return the favor and had specifically sent points, he'd accept them.
After that, no more messages came from Horikita Manabu's side. After all, he was the student council president, surely very busy.
Akira then transferred these points to his alt account and also checked the balances of both his alt and main accounts.
Including these 3 million, he currently had a total of 13.04 million.
Next month, he'd also receive an income from Class D—1.26 million private points, of which 60,000 was interest.
That would add up to 14.30 million.
He was still 5.7 million short of his small goal of 20 million.
This money could be used for transferring classes or as a backup in case of expulsion.
Once he reached his goal, he could finally breathe a little easier.
"Today went quite smoothly."
Akira couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Recalling carefully, the argument Karuizawa caused was easily resolved by Matsushita, without him needing to intervene. As for the confrontation between Nagumo and the student council president, it also ended with the student council president's victory, and he successfully received 3 million points.
However, whenever he thought of Matsushita, her phrase "It's already the second time" would pop into his mind.
In fact, he and Matsushita had barely spoken a few words.
Their first private meeting was when Karuizawa was staying in his dorm, and Matsushita had proactively come to his door.
Speaking of which, that time, she'd indirectly helped him—by getting four votes for Kushida.
'Wait! The second time?! Does she mean the number of times she's indirectly helped me?!'
A thought suddenly flashed through Akira's mind.
When a girl does so many things for you behind your back, in most cases, she probably has feelings for you.
But Akira wasn't that narcissistic. The key was that there wasn't a single sign of her liking him on Matsushita.
He truly couldn't guess what Matsushita was planning.
Forget it, he'd just wait and see about this matter.
Since she wasn't planning to come to him, he naturally had no reason to specifically go to her and ask what she was up to, especially since this was just his conjecture and he had no actual evidence.
Next, he began to ponder another more important matter this month—Shiina Hiyori investigating his identity.
According to the daily intel, this student would indeed find out his identity in May.
But now, even the future trajectory of Karuizawa's withdrawal from the club had changed.
This was enough to show that even the future written in the intel could be easily altered if he interfered deeply enough.
In a sense, perhaps the moment he learned about future intel, the future had already branched into completely different paths.
Does this mean that, with his deliberate intervention, Shiina wouldn't be able to find out his identity at all?
Just as he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, a message suddenly popped up on his phone.
He picked it up and saw that it was a friend request for his alt account—the sender was a new account with the nickname "Chattering Cat."
The message from the sender was: {Shimizu-kun, hello, is it convenient to add me as a friend?}
He froze, stunned in place, thinking he'd seen it wrong. This wasn't a notification for his main account.
When he checked carefully, he repeatedly switched between his main and alt accounts to verify several times before finally confirming: the sender had indeed added his alt account.
'Someone actually guessed my identity?'
Akira was full of surprise but quickly calmed down. He didn't rule out the possibility of someone using a new account to probe him, such as Sakayanagi.
{? You added the wrong person.}
He pondered for a moment and sent a message.
{Shimizu-kun, no need to pretend. I saw you take a computer from the Student Council on Friday evening last month.}
{Here's a screenshot from the surveillance.}
{Screenshot — jpg}
{Not long after that, the four classes successively received notifications about renting surveillance, didn't they? During that time, you were the only one carrying a computer!}
{So, the one who rented the surveillance could only be you, right!}
Akira was stunned again. In the screenshot the sender sent, his image holding a computer was clearly undeniable.
So that's how it was. The sender actually had such concrete evidence.
In that case, it seemed meaningless to keep pretending.
To be able to investigate him from the student council's perspective, it seemed the sender was also quite intelligent.
That Friday last month, he'd indeed received a computer from the student council president.
{Is that so? So you found out. Then, what do you want to do? Do you want to reveal my identity?}
Since his identity was exposed, he was curious about the sender's purpose.
In fact, revealing his identity was no big deal for him. It would just cause some trouble.
{I don't intend to reveal your identity. In fact, quite the opposite—I'm here to help you.}
{I've already bought out those surveillance videos from the school, so the evidence is only in my hands now.}
{I don't plan to give it to anyone.}
{After all, I probably wish for your identity not to be revealed more than anyone else.}
Akira was stunned again, completely at a loss.
She was here to help him? And said she wished for his identity not to be revealed more than anyone else?
{Who are you? Why do you want to help me?}
{Sorry, my identity isn't very convenient to tell you.}
{As for why I'm helping you, I probably find you an interesting person.}
Akira immediately frowned. This way of speaking, why did it look more and more familiar?
Could it be Sakayanagi? But why would she use this nickname?
Before he could think about it further, the sender's message popped up right after.
{But the price for helping you this time isn't free. You owe me a favor.}
Shiina slowly walked out of her homeroom teacher's office and then looked down at the message she'd just received on her phone.
She re-examined her thought process in her mind, confirming that there were no loopholes in the logical chain.
Thinking of this, she took out her phone from her pocket and directly called Akira.
"Shimizu-kun... is it convenient to meet at the dorm entrance now? Uh, I'm Shiina Hiyori from first-year Class C. Actually, I've already found the person who rented the surveillance, but I still need you to confirm it one last time."
"Hmm, you're in your dorm? Okay, I'll wait for you at the entrance."
"Indeed, you are truly a responsible assistant! Even though I said last time that I didn't need his help!"
She muttered to herself as she slowly walked to the dorm entrance.
After waiting for a few minutes, Akira indeed appeared quickly.
He was wearing a tracksuit, his hair was wet, and there was sweat on his forehead, so it seemed he'd just been exercising.
"I apologize, Shimizu-kun. I seem to have disturbed your rest." Shiina looked at him with a hint of apology.
"It's fine. Rather than that, Shiina-san, why don't you tell me your deduction?" Akira waved his hand.
"Um... can we talk somewhere else? Since it might take a long time, would it be convenient to go to your dorm?" Shiina pondered for a moment and suggested.
"Shiina-san wants to go to my dorm?" Akira looked at her with some surprise. "I'm a man, after all, so it might not be very convenient."
"No... it's fine. I trust your character. You wouldn't do anything strange to me." Shiina smiled and replied.
"However, since you feel it's inconvenient, how about going to my dorm? It's a bit far, though. You'll need to go up to the 10th floor or higher." Shiina thought for a moment and added, "Again, I completely trust your character."
"...I understand, since you insist." Akira thought for a moment and still nodded in agreement.
Since she'd said so much, there was no harm in going to her room, and there was no need to insist further.
Moreover, he was indeed curious about who the person she'd investigated was.
Shiina's dorm was on the 13th floor.
The moment the door opened, a faint scent of paper and ink, mixed with the fresh aroma of lemongrass, wafted over.
The room was much tidier than Akira had expected.
A stack of books half his height was piled in one corner of the desk, and his peripheral vision caught the top one, where the four characters "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" were prominently displayed on the cover.
This suddenly reminded him of the book "Murder on the Orient Express" she was holding when they first met—both books were by the same author, classics written by Agatha Christie.
Shiina's peripheral vision happened to catch where his gaze landed, and she looked up at him. "Shimizu-kun, have you read 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'?"
Akira's gaze lingered on the spine of the book for half a second. "I have. I read it until three in the morning before I dared to close the book."
Shiina raised an eyebrow, and her movement of stepping aside to let him in paused. "The ending was very unexpected, wasn't it?"
"After all, the murderer was Dr. Watson." Shiina suddenly turned around, her fingertip gently drawing a circle on the cover of "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." "The narrator himself is the murderer. This twist is hidden deeper than a magician's card."
Shiina rested her elbow on the edge of the desk and then posed another question. "Shimizu-kun, suppose—Sherlock Holmes discovered that Dr. Watson had committed a crime. What do you think he would do?"
Akira's gaze fell on the gilded title of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in the stack of books. "Sherlock Holmes was never a 'good person' in the traditional sense. He had a set of standards in his heart that operated outside the law. Investigating cases, for him, was never for justice or fairness, but merely to solve an exquisite puzzle. In contrast, Dr. Watson could indeed bear the identity of a 'purely good person.' If he truly committed a crime, there'd likely be unspeakable difficulties behind it—perhaps to protect someone, or perhaps he was caught in an inescapable predicament."
"And then?" Shiina pressed, already having taken out the title page of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" from the desk, where silhouettes of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were printed.
"He'd first clarify everything like disassembling clockwork gears." Akira's voice deepened. "Whether the chain of evidence is complete, how many unavoidable circumstances are hidden in the motive, even which street the mud on Dr. Watson's cuff came from—after confirming all the details, he'd probably choose a foggy morning, lock the evidence next to the fireplace at 221B Baker Street, and then hand Dr. Watson a glass of whiskey with soda."
Shiina suddenly laughed. "You think the same as me, Shimizu-kun."
She turned and sat on the edge of the bed, her voice suddenly becoming serious. "Speaking of which, you must've guessed, right? Why I specifically invited you over."
Akira looked at the open "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" on the desk, and a helpless smile curved his lips. "I can probably guess. After all, you specifically placed this book in the most conspicuous spot—if I couldn't even understand that much, I'd be too incompetent."
This detective lady had been setting the stage since he entered the room.
The "Dr. Watson's perspective" in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," the hypothetical dialogue between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson...
Layers of hints, like a cipher in the pages of a book, wouldn't rest until the clues were unraveled to the very last page.
These literary girls, they even express their feelings in a roundabout way.
If one couldn't keep up with their thoughts, one might not even have the qualification to truly converse with a beautiful girl.
Let alone dating.
As he was thinking, Shiina suddenly leaned forward, her voice dropping a little. "Shimizu-kun, there's only one truth, and that person is you, isn't it! So, your purpose in selling surveillance to the four classes must be to transfer classes, right?"