Chaos in Classroom of the Elite: Class 1-C

Sakayanagi, who had been struggling to stand earlier without the support of her cane, now seemed to have regained some strength with Kamuro's assistance. "Since Horikita-san asked, I'll explain everything together."

"Horikita-san, your D-Class has lost this special exam."

Horikita paused, her eyes widening in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" At that moment, Matsushita, who had been following the situation closely, also rushed in from outside. "Impossible! We clearly have a huge advantage!"

Seeing that everyone had gathered and the situation had stabilized, Sakayanagi calmed her heart rate and a faint smile of control spread across her delicate face. "Don't you understand yet?"

"The theme of this special exam is the workplace, not efficiency."

Yukio knew exactly what Sakayanagi was talking about now and occasionally stomped on Fujii, preventing him from getting up, enjoying watching the scene unfold.

But Matsushita was completely lost. "Sakayanagi-san, what exactly are you trying to say?" Horikita also wore a confused expression; as the apparent leaders of D-Class, they had no idea what Sakayanagi's intentions were.

Sakayanagi continued to analyze the special exam: "In the workplace, no matter where it is, efficiency is undoubtedly a major part of it, but it's not everything."

"Did your homeroom teacher emphasize the rules during the explanation? Entering society ahead of time, anything that happens in society should not be surprising, right?"

"Most workplaces operate for the sake of efficiency, but in some cases, if a company's operations involve illegal activities, we have an obligation to report them."

"This is the educational policy of the school. It doesn't just ask us to follow the crowd but expects students from AN High School to make the most beneficial choices for society."

"The school doesn't just cultivate students' abilities; it subtly fosters a sense of social responsibility."

"!" Matsushita's face turned pale as she began to understand Sakayanagi's point, though she still found it hard to accept. "Are you saying that Mr. Fujii... is involved in illegal activities? That's impossible, it can't be true."

"I... I have reviewed most of the ledgers and reports, there was clearly no problem!"

At this moment, Horikita clenched her fists, unable to get a word in. She knew nothing about finance, only the knowledge taught in school subjects was within her grasp.

Sakayanagi chuckled softly, not sure if she was laughing at Matsushita's lack of ability or at Horikita's inability to intervene. She then repeated the issues with the accounts that she had mentioned earlier: "... Matsushita-san, you only have a superficial understanding, don't you? Such a glaring inconsistency, yet you failed to notice it."

"Where could you find such expensive probiotics, with a total cost higher than that of fish fry?"

"I have already notified the inspection personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. I believe they will arrive in about ten minutes, and by then, you will fully understand."

As Sakayanagi calmly revealed the intricacies of the situation, Yukio subconsciously nodded. He was familiar with such matters, or rather, these kinds of things were commonplace.

After all, the land he came from was vast and rich in resources. Precisely because of this, many export products, once rebranded, could be sold at high prices abroad.

Such counterfeiting of food items was not limited to eel; it applied to many other products as well, like domestic caviar, foie gras, and black truffles—luxury food items that foreign merchants imported.

The prices of these domestic goods had always been deliberately suppressed in the international market. However, when these merchants imported them back, rebranded them as products of their own origin, the prices would increase several times over, yielding significant profits.

This kind of practice was often reported in the news every so often.

Not to mention other industrial products. Many industrial parts and equipment followed the same pattern—exported, rebranded, relabeled, and suddenly, their prices would skyrocket.

While such practices were nothing new to Yukio, Matsushita and Horikita, who were capable but had limited exposure, were dumbfounded as they listened. They had never imagined that a fish farm would engage in such deceptive business practices.

The more Matsushita listened, the more unpleasant her expression became. She gradually began to understand why Sakayanagi was so confident, so certain that D-Class would lose this special exam.

Because if Fujii's fish farm was indeed operating illegally, then all the profits that D-Class had gained from the beginning would essentially be void, failing to meet the core requirements of the school for this special exam, or more precisely, the fish farm task.

This is actually easy to understand. D-Class did indeed increase the revenue, but in the end, it's still an illegal fish farm. How can increasing revenue compare to reporting illegal activities?"

From the perspective of the general public, from a societal standpoint, Sakayanagi's class is exposing the darkness, while D-Class is profiting from it. If someone were to judge which class should score higher, most people would side with Sakayanagi's class.

It's finally clear why Sakayanagi's class, despite being so influential, never showed any strategy for increasing revenue from the start.

Because it wasn't necessary. Reporting the wrongdoing was the only strategy.

Fujii wanted to struggle and argue, but due to Yukio's suppression, he could only hold it in, too scared to say another word—he had been intimidated enough...

Matsushita's expression turned gloomy as she realized that, in the end, they hadn't managed to defeat Sakayanagi's class. They were checkmated in this overlooked dead end that everyone in D-Class had missed.

Horikita, on the other hand, was filled with deep unwillingness. She clenched her small fists, full of defiance. She had been so eager to prove herself in front of Yukio, to show him that she was no longer the person she used to be.

Now, she believed she had the ability to lead her class and surpass Sakayanagi's class. But this is the result?

How could Horikita accept this? So, whether it was stubborn resistance or just a refusal to accept defeat, she retorted, "No, not necessarily! How can you be sure that this is the true intention of the school?"

"What if this special exam really is just a competition of profits? What if you're just overthinking it, Sakayanagi?"

"Hm." Sakayanagi smiled slightly at Horikita, who was still unwilling to admit defeat. Despite her earlier disheveled appearance, she now radiated confidence: "Does it matter?"

"Wha-what?" Horikita wanted to fiercely refute Sakayanagi, questioning what could be more important than this.

But Sakayanagi, with a carefree demeanor, indicated that this point was irrelevant: "If it's just a competition of profits, it would mean that even the school hasn't discovered the issues with Fujii's eel farm."

"Then, once the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries' inspectors seal it off, all the profits will be nullified, sealed for investigation. In other words, in ten minutes, all four classes in this task group will have their scores reduced to zero."

"The school won't allow a tie between the four classes; otherwise, this special exam would become meaningless, failing to serve its core purpose of warning and educating students. In the end, they'll just award points based on our class's performance. And if we look at class performance, wouldn't sealing off the project be seen as a better achievement?"

"On the other hand, if it's not purely about profit competition, then our report of the illegal activities is clearly more worthy of points than your diligent work for Fujii."

"In conclusion, no matter what, our class will be awarded points. Whether it's a simple profit comparison or not is irrelevant. The important thing is that I will win."

Sakayanagi's words left Matsushita and Horikita completely speechless, their faces turning pale. They realized that her reasoning was too sound.

Whether it's solely based on profit or not, after this is over, Sakayanagi's class will definitely come out on top of D-Class.

In other words, even though they've worked hard, strategizing and leveraging the prestige of AN High School to shoot an advertisement, they still can't compete with Sakayanagi and are destined to lose.