COTE : Backed By Black Technology System

The next morning, Kanda Shuichi woke up to find it was already 7:40.

The only thing he could feel was how sore his arms were.

Unable to bear Miyake's teasing, Kanda Shuichi ended up doing thirty more push-ups yesterday to prove himself, and the result was that he woke up with sore arms.

"Akito, you jerk, why did you provoke me yesterday? My arms are killing me."

"Early in the morning, what's all the noise about?" Miyake's lazy voice came from the bed across from him.

Hearing Miyake's voice, Kanda Shuichi sat up, then noticed that Hirata was already gone from the dorm. What a hardworking guy.

He must have stayed up late yesterday trying to persuade the students in class to achieve Result One.

Such hard work, Hirata-kun!

Kanda Shuichi thought this as he put on his slippers and walked to the bathroom.

Going to the toilet, brushing his teeth, taking a shower...

"Shuichi, are you done yet? I'm about to explode…"

"If you're about to explode, you should have gotten up earlier."

Kanda Shuichi thought it was a bit funny.

"By the way, the list of VIP candidates is out. I wasn't chosen."

"Oh."

Upon hearing this, Kanda Shuichi quickly grabbed a towel to dry off, put on his underwear and shorts.

He looked at his upper body and nodded, finally not in a state where his ribs were showing.

As Kanda Shuichi stepped out of the room, Miyake rushed into the bathroom and slammed the sliding door shut.

"Ah~ this feels so good~~"

Damn, you're just going to the bathroom, why do you have to make that noise? Is that necessary?

Kanda Shuichi then picked up his phone.

[After a serious review, you have not been selected as a preferred candidate. Please act as a member of your group and take on the exam. The exam will start at 1:00 PM today and will last for three days. Dragon group members should gather in the Dragon Group room on the second floor.]

Kanda Shuichi didn't really care about this. Instead, he sat down at the table, pulled out some paper and a pen, and wrote down the list of Dragon Group members.

But with only one group, Kanda Shuichi couldn't figure out the selection rules for preferred candidates, so he gave up on that.

At that moment, Hirata opened the door and walked in, sitting down across from Kanda Shuichi.

Without wasting time, Hirata got straight to the point.

"Kanda, I've already got the information for two of the preferred candidates."

"Oh? That was fast. As expected of you."

Kanda Shuichi looked at the time: 8:10.

Ten minutes, and Hirata had already gotten the information for two preferred candidates—Impressive!

"Yep, these two are Nan from the Horse group and Karuizawa from the Rabbit group."

Just then, Kanda Shuichi's phone buzzed. It was a new email from Kushida Kikyo.

[I've been selected as a VIP candidate.]

"How coincidental, I also received information about the third special candidate. It's Kushida from our Dragon Group."

Kanda Shuichi picked up his phone and smiled, then handed it to Hirata Yosuke, who was sitting across from him.

"Looks like the first step is complete."

"Mm." Kanda Shuichi nodded. "Next, we need to gather the list of students from each group. Yesterday, when Sakagami-sensei finished, he said, 'When you meet for the first time, be sure to introduce yourselves in the room.'"

"So I think this is another clue. It's important to know everyone's name."

Hirata nodded. This was the result of their discussion yesterday. They had hoped to get the list for all the groups yesterday, but some groups didn't have the necessary strength, so they didn't manage to record it.

Additionally, the list cards for each group are prohibited from being filmed or photographed, so they haven't managed to collect all the personnel information yet.

"Mm, I've already asked the students in the class to handle it. Each group has someone assigned to record the list of people."

Hirata nodded, signaling that the work had already been arranged.

"For now, there's not much more we can do. The next step depends on the first discussion this afternoon. Hopefully, things will turn out in our favor."

Hirata nodded again, and then Kanda Shuichi picked up his phone to reply to Kushida's message.

[Okay, I understand. Hirata is here too. I've already told him. Make sure to keep it confidential on your end.]

[Don't worry.]

Although Kanda Shuichi didn't know why Kushida told him and not Hirata, it didn't seem to matter that much.

He put his phone away and decided to go have some food since it was already 8:00.

"By the way, Hirata, remember to keep the information about the special candidates confidential. If the whole D-class finds out, it could leak."

"Mm, I've already talked to Karuizawa. They won't tell anyone."

Hirata nodded. The man was as reliable as ever.

But Kanda Shuichi had one question.

"Hirata, you and Karuizawa have been dating for four months now, right?"

If he remembered correctly, the two of them had gotten together in the first week of school, but after four months, Hirata still hadn't called her by name.

"Well..." Hirata immediately showed a bitter smile when the question came up. "There's a reason for that."

Since the topic had come up, Kanda Shuichi decided to listen to the reason.

"Shuichi, let's go eat!"

Just as Hirata was about to explain, Miyake came out of the restroom and interrupted the conversation.

Well, Akito, you're good at this.

With Miyake's interruption, the topic naturally couldn't continue. It seemed to be a private matter related to Karuizawa, so Hirata decided not to continue. He stood up as well.

"Well, I have some things to handle with the class, so I'll head out first."

After seeing Hirata off, Kanda Shuichi looked at Miyake silently.

He used to be quite a solitary kid, but just a few months later, he seemed to be turning into a more cheerful, outgoing guy.

They say "birds of a feather flock together," but Kanda Shuichi thought to himself, he shouldn't be that type of person either. It was really strange.

Who did he learn this from?

It felt like Akito's vibe was slowly turning ridiculous.

Then, Kanda Shuichi had a thought.

Ah!

It's Hashibara-senpai!

It must be Hashibara-senpai's fault!

Look what you've done to Akito! You need to take responsibility!

For breakfast, they had Chinese food: soy milk, fried dumplings, and xiaolongbao.

It's been said that the most popular Chinese dishes among the Japanese are dumplings, followed by fried rice and mapo tofu.

Although these dishes have been adapted to suit Japanese tastes, Kanda Shuichi, as a true Chinese, still thought they were decent. However, after eating fried dumplings at a Chinese restaurant, he started craving the dumplings from his hometown.

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You can read 10 advanced chapters at my patreon.com/YeyeQiu