Wednesday, 17th June.

When I came into class today, it was a little rowdier than usual. Since the finals had been approaching, everyone had the sensibility to try and study when they could, resulting in quieter form times, but today was an exception.

People were whispering and muttering, pointing at their phones and discussing the same thing amongst their peers. Whatever it was, it must've been significant, or else not so many people would've been interested.

I took out my phone and went on the school app to see if I could find out what it was about. It didn't take me long, as I immediately understood all the fuss that was happening just from looking at the most upvoted post in the 1st Year forum.

Less than an hour ago, Machida had leaked the exams A Class made for B Class.

...no wonder everyone was talking about it.

The scariest part of this post was the implication that none of our tests were safe. If A Class (the strongest class) could have their exam leaked, whose to say the rest of ours couldn't?

If Machida managed to obtain his hands on one of them, what's the chance he'd obtain another and post it tomorrow? Or even worse, what if other people start to do the same thing as him? The situation would devolve into chaos.

However, before I could start thinking like that, I first had to verify whether or not this leak was real.

Before checking the pictures attached, I scrolled down to the comments to see if I could infer anything from there. Interestingly however, no A Class students commented on the post, but students from other classes did.

Their reactions were a mixture of surprise, anger, and jealousy. There was even some celebration from the weaker B Class students. After all, if this was legit, B Class had struck a goldmine.

After skimming through that, I decided to comb through pictures of the leaked exams Machida attached as evidence. By scrutinising them, I could get a better sense of whether they're real or not.

Unsurprisingly, Machida took the images with his phone, adding a level of authenticity to it. However, the images looked very clear and had good lighting, meaning he wasn't rushed or pressed for time to take them.

That meant we could probably rule out him sneaking into the teachers lounge and taking the photos while they were left carelessly on someone's desk, for example.

From what I can tell though, these exams seemed genuine. I'd honestly be impressed if A Class didn't make this, because the quality of these questions were on the same level as what me and Nora made, if not even better at times.

What an audacious strategy...

Although, I suppose that's how Machida's always done things. He's the type of guy to deal huge mental blows at once to try and break someone, like how he thrashed our class and made it unusable just to target Nora.

Similarly, by casually dropping that he acquired A Class's exam papers, it would create the same amount (if not, greater) of mental damage to A Class, as their hard work making these exams in the past two weeks would've been invalidated by a single post.

Not only would they lose out on the element of surprise, but it'd also sow seeds of distrust between them as there was now a potential traitor in A Class. If infighting sparked between them, A Class's already weak unity would become even weaker.

That begs the question: how did Machida get his hands on this?

He's a man who'll stop at nothing to get what he wants, but even this seems too out of his range.

If I had to guess, I say he bought it with private points. However, doing that must've costed an absurd amount, and it's highly unlikely Machida had the necessary funds to pay for it, so I doubted it.

It's more likely he obtained this through a different, more underhanded method. I tried to think of any possible connections between Machida and A Class, and I couldn't think of anything, until a certain memory from a week ago popped up in my head.

It was the confrontation between Yogen and Yahagi. During that ordeal, Yahagi had brought two B Class students from Machida's faction, Ritaka and Ukishima, with him as backup. Could it be possible one of these three were the traitor?

As I thought about it, I figured that none of them had personalities befitting of that. Yahagi's loyalty to A Class is what sparked him to attack Yogen in the first place and Keisaki's proved himself too much of a coward to do such a thing.

As for Kurase... well, he could go either way to be honest. Unlike Keisaki, he was fine letting Ritaka have his way with Yogen. In fact, he has the laxest attitude from them all, so there was a chance he could've gave Machida the papers.

That being said, there's no reason for Kurase to have access to it. His strength lied in his physical ability to play basketball, so I highly doubt that Ryouta and Senzaki would let an athletic person work on an academic based task.

In the end, I was no closer to figuring out how Machida got his hands on this. I was missing a piece of information that was necessary to crack the secret behind this leak.

On the other hand, there was the chance that Machida faked this leak to gain some attention or to apply pressure on A Class. It'd explain why none of the A Class students reacted, as they already know it's fake from a single glance.

Not to mention, the timing of this leak feels incredibly early. For this special exam, it was actually better to leave submitting the tests until the very last second to prevent this from happening. After you finalise a submission, you cannot change it.

I'm sure A Class knows this, so they should've accounted for this scenario and haven't submitted their exams yet. If that's the case, then how Machida obtain his hands on them? Are they an earlier draft?

Either way, it doesn't matter as long as A Class haven't submitted the exams yet. They could still change the questions and invalidate Machida's strategy entirely.

In fact, that was one of the innate risks in using leaked content. If you completely focused on memorising the answers instead of studying, you'd be done for if the actual exam doesn't match what you prepared for.

It's probably why there was nothing in the rules that stipulated leaked exams would be thrown out. The school probably recognised this was a legitimate way to prepare for exams, despite how dirty and borderline illegal it was.

Part of me wondered if Machida did this to see how the school would react. I know he likes to push the boundaries of what's allowed and what's not allowed at GEN. His faction's reckless behaviour is what costed B Class 20 Cl this month.

I guess I'll pay A Class a visit... that'll probably get me closer to some concrete answers than just theorising.

I went from the special wing to the 1st floor where A Class was. To my surprise, the class didn't seem to be in any disarray at all. Everyone was minding their own business and doing their own thing.

Like me, a few people was curious to see what was going on in A Class due to the leak from earlier, but left disappointedly.

However, there was one person keeping an adamant eye on A Class.

Observing from the outside was none other than Machida, the man who tried starting a fire inside A Class. His plan to cause conflict didn't seem to come to fruition though.

Even so, Machida didn't look disgruntled by it. In fact, he kept a surprisingly cool face as he watched A Class. It was quite a bit of pressure actually, since it meant A Class couldn't act out in any way or else they'd be giving him exactly what he wants.

"Seems like your plan backfired on you."

After making an offhanded comment at Machida's expense, he glanced at me briefly before refocusing his gaze on A Class.

"Shut up, Drachma dropout."

"It's clear they're not bothered by what you did."

"You don't know a thing about mental warfare."

"Care to enlighten me, then?"

"Nah. Even if I tried, you're too stupid to understand."

Machida snickered, making fun out of me.

"I mean, it's pretty obvious what you want to gain from this. You want to cause chaos in A Class by leaking their exams."

"Even an idiot could figure that much out."

"I'm not wrong though."

"Don't act like it's anything admirable. How about you try thinking a little deeper, eh? Though, I don't know if your widdle pea sized brain could handle that."

Machida cackled, making a crushing motion with his right hand.

"Do me a favour and leave. I'm losing brain cells just by looking at you."

"Maybe. I just want to know what's going on."

"Like I'd tell you."

"Why not?"

"Don't play dumb, you know exactly why."

"I don't see the problem? It's not like I'm involved in what's happening between you guys. I'm just an observer."

"That's the issue. Don't poke your nose where it doesn't belong."

"You really hate us guys in E Class, huh?"

"I don't have respect for any of you."

"Not even the violent ones like Yukimura-san or Yamaguchi-san?"

"What, like you? They're even worse."

Machida raised his voice slightly to get me to back off. I found it hypocritical that he thought so low of people that could exert the same strength as him.

"I'd argue you're just as bad as them."

Machida shrugged.

"So?"

"You don't see the irony in this?"

"It doesn't matter to me. I only have one goal in this school anyways. To graduate from A Class."

Like everyone else attending this school, Machida was aiming to become A Class. However, instead of working hard and following the meritocracy, he was trying to cheat his way to the top by pulling the rug from under those already there.

It was a bold and decisive strategy that no one else in our year was temerarious enough to attempt. However, either due to bravery or recklessness, Machida was willing to push the boundaries of what's allowed in order to learn more about the mysterious S System that governed our rankings.

"No wonder you're attacking A Class so aggressively. You're even watching them like a hawk."

"It's only to make sure they can't have a full on public meltdown over this situation. I weren't here, that bastard Ryouta would be leading a discussion to get to the bottom of who betrayed A Class."

"They can't?"

"Of course not. If they did, they'd just be giving me what I want."

"Right... chaos within the classroom."

"All those A Class chumps can do is sit there quietly twiddling their thumbs, while suspicions of their classmates slowly rise and boil inside of them. Their pent-up anxiety, betrayal, and confusion is going to turn into anger that'll eat away at their minds and cause unbelievable stress days before the final exams. Either way, I win."

By subtly manipulating the conversation, I managed to coerce the goal of Machida's plan from him. What concerned me most was the lack of cockiness in his voice when he explained this to me.

As I thought, he was looking to put stress and distrust amongst the A Class students during an important cornerstone of the special exam to deal some serious mental damage. However, there were some serious flaws I picked up on.

"Does that mean you're just going to keep watching them forever?"

"If I have to, sure."

"Even when they've all left school?"

"Don't take me for some kind of idiot. Obviously I have different measures for that."

Considering there's been complaints of Machida's factions causing major disruption outside the A Class dorms, such as pelting rocks at the windows and playing music loudly to keep them from sleeping at night, I believed it.

"What if they're secretly conversing over text though?"

"Do you ever shut up?"

"It's a genuine question..."

"It's still hindering them if they're having to hide their conversations. It limits their communication and leaves physical traces of what's being said, meaning there's potential to exploit it later down the line."

"The lengths you're going in order to justify this decision amazes me..."

"Ha. That's called resolve, idiot. I swore I'd destroy A Class with everything I have, so I will."

"Even if it makes people hate you?"

"I don't need to be liked by others to achieve my goal."

While it was entirely possible to reach A Class by yourself, it was also a massive detriment to have no allies as well. A lone wolf could only go so far. You'd need extraordinary talent like Kurosaki's to somehow survive like that.

"Sooner or later you'll end up isolated."

For the first time since we began speaking, Machida looked down at me. His eyes were telling me to not talk to him as if I knew any better.

"If that happens, I'll rebuild everything from scratch."

What a stubborn answer. It fit him well though. In a way, me and Machida weren't that different in our philosophies.

"Good luck, I guess."

"I don't need luck from a loser like you. Continue rotting in E Class like you've always done, woman beater."

Machida spat at my feet. It was a warning that if I didn't back off, he'd start harassing me next. I didn't want to deal with that, so I left without saying anything else.

After all, during our little passive aggressive conversation, I managed to probe Machida for the real reason why he was watching A Class so carefully.

Really, his goal was never to deal massive mental damage. I raised at least three possible flaws in such a widespread plan. Not to mention, he'd somehow have to keep the pressure up for four days, two of them being the weekend, which makes it practically impossible.

If he really wanted to deal mental damage over the leaked exams, he wouldn't be acting so passively. He would've done what he did to our class, acting tauntingly and provocatively with his entire faction to rile them up. Since he didn't, and was alone, it's safe to assume he had an ulterior motive.

Rather, the reason Machida was suddenly trying to probe A Class himself was to find who the traitor amongst them was.

It's now clear to me from his behaviour that he received the leaked exams from some sort of "middle man", a person not from A Class. They're the one who received the leaked exams from the traitor and was responsible for passing them onto Machida.

For Machida, who wanted to aggressively crush A Class, the existence of a traitor meant the possibility of an ally who'd assist destroying them from the inside. He wanted to smoke that person out and strike a deal with them.

That's the real reason why he was observing A Class.

However, I already have my suspicions that Machida's the one who got played.