Afternoon.
Tournament.
Proceed.
The break ended, and the competition began again.
Hikigaya came to Gymnasium No. 1, standing in the spectator stands watching the students who were signing up, not intending to participate in the subsequent five events.
With his current physical ability evaluated at B-grade, participating should be able to achieve some results.
However, this was not important for the overall situation.
Trying to win against Class D, where Sudo was, by relying on hard strength was almost an impossible task.
At this time.
In front of the staff responsible for registration, many students gathered, jostling to sign up for the competition.
Compared to other sports, table tennis rules were relatively simple.
Easy to learn but hard to master.
As long as you pick up the paddle, you know how.
Because of this, many people wanted to participate; there were many acquaintances Hikigaya knew.
Registration ended.
Since the rules restricted mixed doubles, the students in front of him divided into groups of two to prepare for the match.
Hikigaya took out his phone to check the participants.
Sudo Ken was grouped with Matsushita Chiaki.
Kitou Hayato was grouped with Ando Sayo.
Besides them, there were many first-year and upperclassman students.
But among the sophomores.
The only groups with hope of winning were likely these two groups.
Shibata proactively avoided the event Sudo was in.
Although he could barely contend with Sudo, the gap between the two still existed; it would be difficult to win against Sudo head-on.
After all.
Class B's goal was class points; there was no need to compete for strength against Sudo. As long as they won as many rankings as possible, it was fine.
Suppose they could take first place in all events.
Maybe they could tie for first in the individual competition with Sudo, and both sharing the two million private point reward wasn't unacceptable.
However.
Hikigaya checked the OAA.
He watched Class D's Ike Kanji and that chubby Sotomura Hideo; the two were rubbing their hands in preparation for the competition.
It wasn't surprising that the two would participate.
As long as one was a normal person, they would more or less know how to play table tennis.
Hikigaya felt they were just cannon fodder with no self-knowledge.
However.
One could see a problem from this: Class D had not truly twisted into a single rope.
Even if they couldn't get the top three.
As long as they could enter the high-tier rankings, they could obtain some rewards to improve their evaluation within the class.
This might be the goal of Ike Kanji and the others.
The last unanimous special exam.
Horikita Suzune and others forcibly made the weakest, Sakura Airi, drop out.
To avoid becoming the last person in the class, weak people like Ike Kanji would become more hardworking than before.
Whether this was good or bad, everyone naturally had different views.
At least.
Hikigaya felt the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.
In terms of results.
Class D would indeed become stronger than before.
However.
In essence.
Ike Kanji and the others were not working hard for the class.
It was just to avoid becoming the sacrifice of the class that Ike Kanji and the others had to seek more opportunities to perform.
The students at the bottom were worried that the next one to drop out would be themselves.
They would certainly start competing with each other.
From this point of view.
Horikita Suzune had not unified the entire class, but rather bound the whole Class D with interests and intimidation.
Even Horikita Suzune herself did not cooperate with anyone.
Instead, she participated in the sports festival alone, choosing the cooperation partners most likely to win based on the event.
In Kouenji's words.
This was not bad; it could still get everyone to do things and achieve goals, and the capable Kouenji could naturally do as he pleased.
But Hikigaya did not approve of this approach.
At least, he preferred Ichinose's approach, establishing relationships based on trust and emotion.
Looking at Ike Kanji and the others whose faces suddenly turned ugly not far away, without even guessing, he knew someone was speaking sarcastically to them.
The talk was nothing more than the matter of the unanimous exam.
How inhumane Class D was.
However.
Ike Kanji and the others didn't say much and chose to turn and leave, silently enduring; it must have been Horikita Suzune's instructions.
Watching the scene before him.
Hikigaya knew now was not the opportunity.
...
Soon.
Not long after the match officially started.
Sudo hit a smash.
Defeating the group formed by Kitou Hayato and Ando Sayo from Class A and Class B.
Easily taking first place in table tennis, they could only regretfully take second. Hikigaya sighed, feeling somewhat helpless.
As expected.
People who participated in corresponding clubs were unable to participate in corresponding event competitions.
Although Sudo Ken might not have much table tennis experience, his athletic nerves were indeed outstanding; with just a little training, he could far exceed most ordinary people.
In sports.
As long as Sudo was not emotional, he was basically in an invincible state.
Even with Class A and Class B cooperating to form several high-combat-power groups, they could only barely contend with Sudo.
Asking for flowers 0
Moreover, Class C was also cooperating with Class D.
The strength of Horikita Suzune and that fellow called Onodera was also not weak.
Indeed, they couldn't win.
As the team competition events proceeded, with Sudo's performance, the gap would only be further pulled apart.
...
After simply encouraging Ando Sayo and nodding to that fellow called Kitou, Hikigaya turned and left.
Outside Gymnasium No. 1.
Hikigaya opened the corresponding APP, flipping through the competition events, the participants for each event, and the competition results.
Hmm...
Although Shibata's performance seemed good, the situation was indeed not optimistic.
Hard strength was inferior to others.
No matter how hard Shibata and Ando Sayo worked.
Things that couldn't be won simply couldn't be won.
After all, this was reality, not a novel; even if Shibata became friends with the soccer ball and could kick a super-ball shot.
At most, he would probably only have an explosion in soccer...
Expecting Shibata to have an explosion was clearly impossible.
In these two years.
Sudo had indeed grown tremendously.
Now, not only was his athletic ability unmatched, but even his average academic ability was not necessarily weaker than his.
After some time.
Even if his academic ability was surpassed by Sudo, Hikigaya would not find it strange.
After all.
Given Sudo's level of effort—even memorizing words while on the road—his usual level of effort could be imagined.
The other party had worked so hard, so it wasn't strange that he grew so fast.
Clearly.
Sudo's talent in academic ability was also not bad.
If it were an ordinary person, even the talent for working hard to learn and absorb knowledge might not be this fast.
However.
Sudo's biggest problem was being prone to emotionality.
Although at their last meeting Sudo seemed to have grown a lot, Hikigaya also admitted he had indeed become excellent.
No longer impulsive like before.
Knowing how to care about the feelings of people around him.
Even if he didn't want to communicate with them, Sudo still stopped his steps to talk with them, and he wasn't even bought off by private points.
Indeed excellent.
Far more excellent than Miyake Akito, Yukimura, or even most people.
Hikigaya frankly admitted this point.
But how could it be so easy for a person to change?
Sudo was not born rational; by nature he was still prone to emotionality, and nature is not something that can be changed just because one says so.
He had only learned to restrain himself!
Thinking of this.
Hikigaya dialed the phone numbers of two people.