"Eh?"
Saiki's whole body froze for a moment, then he looked around and discovered that at this moment, right beside him, there was no one at all.
The entire playing field had been divided into two parts, one part was the offensive and defensive battle between Albert and Kohei, while the other part was the chasing battle between Sudo and Ryeun and the others.
And at this very moment, absolutely no one was paying attention to Saiki's existence, while Saiki was focusing his attention on controlling his psychic powers, for the moment forgetting entirely about the situation around him.
During the chase, Sudo had completely occupied the opponent's defense, and this gave Saiki a direct opportunity to knock over the pole.
With Sudo's shout, everyone present instantly focused their attention on Saiki.
'Damn it! Why has the situation turned out like this? Originally I really did intend to let the Red Team win, but I should only have been playing the role of an insignificant existence… yet now everyone's attention has shifted onto me."'
'What should I do… Damn it, I just now played around treating Sudo like a remote-controlled car, and completely ignored my own situation.'
'Should I deliberately fall down? No, if at this moment I put on some performance like tripping on flat ground, I'm afraid my classmates' degree of dislike toward me will directly surpass that for the Doctor and Saru, Takabaraji, and might even reach the level of possible school bullying.'
'At that time my desk drawer will be stuffed full of all sorts of trash, and it would even let a guy like Ryuen take advantage of it.'
"At this point, it seems there's no room left for any other choice…'
Saiki knew that if he did not successfully knock down the wooden pole, then his high school life was probably finished.
[We must win!]
[Saiki, everything is in your hands!]
[What, there's still a person over there?]
"Isn't this the most cliché scene in sports anime?"
The corners of Saiki's mouth slightly raised, and then he quickly walked to the front of the wooden pole.
'Yare yare, everyone in the class is putting in so much effort… well, there's nothing to be done about it then, it's better if this match is won smoothly.'
Saiki stretched out both hands, pretending to be struggling greatly, and directly pushed over the White Team's wooden pole.
Red Team victory.
"Awesome, Saiki!"
The members of the Red Team rushed forward all at once, surrounding Saiki completely.
"Saiki-kun… amazing…"
Sakura, who had been watching from the side, crossed her hands over her chest, and a smile could not help but appear on her face.
"Not bad at all, Saiki!"
On the other side, Kushida also spoke with a smile.
And at this moment, Saiki's face did not have the slightest trace of joy.
'Although we won, I can't feel happy at all… I took the risk of attracting even more attention from people.'
Saiki thought this in his heart, while his gaze turned toward Ryeun.
[Damn it, damn it, how could I possibly lose!]
Ryeun was kneeling on the ground, pounding the ground with an expression full of frustration.
'Although this line is just as cliché, the moment you decided to use methods that violate sportsmanship in the match, you had already lost.'
Saiki answered so in his heart.
If Saiki had not acted, the Red Team would not only have lost, but quite a few people might have gotten injured as well.
[No no no, there's no way I could have lost…]
'Even if you were planning to use dirty tricks to play, you couldn't guarantee you'd win one hundred percent… so why does Ryuen look so surprised?'
[Yesterday I even deliberately had someone secretly reinforce our wooden pole! Even Albert couldn't possibly knock it down!]
[That guy called Saiki, he clearly looks so skinny and weak, yet he knocked it over so easily?! How is that possible?!]
"???"
Countless question marks floated up in Saiki's mind, and he immediately turned his gaze to that wooden pole, sure enough, there were traces showing it had been reinforced.
'Damn it, you actually even used that kind of method?'
'Crap, if other people find out that I knocked down a wooden pole that had already been reinforced beforehand, I'll definitely get into a lot of trouble again!'
Saiki's mind spun rapidly, thinking of a way to resolve the situation, while Ryeun at that moment was walking quickly toward the wooden pole with a puzzled face.
At the critical moment, Saiki immediately used his restoration ability to return the wooden pole to the state it had been in one day ago, all traces on it vanished without a trace.
A few seconds later, Ryeun had already arrived in front of the wooden pole, but his face showed an expression of extreme shock.
[The reinforcement traces are gone?! How can that be?!]
[Yesterday I clearly saw with my own eyes this wooden pole being reinforced!]
[Could it be… they already saw through my plan and re-set up our team's wooden pole?!]
Ryeun seemed to realize something, this was the only explanation, then angrily shifted his gaze from Saiki to Yamauchi Haruki in the cheering crowd beside him.
"You, you pulled a trick on me again…"
Blue veins bulged on Ryeun's forehead, his eyes full of fury.
"I will definitely destroy you, Yamauchi Haruki."
And at this moment, Yamauchi Haruki had not noticed Ryeun's killing intent at all.
[Damn it, Saiki stole the credit! If it had been me, I would have been the one in the spotlight! Damn it, Saiki, what kind of luck do you have, so hateful!]
'In a certain sense, you could say this is deserved.'
Saiki thought so in his heart.
"Sorry… my fault…"
Albert slowly came to Ryeun's side, with an expression of deep guilt on his face, and also a trace of fear.
He was very clear that his own failure would definitely make Ryeun furious, and that he himself would surely be punished later.
If it were only about fighting ability, Albert would certainly be ahead of Ryeun, but Ryeun's terrifying offensives made Albert feel fear.
Albert felt that even if he knocked down Ryeun, the other party would still stand up again and again, and eat him away bit by bit.
"What exactly happened, Albert?"
Ryeun immediately questioned, with a hint of killing intent in his voice.
Clearly, Albert had taken one point with ease at the start, but why was it that in the end he still could not win the match?
"I don't know why… I just couldn't push down that wooden pole…"
"What?"
Ryeun's brows twitched, as if realizing something, and he quickly raised his hand to signal the teacher acting as referee to come over.
"Teacher, I want to check whether the Red Team's wooden pole is normal!"
Ryeun guessed in his heart, could the Red Team have used the same method as himself, tampering with the pole, which was why Albert couldn't succeed?
The referee teacher quickly came to the site, and with a slight push, the tall wooden pole immediately fell, the process was very smooth.
"There is no problem at all."
"Is that so? I understand…"
Ryeun nodded. Although he felt a bit unwilling, he could only accept this reality.
[No tampering… how can that be…]
[How could Albert not be able to push down that wooden pole… could it be Albert betrayed me? No, impossible…]
[Or maybe Class A's defenders this time successfully restrained Albert… but why exactly…]
Ryeun simply could not figure it out.
And in the crowd surrounding Saiki, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was observing Saiki.
[Just now, I kept watching Saiki, his position never moved from beginning to end. When everyone's attention was drawn away by Sudo, Saiki's position was the best attack point. Was it that he thought of this, which is why he didn't move at all?]
'I didn't think about it that much…'
[In theory, this match should have ended with a crushing defeat for the Red Team, but the result was completely different.]
[Sudo even displayed ability beyond what I had imagined. Saiki chose to let the Red Team win, does he have some plan?]
'I just didn't have any other choice, and didn't want Ryuen to win, that's all.'
Saiki answered in his heart with some helplessness.
And outside the field, a boy was watching all of this from afar.
Horikita Manabu.
As a student of Class 3-A, in this sports festival, he and Saiki were considered to be on the same team.
'This guy, did he see through both sides' strategies, and so deliberately stood in the middle without moving?'
'All the other attackers went to support that Sudo, but this person stayed in place the whole time. It looks like just good luck, but in reality, he probably already anticipated how the situation would develop… I remember that person's name, it should be Saiki, right?'
Horikita Manabu pushed up his glasses, eyes locking onto Saiki, and slowly said, "Interesting."
After finishing the pole-toppling competition, Saiki temporarily did not have other events, so he could rest for a bit.
However, even during the rest period, the "trouble" around Saiki was not small.
"Saiki, you did great at the end!"
"Such good luck! I didn't expect you, Saiki, to actually be in that spot!"
"It's thanks to you, Saiki! Our Red Team was able to win."
Because of the outstanding performance just now in the competition, Saiki received not a small amount of attention in the class, and even throughout the whole school. Quite a few girls surrounded him, asking questions left and right.
"I was just lucky, that's all, it was the result of Sudo and the others' efforts."
Saiki could only answer with such a reason, while inwardly slightly complaining about the current situation, 'Yare yare, this is really troublesome…'
[That damn Saiki, how can his luck be this good! So many girls surrounding him… I'm so jealous…]
The inner voice of Yamauchi Haruki, without the slightest concealment, was transmitted into Saiki's mind.
"Saiki, you did great!"
And at this time, Karuizawa directly pushed her way out from within the crowd of people, going straight to Saiki's side, smiling as she spoke to him.
The distance between Karuizawa and Saiki was extremely close, in this kind of situation, it was as if she was declaring some sort of ownership.
'Speaking of which, I've even forgotten when you changed how you address me, was it last chapter or the chapter before last?' Saiki asked in his heart.
"Saiki, you saw me in the competition just now, right!"
Karuizawa asked with some expectation, her expression one of waiting for praise.
"Mm…"
Without any thought, Saiki nodded his head. Although in reality his attention just now had been entirely elsewhere, Saiki had still used his telepathy ability to know what had happened just now, "Third place, that's already really good. I'll go to the bathroom for a bit, I'll come back later."
In order to avoid even greater trouble from happening, Saiki decided to first leave the current place and go somewhere else to hide for a while.
However, after just walking a few steps, Saiki heard those few unfamiliar girls start chatting with Karuizawa.
"May I ask, are you Saiki's girlfriend? You two seem very close."
"Haha!"
Karuizawa responded to them with a smile.
'What the hell are you laughing for? Deny it already?!'
"As for the current situation~ right now, temporarily, I'm not~"
After one second passed, Karuizawa deliberately used a meaningful tone and vague, ambiguous words that could easily be misunderstood, and said them to the others.
"…"
Saiki felt a bit helpless, but right now he was also not in a good position to deal with Karuizawa's matter, and could only walk straight in a certain direction.
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