Just Want to Be a Slacker

Chapter 25: End-of-Month Mini Exam

After the swimming class ended, life returned to its daily routine, and the students of Class D grew increasingly unruly, with sleeping in class and loud chatting becoming commonplace.

Right now, for instance, Ike and Yamauchi were laughing and talking loudly in class, while Sudo nearby was sound asleep at his desk—impressive that he could doze off in such a noisy environment.

Thanks to that, the class had secretly dubbed these three the Three Idiots, shortened to the Three Fools.

Faced with this chaotic situation, the teacher lecturing at the podium showed no intention of stopping them at all.

Kamio Tatsuya even caught a hint of pity in the substitute teacher's eyes.

As for the nearby group of girls, they were already deep in heated discussion about their after-school plans.

Even with tardiness and early departures, the teacher said nothing; the students of Class D could be said to be in a state of complete freedom.

On top of that, there were the ten thousand Private Points issued by the school, making for a truly enjoyable life.

And enjoyable life always passed quickly; before they knew it, the end of the month had arrived.

Third period was Chabashira-sensei's social studies class, and as usual, she walked into the classroom right as the bell rang.

Yet even with the teacher already there, the classroom atmosphere remained a mess, the fervent energy undiminished.

But Chabashira-sensei paid no attention to this phenomenon either, causing Kamio Tatsuya to shake his head inwardly.

"Quiet down a bit. Today, I need you to take class somewhat seriously."

"Sae-chan-sensei, what's going on?"

Some students had already started addressing the teacher with this nickname, but even so, Chabashira-sensei showed no reaction at all.

In Kamio Tatsuya's view, Chabashira Sae's outward demeanor was very similar to Horikita Suzune's.

Imagine if one day someone called Horikita Suzune "Suzune-chan"... and she didn't react.

That would lead to only two outcomes. One: that person was already close enough to her, like her greatly admired older brother, Student Council President Horikita Manabu.

The other: when you called her that, she was already thinking about how to deal with you.

In the current situation, Kamio Tatsuya felt it was closer to the second type.

Though Chabashira-sensei probably wouldn't go so far as to kill the student who called her that, a little revenge was likely still on the table.

"Because it's the end of the month, we're having a mini exam. Pass the test papers to the back."

After dividing the papers into five stacks, she handed them to the students in the front row, and soon Kamio Tatsuya received his as well.

Taking it from the student in front, Kamio Tatsuya quickly scanned it and found it was a quiz covering the five main subjects.

"What the heck, we never heard about a test. That's sneaky."

As students, naturally they feared exams, so complaints were normal.

"Don't say that. This test is just for future reference; it won't be reflected on your report cards. Even a zero carries no risk, so feel free to do it, but cheating is prohibited."

Generally, grades only affected report cards; otherwise, exams would be meaningless.

And based on a month of observation, the school probably wouldn't do anything pointless.

That meant this test, though not reflected on report cards, wasn't without significance.

Kamio Tatsuya remembered that Chabashira-sensei had said at the start of the term that as a teacher, she couldn't lie—meaning everything she said was true.

But the real meaning was hidden in the words she had just spoken.

So the key point in that sentence wasn't "no risk," but rather... "for future reference"?

A bit complicated. Kamio Tatsuya decided to stop thinking there for now.

Then, Kamio Tatsuya began answering the questions.

Each subject had four questions, twenty in total, each worth five points, for a full score of one hundred.

But the content of the questions was very strange; some were so easy that even Kamio Tatsuya, who hadn't studied much, could answer them.

Yet the three questions on the back of the paper were clearly from another dimension.

Calculus had even shown up, which was obviously something a first-year high school student only a month into the term couldn't solve.

What the hell, in his previous life, Kamio Tatsuya hadn't even touched calculus until college.

And now it appeared on a high school student's test paper.

Wasn't that a joke?

But since it was an exam, he might as well give it his all.

When it came to exam-oriented education, Kamio Tatsuya was very familiar with it.

Even if I don't know the answer, I can still get it right.

By the end of the period, Kamio Tatsuya had done everything he could.

He estimated he'd score around fifty points.

No help for it—though some questions looked very simple, the foundation of his previous self was far too weak, especially in Japanese.

After the bell rang, Kamio Tatsuya handed his test paper to the classmate in front, who passed it up to the podium.

Then he stretched, loosening up thoroughly.

Ever since he'd punched Yamauchi in the classroom that day, quite a few people in the class had been keeping their distance from Kamio Tatsuya, if only subtly.

So for two weeks straight, Kamio Tatsuya had been eating lunch alone. Even Ayanokoji, whom he'd once invited, kept his distance.

"How pathetic."

Kamio Tatsuya turned his head. Horikita Suzune pulled a lunch box out of her desk drawer.

It still looked fairly generous, but compared to the start of the month, it had clearly become much more meager.

"Is that so? Someone whose meal budget is about to run out has no right to say that to me."

Hitting someone's face hurts less than exposing their weakness—what's the fun in that?

Kamio Tatsuya liked to rub salt in other people's wounds.

But by now, Horikita Suzune seemed somewhat used to his routine. She just took out her chopsticks and started eating on her own.

Ignoring me, huh? No problem. When you run out of points to buy ingredients and have to eat the Mountain Vegetable Set, I'll sit across from you with a lobster set meal.

I'll stink you to death, you idiot.

Maybe because it was the end of the month, the window for the Mountain Vegetable Set had quite a line, much longer than the other counters.

As usual, Kamio Tatsuya ordered a serving of fried pork cutlet rice.

Honestly, Japanese cuisine has quite a few things similar to Chinese food, like this fried pork cutlet rice.

If it were in China, it'd probably be called fried pork cutlet over rice.

Thinking about it, Kamio Tatsuya pulled out his phone, took a photo, and sent it to Horikita Suzune.

He added a line of text.

[The fried pork cutlet is really fragrant.]

He'd gotten Horikita Suzune's contact info when he sold her that information earlier.

Come to think of it, he'd sold her the info so early, and she still hadn't done anything.

What the hell was she up to?

Did she not trust the intel he gave her?

Chapter 26: Early May Stirrings

Early morning, under the overwork of his alarm clock, Kamio Tatsuya opened his eyes. Today was May 1st, the day the school distributed points.

Kamio Tatsuya rubbed his eyes, then opened the student ID page on his phone.

Student ID: S01T004915 Name: Kamio Tatsuya Birthday: October 2nd Affiliation: High-Spec Cultivation High School Private Points: 3,158,755 ppt

Unfortunately, even though the points looked like a lot, they were no different from when he'd gone to sleep last night.

In other words, Class D hadn't gained any points at all. As expected, their Class Points had dropped to zero.

It probably wouldn't go negative, since Kamio Tatsuya's own points hadn't been deducted.

After washing up, Kamio Tatsuya noticed an unread message on his phone.

It was from Sakayanagi Arisu—a thank-you letter, thanking Kamio Tatsuya for keeping his promise not to sell the info to Class B or Class C.

She'd also sent over the points that Class B and Class C had received.

Class B students each got 65,000 Private Points, and Class C students each got 49,000 Private Points.

By the way, you're really fast.

Even though it's intel on other classes, you managed to dig it up so quickly.

[Oh, let me tell you another thing—Class D didn't get any points. In other words, Class D's Class Points have hit zero. Happy?]

Seeing the message Kamio Tatsuya had sent, Sakayanagi Arisu, already seated in her classroom, furrowed her brow.

Was that sarcasm?

Of course it wasn't sarcasm. What was there to be angry about?

[Congratulations, but I'm not really happy. It's too boring this way. Actually, I was hoping Kamio-kun would give me a surprise.]

[You're overthinking it. I'm just an ordinary person; I can't pull off something as difficult as a surprise. And Class D's points hitting zero is nothing to congratulate.]

After replying, Kamio Tatsuya packed up and headed to school.

Even though the teachers didn't care about tardiness, Kamio Tatsuya figured that since he was a student now, he should act like one and do his job properly.

Being too indulgent wasn't a good thing.

Walking along the road, Kamio Tatsuya suddenly remembered something—he hadn't asked how many Private Points Class A had received this month.

He then pulled out his phone and sent a text to Kamuro Masumi.

[How many points did you receive today?]

A reply came back quickly.

[99400]

99400—so Class A's Class Points were 994 points, huh?

Tsk, was this the elite of Class A?

Absolutely terrifying.

After arriving at Class D, Kamio Tatsuya immediately noticed that today's atmosphere was distinctly different.

At first glance, it seemed as noisy as usual, but this time the commotion wasn't limited to just Yamauchi and Ike—quite a few other Class D students were also making a racket.

"Why haven't the points been distributed? Isn't today the first?"

"Exactly. I ran out of points ages ago. I've been eating the free Mountain Vegetable Set for several meals now, and the taste is just indescribable."

Kamio Tatsuya ignored them and sat back down in his seat. Spending one hundred thousand points in a month—he didn't know how to describe these people.

That was one hundred thousand. Many working-class salarymen in Tokyo just starting out didn't even have that much disposable income in a month.

Yet a bunch of high school freshmen had blown through that amount in a month or even less.

Sure enough, the school was too good to you.

Because it's free, you waste it, right?

"Did you receive your points?"

As soon as he sat down, Horikita Suzune on his left turned her head and asked.