Just Want to Be a Slacker

Horikita Suzune was not in a good mood. About a month ago, she had obtained a piece of information from Kamio Tatsuya.

This school divided classes by rank: Class A was the elite, while Class D was full of bottom-feeders.

Though she had been thoroughly shocked at first, she quickly came to doubt the information.

How could Class D be all bottom-feeders? Wasn't she excellent herself?

She was a confident person, believing herself to be outstanding, and that conviction had never wavered.

Over the past month, she had witnessed the absurdity and audacity of Class D's students, yet she still saw no issue.

She simply thought that every class had its share of unruly individuals—perhaps even a majority of them.

And hadn't things been fine at the start?

But as the teachers adopted a hands-off, laissez-faire policy, the students in the class grew more and more unrestrained. All of this was the teachers' responsibility.

What she hadn't expected was that this was the school's test for the students.

The result now was that she didn't have enough money for her meals.

She was currently troubled over how to cover her food expenses for the month. Was she really going to have to eat the free Mountain Vegetable Set?

It wasn't that she found eating the Mountain Vegetable Set shameful.

The real issue was—what if her brother happened to see her?

That was what worried her.

The last thing she wanted was for her brother to witness her in a state of decline.

She recalled that the school seemed to provide free ingredients. She'd go check it out after class.

"At least tell us the detailed items for the point increases and decreases... as a reference for the future."

Hirata wore a reluctant expression. He remembered Kamio Tatsuya's words clearly: evaluations could change.

Even if they were at zero points now, as long as they worked to improve their evaluation, the points should increase, right?

"Good thinking, but according to school rules, the detailed review content cannot be disclosed to you.

Just like when you enter society in the future, whether or not to disclose the details of personnel evaluations is decided by the company. With that in mind, you should be able to understand somewhat."

Seeing the dejected students, Chabashira-sensei showed a faint smile for the first time today.

"Even if you start eliminating tardiness or private conversations from now on... assuming you manage to reduce deductions to zero this month, your points will neither decrease nor increase. Simply put, the points deposited next month will also be zero.

Conversely, no matter how many times you're late or absent, it won't matter—since your points are already zero. How about that? Isn't it great?"

"Ah..."

Hirata's expression grew even darker. He understood Chabashira-sensei's meaning well. This kind of statement would only weaken the students' motivation to improve classroom discipline.

Just then, he noticed his phone vibrate.

Checking a phone during class was undoubtedly a point-deducting offense. If another class had points, they certainly wouldn't do this.

So, was the message from a classmate?

He initially planned to ignore it, but then recalled Chabashira-sensei's words just now. Even if they broke the rules again, it wouldn't matter.

And at this moment, sending him a message might...

With a certain feeling, Hirata pulled out his phone in full view of everyone.

After seeing the content, Hirata was startled, then fell into hesitation.

"What's wrong, Hirata? Do you have another question?"

Looking at the anonymous message, Hirata's face struggled for a moment longer before he raised his head to Chabashira-sensei.

"Chabashira-sensei, even if we break school rules as much as we want, we won't lose points. But what about other classes that still have points? If they break the rules, will they lose points?"

Hearing Hirata's question, Chabashira-sensei immediately understood why he was asking.

Who?

Who had sent Hirata that message?

Chabashira Sae scanned the classroom but couldn't find the person.

"Before I answer that, can you tell me who just sent you that message? That's not a question your personality would come up with."

Hearing this, Hirata Yosuke gave a wry smile and then explained.

"Well, I don't know. It was an anonymous account."

An anonymous account. That had to be a Class D student. But who?

With no time to observe or think further, Chabashira-sensei first answered Hirata's question: "Of course. Breaking school rules will naturally result in point deductions."

So that's how it was. Kamio Tatsuya nodded.

It seemed that hitting zero points wasn't entirely a bad thing.

Most of Class D's students didn't understand why Hirata had asked that question, but some, based on the question and Chabashira-sensei's answer, began to piece things together.

"Alright, the chit-chat ends here. Let's move on to the main topic."

Chabashira-sensei said as she took out a thick white sheet of paper, spread it open, and stuck it onto the blackboard.

Written on it were the names of Class A through Class D, each followed by a number.

Class A: 994, Class B: 650, Class C: 490, Class D: 0.

"Wha—what is this?"

So this is what they call Class Points?

"This is a direct display of the school's evaluation of you," Chabashira-sensei explained. "At the start of the term, all four classes had 1,000 Class Points. This is how many you have left as of today."

"Wh-why do the other classes still have points? That's weird..."

Why would the other classes have points?

Of course it's because they didn't break the school rules, you idiot.

Faced with this kind of question, Chabashira-sensei couldn't be bothered to answer—it felt like it would lower her IQ. But since she was a teacher, she still had to explain the current situation.

"It seems you haven't been observing the other classes at all. Over this past month, all classes were evaluated under the exact same rules—absolutely fair and impartial.

Yet the result is this huge gap in points. That's reality."

"B-but why? How did the point difference end up so neatly divided?"

"Simple. This school divides classes based on student merit. The best students go to Class A.

Then Class B, then Class C. And you students of Class D are the worst of the lot—in other words, you're the most defective rejects. And true to expectations, you've acted exactly like the garbage you are."

Faced with this unreasonable class assignment rule, the Class D students seemed somewhat crushed.

Even Horikita Suzune was no exception. Although Kamio Tatsuya had told her the same thing before, she hadn't believed him at all.

Because afterward, she had observed the students in other classes, as well as those in her own.

She felt that she—and even many in Class D—were far stronger than students in other classes. For example, Hirata, Kamio Tatsuya, and herself.

So she had actually been holding onto a sliver of hope.

Hoping that the information Kamio Tatsuya had given her was wrong, and that he would refund her ninety thousand points.

She would rather believe the teachers were deliberately letting things slide than admit she wasn't that outstanding.

But then Chabashira-sensei came right out and confirmed everything Kamio Tatsuya had said.

Even so, she still didn't see herself as a defective reject, and even planned to confront Chabashira-sensei after school to demand a clear explanation.

Chapter 29: I Refuse to Fail the Exam!

Looking at the silent students before her, Chabashira-sensei raised both hands and clapped.

"But losing all your points in just one month is unprecedented even among past Class D students. Honestly, I have to admire you for pulling that off. Impressive, impressive."

Hey, you already said that once. No need to repeat it.

And in this quiet atmosphere, suddenly clapping is just putting mental pressure on certain students.

Sure, you're clapping your own hands, but from where I'm standing, it looks like you're slapping them in the face.

"So if our Class Points are zero, we'll stay at zero income forever?"

"Exactly. Quick on the uptake." Chabashira-sensei showed an approving expression.

This woman has a really nasty personality. Is she really a teacher?

Kamio Tatsuya seriously doubted it.

"But don't worry. You can still live at this school without points. Food and daily necessities are provided for free—your basic needs will be covered."

Kamio Tatsuya knew this well, because he had tried it on the very first day. Not just free daily necessities, but free food too.

But having gotten used to good food, the Mountain Vegetable Set would probably be hard for them to swallow.

It's easy to go from frugal to lavish, but hard to go from lavish to frugal.

That phrase perfectly sums up life in the first month versus life after it.

Damn, I want to laugh.

"...So we're just going to be looked down on by the other classes forever?!"

No, no, Sudo-kun. Even within Class D, most people look down on you. Don't get too full of yourself.

"That surprises me, Sudo. Even you care about face. Then work hard to raise your class's rank."

"Huh?"

"Class Points aren't just linked to your monthly allowance. This point value directly reflects the class ranking.

For example, if your Class Points right now were higher than Class C's—say, four hundred and ninety-one—then you would be Class C."

Most of Class D didn't understand what that meant. In their view, having points was enough—whether they were Class A or Class D didn't matter.

"Sensei, if that's the case, then we actually have a way to earn Class Points, right?"

"Sharp, Hirata. But I doubt you'll manage."

With that, Chabashira-sensei stuck another poster onto the blackboard, similar to the previous one. This time, it listed the names of everyone in Class D, each followed by a number.

Kamio Tatsuya also saw his own name, followed by a score of 51 points, placing him in the latter half of the rankings—not at the very bottom, but he couldn't tell if that would mark him as a poor student.

Kamio Tatsuya felt a bit embarrassed about this.

"This is the result of your last quiz. Seeing this almost made me laugh out loud. What exactly have you learned in the past nine years?"

Most of the class's scores hovered around sixty points, though there were high scorers too—like Horikita next to him, with ninety points, the highest in the class.

Besides Horikita's ninety, there were two others also at ninety: Kouenji and someone named Yukimura.

Kamio Tatsuya knew Yukimura—one of the few students who actually paid attention in class.

That's why Kamio Tatsuya had an impression of him, even knew his full name: Yukimura Teruhiko.

Kamio Tatsuya counted his rank: 27th in the class, just behind Ayanokoji's fifty points.

That guy's pretty lucky—scoring exactly fifty on a hundred-point test.

"How wonderful. If this were a real exam, seven of you would already be expelled just after the start of the semester."

Expelled? Expelled?

Kamio Tatsuya's eyelid twitched. What the hell?

"Expelled? Expelled? What's going on?!"

"What, I didn't mention it? This school's rule is that if you fail even one subject in the midterm or final exam, you're expelled. For this test, all students scoring below thirty-two points would be expelled. You really are quite foolish."

You're definitely saying this for the first time!

Wait...

Could it be that she said it during the week I was suspended?

Kamio Tatsuya glanced around at the other students' expressions—it didn't seem like it.

Looks like she really was saying it for the first time.