Just Want to Be a Slacker

A while later...

"Students of each class, please line up in two rows according to your class's designated area. First-year students, please line up based on where your homeroom teacher is positioned."

A male voice rang out from the speakers inside the auditorium. Hearing this, most students began to line up on their own. The first to move were the students at the easternmost end of the auditorium—judging by their height and weathered looks, probably third-years.

The slowest, naturally, were the first-years. Even with the homeroom teacher's instructions, they still dawdled.

After the lines were formed, Kamio Tatsuya, for personal reasons, stood at the very back row. To his right was a female classmate; to his left...

To his left was no one.

What's going on?

This side should be the second-year line.

Kamio Tatsuya's first-year Class D had forty people total, twenty boys and twenty girls. Split into two rows, that made twenty pairs.

And Kamio Tatsuya, standing at the very back, was the twentieth person. The row on his right was fine—twenty people—but the second-year class on his left had eighteen boys and nineteen girls.

Three people late? Or did they all have diarrhea at once?

No, that's unlikely.

Because from Kamio Tatsuya's position, it wasn't just the class adjacent to first-year Class D—even farther classes, all the way to the third-years at the end, weren't at full capacity.

Roughly counting, the missing people added up to nearly twenty.

It couldn't be that all of them had diarrhea or were late, could it?

Something's wrong...

Chapter 6: Starting to Act

Until the opening ceremony ended, Kamio Tatsuya never saw the missing upperclassmen show up.

"If I'd known I could skip the opening ceremony, I'd have just gone straight back to the dorm."

"Yeah, a lot of the upperclassmen didn't even come."

Hearing the chatter around him, Kamio Tatsuya felt speechless.

What the hell?

So you guys didn't notice the upperclassmen were short—you just thought those missing didn't want to attend the ceremony?

Looking around, the first-year students seemed remarkably accepting of the upperclassmen's absence. No one found their nonattendance suspicious.

Was I just overthinking it?

Kamio Tatsuya felt a bit out of step with his fellow first-years.

After the lengthy opening ceremony ended, the school announced free time for the students, and Kamio Tatsuya made his move.

For the question that had been nagging at him, he chose the simplest, most direct approach: ask the upperclassmen themselves. As classmates, they must know something, right?

Alright, find someone who looks easy to talk to.

Just then, a girl in a nonstandard uniform happened to walk past Kamio Tatsuya.

She had long orange hair, an orange top, and a sunflower hairpin clipped in her bangs.

Yeah, you'll do. You look approachable, and more importantly, you're pretty.

"Excuse me, senior. Sorry to bother you."

The girl, suddenly called out, looked at Kamio Tatsuya in surprise, then pointed a finger at herself in confusion.

"Are you talking to me?"

"Yes, beautiful senior." Kamio Tatsuya nodded affirmatively. "May I ask you a question?"

Hearing this, the girl didn't agree immediately. Instead, she sized Kamio Tatsuya up before speaking.

"You're a first-year, right?"

"Yes, I'm from first-year Class D. Kamio Tatsuya."

"Class D?" The girl's voice carried a hint of surprise, but she quickly masked it. "I'm Asahina Nazuna from second-year Class A. What does Junior Kamio want to ask?"

I can't believe the first person I approached is willing to answer. Lucky me.

Kamio Tatsuya silently marveled before voicing his doubt: "During the opening ceremony, I noticed that besides the first-years, even the second-year and third-year classes couldn't make it to forty people. What's the reason for that?

It's not that they all ate something bad, is it?"

He even chuckled at his own joke.

Hearing this, Asahina Nazuna laughed too.

"Junior Kamio's observation skills and initiative are truly top-notch, especially the initiative."

Naturally, Kamio Tatsuya wasn't the only one who noticed the missing upperclassmen, but he was the only one who directly sought out an upperclassman for answers.

That's why Asahina Nazuna praised his initiative.

"The answer is simple. They didn't eat something bad, and of course, they didn't have something come up. They left this school. In short, they dropped out."

"Dropped out?" For the first time, Kamio Tatsuya's face showed surprise. "With conditions this good at this school, they were willing to drop out?"

Asahina Nazuna smiled without speaking, as if she had no intention of delving deeper into that topic.

Noticing her expression, Kamio Tatsuya realized something—perhaps they hadn't withdrawn voluntarily.

That meant they were expelled. Had they violated school rules?

But with someone expelled from every class, could it really be a coincidence?

"Um, could you tell me why they were expelled?" Kamio Tatsuya said, glancing at the time. "It's almost noon, so I can treat you to lunch as thanks for answering my questions."

Asahina Nazuna had a good impression of this junior named Kamio Tatsuya. He was tall and handsome.

Even though he was a Class D student, the aura he gave off was nothing like the idiots in Class D.

If not for how inexperienced his approach was, she might have thought he wasn't even this age group.

"Sorry, junior, but Nazuna can't have lunch with you."

Just as Kamio Tatsuya extended his invitation, a male student's voice rang out.

It was a boy with blond hair, his features quite proper, but for some reason, Kamio Tatsuya found him irritating.

Still, he kept his position clear. Though he felt annoyed, he was new here and unfamiliar with everything—better to avoid making enemies if possible.

"Ya, are you done with President Horikita's matters?"

Asahina Nazuna turned sideways and greeted the boy named Ya beside her.

"Just some routine Student Council reports." The boy named Ya smiled, then looked at Kamio Tatsuya. "To have investigated this far in such a short time since enrollment, you're quite capable."

"Ah, you flatter me, senior."

"You're Kamio Tatsuya, right? I'm Nagumo Miyabi. Like Nazuna, I'm in second-year Class A. As for answering your question, Nazuna already did. As for more than that, we can't tell you for now."

Hearing this, Kamio Tatsuya's face showed a helpless expression.

"But Junior Kamio, if you can uncover the true nature of this school within a month, I can recommend you for Student Council membership."

Nagumo Miyabi smiled.

This, however, left Kamio Tatsuya at a loss.

Uh, what's the benefit of joining the Student Council?

I just want to quietly be a Water-Paddling Fish, not join some organization and start my wage-slave life early.

And this statement essentially told Kamio Tatsuya outright: this school is no ordinary place.

In truth, Kamio Tatsuya had already noticed the school was unusual, so Nagumo wasn't really leaking anything to him.

"Um, what are the benefits of joining the Student Council?"

"Heh, you'll find out when you join." Nagumo Miyabi smiled mysteriously, then pulled out his phone. "Let's exchange contact info. I'll be waiting for the day you uncover the truth."

[Quest Issued: Investigate the truth of the school and report it to Nagumo Miyabi or Asahina Nazuna.]
[Quest Reward: System Space Draw Count +1]
[Quest Penalty: None]

Though he had no interest in joining the Student Council, this Nagumo Miyabi was clearly no simple figure. Getting on his good side didn't seem like a bad thing.

As for disliking him—well, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests.

And even if one day they did come into conflict, it was better to know more about him than to face him blind.

Consider it infiltrating the enemy camp early.

Most importantly, the system had issued a quest.

This was the system's first quest—he had to complete it.

So Kamio Tatsuya took out his phone and exchanged contact info with Nagumo Miyabi.

Then Asahina Nazuna also came over and exchanged contact info with Kamio Tatsuya. In her words, how could she miss out on something this interesting?

Chapter 7: Free Meals Aren't So Bad Either

The earlier issue of upperclassmen shortages had been barely resolved, but it sparked a new problem: the truth of this school.

Though "sparked" might be better put as "triggered a side quest."

Quest content: Within one month, uncover the truth of this school and report it to Nagumo Miyabi.

Quest reward: Obtain a chance to be recommended by Nagumo Miyabi for Student Council membership.

And instinct told Kamio Tatsuya that to uncover the truth, the upperclassmen's Student Council was the breakthrough point. But based on Nagumo and Asahina's reactions, they'd definitely been gagged with some kind of confidentiality order.

As for the possibility that the two were deceiving or toying with him—after careful thought, he ruled that out too.

Kamio Tatsuya pondered the issue as he followed the new student group to the first-year dormitory building.

From the outside, the dormitory was a standard apartment building, over ten stories tall, with more than a dozen doors on each floor.

It could easily accommodate the one hundred sixty students of a single grade.

And not just boys—even girls entered the dormitory, meaning it was co-ed.

But as he queued for check-in, Kamio Tatsuya noticed that the girls' floors were the upper levels, while the boys were on the lower ones.

When it was Kamio Tatsuya's turn, he took out his phone, pulled up his student ID, and placed it on the sensor at the counter as the dormitory staff instructed.

"First-year Class D, Kamio Tatsuya, correct?"

The dorm manager read out his name.

"Yes."

After a simple identity check, she pulled a card from the drawer, performed a series of operations on the sensor, and then placed it on the table between them.

"Your dorm room is 404. The room uses a card-swipe lock, so please keep your key card safe. If you lose or damage it, you can come to me to report it and receive a spare key card."

Kamio Tatsuya took the card and examined it. It was a standard-issue card, the same size as a bank card—seems like that was a universal standard worldwide.

And judging by her actions just now, she must have loaded the room's data into the card, which was why it became the key to Room 404.

If other rooms' data could be written onto this card too, wouldn't that make it a master key?

Just to be safe, Kamio Tatsuya asked an extra question.

"Uh, the spare key won't easily fall into the hands of anyone other than the room's owner, right?"

"Normally, no, because spare keys are only made when needed."

"When needed—can anyone make them? You're not just handing out spare keys to some random stranger, are you?"

This was Japan, after all, and there were plenty of creeps here. Even a school wasn't necessarily safe. A guy out on his own had to protect himself!

"The room's owner or an official school staff member must be present—for example, your homeroom teacher."

I see. That raised the safety factor quite a bit.

With that understood, just as an elevator came down from upstairs, Kamio Tatsuya grabbed his key and the dormitory rulebook he'd received from the manager and hurried over to catch it.

Outside Room 404, he placed his key card on the sensor at the door handle. After a faint click, the door swung open.