Numb

In the cafeteria during lunch break, a long line had formed at the Free Meal Set counter.

This "spectacular" sight had persisted for days.

Horikita Suzune carried a tray that felt weightless. The cheap plastic was cold against her fingertips. The food on it looked dull and tasted bland. Its only label was "free."

Her gaze swept over several tables crowded with D-class students.

Hirata Yosuke frowned as he struggled to swallow a nearly tasteless stew;

beside him, a few boys who were usually loud merely shoveled rice into their mouths mechanically, their faces numb.

Being able to fill their stomachs seemed to be the only wish they were allowed to have.

But it was never an empty stomach that truly dragged people into the abyss.

Horikita was just about to sit at an empty seat in the corner when a deliberately muffled snicker drifted over from nearby, loud enough for the D class to hear.

"Pfft... look at them, the very picture of a 'balanced diet.'" Two girls from B class (Sakayanagi's Class) strolled past the D-class tables, surveying the meager trays with undisguised scorn tugging at their lips.

"No wonder these 'geniuses' managed to blow through all their points in the first month of school. The whole school ought to learn from their 'courage.'"

A C-class boy passing by stopped, his sense of superiority practically spilling out of him.

"Right? They couldn't even protect their classmates during a regular exam. They 'helped' us by saving us the trouble of testing the rules. They're so 'dedicated' to coming in last—might as well call it a talent."

His words made the already hard-to-swallow food even more difficult to choke down.

Horikita's fingers tightened silently around the edge of her tray, her knuckles paling slightly.

When she looked up, she was met with even more classmates quickly lowering their eyes.

There was no angry retort, only heads bowing even lower.

The contempt and insults from other classes were only the surface. More deadly was the self-doubt growing day and night within D class.

A class deemed the worst from the start had broken its own record for coming in last time and again. Even they couldn't help but wonder:

Were we really the bunch of hopeless "zeros" that the S System had judged us to be?

Moving up a class? It was a pipe dream.

Despair snuffed out the last of their fighting spirit.

Horikita forced herself to sit down and pick up her utensils.

The food had no taste.

The anxiety inside her left her unable to sit still.

Problems piled up before her like a mountain, and her classmates' morale had long since hit rock bottom.

She wanted to do something to change everything.

But the moment the thought arose, cold reality followed close behind: she wasn't capable enough.

The realization weighed heavily on her heart.

She couldn't find the heart of the problem or see a way to break through. She was even at a loss as to where to begin.

Solving the problem? At that moment, it seemed incredibly difficult.

Her gaze passed over Hirata Yosuke, catching the deep concern for his classmates in his eyes as he swallowed.

She noticed that the boys who had been mechanically eating only lifted their eyelids slightly after the B-class girls had walked away.

Beneath them were bloodshot eyes.

They weren't without feeling.

It was just that their scant remaining pride and anger had been crushed beneath a far greater sense of despair and helplessness, scattered across the ground with not even the courage left to pick them up.

B and C class could trample D class's dignity without restraint because they had fortresses built of "points" and the "higher standing" temporarily granted them by the S System.

But what did D class have? Apart from that glaring "0," apart from these meals handed out like charity, apart from the humiliation and self-doubt that had seeped into their bones...

All they had left was this tiny, self-loathing yearning for a "normal" life—and an unspoken "resentment" toward their tormentors.

Horikita Suzune's gaze returned to the dull lump of food on her tray.

She had no means to turn the tables. What she had was D class itself, this quagmire of despair.

And... buried deep beneath that quagmire, the "resentment" that had not yet completely died.

The thought appeared, instantly lighting a corner of her mind that despair had shrouded.

That was right. They were a disorganized mess now, good-for-nothings in other people's eyes.

Their current situation was certainly desperate, but perhaps despair itself could be a source of strength.

If their deeply buried resentment could be gathered together again, it could be turned into motivation.

The pressure other classes were putting on them now, if properly channeled, might become an opportunity to forge D class.

Was she incapable enough? Perhaps.

But sitting idly by and watching everyone—including herself—rot away completely in this quagmire of filth was not a choice Horikita Suzune would ever make!

At dusk, the bulletin board in the Teaching Building

The latest Class Points for the first-year classes had been posted on the bulletin board:

Class A: 1040 points

Class B: 1033 points

Class C: 838 points

Class D: 0 points

B-class students passing by stopped, their eyes shifting between the eye-catching 1040 for Class A and their own class's 1033. Their faces were a mix of resentment and determination to claim victory.

The gap was closing, but they had yet to reclaim Class A's position.

Meanwhile, D-class students avoided the bulletin board and hurried on.

Horikita Suzune stood some distance away, quietly watching everything.

That bright red "0" was still striking.

But deep in Horikita's eyes, a will born of "resentment" was quietly gathering, waiting for the right moment to act.