Numbness

The canteen was packed during lunch break, with a long queue snaking through the Free Meal Set section.

This "spectacular" sight had been going on for days.

Horikita Suzune held her light meal tray, the cheap plastic feeling cold against her fingertips. The food on the plate was dull in color and bland in taste, its only label being "Free."

Her gaze swept across several tables crowded with Class D students.

Hirata Yosuke frowned, struggling to swallow the almost tasteless stew.

Beside him, several normally boisterous boys were now mechanically shoveling rice, their faces numb.

Being able to fill their stomachs seemed to be their only acceptable desire.

However, what truly dragged people into the abyss was never the emptiness of their stomachs.

Just as Horikita was about to sit in an empty seat in the corner, a deliberately lowered snicker drifted from not far away, loud enough for Class D to hear.

"Pfft... look, the epitome of 'nutritional balance'." Two Class B girls (Sakayanagi's Class) sauntered past Class D's area, their eyes scanning the meager meal trays, their lips curled in undisguised mockery.

"As expected of 'geniuses' who can blow through their points within a month of school starting. The whole school should come and learn from their 'boldness'."

A passing Class C boy stopped, his sense of superiority almost overflowing.

"Isn't that right? They couldn't even protect their classmates in a normal exam, directly 'helping' us save the effort of probing the rules. Being the bottom-feeders so 'diligently' is also a kind of talent."

These words made the already difficult-to-swallow food even harder to get down.

Horikita's fingers, gripping the edge of the tray, tightened silently, her knuckles turning slightly white.

Looking up, she met the gazes of more classmates who had quickly lowered their heads.

There was no angry counterattack, only a deeper bowing of heads.

The contempt and insults from other classes were merely superficial. More fatal was the self-doubt growing day by day within Class D.

A class judged as the worst from the start, repeatedly breaking the record for the bottom, even they themselves couldn't help but doubt.

Are we truly the hopeless "zeros" the S System judged us to be?

Promotion? That's just wishful thinking.

Despair had killed the last spark of fighting spirit.

Horikita forced herself to sit down and picked up her cutlery.

The food entered her mouth, tasteless.

The anxiety in her heart made her restless.

Problems piled up before her like mountains, and the morale of her classmates had long since plummeted to the bottom.

She wanted to do something, to change all this.

But as soon as the thought arose, it was followed by the cold reality—lack of ability.

This realization weighed heavily on her heart.

She couldn't find the key to the problem, couldn't see the direction to break free, and was completely lost even on where to start.

Solving problems? For her, at this moment, it was extremely difficult.

Her gaze swept over Hirata Yosuke, catching the deep worry for his classmates hidden in his eyes as he swallowed.

She noticed the boys mechanically eating rice, who only slightly raised their eyelids after the Class B girls had walked away.

Suppressed beneath that were bloodshot eyes.

They weren't unaffected.

It was just that the last shred of self-esteem and anger had been crushed by a greater sense of despair and powerlessness, scattered on the ground, leaving them without the courage to even pick up the pieces.

Class B and Class C could trample on Class D's dignity with impunity because they had the fortress built by "points," the "high position" temporarily granted by the S System.

But what did Class D have? Besides this glaring "zero," besides this meal that felt like charity, besides the humiliation and self-doubt that ran deep into their bones...

They were left with only this sliver of humble longing for a "normal" life, which they themselves despised, and an unspoken "unwillingness" towards their tormentors.

Horikita Suzune's gaze returned to the dull food in her own tray.

She didn't have the means to turn the situation around. What she possessed was Class D's desperate quagmire itself.

And... buried deep beneath this quagmire, the "unwillingness" that hadn't completely died.

As this thought emerged, it instantly illuminated a corner of her mind obscured by despair.

Yes, they were now a pile of loose sand, perceived as trash by others.

But while their current situation was desperate, perhaps despair itself was a kind of strength.

If the buried unwillingness could be re-gathered, it could be converted into motivation.

The pressure imposed by other classes now, if guided properly, could become an opportunity to forge Class D.

Lack of ability? Perhaps.

But sitting idly by and watching everyone (including herself) rot in this mire was absolutely not Horikita Suzune's choice!

Evening, Teaching Building bulletin board

The bulletin board displayed the latest class points for the first-years:

Class A: 1040 Points

Class B: 1033 Points

Class C: 838 Points

Class D: 0 Points

Students from Class B passing by stopped, their gazes lingering between Class A's glaring 1040 and their own class's 1033, their faces a mixture of unwillingness and determination.

The gap was narrowing, but Class A's position had yet to be reclaimed.

As for the students of Class D, they hurried past the bulletin board, their footsteps quick.

Horikita Suzune stood not far away, quietly observing it all.

That bright red "0" was still conspicuous.

But at this moment, deep within Horikita's gaze, a will born from unwillingness was quietly coalescing, awaiting an opportunity to act.