Cooperation

"A wise choice."

Seeing Ichinose sign, Hoshino Kanade breathed a sigh of relief. Her grand undertaking of accumulating points had taken its first step.

"What's next?"

After the ritual-filled preparations, the following matters were the true purpose of this meeting.

"As I said before, only Class A can obtain the employment or further education guarantees advertised by the school."

"The school assigns students to different classes based on 'strength.' Class A is the strongest, and Class D is the weakest."

"Class points are the standard for measuring 'strength.' When Class B's class points exceed Class A's, Class B will become Class A."

She watched Ichinose's gaze fixated on the desk, her brow furrowing and then unfurling, her fingers unconsciously twining her hair. She was likely in the process of thinking.

"How is it? Do you need time to understand?"

"No, I understand," Ichinose quickly consumed and applied the information she had just received.

"But in that case, our two classes should be in a hostile state, right? Why are you telling me this?"

"I have no intention of ascending to Class A with Class D."

"You mean..." Ichinose seemed to understand something as well.

"Your teacher must have also said that points can buy anything, right? Twenty million points can directly buy into Class A."

In fact, Hoshino Kanade didn't think 20 million was worth an A-class slot for herself. If she wanted to pursue further education, she could study for it herself. If she wanted to enter her ideal enterprise, she could still work part-time.

"The next step is the content of our cooperation. You need to sign the following contract before we can proceed."

Writing and communication cooperation, read as information exchange.

She had given Ichinose so much information for free earlier. If Ichinose chose not to sign the contract, perhaps in a few days she would have deduced most of it herself.

However, given Ichinose's character, after utilizing Hoshino Kanade's information, she would likely send over the points without authorization.

She wasn't afraid of not earning points.

Ichinose took the contract. It was written in detail, summarizing to: 2 million points for the content of the first assessment.

It was only the fourth day of school, and it could be said that no class had yet realized the importance of collecting individual points from classmates as class funds.

Ichinose's student ID currently only had 88,488 points. Even upon seeing 2 million points, she wanted to flee this sad place immediately.

Fortunately, the contract's terms were extremely lenient. She could pay another 2 million a month later, or if she felt the information wasn't worth the price after a month, she could pay points according to her own judgment.

It was full of sincerity and trust.

Ichinose wasn't blinded by the sincerity. After a moment's thought, she couldn't find any reason to refuse. Hoshino Kanade had given her the initiative. If she were unscrupulous, she could even get Hoshino Kanade's information for free.

The feeling of being trusted warmed Ichinose's heart. No wonder Hoshino Kanade could make a girlfriend in two days.

"Pleasure cooperating with you."

Ichinose smiled brightly and extended her hand for a social handshake to Hoshino Kanade.

"Pleasure cooperating with you."

Her palm felt soft and warm. If Kiyona's hand was a "blade forged from moonlight," then Ichinose's was "silk woven from morning dew."

Regarding the transaction with Ichinose, Hoshino Kanade's original plan was to take points with one hand and exchange information with the other. But seeing Kushida making friends everywhere daily, she suddenly realized.

Currently, Class A and Class C were still competing for leaders and hadn't realized the importance of the class as a whole. They definitely hadn't collected their classmates' individual points.

It was even possible that Ryuen was ambushing Albert while he was using the restroom.

If the conditions weren't relaxed, the transaction wouldn't happen at all.

The contract was hastily modified by Hoshino Kanade the night before the transaction. She had pondered for a long time but couldn't think of a good solution.

Finally, considering that the other party was Ichinose, she decided to yield the initiative completely.

Fortunately, the transaction was successfully concluded in the end.

After this, she would have to rethink her approach to transactions with Class C, choosing the right time. It was too difficult.

As for transactions with Class A, she could only say, "Maybe next time."

Slacking off is great. After Hoshino Kanade finishes her transaction with Class C, she'll have a good slacking session too.

Looking at her classmates in Class D sleeping during class or passing notes, while she still had to read, Hoshino Kanade felt intensely envious.

Although Hoshino Kanade also passed notes in class sometimes.

Perhaps Kiyona had learned from other classmates. They were passing notes back and forth to communicate.

Hoshino Kanade could only say, as long as Kiyona liked it.

Well, this kind of school life was also quite good, but unfortunately, it wouldn't be visible after the first month.

"What's for lunch today?"

Besides thinking about how to earn points, what to eat every day was the biggest problem.

With Hoshino Kanade suffering from decision paralysis and Kiyona being indecisive (she didn't care what she ate), Hoshino Kanade ultimately had to step up.

"I heard the cafeteria has a new dish today."

"I have no opinion."

"Jimo Double Fresh Rice Bowl, with squid ink rice as the base, topped with Teriyaki Squid and Pan-fried Crucian Carp Slices."

The squid ink had a slight briny taste, with a little lemon juice added to remove the fishiness and enhance the freshness. It sounded quite reasonable.

The dark color of the squid ink rice contrasted with the reddish-brown of the teriyaki squid and the golden yellow of the pan-fried crucian carp slices. Garnished with green onions and white sesame seeds, the visual effect was also quite pleasing.

Such an exquisite dish, yet it only cost 1123 points. It was simply too cost-effective.

Hoshino Kanade gazed at the dish, and a lyric suddenly surfaced in her mind:

"That day's squid, squid up.

That day's Jimo, Jimo up."

With the new dish available, students were willing to try it. Hoshino Kanade and Kiyona waited in a long line before they could buy it.

"I'm starting" ×2

The meal passed in silence.

In reality, no matter how exquisite the appearance, it couldn't hide the inexplicably strange taste and combination.

It was more like a fusion experiment that broke tradition.

Edible squid ink itself had a slight briny taste, which clashed with the freshwater sweetness of the crucian carp.

Although lemon juice was added to adjust for the squid ink's properties, too much lemon juice could damage the structure of the crucian carp protein, making the meat tough and losing its freshness.

Considering the target audience and the price, the quality of the squid ink used wasn't very good, resulting in a stronger briny taste and excessive lemon juice.

More importantly, besides the squid ink, both the teriyaki squid and the pan-fried crucian carp slices had lemon juice added.

Adding a moderate amount of lemon juice to squid and crucian carp could indeed enhance their freshness, tenderness, and flavor profile.

But was adding lemon juice to everything too much? Was this lemon absolutely necessary?

The final taste was unforgettable: the fish meat bobbed in the sour juice, the fishiness and sweetness battled each other, and the remnants of taste lay at the bottom of the plate.

It could only be said that the chef's execution was very poor. This was a very failed dish, and it wasted so much lemon juice and ingredients.

Looking at the reactions of the surrounding students, most of them had troubled expressions. It was unlikely they would try it again.

However, some students expressed that the taste of the food didn't matter; they liked any dish made by that particular chef.

It seemed their taste buds were ruined by eating, beyond saving.

It was worth mentioning that because Kiyona ate the squid ink, her teeth were stained. She said she would go back to the dormitory first after school, so Hoshino Kanade would have to go to the library alone that afternoon.