On the fourth day, Shangguan Che's system reward arrived right on time—a plain, unremarkable notebook.
He weighed it in his hand and couldn't help sighing. "This really is an everyday sort of reward."
But the next second, he suddenly remembered the black pen he'd received earlier, which had come with no description at all. Looking at the notebook again, he noticed that its back cover was completely black.
An absurd thought flashed through his mind. "No way. Could the front really have the words 'DEATH NOTE' printed on it?"
He shook his head hard and prayed desperately in his heart. "Please, no! I don't want to run into detective L and that laughing Kami right now!"
After letting his imagination run wild for a while, Shangguan Che gritted his teeth and flipped the black back cover over to look at the front.
The moment he saw it, he breathed a sigh of relief—the cover was completely blank, without a single word.
"Looks like the system doesn't give descriptions for ordinary items that are easy to understand." He stroked his chin, feeling as if he'd figured out another rule of the system.
Then Shangguan Che went to class as usual.
Before long, it was time for English class. Shangguan Che had already mastered the entire English textbook and had the white skill English. As he watched the English teacher recite from the book at the front of the classroom, the thought I could take her place rose in his mind.
The class was so boring that he glanced around. Some students were secretly scrolling on their phones under their desks, while others passed notes whenever the teacher turned around. An uncontrollable restlessness welled up inside him.
"Huh? Does openly using your phone in class count as a way to toughen your nerve?"
As soon as the thought occurred to him, Shangguan Che's right hand involuntarily reached under his desk.
Fortunately, his reason returned in time. He yanked his hand back and berated himself inwardly. "Shangguan Che, have you lost your mind? Did you forget you have Clairvoyance?"
He immediately began reasoning it out in his head:
Couldn't my Clairvoyance let me "watch" movies for free? And I wouldn't have to risk "betraying my sect" (breaking classroom rules);
Couldn't I "watch" beautiful natural scenery in faraway places? Again, without "betraying my sect";
Couldn't I "watch" rare treasures from all over the world? Still without "betraying my sect"!
The more he thought about it, the smarter he felt. Shangguan Che cried out triumphantly in his heart, "In summary, I'm really clever! Sect, hurry up and praise me! I absolutely haven't betrayed you!"
At that moment, in his mind, an angel wearing golden Clairvoyance had decisively defeated the black demon urging him to play on his phone.
"Let's see if there's anything unusual about this school first." Shangguan Che focused and activated Clairvoyance.
He hadn't been looking for long before he started shifting the blame again. "Why did I only think of looking now? I suspected from the start that there was something unusual about this school. The world's will must have put a stupidity debuff on me. How vile!"
As he looked around, Shangguan Che's gaze suddenly stopped on the black-haired girl at the desk beside him, Horikita Suzune.
"What's she holding? A compass?" Shangguan Che immediately thought of a character from a famous light novel. "Senjougahara, was it? I didn't transmigrate into a high-school slice-of-life anime, did I? Could there be supernatural oddities like vampires too?"
Before he could figure it out, he saw the compass in Horikita Suzune's hand suddenly THUNK into Ayanokoji's right arm beside her, "kissing" it hard.
A vivid red mark appeared at once. Calling it a "mark of love" didn't make it any less vicious.
As for Ayanokoji, he didn't fight back at all. He merely furrowed his brow without changing expression and acted as if he were in pain.
Shangguan Che was stunned. "This guy's seriously tough! He's bleeding and still has a straight face. Even if the other person's a girl, most people would at least fake a move to make her think twice! Next time I draw a skill, I'll definitely need one that can protect me!"
Putting aside his thoughts about Ayanokoji, Shangguan Che expanded Clairvoyance to the other classes.
But after looking into a few classrooms, he realized something was wrong. "There's a problem—a huge problem!" Every student in the other classes was actually paying attention in class. They sat up straight and listened intently, a stark contrast to the disorder in Class D.
"This is ridiculous. It makes me look like some kind of lawbreaker."
He turned his gaze toward the second-year classrooms, and what he saw made his heart tighten even more. "Wait, were there really students who'd dropped out in the second year?"
There were four second-year classrooms, and none of the classes had a full forty students. They were clearly missing quite a few people.
Looking at the empty seats, Shangguan Che suddenly felt as if the once-a-day draw were desperately begging him for help.
The third year was much the same as the second. Only one class had forty students.
The classes weren't full, and the classroom discipline in every class, whether second or third year, was astonishingly good. Not a single person was slacking off; everyone was listening intently.
"Could the personal points the school gives out all be determined by the overall performance of each class?" A key theory took shape in his mind. "That's right, Chabashira-sensei did say there wouldn't be any class reshuffling during these three years."
Shangguan Che looked back at his classmates, who were still secretly playing on their phones and passing notes. Remembering how orderly the other classes were, he couldn't help wondering, "Is there something wrong with me, or is there something wrong with this school?"
It looked like he'd need to spend more time observing the place before he could figure out its true rules.
After searching carefully, Shangguan Che finally found a crucial clue in the student council president's records.
To his surprise, the Student Council kept a large amount of paper documentation. But when he thought about it, the Student Council had a secretary whose job included making written records, so it made sense.
Fortunately, his golden Clairvoyance skill was powerful enough that he could read the writing clearly, even with the documents stacked in layer upon layer.
"This skill is practically a cheat code." Shangguan Che marveled inwardly as his gaze swept quickly over the sheets of paper, important information pouring into his mind.
"Class Points multiplied by one hundred equals personal points?" When he saw this note, Shangguan Che's heart stirred. It seemed to answer his earlier question about how personal points were distributed.
Then he saw other key notes: "Rules of conduct for the first month" and "Special Exams can change Class Points."
There was simply too much left to go through. Perhaps because the school year had just begun, most of the documents were about clubs, piled together haphazardly without even being sorted.
"Never mind. I'll stop here for now. The most important thing is to think carefully about what I should do next." Shangguan Che looked away, no longer dwelling on the records.
He turned to look at his classmates. The first one he noticed was a blond boy with his legs casually propped up on a desk. Taking a closer look, wasn't this the burly student who'd hogged the priority seat on the bus at the start of the school year?
The boy was slouching around, completely disregarding classroom rules.
Beside him, a red-haired boy was sprawled over his desk, fast asleep, with what looked like drool at the corner of his mouth. He seemed nothing like the so-called "red-haired explosive youth" people talked about, yet he still gave off a dangerous air.
Shangguan Che sighed softly, a clear thought surfacing in his mind. "Sigh, looks like strength really does matter in this class."
The two students in front of him clearly weren't to be messed with. Although he had a system and special skills, when it came to hand-to-hand combat, he probably wasn't their match at all.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that if he wanted to make a place for himself in this unusual school, cleverness and system skills wouldn't be enough. He also needed to find a way to improve his own strength, at least enough to protect himself.
Otherwise, if he ever got into a fight with one of the class's "troublemakers," he'd probably be the one to suffer.
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