(A place to park your brain)
(A place to strengthen your poison resistance)
The bus heading to Advanced Nurturing High School was packed with students wearing red uniforms.
Dokuho Kouya boarded with the other freshmen. When he saw the blond guy sitting in the priority seat, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Good. He was in the same year as the protagonist.
Dokuho Kouya was a transmigrator who had arrived in this world more than ten years ago.
Back in elementary school, he'd heard about Advanced Nurturing High School from someone else. That was when he realized he'd transmigrated into the world of Classroom of the Elite.
Though people in the real world mocked Advanced Nurturing as a chaotic vocational school, in this world it was one of the country's top high schools, backed by the government.
The fact that students didn't have to pay tuition while enrolled was already enough to make parents across the island nation send their children there.
On top of that, the school advertised that after graduation, students could freely choose whichever university they wanted to attend or whatever job they wanted to pursue.
To those who didn't know the truth, getting into Advanced Nurturing meant you'd already secured half a successful life.
Kouya had read the original story, so he knew the school's promises were nothing but lies.
But given the three years of free tuition, he'd still chosen to study at Advanced Nurturing, since his family wasn't particularly well-off.
And, while he was at it, he could activate his system.
[Host detected participating in the story] [Popularity Character System successfully activated]
A cold voice rang in his mind, but to Kouya, it sounded sweeter than anything.
It was common for transmigrators to come with a cheat.
Some activated theirs as soon as they transmigrated; others had to wait more than a decade.
Kouya belonged to the latter group.
According to the system's requirements, it would only activate once he took part in the events of the original story.
"Good thing I'm in the same year as the protagonist, Ayanokouji," Kouya thought with relief.
If he'd been a year older than Ayanokouji, he might have had to attend school for a year before he could activate the system.
Luckily, he'd not only ended up in the same year as the protagonist, but on the very same bus.
What was happening now should be a classic scene from the original story.
Not giving up a seat to an old lady.
"First!"
"Woohoo! Let's get this new anime started!"
White comments appeared before Kouya's eyes.
According to the system, the world he lived in had become an anime, projected into another world.
In that world, Classroom of the Elite was an original anime.
As a result, viewers had no source material to refer to for what would happen next. They had no idea where the anime would go.
"The emotionless protagonist is pretty rare."
"The girl with long, straight black hair is so cute."
"She's my wife, so don't even think about it."
"That's nonsense. She's obviously my wife!"
The emotionless protagonist and the long-haired girl the viewers mentioned were presumably Ayanokouji Kiyotaka and Horikita Suzune.
According to the Popularity Character System, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was still the protagonist of this anime, and the camera would be on him most of the time.
Kouya, meanwhile, had to seize every chance to appear near the camera and show himself to the viewers, so he could gain popularity points.
He could use the popularity points he accumulated to exchange for abilities and skills through the system, strengthening himself.
Kouya's academic and athletic abilities would've made him stand out at an ordinary school.
But at Advanced Nurturing, full of monsters, he'd probably only manage to rank somewhere above average.
With help from the Popularity Character System, he might soon become stronger than Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, the White Room's greatest masterpiece.
"My popularity points are at zero. I have to take this chance to do something."
As Kouya considered what to do next, an argument broke out on the bus.
"Is something wrong with that blond guy? He won't give up his seat to an old person, and now he's running his mouth."
"The protagonist's a freak, too. With young people like you around, this country's doomed."
"We clearly don't see eye to eye. I'm dropping this."
The comments before him suddenly grew dense.
Kouya quickly snapped out of his thoughts and turned on comment filtering, leaving only a few important comments to scroll by.
"The viewers are actually bashing Ayanokouji? So they know what he was thinking in the original novel, too."
The anime adaptation of Classroom of the Elite had changed a lot of the original story.
In the first scene, the bus incident, the anime hadn't shown what Ayanokouji was thinking. The original novel, on the other hand, described his thoughts in detail.
To put it simply, Ayanokouji believed that although old people had contributed a lot to the country in the past, young people were more useful now, so they were more entitled to a seat on the bus.
If you didn't know that Ayanokouji was an emotionless, self-serving person, learning what he thought would make you think he was a freak. No wonder the viewers were so worked up.
"The protagonist glanced at the black-haired girl beside him."
"My wife will definitely give the old lady her seat, right?"
The viewers sent their comments, seemingly placing all their hopes on Horikita Suzune.
Unfortunately, the girl had no intention of giving up her seat, either.
In response to Ayanokouji's glance, she glared at him in annoyance, then did nothing else.
"I can't believe it. Are all the characters in this anime freaks?"
"Of course an original anime's story is bad. The characters look so good, but it's already turning viewers away just a few minutes in."
Seeing that Horikita Suzune hadn't acted either, the viewers grew quite unhappy.
Kouya watched the comments and decided it was time to act.
He didn't think he had much chance of succeeding, but he still had to give it a try.
Maybe this attempt would get the viewers to notice him?
Kouya walked forward and stopped in front of Ayanokouji.
"Excuse me, could you give your seat to the old lady?" Kouya asked with a smile.
"Why ask me?" Ayanokouji Kiyotaka replied in a flat voice, his expression blank.
"I'm willing to pay you a thousand yen." Kouya didn't answer the question. Instead, he pulled out a banknote.
"Sorry, I don't want to do that." Ayanokouji Kiyotaka shook his head.
He'd only have to stand up and give up his seat to get two—
A thousand yen. Surely plenty of people would be happy to do it.
But as someone who preferred to keep to himself, he didn't want to do anything that would draw attention.
"In that case..." Seeing that Ayanokouji had refused, Kouya wasn't disappointed. Instead, he turned to the ordinary male student sitting nearby. "Would you be willing to take two thousand yen and give the old lady your seat?"
As he spoke, Kouya took out another banknote.
At Advanced Nurturing High School, banknotes couldn't be used.
Even if he kept them, they wouldn't be of much use.
He might as well use them to make a good impression on the viewers.
"Rich bro, send me 50!"
"What rich bro? That's my husband!"
"This guy's so handsome. He's definitely an important character!"
"Could he be the real protagonist?"
"He's handsome and willing to pay someone to do a good deed. He's the one who should be the protagonist!"
Before you continue