Hidden Rules, Horikita Suzune's Questioning, 1.6 Million Points!

After adding Sakayanagi Arisu as a friend, Dokuho Kouya returned to his dormitory room and recorded the missing daily necessities in his phone's memo app.

Shortly after, he took the elevator to the first floor and sent a message to Sayo Ando.

"Sorry, I'm coming down right now!"

A few minutes later.

The young girl ran out from the stairwell, slightly out of breath, sweat beading on her pretty face.

Sayo Ando wiped the sweat from her face, "There were just too many people using the elevator, and I was afraid of keeping Kouya-kun waiting too long, so I took the stairs."

Although there were only about 480 students living in the Advanced Nurturing dormitory building, there were only two elevators provided.

If one happened to hit the peak hours, it would indeed take a long time to get a turn to use the elevator.

"If you were worried, Sayo-san, you could have just explained the situation to me; I don't mind waiting."

Dokuho Kouya said softly, "There was no need to rush, even if you were taking the stairs. If you had accidentally tripped and fallen, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble."

Hearing this, Sayo Ando's cheeks flushed slightly, and she smiled with some embarrassment, "I'm sorry, it seems I made Kouya-kun worry."

"It's fine."

Dokuho Kouya led the girl toward the convenience store near the dormitory building.

Accompanied by the clerk's formulaic "Welcome," the automatic sensor door slowly opened. As soon as Dokuho Kouya stepped into the convenience store, he saw white bullet comments appearing before his eyes.

"Sakuta-shishou is subbing in!"

"Saying such smooth lines with a deadpan face, this protagonist is quite something!"

Seeing the bullet comments appear, Dokuho Kouya immediately realized that he had entered the plot, and that Ayanokouji, the protagonist, was nearby.

"Kouya-kun, is something wrong?" Noticing the boy's strange behavior, Sayo Ando asked curiously.

"Sayo-san, how about we split up and do our shopping separately?" Dokuho Kouya suggested.

"I mean, I guess that's fine." Sayo Ando looked a bit puzzled, "But why would you suddenly want to shop alone, Kouya-kun?"

Could it be that Kouya-kun didn't want to be seen with her?

Thinking of this, the girl felt a bit dejected inside.

"I considered that since you're a girl, Sayo-san, there might be some things that are inconvenient for a boy to see," Dokuho Kouya explained. "For the sake of your privacy, it's better if we split up."

"So that's it." Upon learning that the boy was actually looking out for her, Sayo Ando felt a surge of joy, and her sadness instantly dissipated, "Then I'll see you in a bit."

"See you in a bit."

After the girl left, Dokuho Kouya hurriedly activated the system to watch what had just happened through the animation perspective.

It turned out that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka and Horikita Suzune were also shopping in this convenience store.

In order to have more topics to discuss with Horikita, Ayanokouji had recommended hair removal cream to her, suggesting it could remove things like underarm hair.

In the original novel, Ayanokouji had just come out of the White Room and was unfamiliar with the social norms of ordinary high school students, which was why he was prone to making a fool of himself early on.

Recommending hair removal cream to Horikita Suzune, a girl, was one such instance.

"It's time to farm some popularity points."

Dokuho Kouya walked around the convenience store and soon spotted the black-haired girl and the brown-haired boy.

After preparing himself, Dokuho Kouya slowly walked up to Horikita Suzune and said, "You've been specifically picking out items with lower prices since just now."

"May I ask the reason for doing so?"

Horikita Suzune, who was in the middle of selecting items, paused, then frowned as she looked at the refined boy beside her, "If you're trying to pick me up, that's truly too foolish. I don't have any obligation to answer you, do I?"

"Money Brother is here?"

"My face-replacement has finally appeared!"

Looking at the flowing white bullet comments before him, Dokuho Kouya knew he had appeared in the audience's field of vision.

Next, he needed to show off his own abilities.

"I was just curious if you had discovered the school's hidden rules, so I came over to ask."

Dokuho Kouya smiled, "But looking at the current situation, it seems you are just being frugal."

Hidden rules?

Hearing this, Horikita Suzune's movements stalled, and she knitted her pretty brows, "It's hard to believe how you could judge that I haven't discovered the school's hidden rules based on just one sentence."

"Perhaps I am the one who has seen through it, which is why I specifically chose items with lower prices."

She was fishing for information.

When she received the 100,000 points, she had vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

But it had only stopped at that level.

She hadn't been able to dig any deeper into the school's secrets.

Now that she saw Dokuho Kouya might know about these so-called hidden rules, she had to find a way to extract information from him.

"Not quite." Dokuho Kouya held up a finger and shook it, smiling mysteriously, "Through our brief contact just now, I've roughly understood your personality; it's clear that you are a rather cold person who dislikes interacting with others."

"Based on your personality, if you truly knew the school's secret, you would have gone silent and stopped answering my questions by now."

"Yet, you are communicating with me using vague statements, which shows that you are indeed aware of the existence of hidden rules, but you don't know the specifics. That is why you want to use a facade to extract more information."

After hearing the boy's statement, Horikita Suzune furrowed her brows, her pretty face turning unsightly.

"It seems I guessed correctly," Dokuho Kouya smiled with satisfaction.

"According to your logic, it's also possible that you don't know the rules at all and are just trying to fish for information from me, isn't it?" Horikita Suzune retorted coldly. It sounded logical, but it felt more like she was just being stubborn.

"Are you asking me to provide proof?"

"That's right. If you can't produce evidence, then it just means you're all show—a fraud pretending to know about the hidden rules." Horikita Suzune stared at him sharply, her expression serious.

Dokuho Kouya paused. "If I were to state the hidden rules I already know, that would indeed serve as evidence."

"But if I did that, you would obtain the information you want without paying any price, and I would end up being the sucker."

"So you can't produce any evidence, then?" Horikita Suzune said. "It seems you're just a guy who likes to bluff, with nothing more than a slightly keen intuition."

"I can certainly produce evidence, but I don't need to prove it by telling you the hidden rules." Dokuho Kouya took out his Student Terminal and opened his personal information interface.

Dokuho Kouya.

Class 1-B.

Points: 1,600,000.

If he were an ordinary transmigrator, he would definitely hide his points tightly so that no one else would know.

However, he was bound to the Popularity Character System.

It was necessary to show off in front of the audience.

"How much?"

"1.6 million points?!"

"The protagonist and the others haven't even been in school for long, right? Money Brother has so many points in the blink of an eye!"

"Money Brother is awesome! He does things we can't do with such ease!"

"Money Brother isn't just good at spending money; he's also great at making it."

"Money Brother, V me 500,000, I'll do anything."

As Dokuho Kouya revealed his points, the barrage of comments surged like a tide before his eyes, instantly becoming so dense it was dazzling.