Woman, You've Caught My Interest

Good.

Watching the popularity points on the system interface steadily rise, Dokuho Kouya smiled with satisfaction.

Just as he'd expected, his popularity points had changed after he showed off the points he had.

In the anime, he was only showing his points to Horikita Suzune.

In reality, though, he was showing them to the audience in the real world, demonstrating his strength.

"How did you do that?" Horikita Suzune's eyes widened. Her lips trembled slightly, and disbelief filled her voice.

She blinked her beautiful eyes, thinking she must have seen wrong, but even after checking again, the boy's points were unmistakably 1.6 million.

"Am I obligated to answer you?" Dokuho Kouya repeated Horikita Suzune's earlier words, a satisfied smile on his face.

Why had he risked offending the upperclassmen to win over a million points?

Wasn't it all so he could find a chance to show off his points in front of the audience and gain a huge amount of popularity?

He'd had remarkably good luck today. He'd happened to run into Horikita Suzune and the others while shopping at the convenience store, and soon found a chance to demonstrate his strength in front of the audience.

Now, his popularity points had reached 30,000 and were still climbing.

By the time this scene ended, his popularity points might even exceed 50,000.

Horikita Suzune bit her lip. How could she not tell that Dokuho Kouya was deliberately imitating her?

"Looks like I misjudged your strength." The girl steadied her breathing, calming herself down. "But don't get too full of yourself. If you can earn 1.6 million points on the first day of school, then I can definitely do it too."

At that, Dokuho Kouya's expression turned amused. "Now that you know I have so many points, you're not scared—instead, you want to challenge me? What an interesting woman."

"Since I was the one who revealed my points, can I know your name?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the comments before Dokuho Kouya grew lively.

"Woman, you've caught my attention."

"You're not running away, but coming closer to me instead? Jotaro!"

"Money Brother looks just like a domineering CEO right now."

"What Money Brother? His nickname now is Domineering CEO, or Dom CEO for short!"

The audience eagerly filled the comments with memes, delighted at the chance to make jokes.

If Dokuho Kouya hadn't set a minimum comment level in advance, the view before him would have turned into a white sea of streaming comments.

"I don't particularly want to tell you my name, but you're right: since I know how many points you have, I do need to give you information of equal value."

The black-haired girl seemed to think this was a fair exchange, so she said, "My name is Horikita Suzune. I'm in Class D, first year."

Dokuho Kouya held his chin between his fingers and nodded slightly. "Suzune? That's a lovely name."

"Too bad you were assigned to Class D." Dokuho Kouya shook his head, smiling as he looked at the girl before him. "I was looking forward to seeing what you'd do next, but it looks like you'll probably disappoint me."

"What do you mean?" Horikita Suzune heard the implication and asked with a furrowed brow. "Is there something wrong with being assigned to Class D?"

"That's not something you can get in exchange just by telling me your name," Dokuho Kouya said.

"Is it valuable information?"

Horikita Suzune furrowed her brow slightly, realizing that the boy wouldn't say any more unless she offered him something of real value.

"If you're willing to tell me, how about I pay for your shopping this time?" Horikita Suzune asked tentatively.

"That's far too cheap." Dokuho Kouya held up two fingers. "If you want to know, it'll cost at least this much."

"Twenty thousand points?"

Horikita Suzune visibly relaxed.

Thank goodness. If it was only twenty thousand points, she could afford that.

She didn't usually spend much, and she currently had one hundred thousand points.

Spending just twenty thousand to get information about the school seemed well worth it to her.

"No, two million points," Dokuho Kouya said with a chuckle.

"Are you joking?" Horikita Suzune's expression instantly darkened, and her crimson eyes glared fiercely at him.

"If you don't believe me, ask your homeroom teacher. She'll quote you the same price." Dokuho Kouya turned his back to the girl and waved goodbye. "I still need to buy some daily necessities, so I'll be going."

"Money Brother looks so mysterious. Could he be the boss?"

"What boss? This is a high school slice-of-life anime. You're overthinking it."

"But I saw 'mind games' among the anime's tags. Are you sure this is a high school slice-of-life story?"

After buying the daily necessities he needed, Dokuho Kouya left the convenience store and spotted a girl from his class waiting not far from the entrance, a plastic bag in her hand.

"Dokuho, I saw everything." Sayo Ando grinned. "You started chatting with a girl from another class in no time at all. You really are popular."

After buying her things, she'd planned to let Dokuho Kouya know she was leaving, but instead she'd caught him talking to a girl from another class.

Worried she'd interrupt his moment, she'd gone to pay first, then waited outside.

"I was just a little interested in that girl."

"Oh?" Sayo Ando blushed slightly, her expression turning animated. "Have you fallen for her?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm just interested in her, that's all." Dokuho Kouya hurried to explain.

"Really?" Sayo Ando asked skeptically.

"Of course." Dokuho Kouya gave her a sunny smile. "I thought Suzune might have figured out the school's hidden rules, so I tested her a little."

"Suzune, hidden rules, tested her?"

Sayo Ando looked puzzled, blinking again and again.

"I can understand that Suzune is that girl's name, more or less." Sayo Ando's expression turned strange. "But what do you mean by hidden rules?"

"This school isn't as simple as it looks. What the teachers explained to us today was just a misleading facade."

Dokuho Kouya explained, "We won't learn the school's hidden rules until next month, but by then, it'll be a little too late."

"That sounds amazing." Sayo Ando's eyes widened slightly.

"I'll tell everyone in class the school's hidden rules tomorrow morning. Until then, could you keep them secret, Sayo?"

"I can, I guess." Sayo Ando said bashfully, "I'm still completely confused anyway. Even if I told people, I wouldn't know what to say."

"Then thanks, Sayo."

Dokuho Kouya nodded with satisfaction.

He had a feeling that announcing the hidden rules to his class tomorrow would very likely become a special event, too.

He had to make good use of it.