Master Key Card

Taking a deep breath, she ignored the voice in her ear announcing that she had finished reading. As if venting her frustration, Sakayanagi Arisu picked up the diary and hurled it into the corner.

It would come back on its own anyway.

As her emotions gradually cooled, Sakayanagi Arisu's thoughts picked up where they had left off.

Taking a provocation without retaliating wasn't her style. Sakayanagi Arisu held grudges more than one might expect.

She hadn't put much effort into it before, but this time, she was going to do everything she could to uncover this guy's true identity!

First, she would start by analyzing the diary's contents.

"..."

Setting aside the fabricated rumors, the diary this guy had written today actually revealed quite a few clues.

First was the inner monologue, written from the perspective of a Class 1-D student.

From that, it seemed that the vast majority of the many God-men the other person had listed yesterday were in Class 1-D.

That wasn't surprising. Class 1-D was, after all, a gathering place for defective products.

If that were all, she could have dismissed it as a smokescreen.

But given that both "Two-Faced Person" and "Low-Spec Yukino," two people mentioned in the first two diary entries, also belonged to Class 1-D, this perspective seemed a little too pointed.

Did the writer know so much about people in Class 1-D because they were a student in that class?

Sakayanagi Arisu decided to remain skeptical.

Next came the information.

The tip that "Recorder Bro offered to sell Ryuen the information for two million Private Points."

As for the former, Sakayanagi Arisu had a pretty good idea who it was.

Asakusa Toru, from First-Year Class B.

He was the one who had caused a huge commotion at Club Orientation today, becoming the subject of heated discussion in Class A's group chat.

If what they'd discussed hadn't been twisted as it spread, then the diary was right: he really was a God-man.

As for the latter, Ryuen... He was probably a student in Class C.

The information itself didn't seem to have any major problems, and it mostly matched what she had observed and deduced at school. She was rather surprised that Class B and Class C had already made a deal, but she had never thought that noticing the teachers' overt and subtle hints while introducing the school rules was something only she could do.

Anyone could get accurate information, as long as they raised an objection on the first day and paid enough Private Points.

However...

"So Class B paid that amount, while Class C chose to bear the cost they paid." Having reached a conclusion, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't intend to dwell on it any further. Instead, she returned her attention to the diary.

Ignoring the joke about her father spending twenty million to transfer her into another class, this piece of information was actually more important than everything in the first two diary entries combined.

—If the owner of this diary was a new student at Advanced Nurturing, that was.

The information was that Asakusa Toru from First-Year Class B had sold it to Ryuen from First-Year Class C.

Given that Classes B and C already knew about the Special Exam, and that the Recorder was likely a student in Class 1-D...

"...Did they deliberately reveal it in the diary to muddy the waters?"

Were they pretending to be a reader so they'd have an excuse to share the information with their classmates?

But they couldn't explain the diary's existence to outsiders.

Were they planning to get someone else to reveal the information so Class 1-D could make up for the potential loss in Class Points caused by the class's poor quality?

But how could the other person be sure that there were other diary readers in Class 1-D?

Were they trying to warn someone?

And why?

There could be many reasons. For now, she couldn't draw any conclusions.

But the more she read, the more certain Sakayanagi Arisu became that this person belonged to Class 1-D.

There were too many clues pointing that way.

She couldn't rule out the possibility that they were deliberately leading her to that conclusion, but Sakayanagi Arisu decided to trust her instincts.

As for why a Class 1-D student would know about the deal between Classes B and C...

Surely she didn't need to explain that at length? Information involving a full eighty people couldn't possibly be kept completely under wraps.

It was understandable that it had leaked from somewhere.

That left only one question... How had the other person known about Kamuro Masumi's habit of stealing things?

Had they seen her do it? But at the time, no one else besides herself should have noticed Masumi casually nicking something.

Then had they already known that Masumi would do that?

As she pondered, Sakayanagi Arisu opened her terminal.

[Who else knows that you have a habit of stealing things?]

She sent Kamuro Masumi the message without beating around the bush.

[Kamuro Masumi: Huh? Who else would know besides you?]

[Kamuro Masumi: And why are you asking me this now?]

[Kamuro Masumi: I've got a bad feeling about this. What happened?]

[Kamuro Masumi: Hello?]

Ignoring Kamuro Masumi's questions and letting the unread indicator change to read, Sakayanagi Arisu casually turned off the screen.

"So she didn't know in advance...?"

That made sense. If Masumi had revealed her stealing habit before enrolling, with that kind of history, the school definitely wouldn't have assigned her to Class A.

Chapter 34: Master Key Card

There was a lot of information to be deduced from today's diary, but not enough to piece together the other person's full identity.

At times like this, she needed to look back at the earlier entries.

Ignoring the nonsense about being a transmigrator, the only things worth noting in the first diary entry—besides the declaration about the kidnapping and the Two-Faced Person—were the initial comments about Advanced Nurturing.

A vocational school.

Sakayanagi Arisu didn't know whether that was an accurate description, but people from that country seemed to be the ones most accustomed to using the word to describe a high school.

And according to what she knew, there was only one student from that country among this year's first-years.

Wang Meiyu, from Class 1-D.

That fit with her earlier theory: the Recorder was a student in Class 1-D.

However, if she took the second diary entry into account, things became a little more complicated.

At the beginning of the second entry, this guy claimed to have extensive experience with gal games. Not only that, he also talked about conquering every girl in the school.

Although he quickly took back what he'd said, she could still tell the writer's gender from the way he spoke.

He had to be male.

But then it didn't add up.

Because Wang Meiyu was a girl.

"...Could she be a lesbian?" Sakayanagi Arisu murmured to herself.

There were women in this world who played gal games, and quite a few women liked speaking in a masculine tone.

Perhaps Wang Meiyu was one of them.

It was decided. She'd test her theory tomorrow.

Whether it was true or not, she'd be able to tell as soon as they met.

Having finished her deduction, Sakayanagi Arisu happily turned off the light.

See you tomorrow, you lying bastard.

Little Princess had gone to bed early, but Asakusa Toru wasn't going to sleep just yet.

He was waiting for his reward to be calculated.

He'd written an unusually long entry today. Sure, the Plot Index was a little low, but after all that hard work, surely he'd get something good?

Just as he was thinking that, the settlement text and voice arrived together.

[Today's entry is complete. Evaluation: 'C'. Drawing reward...]

[Draw successful. Congratulations, you obtained the item 'Master Key Card'.]

"...I'm gonna warcry." Asakusa Toru's expression froze. "Aaaaaaaah—!"

"Phew."

The brief warcry was followed by a long, drawn-out sigh.

Actually, he could understand why some people liked warcries. Shouting your feelings out loud really was a great way to relieve stress.

It was just that some people seemed to warcry far too often. He didn't know if they'd climbed to Brann Bronzebeard or if their meter was running backward, but they yelled so often that they disturbed the neighbors.

Fortunately, the dormitory at Advanced Nurturing had excellent soundproofing. Even if he shouted like that, no one in the next room would report him for disturbing the peace.

Setting the warcry aside, he returned to the reward.

Actually, the result wasn't all that surprising.

A Plot Index of B got an evaluation of A, and a Plot Index of A got an evaluation of S. By that logic, no matter how well he wrote, he couldn't get higher than a B.

But the result was a C.

"I thought this would really stir people up," Asakusa Toru said, baffled. "Did I reveal too much?"

Whether the story was paced appropriately was also an important factor in the evaluation. If he looked at it from that angle, maybe he'd crammed in too much this time.

Or maybe he'd been a little too specific.

Looking back at the first two diary entries, the Two-Faced Person hadn't been identifiable from any of the clues before she was exposed. Aside from her, it would've been hard for anyone to figure out who the nickname referred to.

As for Little Sister-chan, it wasn't hard to figure out a few things, but honestly, her own behavior was practically the same as announcing to the whole school through a megaphone, "I'm Horikita Manabu's little sister."

This time, though, whether it was the nickname Little Princess, the name ALICE, or the title Nepo Baby, it was easy to pin them all on Sakayanagi Arisu.

Was that why the diary thought he'd spoiled too much?

Of course, there was another possibility: the diary had decided that he'd copied a lousy move from Misumi Ui, so it docked points.

...Anyway, the reward had already been calculated. He'd better take a look at it.

A sleek, black key card had quietly appeared in his hand.

It had no text or markings, but the color and the feel of the card were surprisingly nice.

With a thought, the card's effect appeared before him.

[Name: Master Key Card]

[Category: Item]

[Effect: You can use it to open any electronic door.]

[Note: "You'll pass through without hindrance."]

"...Hiss." Asakusa Toru drew in a sharp breath.

How should he put it?

It was definitely useful, and although it was limited to "electronic doors," the moment the effect said "any," that made it a whole different story.

But... he had no use for the damn thing.

In this completely enclosed school, the number of times he could use the Master Key Card could probably be counted on his fingers, right?