"Strength above all..." The first rule was already a little hard for her to understand.
Was there anywhere at school where she would need to fight?
If it meant athletic competitions, her physical fitness should be more than good enough.
"Watch what you say and do..." The second rule called for caution in her words and actions.
And... it even specifically warned her not to let herself be recorded.
At that point, Horikita Suzune suddenly thought of the Voice Recorder Asakusa Toru had forced on her.
"After I got back yesterday... I put it... here." After thinking for a moment, Horikita Suzune quickly found the Voice Recorder.
The recording on it had been erased. The only time she had used it was when it captured the embarrassing memory of her meeting with her older brother.
"Recording, recording..." As her fingertips brushed the smooth surface of the Voice Recorder, feeling its texture, Horikita Suzune thought she was starting to understand the warning.
If she had started recording before she went to find Chabashira Sae, she wouldn't have faced all those unnecessary questions from her classmates when she announced the information.
"That's right. Recording is important." Horikita Suzune gripped the Voice Recorder in her hand.
She decided to carry it with her from now on.
After all, she had paid for it.
Setting down the Voice Recorder, Horikita Suzune returned to the diary.
"Teachers can't be trusted, teachers can be trusted...?"
Looking at these two conflicting rules, Horikita Suzune was once again at a loss.
Should she trust the teachers or not?
"..." After hesitating for a while, she gave up trying to figure it out and moved on to the next rule.
"Again... the Black Room's greatest masterpiece."
That was the third time this name had appeared in the diary.
The first time was during the roll call when the Pseudo-human Trial was proposed. The second was when the diary mentioned that she had fought them today. The third was in the fifth rule.
Chapter 46: Still Putting on an Act
Was Kanji Ike really that impressive?
Although Horikita Suzune didn't understand what the Black Room was, "greatest masterpiece" had to describe someone exceptionally capable, didn't it?
How could she not see it at all?
...Still, those two were very good at stirring things up.
Thinking back carefully, almost every time they spoke, the class's opinion began to turn against contributing.
Was this the power to manipulate people's hearts?
The Black Room's greatest masterpiece. Truly terrifying.
"I'll remember that." She would stay away from them.
Although they were in the same class and couldn't avoid interacting, she would keep her distance whenever she could.
Next.
"Private Points are very important."
At Advanced Nurturing, Private Points were equivalent to real money. Money was important everywhere.
Besides... Chabashira Sae had once said, "There's nothing you can't buy with points at this school."
In fact, if she had been able to come up with two hundred thousand Private Points herself this time, she wouldn't have needed to trouble her classmates. If she had twenty million points, she could already be in the Class A where she belonged.
...It sounds obvious, but I'll remember it.
So...
"May you enjoy your three years at Advanced Nurturing..." She set down the diary and let out a long breath.
[Today's reading complete. Reading Points +1.]
Black text appeared before her. By now, Horikita Suzune was no longer surprised when it appeared.
Still, she had been wondering about something for a while.
"What are Reading Points for?"
[Total Reading Points: 3]
As soon as she spoke, the text appeared again.
But the black-and-white text didn't seem inclined to explain what Reading Points were for.
It didn't seem too late yet, but considering she hadn't slept well for the past two days, Horikita Suzune decided to give herself a healthy, restful night's sleep.
She had already done quite a lot today.
She should be able to... relax now, right?
"Still putting on an act."
Looking at the diary's latest entry, Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled.
She had already surrendered to her, yet still insisted on keeping up her persona and pretending she wasn't a Class D student.
Was she worried that her classmate Horikita Suzune would discover her real identity?
That made sense. With her delicate, frail appearance, if someone other than Sakayanagi found out who she was, it wouldn't end with just a beating.
Heh heh. Who would have thought that the person acting so brazenly in the diary was actually such a soft-spoken, adorable girl in real life?
Just thinking about the contrast between Wang Meiyu's timid behavior in public and the way she went back to her dorm every day and took out her diary to write in it made Sakayanagi Arisu feel delighted.
"But... who exactly is this Black Room's greatest masterpiece?" Seeing the title appear again, Sakayanagi Arisu frowned.
The name "Black Room" clearly seemed to be a counterpart to the White Room, and "greatest masterpiece" only reinforced that impression.
But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't imagine anyone in Class D matching that false genius.
Even a false genius was someone only she could bring to ruin. Some defective product from who-knew-where couldn't just claim to be their equal.
There weren't enough clues yet, so she put it aside.
There was still the option of going straight to Class D and asking Wang Meiyu, but unfortunately, what Sakayanagi Arisu hated most was having someone simply tell her the answer.
She enjoyed the process of thinking things through and deducing the correct answer for herself.
As her gaze swept over the text below, the word "Little Sister-chan" caught her eye, and a name surfaced in her mind.
Horikita Suzune.
She was the girl who had stood onstage and acted as Wang Meiyu's mouthpiece, passing on the Special Exam information to the rest of the class.
She shared a surname with the current Student Council President, Horikita Manabu.
"I see. The diary from the day before yesterday was talking about her." Sakayanagi Arisu's lips curved slightly. "She's an interesting one, too."
If she were in Class D, Horikita Suzune would surely make the best pawn.
No wonder Wang Meiyu had chosen her as her mouthpiece.
She slowly scrolled down the diary. When she saw "Advanced Nurturing Survival Rules" at the end of today's entry, she reacted differently from Horikita Suzune.
She glanced over it, then closed the diary.
"Today's reading complete. Reading Points +1."
The familiar voice rang in her ears, signaling that this reading session had come to an end.
She stretched her waist, which had grown somewhat stiff from sitting and reading, then pushed herself up from the desk and returned to bed.
Didn't she already know what Advanced Nurturing was like? A set of survival rules that seemed to say both one thing and its opposite was nothing more than a way to muddy the waters.
Strength above all, or not—if strength really were everything, her father wouldn't have allowed her to attend this school.
"Watch what you say and do" was obvious advice. The contradictory warnings about trusting teachers were even more of a distraction. Of course everyone knew Private Points were important.
Of the seven rules, the only one that might actually be a warning was the fifth: "Stay away from the Black Room's greatest masterpiece."
She had no interest in reading a set of survival rules like that.
Even after Sakayanagi found her, Wang Meiyu didn't seem to have broken her habit of lying through her teeth in the diary.
But Sakayanagi Arisu had no intention of saying anything about it.
After all, Wang Meiyu had already surrendered to her.
Hadn't she?
Dormitory.
After finishing today's diary entry and patiently waiting for the results, the cold voice arrived as promised.
[Today's entry complete. This entry received a "D" rating. Drawing reward.]
[Draw successful. Congratulations, you received the item "Special Cold Medicine (Six Tablets)."]
A sheet of ordinary-looking tablets appeared in Asakusa Toru's hand. Hearing the blatant "D" rating, his heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally died.
"I knew it was coming, but I didn't think you'd actually do it." He sighed mournfully.
As the opening events at Advanced Nurturing gradually came to an end, the days ahead began to settle into a routine. The same went for the diary's Plot Index, which kept falling.
There was no doubt about it. Today's result had made Asakusa Toru certain of the rules he would follow when writing his diary from now on.
Namely, the "Index First Principle."
If there was an index, and the index was good and high, then he would put in the effort and write something worthwhile.
If there was no index, or the index was bad and low, then he would phone it in and just get through the day.
"Effects..." Asakusa Toru tossed the unbranded cold medicine, which looked like it came from some shady little workshop, up and down in his hand. His eyes narrowed slightly.
As soon as he spoke, a short description slowly unfolded before him.
[Name: Special Cold Medicine (Six Tablets)]
[Category: Consumable]
[Effect: Treats colds]
[Note: "You can remake it into a suppository. It'll work better."]
Excellent. Off to the warehouse to collect dust. After graduation, he'd buy a pharmaceutical company and have them reverse-engineer it.
Then, fast-forward to April 30—
Chapter 47: Good Afternoon
April 1: Enrolled and wrote in the diary.
April 2: Stirred things up and wrote in the diary.
April 3: Made a friend and wrote in the diary.
April 4: Had a friendly exchange with Amasawa Ichika from the White Room, improved himself with the buff from the Membership Card, and got to touch her legs, to boot. Wrote in the diary.
April 5: Swimming class. Shibata dragged him to Keyaki Mall, where they wandered around for half the day, but he didn't spend a single penny. The Plot Index was D, so he wrote whatever came to mind and got a D rating.
April 6: The first weekend. While wondering whether to spend the day at the White Room or go out and hand out Voice Recorders, Ichinose came over and invited him to the movies. The movie was average; only the lead actress, Hoshino Ai, was worth watching. The Plot Index had dropped back to E, so he wrote in the diary.
April 7: Sunday. With nothing to do, he went to the library and discovered a regularly respawning NPC. He also found out that his own trashy light novel was in the school library. He secretly hid it in a corner and wrote in the diary.
April 8: Monday. With nothing else to do, he went to the library again and found that a certain regular NPC had dug up the light novel he'd hidden. Unforgivable. He wrote in the diary through his tears.
April 9: Tuesday. He waited in the library for the NPC to finish reading the light novel and hide it again. She hadn't finished, so he wrote in the diary.
April 10: Wednesday. She finished reading it, then suddenly came over to talk to him.
(Note: The above is a fast-forwarded account, not the diary's contents.)
Library.
Before you continue