Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

When it comes down to it, the person who wrote this Diary is not my brother.

No matter how much information the other party points out, or how much they know, they are ultimately not my brother.

Closing the Diary, Horikita Suzune let out a heavy, stifled breath.

Even though it wouldn't matter where she threw the Diary, Horikita Suzune still carefully placed it into her drawer.

Then, she lay down on her bed.

However, she, who usually fell asleep quickly, found herself suffering from a rare bout of insomnia this time.

After closing her eyes, her brain couldn't stop wandering, and a mess of chaotic thoughts surfaced one after another.

The thing that flashed through her mind the most was the text in the Diary.

'Trial', and 'Pseudo-human'.

Come to think of it... what is a 'Pseudo-human'?

As the question arose, Horikita Suzune suddenly realized she was becoming unable to sleep.

The more she thought about how she shouldn't dwell on this question, the clearer the question became in her mind.

Finally, she couldn't help but climb out of bed, turn on the light, and grab her terminal.

'What is a Pseudo-human?'

Horikita Suzune chose to use a search engine to look it up.

And then, she received her answer.

"A mysterious creature that mimics humans...?"

In Class 1-D, is there such a person?

Chapter 15 White Room Membership Card

[Today's entry completed. The evaluation for this record is 'S'. Drawing rewards now.]

[Draw successful. Congratulations on obtaining the item 'White Room Membership Card (1:365)']

"Yes!" As the cold voice echoed in his ears, Asakusa Toru couldn't help but clench his fist tightly.

An S evaluation!

It wasn't in vain that he had been putting on an act, calling out Little Sister-chan this and Little Sister-chan that; he had practically stripped Horikita Suzune bare, save for not naming her directly.

Although there was certainly a Plot Index bonus influencing things, more of it was his own hard work!

However... 'White Room Membership Card' or whatever, is this ever going to end?

Tell me, is this reward really randomly drawn?

Whether it's truly random or fake random doesn't matter; for Asakusa Toru, as long as he can draw a useful reward, it's a good thing.

Clearly, just from the name alone, he knew this thing would likely be very useful.

Speaking of the White Room, one has to mention the facility known as the White Room.

Claiming to be able to cultivate 'absolutely perfect geniuses', the room constructed literally from pure white is what is known as the White Room.

However, the way it creates 'artificial geniuses' is actually quite subtle.

They find newborn children from all sorts of places, and then from the very beginning, they 'improve' the children's learning efficiency by stifling their emotions.

Following that, it is step by step, level by level, an endless 'elimination tournament' of pouring knowledge into them.

Only those who can survive under the 'cultivation' that constantly raises standards and eliminates students will be the 'geniuses' they produce.

As for those who fall behind, stop progressing, or cannot keep up with the learning pace of other students.

They are all rejects.

Asakusa Toru won't comment on whether stifling emotions can actually improve children's learning efficiency; since that's the setting, he'll just accept that it works.

But unfortunately, the performance of the White Room is just so-so.

Aside from mass-producing martial arts experts, he really doesn't see what qualifications this dump has to create artificial geniuses.

It feels... inferior to Kamukura Izuru.

However, the White Room does have one point worth mentioning.

That is the level of martial prowess.

People who come out of the White Room, regardless of gender, have martial prowess far exceeding that of ordinary people, and it is precisely because of this that the White Room has been dubbed the 'White Gym'.

Returning to the reward from this diary entry.

What landed in his hand, as always, was a seemingly ordinary 'Membership Card'.

But as long as he focused his intent on it, he could clearly see its effects.

[Name: White Room Membership Card (1:365)]

[Category: Limited-time Item]

[Effect: Enjoy one year's worth of customized White Room training courses within a total of one day. You can arrange your class schedule freely. When the course ends, you can choose to convert this Membership Card into a White Room graduation certificate.]

[Note: "Do you understand what a classroom that prioritizes force above all else means?"]

As he sank his consciousness into it, a prompt asking whether to begin the course quietly surfaced.

"Yes." Asakusa Toru softly uttered the affirmation.

He had clearly just been in his Advanced Nurturing dormitory, but the moment the words left his lips, everything around him quietly transformed into a pure white room.

In the incredibly bright white room, the space stretched out infinitely, empty and vast. An unimaginable sense of unreality invaded Asakusa Toru's entire body in that instant.

But before he could even find the time to reflect, a figure refreshed into existence right before his eyes with crisp efficiency.

A young girl with purple-red twin tails appeared before him. Her golden eyes, devoid of emotion, opened slowly, and her expressionless face seemed to pay homage to her emotionless senior.

Before Asakusa Toru could react, the moment she landed and stood firm, the girl whipped up her long leg clad in black over-the-knee socks, turned, and swept it across, knocking Asakusa Toru to the ground.

"Ugh—" Despite the legs appearing incredibly delicate, the force behind the sweep against Asakusa Toru's body was unexpectedly powerful.

Whether it was the pain from the attack or the sensation of being stepped on by a bare-skinned, black-stockinged leg after being knocked down, it was all unimaginably clear—not at all like a hallucination.

Under the girl's cold, condescending gaze, Asakusa Toru's brain, which had stalled from the sudden assault, finally began to clear.

But before he could sort out the situation, in a moment of daze, he found himself standing on the ground again, and once more, the twin-tailed girl in black over-the-knee socks refreshed before his eyes.

Without the slightest change, the long leg lifted once again.

"Hey, hey, hey, once was enough, you're doing it again?!" Leaning back sharply to dodge the identical strike, Asakusa Toru began to scramble in a panic: "What happened to the customized training course? Where is my coach?"

He came to the White Room to work out, not to get beaten up!

No matter how great a beautiful girl's black stockings looked, getting swept in the leg still hurt!

However, the girl before him clearly had no intention of responding, instead continuing to launch attacks one after another on her own.

"Wait, slow, don't, stop, help—" There was a limit to his panicked dodging, and before long, Asakusa Toru was stepped on the ground once again.

Then, as expected, everything before his eyes reset once more.

"..." Sighing, Asakusa Toru let the girl knock him down, and after the next reset, he instinctively began to dodge in the direction he remembered she would attack from, while his brain began to organize his thoughts.

He recognized the twin-tailed girl before him.

'Amasawa Ichika'

One of the products of the White Room. Although she was not from the same generation as the pseudo-human crowned as the greatest masterpiece, the time gap between them was not actually that large.

According to the normal timeline, she would enroll as a first-year student next year.

But now, he was seeing her here ahead of schedule.

"Swish—" The sharp attack came again. In the room, quiet to the point of having no extra sound, there was only the noise of the girl's relentless, encroaching assault.

Not the real person... is she?

Emotionless eyes, a face without a ripple, no hesitation despite his shouting—every reset was a perfectly replicated leg sweep.

I see, so that's it. Real combat is the best training course... is it?

A flash of realization crossed his eyes, and Asakusa Toru was once again stepped under the girl's soft feet.

"—Ugh."

I can't win at all.

Chapter 16: Multiply by 365

Realizing that there was no possibility of him defeating Amasawa Ichika in the short term, Asakusa Toru gave up on the idea of wasting more time in the White Room.

As long as he chose to pause the current course in his mind, he could directly interrupt the battle, detach from the White Room, and return to his real-world dormitory.

The Membership Card was still in his hand. Even though he had been beaten by Amasawa Ichika for quite a while in the White Room, it seemed that not much time had passed in reality.

He pulled out his Personal Terminal, started the stopwatch, and entered the White Room once again.

Six minutes later, when he returned to reality, only one second had passed on the terminal.

Just as indicated by the name of the Membership Card, the time flow ratio in the White Room was 1:365.

"...This is interesting." Asakusa Toru raised an eyebrow: "However, is it just combat training?"

As long as he entered the White Room, Amasawa Ichika—or rather, the simulation android with her appearance and strength—would decisively launch attacks at him, and when he was knocked down, everything would reset again.

From the perspective of accumulating combat experience, it would likely be very effective.

But whether it could actually 'work out,' and whether training conducted in an unreal environment could translate to his physical body, was not explicitly stated in the effects of this Membership Card.

However, considering that this was, after all, a 'gym' and not something like a 'combat arts training room,' Asakusa Toru felt he could assume that the results of the training in the gym would manifest in reality.

The only problem was that this Membership Card was an annual pass.

'Complete a one-year training course within a total of one day; upon completion, you may choose to convert the Membership Card into a graduation certificate'—that was how the card's effect was described.

So, the question arose.

If he were truly foolish enough to use up all his time without managing to defeat Amasawa Ichika, could he still get the graduation certificate?

The moment that thought surfaced, text floated up before his eyes once again.

[If you fail to complete the entire curriculum, you may choose to convert your Membership Card into a Certificate of Completion.]

None of the other information had changed; this single, brief note had simply been added to the details of the effect.

"Ho, so there's an addendum." As the black and white text gradually faded away, Asakusa Toru couldn't help but grin: "Exaggerated, aren't they."

"Still, no matter how you look at it, a graduation certificate has to be better than a certificate of completion, right?"

Asakusa Toru knew he wasn't a genius, but he didn't consider himself a fool, either.

The 365-fold time dilation was indeed incredibly useful, and the infinitely resetting combat simulation space was equally powerful.

But he felt that the reward for an S-rank evaluation should amount to more than just this.

He still needed to explore further.

Even though he had been thoroughly thrashed by a beautiful girl in the White Room, his physical body in reality showed no signs of significant fatigue; Asakusa Toru couldn't yet determine if it was because the time spent was too short, or if this was simply the inherent effect of the Membership Card.

Regardless, he decided to spend three minutes in the gym before going to sleep.

Oh, wait, he should say one thousand and ninety-five minutes in the gym.

He had to multiply by 365.

The next day.

First-Year Class B.

After replenishing the energy he hadn't been able to recover the previous night at the cafeteria, and having devoured his food with gusto, Asakusa Toru finally arrived at his classroom.

Last night, he had spent three minutes engaging in a deep, prolonged exchange with Amasawa Ichika, successfully confirming that the White Room was not merely a combat simulation space, but a "gym" where the results of his training could be tangibly reflected in his physical body.