Classroom of the Elite: I Can Add Points Without Limit

Classroom of the Elite: I Can Add Points Without Limit

Author: Die Wu

Synopsis:

Aragaki Shun was transported to Advanced Nurturing High School and entered Class 1-B.

At the same time, he awakened an ability called Source Manipulation, which let him gain Source Power by increasing his influence and then use it to strengthen himself.

Immunity to poison, immunity to disease, danger sense, turning misfortune into good fortune... First, he'd max out his ability to stay alive. Then he'd pursue true strength!

--

"Sakayanagi, did you know that chess is actually a sport?"

"Ryuen, you want a fight? Then I'll give you one. Come at me together!"

"Ayanokoji, these schemes and tricks won't let you live freely. How about we make a deal?"

"Ichinose, Class A isn't what matters. What matters is having the strength to deserve the privileges that come with it!"

--Two of my previous novels, with a combined total of four million words, have been completed.

First Semester of the First Year

1. Class 1-B, Aragaki Shun

Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School.

Funded by the government of Sakurajima, it was a remarkable school rumored to have a nearly one-hundred-percent rate of advancement to higher education and employment.

In its public announcements, Advanced Nurturing High School claimed that as long as students graduated from there, the school could provide them with the means to continue their studies at top universities, work for well-known companies, or even become celebrities, athletes, or government employees. It promised every graduate a good start in life.

Not only that, Advanced Nurturing High School promised that its students would not have to pay for tuition, living expenses, or anything else while attending. The school would cover all costs of their three years on campus.

The only drawback was that the school had adopted a completely closed education system.

Once enrolled, students weren't allowed to leave school without permission. Unless they had a special reason, they weren't even allowed to use their phones or contact their families online.

But that was a small flaw compared to its benefits. The fact that all expenses were covered was enough to attract countless parents worried about the cost of their children's education. And with the government's backing, families were willing to let their children pursue this chance to cross the boundaries of social class.

So, as April and the new school year began, the entrance to Advanced Nurturing High School was already crowded with young students full of hope for the future.

Cherry blossoms drifted on the breeze. Everything was brimming with life.

The classroom of Class 1-B.

Aragaki Shun found his seat by checking the nameplate on the desk.

He looked around. Almost everyone had arrived, and he could already see plenty of outgoing students striking up conversations and drawing in classmates they liked, forming the little cliques they'd rely on in the future.

The pink-haired girl sitting to his left seemed the most at ease in that atmosphere.

Her waist-length pink hair and sparkling blue eyes gave off a gentle warmth no matter who she looked at.

A bright smile lit up her pretty face as she chatted about all sorts of things with the people gathered around her, never leaving anyone out.

Most striking of all was the voluptuous figure that looked ready to burst from her chest. Her wine-red school uniform showed it off to perfection.

Since this is Class 1-B, does that make her the legendary Ichinose Feibo?

Not wanting to earn a lecherous label on the first day of school, Aragaki Shun moved his gaze away and looked through the window on his right at the athletic field. His thoughts, however, had wandered elsewhere.

He didn't originally belong to this world. After waking up one day, he had inexplicably returned to the body of a toddler of two or three. Conversations between the adults at the orphanage had made him realize that the timeline was wrong, and so was history.

At first, he'd thought he'd simply been reborn in a parallel world whose history had developed somewhat differently. Later, his adoptive parents came to visit relatives on the mainland and took him in. It was only after he met his stepsister, whose name seemed vaguely familiar, that he began to realize the world he'd crossed into might be more unusual than he'd imagined.

During junior high, after proving to his adoptive parents that he could be independent, Aragaki Shun had traveled around Sakurajima, hoping to find out whether this world held anything else out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, he still hadn't found any supernatural beings apart from himself.

He'd even gone out of his way to look up the names of high schools, junior highs, and elementary schools throughout Sakurajima, but none of them had seemed especially familiar.

Just when he'd begun to think this world was full of nothing but sister-con worshippers, youthful romance, genius light novelists, and illustrators, the name "Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School" caught his attention.

Although he hadn't watched the corresponding anime in his previous life, he'd occasionally heard people online mention the Four Great School Tyrants. He'd heard that the illustrations were quite good, so he'd even searched online to learn the names and appearances of a few main characters.

More than a decade had passed. He should have forgotten such unimportant details long ago, but perhaps the impression had been too deep. The moment he saw the girl, the name "Ichinose Feibo" had suddenly surfaced in Aragaki Shun's mind.

But...

Something didn't feel right. Would a girl really have a name like that? It sounded more like a nickname given to her by the internet crowd in his previous life.

With that thought, Aragaki Shun turned his head to look at the nameplate on the girl's desk.

A breeze suddenly swept by, carrying a pleasant scent from her side. It didn't seem like shampoo, either. In some ways, this world really was different.

While the boy silently grumbled to himself, his pink-haired deskmate, with her graceful figure, said something to the people around her. They all greeted her before returning to their own seats.

She turned to Aragaki Shun with a cheerful smile, friendly enough to embody the very word "angel."

"Sorry, Aragaki. Everyone's so enthusiastic. I hope we haven't caused you any trouble."

"It's fine. There's nothing better than classmates getting along. I don't believe I caught your—"

"My name is Ichinose Honami. We'll be deskmates from now on, so I hope we get along."

Ichinose pointed to the name on her nameplate and held out her right hand to Aragaki Shun.

"Right. I'm Aragaki Shun. You've probably seen my nameplate, but I hope we get along, too."

The boy held out his right hand and gave hers a polite shake.

So, she wasn't "Feibo" after all.

Knowing her real name, Aragaki Shun couldn't help reflecting on it.

Though he could certainly understand where the nickname had come from.

His gaze unconsciously swept over her ample figure, so full that most high school girls could only envy her, and her two porcelain-white legs were quite eye-catching, too.

He'd seen plenty of beautiful girls since coming to this world. His stepsister, for example, was especially pretty, with a slender figure and an adorable face.

But he had to admit that he'd never seen anyone who could outshine Ichinose in that regard. This girl really did seem to have been blessed by both angels and demons.

"Um, Aragaki, is there something strange on my face?"

A clear voice sounded beside him.

Ichinose regarded Aragaki Shun with an open expression. There was no doubt she'd noticed him staring.

Since she'd caught him, he didn't bother trying to hide it. Instead, he apologized. "Sorry, Ichinose. You're so beautiful that I got caught up staring."

"Huh?"

Even Ichinose, usually so easygoing, couldn't help exclaiming at such a direct answer. Her face took on an adorable expression.

The girl was well aware of her own charm. But thanks to her unusual ability to put people at ease, few boys had ever offered her a compliment that came so close to teasing.

Of course, that was also because Ichinose had never shown special treatment to any one person. She treated everyone equally.

With everyone acting like they were all good friends, anyone hoping to sneak off and confess to her alone needed quite a bit of courage.

"Aragaki, you're pretty good at sweet-talking girls, aren't you? I bet you talked plenty of girls into dating you at your old school, right?"

After a few seconds of staring at him, Ichinose recovered. To cover up her embarrassment, she instinctively tucked a strand of pink hair behind her ear and asked with a generous smile.

Her deskmate wasn't just good-looking. If he weren't, Ichinose, who was used to being at the heart of a group, wouldn't have been so easily flustered by a compliment.

The girl secretly sized up Aragaki Shun's jet-black, ink-like hair and sharply defined features. His nose was high and straight, and his clear black-and-white eyes held a calmness beyond his years.

He was simply leaning by the window, yet he naturally gave off a presence that was impossible to ignore. He didn't look especially tall or muscular, but there was something perfectly healthy and strong about him that made people around their age, regardless of sex, keep sneaking glances at him.

After all, dating in high school wasn't forbidden in Sakurajima. A boy as outstanding as him would never be short of girlfriends.

Even if he wasn't the proactive sort, all it would take was for a few girls to learn that he was still single. One or two bold ones would surely throw themselves at him.

"First of all, I've always been frank. If you think that means I'm sweet-talking you, there's nothing I can do about it. And second, I've never been in a relationship."

Aragaki Shun was speechless. He knew that the atmosphere in Sakurajima was different from that on the mainland, but whenever he ran into questions like this, he never knew what expression to make.

You're a girl who's only just started your first year of high school. Why would you think a boy your age had dated lots of girls?

Well, I guess they really don't assign enough homework here!

Thinking of how dating had been forbidden before university in his previous life, only for him to be dragged into a blind date right after graduating, Aragaki Shun felt increasingly strange.

"Really? You're serious?"

Ichinose looked at Aragaki Shun in disbelief. How had nobody made a move on such a catch?

"Forget about me. What about you, Ichinose? Have you been in a relationship?"

"Huh? Haha... Looks like we're in the same boat..."

The girl seemed a little embarrassed. In Sakurajima's social climate, having plenty of dating experience wasn't shameful. On the contrary, people with no experience at all were looked down on by the experts in a social circle.

Aragaki Shun pursed his lips. He didn't care about that at all. He didn't mind whether he had a girlfriend, anyway—he already had a backup waiting at home.

When his adoptive parents learned that he'd chosen to attend Advanced Nurturing High School, they'd even subtly asked whether he'd be willing to start taking over the family business after graduation.

Ichinose was about to say something else, but when she saw that every seat in the classroom was occupied, she simply went up to the podium and began inviting everyone to introduce themselves and get to know one another.

The angel's knack for putting people at ease was undeniable. Besides, there weren't any troublemakers in the class, so everyone agreed. Starting from the first row, the students stood up and spoke one by one.

As Aragaki Shun listened to his classmates introduce themselves, matching their names to their faces and committing them to memory, he opened the Personal Panel only he could see--

[Name: Aragaki Shun

Strength: 7

Constitution: 7

Agility: 8

Spirit: 9

Skills: Combat lv.4 (2/5), Writing lv.4 (2/5), Miscellaneous

Talents: Danger Sense lv.5 (0/10), Immunity to Poison lv.5 (0/10), Immunity to Disease lv.5 (0/10)

Ready to Condense: Erudition lv.0 (0/?), Turn Misfortune into Good Fortune lv.0 (0/?)

Source Power: 14 (Current rate: 3 units gained per month)]

Apart from the ten units of Source Power he'd saved as a reserve, he'd gained three more at the start of the new month, and there was one extra unit on top of that.

It really had been the right choice to enter Advanced Nurturing High School!

2. The Golden Finger's Function; Questions That Couldn't Be Answered

As someone lucky enough to live a second life as a transmigrator, Aragaki Shun naturally had a Golden Finger of his own.

It wasn't the usual kind of system. Instead, it was an ability, talent, or perhaps supernatural power that he'd named [Source Manipulation].

Anyway, it was something along those lines. He hadn't found any other supernatural beings in this world yet, so he could only study the naturally awakened ability according to his own understanding.

Based on what he'd learned over the years, whenever he made a lasting impact on this world, he could use that influence to obtain a universal energy. He'd named it [Source Power].

Source Power was universal, but only if he had plenty of it to spend.

At the rate he'd been gaining Source Power over the years, even if he saved it all for ten years and released it at once, he still wouldn't be able to unleash an attack powerful enough to destroy a town.

The key was that he couldn't claim Source Power again from the impact of a miracle created by using Source Power. Otherwise, he could spend as much as he wanted and then replenish it all. If that were possible, he'd have stopped eating meat a long time ago.

Fortunately, after testing things again and again, he'd found a more cost-effective way to use his ability.

Compared with simply willing something into existence or brute-forcing a miracle, if he understood and had insight into what he wanted to accomplish—if he knew the principles behind it—he could achieve the same effect while using far less Source Power. Sometimes, he could create an even better result with just one-tenth of the power.

The Personal Panel that only he could see was something he'd made himself.

At first, he'd only wanted a clearer way to see every improvement he made. Later, he'd discovered that if he fixed his attributes, skills, and talents on a semi-digitized panel, he could spend far less Source Power when strengthening them.

That was the helplessness of being short on Source Power. Every little bit saved was a bit gained.

Still, he was only in his late teens. As long as he didn't die of hunger, disease, poison, or some accident, he could gradually extend his lifespan.

Ten years, twenty, thirty... A hundred years... A thousand... This was already his second life. He didn't mind racing against time, slowly making his way toward the future he wanted.

Just as Aragaki Shun was planning out his future in his mind, a sweet voice rang out, pulling him back from his thoughts.

"Everyone, quiet down and head back to your seats. Let's not make things difficult for the teacher, okay?"

A young woman wearing a pink T-shirt and sporting long brown hair walked up to the podium. She wore a gentle smile, and her tone was a little playful. She seemed like an easygoing teacher.

The boys in the class immediately perked up. It went without saying that a pretty homeroom teacher was much more popular than the severe old fossil they'd imagined, with all his hair already fallen out.

Once the pretty homeroom teacher saw everyone looking at her, she put a hand on her hip and gave the full classroom a cute, playful look. Then she nodded in satisfaction and picked up the chalk to write her name on the blackboard—Chie Hoshinomiya.