Classroom of the Elite, I Can Add Points Infinitely Chapter 3

Along the way, as if by tacit agreement, the other students automatically fell in behind, leaving Aragaki Shun, Ichinose Honami, and Kanzaki Ryuji to walk at the front.

Aragaki Shun was no stranger to this situation; given the unique atmosphere of Sakurajima, it was perfectly normal for students to gradually divide themselves into different social strata.

However, this was the first time he had encountered a class that coordinated so easily, with the majority of students selecting their core leadership on the very first day.

In the past, it was all too easy for cliques to clash behind the scenes while vying for control of the class.

The group arrived at the auditorium, and while everyone had expected the school's opening ceremony to have some unique features, it turned out to be the classic affair of school leaders droning on about the same old clichés.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the ceremony wasn't particularly long, leaving everyone with time to attend to their own affairs once dismissed.

The students of Class B didn't just scatter in all directions, however. Aragaki Shun checked the time and suggested that everyone proceed as normal, noting that if anyone discovered anything unusual, they should post it in the class group chat that had been set up earlier.

With that, the girls clustered around Ichinose Honami, chattering away, while the boys split into groups based on their interests. Aragaki Shun, following his own plan, opened the map navigation on his phone and headed straight for the shopping mall to pick up some daily necessities.

However... Aragaki Shun glanced back with some surprise at the two figures trailing him—Kanzaki Ryuji and Shibata Sou, who had introduced himself as being skilled at soccer. When had these two caught up?

"Are you two heading to the shopping mall to buy things as well?"

"Yes, let's go together. The shopping mall is likely the place where points are spent most easily; checking it out might reveal more of the school's hidden rules."

Kanzaki Ryuji was concise, and he seemed to be a man of action.

"Uh, I saw Kanzaki following you and figured Aragaki was doing something for the class, so I wanted to see if I could help out."

Shibata Sou appeared enthusiastic and extroverted, though he also seemed a bit careless and impulsive.

Aragaki Shun didn't say anything, effectively accepting their company.

Just like in elementary and middle school, while he wouldn't take the initiative to build a social circle, he wouldn't be cold or resistant if someone approached him with good intentions.

He wasn't so antisocial that he felt the need to deliberately display a lack of sociability or reject everyone.

In Aragaki Shun's view, high school friendships rarely lasted into adulthood; once everyone graduated from university and entered society, there would be few opportunities to stay in touch, so there was no need to overthink it.

But since they would be living in close quarters for the next three years, maintaining basic friendly relations with most people was necessary for a peaceful life.

"Kanzaki, back when you were in elementary or middle school, did your schools install this many security cameras?"

While buying daily necessities and observing the school environment, the young man casually asked his companion a question that had been bothering him since he first arrived.

The sheer number of cameras in this school was excessive. Classrooms and hallways were one thing, but having them every few meters along the street made it feel like the school was setting up a dragnet.

"No, a normal school wouldn't go to such lengths. If these monitors are kept on all the time, the cumulative cost over the years would be quite significant."

"Then it seems that's another unique feature of this school. And look at this—the designated free area in the supermarket."

Aragaki Shun led them to a prominent section in the middle of the supermarket, picked up a few bottles of shampoo and body wash to weigh them, and observed the sign next to them that read, 'Limit of three items per person per month.'

"Are these things free? The school is being awfully generous. I've bought this brand outside before; it's very practical. I never expected to be able to pick it up for free every month here."

Shibata exclaimed as he picked up a tube of toothpaste from a brand he recognized. After carefully checking it and confirming it was genuine, he promptly grabbed three and put them in his basket.

Kanzaki, however, frowned, his eyes filled with caution.

"As I thought, it's impossible for the school to distribute one hundred thousand points every month. Otherwise, there would be no need to specifically set up a free area for students whose points have hit zero."

"Could it be that the school will implement strict assessments, and any mistake will result in a deduction of points?"

Aragaki Shun smiled, feeling rather relaxed instead.

There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world; that much was obvious.

"Shibata, Kanzaki and I will take these daily necessities back to the dorms for you. Why don't you go to the cafeteria and pack us a meal? If there's a free option, get a free set meal."

"Huh?"

Shibata didn't understand how the conversation had suddenly veered toward getting food at the cafeteria.

"I see. Since there is a free area for daily necessities, there must naturally be one for the food and drink we need every day. We should indeed try the free set meal first. In case we ever end up in a situation with zero points, it's good to be mentally prepared."

Once Kanzaki understood what Aragaki Shun meant, he looked at Shibata Sou with a sharp gaze, signaling that if the other boy didn't want to do it, he would take on the task himself.

But as Aragaki Shun had judged earlier, Shibata was indeed a very enthusiastic person. Upon learning this, he didn't say another word, quickly finished buying his own necessities, and after asking the two to take them back to the dorms, he ran off to the cafeteria.

Boys' shopping efficiency was different from girls'; at least, Aragaki Shun didn't have the hobby of browsing or wandering. If he saw something that felt right, he bought it immediately.

Thus, he and Kanzaki quickly finished their trip to the supermarket and went to the exit to queue for payment.

"What are you doing?"

Kanzaki Ryuji looked curiously at the young man in front of him, who was looking down at his phone. He hadn't seemed like a phone addict on the way to the supermarket.

"Informing the others in the class group about our discovery. I'm suggesting that everyone try queuing for a free set meal at lunch today. While we're at it, we can ask the upperclassmen who are also getting the free meals about the situation at the school."

If points were the school's standard for evaluating students and a reward for talent, then the free meals that could be obtained without points must have some kind of flaw. Otherwise, if everyone had food and drink covered, what would be the point of striving for anything?

Starting with one hundred thousand points and ending up in a position where one had to rely on free meals—the experience of those upperclassmen was definitely worth learning from.

After paying, the two didn't linger in the shopping mall, heading back to the dorms with their bags in tow.

What was worth noting was that while the school handbook stated that "romance inconsistent with the status of a high school student is prohibited," the school actually provided co-ed dormitories.

The girls' dorms were on the upper floors, while the boys lived on the lower ones.

That was one thing, but the real kicker came next—because they were carrying daily necessities for Shibata, the two thought they might as well try to pick up his room key. They only asked on a whim, not expecting it to work, but they ended up getting a spare key for Shibata's room quite easily.

According to the dormitory manager, as long as one explained the purpose, a spare key for a classmate could be issued.

Aragaki Shun's face darkened instantly, and he immediately wanted to ask if he could get a master key for all the girls' dormitories in the school.

Fortunately, after he pressed the issue, the administrator produced a dormitory agreement, stating that once signed, neither other students nor teachers could enter a private room without authorization. Only the Board Chairman and the Student Council President could, under special circumstances, request that the administrator use a spare key to open a student's dormitory door.

Aragaki Shun naturally signed the agreement and had Kanzaki notify all their classmates in the group chat, telling them to make sure they clarified these matters with the dormitory administrator upon moving in.

He had come to realize that this school was full of traps.

There were many things that, if you didn't ask, they wouldn't volunteer to tell you.

Just like this business with the room keys—who knows how many incoming freshmen would have been caught out by it.

4. Special Class Assignment Rules

Although he had discovered the trap regarding the room keys, Aragaki Shun was still quite satisfied when he arrived at the single-occupancy dormitory provided by the school.

With enough space for about eight tatami mats and being for one person, it was definitely enough for high school students like them.

A bed, a desk, a balcony, a bathroom, a small kitchenette... every amenity was provided, and with the added benefit of free water and electricity, one had to admit the school was indeed generous in this regard.

After putting away the daily necessities he had bought, Shibata Soya returned with three free meal sets, so the three of them took the opportunity to enjoy their first lunch at the school in his room.

Surprisingly, the free meal sets provided by the school looked quite substantial on the outside, consisting mainly of vegetables mixed with meat and eggs, and even included a specially paired soup.

Based on Aragaki Shun's past experience with physical training, the nutritional content of this meal was definitely sufficient and could fully satisfy the growth needs of boys and girls at the high school stage; it was highly likely to be more nutritionally balanced than the delicious food students might order based on their own preferences.

It was a bit unexpected, but thinking about it, it was also quite normal.

The school was a place entrusted by parents to care for and cultivate their children; while fostering talent was important, the key was that no health problems could occur.

If news really spread that a large number of Advanced Nurturing students were being hospitalized due to malnutrition, the school would have been torn down by angry parents long ago.

However, if the free meal sets weren't lacking in nutritional ingredients, then they must have put their effort into another aspect.

Sure enough, Aragaki Shun, still deep in thought, turned his head to see Shibata spitting out his tongue after taking a bite of the vegetables.

"Hiss~ what's going on? Is this burnt, or did they put in too much seasoning? Why is my tongue going numb after eating it?"

After hearing this, Kanzaki Ryuji also shoved a mouthful into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed with a slight frown.

"The taste is quite terrible, completely inconsistent with its appearance."

"It's likely the school had the chefs make it taste bad on purpose. This is to force students to strive to secure their monthly 100,000 points, warning us that if our points hit zero, the school will only be responsible for our basic survival, but if we want to live better, we have to rely on ourselves."

Aragaki Shun also began to taste the meal set the school had carefully prepared. To be honest, it really didn't taste good, but it was edible, and eating it once or twice occasionally would definitely do no harm.

But if he really had to eat this kind of meal, intentionally made to taste bad, every single day... sorry, even he didn't want to torture his own tongue on purpose.

After silently finishing the meal, Aragaki Shun picked up his phone and saw that the class group chat was already filled with various complaints about the taste of the free meal sets.

As the one who had suggested taking them, Aragaki Shun smiled and didn't join the conversation, choosing instead to private message Ichinose Honami to ask if she had heard any news from the upperclassmen who were also receiving the free meal sets.

[Ichinose Honami]: "The seniors are very cautious about this. You can tell they are tired of the free meals, and when we offered to treat them to premium meals, they were definitely tempted."

[Ichinose Honami]: "But even so, they still refused to sit and chat with us while eating. However, after we promised not to ask about anything else and just wanted to make friends with them, we did manage to learn their classes and names..."

After recounting what she had seen in the cafeteria at noon, Ichinose sent over a compiled list, with classes, names, and genders clearly marked.

Under the girl's meticulous organization, Aragaki Shun spotted the anomaly on the list at a glance.

On the list, among those who came to collect the free meal sets, the highest numbers were from Class D of the third year and Class D of the second year, followed by Class C of the third year and Class C of the second year.

As for the students of Class A and Class B, neither the third years nor the second years chose the free meal sets.

This pattern was a bit too obvious.

[Aragaki Shun]: "So, is the distribution of points done in descending order from A, B, C, to D?"

[Ichinose Honami]: "I asked friends in the first-year Class A, Class C, and Class D. The points they received this month were also 100,000, and the rules explained by their teachers were almost identical to what our homeroom teacher Hoshinomiya said."

Good grief, she had already made friends in other classes so quickly; she truly lived up to the name of Angel Ichinose.

[Aragaki Shun]: "So all four classes started at the same point, and the gap only begins to emerge after later assessments. But why is it that the points just happen to get lower from A to D?"

[Aragaki Shun]: "Did the school use a special class assignment rule when they sorted us, or do the class names actually change based on assessment rankings, like the top-ranked class automatically becoming Class A?"

Both possibilities were easy to understand.

In his previous life, the high school he attended also had a distinction between elite classes and regular classes. If the school had assigned the most excellent students to Class A and the worst to Class D from the start, it would be normal for the points of each class to show such a pattern after the second year.

However, after pondering for a moment, Aragaki Shun dismissed this possibility.

Not to mention that he and Ichinose Honami were the first and second in the entrance exam respectively, even if Advanced Nurturing didn't prioritize academic ability, it was impossible for the overall capability of the entire Class A to be stronger than both of them. Besides, a competition where the result was determined from the start would be completely meaningless.

Therefore, it was more likely that the school determined the class letters based on assessment rankings; whichever class performed better would be promoted to Class A and receive more points each month.

[Aragaki Shun]: "Ichinose, would you mind taking some classmates to interact with other classes later? Just make friends normally; you don't need to specifically investigate anything, and don't feel pressured by treating this as a task."

[Aragaki Shun]: "By the way, regarding the school's hidden rules, tell everyone not to talk about them outside for now. The school has issued a gag order to teachers and upperclassmen, which likely means they are testing our ability to gather intelligence. I don't know what the consequences would be if we leaked information to other classes."

[Ichinose Honami]: "I understand. Actually, everyone suggested having a karaoke party for the whole class. It would be good to pull in students from other classes and get to know each other."

[Aragaki Shun]: "Hmm, I'm not very good at that, so I'll leave it to you. However, there should be people in other classes who have realized that something is wrong with the school. Warn our classmates to be careful and not get played."

[Ichinose Honami]: "I'll be careful, but we are all classmates. Even if there are exams, it shouldn't affect making friends, right? Surely we won't get played?"

[Aragaki Shun]: "It never hurts to be careful."

5. Source Power Acquisition Method; Challenging the Table Tennis Club

"Let's go, Kanzaki, Shibata, let's go challenge some clubs!"

After finishing their free meal and discussing the intelligence obtained from Ichinose in the class group chat, Aragaki Shun looked at Kanzaki and Shibata, who were busy discussing where to explore the school rules, and decisively proposed this rather explosive suggestion.

Sakurajima placed great importance on the hierarchy between seniors and juniors, and since the first-year students had just enrolled and club recruitment hadn't even begun, the school clubs were currently occupied only by second and third-year seniors. Going to challenge them now...

"The school distributes points on the first of every month, and right now is when the seniors have money in their pockets. If we don't make a killing now, when will we?"

Aragaki Shun gave his reason with absolute certainty.

He suspected that the school intentionally used the 100,000 points to corrupt their minds upon enrollment, only to strip all their points away through an exam once they became complacent, using that disparity between wealth and poverty to make them experience the cold, ruthless nature of society.

Therefore, finding ways to acquire more points now was never a bad idea; after all, according to Hoshinomiya, points could buy anything in the school!

Of course, for Aragaki Shun, this was also a way to expand his influence.

In the past, because he was young and wanted to avoid appearing too abnormal, Aragaki Shun had always increased his influence through methods that made people notice him and recognize him as a genius, without exceeding the bounds of what the world could understand.

For example, maintaining the top rank in his grade at school, occasionally challenging various clubs, and attempting to perform acts of chivalry outside of school... these were all methods of reasonably acquiring Source Power that he had consistently adhered to.

At the same time, he discovered that in this world, there were quite a few light novel authors and illustrators who could publish works while still in elementary or junior high school, so Aragaki Shun couldn't help but try his hand at it as well.

The accumulation of these various influences provided him with a continuous supply of Source Power, and the fact that he could now obtain three strands of Source Power each month was the manifestation of this influence.

Beyond these long-term gains, some one-time achievements could also settle into Source Power. Based on his observations, this might be related to the amount of destiny and Source Power carried by each individual.

One could only say that the world had never been fair. It was one thing for everyone to have different family backgrounds, races, and countries of origin, but even metaphysical concepts like destiny and Source Power manifested in vastly different ways for each person.

The reason Aragaki Shun had come to Kodo Ikusei Senior High School was that he sensed this place gathered the attention of the entire upper echelon of Sakurajima and collected special talents with extraordinary destiny from all over the country. At his current age, it was absolutely an excellent place to acquire Source Power.

Sure enough, the moment he stepped into Kodo Ikusei Senior High School and completed his enrollment, a strand of Source Power was automatically added to his personal panel.

This meant he had completed a minor achievement; if he had enrolled in any other high school, there was a high probability he wouldn't have received this benefit.

But since Kodo Ikusei Senior High School was so brimming with Source Power, how could he just take a shallow sip and waste such resources in vain?

His active efforts in Class B to explore the school rules were also intended to better expand his influence; after all, controlling a class was much easier for influencing the school than being a lone wolf.