On the way, as if by tacit agreement, the other students automatically followed behind, letting Aragaki Shun, Ichinose Honami, Kanzaki Ryuji, and a few others walk at the front.
Aragaki Shun wasn't unfamiliar with this sort of thing. Given Sakurajima's unusual atmosphere, it was perfectly normal for students to gradually sort themselves into different social ranks.
Still, this was the first time he had seen things coordinated so easily, with most of the class choosing its core members on the very first day.
In the past, struggles for control of a class could easily lead to sparks flying between different cliques behind the scenes.
The group arrived at the auditorium. Everyone had thought this school's opening ceremony might be unusual, but it turned out to be the same old routine of school leaders droning on about the usual things.
The only thing to be grateful for was that the ceremony wasn't very long. Once it ended, everyone still had time to do their own thing.
The students in Class B, however, didn't all go their separate ways at once. Aragaki Shun checked the time, then suggested that they all go about their business as usual, and post any unusual discoveries in the class group chat they had set up earlier.
The girls clustered around Ichinose Honami, chattering away, while the boys split into several groups according to their interests and headed off. Aragaki Shun, meanwhile, pulled up the map on his phone and followed the directions toward Keyaki Mall to buy some daily necessities.
However... Aragaki Shun glanced in surprise at the two figures who had appeared beside him: Kanzaki Ryuji and Shibata Sou, who had introduced himself as being good at soccer. When had the two of them caught up?
"Are you two going to Keyaki Mall to buy things too?"
"Yeah. Let's go together. The mall is probably the easiest place to spend points. We might find more of the school's hidden rules if we look around."
Kanzaki Ryuji was concise and seemed like a man of action.
"Uh, I saw Kanzaki-san following you and figured you were doing something for the class, so I thought I'd see if I could help."
Shibata Sou came across as warm and outgoing, though he also seemed a little careless and impulsive.
Aragaki Shun didn't say anything, tacitly accepting that they would come along.
Just like in elementary and middle school, he wasn't the type to build a clique on his own, but if someone approached him in good faith, he wasn't going to give them the cold shoulder.
He wasn't so antisocial that he had to deliberately show how he didn't fit in by rejecting everyone.
In Aragaki Shun's view, high school friendships rarely lasted into adulthood. After graduating from university and entering the workforce, people didn't have many chances to keep in touch, so there was no need to care too much.
But they would be spending their days together for the next three years, so maintaining basically friendly relations with most people was worthwhile if it meant a peaceful life during that time.
"Kanzaki, did your elementary or middle school have this many security cameras?"
As he picked up some daily necessities and looked around the school, the boy casually asked the classmate beside him a question that had been bothering him since he first arrived.
There were just too many cameras around this school. Cameras in classrooms and hallways were one thing, but why were there some at regular intervals along the streets, as if the place had been covered by a vast surveillance net?
"No. Ordinary schools wouldn't go that far. If all these cameras are running constantly, the cost would add up to a considerable sum over time."
"Then it looks like that's another unusual thing about the school. And here's another one: a dedicated free section in the supermarket."
Aragaki Shun led them to a conspicuous area in the middle of the supermarket. He picked up several bottles of shampoo and body wash, weighed them in his hands, then studied the sign beside them: "Limit three items per person per month."
"Are all this stuff free? The school's way too generous. I've bought this brand before, and it's pretty good. I didn't expect to get it free every month here."
Shibata picked up a tube of toothpaste from a brand he recognized and examined it closely. Once he had confirmed it was genuine, he promptly put three tubes in his basket.
Kanzaki, however, furrowed his brow, his eyes filled with caution.
"As expected, the school can't possibly be handing out a hundred thousand points every month. Otherwise, there'd be no need to set up a free section for students whose points have run out."
"Maybe the school will give us strict tests, then deduct points if we fail?"
Aragaki Shun smiled, feeling more at ease.
There was no such thing as a free lunch. That was only natural.
"Shibata, Kanzaki and I can take these daily necessities back to the dorm for you. How about you go to the cafeteria and bring us a meal? If they have a free option, get one free set meal."
"Huh?"
Shibata didn't understand why the conversation had suddenly veered off into cafeteria food.
"I see. If there's a free section for daily necessities, there must be one for food and drink, things we need every day. We should try the free set meal first. If we ever end up with no points, at least we'll know what to expect."
Once Kanzaki understood what Aragaki Shun meant, his sharp gaze settled on Shibata Sou, signaling that he could take care of it if Shibata didn't want to.
But just as Aragaki Shun had judged earlier, Shibata was a genuinely enthusiastic person. After hearing what they wanted, he quickly bought the daily necessities, asked the two of them to take them back to the dorm, and ran off to the cafeteria.
Boys weren't as quick at shopping as girls, but at least Aragaki Shun didn't enjoy browsing. He bought things as soon as he found something suitable.
So he and Kanzaki soon finished their trip to the supermarket and joined the line at the exit to pay.
"What are you doing?"
Kanzaki Ryuji curiously watched the boy in front of him, head down and fiddling with his phone. He hadn't seemed like a phone addict on the way to the supermarket.
"I'm letting the others know what we found in the class group chat. I suggested everyone line up to try a free set meal at lunchtime today. While they're there, they can ask any upperclassmen getting the same meal about the school."
If points were the school's way of evaluating students and rewarding talent, then free meals that didn't cost points had to come with some kind of drawback. Otherwise, if food and drink were taken care of, what would everyone be striving for?
The upperclassmen who had started out with a hundred thousand points and ended up reduced to eating free set meals were worth learning from.
After paying, the two didn't linger at Keyaki Mall. They headed straight for the dorms, arms full of bags.
One thing worth noting was that the handbook issued by the school stated, "Romantic relationships that are inappropriate for high school students are prohibited." Yet, under those circumstances, the school's dormitories were coed.
The girls lived on the upper floors, while the boys lived on the lower floors.
That wasn't all. Things got even more outrageous: since they were carrying Shibata's daily necessities, the two figured they might as well ask for a key card for his room. They hadn't expected to succeed, but it turned out to be remarkably easy to get a spare key card to Shibata's dorm room.
According to the dorm manager, all they had to do was state their purpose, and they could get a key card for a classmate's room.
Aragaki Shun's face immediately darkened. He almost asked if he could get key cards for all the girls' dorm rooms.
Fortunately, when he pressed the matter, the manager brought out a dormitory agreement. Once it was signed, other students and teachers couldn't enter anyone's room without permission. Only the Board Chairman and the Student Council President could, in special circumstances, request that the manager use a spare key card to open a student's dorm room.
Aragaki Shun naturally signed the agreement. He also had Kanzaki notify everyone in the class group chat to make sure they clarified this with the dorm manager when moving in.
He was starting to understand. This school was full of traps.
If you didn't ask about something, they wouldn't tell you.
Just like the key cards. Who knew how many new students would get caught out by that?
A Peculiar Class Assignment System
Although they had discovered the major pitfall involving key cards, Aragaki Shun was still very satisfied when he reached the single dorm room the school had prepared for him.
The room was spacious enough to fit about eight tatami mats, and he had it all to himself. That was more than enough for a high school student.
It had everything: a bed, a desk, a balcony, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. With utilities included, the school really was generous in this regard.
After putting away the daily necessities they had bought, Shibata Sou returned with three free set meals. The three of them took the opportunity to enjoy their first lunch at the school in his room.
Surprisingly, the free set meal looked quite generous. It was mainly vegetables, mixed with meat and eggs, and even came with a specially prepared soup.
Judging from Aragaki Shun's past experience with exercise and nutrition, the meal had more than enough nutrients to support the growth of high school boys and girls. It was probably more balanced than the delicious dishes students would order according to their own preferences.
It was a little unexpected, but it also made sense.
Schools were entrusted by parents to care for and educate their children. Educating students was important, but the main thing was making sure they didn't suffer any health problems.
If news ever came out that large numbers of students at Advanced Nurturing High School had been hospitalized for malnutrition, angry parents would have torn the school apart by now.
But if the free set meal wasn't lacking in nutritional value, then the school must have skimped on something else.
Sure enough, while Aragaki Shun was still lost in thought, he turned and saw Shibata sticking out his tongue after taking a bite of his vegetables.
"Ugh... What's going on? Is this burnt, or did they add too much seasoning? My tongue's practically numb!"
After hearing him, Kanzaki Ryuji put a bite into his mouth as well. He chewed a few times, then frowned and swallowed.
"It tastes pretty bad. Nothing like it looks."
"The school probably had the chefs make it taste bad on purpose. They're trying to force us to work hard and maintain our hundred thousand points each month. It's a warning that if our points run out, the school will only provide for our basic survival. If we want to live better, we'll have to rely on ourselves."
Aragaki Shun began sampling the carefully prepared meal as well. To be honest, it didn't taste very good, but it was still edible. Having it once or twice wouldn't hurt.
But if he had to eat meals deliberately made to taste bad every day... Sorry, even he didn't want to torment his taste buds.
After silently finishing the meal, Aragaki Shun picked up his phone. The class group chat was already flooded with complaints about the free meals.
Aragaki Shun, who had suggested it, smiled but didn't join the conversation. Instead, he privately messaged Ichinose Honami to ask whether she had learned anything from the upperclassmen who had also gotten the free meals.
[Ichinose Honami]: "The upperclassmen were all very cautious about it. We could tell they were already sick of the free meals. When we offered to treat them to a premium meal, they were tempted."
[Ichinose Honami]: "Even so, they refused to sit with us and eat together. But after we promised not to ask about anything else and said we just wanted to make friends with them, we did learn their names and classes..."
After telling him everything she had seen at the cafeteria, Ichinose sent over a neatly compiled list, with each person's class, name, and gender clearly marked.
Thanks to the girl's careful work, Aragaki Shun immediately noticed something unusual about the list.
Among the students who had come for the free meals, the most numerous were Class 3-D and Class 2-D, followed by Class 3-C and Class 2-C.
As for students from Class A and Class B, not a single one from either the second or third year had chosen the free meals.
The pattern was a little too obvious.
[Aragaki Shun]: "So the points are distributed in descending order from A to B to C to D?"
[Ichinose Honami]: "I asked some friends in first-year Class A, Class C, and Class D. They were also given a hundred thousand points this month, and the rules their teachers explained were almost identical to what Hoshinomiya-sensei told us."
Wow, she'd already made friends in other classes. The angel Ichinose Honami really lived up to her name.
[Aragaki Shun]: "Then the four classes all started on equal footing, and the differences only came after the evaluations began. But why do the points decrease in order from A to D?"
[Aragaki Shun]: "Did the school use a special system to assign students to classes from the start, or do the class letters change according to evaluation rankings, with the top class automatically becoming Class A?"
Both possibilities were easy to understand.
At the high school he had attended in his previous life, there had been separate advanced and ordinary classes. If the school had assigned the best students to Class A and the worst to Class D from the beginning, it would make sense for the second- and third-year classes' points to follow the same pattern.
But after thinking it over, Aragaki Shun dismissed that possibility.
Putting aside the fact that Ichinose Honami and he had ranked first and second in the entrance exam, even if Advanced Nurturing didn't prioritize academic ability, it was impossible for the entire Class A to be more capable than the two of them. Besides, a competition with a predetermined outcome would be meaningless.
So it was more likely that the school assigned class letters based on evaluation rankings. Whichever class performed best would rise to Class A and receive more points every month.
[Aragaki Shun]: "Ichinose, would you mind taking the class out to interact with students from the other classes later? Just make friends normally. There's no need to investigate anything in particular or feel pressured to treat it as a task."
[Aragaki Shun]: "By the way, tell everyone not to talk to outsiders about the school's hidden rules for now. The school told the teachers and upperclassmen to keep quiet, so they're probably testing each class's information-gathering ability. We don't know what might happen if we give the other classes the answers."
[Ichinose Honami]: "Got it. Actually, everyone suggested having a class karaoke party, so bringing students from the other classes together and getting to know one another sounds like a good idea."
[Aragaki Shun]: "Yeah. I'm not very good at that sort of thing, so I'll leave it to you. But someone in the other classes has probably noticed that something's off about the school too. Remind everyone to be careful and not get played."
[Ichinose Honami]: "I'll keep an eye out. But we're all classmates. Even if there are exams, that shouldn't affect making friends. I doubt anyone would try to trick us, right?"
[Aragaki Shun]: "It's always better to be careful."
How to Acquire Source Power; Challenging the Table Tennis Club
"Come on, Kanzaki, Shibata. Let's go challenge the clubs!"
After finishing the free meal and discussing the information Ichinose had gathered in the class group chat,
Aragaki Shun looked at Kanzaki and Shibata, who were discussing where to go to investigate the school's rules, and decisively proposed something that would probably sound outrageous to them.
Sakurajima placed great importance on the senior-junior relationship and hierarchy. The first-years had just enrolled, and club recruitment hadn't even begun. For now, the school clubs were made up of second- and third-year students. Suggesting they go challenge a club at a time like this...
"The school hands out points on the first of every month. The upperclassmen have money in their pockets right now. If we don't make a fortune now, when will we?"
Aragaki Shun presented his reasoning with complete confidence.
He suspected the school had deliberately given them a hundred thousand points at the start to corrupt them. Once they had let their guard down, the school would spring an evaluation on them and deduct all their points, using the resulting gap between wealth and poverty to show them how cruel society could be.
So there was nothing wrong with finding a way to earn more points now. After all, according to Hoshinomiya, points could buy anything at the school!
Of course, for Aragaki Shun, this was also a way to expand his influence.
When he was younger, to avoid seeming too extraordinary, Aragaki Shun had always used ways of gaining influence that would attract attention and earn recognition as a genius without going beyond what people could understand.
For example, ranking first in his year at school, occasionally challenging different school clubs, and trying to help people in need outside school... He had kept up these sorts of activities, which could reasonably earn Source Power, for years.
At the same time, he had noticed that there seemed to be plenty of light novelists and illustrators in this world who could publish their works while still in elementary or middle school. Aragaki Shun couldn't help trying his hand at it too.
All this influence he had built up provided him with a steady stream of Source Power. His current ability to gain three units of Source Power each month was a manifestation of that influence.
Besides these steady, gradual gains, certain one-time achievements could also grant Source Power. From what he had observed, this might have something to do with how much fortune and Source Power each person carried.
The world had never been fair. It was bad enough that people were born into different families, races, and countries, but even the mystical concepts of fortune and Source Power manifested differently in each person.
The reason Aragaki Shun had come to Kodo Ikusei Senior High School was that he had sensed this place drew the attention of Sakurajima's elite and gathered exceptional talents from all over the country, each with extraordinary fortune. At his age, it was an ideal place to acquire Source Power.
Sure enough, after he set foot in Kodo Ikusei Senior High School and completed his enrollment, his Personal Panel had automatically gained one unit of Source Power.
That meant he had completed a minor achievement. If he had enrolled at another high school, he probably wouldn't have received that reward.
But since Kodo Ikusei was so rich in Source Power, how could he just take a taste and waste all those resources?
He had been so eager to step forward and investigate the school's rules in Class B because he wanted to expand his influence more effectively. After all, controlling a class made it easier to influence the school than standing alone.
Before you continue