If they let Classes B, C, and D keep stumbling around in the dark, all three classes would lose a large number of Class Points as punishment for their students' rule violations.
Class A, the first to discover the rules, would pull far ahead of Classes B, C, and D.
"Don't say something so scary, Ryuen." Aoyama shifted his butt a little closer to Kamuro. "I'm straight. I only like women."
He wanted no part of anything like that gay stuff.
With so many cute girls at Kouiku, only someone with something wrong in the head would turn gay.
He wanted to call out a certain student from Class D here. He'd passed up the cute Sakayanagi Arisu and chosen to stick with Ryuen Kakeru, that troublemaker.
"Get any closer and I'll lose it, you bastard." Kamuro lowered her voice and cursed under her breath.
She didn't feel any particular way about Aoyama betraying the interests of his class.
Apart from Aoyama and Yamamura, she wasn't close to any of the other students in Class A, and she didn't care much about most things anyway.
What mattered now was that the bastard Aoyama stop getting any closer.
If he moved any closer, his thigh would be pressed against hers. She'd never been this close to a boy before. If she weren't trying to spare the bastard Aoyama's pride in front of everyone else, she'd have gotten up and left already.
"Sorry, sorry. You see how scary Ryuen is? I'm terrified."
Under Ryuen's menacing glare, Aoyama replied in a voice only the two of them could hear.
But he figured that if she'd only lose it if he got closer, then staying where he was must be fine.
The scent of the girl beside him kept drifting over, sweet enough to make him reluctant to move away.
Chapter 13: I Remembered Something Funny
"Aoyama, I have a request."
"Could you tell us where you got this information?"
Inside the guidance room, which had been quiet for a while.
After taking in and weighing the information Aoyama had provided, Ichinose had spent a brief while feeling down, but then rallied.
The school had deceived them, but at this point they couldn't exactly choose to drop out. The right thing to do was prepare early for the competition ahead.
"That's a secret." Aoyama shook his head. "But I can tell you about a few of the details."
Ichinose Honami was undeniably cute, but he wasn't about to give aid to the enemy. He wanted to keep Yamamura hidden for as long as he could.
If used well, Yamamura would be a powerful weapon, especially during a certain Special Exam later on.
"There's a window in the corner of the school cafeteria that serves a free meal set. It's really awful, and a long line formed there on the first day of school."
"At the opening ceremony, each second- and third-year class had fewer than forty students, and the third-year classes generally had a few fewer students than the second-year classes."
"Some students in Class 2-A look down on students in Class D, and don't bother hiding their contempt. Take Sudo from Class D, for example."
Aoyama turned his head to look at Hirata, whose expression wasn't particularly pleasant.
"When he got into a conflict with upperclassmen at a convenience store, a second-year boy called him a defective product and said he'd see what hell was like someday."
"Which convenience store was it, Aoyama?" Sakagami, who had been silent until then, suddenly interjected.
According to the school's rules for second- and third-year students, they absolutely couldn't provide information to first-years before May 1.
The second-year boy's insult toward Sudo could be considered, in the worst light, a way of passing information to him.
"Four days ago, in the afternoon. The one closest to the school."
After thinking briefly and figuring out why Sakagami had spoken up, Aoyama didn't mind giving Class 2-A a little trouble.
After all, Class 2-A's leader, Miyabi Nagumo, was currently on his list of enemies.
"Aoyama, you're amazing," Ichinose praised, a little awed, after Sakagami fell silent again.
Perhaps Aoyama Shiki wasn't the only first-year to notice these irregularities, but so far he was the only one who'd seriously investigated the reasons behind them.
That three million Personal Points was money Aoyama deserved to earn.
"I just tend to overthink things a little."
Being praised by a cute girl felt nice, but Aoyama knew his own limits. There was no way he'd let it go to his head.
The one who laughed last was the winner.
"Once we leave this room, I won't admit that I gave you the information." Aoyama handed the signed contract to Sakagami, the notary, for safekeeping, then patted Kamuro on the shoulder and stood up.
"But you all have a way to contact me. I'm a simple guy."
"You pay, I deliver. No tricks."
"The more you pay, the bigger the favor I can do."
After he finished, Aoyama glanced around at everyone's expressions. Ichinose, Hirata, and a few others wore somewhat strained smiles. They probably thought his behavior wasn't very nice.
As for Ryuen and Shiina, they showed no trace of surprise or disdain. They'd probably become clients later.
"See you next time, everyone." With a slight smile, Aoyama left the guidance room with Kamuro.
As he walked toward the school cafeteria, he received the first installment of one hundred thousand Personal Points from Ichinose and Ryuen. Nothing had come from Hirata yet.
But that wasn't unusual.
Looking at the message Karuizawa had sent him on his phone, he smiled silently.
Meanwhile, Hirata and Kushida, who were still in the guidance room, were hardly in good spirits.
After Aoyama, the main player, left the guidance room, Ichinose, Ryuen, and the others soon left as well.
Once the two of them were alone, they picked up their phones from the table, planning to use the class group chat to gather their classmates for a meeting while it was still early, or something along those lines.
Even if they didn't hold a class meeting that night, they could at least remind everyone in the group chat not to be late tomorrow.
"Did Aoyama play us, Hirata?"
Outside Hirata's line of sight, Kushida looked as vicious as a bloodthirsty ghost, her angelic image from the start of school nowhere to be seen.
After looking through the class group chat, they both realized that while they'd been signing the contract, their classmate Karuizawa had posted the same information they'd bought from Aoyama.
The class group chat was in an uproar. Quite a few classmates had sent them private messages asking if what Karuizawa said was true.
"I heard about Karuizawa from Sato. She's Aoyama's childhood friend."
"Maybe Aoyama had his reasons."
Hirata gave a wry smile. Having accepted that he'd be broke for months to come, his good-natured personality kept him from complaining too much.
After all this, Karuizawa got the credit, while they'd paid the Personal Points.
They no longer had any reason to ask their classmates to chip in the one million Personal Points.
"Maybe so." Noticing that Hirata had glanced her way, Kushida immediately changed her expression, turning from vicious to resigned.
To maintain her angelic image, she could only force down her anger for now. She didn't even dismiss the idea that Aoyama had his reasons.
"Aoyama Shiki, why don't you just die!"
After Hirata lowered his head to reply to his classmates' private messages, Kushida excused herself, saying she needed to use the restroom, and left the guidance room.
In an empty stall in the women's restroom, she began cursing Aoyama in a hushed voice.
She'd paid the money, but Karuizawa had taken all the credit and gratitude, without leaving her even a little.
And Karuizawa, that pushy girl, was one of the top three girls Kushida disliked most. How could that not make her furious?
"Go die a hundred times, you bastard!"
Realizing she had no choice but to transfer the money to Aoyama, Kushida cursed and kicked the toilet hard.
It was almost six, and the school cafeteria was filling up with students.
Watching Aoyama suddenly grin silently, Kamuro shivered. "What's with you now? Why are you suddenly grinning like a creep?"
"I remembered something funny."
With a thought, Aoyama closed the System Panel. He couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from turning up.
Just now, his Dirty Money Points had gone up by one hundred thousand. He now had a total of one hundred and fifty thousand.
He'd saved up enough for his first ten-pull.
Unless something unexpected happened, the payment he'd gotten for selling useless information to Hirata and Kushida could be used as Dirty Money.
"I'm getting the most expensive thing."
"I could eat ten portions and still be fine. Your man here has plenty of Personal Points." Delighted, Aoyama thumped his chest and assured Kamuro he could handle it.
On the way to the cafeteria, he'd generously offered to treat Kamuro to a meal since she'd lent him money.
"Ten portions? Do you think I'm a pig?" Kamuro rolled her eyes.
Watching Aoyama in such high spirits, she couldn't help feeling a little happy herself.
She just had no idea what the bastard was grinning about.
Remembering Aoyama's dismissive answer just now, her faint happiness vanished again.
Chapter 14: A Delightful Gacha
"See you tomorrow."
In the dormitory elevator, Aoyama said goodbye to Kamuro when they reached her floor, then hurried back to his own room.
The instant he entered, he locked the door, tossed aside his backpack, and sat down in the chair at his desk.
He thought of the system, and a screen much like the gacha interface from a mobile game ten years ago appeared. The one-time 90% discount on the ten-pull button was dazzlingly tempting.
The chance of getting a gold item or ability was only 0.5%, while the next tier down, purple, had a 9.5% chance.
Ten pulls guaranteed one purple, and a hundred pulls guaranteed one gold.
Give me some beginner's luck, System-kun.
Even if I don't get a gold, give me more purples. I don't want any blue or white junk.
Aoyama pressed his hands together in prayer, then hit the ten-pull button.
In an instant, thick fog covered the system interface. Ten face-down cards gradually emerged from the mist, then flipped over one by one.
Blue light, blue light, white light, white light, white...
What the heck, man?
System-kun—no, Great System, I'll call you Great System if that's what it takes!
As more and more blue and white lights appeared, Aoyama's anticipation for his first draw gradually faded.
It wasn't until the ninth card revealed a purple light that he felt somewhat reassured. At least he hadn't hit the pity guarantee right off the bat.
Then, the moment the tenth card flipped over, a dazzling golden light nearly blinded Aoyama.
Clearly, brown-nosing the system and calling it Great System had been the right move.
His very first ten-pull had produced a gold. The Great System really did love him.
[Rum's Eye: The ability of the Black Organization's second-in-command. Once you've seen something, you'll never forget it.]
After thanking the system for its favor, Aoyama immediately looked at the gold card.
A perfect-recall ability. It was only average among gold rewards, but still very useful, especially for someone like him, whose memory was nothing special.
From now on, even if he spent a lot less time memorizing things, his grades wouldn't suffer.
[Standard APTX4869: A 99% chance of death from heart failure after consumption. Those favored by fate may return to childhood.]
This purple-card reward wasn't useful to him for now either. And he couldn't use it in fights between students.
He wasn't a real villain, after all. Making money was fine, but killing people was out of the question.
[Stamina Potion: Essential for the Black Organization's action teams. When tired, it can speed up physical recovery without side effects.] x6
[M67 Delay Fragmentation Grenade: Art is an explosion!]
[Desert Eagle: Fire one shot, and you'll fall in love with it.]
Fall in love with what? I don't want to become a gunman.
While grumbling, Aoyama sorted through the prizes he'd drawn. Since Rum's Eye was an ability rather than an item, he extracted it immediately.
After picking up a book to test it, he had to admit that everything the system produced was top quality.
As for items like Standard APTX4869 and the Desert Eagle, he left them in the System Inventory for now and didn't extract them.
Before you continue