Stomachs and Wallets / Students Don't Always Follow the Rules Off Campus

From this perspective, for these non-ordinary high school students who already had some prior experience and knowledge outside the school, this Summer Special Exam was indeed easier.

Conversely, it also seems to show that students who already have clear future plans and have achieved certain results don't need the school to worry about them, so they can simply use this Special Exam to train them.

This is one of the reasons why the school deliberately separated all students into individual groups and sent them to the metropolis of Tokyo. After all, if you turn around as soon as you leave the school gate and see a classmate who ate in the same cafeteria and attended the same class as you just a day ago driving Maybach from home, your feelings would be quite complicated. It wouldn't be good if two more Miyabi Nagumo were to become possessed by demons.

Separating the students actually makes them more focused on themselves.

"YouTube, Twitter, TikTok... Where should I open an account? Any ideas, Liang?"

"I feel like neither of us has the ability to make long videos yet. Twitter or TikTok are probably better options. Besides, these platforms are prone to having tweets or short videos that suddenly go viral out of nowhere. Many small internet celebrities started out that way, but they rise quickly and fall just as fast."

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo casually logged into his main accounts on various platforms that he hadn't visited in over a year. The Theater Troupe was mainly managing these accounts for him, so they had essentially become fully automated reposting accounts. Karuizawa Kei would occasionally log in, so there were a few posts liking her account's tweets, which was essentially a mutual exchange of likes.

"It seems Hui went to the Theater Troupe?"

Seeing Karuizawa Kei's tweet and photos on Kitagawa Ryo's phone screen, Horikita Suzune curiously leaned over and asked her a question.

"Yeah, she was planning to pursue a career as a professional stage Actor anyway. We can go visit her when we have some free time. I know her place pretty well."

"Then, Honami went to a bank in Chuo Ward, Arisu went to Bunkyo Ward..."

"Hmm? Arisu went to Bunkyo Ward? I remember second-year students aren't allowed to audit classes, right?"

"It can only be said that the person applied for a management position as the chairman of the board of directors of a high school, so they are not going there as a future university student to audit classes, but as a successor to the chairman of the board of directors of Dongyu University, Sakayanagi Shigemori, to visit and learn."

"Was this arranged by Chairman Sakayanagi?"

"It's about 50/50. Arisu herself is quite interested, as she has experience with this before. The only difference is that this time there aren't any White Room Faction challenging her on equal footing."

Since they were all people who had experienced the simulation, when Kitagawa Ryo said that, Horikita Suzune knew that this must have happened in Sakayanagi Arisu's past life, so she naturally nodded and accepted it.

"But let's put them aside for now. Even if we have time to go find Megumi and Arisu later, we need to earn enough for transportation first. We can't just walk there, can we? They don't have to worry about food or lodging."

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo casually picked up Hotaru again, and stared at her seemingly innocent big eyes with feigned ferocity, threateningly saying:

"Besides, we'll have to raise another cat. If we really can't afford it anymore, we'll sell Ying or use her as food."

Hotaru seemed quite cooperative, darting over to Horikita Suzune in a flash. Pretending to be startled, she began to act cute with her large, watery, firefly-colored eyes, easily attracting Horikita Suzune's attention and prompting her to suggest:

"Actually, Ryo reminded me. Since our Ying is so smart, why don't we just let her debut in place of the two of us? Cute pet videos have an audience too."

"Then I can only say that Hotaru is still nominally Chabashira-sensei's cat. It's fine for her to sneak out and stay with us now, but if we use her to film videos to complete the tasks assigned by the school, Chabashira-sensei will definitely be judged as violating the rules."

As they were talking, Kitagawa Ryo created a new Twitter account, and Horikita Suzune followed suit and created a new account at the same time. After submitting the information to the school, they quickly received 10,000 yen each from the bank cards that the school had prepared for the students in advance, and then went to a nearby bank to withdraw the cash.

You know what, after getting used to the environment at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School where you can just swipe your phone to pay, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune found it quite novel to touch cash again after so long.

Considering that there would be more Matoba for spending money, the couple did not choose to use 10,000 yuan bills directly. Instead, they took some small bills and coins as a precaution, carefully stacking them together and putting them in their small wallets, which really gave off the feeling of a young couple living together.

However, just as Horikita Suzune was beginning to imagine the time she and Kitagawa Ryo would spend together over the next month, a familiar face suddenly caught her eye.

The firefly in her arms meowed affectionately twice.

It was as if she was comforting Horikita Suzune:

Don't be afraid, she (I) am also here to join this family.

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Chapter 72: Stomach and Money Bag

"Is that Liang's younger sister?"

After spotting a figure resembling Hotaru in the crowd, Horikita Suzune instinctively tugged at Kitagawa Ryo's sleeve and pointed in that direction.

However, as if deliberately avoiding the two of them, the person they had just seen disappeared into the crowd in the blink of an eye. Kitagawa Ryo followed the direction Horikita Suzune was pointing and also found nothing.

"Hmm? Where is it?"

"I just saw it was still there... or maybe I was seeing things. Come to think of it, middle school students should be on summer vacation by now."

"It's definitely a holiday. If it were Hotaru, she would probably come up and say hello to us. But it's also possible that she noticed we were off-campus and was taking some kind of Special Exam, so she's planning to come out when there are fewer people around."

"That makes sense. Let's find a place to sit down and eat first. It's almost noon. Or should we find a place to stay and cook our own meals, like we do at school? That should save us a lot of money."

"A place with a kitchen and cooking equipment... well, you'd have to look for a studio apartment. Regular hotels and internet cafes definitely don't have those things. But if we really want to save money on food, I guess we could just go straight to the convenience store and get a near-expired bento box. But we're not at that point yet, are we?"

"Too."

Horikita Suzune was never a girl with particularly high demands for material life. Rather, the incredibly disciplined lifestyle she led for the first ten years of her life could be described as super energy-saving in a sense.

The two chatted as they went into a family-run restaurant on the roadside, ordered two set meals that cost about 1,000 yen per person, and then waited at their seats.

In theory, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune first met in a family restaurant like this, though it was Karuizawa Kei who was impersonating her. Horikita Suzune, who was just a junior high school student at the time, was sitting there reading Agatha's classic novel, "And Then And Then There Were None." The Marriage Contract that Sakayanagi Arisu longed for for so long was actually originally between Horikita Suzune.

However, Kitagawa Ryo would rather Horikita Suzune never have this memory of her life. If there were any screening event in the future, he would definitely have to replicate Hotaru's performance and make a director's cut. It can only be said that Arisu's last simulation had Suzune's actions back then, Amasawa Ichika and Yuki would probably be making too many cameo appearances as the female lead in a "loser" drama by now.

The set meal was just an ordinary meal with nothing special – fried food, side dishes, miso soup, and rice that couldn't be refilled for free due to recent rice price increases. The taste was even worse than the regular set meal at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. However, since it was just a temporary meal, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune didn't complain much and quickly finished their lunch with the intention of filling their stomachs.

Incidentally, because pets aren't allowed in the store, Hotaru was temporarily left outside. However, because her cuteness skills were so good, she managed to get several female staff members to feed her. She's trying her best to support herself so as not to be a burden on her family.

"Two tasks this afternoon."

"One is to find a way to complete the 100-like stage task, get the reward and unlock the next stage task. The second is to find a place for the two of us to stay for the next month."

After finishing lunch, and taking back the food—which was glistening with oil from Hotaru's mouth—from the waiter who seemed somewhat reluctant to let it go, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune began discussing what they would do in the afternoon.

"If the rules weren't against it, I feel like if I just posted a GIF of Hotaru's actions on Twitter, it would probably get over a hundred likes already."

It can only be said that Horikita Suzune still hasn't given up on her wish to easily clear the game with Hotaru's help. After all, she increasingly feels that this little cat is smart enough to understand what they are saying, and with her adorable appearance, she's practically beckoning to become the next top pet expert.

"If Suzune doesn't have any plans, then come with me."

"Okay, President."

"So, a studio with only two people can already have a president and staff?"

"No problem. You're the president, screenwriter, lead actor, cinematographer, and editor. I'm just an employee and secretary."

"Why are you taking on so few part-time jobs?!"

"Because I serve as both a work secretary and a personal secretary."

Please take care of me in the future!

Watching Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune perform what seemed like a street comedy routine, Hotaru twitched her ears in satisfaction. She'd said long ago that her brother and Suzune were the best match! With her help and the fact that they cleared the game in one life, you're going to be in charge of the household from now on—though she meant cooking.

"So, President, where should we go first?"

"Go contact the studio that the school has registered under our names. Two people definitely can't film anything, since we don't have a location, props, or Actor. They should have those ready-made."

Are you so sure about Liang?

"Because this is a studio that my family operates under the name of. The investors and owners changed this morning, I think. After all, the higher-ups still thought that Ayanokoji and I were going up against each other. Before I could even say anything, they had already finished the job."

"... Why does it feel like the urban survival challenge has suddenly turned into a reality show about chaebol heirs?"

"Great idea. Actually, I happen to have a short drama I want to shoot that's about this topic. I'd make it into a one-minute series, with the last line of each episode being 'The happiness of the rich is so simple, unpretentious, and boring.'"

"So Ryo really was seriously considering the script?"

"Of course, after all, you have to go all the way when you're acting. And speaking of acting opposite Ayanokoji, I'm actually quite interested in it myself. I definitely won't have many opportunities after graduation, so I have to do what I want to do now."

Stretching lazily under the summer sun, Kitagawa Ryo opened his phone's navigation app, entered the studio's address, and it automatically started walking navigation:

"Let's go check out the place first. It's about two kilometers from here; consider it a good post-meal exercise."

"... Can I say that I'm already worried about my acting talent?"

"Suzune looks good as long as she's on camera, and short videos don't need acting skills. Maybe a stiff, awkward performance would be more entertaining. It's just that in the future, someone might take a clip, add unrelated text, and turn it into a meme that goes viral on the internet."

"Was Liang trying to encourage me or tease me by saying those things? The more she talked, the more uneasy I felt. Come to think of it, my journey to joining the Drama Club in junior high was quite bumpy, and I almost lost confidence."

"I'll play the male lead, and you'll play the female lead."

"Can we start filming right away after we familiarize ourselves with the location today?"

"We'll talk about it later, let's go!"

Just as Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune were flirting and heading towards their destination, other students who weren't in this freelance field had already enthusiastically (not really) thrown themselves into their respective jobs, beginning their month-long internship as corporate slaves.

Unlike the lighthearted atmosphere on Kitagawa Ryo's side, Ichinose Honami encountered a completely different, rigid, and almost oppressive atmosphere.

In fact, from the moment she left the bus and was dropped off in front of the giant office building belonging to that bank, Ichinose Honami had already felt a kind of pressure that was almost tangible and could never be felt on campus.

Because it was a weekday, and she arrived right at the start of the workday, the first thing she saw was a continuous stream of people. The hundreds or even thousands of people dressed and acted as if they were all clones. The men were all wearing black suits and white shirts, blue ties, black leather shoes, and carrying briefcases. The women wore black blazers and white shirts, and almost all of them had the same hairstyle: a single ponytail. Moreover, there were no earrings, jewelry, or other accessories to be seen.

Ichinose Honami had worked before, but unlike the atmosphere of convenience stores, family restaurants, and Theater Troupe, this kind of serious atmosphere, like a dark cloud looming over the city, was indeed a bit too frightening for a high school student. It made one instantly understand those graduates who constantly used further education or exams to avoid employment.

After subconsciously swallowing twice, Ichinose Honami didn't even choose to squeeze into the elevator with them. Instead, she chose to climb the stairs according to the address, and only after climbing all the way to the fourth floor did she find the senior that the ANHS School had arranged for her in advance.

Standing near the company entrance corridor was a woman who was almost thirty years old. She had an ordinary appearance, and according to ANHS's history, she should be one of the first two students to enroll and graduate.

"Hello, senior. I am Ichinose Honami second-year student from Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. I'm here for an internship. Please take good care of me."

Ichinose Honami was very polite, and the other party returned the greeting with a smile and a bow, introducing himself as follows:

"Welcome to our Chukyo Bank main branch for your internship, junior. I'm Kobayashi Keiko, from the Public Relations Department. Nice to meet you."

Although he was facing a high school student who was almost ten years younger than him, he was, after all, a mature office worker, and in terms of appearance and etiquette, this former graduate of ANHS was still impeccable.

"Actually, I was quite surprised when I received the notification from the school, since ANHS School has never held Special Exam of this kind since its establishment."

Since they would be working and interning together for the next month, the two naturally began to get to know each other. Since they both graduated from Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, this was a ready-made common topic. Therefore, after a brief introduction and pleasantries, Kobayashi Keiko took the initiative to bring up this topic.

"Thank you so much, senior."

"It's not that troublesome, after all, our company is quite happy to accept interns from ANHS."

"On the surface?"

"Um."

As Kobayashi Keiko led Ichinose Honami to collect their work uniforms and identification badges, she began to explain:

"You probably don't know, but I graduated from Class A of my year. There were six or seven of my classmates who chose to work here with me, but ten years later, I'm the only one left in the company."

"Other senior colleagues..."

"Yes, they were all laid off gradually over the course of one to two years after they joined the company."

Even at this point, Kobayashi Keiko's tone remained quite calm:

"But it has nothing to do with the company; it's simply because I'm not capable enough."

As if to make Ichinose Honami understand this principle more deeply, after receiving her uniform and name tag, Kobayashi Keiko led her to another floor upstairs, where it was crowded with job seekers who were being interviewed or waiting for their interviews. They all looked tired and sat cautiously on folding stools, waiting for their numbers to be called. Occasionally, when they looked up and saw the name tags of Ichinose Honami and Kobayashi Keiko, which indicated their employee status, they could clearly see envy in their eyes.

"If we had had a senior colleague who could have spent a whole day with us when we first graduated and came here, I might not be the only one still here today. Some things come too easily, so we don't realize what kind of opportunity this really is."

After making this remark, Kobayashi Keiko turned her gaze to Ichinose Honami:

"I've seen the information the school gave me about you. You're currently a student in Class A, right?"

"Um."

"You specifically chose the banking industry this time, so it seems you plan to work for a company in this field after graduation?"

"That's certainly a thought I have."

Upon hearing this, Kobayashi Keiko showed an expression of "I knew it," and then kindly reminded her:

"If that's the case, then I hope that during this month you will not only learn the relevant basic knowledge and experience, but also try your best to maintain the right mindset."

"OK."

Although the other person's words had a slightly didactic tone, Ichinose Honami could still sense that her senior was genuinely looking out for her, so she quickly nodded in agreement.

"Well then, you can help out here for a bit today. I think you have a good appearance, and the school's information says you have strong interpersonal skills. I'll help you contact the reception department and the external relations department later..."

"Senior, please wait a moment."

Ichinose Honami interrupted Kobayashi Keiko for the first time, looking intently into her eyes as she spoke:

"Sorry, you may have made a mistake."

"I don't want to do front desk work like liaison, publicity, or reception; I want to learn about finance."

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Chapter 73: Students Violate School Rules While Off-Campus

"Finance class?"