"Prince Brother."
"Isn't this going a bit too far?"
Shiho Manabe said hesitantly.
They had only known each other for two days, and she naturally wanted to side with Prince Ganlongdao. But she still hesitated at the thought of handing over the points she had.
"Heh."
At that moment, Kaneda took out his phone and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
He turned to the class and scoffed.
"Everyone, I don't think we need to listen to him. Ganlongdao's gone crazy. I've already contacted Teacher Sakagami and asked him to come over. I'm going to report Ganlongdao for bullying his classmates. Back me up, everyone, and let's get him expelled. How does that sound?"
All he'd done was beat Kaneda up,
then force him to accept Prince Ganlongdao as his boss.
Thinking of his dream, the uncertainty of the school's rules, and Prince Ganlongdao's strength, Kaneda figured he could just endure that much.
But now he wanted the points Kaneda had, too?
Not a chance.
Did he really think Kaneda was so afraid of violence that he wouldn't even dare to report him to a teacher?
For the sake of their pride,
Ishizaki and the others might rather die than report him to a teacher.
As an honor student, Kaneda had no such scruples. The main reason he could put up with Ryuuen and Prince Ganlongdao's violence was that he'd judged following them would bring him benefits.
Meanwhile, Ibuki Mio, who had originally planned to leave, sat in her seat with her arms crossed and her legs crossed, looking ready to listen.
"I see."
Prince Ganlongdao looked at Kaneda with an amused expression.
"In that case, let's wait until Sakagami gets here."
"Hmph."
Kaneda sneered. "Ganlongdao, you were just born into a better family. Enjoy what little time you have left at this school."
"..."
Prince Ganlongdao wore an amused expression,
but said nothing.
His opinion of Kaneda had actually improved a little.
If Kaneda had been so easily cowed by violence, he wouldn't have been much use. Someone like him, who was willing to fight back for the sake of profit, was far better.
The more self-interested someone was, the easier they were to control.
Soon,
footsteps sounded,
and Kazuma Sakagami walked into the classroom and looked at Kaneda.
"Kaneda, you said there was some trouble in the classroom. What exactly happened?"
"Teacher Sakagami."
Kaneda raised his chin proudly and pointed at Prince Ganlongdao on the podium.
"He's extorting me."
"Oh? What happened?"
"He's not just extorting me, he's extorting all of us. He wants us to hand over our points for him to keep. And yesterday..."
"I see."
When Kaneda brought up what had happened yesterday, Sakagami cut in before he could finish.
He turned to Prince Ganlongdao with a smile.
"Ganlongdao, even at this school, I can't just stand by when I see students being extorted for no reason..."
Beside him,
Kaneda lifted his chin at Prince Ganlongdao.
How about that?
Scared now?
He was a little annoyed that the teacher had interrupted him, but Sakagami had clearly taken his side.
In fact,
Kaneda had missed the key phrase: "for no reason."
The implication was that
if there was a reason, Kazuma Sakagami would support collecting the points.
"Of course."
Hearing what Sakagami meant, Prince Ganlongdao turned to the students below and said with an easy smile,
"You all remember what Sakagami said yesterday, right? At this school, you can buy anything with points?"
"So what?"
Kaneda replied sarcastically. "I've already tested that. You can buy anything at Keyaki Mall with points."
At that,
the other girls in the class couldn't help smiling a little, too.
They'd put it to the test yesterday. Points really could buy anything, but they'd had too little time to shop properly, so they'd planned to spend freely over the weekend.
Nobody nagged them about how hard it was to earn money or anything like that.
They could spend however they liked, and points seemed much more convenient than cash.
"Supplies, sure. But what about rules and information?"
Prince Ganlongdao pointed at the surveillance camera overhead and asked with a taunting smile,
"Sakagami, how many points would it cost if I wanted to erase yesterday's surveillance footage of Class C?"
"That's a good point..."
Kazuma Sakagami pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, two white gleams flashing across the lenses.
"Two million."
"That's expensive..."
Even Prince Ganlongdao was surprised.
He hadn't expected it to cost that much.
Kaneda and the others were even more stunned.
"Wait."
"Teacher, what's going on?"
"Can you really buy surveillance footage, too?"
"I don't remember him mentioning this yesterday. How did Prince Brother know?"
The students around them chattered noisily.
That wasn't important, either. They only needed to know that points could buy more than just supplies.
"Expensive? Of course it is."
Kazuma Sakagami ignored the others and smiled as he replied to Prince Ganlongdao.
"Ordinarily, if you really don't want to be caught on camera, shouldn't you take action before that happens?"
"Oh?"
Prince Ganlongdao raised an eyebrow.
Sakagami was hinting that there were other, cheaper ways.
For example,
covering up or destroying the surveillance equipment
would naturally cost fewer points.
Even with the school's rules in place, having a teacher this protective of his students made it easy to hint at some of those rules.
He could hint at a great deal without spelling anything out.
That was the beauty of language.
Of course,
that depended on being able to understand Kazuma Sakagami's hints.
Kaneda was the sort who couldn't understand them and couldn't tell what was going on. He'd even wanted to report the teacher.
"Do you get it now?"
Prince Ganlongdao's expression turned cold.
"Don't tell me you think all these points are just pocket money for you? Points don't just buy supplies. They can buy anything!"
"No matter what trials lie ahead, points will definitely be our most important weapon."
"Only by pooling our points can we prepare for those trials."
"Not just this month. From now on, every month, any points over thirty thousand must be handed over to me for safekeeping. I believe thirty thousand points will be enough for everyone to get by."
"For now, though, since it's the start of the school year,"
"there are plenty of things you'll need to spend points on. Just hand over fifty thousand points each this month."
It was only the second day of school.
There hadn't been time to shop properly after classes ended yesterday.
Most people still had their points, and even those who'd spent some yesterday should have spent within reason. They ought to have at least seventy or eighty thousand points left.
But if they waited until the weekend,
Prince Ganlongdao was certain
these people would spend their points on game consoles and laptops.
By then,
it would be much harder to pool their points.
Some would contribute more and some less, and people would inevitably feel it was unfair and refuse to cooperate.
The best time to pool those points
was now!
And yet,
after hearing Prince Ganlongdao's words,
Shiho Manabe, Hideo Suzuki, and the others in Class C still seemed hesitant.
Even knowing it would benefit the class, even knowing it was the best choice, most people still had doubts.
Prince Ganlongdao had also noticed one of Class C's defining traits.
They were especially good at mastering the art of "What's it got to do with me?"
Take Kaneda, for example.
Even when he figured out some of the rules,
he wouldn't share them with those around him. He'd rather go it alone and keep the benefits to himself.
But,
that kind of short-sightedness
would only make people miss out on other possibilities.
Before you continue