Classroom of the Elite, Oh No, I've Become a Stand-in

"I'm just practicing remembering bitterness to appreciate sweetness, okay?" Mikage Touji tried to defend himself with a mix of shame and anger.

"Anyway, good luck to you. By the way," Mikage Touji swallowed the last bite of his Mountain Vegetable Set Meal, picked up his tray, and stood up, "I have a feeling the secrets of this school go far beyond this. You might just have a rather spectacular school life."

"That's a truly infuriating assessment, mere Mikage Touji." Morishita Ran also picked up her tray, "I swear on the name of my grandfather, One Piece, I will absolutely not lose to you!"

"Huh?" Mikage Touji turned his head, "Did I ever compete with you on anything?"

"Treasures are things that belong only to the first person who discovers them."

Mikage Touji had no interest in such childish provocations and walked away, "Suit yourself. Have fun, classmate Morishita."

"It seems I've won, Mikage Touji. You're nothing special." A look of satisfaction appeared on Morishita Ran's face, "Well, that's to be expected. After all, as an Ultraman, there's no way you could beat me, a Kamen Rider."

"Ho... classmate Morishita, so you're a Toei fan."

His footsteps stopped, and Mikage Touji looked back with a mocking smile, "No wonder you were so hung up on my self-introduction."

Ultraman and Kamen Rider, the two top-tier IPs of the Japanese tokusatsu world; their nearly half-century of competition and cooperation could be called an "epic of love and hate in the tokusatsu universe," and the private bickering between fans was countless.

"Today, Kamen Rider has achieved victory." Morishita Ran looked at the distant lights flickering out and sighed, "After all, things like Ultraman are already outdated..."

"You really dare to say that? Can something as childish and deceptive to children as Kamen Rider even compare to Ultraman, who is the Light? Well, I suppose it makes sense; since it's professionally designed to sell children's toys, it suits a childish person like you, doesn't it, Morishita?"

"..."

A few hours later, the scene from the bus played out once again in the cafeteria, with sparks of electricity seemingly weaving between their gazes.

"Two days from now, after school." Mikage Touji said suddenly.

"Class A classroom." Morishita Ran followed up immediately.

"Whoever uncovers more of this school's hidden rules." Mikage Touji stepped closer to Morishita Ran.

"Whoever wins this competition." Morishita Ran also stepped closer.

"The loser—" their eyes collided, and they spoke in unison: "Admits that Kamen Rider (Ultraman) is fake!"

"Deal!"

Two palms slapped together in a handshake.

Chapter 5: Cheat, Come Forth!

That's what we said, but I have absolutely no clue where to start.

Watching Morishita Ran's energetic figure as she walked away, Mikage Touji felt a headache coming on.

After thinking for a moment, he took out his phone and clicked into the newly joined class group.

It was refreshing with various discussions from Class A students about the school.

The only thing missing was information from students regarding school rules. Even Hashimoto Masayoshi, who had just said he would go ask the upperclassmen for information, remained silent. It seemed Katsuragi was right; this was not information that could be easily obtained.

Usually, it would only take a certain amount of points to get an upperclassman to talk, as the upperclassmen themselves would lose nothing, yet there was absolutely no news from anyone in his own class.

Mikage Touji drank the last of his mineral water, tossed the bottle into the trash can with a "clatter," and looked toward the school building.

Is it forbidden by the school? Mikage Touji clicked his tongue. How cunning!

The top priority now is to figure out the system the school uses to evaluate students. This is the core of all problems; once this is understood, other issues will also see a breakthrough.

"This school measures students by their ability. Since you were able to successfully enroll, you possess corresponding value and potential. All you need to do is continue to maintain that value." Mashima Tomoya's voice echoed in Mikage Touji's mind.

Value? Ability? Potential?

Speaking of value...

Mikage Touji paced along the school path.

What was a student's value again?

A breeze blew by, ruffling his bangs.

'Stray dogs with scores below six hundred should not speak to classmates with scores above six hundred and fifty; your barren brains will affect the concentration of their knowledge.'

Mikage Touji shuddered and shook his head vigorously.

No, no, no. The national conditions are different, the national conditions are different. I've already transmigrated, why am I still thinking about the fear of being suppressed by academic performance?

As for ability...

[A large-scale shooting occurred at a high school in the United States. A student rushed into the campus with a submachine gun and sprayed the classroom with bullets, resulting in XX deaths and XX injuries.]

Not that, not that. This is Japan; it's still a society ruled by law, after all.

So... according to the situation in Japan, what is the "value" of a student they are talking about?

Academic ability definitely counts as one. Given Japan's strong club culture, physical ability should also be included. As for morality, social skills, and the like, such things are ethereal. Unless the school authorities have the eyes of God, how could they judge—

Mikage Touji froze, slowly looking up. The surveillance camera in the upper right corner clearly reflected his large, flat face...

It's not impossible!

"Hiss—"

Mikage Touji gasped.

Following this logic, since there is a distinction between high and low value, it is highly probable that they would divide students into "rocket classes," "key classes," "advanced classes," and "ordinary classes" based on their grades.

At this moment, the heroic figures of the various talents in his class surfaced in the mind of Mikage Touji.

Our class shouldn't be the worst... right?

Mikage Touji's face twitched.

No, there's no way it could be the worst! Mikage Touji quickly extinguished that thought; aside from himself and the anomaly Morishita Ran, the discipline and quality of the other students in the class were plain for all to see.

Sorting through his train of thought up to this point, Mikage Touji felt he was very close to the truth.

How to verify this hypothesis was actually quite simple: just go and compare the quality of the students in each class.

Mikage Touji's footsteps suddenly stopped; the students had already been dismissed, so if he wanted to compare, the earliest he could do it was during class tomorrow.

There was no other way, he would have to leave it at that for now, Mikage Touji sighed and took out his phone.

[Hikari, When Will You Return: Morishita-san, how is the progress? I'm already about to put you in checkmate over here.]

The corners of Mikage Touji's mouth curled up wildly; regardless of whether it was true or not, he had to talk tough first.

After a while, Morishita Ran's message arrived belatedly.

[Human, Very Interesting: Mikage Touji, as expected, you evil person were sent by the heavens to stop me from revealing the truth of the world.]

[Hikari, When Will You Return: Don't tell me your plan was interrupted by me again?]

[Human, Very Interesting: You guessed right. As a reward, you can go for a ride to the ends of hell with me. I was eavesdropping on intelligence in the cafe, but it was ruined by your text message.]

This was a solution of sorts, though it was a real test of luck.

[Hikari, When Will You Return: Since that's the case, then do your best. My mission for today is already finished.]

[Human, Very Interesting: Don't you worry about it. In two days, you will understand that Morishita Ran is invincible.]

Continuing to banter with Morishita Ran for a while, Mikage Touji arrived in front of the student dormitory gate, raised his hand to his forehead, and looked up.

It was quite a tall dormitory building; by visual estimation alone, it exceeded 10 floors. It couldn't just be for boys with this many floors, so it must house both men and women.

After getting the electronic key card from the dorm manager, Mikage Touji arrived in front of his room.

Room 404, truly a forbidden and indescribable place of all evil.

The sensor emitted a "beep," the door opened, and the room was not large, but the bed, small refrigerator, and stove were all fully equipped, and there was even a balcony.

Mikage Touji closed the door, locked it, and slowly let out a breath.

So, what's next...

Mikage Touji's eyes suddenly widened, silver-white light seemingly flowing within his pupils, and his originally brown irises turned as deep as ink.

On the balcony, five ants were carrying the corpse of a dead aphid.

On the door, three shallow scratches were distributed in an intersecting pattern.

The refrigerator was completely empty, with nothing placed inside at all.

There was dust piled up in the corner of the bathroom; it seemed the cleaning staff had been lazy.

In an instant, the information in the room surged into Mikage Touji's mind like a torrent...

Mikage Touji's mental power continued to spread... as the range expanded, a sense of being drained and exhausted began to spread, and sweat slid down the bridge of his nose, dripping onto his lips.

The next moment, the pale floor came into Mikage Touji's view.

"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo..." He knelt halfway on the ground, gasping for air.

Mental control? Psychokinesis? Or Omniscient Vision?

He couldn't figure out his ability for the time being, nor did he know if it was a remnant of System-chan; this ability had appeared only after System-chan ran away.

But there was no doubt that this ability belonged to a fairly high-level category in any world.

It was a pity that this was a world without magic, and his own small arms and legs were naturally destined to be beaten into a wail by a pair of fists.

The greatest effect was probably that his physical strength could recover quickly, and his five senses had become sharp.

Currently, Mikage Touji had developed two active skills.

One was the Detection from just now, and as for the other...

Mikage Touji stared at the room card in his hand, the silver-white light flowing once more.

The room card in his hand suddenly trembled, then wobbled and flew into the air, swimming like a fish before finally swaying and fixing itself in mid-air.

It was barely at the level of being used to perform magic tricks for people, and the method of training it, for now, seemed to be that it would strengthen with use.

However!

Once I lay low at Kouiku for three years and slowly develop, after graduation, whoever dares to speak loudly to me will get a Heavenly Obstacle Star-Crushing!

I want to become Happy Superman; once I'm happy, I'll be super--

"Snap--!"

A crisp sound rang out on the floor, and the room card fell to the ground.

"..."

Struggling to move his body onto the bed and covering himself with the small quilt, Mikage Touji closed his eyes peacefully.

Forget it, it's more reliable to think about how to toss this empty bottle into the trash can accurately right now.

Chapter 6: A Student Who Has Never Been This Arrogant

The second day of school.

"A-choo!"

Mikage Touji rubbed his nose and walked into the classroom, looking listless.

There was still plenty of time before class started, but about a dozen people had already arrived, some of whom were flipping through their textbooks to preview the day's lessons.

"Morning, Kito-san." Mikage Touji casually greeted Kito Hayato, who was sitting in the front row.

"Morning..."

Kito Hayato seemed a bit surprised that Mikage Touji had greeted him, but he quickly reacted and responded in a low voice. He had changed into a pair of white gloves today; one couldn't help but wonder if he changed them every single day.

Walking past Kito Hayato, Mikage Touji squinted his eyes and swayed toward his seat.

Last night, while Mikage Touji was researching his abilities, his imagination ran wild, and he remembered a must-have skill for training mental power from old-school novels—meditation!

Legend had it that this was a skill capable of absorbing the essence of heaven and earth to strengthen one's mental power.

With such a powerful effect, Mikage Touji naturally had to test its depth, so he followed an online tutorial and started meditating on his bed.

Twenty minutes later, surrounded by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth...

Mikage Touji fell asleep while sitting up.

And then he spent the whole night being blown by the cold wind.

Feudal superstition really kills!

"Bang—!"

Mikage Touji, who was lost in his own thoughts, felt himself collide with a soft body, and the sound of books scattering with a "patter" reached his ears.

He had bumped into someone!