"Huh?"
"!"
But Sakura quickly pulled her head back as if she'd been startled.
She seemed very timid and shy around strangers.
So Shirogane turned his gaze away.
He'd originally agreed with the Narrator System that Class D's students would be the easiest to win over. He knew the school's rules, and he knew Class D had the worst evaluation. It was also the class that might have the lowest living allowance starting next month.
In other words, they had no money, and people without money were easy to tempt.
But.
As he listened, he soon realized something was off.
Because.
Why was the Narrator System's list full of girls with weaknesses and secrets? It said to get hold of their secrets. Even Horikita, apparently, could be manipulated just by making an issue out of her relationship with her brother.
So what kind of people had ended up in Class D, exactly?
He wondered.
[First-year Class D, Matsushita Chiaki. She seems to have hidden her abilities during the interview and written exam, ultimately ending up in Class D. Moderate difficulty to win over.]
[First-year Class D, Karuizawa Kei. The queen bee of Class D's flashy girls. She has a secret; once you learn it, the difficulty of winning her over is nearly zero. Before that, it's extremely difficult.]
"..."
"Why are they all girls? Are there no boys?" Shirogane finally couldn't help asking.
He'd already felt that something was off about the Narrator System. It seemed to be trying to trick him into approaching Classmate Sakayanagi.
And now, it was recommending girls again.
[As for the boys, I don't recommend it. The boys at this school are rather dangerous.]
The Narrator System quickly replied.
[For example, Ryuen from first-year Class C. Difficult to win over. But once you do, he'll become your best buddy and give you all the help he can when you're about to be expelled.]
"..."
Wasn't that a pretty reliable guy?
[First-year Class D, Koenji Rokusuke. Heir to the Koenji Conglomerate, a genius with maxed-out abilities in every area. Winning him over is extremely, extremely difficult, because he thinks he has nothing in common with ordinary people. He regards everyone else as mere mortals and himself as a genius. If you want to get his attention, you'll have to become a genius.]
Oh.
That was the first time Shirogane had heard someone described as a genius.
So.
Why would someone like that be in Class D? He was the heir to a conglomerate and a genius, so shouldn't he have gone to Shuchiin Academy? Why come here and compete with ordinary people?
"So Class D already has all these weird people. Anyone else?" Shirogane wrote in his little notebook.
The Narrator System's reply came quickly.
[First-year Class D, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. A super genius. Impossible to win over, because he has no emotions.]
"..."
So.
What was going on with Class D, exactly?
P.S. Today's update is here. You know what I'm going to say: time to pay up, nya nya nya.
A friend's book.
Synopsis: After transmigrating to Nagazora City in the Honkai World, Lin Yu learned that it was the beginning of 2014 and the Third Honkai Eruption was about to begin. He chose a path.
As long as the grind doesn't kill me, I'll grind myself to death.
Damn Honkai, today I'm going to grind you into the ground!
The second day after transmigrating to the Honkai World.
System: [Host, there are Kiana, Mei, and Bronya here, all lovely girls in their prime, as well as mature beauties like Himeko and Cocolia—]
Shut up. Don't mess with my resolve.
I managed to out-grind the Herrscher of Thunder, but that wasn't enough. Keep grinding.
The fortieth day after transmigrating to the Honkai World.
I beat Chiyou today, but only because I landed the finishing blow. Not enough. Keep grinding.
The eighty-fifth day after transmigrating to the Honkai World.
I cut Kevin in half today, but that still wasn't enough. Keep grinding.
The one-hundred-and-fifteenth day after transmigrating to the Honkai World.
Otto had already been brought to justice, but since he never got the chance to become a false god, his death was just his death. Keep grinding.
On the two-hundred-and-thirty-sixth day after transmigrating to the Honkai World, Lin Yu, who had spent eight months grinding, gazed at the Cocoon of Finality before him in Imaginary Space, the corners of his mouth curling up.
"Yo, Cocoon. Are you ready?"
"Now, I'm going to 'embrace' you!"
Teacher Chabashira, what do you think?
From what he'd learned so far, there were clear differences in the students' overall abilities across Classes A, B, C, and D. Classes A and B were the strongest. Even without knowing anything else, students in Class B had already started investigating the school.
But Class D was the only one with no students who'd particularly stood out by looking into the school's situation.
In principle, Class A was the strongest overall, while Class D was the weakest.
So that behavior made sense.
And yet.
The information he'd gotten from the Narrator System showed that many students in Class D had secrets... and two of them had even been called geniuses.
And all these people had ended up together in Class D. Was this really Class D?
That evening, when Ryuen returned to his dorm, he found a message waiting for him.
[I found out that Class D has two students known as geniuses. Their overall abilities might even surpass those of average Class A students. To avoid any trouble, I suggest we secure our current score as soon as possible.]
The message was from Shirogane Miyuki.
"..." Ryuen.
"..." Ryuen.
Nag, nag, nag. All he did was nag.
But it was nearly done anyway.
Ever since bringing Albert into the fold, Ryuen had started gathering the students in his class. If they didn't obey, he'd fight them, then use psychological tactics to control them.
So now, all 40 students in the class—except Shirogane and Shiina—even Ibuki, who often refused to cooperate, were willing to follow his orders.
But that kind of violence could only suppress them for a while. There had to be some students who still resented him; they just wouldn't dare to speak up. Even if they did, it would probably be when he suffered a setback.
So he'd basically gotten control of the class.
Thinking this, Ryuen picked up his phone and sent a message to the contact saved as "Sakagami Kazuma."
It was a question.
[I'm Ryuen. The class has been brought together. How many of our 1,000 Class Evaluation Points are left?]
Then, feeling he hadn't been clear enough, he sent another message.
[Do we still have 800?]
Did they still have 800 points?
A week had passed since the day Shirogane had urged Ryuen to hurry.
That meant they'd now been at this school for two full weeks.
On the morning of the third week, when Shirogane arrived in the classroom, he noticed a message on his phone.
It was from Ryuen.
[I asked Sakagami yesterday. Our class has 702 points left. At this rate, we need to hold on for another two weeks. We should be able to stabilize around 680.]
Hmm...
That score looked pretty good.
No, it was really good.
To still have nearly 700 out of 1,000 points left was probably unprecedented for Class C.
Of course.
They were at 702 now, which meant they'd lost 298 points in just two weeks. Could he really be sure they'd lose only 22 more over the next two weeks?
Wasn't that a bit too confident?
But maybe it wasn't wishful thinking.
Ryuen's class was different from an ordinary class. According to the upperclassmen, the first month's Behavioral Standards Exam only tested whether students behaved like proper students—even if they didn't know what the school was really about.
Things like not being late or leaving early, not damaging school property, and not littering.
They also had to act like decent students during class: no reading novels or playing on their phones, and so on...
So if they could be disciplined, they wouldn't lose any points.
But ordinary people couldn't maintain perfect self-discipline. There was one kind of person who could.
Someone controlled by force.
Ryuen had brought the class together for one reason: if everyone couldn't stay disciplined and protect their points, then he'd force them to be disciplined.
So when he entered the classroom, the students' phones had been confiscated.
Without their phones or other distracting stuff, they had no choice but to sit quietly through class. Even if they couldn't understand the lessons, they still had to stay seated.
The students arrived one after another, looking utterly lifeless as they put their phones into the bag hanging from the desk in the front row.
The homeroom teachers of all four classes also arrived at the staff room.
It was a room just for the homeroom teachers of the four classes. The desks were all arranged more or less the same way.
But the seating still followed the rule of giving Class A priority, while the desk for Class D's homeroom teacher was in a particularly bad spot, near the trash can.
Clearly, teachers were treated unequally, too.
The teachers' benefits were tied to their classes. When a teacher's class was Class A, not only were their benefits better, their salary was the highest as well. If they taught Class D, all their benefits were the worst.
For instance, Mashima, the homeroom teacher of Class A, received 800,000 Private Points in pure salary every month.
Teacher Hoshinomiya Chie, the homeroom teacher of Class B, received 600,000 Private Points.
By the time you got to Class C, it was down to 300,000.
And Class D only got 250,000.
The difference was pretty large. But if the teachers managed to move their classes up, their benefits would change accordingly.
"Come to think of it, the first month after new students enroll is always when the class rankings are most likely to change," said Hoshinomiya Chie, the homeroom teacher of Class B, as she entered the staff room.
She was a beautiful woman with slightly wavy hair and a soft, gentle air about her. She was popular with men.
As teachers, they all knew the four classes only started out on equal footing. Each began with 1,000 points.
And if a class could hold on for a month, it would have a chance to overtake the others.
"Still, it's a shame."
"In all these years, no class has ever managed to overtake another," said Mashima, the homeroom teacher of Class A, who was arranging his lesson plans.
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