Just like that.
Shirogane had come out with an adorable girl with a cane, yet all he could think about was the class competition.
"Knock, knock—"
At last, Classmate Sakayanagi stopped.
"What did you think of being invited out by a girl for the first time, Classmate Shirogane?"
"Did it make you a little nervous?" Classmate Sakayanagi asked.
"Was that my first invitation?" Shirogane seemed a little confused. "I don't think so. Kushida from Class D invited me out before, and I wasn't nervous then either. I'm not nervous now, either."
"..." Sakayanagi.
Classmate Sakayanagi seemed dazed for a second.
But she was very composed. A cute smile soon returned to her face.
"I'm sorry about having students from my class follow you before," Sakayanagi continued.
When she brought it up, Shirogane remembered that he really had been followed these past few days.
But he already had information about Class A's students in exchange for Horikita's information, so he'd lost interest in catching the Class A student who had been tailing him.
So Shirogane got straight to the point. "So, Classmate Sakayanagi, what do you want, having just come back from the Student Council?"
"It seems you really do understand how I think," Sakayanagi said.
Maybe it was his imagination, but Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to be in a lighter mood.
"Indeed," she said. "Classmate Katsuragi and I just met with the Student Council President. The president gave Class A a verbal commendation and then told us some special news."
"It's the kind of information students usually only have a chance to get from teachers or upperclassmen after they've been here for six months, or even a year."
"That is, what the points mean."
"Your homeroom teacher probably told you when you enrolled that the Private Points on your Student ID could be used as money, and that if you had enough points, even an unreasonable request could be granted."
"What do you think you could do with a huge amount of points—say, 20 million?"
After enrolling, each new student received 100,000 Private Points, the equivalent of 100,000 in living expenses.
But that amount also included the cost of the supplies the new students bought after enrolling.
From then on, students had to compete through their own abilities, and the school would award them points based on their performance.
Take First-Year Class A, for example. It had 924 class assessment points left, so each student could receive 92,400 points in living expenses.
Even the class of Horikita Manabu, hailed as the best Student Council President in history, had only 2,330 class assessment points, equivalent to 233,000 points per student.
For one person, 20 million was undoubtedly an astronomical sum. Especially since these Private Points could actually be spent like money.
In other words, it was the same as 20 million in cash.
Even for adults, that kind of wealth would be difficult to amass quickly.
So.
Now, as students, they were talking about that kind of amount...
Shirogane looked at Sakayanagi.
Sakayanagi seemed to have guessed what he was thinking, so she explained, "The Student Council President said that 20 million points could be used to waive one expulsion penalty."
Waive one expulsion penalty.
This school already provided tuition-free education and even living expenses, which made it an astonishingly good school.
But when compared with 20 million, choosing between the two was still a difficult decision.
Setting aside whether someone had that much money, it was hard to say whether they'd be willing to use it to save themselves or a classmate facing expulsion.
Still, it wasn't that simple.
Shirogane suddenly remembered the student population figures for the third-years that Classmate Ichinose had looked into. Classes 3-B, 3-C, and 3-D were all short on students, but Class 3-A had all 40 seats filled.
Could it be that Class 3-A had used 20 million points to waive the expulsion penalties of their classmates and let them stay?
To them, their classmates were clearly more important than 20 million points.
Besides, they had reason to do it. If they could graduate from Class A and receive all the benefits the school had promised, that chance to cross social classes wasn't something a mere 10 or 20 million could buy.
So there was nothing wrong with spending money to keep their companions.
But for the other classes, 20 million points weren't worth as much. Unless they valued friendship very highly, there was no need to spend that much to keep someone around.
After all, those 20 million could simply be given to the student who was expelled.
Even if they left this school, 20 million would be enough to cover their tuition and living expenses at another school, with plenty left over.
"Twenty million points can waive an expulsion penalty. They also have another use: an ordinary student who gathers 20 million points can transfer to the class of their choice."
"In other words..." Classmate Sakayanagi enunciated each word. "You can come straight to Class A and become one of us."
He could transfer directly to Class A and become one of its members.
It was a shortcut paved with points. Instead of figuring out how to push Ryuen Class into Class A and hold on to its score, he could simply go solo.
"And this is information only a Class A student can learn ahead of time," Sakayanagi said.
Shirogane understood now.
He understood why Classmate Sakayanagi had come here as soon as she returned from the Student Council.
"So, what do you want me to do in exchange for this?" Shirogane asked.
"Hehe." Classmate Sakayanagi seemed to smile. "How unpleasant. It's not as though I'm a bad person. I won't ask you to do anything unreasonable."
No, no, no.
That answer made it sound even scarier.
Shirogane had just misspoken. He'd meant to ask what she wanted by telling him this, but he'd accidentally asked what she wanted him to do in exchange for 20 million points.
But Sakayanagi had answered the latter question.
That meant Classmate Sakayanagi hadn't realized he'd misspoken. In other words, she was willing to pay him 20 million points to do something for her.
Twenty million. That was 20 million!
Shirogane was still thinking about how to get into the Student Council and earn the 30,000 to 50,000-point allowance given to its members!
"So, what is her goal?"
Shirogane quickly wrote on his little notebook.
He didn't know Classmate Sakayanagi very well, but someone did.
Soon, he got a reply.
[She probably wants to fulfill the chuunibyo dream she had as a child.]
"When she was young, she visited a facility that was intended to cultivate geniuses. She saw many children there being pushed beyond their limits by adults trying to force their growth. It was inhumane."
"So she decided then and there to destroy the facility."
"Of course, she knew it would take adults fighting each other to accomplish that, and there was little she could do. But she found out that the facility's most successful creation was at this school, and was in Class D."
"That gave her more options. For example, she could defeat the facility's only successful product. By beating them, she could deny the purpose of the facility's existence."
"She originally wanted to get involved herself, but her physical limitations held her back. After thinking it over, she decided to use someone else's hands."
"Based on the information Classmate Hashimoto gathered by following you for two weeks, she worked out who could go toe-to-toe with that genius."
"That person is you, Shirogane."
"You have the potential to surpass a genius."
Eating at the Sakayanagi family's table was tough! — Chapter 54
Shirogane Miyuki, 17 years old, ordinary boy. He knew hard work could make up for a lack of talent, so he studied for 12 hours every day.
Now the Narration System considered him a genius.
And Shirogane had tested the Narration System enough to know it was very likely from the future, so the information it had was probably the truth.
In other words, what it said was very likely true.
Did Shirogane Miyuki really have the potential to surpass a genius?
"I think you've misunderstood."
Shirogane quickly wrote on his little notebook. "I'm no genius. I'm just working desperately to keep up with ordinary people, hoping to stand out a little among them and stop being left behind."
"Everything I've achieved is the result of hard work, not talent." Shirogane quickly scribbled it down.
[You're too modest.]
[Actually, I understand better than anyone how talented you are, Shirogane...]
The Narration System seemed about to say something more, but Classmate Sakayanagi spoke up first.
"Classmate Shirogane, I want to hire you. There's someone I want to defeat."
"I've confirmed that Class D has a boss. But as you know, my body isn't in good condition. Even before I can challenge them, I'm already at a disadvantage in terms of presence."
Oh.
The Narration System was right. Sakayanagi really did want to defeat Class D's boss.
Shirogane also knew that Classmate Sakayanagi was always confident in herself.
She wasn't even interested in picking on Classmate Katsuragi.
But she had a weakness: her frail body.
"Transferring classes costs 20 million points, which would be difficult for you to manage, wouldn't it?" Sakayanagi continued.
"Why do you say that?"
Shirogane didn't answer her directly.
"I admit your class did well last month. You even managed to build a powerful sense of unity."
"But that unity doesn't come from you. I had someone look into the students in your class."
"Most of them have bad reputations, so the only thing that could have brought them together is something against the rules, like violence," Sakayanagi said.
Though Sakayanagi spoke in a cute voice, she described it as though she'd been there herself, seeing straight through the essence of Ryuen Class.
The exam results might have looked good, but its weaknesses had been laid bare.
"Twenty million is a lot, but the class could generate it. With 40 students in a class, if each one contributed 20,000 or 30,000 points a month, they could raise 900,000. It might take two years, but they could save up 20 million."
"But Ryuen can do that. You can't, can you, Classmate Shirogane?"
"You could never collect protection money from your classmates," Sakayanagi said, her eyes clear and bright.
Their radiance was impossible to look at directly.
But Shirogane couldn't deny it.
Allowing, or even encouraging, Classmate Ryuen to use violence to unite the class had already crossed his bottom line. Faced with a class like that, the quickest way to respond to the Behavioral Standards Exam in the first month had been to use that method.
It was an emergency measure, not something Shirogane agreed with.
So what about Sakayanagi's offer to pay him 20 million points to do a job?
"If your body's in poor condition, couldn't Classmate Kamuro help you instead?" Shirogane asked.
Shirogane didn't think he could grow into the person the Narration System described and defeat a super-genius trained from childhood.
That wouldn't just be difficult. It was hell++ difficulty.
And Sakayanagi herself was a genius. If one genius went up against another, that seemed more reasonable.
So since Classmate Sakayanagi was in poor health, he suggested someone who could act as her legs.
"Classmate Kamuro won't do," Sakayanagi Arisu immediately replied. "She's fairly obedient. She's unhappy about the tasks I give her, but she always completes them perfectly. Unfortunately, she doesn't meet my standards. Or rather, she has absolutely nothing to do with being a genius."
"..." the purple-haired girl.
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