It had been almost a month since we enrolled.
Today was April 29, and in two days, May would begin.
Even so, most of the class was still noisily playing on their phones during lessons.
The class looked like a scene straight out of the apocalypse.
Just then, the bell rang for third period, and Chabashira-sensei, Class D's homeroom teacher, walked into the classroom.
But the students' excitement showed no sign of dying down.
The teacher, however, said nothing about the sorry state of affairs and remained expressionless.
Her silence was somehow unnerving.
"Quiet down. We're going to have a slightly more serious lesson today."
"What's that supposed to mean, Sae-chan-sensei~?"
Someone addressed the teacher with that flippant nickname.
"Since it's the end of the month, we're having a quiz. Pass the papers back."
As she spoke, Chabashira-sensei handed a stack of papers to the student in the front row.
When I got a look at the paper, it was indeed a proper quiz covering the five major subjects.
"Whuut~? Nobody told us~. That's so unfair~."
"Don't complain. This quiz is only for reference going forward, and it won't count toward your grades at all, so relax and do your best. But absolutely no cheating, all right?"
...There was more to that than met the eye.
Especially the part about it not counting toward our grades.
Normally, quizzes were supposed to affect your grades.
But the teacher had also said it was only for reference, so maybe we didn't need to worry about it?
Whatever. I should just do my best.
I looked over the questions.
There were four questions per subject, twenty in total, with each question worth five points, for a perfect score of one hundred.
The content was so easy it was almost disappointing.
It was clearly several levels below the entrance exam.
For someone like me, who'd specifically studied science to get into this school, it was a piece of cake.
Just as I was thinking that and started answering—
Wait! This is way too hard!
When I saw the last question, my eyes widened.
The final three math problems were absurdly difficult. You had to combine multiple complicated formulas to solve them, and they were nowhere near the level of a first-year high school student.
But I couldn't leave them blank, so I did what I could, hoping I might at least get some points for showing my work.
Thirty minutes later, I'd just barely finished all the questions. I had no hope for the final three, and I'd be happy to get 85 points.
"By the way, did you guys solve the last three questions?"
During lunch, I chatted about the quiz with Sakanayanagi and Shiina, as usual, while we ate.
Sakanayanagi nodded, while Shiina shook her head.
"I think I got the first one right. For the other two, I can only hope for partial credit."
"I finished them, but they took quite a while. What about you, Hikigaya-kun?"
"I'm counting on partial credit. Here's my work. How do you think the teacher would grade it?"
I handed Sakanayanagi my test paper, which was covered in equations.
She looked it over, then nodded.
"If I were the teacher, I'd give you three points for the first question, one for the second, and zero for the third. It's completely wrong."
That meant I could just barely scrape together 90 points at most.
"Oh, I used the same method as Hikigaya-kun for the third question, too. Could you teach me after we finish our lunches?"
Shiina said, nibbling on her bread like a little animal.
She might be a bookworm, but her eagerness to learn was admirable...
"Sure. By the way, there's something else I wanted to tell you two. May starts in two days, right?"
"Is something wrong?"
"I think the points we talked about before, Hikigaya-kun, are probably awarded and deducted by class, not by individual."
"What?!"
I couldn't help shouting.
I'd had my suspicions, but hearing it stated so plainly was still a shock.
If it was based on the class, we were absolutely doomed.
"Do you have any evidence?"
"No, but I've noticed that whenever someone talks, the teachers move their fingers and make a note after class. Besides, keeping track of everyone's points individually would be a hassle."
If Sakanayanagi said so, it was probably true.
She was remarkably observant and could be trusted.
"That does sound a little dangerous. There are way too many people in our class who like to chat."
"Still, it can't be worse than our class, right? Nearly thirty people in our class are chattering away and playing on their phones..."
"...That's way too many, isn't it?"
"At most, about ten people do that in our class."
Seriously... Collective punishment was too harsh.
Come to think of it, I'd only just realized, but talking and playing on your phone during class were explicitly forbidden in the first place.
That was basic knowledge we'd learned in middle school. The students in Class D didn't even know that much. Their manners were on a completely different level from those at Sobu Middle School.
"By the way, how many points do you and Shiina have left, Hikigaya-kun?"
At Sakanayanagi's question, I took out my Student Terminal and checked.
"I have points."
"I have points."
Considering that points could go up or down, I'd eaten the wild-vegetable set meal three days this week to save as much as I could.
Aside from necessities, I'd only bought a chessboard and a book of chess problems.
Still, that probably put me near the top of Class D.
Most of the class spent their money on games, clothes, and manga. I often heard them groan, "I'm broke," in the classroom.
"What about you, Sakanayanagi?"
"I have points. Girls have more things they need to buy than boys, after all. Even if we're equally frugal, it's only natural that I'd have fewer points than you, Hikigaya-kun."
Was that how it worked? It did make some sense.
But if what Sakanayanagi said was true, Class D's points might not increase. We had to find some way to deal with it...
"Hikigaya-kun, if your points really don't go up, I can lend you some. Don't be shy."
Shiina suddenly said that.
It was the first time anyone had ever been so kind to me, and I was a little moved.
What I usually heard were cutting remarks.
"I can lend you some, too."
"Please don't charge me ten percent interest every ten days, okay?"
"Ten percent every ten days... What does that mean?"
Apparently, Sakanayanagi didn't know that loan-sharking term.
She came from a wealthy family, so it made sense that she wouldn't know.
After I explained it to her, she said she wouldn't make such an unreasonable demand, but she seemed to have something else in mind.
I resolved not to borrow money from her unless I absolutely had to.
"Hmm... Coming up with ways to make money really is hard..."
Late at night, I fiddled with my phone and browsed the school forum in my dorm room.
I'd specifically searched for posts about making money, but honestly, I hadn't found any good ideas.
According to the forum, the points distributed each month depended on the class's performance. Classroom discipline and test scores both affected whether points were added or deducted.
In other words, Class D's points were almost certain to hit zero.
I'd hesitated over whether to tell my classmates, but in the end, I decided to keep quiet.
I had plenty of reasons: "It's too late to say anything now," "I don't want to draw attention to myself," and "It'd be a pain if it caused an uproar in the class," among others.
But the main reason was that I was afraid someone would ask, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
Even though most of the class was doing things that would get points deducted, based on past experience, if I brought it up, certain people would definitely take it out on me and say, "If you'd told us earlier, this wouldn't have happened." Then the others would follow suit and make unreasonable demands.
I'd been through enough of that in middle school.
I absolutely didn't want to take the blame for other people's mistakes again.
Once I'd made up my mind, I focused on looking for ways to make money.
The first thing that came to mind was getting a part-time job.
But all the shop assistants at the shopping center were adults, so I figured they probably wouldn't hire students. I looked it up online.
It turned out that no stores were hiring.
That made sense. If there were opportunities like that, people wouldn't be worrying about points.
The forum said things like "You have to find opportunities yourself" or "Your homeroom teacher will introduce you to a job once you meet the requirements," but it sounded suspicious, and I couldn't bring myself to trust it.
Still, given this school's system, it was possible that you really did have to find your own opportunities.
I decided to start exploring the whole campus little by little tomorrow.
Next, I looked into other ways to make money and found that scams would be difficult to pull off.
Apparently, three years ago, a graduating student had scammed the new students out of 12 million points, but was expelled as a result.
Since then, the teachers had been on high alert for fraud.
Besides, there was no way a new student like me could fool older students who already knew the system.
That idea was out.
So what other methods were there...? Hmm?
While browsing the forum, I noticed an interesting detail. After looking into it more...
This might actually work...
If it worked, I could make a lot of points.
The problem was that if it failed, it could lead to all kinds of trouble, potentially affecting my points—or even me personally.
It's a rare opportunity, so I'll give it a try tomorrow. But first, I need to prepare tonight.
I went back to the home screen and opened my contacts...
"Hey, Shiina? There's something I want to ask you to hold on to for me..."
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