Although this school was unusual, plenty of things were still just like they were at a regular school.
For example, the long, boring opening ceremony.
It was the usual speeches from the principal, teachers, and student representatives, while the students sat below, fighting to stay awake.
The student handbook already laid out the school rules in detail. And with the excitement of being in a new environment, few people paid much attention to what the administrators were saying.
So once the opening ceremony ended, the students got a day of free time.
Watching his classmates head out in groups to shop or grab coffee, Katsuya Shinjo felt his own thoughts growing restless.
If points could buy anything, it would be a shame not to treat himself properly.
Grrr.
"Good grief. You think we should indulge ourselves first, too, huh, little stomach?"
Katsuya chuckled at the thought and headed for the cafeteria.
Perhaps because the student body was small but surprisingly wealthy, the cafeteria offered an incredible variety of food.
Fried, stir-fried, boiled, deep-fried, steamed, grilled, braised, and stewed dishes; food from home and abroad; things that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, hopped around in the grass, or swam in the water. They had it all.
But one inconspicuous section tucked into the corner of the menu caught his eye.
"Free... wild vegetable set meal. That's strange..."
Prices at Advanced Nurturing Middle School were about the same as outside—in fact, if anything, they might even be a little lower.
And students received a hundred thousand points every month, so surely even the most extravagant among them could afford a simple boxed lunch.
So why did the school offer free meals?
Something was off... Nine out of ten? No, ten out of ten off!
Katsuya's eyes darted around as a bizarre guess came to mind.
He ordered two hamburger sets and headed straight over to an upperclassman who was eating the wild vegetable set meal with a gloomy, almost numb expression.
"Hey, senior. Mind if I sit here?"
"How do you know I'm a senior? We're all wearing the same uniforms."
"Well, let's call it a little talent of mine. I could tell from your eyes and the way you carry yourself that you weren't a new student."
The boy looked up from his meal and glanced at Katsuya. He nodded without saying much, but his eyes lingered on the hamburger with a hint of longing.
Once, he had lived a life of luxury. A mere hamburger hadn't been worth his attention.
But then... sigh.
Katsuya naturally noticed his awkward expression. After thanking him, he slid one of the meal sets over.
"What's this supposed to mean?"
There were plenty of empty seats in the cafeteria. This new student had no reason to squeeze in at his table, so of course he was suspicious.
But could a mere first-year really be so calculating?
Katsuya smiled at the question.
"I'm a new student, after all. There's a lot I don't know yet. Like how it's perfectly normal to accidentally order one meal too many."
The upperclassman pursed his lips. How could he not tell that Katsuya was lying?
Unless the guy sitting across from him was a primitive man, how could he not know how to buy meal tickets?
He glanced at the hamburger again, then pretended not to hear and continued eating the vegetables on his plate.
"Are these any good?"
Katsuya's endless questions were starting to annoy him, and his tone turned impatient.
"If you want to know, why don't you buy a set yourself? It's free!"
"Don't get worked up. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that anyone would actually want to eat these root-like vegetables. Good thing they're free, or I doubt they'd sell many in a whole year."
Katsuya's confident rambling made the upperclassman fly into a rage.
"Want to eat them? If they charged for this stuff, how would people like us who are broke survive?! I—"
He seemed to realize he'd said something he shouldn't. He clamped his mouth shut, quickly finished the last of his food, and prepared to leave.
But Katsuya got up and left the cafeteria before him. On his way out, he called back, "Thanks, senior. That set's all yours. Toss it if you don't like it!"
The upperclassman sat there, stunned. After a long while, he let out a sigh, looked at the hamburger and fries on the table, and packed them into a takeout bag.
To confirm his theory, Katsuya then visited the convenience store. When he saw that necessities—including toiletries—had a free section too, his suspicions solidified.
But at the checkout, he ran into the person he least wanted to see.
What he hadn't expected was to find the boy chatting with a beautiful, cool-looking girl with long, straight black hair.
Though she clearly seemed to find him a little annoying.
I should just leave... I don't want to get mixed up with this guy...
But before Katsuya could use his stealth talent to slip away, the other boy greeted him first.
"Ah, I remember you. You're Katsuya Shinjo, right?"
As the saying went, you couldn't hit someone who greeted you with a smile—even if neither of these two could be said to be smiling.
But out of politeness and professional habit, Katsuya forced himself to walk over and say hello:
"Hi. I'm surprised you remember my name. You're Ayanokoji... Kiyotaka, right?"
The black-haired girl beside him furrowed her brow. She clearly had no interest in talking to Katsuya either, and silently joined the line to pay.
Perhaps to smooth things over, Ayanokoji even spoke up on her behalf.
"Don't mind her, Horikita. That's just how she is."
"I don't mind... But are you and Horikita classmates close? I noticed you sit next to each other in class."
Not just in class—they'd even sat next to each other on the bus!
Of course, Katsuya hadn't even noticed Horikita back then.
"No. We just met."
This was what happened when you spent time with someone like Ayanokoji. No matter how good the other person was at making conversation, eventually you ran out of things to say.
A normal person couldn't spend all day talking to a block of wood. Unless there was something wrong with them.
Just then, Katsuya noticed that Ayanokoji's shopping basket was full of free items, and asked, "I wouldn't have guessed you were so frugal, Ayanokoji."
"Ah, well, they work just as well."
"Well, I just remembered I have something to do. See you tomorrow!"
After making up some excuse, Katsuya turned and hurried out of the painfully awkward convenience store. Then he headed back to his dorm alone.
He must have been out of his mind to try talking to that guy!
Meanwhile, based on what he knew, he could conclude this:
The upperclassman's mention of being broke, the free supplies that could keep people alive, and what Sae Chabashira had said earlier—
"Points are deposited automatically on the first of every month. They're the school's measure of your ability. This month, everyone gets a fair hundred thousand points."
That meant the hundred thousand points weren't fixed. Students could receive more, or less. And the first of every month was when they found out which.
"If that's really how it works, and the school never told us, wouldn't it be easy for new students to spend all their points during their first month? If we only get a little less next month, that's one thing, but if we get a lot less... Hey, hey, hey..."
Katsuya felt a chill of unease. He wasn't particularly attached to money. You couldn't take it with you when you were born, and you couldn't take it with you when you died. As long as he had enough to spend, that was fine.
But now he had to consider how he'd afford food and shelter over the next three years.
And so...
"Sigh. It is what it is. I'll sleep on it..."
Back in his dorm, Katsuya stretched, pulled out the headphones and portable music player he'd just bought for fifty thousand points, and hummed his way into a dream:
"Save where you should, spend where you can. The money hasn't disappeared—it's just found a new way to stay by my side."
Before you continue