The True Consumer Trap

Although this school is unique, many things are no different from a normal school.

For instance, the boring and long opening ceremony.

It was nothing more than the principal, teachers, and student representatives taking the stage to give various speeches, while the students below listened until they grew drowsy.

The detailed rules of the school were already clearly recorded in the enrollment handbook, and coupled with the excitement of the new environment, few people cared about what the leaders on stage were saying.

Therefore, after the opening ceremony concluded, the students began their first day of free time.

Watching his classmates gather in groups of three or five to go shopping or grab coffee, Katsuya Shinjo felt his own mind becoming increasingly active.

Since points could buy anything, it would be unreasonable not to treat himself properly.

'Gurgle~'

'Good grief, do you think we should enjoy ourselves first too? Mr. Stomach.'

Thinking this, Katsuya chuckled and walked toward the cafeteria.

Perhaps because the student body, while small, was unexpectedly wealthy, the variety of food in the cafeteria could be described as vast.

Stir-fried, deep-fried, boiled, steamed, roasted, stewed, domestic, international, things that fly in the sky, run on the ground, hop in the grass, or swim in the water—everything was available.

However, an inconspicuous area in the corner of the menu caught his attention.

"Free... wild vegetable set meal. That's really strange..."

The cost of living at Advanced Nurturing Middle School was actually no different from the outside world; if anything, it might even be slightly lower.

But for students who received 100,000 points every month, no matter how extravagant they were, they shouldn't be unable to afford the simplest bento.

So why would the school prepare a free set meal?

Something is wrong... it's ten to one that something is definitely wrong!

Katsuya Shinjo's eyes rolled in their sockets, and a bizarre hypothesis appeared in his mind.

Thinking of this, he ordered two burger sets and headed straight toward an upperclassman who was eating the wild vegetable set meal with a bitter, numb expression.

"Yo, senior, can I sit here?"

"How did you know I'm a senior? Everyone's uniform is clearly the same."

"Well, let's just call it a bit of a talent. I can tell from your eyes and demeanor that you aren't a freshman."

The boy, who had been looking down at his food, glanced up at Katsuya and nodded without saying much, though his eyes held a trace of longing when he looked at the burger.

Back in the day, he had also lived a very luxurious life; mere burgers wouldn't have even caught his eye.

But later, sigh...

Katsuya naturally noticed the other person's unnatural gaze, and after saying thanks, he pushed one of the sets toward him.

"What is the meaning of this?"

There were plenty of empty seats in the cafeteria; there was no need for this freshman to come and squeeze at a table with him. It was impossible not to be suspicious.

But could a mere freshman really have so many schemes?

Katsuya Shinjo smiled at this:

"Well, I'm a freshman, so there are a lot of things I don't understand. It's normal to accidentally order an extra set when ordering, right?"

The upperclassman curled his lip. How could he not hear that Katsuya was lying?

Unless this guy across from him was a caveman, how could he not know how to use a meal ticket?

He glanced at the pushed-over burger again, then acted as if he hadn't heard anything and continued eating the wild vegetables on his plate.

"Are these things actually good?"

Katsuya's incessant questions made him somewhat annoyed, so his tone became a bit impatient:

"If you want to know, why don't you just go buy one yourself? It doesn't even cost money!"

"Don't get excited. I just can't understand how there are actually people in this world who like eating these wild vegetables that taste like tree roots. It's a good thing they're free, otherwise, they wouldn't sell many in a year, right?"

Katsuya's glib talk made the upperclassman suddenly agitated:

"Like them? If we had to pay for this kind of stuff, would there even be a way for us poor people to survive?! I..."

Seeming to realize he had said something he shouldn't have, he stopped mid-sentence, quickly finished the last bit of food on his plate, and prepared to leave.

However, Katsuya stood up and left the cafeteria before him, leaving behind one sentence before departing:

"Thanks, senior. That set meal is all yours. If you don't like it, it doesn't matter if you throw it away~"

He left the upperclassman standing there in a daze. After a long while, the senior let out a long sigh, looked at the burger and fries on the table, and packed them into a bag.

To verify his hypothesis, Katsuya went to the convenience store again. When he saw that there was also a free section for daily necessities, including toiletries, his idea was immediately confirmed.

Just as he was checking out, he ran into the person he least wanted to meet.

What he didn't expect was that this boy was chatting idly with a cold, beautiful girl with long black hair.

Although the girl clearly seemed to find him repulsive.

'I'd better just leave... I don't want to get involved with this guy at all...'

Before he could even activate his stealth talent to slip away, the other party took the initiative to greet him.

"Ah, if I recall correctly, you're Shinjo-kun, right?"

As the saying goes, you shouldn't hit a smiling face, though neither of the two people in front of him had anything to do with smiling.

However, out of politeness and professional habit, Shinjo still bit the bullet and walked over to greet them:

"Hello. I didn't expect you to remember my name. If I remember correctly, you are Ayanokoji... Kiyotaka."

The girl with long, straight black hair standing to the side frowned. It was clear she had no intention of talking to Shinjo, as she went to queue for checkout without saying a word.

Perhaps to smooth things over, Ayanokoji took the initiative to speak on her behalf:

"Don't mind her. Horikita just has that kind of personality."

"I certainly don't mind... but tell me, are you and Horikita-san close? I noticed you are neighbors in class, too."

More than that, actually? They were even neighbors on the bus!

But at the time, Shinjo clearly hadn't paid any attention to a person like Horikita.

"No, we only just met."

Being with someone with a personality like Ayanokoji's always led to this situation; no matter how good the other party was at socializing, the conversation would eventually hit a dead end.

After all, it was impossible for a normal person to talk to a block of wood all day long. Unless, of course, they weren't normal themselves.

Just then, Shinjo noticed that Ayanokoji's shopping basket was filled with free items, so he asked:

"I couldn't tell, Ayanokoji-kun, you're quite frugal."

"Ah, that. Well, they all work just the same."

"Well, I just remembered I have something to do. See you tomorrow!"

Making up a random excuse, Shinjo left the convenience store—which was so awkward it made his toes curl—without looking back, and set off on the road back to the dormitory alone.

He must have been out of his mind to try and strike up a conversation with that guy!

On the other side, based on the information he had, he could conclude:

Whether it was the "poor" comment from that upperclassman or these free items that could barely sustain vital signs, when combined with what Sae Chabashira had said earlier:

"Points will be automatically deposited on the first of every month. Points are the school's measure of ability. This month, it is a fair one hundred thousand points per person."

In other words... one hundred thousand points was not a fixed value. It could be more, or it could be less. And the first of every month was the time to test whether it was more or less.

"If that's really the case, and the school didn't explicitly tell us, wouldn't it be easy for freshmen to spend all one hundred thousand points in the first month? If it's just a little less next month, that's fine, but what if it's a lot less... hey, hey, hey..."

Katsuya Shinjo suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. He wasn't a person obsessed with money—after all, you can't take it with you when you die, so as long as you have enough to spend, it's fine.

But with things turning out this way, he had no choice but to consider his livelihood for the next three years.

And so...

"Sigh, it is what it is. Time to sleep..."

Back in his dorm, Katsuya Shinjo stretched, took out the headphones and portable music player he had just spent fifty thousand points on, and hummed a little tune as he drifted off to sleep:

"Save where you should, spend where you must. Money doesn't disappear; it just stays by my side in a different form."