"What's wrong with that?" Kamuro Masumi frowned. She'd noticed it too, but Mashima Tomoya had said he'd explain later, so she hadn't thought much of it.
In fact, plenty of students in Class A had similar thoughts.
"Just as the school evaluates you, it also measures the strength of each class." Suzuki Toru echoed Mashima Tomoya's words. "He made it pretty clear that Class Points might be the standard for measuring a class's level. Since it's a quantifiable standard, there's bound to be a gap between the classes."
Kamuro Masumi was taken aback. He continued, "There might be more than just a gap between classes. He said, 'Just as the school evaluates you,' which means our evaluations might change based on this standard too."
"Going back to Private Points, he said, 'You who have successfully enrolled each have your own corresponding value and potential.' So Private Points might represent our 'value and potential.' Unless something unexpected happens, they're probably also meant to reflect the differences between individual students."
Suzuki Toru tried to keep his explanation simple. Kamuro Masumi was staring at him in complete confusion, as if she'd never considered any of this.
Wait, they'd heard exactly the same words. How had she failed to pick up on any of those implications?
Was she just stupid?
Impossible!
"That's only your guess, though. If that's the case, why didn't Teacher Mashima tell us?" Kamuro Masumi asked, remaining unconvinced.
"Maybe it's too early for us to know." Suzuki Toru smiled. "Maybe there's some reason he can't tell us. But he's already given us plenty of information. We just need to verify our theories."
He figured Sakayanagi Arisu had probably reached the same conclusions, which was why she hadn't pressed him for more.
Kamuro Masumi hesitated for a moment, then asked, "How do you want to verify them?"
"There are two ways. One takes little effort, and the other is the fastest," Suzuki Toru replied.
Kamuro Masumi was surprised. Even in this situation, there were two ways to go about it?
"What's the fastest?"
"Find an upperclassman," Suzuki Toru said. "A second-year, for example. They've spent a whole year here, so they definitely know more about the school than we freshmen do."
"What if they won't tell us?" Kamuro Masumi asked, as if the answer were obvious.
"Easy. Bribe them with points. If points are equivalent to Yen, I doubt anyone dislikes money." Suzuki Toru had already considered the possibility.
Even if they chose to keep quiet for some reason, Suzuki Toru wouldn't need to dig too deep. He'd only have to check how many points they received that month.
The ratio of 100,000 Private Points to 1,000 Class Points was worth thinking over.
"What's the other way?"
Suzuki Toru stopped walking. They'd reached the dormitory without even realizing it.
"Wait until next month's points come in."
After leaving her with those words, Suzuki Toru walked into the dorm, leaving Kamuro Masumi staring after him, wide-eyed.
That counted as a way?!
No, now that she thought about it, it really was an option.
Once next month's points arrived, if the students didn't see 100,000 Private Points, they'd naturally start asking questions.
At that point, whether it was Mashima Tomoya, their homeroom teacher, or the school administration, they'd have to provide a reasonable explanation.
But then Kamuro Masumi thought of something even more terrifying.
If Suzuki Toru had guessed the truth exactly right...
As a member of Class A, what kind of monster was she in the same class with?!
Rewards, Rewards
Suzuki Toru discovered that the dormitory housed both boys and girls. The boys lived on the lower floors, while the girls lived on the upper floors.
When he collected his dorm key and handbook of rules, the administrator repeatedly stressed that students must not engage in any behavior inappropriate for high schoolers.
His room was on the second floor, so there was no need to take the elevator.
It was a single room, and it was quite spacious. It even had a space that could serve as a kitchen, as well as a private bathroom.
It was clear that Advanced Nurturing High School treated its students very well.
If these conditions never changed, this place would be paradise, the kind countless people dreamed of.
However, the gifts of fate often came with a price.
The logic behind what he'd just said to Kamuro Masumi was simple. Advanced Nurturing High School was an institution with a special mission, backed by the government.
And yet, despite that, it offered its students generous benefits. Not only did it guarantee further education and employment, but students also paid nothing while enrolled—and received Private Points every month.
Just looking at it all made it seem like a money pit. No matter how developed Japan was, it couldn't possibly allow something like this without good reason.
There was only one reasonable explanation: the returns had to match the investment, at least enough to satisfy the government.
And what were those returns?
Most likely, the "exceptional talents" Advanced Nurturing High School claimed to produce.
How could it cultivate the kind of talent it wanted?
By raising a nest of vipers.
Back when he worked at a company, Suzuki Toru had been the king of cutthroat competition. Every year, he'd been the only one to survive the elimination round and make it to the final.
He couldn't help it. Big corporations were never short on talent. If you didn't desperately reshape yourself into what your boss wanted, you'd most likely be handed a severance package and sent out into the job market.
Suzuki Toru knew all too well that the only way to meet management's expectations was to make his subordinates compete and outdo one another.
The logic was simple. If everyone took the same test and you came first, people would remember your name, not whoever came in second.
Unless something unexpected happened, the best "test" for this would be Class Points.
Compared to them, Private Points had the feel of performance bonuses: each student received an evaluation based on their own performance. In other words, they were like individual bonuses.
Class Points, on the other hand, were better suited to measuring overall performance, like the total output of a department.
Besides, however he looked at it, Advanced Nurturing High School was raising a whole brood of kings, not sending only one into Japanese society each year. Otherwise, there'd have been no reason to introduce Class Points at all.
That suggested the classes would probably be pitted against one another, competing to produce the best of the lot.
Which meant the priority now was probably to unite the class. Someone would need to lead everyone in crushing the other classes.
But there was one problem.
What was the point of the students competing against one another?
Suzuki Toru wore a strange expression. Surely they weren't going to expel the students who couldn't keep up?
Advanced Nurturing High School claimed to guarantee further education and employment, but those rights belonged to its graduates. If the school expelled students early, the guarantees would naturally become void.
As the champion of elimination rounds, Suzuki Toru understood this all too well.
He didn't mind, but dropping out too soon might interfere with his wish a little.
Suzuki Toru calmed his mind, and the rewards from his previous world slowly appeared before his eyes.
"Cup Noodles" x2, "Yen" x5,460,000, "Higuchi Madoka's worn black stockings" x6, "Toilet brush" x7, "Unicorn Gundam fragments" x3, "Character control device" x1, "Wisdom Cube" x88, "Wedding ring" x9, "Jackdaw" x1, "Bug" x4...
Most of them were things whose purpose was unclear. Some could even be called garbage.
But there was one reward he cared about right now: the one he'd had to hang himself to death to obtain.
Although he could only draw one random reward, he could choose which pool to draw from, such as the item pool, skill pool, knowledge pool, or supernatural pool.
The first three pools were all right. Sometimes they even gave him something good. But the supernatural pool was bizarre; it had all kinds of things in it.
Suzuki Toru had drawn piles of inexplicable things from it before, like "Wisdom Cubes," "lightsabers," and "Yen." He couldn't understand how "Yen" could count as supernatural.
Was it the power of money?
Even so, Suzuki Toru kept spending his tokens on the supernatural pool.
After experiencing the terror of death, he'd lost interest in ordinary things. He might as well fulfill a few wishes, then trade them for something interesting.
[Drawing the corresponding reward...]
[Congratulations! You have received the reward—"Nano Regeneration Fluid"!]
["Nano Regeneration Fluid": Inject it with a syringe to heal the target's injuries or enhance the target's physical abilities.]
[The reward has been delivered. Please check your inventory!]
It looked like a medical item. Suzuki Toru's expression turned a little strange. It seemed like the sort of thing that came from some advanced technology.
He had a feeling this pool had a lot of weird things mixed in.
He'd traded his life for a medical item. That seemed like a fair exchange, so it wasn't a bad deal.
If he ran into an accident next time, he could use it to save himself in an emergency.
Of course, if he wanted, he could also use it on anyone else. The item's effects weren't limited to him.
Suzuki Toru lay quietly on his bed, with a notebook and pen beside him, thinking about what to do next.
The second day of school.
Since it was the first day of class, the teachers had only briefly gone over the lesson plans for the term. There hadn't been any actual lessons.
Even so, the students in Class A listened attentively. Nobody seemed distracted. Some even took the initiative to ask the teachers how they could keep pace with the lessons and what topics they'd be covering next.
Just seeing the atmosphere, Suzuki Toru immediately realized that they were probably all cutthroat competitors too. Some might even have studied the textbooks in advance.
Sure enough, no matter where you went, you couldn't escape the rat race.
When class ended, a few girls suddenly came over to talk to Suzuki Toru. After chatting for a while, he realized they wanted his contact information.
Suzuki Toru didn't refuse. People couldn't live without socializing, and relationships could sometimes prove important.
But as soon as they got his contact details, the girls left, beaming with excitement.
Suzuki Toru could hear them deliberately lowering their voices, saying things like how the hottest-guy ranking for the first-years definitely had to put Class A in first place.
It seemed the classes were already in contact. He pondered that.
There were also a few little cliques gradually forming in the class.
The group led by Katsuragi Kohei was the most popular, and it included quite a few boys.
He was calm and reliable, had scored well on the entrance exam, had been class representative before, and was also a member of the Student Council. He was highly capable, and just looking at his résumé, he outclassed plenty of the others—more than enough to make him Class A's leader.
Besides, all it took was a little observation to see that he was good at talking to people—or, more accurately, he knew exactly how to steer a conversation and keep it from going quiet.
Before you continue