Trouble

After An Xiao had exchanged a few words with Honami Ichinose, the classroom bell rang. A woman in a pink short-sleeved shirt, carrying a black board, walked into the room with a smile.

For some reason, seeing the smile on the woman's face made An Xiao shiver. He had the strange feeling that he'd seen it somewhere before.

It was just like... the smiles his mother and older sister wore when they were about to tease him at home.

An Xiao hurriedly shook his head, banishing the frightening thought. The teacher had already written her name and contact information on the blackboard.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Chie Hoshinomiya. I'll be your teacher and homeroom teacher for the next three years."

After writing her name on the blackboard, Chie Hoshinomiya clapped her hands, turned around, and introduced herself to everyone in Class B with a smile.

"By the way, aren't you all happy to have such a cute teacher?"

She made a cute face as she teased the class.

Her somewhat self-congratulatory remark quickly brought her closer to the students. A few boys even laughed and shouted that they were happy.

She was a teacher who was very good at making friends.

That was An Xiao's assessment. Still, for some reason, he couldn't help noticing that the new teacher's gaze kept drifting toward him from time to time.

He had a feeling this teacher was going to be a bit of a handful.

Without thinking, An Xiao edged closer to the window.

As if she'd realized her gaze had been a little too obvious, Chie Hoshinomiya smoothly looked away, as though nothing had happened. Then she smiled and interrupted the students' chatter before continuing.

"I'm sure you've learned a little about our school from the enrollment guide you received before starting here, or from the opening ceremony just now—especially about what makes our school unique."

At Chie Hoshinomiya's words, the students nodded in unison. An Xiao did too.

To be honest, he was really curious about how a school like this could let students freely choose their majors and career paths while still maintaining a one-hundred-percent rate of advancement to higher education and employment.

Wouldn't all those students outside who were studying so hard rise up in protest?

And besides... recalling all the cameras he'd noticed while wandering around the school earlier, An Xiao clicked his tongue.

He had the feeling he'd somehow wandered into a strange social experiment.

As An Xiao's thoughts wandered, Chie Hoshinomiya briefly introduced the school again, following the materials they'd just received. Then she paused, took a phone she'd prepared in the lectern drawer, and began handing them out to the students in the front row.

As she passed them out, she explained to the class.

"In addition to the rules I've already mentioned, the most unique feature of our school is a mechanism called the S System, which I'm about to explain."

Once every student in the room had a phone, Chie Hoshinomiya took one out as well and explained, "Your phones were collected when you enrolled, so this one is a replacement. It also serves as your student ID."

"You can use it to contact people on campus, but only on campus. All outside communications will be blocked. It's also the only way you can make payments here."

At that, An Xiao raised his eyebrows in surprise.

So they used phone payments in Japan too. He'd thought they'd use something like a campus card. He'd been worried about losing one, but now he didn't have to be.

"Everyone can use their personal points on their phone to pay for things. As long as it's available at school, you can buy whatever you want with points."

"Of course, you'll need to have enough points."

"Everyone's points are deposited automatically on the first of every month. Each point is worth one yen, and that's your living allowance. This month's points have already been deposited into everyone's account."

"Oh, and you've each got one hundred thousand points!"

When Chie Hoshinomiya finished speaking, the entire class fell silent. A few seconds later, the room erupted into an uproar.

"One hundred thousand points? Based on what the teacher said, that's the same as one hundred thousand yen, isn't it?"

"One hundred thousand yen? That's almost my entire allowance for a year!"

The whole class instantly buzzed with excitement.

That was only natural. For a student who'd just started high school, one hundred thousand was a lot.

An Xiao did some mental calculations, roughly converting the amount according to the yen's current exchange rate. It came to about five thousand yuan.

At that thought, An Xiao's mouth twitched. He stared at the glaring figure of one hundred thousand on his logged-in Student Terminal. Rather than feeling thrilled, he felt conflicted, though mostly he wanted to complain.

What kind of school gave students money instead of charging them fees? And such a large amount, too?

A typical university student in China only got two or three thousand yuan a month for living expenses. This was twice that. Was this really reasonable?

It wasn't that An Xiao didn't want to believe it. It was just so unreasonable.

Back in middle school, his classmates had been frantic trying to earn the one or two thousand yuan in scholarship money offered each semester. They had to handle exams and take part in all kinds of extracurricular activities, keeping themselves incredibly busy.

Now the money was doubled. Did that mean they'd have to do twice as much, too?

Remembering how exhausted his classmates had been back in middle school, An Xiao swallowed nervously. He pressed his palm firmly against his chest a few times, then let out a heavy sigh, trying to reassure himself.

Maybe he was just overthinking it?

Chie Hoshinomiya studied the students below with interest. Once they'd had enough time to get excited, she spoke up. "Does anyone still have questions about the school rules? I'll do my best to answer them."

An Xiao had plenty of questions. His hand, resting on the desk, was already about to shoot up. But then he remembered the strange unease he'd felt when he first saw this teacher, and swallowed all his questions.

He had a feeling that getting involved with this teacher would land him in a whole lot of trouble.

That was the intuition his sixth sense gave him.

And so, in the end, no one asked Chie Hoshinomiya any questions.