Discussion

Ignoring Soh Shibata, who was still deep in thought beside him, An Xiao looked at the pink-haired girl in front of him, who was clearly much sharper, and considered his words before speaking.

"Let's use the question I just asked as an example. It covered two things: Class Points and the class rankings."

"But judging by Hoshinomiya-sensei's reaction just now, there's definitely something off about both of them."

"Huh? Really?"

"That's right."

"When An Xiao asked his question, Hoshinomiya-sensei only gave him a very vague answer."

Before An Xiao could explain, a calm male voice came from behind him, agreeing with his assessment.

A moment later, a boy with light purple hair stepped up to the group and spoke.

"My name is Ryuji Kanzaki. Mind if I join your conversation?"

"Huh? Oh, sure."

An Xiao was still a little confused about why another person had joined them, but since they were already talking, he figured they might as well let Kanzaki join in too.

"Just like Kanzaki said, Hoshinomiya-sensei gave a very vague answer to my question. She even skipped over the first part entirely."

Remembering Hoshinomiya-sensei smiling as she asked if he was satisfied with her answer, An Xiao couldn't help grumbling to himself.

If you're going to be cryptic, at least have the guts to say so!

Though that was what he was thinking, An Xiao kept talking.

"So I'm guessing that Hoshinomiya-sensei knows about some of the school's more important rules that aren't written in the student handbook. But because of certain restrictions, she can't tell us about them outright."

"Especially when it comes to the class rankings."

"What do class rankings have to do with this?" Soh Shibata, sitting beside An Xiao, scratched his head in frustration. He felt like he couldn't quite keep up with An Xiao's reasoning. When he looked up, he saw An Xiao giving him a strange look.

It was almost... affectionate? Or maybe concerned?

An Xiao looked away and sighed helplessly. After glancing around at the three others, he explained, "Do you remember what the school advertises?"

"You mean the one hundred percent university admission and employment rates?" Honami Ichinose, sitting across from An Xiao, thought for a moment before answering.

"Exactly!" An Xiao snapped his fingers. "I'm really skeptical about that. No matter how capable this school is, even a top-tier university like Tokyo University couldn't possibly offer places to a hundred or so students from this school every year."

"And if that claim really is true, then dividing us into classes and ranking the upper-year classes based on Class Points would be completely pointless."

"Are you saying that not everyone gets the benefits the school advertises?" Honami Ichinose asked.

"Right. If that's the case, then what Hoshinomiya-sensei said earlier about this being a 'merit-based school' makes perfect sense," Ryuji Kanzaki agreed.

"Yeah. Following that logic, the school probably pits the classes against each other and uses Class Points to determine their rankings, with classes moving up or down accordingly. But based on the number of students in each year, probably only one or two classes..." An Xiao suddenly remembered how far ahead Class A's points had been when he'd seen the second-year rankings earlier. He hesitated, then finished, "Only one class probably gets the benefits the school advertises."

After An Xiao finished speaking, the others fell silent for a long time.

Looking at everyone with their heads bowed in thought, An Xiao felt a little helpless. Just as he was about to say something comforting, Honami Ichinose, sitting in front of them, spoke up in an energetic voice to encourage everyone. "There's no need to worry too much. We've already started to figure things out, so we can leave the rest to time. We've only just started school, after all. We still have three years ahead of us."

"True."

"I'll keep looking into the school's rules too. If I find anything, I'll let you all know."

She really knows how to bring people together.

Watching the scene, An Xiao couldn't help feeling impressed.

If An Xiao had said the same thing himself, it definitely wouldn't have had the same effect as when Ichinose said it.

"It's getting late, so let's exchange Line IDs. If anyone finds anything new, we can contact each other on Line," Honami Ichinose said, taking out her phone. Nobody objected.

After adding everyone on Line, An Xiao left first. When he reached the dormitory, he got his room card from the dorm supervisor and took the elevator to his floor.

Room 317.

The room was quite spacious. Besides a private bedroom and bathroom, it had a small living room and a kitchen. It was less like a single dorm room and more like a private studio apartment.

An Xiao looked around and saw that every part of the dorm was clean. He wouldn't have to clean it again, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

Overall, the dorm was simple but very comfortable.

"At least this school has one thing going for it."

An Xiao casually tossed his bag onto the floor and flopped onto the bed, burying his face in it.

"This is such a hassle..." His muffled voice came from the bed, followed by a brief flurry of movement.

Rolling onto his back, An Xiao stared blankly at the dim ceiling for a long time without saying a word.