[Third Day of School] First Meeting with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka

After dumping the school rules on Ryuen, Kujo spent his time adapting to his brand-new student life while boredly exploring the school.

During hours when there were no classes, he could only move around Advanced Nurturing High School on the condition that he did not disturb the studies of other normal students.

Therefore, Kujo made his primary goal to map out the number and location of security cameras installed throughout the school, which would further reduce the possibility of being caught if he were to break school rules.

After that, he would go to scout out locations on campus suitable for physical training.

However, even though he had signed a contract with Sakagami, Kujo was completely exempt from attending classes.

But in reality, he would occasionally sit in on some interesting lessons just to become a familiar face within the class.

Kujo particularly liked to attend the last period of the day, as he could watch the students looking drowsy.

He felt that the campus life of an ordinary student should be exactly like this.

Student cafeteria.

Kujo realized that his personal point consumption had been far too high lately; his account now held less than ten thousand points.

To make ends meet, he had no choice but to opt for the free rations provided by the student cafeteria—the mountain vegetable set meal.

This school had a comprehensive supply system for students with zero personal points, ensuring that even those with 0 points could obtain the basic nutrition needed to sustain their three years of campus life.

Because he wasn't very skilled with the process, the upperclassman waiting in line behind Kujo kept urging him to hurry up while he was getting his ticket.

Kujo turned his head back.

Only to see an unexpected figure standing next to the ticket machine.

It was the protagonist of the original story, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

So, after picking up his meal, Kujo began to wait for him.

Ayanokoji seemed surprised that a student he didn't know would wait for him, and he subsequently introduced himself:

"My name is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, from Class 1-D."

Ayanokoji had already learned the basic routine for greeting fellow students.

He now longed to make male friends in the same grade.

The person in front of him also looked like a first-year, his uniform was new, though he didn't seem like the talkative type.

"I'm also a first-year, from Class C. My name is Kujo Makoto; you can just call me Kujo."

Afterward, Kujo and Ayanokoji chose an empty spot and sat down face-to-face.

While eating, the two began to chat.

"What do you think of the taste, Kujo?"

Ayanokoji wanted to understand how a normal student would evaluate the same food in front of them.

"It's edible."

Ayanokoji deeply agreed with Kujo's answer.

Then.

Kujo rested his head on his hand and asked with interest:

"Are you in any clubs? I think you'd be well-suited for the piano club or the calligraphy club."

Upon hearing this, Ayanokoji didn't know how to respond for a moment.

He kept searching his memory for relevant information, and only then did he finally recall that this school did indeed have such things as clubs.

Clubs were extracurricular organizations managed by the school and student council regarding personnel and funding; students could expand their social circles and enrich their campus life by joining them.

So this was what ordinary students cared about?

Could he use this to start conversations in the future?

Ayanokoji had learned another trick he could use as an opening line when talking to others later on.

Immediately, Ayanokoji said he hadn't joined any clubs.

Then, he asked Kujo the question he was most curious about right now:

"What is your take on the recent rumors in school, Kujo?"

"For example?"

"That in this school, you can buy anything using personal points."

"That's definitely false."

Regarding this answer, Ayanokoji continued to press in Kujo's direction:

"Why do you think that?"

Kujo pointed his chopsticks at the upperclassmen around them and spouted nonsense:

"Look at the seniors around us eating vegetables just like us. If points were really that important, why wouldn't the other upperclassmen trade for points from the lowerclassmen? First-years clearly don't know anything, and third-years are graduating in a year. You can't take things from this school outside anyway, so even if they didn't rob them, wouldn't it be easy to just trade some random items for points from the first-years?"

Hearing this, Ayanokoji felt it was a fresh perspective.

But could it be because they simply liked eating vegetarian?

Ayanokoji intended to keep questioning Kujo, as he was now very curious about what Kujo would say next:

"Then what is your take on the school providing students with so many points every month? Come to think of it, I really hadn't thought about how to spend 100,000 points before, and eating vegetarian now is just my way of trying to save some money."

Kujo didn't believe a single word of what Ayanokoji said.

Because he understood Ayanokoji's character very well, and he also knew that the other party was trying hard to maintain the facade of an ordinary student during this period.

Kujo then continued to spout nonsense:

"Points are, at the end of the day, just points, not money. The supplies the school purchases from the outside world every month are limited, so no matter how many points they issue us, they are only circulating within a range the school can accept. Even if you had an unlimited balance, you could only purchase supplies within the school's scope at most."

In other words, as long as the prices were adjusted slightly, 100,000 points could just as easily be 10,000 points or 1,000 points?

Ayanokoji was enlightened.

So this was the normal student's way of thinking?

Ayanokoji felt that he could learn many new things from Kujo.

"I understand. You've helped me clear up many doubts, Kujo. But I have one last question: if you wanted to reach Class A, would you choose the plan of saving 20 million points to transfer individually, or the plan of having your class points surpass the current Class A?"

Ayanokoji wanted to hear what this student named Kujo Makoto really thought.

The previous questions could be said to be things he didn't truly want to ask.

These were all clichés on the school's social platforms, and Ayanokoji was just using them as conversation starters.

But this current question was what Ayanokoji was truly curious about.

How does a normal student view the issue of graduating from Class A in this school?

"Is it really worthless if you don't graduate from Class A? As long as you are strong yourself, it shouldn't matter which class you graduate from. But since you're asking me to hypothesize, then if I had to choose."

As he spoke, Kujo shared Ayanokoji's own actions from the original story with him, "If that day ever came, I would lead my own class to Class A, and then jump to Class D to face them in a duel."

After finishing, Kujo explained to him that what he just said was only a joke; such a thing was impossible to achieve.

Yet the scenario he had just proposed.

Left Ayanokoji deeply shaken.

After this, Kujo and Ayanokoji exchanged contact information.

This was also the first friend Ayanokoji had made in this school.