"Ugh! How was I supposed to know this thing was so useless? If I'd known points were that important, who would've bought this junk?"
A few upperclassmen chatted as they passed the bench where Yagami Shizuka was sitting.
One of the girls took something that looked like a brick out of her bag.
On closer inspection, it was a tablet about the size of a laptop.
Even game consoles were sold at this school, so of course they had tablets too.
They were just relatively expensive.
The one the girl had cost over thirty thousand points.
Only Class D students who had no idea what points were worth would buy one.
Yagami Shizuka guessed they were second-year students from Class D.
They definitely didn't have many points. They were probably lucky to get ten or twenty thousand a month.
So now they were desperate for points and couldn't find anyone to buy the tablet.
When they saw Yagami Shizuka sitting alone, their eyes lit up. They walked over and said, "Hey, first-year. Need a tablet?
I've got one right here, and it has some private photos of me on it!
It cost thirty-eight thousand, but I'll sell it to you for twenty thousand."
[Negotiate the price down to two thousand.]
Yagami Shizuka looked up in a daze, glanced at the pretty upperclassman, then at the tablet, and waved it off without interest.
"I don't need a tablet for studying. Besides, my class keeps a tight rein on points, so I can't just buy something that expensive."
"A tight rein?"
The upperclassman holding the tablet picked up on what he'd said. "When you say your class keeps a tight rein, do you mean your class already has a leader and understands how important points are?"
They were a little surprised. This year's first-years seemed almost too capable.
Which class figured things out before a month had passed? Otherwise, they wouldn't have ended up in such a miserable state.
"That's right. It's all thanks to my classmate, Sakayanagi Arisu. She's the daughter of Chairman Sakayanagi."
"Oh, that explains it." Once they heard the other class had a relative of the chairman in it—and his daughter, no less—a lot of things suddenly made sense.
"But, first-year, my tablet can do more than play music and movies. You can play games on it, too." The upperclassman kept trying to sell it. She figured that students like him weren't short on points; they just thought her price was too high.
Two thousand for a used tablet that was already a year old was definitely steep. She wouldn't have bought it herself, either. She'd rather get a new one.
"How about ten thousand?"
"Two thousand. Sakayanagi Arisu says we can only spend two thousand points a month." Yagami Shizuka slashed the price in one go.
"Two thousand? Are you serious, first-year?" They weren't just shocked by the price being slashed. They were even more surprised that he could only spend two thousand points a month.
They'd heard that the top classes were just as strict about points.
Some classes let their students spend points at all, which was already pretty good. Others even pooled all the points and didn't let the students spend a single one.
But two thousand was way too harsh. Sakayanagi Arisu was a real monster.
"If that doesn't work, forget it." Yagami Shizuka didn't think much of it. If the prompt had suggested that price, it must have been reasonable.
The upperclassmen were torn.
Without the money, their weekend outing would be off.
Besides, they'd been trying to sell the tablet for a while. None of the students in their year had wanted it at ten thousand, and first-years were loaded. They either bought something new or didn't buy anything at all.
In another month, the tablet would be worth even less, and they'd have an even harder time selling it.
"Come on, first-year. Can't you offer a little more?" the upperclassman pressed.
[Offer three thousand. Complete the transaction as soon as possible. Sakayanagi Arisu is searching for your location.]
"Three thousand," Yagami Shizuka offered again.
"Okay, okay. Thanks, first-year." They'd been haggling so hard that the extra thousand made them happy.
But when they saw the points displayed on Yagami Shizuka's phone, they were all stunned.
"Ninety-five thousand? You weren't planning to spend any of it?"
"Like I said, Sakayanagi Arisu keeps a tight rein on our points. I can't spend them." Yagami Shizuka transferred her three thousand points, picked up the tablet, and left.
"But there's no way Sakayanagi Arisu could've united your whole class right after enrollment, is there?"
"Yeah, exactly! It took our class more than a semester to unite. How could she possibly..."
They had no idea that Yagami Shizuka had simply made up that excuse.
But normally, it was perfectly reasonable for high schoolers to spend five thousand points when they first enrolled.
Besides, Yagami Shizuka didn't turn his nose up at free products.
He wasn't interested in competing with the children of the wealthy, and he wasn't especially picky about food, either.
"Don't rush off, first-year. How about giving me your number? I'll take you shopping tomorrow."
Yagami Shizuka ignored the annoying upperclassmen and soon made it to the dormitory building.
Since he'd taken the stairs, they had no idea what floor he lived on and didn't follow him any farther.
On a rooftop somewhere.
A large-aperture telescope, capable of up to 125x magnification, was trained on the first-year dormitory building.
"Yagami's gone back to his dorm," Kamuro Masumi reported. She adjusted the telescope and let out an impressed gasp. "Wow, that's amazing. Everything looks so clear."
Sakayanagi Arisu thought she was making a fuss over nothing and simply said, "German import."
Kamuro Masumi had no idea what those words were supposed to mean. Were German telescopes better, or was it just not a fake?
It was Kamuro Masumi's first time using such a high-tech piece of equipment, and she found it fascinating.
Meanwhile, Sakayanagi Arisu was holding a monocular telescope of her own. It only had 50x magnification.
For this distance, that was more than enough.
"Are we going to keep watching from here?" It hadn't taken long for Kamuro Masumi to get bored.
"Of course. When there are no cameras around, he's most likely to let his guard down. That's also when we have the best chance of finding a weakness."
< src="https://e1.kuangxiangit./uplos/chaptersnew/910/216974/260410/1775795560-100478924-114659056.jpg" alt='Arisu'>
"Ugh!" Kamuro Masumi sighed as if all the air had gone out of her. Somehow, she'd ended up roped into this.
"Why am I doing this? Why did you pick me?" she asked miserably.
Sakayanagi Arisu lowered her telescope and looked at her. "Please don't lose confidence in yourself. I've been observing you for some time.
This school would never admit a bunch of mediocrities, especially when you were placed directly in Class A.
If you have no talent for studying, then your talent lies elsewhere. And if you haven't discovered it yet, that means you haven't dug deep enough.
A capable leader should seek out her subordinates' talents, not sit around waiting for talented people to show up.
Congratulations, Kamuro. You've found yourself a good leader, because you've found me."
"Then what do you think my talent is?" Encouraged by the praise, Kamuro Masumi regained a little confidence.
She'd always thought she wasn't good for much, whether it was academics or anything else. She even felt she had plenty of flaws when it came to her character.
And yet somehow she'd made it into this school and caught the eye of Sakayanagi Arisu, the young lady of a prestigious family.
Maybe she really did have some hidden talent.
"I think you have the potential to be a paparazzo!"
Those words doused her in a thoroughly unwelcome bucket of cold water.
Before you continue