Classroom of the Elite, Keima Katsuragi's Love Brain Battle

"Is there any kind of discounted package available? Like, twenty percent off if I bundle Language, Math, and English?"

"I can only provide my own pricing; I cannot speak for the teachers. However, if you truly intend to pursue that, you are welcome to negotiate with your homeroom teacher."

Tomoya Mashima replied, feeling that he couldn't quite read the boy in front of him.

"I understand. I will go ask Chabashira-sensei later. Mashima-sensei, do you have any other questions?"

"Me? I have no further questions."

"Oh."

Keima Katsuragi responded simply, then immediately went back to playing his game.

Tomoya Mashima cast a thoughtful glance at Keima Katsuragi.

This was truly a peculiar student.

He didn't dwell on the boy's actions for long, instead turning around to continue with his lesson.

In the classroom, almost all the other students remained completely oblivious to the conversation, fully immersed in their own affairs.

Yet, a small minority had captured the entire exchange in their minds.

For instance, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

He rested his cheek on one hand, his head tilted slightly as if he were zoning out, but in reality, he was observing Keima Katsuragi with calm detachment.

Is Keima intentionally using the teacher to verify his own hypothesis?

Did he have a specific goal in choosing to say that right in the middle of class?

Is he really just doing this to play games?

Since entering the school, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had been observing every student—

And Keima Katsuragi's various behaviors were clearly and significantly different from what Ayanokoji Kiyotaka recognized as a "normal student."

Is he really going to such lengths purely for the sake of playing games?

Or could it be...

Is Keima Katsuragi targeting me?

Dozens of minutes later, Tomoya Mashima's English class concluded. He packed up his lesson plans, glanced back at Keima Katsuragi—who was still playing his game—and then left the classroom.

"Look at you, look at what you've turned the class atmosphere into. Does this look like a national-level elite high school to you?"

Suzune Horikita swept her gaze across the other students in the room, shaking her head with visible dissatisfaction.

She found it difficult to tolerate the lazy attitude of the others in the class.

"What does any of that have to do with me?"

Keima Katsuragi said, not looking up from his game.

"Regardless, you've certainly taken the lead in setting a bad example, haven't you?"

"We're high school students now. Everyone is responsible for their own actions; there's no such thing as 'taking the lead' here."

"That may be, but you were clearly trying to confirm your previous theory with the teacher just now."

Suzune Horikita frowned, looking at Keima Katsuragi.

Through the answer Tomoya Mashima had given earlier, she had also confirmed that Keima Katsuragi's previous speculation was correct.

"I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't be bothered while I'm playing my games."

Keima Katsuragi said dismissively.

Just then, a series of slightly hurried footsteps echoed nearby, and a few seconds later, Yosuke Hirata walked quickly up to Keima Katsuragi.

"Katsuragi-kun, may I ask what you meant earlier in class when you were talking to Mashima-sensei about points and their influence?"

Yosuke Hirata was one of the few students in the class who still paid attention during lessons, so he had naturally caught their conversation.

Yosuke Hirata possessed good grades and a sharp mind, but he had never delved deeply into the rules of the school.

Keima Katsuragi's gaze remained fixed on his handheld console as he explained his earlier hypothesis.

Upon hearing his words, a look of utter shock appeared on Yosuke Hirata's face:

"To think... to think such a thing could be true..."

He recalled various details since enrolling, and indeed, many things seemed quite strange.

"And I suspect that each student's behavior doesn't just affect the individual; it might impact the entire class, thereby reducing the points everyone receives."

"But Chabashira-sensei said that on the 1st of every month, the school would distribute 100,000 points..."

Yosuke Hirata still found it hard to believe.

"No, what Chabashira-sensei said was that for this month, all students would be given 100,000 points, and that points would be distributed regularly on the 1st of every month thereafter. She never said it would be 100,000 every single month."

"But why would Chabashira-sensei do that? As our homeroom teacher, shouldn't she have informed us of the best-case scenario on the very first day?"

"Perhaps that, too, is part of the school's test."

The reflection of the various options popping up on the handheld console screen danced across the lenses of Keima Katsuragi's glasses, his fingers moving rapidly to select the optimal path.

It's just like a game. If you lay all the clues directly in front of the player, the fun is greatly diminished. Isn't it most interesting to dig out the method to clear the stage yourself?

Immediately, the CG for achieving the perfect ending began to play on the screen.

"Fantastic. I've maxed out the affection level for this character too. Now, there are only three characters left in this game."

Yosuke Hirata pursed his lips, a look of surprise crossing his eyes as he looked at Keima Katsuragi.

This was clearly a matter of great importance, yet the other party seemed completely indifferent to it.

He looked toward Suzune Horikita nearby, but she was busy with her own affairs, seemingly having no intention of intervening in this conversation.

Moreover, she seemed unfazed by Keima Katsuragi's reaction?

"Thank you very much, Katsuragi-san. This is a very important matter!"

Yosuke Hirata quickly nodded at Keima Katsuragi with a smile, then immediately rushed to remind the other students in the class to pay a little more attention to classroom discipline before the next period began.

Although some felt he was being meddlesome and others found his words inexplicable, a portion of the class chose to heed Yosuke Hirata's words.

Ten minutes later, the bell for class rang.

Arriving almost simultaneously with the bell was the homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira.

Volume 1: Chapter 22: Beyond Expectations, the Premature Leak of the School's Truth

Sae Chabashira had just walked into the classroom, her gaze sweeping over the students.

The students' demeanor seemed somewhat different from before.

Yosuke Hirata's gaze quickly collided with Sae Chabashira's.

"Chabashira-sensei, I have a question I would like to ask you."

Yosuke Hirata's expression was serious, and his tone was somewhat hurried.

"Oh? Go ahead."

Sae Chabashira looked at Yosuke Hirata with interest.

"Sensei, may I ask if the points we receive each month will always be 100,000? Will our daily behavior affect the acquisition of points? Has the school been—"

Yosuke Hirata threw a series of questions at Sae Chabashira.

Upon hearing his words, Sae Chabashira narrowed her eyes slightly, the corners of her mouth curling into an arc:

"How did you arrive at this conclusion?"

Upon entering the classroom, Sae Chabashira had been able to sense that the atmosphere of the class had changed slightly.

Yosuke Hirata then recounted all the details that Keima Katsuragi had told him earlier.

The smile on Sae Chabashira's face seemed to become more pronounced.

These students had given her quite a few surprises.

She had originally thought that the entire Class D would just degenerate like this and have their Class Points completely deducted—

In the first month of school, a "test" had actually already begun.

The teachers would not intervene too much with the students, nor would they proactively inform them of the truth; every move the students made would affect their "Class Points."

Class Points, in other words, were the ratings for each class.

Class Points not only dictated the rankings between different classes but also influenced the number of points students received each month.

This was the truth of the S-System hidden within the school.

Although the initial points for each class were the same, the four classes—A, B, C, and D—were already a ranking and classification based on the students' comprehensive quality. Sae Chabashira believed that at this rate, these students would have brought their Class Points to zero in less than half a month.

She had not expected that within just a few days of school starting, someone in Class D would have already perceived this rule.

Was it Yosuke Hirata who discovered it—

No, Yosuke Hirata's comprehensive quality was indeed relatively excellent, but Sae Chabashira did not believe he was the one who discovered it.

Was it Ayanokoji Kiyotaka?

Or was it Keima Katsuragi?

Sae Chabashira cast her gaze toward the back row. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was simply propping his head up with his hand, looking out the window with an incredibly lazy gaze.

As for Keima Katsuragi, he remained as he was before, fully focused on his game, as if this topic had nothing to do with him.

Sae Chabashira withdrew her gaze and let it fall back onto Yosuke Hirata's face, which was filled with anxiety.

Yosuke Hirata felt his heart rate quicken, wishing deep down that Keima Katsuragi's conjecture was wrong.

However, the words Sae Chabashira spoke brought him back to the cold reality.

"You are correct."

Sae Chabashira provided her answer.

She had originally thought these "defective products" would only discover the school's rules when they received no points on the 1st of next month.

Since the students had already sensed it, she would simply admit it.

Upon hearing the words of Sae Chabashira, Yosuke Hirata felt as if he had been struck by lightning, while the students nearby also stared at their teacher in disbelief.

"W-what?"

"Does that mean... we won't be getting one hundred thousand points next month?"

"Then how much will we be getting?"

Suzune Horikita also crossed her arms, her brows furrowed tightly.

Although she had already heard about these matters from Keima Katsuragi and believed the possibility was extremely high, hearing the confirmation from the mouth of Sae Chabashira still caused a ripple of emotion to stir within her heart.

This school... was truly not simple.

"Why, why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

Haruki Yamauchi looked at the teacher with a face full of shock.

"Tell you? Why would I tell you? Did you students really naively think that you could spend one hundred thousand points every month without restriction? If you had used your brains even a little, you would have known that was impossible."

The smile vanished completely from the face of Sae Chabashira, replaced by a chilling coldness.

A coldness as if she were looking at trash.

"Why didn't you notice the problem? I said it during the entrance ceremony, didn't I? Our school upholds meritocracy. Those one hundred thousand points were the 'merit' awarded for your enrollment, but now, you lazy lot no longer possess that much value."

As Sae Chabashira spoke, she took out a marker and wrote a string of text on the classroom whiteboard.

"This is the school S-System, which evaluates students in real-time and converts it into a numerical value—this is Class Points. You lot are truly something else, though; in just a few short days, you have already had quite a few Class Points deducted, far exceeding the other classes. Every class starts with 1,000 points, and in less than a week, you have already lost 300 of them."

Listening to the teacher's words, Suzune Horikita could not help but bite her lip.

A feeling of frustration began to sprout from the bottom of her heart.

She turned her head to look at Keima Katsuragi.

He had not lifted his head once.

Were these things also of no consequence to him?