This Happened in the Very First Class? (Continued)

"Are there any discounted packages or anything? Like, 20% off if I take math, Chinese, and English together?"

"I can only tell you my own rates; I can't speak for the teachers. But if you're serious about it, you can discuss it with your homeroom teacher."

Tomoya Mashima replied. He felt like he couldn't quite figure out the boy in front of him.

"I understand. I'll ask Teacher Chabashira about it later. Teacher Mashima, do you have any other questions?"

"Me? No, I don't."

"Oh."

Keima Katsuragi gave a brief reply, then went right back to playing his game.

Tomoya Mashima gave Keima Katsuragi a thoughtful look.

This really was an unusual student.

He didn't dwell on Keima Katsuragi's behavior. Instead, he turned around and continued with his lesson.

Almost none of the other students in the class had noticed their conversation. They were completely absorbed in their own business.

A few, however, had caught every word and committed it to memory.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, for instance.

He rested his cheek on one hand and tilted his head slightly, looking distracted. In reality, he was quietly observing Keima Katsuragi.

Was Katsuragi deliberately using the teacher to confirm his theory?

Why had he chosen to bring it up during class? Did he have some purpose in mind?

Was he really only trying to play his game?

Ever since arriving at the school, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had been observing the students around him—

And Keima Katsuragi's behavior was clearly at odds with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's understanding of an "ordinary student."

Had he really gone to all this trouble just so he could play games?

Or...

Was Keima Katsuragi targeting him?

A few dozen minutes later, Tomoya Mashima's English lesson ended. He gathered his lesson materials, glanced back at Keima Katsuragi—who was still playing his game—and left the classroom.

"Look at this place. What have you done to the class atmosphere? Does this look like a top national high school?"

Suzune Horikita's gaze swept over the other students in the class, and she shook her head in displeasure.

She couldn't stand how laid-back everyone else was.

"What does that have to do with me?"

Keima Katsuragi spoke as he played his game.

"Even so, you set the example, didn't you?"

"We're all high school students. We decide for ourselves what we do. There's no such thing as setting an example."

"Be that as it may, you deliberately confirmed the information with the teacher just now, didn't you?"

Suzune Horikita frowned at Keima Katsuragi.

After hearing Tomoya Mashima's answer, she was now certain that Keima Katsuragi's earlier theory was correct.

"I just wanted to play my game without being interrupted."

Keima Katsuragi replied nonchalantly.

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps came from nearby. A few seconds later, Yosuke Hirata hurried over to Keima Katsuragi.

"Katsuragi, could you tell me what you meant in class when you were talking to Teacher Mashima about points affecting things?"

Yosuke Hirata was one of the few students in the class who was still paying attention to the lesson, so naturally, he had caught their conversation.

Yosuke Hirata had good grades and a sharp mind, but he had never given much thought to the school's rules.

Keima Katsuragi kept his eyes on his handheld console as he explained the theory he had come up with earlier.

Yosuke Hirata's face filled with shock as he listened.

"Th-There's really something like that..."

He thought back over the details since their arrival. There had indeed been a lot of things that seemed strange.

"And I suspect that each student's behavior affects more than just them personally. It might affect the entire class, lowering the points everyone receives."

"But Teacher Chabashira said earlier that the school would give everyone one hundred thousand points on the first of every month..."

Yosuke Hirata still found it hard to believe.

"No. Teacher Chabashira said the school would give everyone one hundred thousand points this month, and that points would be distributed on the first of every month after that. But she never said it would be one hundred thousand every month."

"But why would Teacher Chabashira do that? As our homeroom teacher, shouldn't she have told us everything on the first day?"

"Maybe it's part of the school's test."

The screen of Keima Katsuragi's handheld console reflected in his glasses as a series of options appeared. His fingers moved quickly, choosing the best one.

"It's like a game. If you lay every clue right in front of the player, it takes all the fun out of it. Isn't it more interesting to figure out how to beat it on your own?"

The CG for the perfect ending appeared on the screen.

"Awesome. I got this character to max affection, too. I've got three more routes left in this game."

Yosuke Hirata pressed his lips together, looking at Keima Katsuragi in surprise.

This was obviously important, but Keima Katsuragi didn't seem to care much at all.

He glanced at Suzune Horikita beside him. She was busy with her own work and seemed to have no intention of joining the conversation.

And she seemed completely unsurprised by Keima Katsuragi's reaction.

"Thank you so much, Katsuragi. This is really important!"

Yosuke Hirata quickly smiled and nodded at Keima Katsuragi, then hurried to warn the other students before the next class began, telling them to pay a little more attention to classroom discipline.

Some students thought he was meddling, while others found what he said baffling. A few, however, decided to listen to Yosuke Hirata.

Ten minutes later, the bell rang.

Homeroom teacher Sae Chabashira arrived almost at the same time.

Volume One, Chapter Twenty-Two: Beyond Expectations—The School's Truth Leaks Out Early

Sae Chabashira had just entered the classroom when she swept her gaze over the students.

The students seemed to be acting a little differently than before.

Yosuke Hirata's eyes quickly met Sae Chabashira's.

"Teacher Chabashira, there's something I'd like to ask you."

Yosuke Hirata looked serious, and his voice was somewhat urgent.

"Oh? Go ahead."

Sae Chabashira looked at Yosuke Hirata with interest.

"Teacher, will we receive one hundred thousand points every month from now on? Do our daily actions affect how many points we receive? Is the school always..."

Yosuke Hirata fired a string of questions at Sae Chabashira.

At his words, Sae Chabashira narrowed her eyes slightly, and the corners of her mouth curled upward.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

When Sae Chabashira had entered the classroom, she'd sensed a slight change in the class's atmosphere.

Yosuke Hirata then told her all the details Keima Katsuragi had shared with him earlier.

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

These students had given her quite a few surprises.

She had originally expected Class D to simply sink into ruin and lose all its Class Points—

The first "test" had already begun during the first month of school.

The teachers wouldn't interfere too much with the students, nor would they tell them the truth. Every action the students took would affect their "Class Points."

Class Points were, in other words, each class's score.

Class Points determined not only the rankings between classes, but also how many points each student received every month.

That was the truth behind the school's S-System.

Although every class started with the same number of points, Classes A, B, C, and D had already been sorted according to the students' overall abilities. Sae Chabashira had thought that, with things going this way, these students would reduce their Class Points to zero in less than half a month.

She hadn't expected someone in Class D to figure out the rules just a few days after the start of school.

Had Yosuke Hirata figured it out—

No. Yosuke Hirata was indeed an outstanding student, but Sae Chabashira didn't think he was the one who had discovered it.

Was it Ayanokoji Kiyotaka?

Or Keima Katsuragi?

Sae Chabashira looked toward the last row. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was resting his head on one hand, gazing out the window with an incredibly languid expression.

Keima Katsuragi was still just as before, completely absorbed in his game, as if the topic had nothing to do with him.

Sae Chabashira withdrew her gaze and looked again at Yosuke Hirata's anxious face.

Yosuke Hirata felt his heart racing. Deep down, he desperately hoped Keima Katsuragi's theory was wrong.

But Sae Chabashira's reply brought him crashing back to cold reality.

"You're right."

Sae Chabashira confirmed it.

She had originally thought these "defective products" wouldn't discover the school's rules until the first of next month, when they received no points.

Since the students had already begun to catch on, she decided to admit it outright.

Hearing Sae Chabashira's answer, Yosuke Hirata felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. Several students nearby also stared at the teacher in disbelief.

"W-What?"

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

"Then how many points will we get?"

Suzune Horikita folded her arms and furrowed her brow.

She had already heard all this from Keima Katsuragi and believed it was highly likely, but hearing Sae Chabashira confirm it still stirred something inside her.

This school... really wasn't simple.

"Why—why didn't you tell us sooner?!"

Haruki Yamauchi stared at the teacher in surprise.

"Tell you? Why would I tell you? Did you honestly think you could spend one hundred thousand points without limits every month? You'd know it was impossible if you bothered to think about it."

The smile vanished completely from Sae Chabashira's face, replaced by a cold expression.

A coldness like she was looking at garbage.

"Why didn't you notice the problem? I told you at the entrance ceremony, didn't I? This school upholds the principle of meritocracy. Those one hundred thousand points were the reward for the 'ability' you demonstrated when you enrolled. But now, with you all being so lazy, you're not worth that much anymore."

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

"This is the school's S-System. It evaluates students in real time and converts the results into points—that's what Class Points are. And you're doing pretty well, too. In just a few days, you've already lost quite a few Class Points, far more than the other classes. Each class started with one thousand points, and you've already lost three hundred in less than a week."

Suzune Horikita listened to the teacher and clenched her teeth.

A sense of frustration welled up inside her.

She turned her head and looked at Keima Katsuragi.

He still hadn't looked up.

Did none of this matter to him?