Morning reading had ended, and there were about twenty minutes left before class.
Amid the rather relaxed atmosphere among most of his classmates, Kitagawa Kai stood up and walked steadily to the lectern.
"Good morning, everyone." His voice was not loud, but it carried clearly to every corner. "I'd like to take up a little of your time."
The classroom quickly fell silent, and every gaze focused on him.
"I'd like to share a few things I've observed over the past few days." Kitagawa Kai got straight to the point. "First, I believe the monthly points the school promised us definitely won't remain fixed at one hundred thousand."
He paused briefly, sweeping his gaze over the students below. Some began to look serious.
"I wonder if you've noticed that the supermarket downstairs in the dormitory building has a designated counter where you can pick up daily necessities for free."
"Also, besides its paid counters, the cafeteria has a counter serving free meals."
"I specifically went to look at the food there. It was thoroughly unappetizing. Even so, quite a few upperclassmen still lined up at that counter during mealtimes."
At this point, he deliberately paused for a moment, giving everyone time to think and make connections.
"That's strange, isn't it?"
"If the school gives us one hundred thousand points every month, enough for everyone to live quite comfortably on campus, why would it go to the extra trouble of providing so many things for free?"
"And upperclassmen who already have large amounts of points wouldn't eat food that tastes bad."
Among the Class B students below, some frowned, their fingers tapping unconsciously against their desks.
Some quietly exchanged glances with the classmates beside them, showing surprise and contemplation.
Others sat up straight, their eyes fixed on Kitagawa Kai, clearly drawn in by his analysis.
"That's not all." Kitagawa Kai's voice rang out again, drawing everyone's attention back. "With that question in mind, I also made a special trip to the upperclassmen's classroom area to do a little extra investigating."
He took out the Universal Video Recorder and connected it to the projector on the lectern.
The screen lit up, clearly displaying several photographs of the blackboards in the upperclassmen's classrooms.
The blackboards listed figures labeled "Class Points."
"I took pictures of this." Kitagawa Kai pointed at the screen. "As you can see, these are Class Points. Class A and Class B are far ahead in Class Points, both exceeding 1,000."
"Meanwhile, Class C and Class D only have three or four hundred. The gap is very clear."
The contrast between the numbers in the photographs was stark and glaring.
"So here's the question." Kitagawa Kai looked around at everyone and posed the crucial question.
"These are all upper-year classes that have spent some time studying and living here, and logically, they should have started from the same point. Why is there such a vast difference in their points now?"
Without needing an immediate answer from them, he offered his own inference. "I think the most reasonable explanation is that there is fierce competition between classes, and the results of that competition directly determine increases and decreases in Class Points."
He raised his voice slightly, making his conclusion clearer. "Then can we deduce that the Personal Points each of us actually receives every month are very likely directly tied to these Class Points?"
Some of the students below had already begun nodding, their brows tightly furrowed.
"Now, let's factor in the initial one hundred thousand points each of us received upon enrollment."
"We can make a preliminary calculation: suppose every class starts with the same baseline number of Class Points, say, 1,000. The one hundred thousand Personal Points we received may very well have come from multiplying those 1,000 Class Points by 100."
"If that hypothesis holds, everything makes sense." Kitagawa Kai's voice grew increasingly assured.
"Members of classes with high Class Points receive more Personal Points each month, naturally allowing them to live comfortably. Meanwhile, members of classes that fall far behind in Class Points will see their Personal Points shrink drastically, possibly leaving them without enough to cover even basic living expenses."
"That perfectly explains why the school set up free daily necessities counters and that cafeteria counter with its bad-tasting free food."
"Those aren't perks. They're the most basic means of survival provided to classes whose Class Points are too low and whose members' Personal Points might drop to zero."
His deductions were tightly reasoned, each building upon the last.
Hoshinomiya Chie, who had appeared at the classroom doorway at some point, could not have been more pleased.
She studied Kitagawa Kai carefully.
This Kitagawa Kai seemed like an entirely different person from the admissions file on her desk, with its straight Cs and bland comments.
Yet Kitagawa Kai continued speaking.
"What's more, everyone, based on my observations, there may very well be an even harsher reality at this school."
His gaze swept across every face below. His tone was steady, but every word was clear. "There may very well be students expelled from our class."
Expelled?
Many students abruptly raised their heads, disbelief written all over their faces.
"Kitagawa!"
Ichinose Honami stood up almost instinctively, her eyes fixed on Kitagawa Kai at the lectern.
"Please wait!" Her voice rose slightly with urgency. "You said students would be expelled from our class... that's no small matter. Do you have any concrete evidence? We can't reach a conclusion like that based on speculation alone."
Ichinose Honami wholeheartedly wanted to protect this newly formed class. She would never allow anyone to fall behind, and she found the possibility of expulsion even harder to accept.
In her ideal vision, Class B would be a group that moved forward together, with everyone doing well and making it to graduation together.
"Ichinose, please be patient. This isn't groundless speculation. While observing the upper-year Class C and Class D classrooms, I noticed a detail many people overlook: the number of empty desks and chairs."
"Normally, each class has forty students. Even if students occasionally take temporary absences for personal reasons or illness, there shouldn't be any significant difference in the number of empty seats between classes, much less seats that remain empty over the long term."
"But in reality, the higher the year, the more empty desks and chairs there are in Class C and Class D, and the number of missing students far exceeds the normal range."
The classroom was frighteningly quiet.
Ichinose froze as well, looking somewhat dejected.
"At this school, accommodation is free, the living conditions are excellent, and there's even the promise that comes with graduation." Kitagawa Kai posed a pointed question. "Under these conditions, how likely is anyone to withdraw voluntarily? The chances are negligible. So where did the original occupants of all those extra empty chairs go?"
He no longer needed to state the answer. Everyone realized it.
There was no other explanation besides expulsion.
The satisfied smile on Hoshinomiya Chie's face deepened, even taking on a hint of amazement.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, you said there's nothing at this school that points can't buy, right? Then how many points does it take to cancel an expulsion?"
Every student, including Ichinose Honami, who was still immersed in her dejection, abruptly looked up.