Strength Above All

"What you're saying is ridiculous. Do I really need to remind you of something like that?"

"Following classroom discipline during lessons is the most basic thing you should do as students! I refuse to believe your previous teachers never taught you that!"

"And when you enter society, do you think someone will tell you the contents of a performance review? How foolish!"

Teacher Chazhu's words left everyone speechless.

Still, from this speech, it was clear: this school was deliberately imitating society.

Just as Mu Tianchen had guessed before.

"And do you really think this school would hand out 100,000 points every month to a bunch of trash like you? Even if they did, it would only be to classes that actually have ability!"

"I've said it since the start of the semester! This school advocates meritocracy, and you lot are the garbage rated as zero by the school!"

"I have to admire you, honestly. Managing to drain your class points to zero in the very first month—this is the worst batch I've ever had in all my years!"

Even though Teacher Chazhu's tone was severe, Mu Tianchen couldn't help but find the "worst batch" line a bit funny. Back when he was in school in China, his homeroom teacher used to say the same thing about them.

"Teacher, could you at least tell us the specific rules for how points increase or decrease? If we encounter them again, we'll be careful."

Hirata stood up and asked again. Mu Tianchen had to admire his persistence, even though Teacher Chazhu most likely wouldn't tell him.

"Hirata, I already said it—don't make me repeat myself! You have to figure out these rules on your own. I have nothing to say!"

As expected...

Hirata sat back down reluctantly, and the atmosphere in the class grew even heavier.

Teacher Chazhu scanned the room, and seeing their expressions, slowly curled her lips:

"Since you're all in such a pitiful state, I'll give you some good news. Even if your points are zero, improving classroom discipline won't change anything—the points deposited next month will still be zero."

"But on the flip side, no matter how much you break the rules, you can't lose any more points. How about that? You can keep slacking off just like last month. Isn't that great?"

"This..."

Hirata's expression darkened further. It seemed he realized Teacher Chazhu's "good news" wasn't good at all.

This kind of statement only made the students lose hope of rising, and weakened their motivation to improve classroom discipline.

Mu Tianchen was even more impressed. This Teacher Chazhu was far too malicious for a teacher—or was she doing this on purpose?

Deliberately leaking the fact that zero points couldn't go lower, so they could exploit it to harass other classes and gradually close the gap.

It was a good strategy in theory, but practically very hard to pull off. It required mobilizing a lot of effort and class cooperation.

In Class D, the most influential people were Hirata and Kushida. They wouldn't rally the class to do something like that—they weren't the type, unlike Ryuen.

"Alright, enough chit-chat. Let's start the main topic of today's homeroom."

Teacher Chazhu pulled out a thick poster paper, spread it open, and stuck it on the blackboard. The students' eyes locked onto it.

Mu Tianchen looked as well. On the paper, the four classes—A, B, C, D—were listed in order, with numbers next to them:

Class A: 940

Class B: 650

Class C: 490

Class D: 0

This must be each class's score.

Based on the 65,000 personal points Shibata had received earlier, the conversion ratio between personal points and class points was 1:100.

So, since each class started with 100,000 points at the beginning of the semester, the initial class points were all 1,000.

But in just one month, the gap had grown this wide?

Especially Class A—they'd only lost 60 points. He'd definitely have to investigate Class A sometime.

"Teacher... why is the gap so big?"

Hirata noticed the disparity and asked Teacher Chazhu.

"Simple. The school divides classes based on student excellence. The best students go to Class A, and you were placed in Class D because the school judged you as the worst from the start!"

Hearing this, most of the students' faces changed. They couldn't believe they'd been rated the worst—especially those who thought they were decent.

"If class points stay at zero, will we always have zero income?" Yamauchi asked. He didn't care about being rated worst; he only cared about the points.

"Of course. But don't worry—the school has already prepared countermeasures for this situation. You've noticed the free items in the cafeteria and convenience stores, right?"

"Make good use of those from now on. You won't starve!"

Mu Tianchen had already noticed that. But the students used to a luxurious life would have a hard time adjusting, even if the free meals weren't bad.

"So we're just going to be looked down on by the other classes forever?" Sudo finally understood why the upperclassmen had looked down on them when they reported to Class D.

He slammed his foot against the desk with a bang, probably venting his frustration.

"Oh, Sudo, so you do care about face after all. Then work hard to move your class up."

Hearing Teacher Chazhu's words, Hirata seemed to regain some confidence:

"Teacher, can we... still move up? Please tell us how."

Teacher Chazhu glanced at Hirata, then extended her arm to point at the poster paper on the blackboard.

"Class points aren't just tied to personal points—they also reflect the class's rank. The highest points earn Class A. To put it simply, if your class points exceed Class C's 490, you'll become Class C, and Class C will drop to Class D."

After saying this, she turned her head and flashed a malicious smile.

"Let me tell you one more thing. The one hundred percent employment rate, the freedom to choose any job or further education you want—that only applies to Class A."

This... although Mu Tianchen had already suspected from the start that this school wouldn't be as absurd as its advertising claimed.

But wasn't this outright fraud?! What about the students who weren't in Class A—they just didn't matter?

Sure enough, this statement immediately stirred up an uproar among the students. Most of them probably didn't want to admit they'd been deceived.

Just then, the bell for the end of class suddenly rang.

However, Teacher Chazhu showed no sign of leaving.

Slowly, she pulled another poster paper from her hand...