Three's a Crowd, and a Big Mouth

The remaining time was for activities and familiarizing himself with the school environment. Beihai rose from his seat and left; he needed to purchase some study materials. In this process, his decision was correct.

Otherwise, Beihai glanced at the girl with long, straight black hair beside him—she had already been cornered by Kikyo Kushida.

Kikyo Kushida claimed she wanted to be friends with everyone, and Beihai naturally added her as a contact.

After adding Beihai as a friend, Kushida, having also shown her stance during the group formation, stopped bothering him. But that black-haired girl was different—she not only refused outright but even threw out a few inexplicable taunts, rather sharp-tongued, one might say.

So, being aloof also draws attention; only being utterly ordinary truly lets you blend into the crowd.

Arriving at the school supermarket, Beihai was surprised to find free goods available there, though limited to three items per month.

He checked the dates on the items—none were near expiration. That was troublesome. When supermarkets have clearance sales, even near-expiry goods are just marked down to low prices.

Like the cakes in a bakery—prices drop in the afternoon. But completely free and not near expiration? That was impossible. Who would do business at a loss?

The only explanation was that points would eventually become insufficient, or for some reason drop to zero, forcing them to rely on free goods to survive.

Though he didn't know how points were accumulated, this was his living allowance—he'd have to find a way to save some.

In the end, Beihai silently packed one set of free goods and headed to the school dormitory building. He had to admit, the school was enormous—almost like a man-made island.

The dormitory was a single building, quite luxurious with an elevator. The upper floors were for female students, the lower for male students. Nothing unusual about that.

At least Beihai didn't dwell on the reasoning behind the design. He arrived at his assigned room—a single, surprisingly well-equipped.

He'd expected a roommate, or eight people sharing a room, or at least four. This spared him the trouble of getting to know a roommate.

Beihai put away his purchases and returned to the classroom.

There were still some students in the classroom. Beihai encountered them but said nothing, simply taking the workbooks and textbooks from his desk to bring back to the dorm for serious study.

He met no obstacles along the way. After all, it was only the first day—everyone had their own small circles.

Beihai's circle was even smaller, and very introverted at that. Energy-efficient and convenient, one might say.

But everything was going smoothly. Of course, when things go smoothly, trouble is bound to arise.

On his way back to the dorm, he happened to see upperclassmen bullying underclassmen. Three of them were ganging up on the red-haired kid from Class D. If he remembered correctly, that guy was called Kento Sudo.

At that moment, the three of them wore expressions of utter arrogance.

"Hey, you're one of the new freshmen, right? Class D, am I right?"

Sudo was clearly provoked, roaring back: "So what? You want to fight me?"

"Don't think just because you're upperclassmen you can do whatever you want. I'm not scared."

"Hey hey, I don't want to fight you. You defective product—just enjoy it while you can. You're about to fall from heaven to hell."

The three said this arrogantly, with no intention of starting a fight, and turned to leave. This only made the redhead kick over a nearby trash can in anger.

Strangely, the store clerk didn't stop him, didn't even acknowledge it. Beihai pushed up his glasses, having witnessed the whole scene.

Watching the three retreating figures, all the pieces were there. The upperclassmen clearly knew a lot, and with three of them together, they couldn't keep their mouths shut.

Beihai looked at the practice problems in his hand, pulled out his terminal from his pocket, set up a recording app, and changed direction toward the restroom.

Entering the men's room, he closed the door but didn't lock it. Then he put down the toilet lid, sat on it, took out some practice problems, and placed the terminal beside him, ready to start recording at any moment.

Beihai expected to wait a while, but it didn't take long.

The trio walked in. As everyone knows, there's always that urban legend—three men in a restroom can't help but talk about something. It's practically impossible.

Especially about the hottest topics lately.

Even though the school had many cameras, even if it was covered in cameras like any other school, the men's restroom was a private place.

Smoking, bragging, watching others use the facilities—it was all common. Especially with a trio, and especially when those three had no filter.

If they had any filter, they wouldn't have called Sudo a "defective product" when taunting him.

"Hey, how many class points do you think the new Class D freshmen will have left after this month?"

"Hmph, what's there to guess? With them being defective products and that guy's clueless attitude, I doubt it'll be over 200. Defective products are defective products—it's always been like this."

"Exactly. I can't wait to see their faces next month. They've probably already lost 100 points by now."

The three chatted back and forth, completely oblivious to anyone else in the restroom, spilling all the school's secrets.

Class competition, a Special Exam every month—this month it was the Behavioral Norms Exam. Personal Points to Class Points ratio was 10:1.

Not only did they mercilessly mock the lower-ranked classes, they were also insufferably proud of their own class.

The reason for their arrogance was that they had originally been in Class B but had overtaken Class A. That's why they were so cocky. Seeing new students, especially from Class D, they naturally rubbed it in, unable to contain their smugness.

Life was so good—if they didn't blurt all this out, they'd feel uncomfortable.

The three then chatted about which girl in their class was pretty, and finally left the restroom.

After they left, Beihai stepped out from the stall at the back and stopped the recording on his terminal. The school didn't allow anyone to reveal this information to the new students, did they?

Beihai turned off his terminal, feeling like he'd cleared the stage. No paranoia, no complicated maneuvers—just overheard this information in the restroom, that was all. Three men together always have a big mouth.