The remaining time was set aside for activities and getting familiar with the school. Beihai got up and left his seat. He needed to buy some study materials, and his decision turned out to be the right one.
Otherwise, Beihai glanced at the black-haired girl sitting nearby. She had already been cornered by Kikyo Kushida.
Kikyo Kushida claimed she wanted to be friends with everyone, so naturally, Beihai had added her as a friend.
After Kikyo Kushida added Beihai as a friend, she showed the same attitude she had during the class lineup and stopped bothering him. The black-haired girl, however, was different. She'd not only refused outright but also made a few biting remarks, making her quite sharp-tongued.
So, well, being antisocial could also draw attention. Only being thoroughly ordinary let you truly blend into the crowd.
When Beihai arrived at the school store, he was surprised to find that some items were free, though each person could only take three per month.
He checked the dates on the products. None were close to expiring, which made things rather suspicious. When supermarkets held clearance sales, even items nearing their expiration dates were merely marked down to very low prices.
It was like cakes in a bakery. Their prices dropped in the afternoon, but giving them away completely free when they weren't close to expiring was simply impossible. Who would sell at a loss?
All he could say was that these points would really be insufficient later on, or that they might be reset to zero for some reason, forcing the students to get by on free items.
Although he didn't know how to accumulate points yet, this was his living allowance, so he needed to find a way to save some.
In the end, Beihai silently packed up a set of free items. He went to the school dormitory. He had to admit, the school was huge—almost like an artificial island.
There was only one dormitory building, and it was rather luxurious, even equipped with elevators. The girls' dorms were upstairs and the boys' dorms downstairs. Nothing strange about that; it was perfectly normal.
At least Beihai didn't dwell on why it had been designed that way. He reached his room and found it quite nice. It was a single room, and he hadn't expected it to be so well-equipped.
He'd thought he might have a roommate, or that eight people would share a room—four at the very least. This also saved him the trouble of getting to know any roommates.
Beihai put away the things he'd bought and headed back to the classroom.
There were still a few students in the classroom. Beihai ran into them but said nothing, simply taking the workbooks and textbooks from his desk so he could study in the dorm.
He encountered no obstacles along the way. After all, it was only the first day, and everyone had just met. They all had their own little circles.
Beihai's circle was even smaller, and he was extremely introverted. At least it was energy-efficient and convenient.
Everything was going smoothly—but when nothing went wrong, something was bound to.
On his way back to the dorm, he happened to see older students bullying a younger one. Three of them were picking on a redhead from Class D. If he remembered correctly, the guy was called Ken Sudō.
The three older students looked incredibly arrogant.
"Hey, you're one of the new first-years, right? You're in Class D too, aren't you?"
Ken Sudō was clearly provoked. He roared, "So what if I am? You want to fight me?
"Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're upperclassmen. I'm not afraid of you."
"Hey, hey, I don't want to fight you. You're nothing but defective goods, so you'd better enjoy yourself while you can. You'll be falling from heaven straight into hell before long."
After saying their piece, the three walked away without any intention of starting a fight. Their words only made the redhead angrier; he kicked over the trash can beside him.
Strangely, the store clerk didn't stop him or even pay him any attention. Beihai pushed up his glasses and witnessed the whole thing.
As he watched the three walk away, he thought, This has all the right ingredients. The older students clearly know a lot, and there are three of them—men who can't keep their mouths shut.
Looking at the practice problems in his hand, Beihai took his Terminal out of his pocket and checked it. He installed a recording app, turned around, and headed for the restroom.
He went into the men's restroom and closed the door without locking it. Then he lowered the toilet lid, sat down, took out some practice problems, and placed his Terminal beside him, ready to start recording at any moment.
Beihai needed to wait a while, but he hadn't expected it to take long.
The three of them came in together. As everyone knew, there was an old saying: if three men went into a restroom together, how could they possibly have nothing to talk about?
Especially when the topic of the day was so popular.
Even though the school had lots of surveillance cameras—even if it had cameras everywhere, just like other schools—the men's restroom was a private place.
Smoking, bragging, and watching other people use the toilet were all common there. That was especially true when three men were together. Those three, in particular, had no control over their mouths.
If they'd been able to keep a secret, they wouldn't have called Ken Sudō "defective goods" while mocking him.
"Hey, how many Class Points do you think Class D's new students will have left after this month?"
"Hmph, why bother guessing? They're defective goods, and that guy's got no idea how high the sky is. I bet they won't have more than 200. Defective goods are defective goods. It's always been that way."
"Exactly. I can't wait to see their faces next month. They've probably already had a hundred points deducted."
The three took turns talking, never suspecting there was anyone else in the restroom. They spilled every last detail about the school.
There was class competition, and a Special Exam every month. This month's was the Behavioral Norms Exam, and the ratio between Personal Points and Class Points was 10:1.
They mercilessly mocked the lower-ranked classes while proudly boasting about their own.
The reason for their arrogance was that they'd originally been in Class B but had overtaken Class A, which was why they were so cocky. When they saw the new students, especially those from Class D, they naturally couldn't resist rubbing it in. They were positively delighted with themselves.
They were so pleased with life that they couldn't feel at ease without spilling all this information.
The three chatted some more about which girl in their class was the prettiest, then finally left the restroom.
After they were gone, Beihai came out of the stall behind them and turned off the recording on his Terminal. Wasn't the school supposed to forbid anyone from telling the new students all this?
Beihai shut off his Terminal and felt like he'd cleared a stage. It wasn't as complicated as he'd imagined; there was no need to be paranoid or go through all kinds of trouble. He'd just heard the news in the restroom, that was all. Three men together, and one big mouth.
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