Can You Buy One Rule for 500,000 Points?

"Trade? Can I trade myself over?"

"Don't believe her. She's just after your body. And if she wants to make a trade, she should pick me."

"..."

"I'm genuinely jealous, Yuki. When will I be as popular as you?"

"Stop messing around, Shibata."

"Hi!"

Just then, the two homeroom teachers who had been standing in the doorway entered the classroom.

Teachers naturally held a certain authority over their students. The classroom, which had been noisy moments ago, fell silent in an instant, an invisible pressure filling the room.

"Everyone, I'm Yuki Gyakukai, the leader of Class 1-B. I'm formally submitting a trade offer to everyone in Class A."

Whispers broke out in the once-again silent classroom. The students were a little confused by the word "leader."

"Doesn't this school not have a class representative position?"

"Leader... Interesting."

"So what does that mean? I had a feeling they were up to no good from the moment they walked in."

Yuki Gyakukai narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at everyone with a smile.

"It means exactly what it says. I've already brought all of Class B together."

Suddenly, a large student with a stern expression and no hair stood up.

"I'm Kouhei Katsuragi. Could you explain specifically what you mean by 'trade' and 'class leader,' Gyakukai?"

He was practically Class A's spokesperson, and he'd asked exactly the right question.

"Surely none of you think the school will really let you spend these three years without paying tuition, then graduate and choose any career you want?"

"And on top of that, it gives you 100,000 points every month to spend freely. Do you really think you're worth that much?"

Everyone fell silent, deep in thought. They were ordinary people, after all, and had been suspicious of this ever since enrolling or learning about the school.

After all, 100,000 points a month was an absurd amount.

With four classes in each of the three grades, the government's support for this school must have been staggering.

They had considered the possibility, of course, but their homeroom teacher hadn't explained the rules yesterday.

"Here's a hint: this school has hidden rules. The upper grades aren't at full capacity; every class is missing some students. The school provides free food and daily necessities every month..."

"Understand?"

Yuki Gyakukai still wore his easy smile.

The Class A homeroom teacher standing in the doorway narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced at Hoshinomiya beside him.

"Hoshinomiya, you didn't reveal any of that, did you?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm the most rule-abiding person there is. He'd already figured it out while I was going over the student handbook yesterday."

"If that's true, maybe this year's first-years will end up repeating what happened with the second-years. We might have another Nagumo on our hands."

No way. I'm not like that.

"Gyakukai, I'm Sakayanagi Arisu of Class 1-A. Just out of curiosity, how many of the hidden rules have you figured out so far?"

Down below, the petite Sakayanagi Arisu, who was barely taller than a little girl, slowly rose to her feet, leaning on her cane. She had snow-white hair, though it was firmly pressed down by the beret on her head.

Her face was pale, and the veins in her arms and at her temples stood out. Yet despite her frail body, she continued to smile warmly at Yuki Gyakukai on the platform.

"More than you'd expect. But it depends on how many points your class is willing to spend to buy these hidden rules."

Sakayanagi Arisu didn't get a clear answer, but she didn't take offense. Still smiling, she continued:

"So how will the trade work? Can you give us a clear price?"

"500,000 points per hidden rule."

When he named the price, quite a few people in Class A gasped. At 500,000 points per hidden rule, five people would have to spend all their points just to buy one.

So far, they had no idea whether these rules would benefit them. All they could think was that it was too expensive.

Some even started trying to guess what these so-called hidden rules were.

"No, 500,000 points for one hidden rule is too much. Even if no one in our class has spent a single point since yesterday,

we'd only have four million points. That means even if we spend every last point, we can only buy eight hidden rules..."

Even the Class B students behind him couldn't help feeling that 500,000 points for each hidden rule was a bit much.

Yuki Gyakukai simply waved his hand, signaling Kouhei Katsuragi to stop talking.

"500,000 points per hidden rule is just my highest asking price. You can negotiate. As long as your offer doesn't fall below my minimum expectation, I'll accept it. But..."

Yuki Gyakukai paused, slowly sweeping his gaze over the people in the classroom.

Masumi Kamuro, sitting at her desk, glared at him through gritted teeth. Judging by her expression, she looked ready to charge over and kill him at any second.

Meanwhile, that somewhat familiar girl, Kamito, was sitting at her desk with stars in her eyes, staring straight at him.

"Are all of you in Class A willing to buy the hidden rules?"

No one answered. It was impossible to tell what they were thinking.

"I won't ask anything else. Every one of you in Class A has the right to choose.

Write down how many points you're willing to pay on a piece of paper. We'll set the price based on the average, but make sure it doesn't fall below my minimum expectation."

Everyone in Class A began to think it over. Since this concerned the interests of the whole class, they had to take it seriously.

Buying the rules was obviously important.

The upper limit was already fixed, but there was room on the lower end. So, to make sure the offer didn't fall below expectations, they started watching one another, trying to figure out what everyone else was thinking.

They had to make sure the class benefited. Even in the worst-case scenario, they couldn't let the class suffer a loss.

They thought this way simply because they didn't know what the hidden rules were.

"Just a reminder, everyone in Class A, time's running out~" Yuki Gyakukai smiled as he showed them the time on his phone.

In an instant, most of them drew a blank. Their thoughts were thrown into disarray, and a sense of urgency seized the room.

"I'm done, Yuki."

The tiny Ai Morishita left her seat and trotted up to the podium.

"Kamito, we're not that close yet, are we? Is it okay to call me by my name already?" He took the note she handed him and gave her little head an exasperated tap.

"Ow!" Ai Morishita's naturally blank expression crumpled into a bitter frown.

With the first person having stepped forward, everyone else quickly finished writing their offers and handed them in at the podium.