May 1, an exciting day.
The students in Classes A, B, and C already knew the hidden rules. As soon as they got up that morning, they all checked the personal points stored on their phones.
They confirmed that their points had increased, though the amount was a little off. Everyone let out a relieved sigh.
"Thank goodness our class bought the hidden rules from Class B. Otherwise, we wouldn't know how much spending money we'd have left this month."
"Exactly. Still, Class A only has 86,000 personal points this month. I wonder how many points Class B has."
"Our class bought the points from Class B at the beginning of the month, so there shouldn't have been many points to deduct."
"I think it's all because of Class C. Otherwise, we should've had a few more points this month."
Listening to the girls from the other classes chat in pairs and threes inside the elevator, Kikyou Kushida glanced at her phone. Her personal points hadn't increased at all, and she couldn't help feeling uneasy.
What exactly were the hidden rules?
Why had she never heard of them? Even her friends in other classes hadn't told her anything.
A troubling premonition stirred within her. The moment the elevator doors opened, she hurried out of the dormitory and headed for Class D's classroom.
Already in the classroom, Ryuen Kakeru pulled out his phone and checked his remaining points.
"I got 78,000 personal points. More than I expected, but I'm not complaining."
He put his phone away. Now the ruler of Class C, Ryuen sat quietly at his desk, waiting for his classmates to arrive.
After all, it was almost time to collect protection money.
Class B's classroom
Everyone was celebrating. Ichinose, who had arrived early, joined them in sharing the joy of this far-too-easy windfall.
"98,000 personal points. That means our class has 980 Class Points this month."
"Hey, Ichinose, can we collect the points a little later today? I want to savor this hard-won gain."
"Sure~" Ichinose replied with a smile.
"But it's unusual for Yuki Gyakukai and Tomie to be this late. They're still not here. Do you think maybe..."
"Take this!" Yuki Gyakukai had suddenly appeared in the classroom. He quietly crept up behind Himeno Yuki and gave the well-behaved girl a chop to the head.
Feeling something coming, Himeno instinctively tried to dodge.
Thwack!
A sharp sound rang out. In the end, she didn't manage to get away. Wincing in pain, Himeno clutched her head with both hands and crouched down.
"Himeno, you're still as troublesome as ever."
"Yuki, you shouldn't pick on Himeno. She's not very strong to begin with."
Ichinose sighed and helped Himeno, who was crouched on the floor with her head in her hands, back to her feet.
In the end, the one who rescued Himeno was the fragile-girl persona she had cultivated in front of everyone all along.
"Fine. I'll let her off as usual this time. I'll get her next time."
Himeno had flopped back onto her desk. Shielding her head with both hands, she turned her face to the side and glared at Yuki Gyakukai nearby.
She bit her lip in frustration, cheeks puffed out. "You jerk. When did you even get here? And you didn't have to hit me so hard."
Honestly, Himeno had no idea how many times she'd been chopped on the head since the start of the school year. All she knew was that it had happened a lot.
And it had always been the same person.
She'd put on a fragile-girl persona precisely so she wouldn't get picked on like this.
The problem was, that persona had been completely exposed.
Even now, she couldn't understand why she'd locked eyes with Yuki Gyakukai when he happened to pass by the karaoke room she was in.
Whenever she thought of how she usually acted all delicate, then remembered herself singing wild songs that were completely at odds with her image, she still felt mortified.
Fortunately, as Himeno lay on her desk, lost in thought, her savior arrived: Teacher Hoshinomiya.
Hoshinomiya strode into the classroom in high spirits and called for the students to sit down, as though she were talking to little kids.
"Good morning, everyone! I was really amazed by how you all did last month. I hope you keep up the good work."
"First of all, you already know the rules, so I won't repeat them. Let's start by going over your Class Points for this month."
Hoshinomiya picked up a piece of chalk and cheerfully wrote the first-year classes' Class Points on the blackboard.
Class A: 860
Class B: 980
Class C: 780
Class D: 0
The students had no objections to the points for Classes A, B, and C.
After all, those three classes knew about the hidden rules. As for why Classes A and C had so few points...
It was simply because both classes had broken a lot of rules during a certain period.
But it seemed that Class D's result had taken everyone completely by surprise.
"Zero points!?"
"Incredible. What on earth were the students in Class D doing to lose that many points?"
"..."
Class D
Sae Chabashira's face was dark, her icy gaze shrouded in frost.
The ominous feeling made the students, who were already anxious because they hadn't received any points at the start of the month, even more uneasy.
"Teacher, why haven't we received our 100,000 points this month?"
Her icy gaze flicked toward Ike, who was cowering. "The school has checked the figures. Your points have already been issued this month."
"But we haven't gotten any..."
"Hah! You really are a bunch of hopeless idiots."
Was she mocking them, angry, or something else?
It was hard to tell.
Chabashira didn't answer Class D's stupid questions again. Instead, she went straight to the blackboard and wrote down the Class Points for all four classes.
"I'd had some hopes for you, but you've really opened my eyes, you defective products!"
"You're the first class in the school's history to reduce your Class Points to zero in your very first month. I have to say, I'm stunned."
"..."
After a long while, Chabashira walked out of the classroom,
ignoring the idiots who were wailing over their class's points dropping to zero or blaming one another because their failing grades meant they were about to be expelled.
Class B
Hoshinomiya announced everyone's results, looking thrilled.
"Everyone did pretty well. You don't need to worry about being expelled."
"Huh? You can get expelled for failing?"
Seeing the look of shock on Chihiro Shiramami's face in the front row, Hoshinomiya smiled and nodded.
"That's right. So next time, Shiramami, make sure you study hard. Your teacher would be very sad if you were expelled for failing."
"Mm-hm, I'll do my best."
That was what she said, but every one of Shiramami's subject grades was over 50. She didn't look like someone in danger of being expelled at all.
It was worth mentioning that the passing grades for Class B's subjects were all between 38 and 42.
It was surprising, but largely because many of the exam questions were taken from junior high school tests, which were quite easy.
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