Early the next morning, in his dorm room, Qiuyue Qi opened the suitcase he had prepared in advance. Inside were two pinhole cameras, two bugs, four voice recorders, and a voice changer, all of which he had managed to get back when he was a hacker.
"Ah, what a shame. I couldn't get pinhole cameras with audio. Without sound, they're kind of hard to work with."
"Yesterday, I left early and went to the Judo Club. After that, I walked all around the school and made a note of where the cameras were."
"Too bad I can't avoid all the cameras. I'll have to make a trip outside."
Qiuyue Qi put a few things in his backpack, left the dorm, and went to a coffee shop. He went to the restroom, took a hat and mask from his backpack, changed his clothes, and climbed out through the window.
"There aren't any cameras around here. Next, I need to go to the Special Building," Qiuyue Qi muttered to himself.
After finishing everything, Qiuyue Qi changed back into his uniform and sat in the coffee shop, drinking coffee. Next up was the entrance ceremony.
"I am Horikita Manabu, the Student Council President."
"The Student Council will be recruiting candidates from the first-year students, as the older students graduate this time. There are no special requirements for candidates, but anyone considering running for the Student Council should avoid joining other clubs. In principle, those who wish to join both the Student Council and another club will not be accepted."
His tone was gentle, yet it filled the air with a tension that seemed to prick at the skin. Alone, he had silenced the more than one hundred new students in the vast gymnasium.
Qiuyue Qi marveled inwardly.
I didn't think much of it when I watched the anime in my previous life, but the guy who carried all of Class A really did have an incredible presence.
But no matter what, I'm going to gather twenty million points and get into Class A.
It was time to take the next step.
Once the entrance ceremony was over, Qiuyue Qi picked up his backpack and headed for his next destination.
Qiuyue Qi stopped in front of a door. He took a deep breath, let it out, and knocked.
The words "Chairman's Office" were plainly written on it.
"Come in."
Qiuyue Qi entered and shut the door behind him. With his hands in his pockets and a bag slung over his shoulder, he faced the chairman.
"Oh, my, what a rare visitor. A student actually came to see me. Have a seat."
Qiuyue Qi set down his bag and sat on the sofa, his hands naturally slipping back into his pockets. Looking at the chairman, he said, "Hello, Chairman. I'd like to ask: points can buy anything you want, right?"
"Of course. But could you stop recording first? You're holding your phone in your pocket and recording, aren't you?"
Chairman Sakayanagi looked at Qiuyue Qi with an amused expression. A first-year, huh? Good instincts. Class A or B?
After calming himself, Qiuyue Qi took his phone out of his pocket and, right in front of Chairman Sakayanagi, closed the recording app. Then he looked at the chairman and said,
"Then I'll get straight to the point. I need to buy a school-issued phone and SIM card with no student information recorded on them. Everything else should work the same."
"An interesting idea. That way, neither the teachers nor the Student Council will be able to look you up, because no student will be registered to that phone. But why not ask your homeroom teacher?"
"I don't trust Teacher Chabashira."
Should I tell you I know the original story, and that she's obsessed with getting her class into Class A? If I show off my abilities in front of her, she'll use me as a pawn.
Qiuyue Qi was utterly speechless.
Chairman Sakayanagi's fingers twitched as he thought furiously.
Chabashira? So he's a student from Class D. I thought he'd be from Class A or B. Given how capable this boy has seemed so far, he shouldn't have ended up in Class D either. I'll have to look into this more carefully.
"Then what about the other homeroom teachers?"
"There's competition between the classes. Even if I asked another homeroom teacher and they agreed to keep it confidential, I couldn't be sure they wouldn't steer their students into finding me."
Chairman Sakayanagi's gaze sharpened, but his expression remained unchanged as he thought,
He's already figured out the school's rules on his first day? This boy is impressive.
"I see. This is the first time anyone's used points to buy a phone and SIM card without any student information attached. What do you think would be a fair price?"
"Then how about ten thousand?"
"Hahaha, that's a pretty good joke. How about five hundred thousand?"
"I think your joke is funnier, Chairman. It's just a phone, no matter how you look at it. You're really asking a king's ransom! Two hundred thousand."
"Three hundred thousand."
"Deal."
"..."
After paying thirty thousand points.
Chairman Yanagibayashi spoke first:
"It's only the second day of school, yet you've already seen through the school's hidden rules and have thirty thousand personal points. Impressive. In my opinion, you still have more personal points left, don't you, Qiuyue?"
Qiuyue Qi grew tense.
Is this old geezer really that perceptive?
"There's no need to be so guarded. I'm not interested in how many points you have left, Qiuyue, and I won't interfere. At this school, I treat all students equally, so relax."
"The phone will be delivered to your dorm in three days. And you can put your voice recorder away now."
Chairman Yanagibayashi wore the same smiling expression from beginning to end, his eyes fixed on Qiuyue Qi in a way that sent a chill down his spine.
Under that gaze, Qiuyue Qi felt the pressure bearing down on his heart like a heavy hammer, leaving him struggling to breathe. Sweat slowly seeped through the back of his shirt.
Qiuyue: (As expected, the older the ginger, the spicier it is? This feeling that he can see right through me is really unsettling. But can he really see through me?)
Qiuyue Qi slowly reached into the other pocket—the one opposite the pocket where he'd taken out his phone—and pulled out a pen. He met the chairman's eyes, then decided to turn off the voice recorder and set it on the table.
"Since you noticed it from the start, Chairman, why didn't you say anything earlier?"
Chairman Yanagibayashi stood and walked over to the sofa opposite Qiuyue Qi, teasing him as he did.
"You don't trust me either, do you, Qiuyue? I could tell as soon as you walked in."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka
That's... Qiuyue. He's always been alone, just like me. No... where's he going? Why is he carrying a bag?
"Hey! Ayanokoji, you're here too."
Who's calling me? Oh, it's Sudo.
"No, I'm just here to look around. You said 'too,' so does that mean you're joining a club, Sudo?"
"Yeah. I've been passionate about basketball since elementary school, so I want to play here, too."
"Sudo, do we need to bring anything to join a club?"
"Not that I know of. I didn't bring anything, anyway. Why do you ask?"
"...It's nothing."
What's in his bag?
Before you continue