Selling the Hidden Rules

Male Dormitory Building, Room 415.

Qiuyue sat in his chair, staring at the contact information for several people on his computer as he muttered to himself.

"It's been a week since we arrived at school. The leaders of each class have pretty much settled into their roles, and Ryuen has established his violent rule over Class C."

"I hacked into the Student Council's computer and stole the students' information, recording the contact details and numbers of each class leader. But for Class A, should I contact Katsuragi or Yanagibayashi?"

"Hmm... I'll go with the white-haired little loli. Lolis are the best."

Qiuyue took out the phone he'd bought from the Chairman and began composing a message. Once he was done, he sent it.

Hirata had just finished soccer practice. After getting ready, he was on his way back.

Bzz—

"Hmm?"

Hirata took his phone from his bag and checked it. His expression immediately turned serious.

"Whether it's true or not, we need to discuss it properly. It's too late today, so I'll talk to everyone in class first thing tomorrow morning."

Bzz—

Inside a private karaoke room, a man with medium-length red hair sat in the middle, legs crossed. His face was partly covered in bandages. He held a glass of red wine in one hand while reading the message on his phone with the other.

"This is really interesting! I'd love to know how you got my number, but what you said interests me even more! Hahaha!"

A girl with short blue hair beside him looked over, frowned, and said with a hint of distaste, "Ryuen, what's wrong with you now?"

Bzz—

"Ah..."

Ichinose stopped in her tracks as she read the message on her phone, staring at it in a daze.

"Honami-chan~ What's wrong? Why did you stop?"

"Honami-chan?"

Ichinose raised her phone.

"Everyone, take a look at this message."

The girls gathered around.

"Honami-chan, can we really trust a message from someone whose identity we don't know?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's probably just spam."

"But if what it says is true..."

"I agree. Better safe than sorry. What if it's true and we ignore it? We'd be missing out."

The girls began talking all at once. Seeing this, Ichinose quickly clapped her hands to quiet them, then smiled.

"Okay, everyone, let's hold off on discussing it for now. We can talk it over in my room when we get back, then have the whole class vote on it first thing tomorrow morning. How does that sound?"

The girls all agreed.

"Then let's head back!"

Bzz—

Click...

The phone beside the two girls playing chess in the room rang.

"Sakayanagi, someone messaged you. Go take a look."

"Don't rush, Kamuro. We can finish this game before checking."

"Ugh! Sakayanagi, are you a demon? We've been playing for ages, and I haven't won once! Give me a break!"

"...All right, Kamuro. Let's call it a day. Could you bring my phone over?"

"...Here."

Sakayanagi smiled faintly as she took it and read the message. Her smile widened when she finished.

"Oh my, oh my~ Looks like campus life is about to get even more interesting~"

Early the next morning, Hirata sent a message to the Class 1-D group chat saying he had something important to discuss in person and asking everyone to get to the classroom early.

Almost everyone was there, except for the trio.

Hirata walked to the front of the room and looked over the class. When his gaze reached the trio, he sighed and began to speak.

"Everyone, listen up. Class is about to start, so we can't wait for Yamauchi and the others. I'll go ahead and tell you now."

"I received a message yesterday. It said:

'I know the hidden rules of this school. I can sell them to you and your class for 800,000 private points. I can guarantee that these rules will be of tremendous benefit to you and your class.

Of course, I know you might not believe me. Here's a reminder: points can buy anything you want. You can ask your homeroom teacher to buy the hidden rules. They cost 2 million private points, while I only ask for 800,000.

There's no contract. If you trust me, just send 800,000 private points to this account, and I'll send you the rules by text message.

You can trust me, because this won't be the only deal we make.'

So, what does everyone think?"

The students erupted into an uproar, their reactions ranging from surprise and confusion to utter astonishment.

"Of course we should buy them!"

A voice rang out loudly, its certainty unmistakable.

The class turned to look. Horikita was standing there, staring at Hirata with unwavering resolve.

Watching Horikita, Qiuyue could barely contain his excitement.

That's right! Just like that! My 800,000 private points are counting on you, Horikita! You've got this! Keep it up!

The class began voicing their doubts.

"That sounds great, but we're talking about 800,000 points!"

"Yeah. That works out to 20,000 per person. I'm not sure I can part with that much..."

"Exactly..."

"..."

Horikita looked at them with an expression of utter exasperation.

"I have 85,600 private points. I'm willing to use all of them to buy this information."

Mm~ Well said. That's exactly what I like to hear~

"Whoa, do we really have to buy it...?"

"But..."

Come on, can the students in Class D be a little more sensible? What are you still hesitating for? Class C bought it outright last night. It was worth waiting until Ryuen had his class under control before I started selling the hidden rules. Heh heh heh~ 800,000.

Seeing that they weren't reaching a decision, Hirata spoke up. "Everyone, our first class today happens to be with Teacher Chabashira. We can ask her in a bit to confirm whether the hidden rules are real."

"If there really are hidden rules, I think we should buy them. It'll benefit the class, and we'll get another 100,000 points next month. What do you think?"

After he spoke, the girls in the class began agreeing with Hirata, and the boys had no choice but to go along with them.

Qiuyue glanced back, shook his head helplessly, then turned around and sat back down. He took out his phone and started looking at it.

Sigh... There's probably no chance of convincing the trio. They still haven't shown up...

Ah, the money from Classes A and B has come through. Mm~ Not bad, not bad. As expected, Classes A and B are far better than Class D. They're decisive when it counts. Now I just need to send them the messages I prepared in advance.

The trio arrived one minute before class and went straight to their seats, chatting among themselves.

"Everyone, settle down. Class is starting."

"Teacher Chabashira, could we take up a few minutes of your time to ask you something?"

Teacher Chabashira glanced at Hirata in mild surprise and replied with a faint smile, "What is it? Go ahead."

"Does the school have hidden rules?"

Teacher Chabashira's smile grew more pronounced, as if she wanted to let them know they'd asked the right question. But she answered, "I can't answer that."

Hirata tried rephrasing the question. "Then what if we used points to buy the school's hidden rules?"

"2 million private points."

Teacher Chabashira answered instantly.