A Calm Beginning

(As everyone knows, there are no underage main characters on Tomato, so all characters not explicitly stated otherwise in this book are adults.)

"My name is Shiraishi Makoto. Pleased to meet you."

After finishing his self-introduction, the boy sat back down in his seat. No one noticed that his back was already soaked through with cold sweat.

"That was close... thank goodness the name was on the phone they just handed out."

Shiraishi Makoto gripped the student terminal tightly in his right hand, staring fixedly at the information on the screen:

Student ID: xxxxxx. Name: Shiraishi Makoto. Birthday: May 20th. Class: 1st Year Class B. School: Advanced Nurturing High School. Points: 100,000.

Shiraishi Makoto unconsciously rubbed the phone, realizing he had transmigrated into the world of Welcome to the Classroom of the Supreme Ability Doctrine, and a soul transmigration at that, with none of the original owner's memories.

For a transmigrator, this was probably the worst possible start. His mind was a blank slate, yet the people in front of him kept getting up one after another to introduce themselves. The only saving grace was that, even without memories, he had automatically mastered the Japanese language, so he could understand, read, and speak it.

Now wasn't the time to dwell on it. Shiraishi Makoto put away his phone and quietly observed the classroom situation. Since 2D anime characters and real people were ultimately somewhat different, looking at the classmates with their various hair colors left him dazed for a moment. He quickly locked onto the core figure of Class 1-B.

On the podium, that striking pink figure was none other than Ichinose Honami, nicknamed "Honami-chan" by her peers.

Based on the self-introductions just now, Shiraishi Makoto had already determined that today was the first day of school. Cross-referencing his memory of the plot, this should be the moment after homeroom teacher Hoshinomiya Chie had explained the basic rules and distributed the first month's 100,000 points, with Ichinose Honami organizing everyone's self-introductions.

This timing was neither too early nor too late—perfect.

Any earlier, and he would have had to deal with questioning from his supposed "family"; any later, and his classmates would have already gotten used to "his" habits. Right now, everyone was still strangers, so he didn't need to pretend.

Advanced Nurturing High School was also an ideal environment for him. With no contact with the outside world except under special circumstances, it meant three whole years without interacting with his "family." After those three years, some changes in personality would be perfectly explainable.

Shiraishi Makoto silently sorted through these trivial matters while keeping an eye on the classmates who went up to introduce themselves one by one.

After the self-introductions came the school-organized opening ceremony. The procedure was no different from any other ordinary school: a few big shots from business, politics, and education were invited to give a bunch of empty pleasantries, the school made some remarks about future prospects, and then everyone was dismissed.

It was now noon. The first-year students had the entire afternoon to familiarize themselves with the school.

"Shiraishi-kun, want to go check out the shopping district together?"

Just as Shiraishi Makoto was about to leave on his own, a voice came from behind him.

He turned around and saw Hamaguchi Tetsuya and a few other boys from the class. The one who had spoken was Hamaguchi Tetsuya, who sat behind him.

"I was planning to head back to the dorm first and get settled. Maybe next time," Shiraishi Makoto said with a slight shake of his head.

"Alright." Hamaguchi Tetsuya wasn't surprised. Most people would choose to go back to the dorm first anyway. He had only instinctively invited Shiraishi because he noticed that Shiraishi had been keeping to himself since entering the class and had seemed a bit nervous during his self-introduction.

After breaking away from the class crowd, Shiraishi Makoto headed straight for the convenience store.

First, he needed to buy some basic daily necessities. More importantly, he needed to lay the groundwork for revealing the rules later.

He was indeed well aware of the school's "hidden rules," but to speak them out loud openly, he needed a reasonable set of "deductive evidence." The school wouldn't write the rules out explicitly, and it forbade upperclassmen from leaking information to underclassmen, but it secretly encouraged students to figure out the truth on their own.

For example, the free meal sets at the convenience store and cafeteria, the point gaps between classes of different years, and the attitudes of senior students toward different first-year classes.

So Shiraishi Makoto planned to go through the motions, at least leaving a complete trail of exploration under the surveillance cameras.

Entering the convenience store, he first went to the daily necessities section. Since he had no idea about the brands in this world or this country, Shiraishi Makoto just grabbed a few items based on their price tags. Then, he "accidentally" discovered the free merchandise section, hesitated for a moment in front of it, and replaced some of the items in his basket.

"Hey, what's this?"

A puzzled mutter came from not far away. There were quite a few people in the convenience store, but the question was clearly directed in his direction. Shiraishi Makoto instinctively turned his head to look.

The speaker was a brown-haired boy, standing next to a girl with long black hair.

Was that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Horikita Suzune?

Shiraishi Makoto's gaze lingered on the two for a moment. He immediately sensed something was off and quickly turned back, continuing to swap out items in his basket before turning to put the replaced items back in their original spots.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka remained silent, his gaze resting on him briefly before being drawn away by Horikita's voice.

"Free...?"

"It's probably a relief measure for students who've overdrawn their points. The school sure is thoughtful," Ayanokoji responded calmly.

Shiraishi Makoto carried his basket to the checkout counter, not daring to look back to confirm their movements.

He felt that his glance just now had been too deliberate. With Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's sharpness, he had probably already noticed something off about his gaze.

"Tch, I got careless. I forgot that Ayanokoji would be here today too," he cursed inwardly.

But he didn't dwell on self-blame or regret. Shiraishi Makoto had already mentally prepared himself. Before transmigrating, he had been an ordinary third-year university student, nothing outstanding—just like any other peer, going to school, living an ordinary life, and preparing for further studies or employment.

It had been less than a day since he transmigrated, but he had immediately set his ultimate goal at this school: to graduate from Class A. Even with his knowledge of the plot, facing Advanced Nurturing High School, which gathered the country's top talents of the same age, he wasn't one hundred percent sure of victory.

Especially when dealing with a monster like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

"Too much has happened today. I'll go back to the dorm and sort out my thoughts."

After paying, Shiraishi Makoto took a detour to witness the red-haired Sudo Ken shouting loudly in the store, then wisely left the convenience store. If he had stayed longer, he could have seen the famous scene of Sudo clashing with upperclassmen, gathering information about Class D's discrimination. But since he had already acted unnaturally in front of Ayanokoji, who would also be watching from the sidelines, it was better to slip away now.