This Chaotic World Ruined You

Chapter 7: This Chaotic World Ruined You

"Um, I..."

Kamuro Masumi took half a step back, her face full of desperation.

"I was just passing by... I really was just passing by. I didn't see anything."

As she spoke, her gaze drifted toward the flowerbed beside them, and she made to slip away.

"Boring."

Ryuen Kakeru couldn't be bothered to waste time. He gave an inscrutable snort, shoved his hands into his pockets, and walked straight off without even bothering to mock Sakayanagi.

Su Wei lowered his eyes to the girl in his arms.

After a moment's thought, as if dropping a hot potato, he briskly pulled his arm away and stepped back to restore a polite distance.

"Don't get the wrong idea. We're not close."

"We just happened to take an exam together. Classmate Sakayanagi has trouble walking, so I helped her out of basic human decency."

Without his support, Sakayanagi Arisu swayed.

She didn't fall, but the sudden loss of balance still brought a flicker of astonishment to her usually composed face.

...He pushed me away?

Sakayanagi steadied herself and looked at the empty space beside her, unable to believe it.

It wasn't vanity.

As one of the two leaders of Class A, she was used to being fawned over and treated with reverence, whether because of her appearance or her family background. People even handled her with the utmost care, as if she were fragile.

Being used and then discarded like this, treated as though someone couldn't get away from her fast enough...

This was a first.

"A special... exam?"

Kamuro Masumi blinked, her gaze darting discreetly between the two.

Was there some kind of exam that required people to hug?

"Heh..."

At that moment, Sakayanagi Arisu finally recovered her balance.

She didn't fly into a rage at being pushed away. She merely straightened her slightly mussed bangs and gave Su Wei an exasperated look.

"That's right. It was quite a memorable exam."

"But I doubt it's one you'd ever want to take, Classmate Kamuro."

"Huh?"

Kamuro Masumi looked utterly confused.

But despite the smile in Sakayanagi's voice, its chilling tone made her instinctively shrink back.

"Then, I, I won't bother you... I'll get going!"

"Since we ran into each other, I suppose there's no helping it."

Sakayanagi Arisu showed no intention of letting her leave. Quite naturally, she reached out and took Kamuro Masumi by the arm that wasn't carrying a bag.

"Perfect timing. My third 'leg' isn't here, so I'll have to trouble you, Classmate Kamuro, to act as my temporary crutch."

"Eh? But..."

"See you tomorrow, Su Wei~"

"Although you have no chivalrous manners whatsoever, I'm still grateful for your hospitality tonight."

Without giving Kamuro a chance to refuse, Sakayanagi Arisu smiled and waved to Su Wei.

As he watched them walk farther away, he could still faintly hear Kamuro Masumi's quiet complaints and Sakayanagi's soft, oppressive replies.

The expression on Su Wei's face gradually settled back into indifference.

He took out the phone specially made for Advanced Nurturing and opened the split-screen friend-location interface for Kushida Kikyo and Ichinose Honami.

Honestly, this was another one of those things you just had to experience after arriving in Classroom of the Elite.

Just exchange friend requests, and you could see your friends' locations. You didn't even need their permission.

Sure, Su Wei could also use GANTZ to hack into other people's devices...

But that wasn't the same thing, was it?

This was practically encouraging the spread of bad habits around campus. It was terrible for unity!

At that moment, the red dot representing Kushida Kikyo was resting safely at the dormitory.

The other red dot, representing Ichinose Honami, was still wandering around the school building.

"Still trying to contact the outside world..."

Unfortunately, to create the sense of oppression that they couldn't survive without fighting, Su Wei had already forced the higher-ups to reach an understanding with him.

On this heavily isolated island of a school, not even a fly could get a message out without his permission.

"Come to think of it, reporting this straight to the authorities is exactly what a normal person would do, right?"

"But in a horror movie, being naive and meddlesome like that would probably get you killed first..."

Su Wei turned off the screen.

In fact, Ichinose's fear was entirely unnecessary.

This seemingly cruel Black Sphere game was, at its heart, nothing more than a way to pass the time when he was bored.

He knew his own personality well. Though he was a transmigrator, he had no ambition to rule the world, and he wasn't some deranged serial killer.

On the contrary, he was the sort of person who got tired of things easily.

Maybe before long, once he got a more interesting item, he'd casually toss this one aside.

Then he could use something like the "Dictator Button" or "Liar 800" to put an end to the problem once and for all.

That was the confidence I got from having my items refreshed every day without them being confiscated!

"Still..."

Su Wei stopped and looked up at the dark night sky.

After gaining GANTZ administrator privileges and linking up to the world's information, he'd discovered a bug.

The anomalies in this world hadn't been here since ancient times. They'd begun appearing one after another about a month ago.

Of course, the Parasites and Ghouls showing up couldn't be blamed on Su Wei.

After all, he'd only transmigrated here two or three weeks ago, and he'd even used the "Devil Passport" to get himself a place at Advanced Nurturing.

So what was this...?

A resurgence of spiritual energy? An invasion from a higher dimension? Or the collision of worlds?

Su Wei didn't know, and GANTZ didn't have an answer for him either.

But the feeling that the world was becoming unsafe still left him uneasy.

Who knew what might show up tomorrow?

An Apostle capable of destroying the world? Or the Anti-Spirals, who wanted to purge the universe?

"So..."

"Until the world falls completely into chaos, this game still has a reason to exist."

"First, I'll use these elites to test the waters of this world. And while I'm at it... it can't hurt to train a few useful heroes, right?"

After all, it's not like I'm the one playing with you.

It's this chaotic world that ruined you.

The next day.

After finishing an all-night superpower training session, Su Wei returned to the classroom.

Before he'd even taken his seat, a faint citrus scent drew near.

"Um... good morning, Su Wei."

Kushida Kikyo turned toward him and asked in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Did your points come through?"

At her question, Su Wei took out his phone, casually swiped the screen, and shook his head.

"I thought so..."

Kushida Kikyo bit her lower lip, but she didn't panic like the boys around them, who were shouting in dismay.

Her lovely eyes shifted as she considered it.

"The whole class hasn't received anything, even though they said during orientation that we'd get a hundred thousand points on the first of every month."

"Judging by what they said about last night's exam... it seems the so-called spending points are tied to that class evaluation, right?"

Then she added, half-jokingly:

"Hey, Su Wei. If they really are tied to S Points, doesn't that mean that from now on, the two of us might have to fight tooth and nail to earn everyone's living expenses?"

"Who knows?" Su Wei answered ambiguously.

"Rather than guessing, we should wait and ask our homeroom teacher when she gets here. She always likes to keep people in suspense. There's no way she'd hide something as important as our meals."

"True~"

Kushida didn't say anything more.

Meanwhile, at the neighboring desk, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had been quietly staring out the window. Now, he turned his head slightly and glanced at the two of them out of the corner of his eye.

Just yesterday, Su Wei had been literally invisible in class. Though Kushida Kikyo was friendly to everyone, she'd only been politely courteous to someone on the fringes like him.

But today, that courtesy had changed.

The way Kushida leaned toward Su Wei when she initiated conversation, and how casually Su Wei replied...

That atmosphere...

Strange.

S Points? Was it some kind of code...

Though he was curious, that alone wasn't enough to make him abandon his usual way of doing things.

Ayanokoji turned his gaze away and went back to staring blankly at the blackboard.

Suddenly.

"Click, click."

The sound of high heels on granite tiles drew closer.

Chabashira Sae walked into the classroom, holding a lesson plan, her expression blank.

"Teacher!"

Kanji Ike, who had been holding back for a while, raised his hand and complained loudly:

"Our points haven't come through! Weren't you supposed to give them out on the first of every month? Is the system broken?"

"Yeah, yeah! I'm almost out of money for food!"

Looking at the students below, who were in an uproar, Chabashira Sae's lips curled into a mocking smile.

"There's no need to wait."

"This month's points have already been distributed."

"Huh? Distributed? But my account's still empty!"

"That's exactly what I'm about to explain," Chabashira Sae continued. "Have you forgotten what I told you during orientation? At this school, 'ability comes first.'"