Over the next two weeks, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Class D spent all of April indulging themselves.
Before they knew it, May 1 had arrived.
The classroom of Class 1-D was filled with the sound of discussions.
"Strange. I still haven't received any points on my phone. What about you guys?"
"Me neither." ×N
"The school's so late. I came here without even eating breakfast today."
"Don't worry, everyone. Maybe we'll get 100,000 points in a bit. There's no way they'd give us zero, right? Haha."
According to Chabashira Sae, today was the day the points would be issued.
Thinking about getting another 100,000 points to spend, everyone had come to class with smiles on their faces.
But as the minutes ticked by, the time for the points to be issued passed.
The numbers on their Terminal Devices remained unchanged.
Naturally, they began to grow confused and anxious.
This wasn't how they'd imagined things would go!
"Sakura, do you know what's going on?"
Sakura Airi turned to Chihaya Rei beside her and quietly asked, her lips barely parting.
Sakura Airi wasn't overly worried.
Chihaya Rei had warned her, so aside from the camera she'd already bought, she'd been careful with her points. She still had tens of thousands left.
"You don't need to check your phone. The school gave Class D zero points this month."
Chihaya Rei chuckled.
His excitement was already mounting. He could hardly wait for the class meeting to begin.
"Huh?"
At Chihaya Rei's words, Sakura Airi's delicate lips formed a surprised O. With her eyes widening, she looked a little adorably dazed.
Why did the school give us zero points?
But Sakura Airi hadn't had time to voice her confusion.
With the click-clack of high heels, Chabashira Sae entered the classroom, holding a poster tube.
"Everyone, get back to your seats."
It was her favorite thing to say whenever she entered the classroom.
The moment the Class D students saw Chabashira Sae, voices rang out across the room, all asking about the points.
"Chabashira-sensei, we still haven't received our points!"
"Did the school forget to issue them? Or is something wrong with our Terminal Devices?"
"Little Sae, are you on your period? You look awful, haha!"
At that moment, Kanji Ike made a wildly inappropriate remark.
He couldn't hold back his laughter, thinking he'd said something hilarious.
Chabashira Sae shot him a cold glance and sneered inwardly.
"Just tell us what's going on with the points!" Yamauchi Haruki called impatiently.
"The points have already been issued to you."
Chabashira Sae's face was expressionless, her voice flat.
"But they're not showing up on our Terminals!"
Hondo Ryotaro stood and held up his student Terminal Device.
The very next second, there was a sharp SMACK!
Chabashira Sae planted both hands forcefully on the metal lectern. Looking down at the class with a sneer, she spoke in a voice full of scorn:
"You really are a bunch of idiots!"
"How have you still not figured it out by now?"
The more Chabashira Sae spoke, the more satisfying it felt. She'd held it in for an entire month.
"The school didn't forget to issue your points, and there's no way your Terminals are malfunctioning. I suggest you stop clinging to your delusions."
"What does that mean? Explain yourself, teacher!"
"Isn't it too much to suddenly start insulting us?"
"Heh!"
Chabashira Sae gave a short laugh, stood up, and folded her arms across her chest. She swept the class with a contemptuous gaze.
"That's right. After all, you're a bunch of defective students who were assigned to Class D."
"Huh? Who are you calling defective? Even if you're our teacher, you can't insult us like that!"
At Chabashira Sae's insulting words, quite a few students looked unhappy and began to argue back.
"The school gave you zero points. Is that clear now?" Chabashira Sae said impatiently.
"Why?"
"Didn't you say we'd get 100,000 points every month?"
Chabashira Sae didn't answer. Instead, she picked up a piece of chalk, turned around, and wrote on the blackboard.
Class A: 980 cp
Class B: 880 cp
Class C: 770 cp
Class D: 0 cp
Chihaya Rei looked up at the Class Points.
There was no need to say anything about Class D's zero points.
The other three classes had all gained quite a few points, though there were still differences between them.
He'd sold the rules to all three classes at around the same time. But the students in each class had different levels of ability to begin with.
So even knowing the rules, their leaders had still told everyone to follow the rules and pay attention in class.
Over the course of a month, people were bound to make careless mistakes and lose points.
"Zero! That's how the school rates you."
Chabashira Sae's voice rang out through the classroom once more.
"I told you at the start of the school year: this school ranks students according to their abilities."
"From Class A to Class D, whether you look at your current Class Points or the class you were assigned to at the start, you're the worst!"
"The individual points the school gives you each month are calculated at a ratio of one to a hundred based on your Class Points."
"But your performance in the first month really surprised me. Heh..."
Chabashira Sae drew out her laugh.
At that point, one student, completely oblivious, even asked, "What did we do wrong in our first month?"
"You were late, left early, or absent a total of ninety-eight times. You played with your phones in class 407 times."
"Those things alone were enough to cost you nearly all your Class Points."
"And that's not even counting the many other, even more outrageous violations of classroom rules some of you committed. Do you want me to list them all?"
Chabashira Sae didn't hold back.
"So the school has decided you're worthless as you are now. Of course it gave you zero points!"
"Were there really idiots who thought they'd get 100,000 points every month no matter what?"
As Chabashira Sae spoke, she gave a meaningful look toward Kanji Ike and the others in his part of the room.
"You really are a bunch of people who don't know how to think."
The conspicuous numbers on the blackboard came into view of the Class D students.
Chabashira Sae's cold words kept ringing in their ears.
In an instant, the expressions on the Class D students' faces became quite a sight.
Yamauchi Haruki and Kanji Ike didn't dare make another peep.
After all, according to Chabashira Sae, they'd done plenty of things that had cost the class points.
They didn't dare speak up now, afraid of provoking everyone's anger.
He'd played with his phone more often than in the original story, because he'd done it too.
Chihaya Rei interlaced his fingers and rested them under his chin, making no attempt to hide his delight as the corners of his mouth curled into a smile. No one had the energy to pay attention to him now.
As he listened to Chabashira Sae, he enjoyed the delicious expressions on the Class D students' faces.
Especially Horikita Suzune, sitting beside him.
At first, Horikita Suzune had diligently taken notes on what Chabashira had said.
But when Chabashira Sae called Class D defective and showed them the evidence, Horikita Suzune's expression darkened. Her red eyes fixed on the numbers on the blackboard, full of anger and disbelief, and she clenched her fists.
She was clearly deeply dissatisfied with the situation.
This was exactly what he'd wanted to see!
He'd waited a whole month for this day.
"Chabashira-sensei, from what you've said, zero is only the lower limit for Class Points. It isn't the limit of what Class D can achieve."
Chihaya Rei suddenly spoke, looking thoughtful. His voice was calm and steady.
He couldn't laugh—not in front of all forty of them.
Chabashira Sae gave Chihaya Rei a long look and nodded. "That's right."
"Chihaya, saying that right now is kind of rubbing it in."
One student gave a wry smile, though he couldn't help admitting Chihaya Rei was right.
"Then why are the other classes' Class Points so high?"
"Yeah, I don't get it. Are we really that far behind them?"
"Maybe we really are defective, just like Chihaya said. If zero weren't the lowest possible score, we'd have lost even more points."
"..."
Chabashira Sae watched quietly.
She'd thought the year would get off to a good start, but the harsh reality had punched her in the face.
Even though she'd been somewhat prepared, Class D's rock-bottom performance had still far exceeded her expectations.
These people had absolutely no bottom line.
Class D had set a record for the lowest Class Points in history.
And because Chihaya Rei had sold information to the other classes, Class A had set a new record for the most points in the first month.
The Class Points for Classes B and C were also far higher than those of previous years' classes.
For Chabashira Sae, this was the worst start she'd ever seen.
Meanwhile, in the Class 1-B classroom, Hoshinomiya Chie was also explaining the Class Points rankings to her students.
A broad smile spread across her face as she gazed at the zero next to Class D, utterly enchanted. She thought:
I've never seen such a wonderful start.
Before you continue