"My name is Hayato Shibata. Sprinting, basketball, swimming... I'm good at pretty much every sport, and I'm quite confident in my athletic abilities. I look forward to getting along with you all!"
"My name is Yume Kobashi. I hope we can all become friends over the next three years."
The students in Class B stood up one by one to introduce themselves. They said little more than their names, hobbies, and a few simple words about hoping to make friends. No one tried to stand out with anything unusual.
After the introductions, there was still a little time before the opening ceremony.
Honami Ichinose and Ryuji Kanzaki both left their social circles and headed over to Makoto Nishikado, who was teasing Yuki Himeno.
Seeing them approach, Yuki quietly moved her chair away.
All three of them looked like big shots. Best not to get involved.
"Makoto, I'm planning to start a group chat and add everyone in Class B. It'll make it easier for us to keep in touch. You should join, too."
Honami Ichinose took out her Personal Terminal. The screen already showed the group chat creation page.
Since Class B would be evaluated as a whole, it was important for them to work together.
"Sure."
Makoto Nishikado took out his Personal Terminal, too.
He liked the atmosphere in Class B, so he'd deliberately nudged his score a little during the interview.
Now that he'd ended up in Class B as he'd hoped, he didn't mind contributing to the class.
If he'd been put in Class D, Makoto definitely wouldn't have volunteered to take the lead.
Sure, Class D had more characters with a significant role, which meant more chances to earn emotion points.
But the emotion points Class B students gave him were mostly gratitude and admiration—pure and positive.
Class D was a different story. It was full of ungrateful people, deadweight, eccentric loners, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
It was practically a madhouse.
He'd take Class B's little angels any day.
"Makoto, Ryuji, do you think Class B should collect some Personal Points from everyone to use as class funds?"
Honami slipped her phone back into her pocket. Her expression turned more serious as she got straight to the point.
Based on what they'd seen today, Personal Points were undoubtedly the strangest—and most important—thing at this school.
Here, Personal Points could be used like money, and seemed to be even more useful than money.
But collecting them from their classmates wouldn't be easy. Honami wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do.
After all, it felt like they were asking everyone for protection money, which could easily turn the class against them.
She wouldn't have brought it up at all if she hadn't realized Personal Points would play a crucial role in the competition between classes later on.
"I think we should. We can discuss with everyone how much to collect."
Ryuji's expression didn't change.
It wasn't that he hadn't seen the problem. He just didn't think it mattered.
As far as he was concerned, the school was evaluating the class as a whole, so there was bound to be competition between classes.
Even ordinary schools had all kinds of class rankings and competitions. This strange school was sure to have them, too.
Building up class funds early would give them an advantage in the competition to come.
Before he'd come to this school, his family had told him to make sure he did well.
"I agree with Ryuji, but not right away. We should gather information for a few more days and give everyone some time to adjust."
Makoto stroked his chin, finding a middle ground between their opinions.
Asking everyone to hand over Personal Points right away, even in a class full of easygoing students like Class B, would feel a little like bullying.
"Yeah. If Personal Points really are that important, then we'll just have to ask everyone to bear with us."
"That makes sense to me, too. Let's do that."
Honami and Ryuji both agreed with Makoto.
"If we need someone to lead the class, which of you two should it be?"
As soon as they'd settled one issue, Ryuji moved right on to the next.
He knew he wasn't as capable as Makoto, nor as good at bringing their classmates together as Honami.
He'd be satisfied with either one of them as class leader.
"Makoto, would you be willing to be our class leader?"
Honami looked a little troubled.
She actually thought Makoto would be better suited to the role.
But she also knew that more people in the class would support her.
If Makoto stepped forward himself, she'd be willing to help convince the others.
"I'd be happy to, but..."
Makoto had no reason to turn down the position of class leader.
That way, during future Special Exams, he could earn a ton of emotion points as the leader, whether he won or lost.
There was no way he wouldn't come out ahead.
But Makoto quickly realized he could make money in two different ways.
From the corner of his eye, he could tell that plenty of people in the class were watching them.
The one drawing the most attention was Honami Ichinose, of course.
Honami's Affinity was incredible.
She'd been at the school for less than half a day, and she was already the most popular person in Class B.
If she told the students in Class B to save their Personal Points, no one would waste them today.
Sure, that was partly because Class B had plenty of well-behaved students to begin with, but Honami's Affinity had also played a crucial role.
Makoto thought he'd performed the best today, but Honami was the most popular one.
At the thought, Makoto smiled.
Along with becoming class leader, he seemed to have another way to stir up everyone's emotions.
The only downside was that it might lower his popularity and standing in the class.
But that wasn't worth worrying too much about.
The students in Class B were all simple and kind, like a bunch of little angels. Even if they were upset with him for a while, it wouldn't be hard to make things right.
And Honami herself, the person at the center of it all, would be even easier to handle.
The method was simple: put some pressure on Honami, their great big angel.
"Ichinose, your personality isn't suited to being class leader. Give the position to me."
Makoto didn't bother lowering his voice. In the blink of an eye, people had gathered around them.
[You stirred up Honami Ichinose's emotions and gained 526 emotion points.]
[You stirred up Amikura Asako's emotions and gained 2210 emotion points.]
"Makoto, why would you say something like that?"
"Exactly! Ichinose works hard, too!"
Everyone with a significant role in Class B gave Makoto emotion points this time.
He'd just raked in more than fifty thousand points!
Honami Ichinose, you really are a beloved treasure!
Makoto struggled to hold back his laughter while Honami did her best to help persuade the others to support him.
Even though she was the one being challenged, she didn't seem angry at all.
The other students in Class B saw that and thought even more highly of Honami.
But Ryuji frowned slightly.
If Class B was only being evaluated as a whole, then Honami was undoubtedly the person best suited to bring everyone together.
But if things were as he suspected and there was competition between classes, Honami's personality was a little too soft.
"Makoto, I understand what you mean now. I support you becoming class leader."
Ryuji made his decision.
"Yeah, I support Makoto, too."
After reassuring the Class B students who supported her, Honami gave her answer as well.
But when she looked at Makoto, she seemed to want to say something, then stopped herself.
Unlike Ryuji, she didn't understand why Makoto had opposed her.
Honami wanted to ask, but she was afraid of hurting their friendship and didn't quite dare to speak up.
Makoto watched everyone's reactions, but deliberately didn't offer anyone an explanation.
"Then it's settled. I'll lead Class B."
Before you continue