He opened his phone and took a picture.
It wasn't because he liked doing that. He just wanted to send the photo to his little sister, Komachi.
To let her know that he had settled in, and casually show off that his living conditions were pretty good.
But.
[Message failed to send.]
??
Hachiman walked over to the balcony and raised his phone.
Then he checked the screen again.
[Message failed to send.]
"Beep!" Hachiman stepped outside his room.
[Message failed to send.]
"..." Fine.
He understood.
So that was what fully residential meant.
Not only were students required to live on campus for all three years, but they were also cut off from the outside world.
However, aside from the student ID Chabashira-sensei had mentioned, another app had already been installed on the phone from the start—an original app made by Advanced Nurturing High School.
The School Forum.
It was managed by the Student Council.
Hachiman opened the School Forum and found that he needed to log in with his ID number.
It seemed to require real-name verification.
Still, the content on it was rather chaotic.
[This year's freshmen have enrolled, and the shop where I work is overwhelmed.]
This was presumably posted by a store clerk.
[Ugh, these days are always especially exhausting every year. I want a break so badly, but I still have four years left on my contract.]
Another clerk.
It was clear that the clerks couldn't leave the school freely either, and seemed to be required to work for a certain number of years.
[Please behave responsibly online. The internet connects you, me, and everyone else. A civilized and healthy online environment depends on all of us.]
This was probably an announcement from the Student Council.
[The Art Club is recruiting members. Accepted students may receive point rewards if their work is deemed outstanding.]
This one was from an upperclassman.
The conditions looked pretty good.
And it was another way to earn points.
But. Hachiman scrolled down the forum page, then suddenly stopped.
A new post had caught his attention.
[Chess Tournament. Entry fee: 100,000 points. Best two out of three. If the challenger wins even one game, they will receive a prize of 1,000,000 points.]
This was posted by an ordinary student.
Still, that title had guts.
A million points? What kind of rich girl was this?
Hachiman clicked into the post.
He found that the poster was also using real-name verification.
Her name was Sakayanagi Arisu.
The pronunciation was probably Alice. Alice... yeah, it was a pretty nice name.
Hachiman wasn't particularly obsessed with looks or voices, though.
Still, he thought petite girls were pretty cute.
After opening the post, he found several students replying that she was too arrogant and showy.
And she was merely a freshman.
Did that mean they could check her class?
Hachiman opened the profile of [Sakayanagi Arisu], whose avatar was a chess piece.
[ID 14520. Real name verified. Identity: Sakayanagi Arisu, Class A, First Year.]
Class A, First Year?
So she was a freshman too.
Did Class A students start with a different number of points than their Class D?
Hachiman left a reply: [Did you also start with 100,000 points?]
But after waiting two minutes, he received no response.
Around then, it seemed someone had begun making a move.
They started asking for the challenge location, apparently ready to give this freshman who didn't know her place a lesson from the upperclassmen.
But the response they got was to head to the board game club.
The venue there could be used at any time.
Because she had already beaten the school's board game club.
Was she really that good?
He kind of wanted to watch the show.
Just. Hachiman continued gathering information.
[The free mountain vegetable set meal at Cafeteria Window Five doesn't seem all that bad.]
These were posts from ordinary students.
The moment the post was opened, someone immediately replied.
"Are you sure? The mountain vegetable set meal I had from Window Nine today tasted absolutely awful."
"Save me a spot in line. I'll go get one too."
"Is there still any left? Get one for me too."
"..."
When he opened the profiles of the students who had replied,
he found that they were from Second Year Class D, Third-year Class C, and Third-year Class D.
That was a little unsettling.
Free things were available for anyone to take, but...
Right now, it looked like people were fighting over them.
Were these direct upperclassmen from the second and third years... really living that miserably?
... Ten minutes later.
Hachiman quickly finished reading the first two pages of the forum.
Then he quietly analyzed what he had learned.
It seemed that not only students and the Student Council, but also people from the Shopping Street could log in.
Information could be gathered from here.
But the information was messy and needed to be sorted through.
Speaking of gathering information, Hachiman didn't immediately go to the Shopping Street to find out whether the points on everyone's student IDs could be used directly as money.
That was because students in the class group chat had already tested it.
Some students had gone to the Shopping Street and bought things directly.
They had successfully paid with their student IDs.
There didn't seem to be any limit on large purchases either. They could even spend 50,000 points on a game console.
That was really great.
Or rather, it was kind of terrible.
Why would someone immediately spend 50,000 points on a game console?
Did they have no sense of security or crisis at all?
One look at the forum showed that their direct upperclassmen from Class D were eating terrible set meals. Why had they been reduced to eating such awful food?
Still, Hachiman's luck wasn't bad.
He noticed that the class group chat didn't seem to be complete yet.
When Hirata had invited him in, the number displayed at the top of the group interface had been twenty-five. In other words, only twenty-five students had joined so far.
But then again, it had only been half a day since school started, and twenty-five students had already joined. Social people really were insane.
... After familiarizing himself with the dorm again, Hachiman prepared to go out shopping.
On one hand, he had learned that although the points looked plentiful, judging from the upperclassmen's situation, Class C and Class D generally seemed destined to end up in bad circumstances.
So he might need to be more frugal.
That also meant it was time to start on the task Chabashira-sensei had assigned him.
Completing her task would earn him a reward of 200,000 points, which was quite tempting.
Just. Hachiman stood by the elevator, waiting. The elevator coming down from above opened automatically.
He found that there was already a girl inside.
She had tousled blond hair, moist wine-red eyes, and smooth skin.
Her lips also had a glossy sheen.
She was an incredibly cute girl.
Hachiman recognized her. She had been the second person to stand up and introduce herself when Hirata had organized the self-introductions.
And Hachiman remembered what she had said.
Her name was Kikyo Kushida, and she seemed to want to become friends with everyone.
If it wasn't ambition, then she must have been exceptionally sociable.
"You are..." She probably found Hachiman familiar.
But Hachiman remembered that his self-introduction had been interrupted.
So it was normal that people didn't know him.
"You're Hachiman Hikigaya, right?" she said. "Chabashira-sensei came in back then, so you didn't get to finish introducing yourself. But I remember you said you were from Chiba."
"Chiba... one of my classmates is from there too. The scenery in Chiba is beautiful, and a lot of TV dramas are filmed around Makuhari Seaside." Kushida was quite talkative.
Eh! So she had remembered his unfinished self-introduction?
"Hey, Hachiman, could you tell me about Chiba sometime?" Kushida looked over at him with cute, moist eyes.
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