Soon, the school day ended, and the class study session began as scheduled.
For Wu Qiao, a class study session like this was basically a chore.
After all, he was different from everyone else. He only had to quietly read a book to gain experience in the Path of Erudition and force himself to become a little smarter. The others didn't have anything remotely like this cheat-level advantage.
Fortunately, with the harsh school rule that anyone who failed the midterms would be expelled hanging over their heads, and the lure of Class Points as a reward, even the usual bottom-of-the-class students—and even the hot-tempered Ken Sudō—had all shown up today.
Ayanokoji Kiyoha also had the label of "math whiz" in class. So, in everyone's eyes, this sheltered young lady with excellent grades naturally became the central figure in today's math tutoring.
Since Wu Qiao had scored a perfect mark in every subject on the recent quiz, he was happy to take it easy. All he had to do was check for any gaps in his knowledge and review those areas. With perfect scores across the board, he had no need to fret over reaching the passing mark like everyone else.
It was worth mentioning that even Horikita Suzune, usually a loner on the fringes of the class, had joined this study session. She didn't have much choice. If anyone in the class was expelled, they wouldn't earn any Class Points from the midterms. And she still wanted to fight for a chance to rise to Class A for the sake of that obsession of hers.
Of course, the eccentric Koenji Rokusuke hadn't come. Everyone had expected as much. After all, no one should expect the young master Koenji to sacrifice his free time for the class.
Horikita Suzune had possessed the [Favorability System]—something that, at first glance, seemed to belong in a cheap romance game—for an entire month. Throughout that month, she'd remained remarkably steadfast and hadn't used it even once.
She'd meant what she said. She hadn't claimed the system's beginner reward, and she'd ignored every prompt that popped up.
And yet... now, the usually proud and aloof Horikita had no choice but to bow to reality and try using the system she'd once scoffed at.
There was no helping it. She really wasn't good at talking to people. Without the system's assistance, she couldn't even get the short-tempered guy in front of her to listen patiently to her for a single minute.
Horikita Suzune looked at Ken Sudō, who wore an impatient expression and seemed ready to get up and leave. She took a deep breath, glanced over the system prompts only she could see, then spoke as gently as she could. "Sudō, I know you don't like studying, but if you want to keep playing basketball at this school, you have to put in some effort. You know better than I do how competitive the basketball team here is."
Sudō had already picked up his bag, but when he heard the word "basketball," he visibly paused. Frowning, he scratched at his red hair in irritation, but in the end he sat back down, muttering, "Huh? What are you suddenly talking about...? Of course I know how important the basketball team is!"
Horikita Suzune secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the system's "effective communication tips for Ken Sudō" had worked. She seized the moment and continued, following the prompt in her mind. "Since you understand that, you should also realize that if you're expelled for failing your exams, you'll lose your chance to even step onto the court. Putting up with this now will let you play more freely in the future."
Sudō pursed his lips. His face still showed how unwilling he was, but the resistance in his eyes had clearly eased. He opened the English textbook that might as well have been written in another language and grumbled, "Yeah, yeah, I get it! You're so annoying... I'll look at it, okay!"
Watching Sudō finally settle down, Horikita Suzune silently gave the so-called system a point in her mind. She still disliked the feeling of being controlled by data, but she had to admit that when it came to achieving her goals, the system had its own unique value.
Besides providing communication tips, the [Favorability System] could also grant exclusive rewards once someone's favorability reached certain levels. It was a powerful feature that worked on both boys and girls.
The rewards differed from person to person and were highly personalized. For example, Sudō's rewards were a boost to his physical abilities at sixty favorability and basketball skills at eighty. At one hundred favorability, she could even gain all of his skills outright.
However, the person who surprised Horikita Suzune most was Hirata Yosuke. The class representative, who always wore a gentle smile and acted as the class's peacemaker, had a reward of combat skills at sixty favorability—and the system rated his skill level as extremely high. She couldn't help but reassess this seemingly harmless central figure in the class.
As for Ayanokoji Kiyoha and Wu Qiao, their rewards were the most impressive among their classmates.
At just sixty favorability, Ayanokoji Kiyoha could grant her a complete set of university-level knowledge. Wu Qiao's reward was even more impressive, and it continued to grow over time. That was probably because he kept studying and expanding his own knowledge base.
Even Horikita Suzune, who had always scorned such opportunistic methods, now had to calmly consider that she should make good use of the system if she wanted to rise to Class A and gain absolute leadership over the class.
After all, quickly gaining other people's strengths to make up for her own shortcomings was her only shortcut to Class A.
Horikita Suzune had spent all ten of the system's complimentary prompts for the day calming down the restless students. Seeing how a few soothing words had settled them, she felt that she'd made some progress, but couldn't help feeling troubled as well.
She didn't like this feeling of robbing Peter to pay Paul. She'd even begun quietly planning how to allocate these precious prompts in the future.
As for... whether she should first find someone with strong social skills and gain some social skills to make up for her own shortcomings?
With that thought in mind, Horikita Suzune unconsciously glanced toward Kushida Kikyo. The girl, who always wore a perfect smile and was trusted by the entire class, was gently explaining a problem to the classmate beside her.
Kushida Kikyo was undoubtedly the most socially capable person in the class. If Horikita could get her social skills, it would greatly help her manage the class.
However, when Horikita Suzune glanced at the system panel, her brow furrowed slightly. Kushida Kikyo's favorability toward her was a glaring, absolute zero.
It was strange. Even Ken Sudō, who'd been openly hostile toward her at first, had a favorability rating of five before she spoke with him.
Among her classmates, even those who had some issues with her mostly had favorability ratings in the positive range. Only Kushida Kikyo showed her an absolute "zero."
Horikita Suzune's instincts told her this was about more than the fact that they rarely spoke. Someone with top-tier social skills wouldn't keep their favorability toward a classmate at this perfectly unchanged "zero" without a reason.
This deliberately maintained blankness felt even more unfathomable than overt hostility. Getting social skills from Kushida Kikyo would be extremely difficult—and might even be a trap she'd laid long ago.