(Please switch your brain off for this chapter.)
Natsukawa was not surprised in the slightest. Money outside the school did not mean much to him anyway, and he had even prepared to offer an exchange rate of four or five to one.
After all, Koenji was the heir to a conglomerate. Who knew how much he had spent trading with upperclassmen during his first school year in the original story?
Since he was getting ahead of the competition, naturally, the sooner he settled the deal, the better.
Yamashita continued:
"But how can I trust what you say? We've only just met, after all. What if we trade you our points but don't receive the corresponding payment when we leave school? There's another thing, too. If the school discovers point transfers without a valid reason, it could turn into a case of fraudulent fundraising. Something like that happened many years ago! The school takes this very seriously!"
The girl said:
"That's right, Natsukawa! How can we trust you?"
Natsukawa smiled and said:
"Yamashita, I've already prepared for that!"
Natsukawa took out several exquisitely crafted, dazzling gold-foil cards printed with anime characters.
These were special cards Natsukawa had made using a little card-making machine he had redeemed for five of his system friendship points. Nothing in this world could counterfeit or duplicate them, and there was a specialized authentication machine available through the system for three points.
Natsukawa had made arrangements for this before enrolling.
His loyal subordinate outside the school, who managed his companies and assets on his behalf, also had a specialized authentication machine Natsukawa had previously redeemed.
Natsukawa had long since instructed him that, during his three years at school, people might come to redeem cards. He had to pay them the preset value in yen.
Yamashita took them and examined them, asking in confusion:
"What are these?"
The older female student excitedly took two of them to examine and exclaimed:
"Could these be the limited-edition commemorative cards jointly released by the novel and anime companies under Tianlong Company? Apparently, only two have been revealed! They even have that mysterious president's exclusive seal of authentication!"
Yamashita caught on as well.
"Apparently, a novel company rose rapidly in a certain part of Sakurajima three years ago. Then its mysterious founder established manga, film, and television companies one after another! Their works were incredibly popular, and the novels and manga they released were all high quality! They swept across Sakurajima for a time and became a leader in the entertainment industry! I happened to see some entertainment news like that on my phone."
"They say that mysterious founder never shows his real face and has always worked behind the scenes. All anyone knows is that the acting head who officially represents the company calls the person behind it Mr. Chuanlong! Natsukawa, what's your relationship with Tianlong Company?"
The young woman excitedly took out her phone. Although Advanced Nurturing High School did not allow contact with the outside world, and the phones it issued restricted external information, students could still browse outside news and use the internet normally. They simply could not post comments or send any other messages.
If they could not access information from outside, wouldn't students be out of touch with the times after three years of study?
The young woman said:
"The official website of Tianlong Company's manga subsidiary has detailed instructions for authenticating the limited-edition commemorative cards. I'll know whether they're real once I check..."
Natsukawa smiled at Yamashita and said:
"Well? You can be sure there won't be any risks with redeeming them now, right? You can exchange a limited-edition commemorative card for two million yen at any company under Tianlong Company at any time! And even the school can't classify this as illegal fraud, can it? Like idol memorabilia and such, limited-edition commemorative cards have no fixed value! All we need to do is sign an agreement. You'll use points to buy cards from me, Yamashita. Of course, this is a second layer of insurance. If I use an Anonymous Account to receive the points, students generally won't notice anything wrong and report it to the school anyway."
Natsukawa took out a small pendant as well.
"Here, this is my exclusive seal. You can take a look."
The young woman cheered excitedly:
"Yamashita! They really are limited-edition commemorative cards! They're exactly like the ones described on the official website, and they have the exclusive seal on them, too!"
Yamashita also studied the seal Natsukawa showed him and the phone, then said in disbelief:
"They really are exactly the same, and the cards are genuine, too. This is the exclusive seal under Tiankong Company that supposedly belongs only to Mr. Chuanlong, the mysterious president behind the scenes. Natsukawa Tatsuya, could you be the person behind Tianlong Company's founding?"
Natsukawa nodded.
Even Yamashita's composure finally gave way to shock:
"So that's it! You're that person, Natsukawa! There's no questioning your capabilities, and I have no further concerns about the deal."
"Let's buy the cards as you suggested. It's a very good idea. Collecting limited-edition commemorative cards is a personal hobby, so the school can't argue with that!"
"For now, I can only provide you with a third of our points. We need the rest to handle the upcoming exams. After that, I'll trade you some points every month, and just before graduation, I'll trade you everything we have left!"
And so the deal went through. On behalf of his entire class, Yamashita transferred six million points to Natsukawa's Anonymous Account and received seven cards. They then agreed to trade Natsukawa five hundred thousand points every month until the month before graduation.
This was a privately agreed contractual transaction between students. Once the two of them settled the terms, they only needed to have a teacher print out a contract and authenticate it. It would officially take effect once entered into the school's sealed contract records, leaving absolutely nothing to find fault with.
Although there was no real need for a contract, since the reason for the transaction was perfectly clear, Yamashita still chose to write one up and have it entered into the school's records to bring the risk down to zero.
Natsukawa also added a condition forbidding anyone in Class 3-C who learned the details of the transaction from revealing anything about it to anyone else.
In the original story, just before Horikita Manabu's graduation, Class A had been able to produce twenty million points during the second-to-last exam to save Ju Qian from a collective expulsion penalty. Faced with the final graduation exam, Miyabi Nagumo would only have schemed even more. Even when the third-year Classes B, C, and D, which had agreed to cooperate the previous time, joined forces against him, he still held on to Class A's position without being overtaken. That meant there must have been points left over, right?
Besides, in Ayanokoji's year in the original story, after two school years, once they reached their third year, Ayanokoji and Katsuragi transferred classes, and others spent points saving people, yet each class still had around twenty million private points.
So it was possible for Class 3-C to have accumulated eighteen million private points collectively after two school years, under their leader's management, right?
Even if Class 3-C only had thirty-odd students left, with each person receiving sixty thousand points a month, that would still be around two million points. Yes, after expenses and contributions to the class fund, it was still possible to give the protagonist a small portion of five hundred thousand points, right?
And this is a novel, so don't fuss over it too much. In short, it could happen.
(〜￣▽￣)〜
Before you continue