1 Chapter 6.1: Welcome to a merit-based world Part 1

"What am I going to do without any more points...?"

"I used up the remainder of my points yesterday..."

After Chiyabashira-sensei left the room, the whole classroom was in an uproar.

"Even more than the points, this is a problem with the class... Why was I put in class D!?"

Yukimura vented in frustration. There were beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Wait, does that mean we won't be able to go to a college we want to go to? Then why did I come to this school in this first place? I wonder if Sae-chan-sensei hates me..."

None of the students can hide their confusion.

"I understand that everyone is panicking right now, but calm down."

Hirata took control of the class, trying to calm down the sense of impending crisis.

"How can we calm down in this situation? Are you not frustrated that we are the class of leftovers!?"

"Even if I say I am, isn't it better to work together to get out of this situation?"

"Get out of this situation? In the first place, I don't even agree with this hierarchy of classes!"

"I completely understand your feelings.However, there's no use in sitting here and complaining about it."

"What!?"

Yukimura walked up to Hirata and grabbed him by his collar.

"Calm down, you two. Ok? Surely, Sensei must have explained it to us sternly in order to cheer us up, right?"

Kushida spoke up. She broke the two apart and gently took Yukimura's balled fist in her hand. Yukimura, as one would expect, tried not to hurt Kushida and unintentionally took a step back.

"Also, it's only been a month since school has started. As Hirata-kun said, I think that it's better for all of us to persevere through this situation. Do you think I'm wrong?"

"N-no, thats... Certainly, I don't think what Kushida said is wrong, but..."

Yukimura's wrath already dissipated away. Kushida sincerely looked at everyone in class D, wishing for everyone's cooperation.

"T-that's right. We shouldn't be impatient. There's no need for Yukimura and Hirata to fight."

"... My bad. I lost my composure for a bit there."

"It's fine. I should've chosen my words more carefully as well."

With the help of Kushida Kikyou, the fight was resolved in an orderly way.

I took out my phone and took a picture of the class points. Noticing my actions, Horikita looked at me with a curious expression.

"What are you doing?"

"I haven't been able to figure out the specifics behind the points yet. Haven't you also taken some notes?"

If I can figure out the exact number of point deductions from being late to and talking in class, we can probably come up with some counter-measures.

"Wouldn't it be hard to calculate the numbers with this little information? Also, even if you managed to figure something, I don't think it will help resolve this problem. Simply speaking, everyone is always late and talks way too much during class."

As Horikita said, it's hard to come up with a conclusion with the amount of information at hand. She seems to be strangely impatient; her usual calm attitude seems to be missing.

"Are you also at this school to get into college?"

"... Why are you asking that?"

"It's just that when she talked about the difference between class A and class D, you looked really shocked."

"That was more or less everyone's reaction in the class, no? Even though we were given an explanation on the first day of school, I can't understand this new development."

Well, that's reasonable. The people in classes B and C are probably grumbling in discontent just like us. Every other class other than class A is treated as leftovers by the school. Trying our hardest to increase our class rank seems to be the best course of action here.

"I think that before thinking about class A or class D, we should probably work to guarantee some points."

"Points are only a byproduct of our efforts in class. Not having any points won't hinder our school life. After all, this school provides everything for free at some capacity."

Even if you think that, this is relief for those who lost all their points.

"Won't hinder our school life, huh..."

It's not an issue for living on bare minimum. However, there are a lot of things that can only be obtained by points. For example, leisure and entertainment. Not having any means of entertainment will probably only hurt us in the future...

"Last month, how many points did you use Ayanokouji-kun?"

"Hmm? Oh, how many points I used. I used roughly 20,000 points."

The students who used up all their points were in trouble. Like Yamauchi, who had been panicking for some time now.

Ike also spent all his points.

"Even though I think it's unfortunate, they're paying for their own mistakes."

Certainly, using up all 100,000 points in a single month is a small problem.

"We were baited by the lure of the points in the first month..."

100,000 points a month. Even though we thought it was too good to be true, everyone celebrated.

"Everyone, once classes starts, I ask that everyone pays attention earnestly. Especially you, Sudou-kun."

Hirata attracted the attention of the noisy classroom by standing up at the podium.

"Tch, what is it."

"This month, we didn't get any points. This is a problem that will hugely affect our future student life. We can't go on like this and graduate with 0 points, can we?"

"Definitely not!"

One girl shouted at Hirata's words. Hirata gave a gentle nod.

"Of course not. So, we have no choice but to try and get some points next month. That's why everyone in the class has to work together to fix our problem. We should refrain from being late to and talking during class. Naturally, using cell phones during class is also prohibited."

"Ha? Why do we have to listen to what you say? If the points stay constant, there's no reason to stop."

"However, if we continue being late and talking during class, our points will not increase. Although we can't go further down from 0 points, it still counts as a negative."

"I don't understand. Even if we work hard during class it's not like our points will go up."

Feeling dissatisfied, Sudou snorted and crossed his arms. Noticing Sudou's feelings, Kushida spoke up.

"Didn't the school say that not being late and not talking during class should be an obvious mentality?"

"Un, I also think the same way as Kushida-san. It's the natural thing to do."

"That's just an explanation for your own convenience. If you understand that our points won't increase, it's pointless. Talk after you figure out how to increase our points."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with what Sudou-kun's saying. Sorry for making you feel uncomfortable."

Hirata bowed his head towards the disgruntled Sudou.

"However Sudou-kun, it is a fact that if we don't cooperate, our points will never increase."

"... It doesn't matter what you do. Don't involve me. Do you understand?"

As if he felt uncomfortable from staying in the classroom, Sudou left the room.

Is he gone only until class starts, or will he never return?

"Sudou-kun really can't read the atmosphere. He's the one that's late the most. Even without Sudou-kun, can't we still get some points?"

"Yea... he's the worst. Why is he in the same class as us..."

Well, everyone was having the time of their life until this morning. There was no one complaining about Sudou then.

Coming down from the podium, Hirata walked to the front of the room.

"Horikita-san and Ayanokouji-kun, do you have time later? After school, I want to talk about how we can increase our points. I want you guys to participate. Can you?"

"Why us?"

"I want to hear everyone's thoughts. However, even if I ask for everyone to speak up, I think more than half will not listen seriously."

So that's why he thought to ask the two of us in particular. I don't think we can give any helpful ideas, but I guess it's fine to participate. Even though I thought that—

"Sorry, but can you ask someone else? I'm not very good at discussing things."

"You don't have to force yourself to say anything in particular. It's good enough to just be there."

"I'm sorry, but I have no intention of meeting for a pointless reason."

"I think that this is our first trial as a united class. So—"

"I already refused. I am not participating."

Calm yet strong words. Despite considering Hirata's standpoint, Horikita rejected him again.

"I-is that so. Sorry... If you ever change your mind, please participate."

Horikita already stopped paying attention to Hirata, who had given up.

"How about you, Ayanokouji-kun?"

Honestly, I thought it would be good to participate. After all, most of the class would probably participate.

However, if Horikita was the only one to not participate, she would probably get the same treatment as Sudou.

"Ah... I'll pass. Sorry."

"... No, I'm the one that should be sorry, If you ever change your mind though, feel free to join."

Hirata probably understood what I was thinking. I didn't reject him strongly like Horikita did.

Now that the discussion was over, Horikita started preparing for the next class.

"Wow, Hirata is pretty remarkable. He was able to get everyone in action. It's not unusual to feel depressed by the situation."

"That's one way to look at it. If you're good at solving problems with discussions, there won't be any difficulties. However, if a student that's not very smart tries to hold a discussion, it would probably fall into mayhem. Also, I can't bring myself to accept the situation right now."

"Bring yourself to accept the situation? What do you mean by that?"

Horikita, without answering my question, said no more.