That was easy to say, but I have absolutely no clue where to start.
Gazing at Morishita Ai’s silhouette as she departed full of motivation, Mikage Touji felt a bit of a headache coming on.
After thinking for a moment, he pulled out his phone and entered the newly joined class group chat.
The screen was refreshing with various discussions from Class A students about the school.
The only thing missing was any information regarding school rules.
Hashimoto Masayoshi, who had earlier mentioned asking senpais for news, remained silent as well.
It seemed Katsuragi was right—this wasn’t information that could be obtained easily.
Normally, a certain amount of points would be enough to get an upperclassman to talk, as they wouldn’t lose anything themselves.
Yet, there was zero news from his own classmates.
Mikage Touji finished the last sip of his mineral water and tossed the bottle into the trash can with a clank.
He looked toward the school building.
‘Has it been forbidden by the school?’ Mikage Touji clicked his tongue.
‘How cunning!’
The immediate priority was to figure out that evaluation system the school used for the students.
That was the core of all the problems.
Once that was clarified, there would be breakthroughs for everything else.
“This school measures students by merit.
Since you succeeded in enrolling, you possess corresponding value and potential.
What you must do is continue to maintain that value.” Mashima’s voice echoed in Mikage Touji’s mind.
Value?
Merit?
Potential?
Speaking of value…
Mikage Touji began pacing along the school path.
‘What exactly is a student’s value?’
A breeze brushed past, fluttering his bangs.
‘Stray dogs with scores below 600 shouldn’t talk to classmates above 650; your impoverished brains will affect the concentration of their knowledge.’
Mikage Touji shuddered and shook his head vigorously.
‘No, no, no.
Different national conditions.
I’ve already transmigrated, why am I still thinking about the fear of academic suppression?’
As for merit…
[A massive shooting occurred at a US high school.
A student armed with a submachine gun rushed into campus and opened fire on other students in a classroom, resulting in XX deaths and XX injuries.]
‘Not that far, not that far.
This is Japan’
So…
based on the situation in Japan, what do they mean by a student’s “value”?
Academic ability definitely counts as one.
Given Japan’s intense club culture, physical ability should be in there too.
As for things like morality or social skills…
those are abstract.
Unless the school has “God’s Eye,” how could they judge—
Mikage Touji’s body froze.
He slowly looked up, and the surveillance camera in the top right corner clearly reflected his large, flat face…
‘It’s not impossible!’
“Hiss—”
Mikage Touji sucked in a breath of cold air.
Following this logic, since value is ranked, it is highly likely that they are divided into “Rocket Classes,” “Honor Classes,” “Advanced Classes,” and “General Classes” based on grades.
At this moment, the heroic figures of his classmates flashed through his mind.
‘Our class shouldn’t be the worst one…
right?’
Mikage Touji’s face twitched.
‘No, no matter what, we couldn’t be the worst!’
Mikage Touji quickly extinguished that thought.
Aside from himself and that anomaly Morishita Ai, the discipline and quality of the other students in the class were plain for all to see.
Sorting through his thoughts so far, Mikage Touji felt he was very close to the truth.
Verifying this hypothesis was actually quite simple: he just needed to compare the quality of the students in each class.
Mikage Touji stopped in his tracks.
The students had already been dismissed for the day; if he wanted to compare, the earliest he could do so was tomorrow during class.
Nothing for it but to stop here for now.
Mikage Touji sighed and took out his phone.
[Light, When Will You Return: Morishita-san, how is your progress?
Over here, it’s almost Checkmate.]
The corners of Mikage Touji’s mouth curled up wildly.
It didn’t matter if it was true; talk big first and worry later.
After a while, Morishita Ai’s reply arrived belatedly.
[Humans Are Quite Interesting: Mikage Touji, it seems your evil self was truly sent by the heavens to stop me from uncovering the truth of the world.]
[Light, When Will You Return: Don’t tell me your plan was interrupted by me again?]
[Humans Are Quite Interesting: Correct.
Your reward is to go for a drive with me to the ends of hell.
I was eavesdropping for intel in the cafe, but your message ruined it.]
That was certainly a method, albeit one that relied too much on luck.
[Light, When Will You Return: In that case, keep at it.
My mission for today is already over.]
[Humans Are Interesting: Don’t bother yourself.
Two days from now, you will understand that Morishita Ai is invincible.]
After a bit more back-and-forth with Morishita Ai, Mikage Touji arrived at the entrance of the student dormitory.
He raised a hand to his brow and looked up.
It was a fairly tall dormitory building, exceeding ten floors by visual estimation.
There was no way the boys could use that many floors alone; boys and girls must live here together.
After obtaining his electronic key card from the warden, Mikage Touji arrived in front of his room.
Room 404.
Truly a forbidden and unspeakable place of all evil.
The sensor let out a beep, and the door opened.
The room wasn’t large, but it was fully equipped with a bed, a small fridge, and a stove; it even had a balcony.
Mikage Touji closed the door, locked it, and slowly exhaled.
Now then…
Mikage Touji’s eyes suddenly widened.
A silver-white flow seemed to ripple through his pupils, and his originally brown irises turned deep as ink.
On the balcony, five ants were carrying the corpse of a dead aphid.
On the door, three shallow, intersecting scratches were distributed.
The fridge was empty, with nothing placed inside.
Dust had accumulated in the corner of the bathroom; it seemed the cleaners had slacked off.
In an instant, information from the room flooded into Mikage Touji’s mind like a torrent…
Mikage Touji’s mental energy continued to spread…
As the range expanded, a sense of being drained began to creep in.
Sweat slid down the bridge of his nose and dripped onto his lips.
The next moment, the pale floor filled Mikage Touji’s vision.
“Huff!
Huff!
Huff…” He knelt on the floor, gasping for air.
‘Mind Control?
Telekinesis?
Or Omniscient Sight?’
He couldn’t quite figure out his ability yet, nor did he know if it was a leftover from the System; the ability had appeared right after the System fled.
But without a doubt, this ability belonged to an exceptionally high-tier category in any world.
Unfortunately, this was a world without magic.
With his spindly arms and legs, he was born to be beaten until he cried by anyone with a pair of fists.
The biggest benefit so far was that his stamina recovered quickly and his five senses became sharp.
Currently, Mikage Touji had developed two active skills.
One was the “Detection” he just used.
As for the other…
Mikage Touji stared at the room card in his hand, and the silver-white light flowed again.
The card in his hand suddenly twitched, then flew up into the air in a crooked fashion.
It swam through the air like a fish, finally coming to a wobbly standstill in mid-air.
It was barely at the level of performing a magic trick for someone.
The current training method seemed to be that it would strengthen with use.
However!
‘Let me stay at Advanced Nurturing for three years, develop slowly, and after graduation, anyone who dares speak loudly to me gets a Tengai Shinsei!’
(Tengai Shinsei= the justu of Madara that summoned an asteroid)
Slap!
A crisp sound rang out on the floor as the room card fell.
“…”
Struggling to drag his body onto the bed and tucking himself under the small blanket, Mikage Touji closed his eyes peacefully.
Forget it.
Right now, thinking about how to accurately throw an empty bottle into the trash can is more realistic.