Someone had dropped a camera SD card on the ground.
Shirogane picked it up and glanced around, but there were no other students nearby. After thinking for a moment, he put the SD card in his pocket and headed toward the shopping street.
The street was bustling with activity. Since the new students had received 100,000 points for living expenses, they were eager to spend. As expected, the most popular spots were the bubble tea and coffee shops.
After all, who doesn't love sweets?
Shirogane, on the other hand, went to a café and bought a cup of coffee.
As someone who often stayed up late studying, coffee was an essential part of his life.
He ordered a sugar-free coconut latte, which cost him 350 points. A bit pricey—compared to instant coffee sticks from the supermarket, which cost only 150 points each, it was much cheaper to make his own coffee.
Thinking about this, Shirogane started walking toward the supermarket. But as he walked, he noticed a familiar girl with a purple hairpin—the one he had seen at the electronics store.
The girl was walking with her head down, staring at the ground. She made her way toward the electronics store, but surprisingly, she stopped at the entrance, turned around, and walked away.
That gave Shirogane an idea. Could the SD card he found belong to her?
"Did something happen?" Shirogane approached and asked.
?
The girl looked up when she heard his voice. It seemed like she didn't recognize him.
"I didn't lose anything," she said.
"And I don't know you."
With that, the girl with purple hair turned around and walked straight into the nearest bookstore.
How cold.
If the girl Shirogane had seen in the elevator that morning—Horikita Suzune—seemed distant, then this purple-haired girl was even colder. She outright refused to interact with people.
[She's lying.]
A voice echoed in Shirogane's mind.
At the same time, he also felt that she was lying.
When she looked up and saw him, there was a brief flash of surprise in her eyes before she quickly looked away.
It was the kind of reaction someone had when they were feeling guilty but trying to stay calm.
Of course, the most suspicious part was that when Shirogane asked if something was wrong, she responded by saying she hadn't lost anything.
This was a random question.
Shirogane had asked on purpose to test her, but she answered honestly.
So maybe she wasn't very smart.
She had clearly recognized him, yet she still insisted she didn't know him. That meant she was trying to distance herself from him.
Which meant—
As rude as it might sound, Shirogane was pretty sure the SD card he found in front of the electronics store belonged to her. And there was probably something important on it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have tried so hard to act like they had nothing to do with each other.
But for now, he decided to take care of his own tasks first.
Since he had already made himself known, if the SD card really mattered to her, she would come looking for him sooner or later.
…
Because he had spent some time buying a notebook and a USB drive, Shirogane went straight to the supermarket.
The supermarket was well-stocked, but there were so many options that shopping took the most time here.
After getting everything he needed, Shirogane finally sat down to rest.
"Beep beep!"
Just then, Shiina sent him a file.
Even without opening it, he knew—it was the video of Ryuen beating someone up.
Shirogane knew this was important, so he immediately plugged in his laptop, turned it on, backed up the file, and transferred it to his USB drive.
All done in one go.
Right after he finished, another notification popped up on his phone.
It was a message from Shiina.
It seemed like every student was automatically registered for the school's messaging app using their student ID.
Shiina had sent him an invitation.
"Would you like to join the First-Year Class C group chat?"
So this was the class group chat.
Of course, he had to join.
Actually, he had been thinking about this for a while. Since this school made students compete as classes, and rankings were based entirely on class points—
And since the first month involved a behavior assessment, where students lost points for actions that didn't meet the standards of a proper high school student…
That meant the first month was all about losing points.
And since only the third-year Class A students could graduate as representatives of the school…
That meant class points fluctuated over time. If one class saw an opportunity to climb higher, the top-ranked classes would do everything they could to block them.
That was competition.
And that was exactly how things worked. According to the upperclassmen, there was a special exam almost every month.
These exams could either reward or deduct personal points and class evaluation points.
That explained why class rankings were always shifting.
Right now, since it was just the first month, the only goal was to hold onto the initial 1000 points.
But…
Shirogane was sitting at his desk, with a notebook in front of him. Inside, he had written down what he recorded about how the two upperclassmen had their points deducted back then.
Reading manga in class — points deducted.
Using a phone in class — points deducted.
Sleeping in class — points deducted.
Being late, leaving early, skipping class — points deducted.
Inappropriate behavior — points deducted.
Fighting — major points deducted.
It didn't seem like anything unreasonable—just the kind of rules any decent student should follow.
But if these were all ways to lose points, then were there no ways to earn points?
Only their own class would know the answer to that.
It might be easy to control a single person, but with 40 students in a class, that meant every one of them was a potential reason for losing points. And this exam lasted for 30 days.
"…"
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
Even just during today's homeroom, Shirogane had already seen 80% of the students using their phones while the teacher was talking. Of course, he had also used his phone—but that was because he was recording.
Feeling a bit troubled, Shirogane's eyes landed on the SD card he had picked up earlier in front of the electronics store on the shopping street.
He was pretty sure that the purple-haired girl had lost this SD card. But she seemed very cautious about it.
That probably meant whatever was inside was something she couldn't afford to let others see.
Normally, if you found something like this, you'd just turn it in at the student council's lost-and-found. But if the student council staff checked its contents and found something serious, it could be a huge embarrassment for the purple-haired girl.
When he bought his computer, he made sure to get a card reader.
Might as well take a look at what's inside.
Beep!
The connection was established quickly.
And then, some pictures popped up.
And then—
!!
"…"
Shirogane was suddenly very glad that there were no cameras in the dorm rooms.
Otherwise, the real issue wouldn't be the purple-haired girl's reputation—he'd be the first one in Class C to lose points today.
PS: That's all for today's update. You guys know what I'm gonna say, right?
PS: Please support the novel! Add it to your library! Add it to your library! Add it to your library!
PS: No need to send me knife emojis, okay? I didn't hit full attendance this month. o(╥﹏╥)o