Chapter 4: The Points Harvest Plan
After the Hidden Rules were revealed, everyone in Class 1-B fell into silence. The school's cutthroat education system was so shocking that no one knew what to say at first.
According to Hoshinomiya Chie's explanation, only students from Class A in each grade could successfully graduate from the school. Students from other classes had no guarantees whatsoever.
Everyone could easily imagine how intense the future inter-class competition would be—this was no joking matter.
Logically speaking, Class B was near the top of the class hierarchy. Defeating Class A, the frontrunner, would secure victory. However, judging by the class assignment rules, Class A students had the highest overall quality in their grade, making them an extremely difficult target to overcome.
Moreover, the two classes below wouldn't just sit idly by. If they wanted to climb up, Class B was the hurdle they had to surpass.
Thus, if Class B wanted to advance, they couldn't just focus on Class A ahead—they also had to remain vigilant against the two classes below. This was undoubtedly the school's intention: to make everyone compete with their full effort.
Seated at her desk, Honami clearly sensed the tense atmosphere in the classroom. Seeing everyone's unease, the girl's sense of responsibility immediately kicked in. She wanted to step up and lead the class forward.
But just as Honami was about to act, she saw Hikaru, who had just exposed the rules, stand up from his seat before she could.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, we don't have any classes this morning, right?"
"That's correct. After homeroom, everyone can return to the dorms to rest. Formal classes will begin tomorrow according to the schedule."
"Then could you wait a moment? I'd like to borrow a bit of your time—there's something I want to say."
Hearing Hikaru's words, Chie smiled again and nodded cooperatively. "Of course. I can wait until you're finished."
"But since you're taking up my time, you'll have to help me move textbooks later."
"..."
Hikaru fell silent for a moment but reluctantly agreed.
Though he was physically weak, there was something he absolutely needed to confirm with the teacher regarding his next steps, so Hoshinomiya Chie's presence was necessary.
"I can help move the textbooks too."
Honami quickly seized the opportunity. She had been wanting to talk properly with her deskmate since earlier—not just out of curiosity, but also for the sake of Class B's future.
"Sure, then it's settled—the two of you."
During the earlier collection of Private Points, Chie had already noticed that aside from Hikaru, this fair-skinned, beautiful Honami was also remarkable.
To possess such charisma on the very first day of school—she was clearly no ordinary student either.
"Then I'll trouble you, sensei. I'd like to borrow the blackboard."
Hikaru left his seat and walked to the blackboard, picking up a piece of chalk.
Seeing this, the students of Class B immediately perked up, their gazes shifting toward the podium.
Everyone knew it was this very Hikaru who had just exposed the school's hidden rules, so they naturally held higher expectations for him.
"What I want to say is actually quite simple—it's about class competition."
Hikaru tried to make his tone sound as serious as possible. This wasn't something he usually did, but to boost Honami's stock value, he had no other choice.
Just moments ago, after Honami's stock price rose to 50 points, Hikaru had used an item from the [Trading Shop].
[Stock Analyzer]—costing 1,000 points each, with a limit of five purchases per month. Its effect was to analyze the characteristics of stocks already on the market and provide suggestions for raising their value as well as risks that could lower it.
After using it on the pink-haired girl beside him, the system provided a detailed explanation.
[Honami Ichinose Stock]
[Stock Info: A girl trusted by her classmates, gentle in nature, willing to stand up against injustice and speak out for what's right. She has a heart of gold and can converse with anyone, though few can truly get close to her.]
[Stock Rise Suggestions: Help Class B climb the ranks, unite classmates, prevent students from dropping out.]
[Stock Drop Risks: Lie to her, act against the class's interests, betray classmates.]
It was precisely after understanding this information that Hikaru took the initiative to step forward.
"After listening to Ms. Hoshinomiya's explanation of the rules, everyone should realize the two most important things in this school."
"One is class evaluation points," Hikaru wrote on the blackboard as he spoke, ensuring his classmates could follow his reasoning, "and the other is personal points."
"Our class just spent two million personal points to purchase the school's hidden rules—a significant cost that might affect future class competitions."
"Yeah, the class's personal points were cut in half just like that..."
"I feel the same way."
Voices of agreement rose, showing that many in Class B shared this concern.
Ignoring these murmurs, Hikaru spoke clearly, "So my idea is to maximize the utility of these points and minimize the class's losses."
"Do you already have a plan, Hikaru?"
A short-haired, sporty boy voiced his question. His name was Shibata Sō, and Hikaru remembered he had spoken to Honami before—apparently, he was in a sports club in middle school.
"Yes. I call this plan the Phased Harvesting Plan," Hikaru wrote the name on the blackboard. "The method of execution is to sell the school's rules."
"Sell the rules?"
Honami stared at the boy's face and questioned, "Hikaru, are you planning to resell the rules we bought to other classes?"
"Yes."
"But aren't the classes in competition? If we sell the rules to others, won't we lose our advantage?"
"Of course, it's not as simple as selling the rules outright. That would be aiding the enemy, and I wouldn't do that."
Hikaru wrote the letters A, B, C, and D on the blackboard and further explained.
"If I'm not mistaken, the advantage of purchasing the rules will only last for one month. Once the private points are distributed next month, some classes' points will inevitably change. At that time, the homeroom teachers of each class will explain the rules, and our advantage will completely disappear."
"Am I right, Ms. Hoshinomiya?"
"That's correct."
Chie had already stepped to the side of the podium, leaving the stage entirely to Hikaru.
"What we need to do now is utilize this one-month time gap to convert the information disparity into maximum profit."
Hikaru pointed to the letter A on the blackboard.
"According to Ms. Hoshinomiya's explanation, deductions from class evaluation points occur when school rules are violated—such as not paying attention in class, daydreaming, or playing with phones."
"Judging by the school's class assignment rules, Class A students are the most outstanding group. Even if they don't know the school's hidden rules, I doubt they would violate school regulations multiple times within this month."
"After a month, they might only lose a few dozen class evaluation points, which wouldn't be enough to widen the gap between us and Class A."
"I see, I understand now," a boy with purple hair picked up where Hajime left off. "So we can just tell them the rules outright. Even if they know, it doesn't matter—Class B will still get a portion of private points back."
"Exactly."
A faint smile of approval appeared on Hikaru's face. It seemed there were sharp minds among Class B's students as well. Being the second tier, they weren't far behind.
"Since the final class ranking depends on the class evaluation points, our goal this month is to ensure our class's evaluation points aren't deducted, minimizing the gap with Class A while acquiring as many points as possible."
"But what if Class A also wants to sell the rules after learning about them?"
Honami raised her hand to ask. She had been following Hikaru's train of thought all along.
"That's why I asked Ms. Hoshinomiya to stay," Hikaru turned to Chie and inquired, "Earlier, when you explained the school rules, you mentioned a special method, didn't you?"
"What are you referring to?"
Chie already knew what he was getting at, and her impression of Hikaru's sharpness deepened.
"A contract—a school-approved tool to formalize transactions."
Hikaru explained to the class with a smile, "When we sell the rules to Class A, we can have them sign a contract prohibiting them from reselling the rules. Any violation would be treated as a breach."
"With that, the first step of recouping our points is complete."
"Wait, is that really possible?"
"Seriously? Does that mean we can get back the points we just spent?!"
As the class grew excited, Hikaru glanced at Honami before nervously checking his system panel.
Sure enough, a new notification had popped up.
[Honami Ichinose approves of your point-recovery plan. Honami Ichinose's stock rises by 10 points. Current stock value: 60.]