The messages came during fourth period.
Haruto felt his phone vibrate twice in his pocket—once for the class group chat, once for something else. Around him, faint rustling and shifting told him everyone else had felt it too.
"Phones away," the history teacher said without looking up from the textbook. "If I catch anyone using them, I'll confiscate them until tomorrow."
Chairs creaked. No one moved.
Haruto kept his gaze on the board and slid his hand into his pocket, unlocking his phone out of sight. He tilted the screen just enough.
New notification:
Exchange Committee to Class 2-B:
Today's Task: "Trust Poll – Lunchtime Edition"
Another line.
Your individual instructions have been sent privately.
You may choose to ignore them.
But ignoring opportunities rarely erases debt.
He flicked to his private messages.
Exchange Committee:
As representative, you will not receive a task today.
Observe how they move.
Around the room, small, guilty glances darted down to laps, then up again. Aiko's jaw tightened as she forced herself to look straight ahead. Ryuuji shifted restlessly, fingers drumming on his desk.
The teacher droned on about feudal reforms.
Fifteen minutes to the bell.
When lunch finally came, the classroom erupted in noise faster than usual, as if everyone were relieved to talk just to prove they were still normal.
"Hey, did you get something too?"
"Mine says—wait, are we even allowed to talk about it?"
"It's just spam, right?"
Haruto opened his bento. Simple rice and pickles. He ate slowly, listening.
Aiko stood, slamming her hands lightly on her desk. "Everyone, before you say anything—don't follow any instructions from that number. The school said—"
"I know what the school said," Shun cut in, voice sharper than usual. "But what if ignoring it makes it worse?"
"Worse how?" Aiko demanded.
Shun swallowed. His fingers clenched around his phone. "My message… it says I already have a 'Debt Value' of 7."
Haruto watched the words hit the class like a small, invisible grenade.
"7? Out of what?"
"Out of 10, idiot."
"Wait, they told you your number?"
Shun nodded. "It says, 'Your current debt is 7. If you want to reduce it, convince one classmate to send you a message that says: I trust you with my money.' If I do that by the end of lunch, my debt goes down by 2 and theirs goes up by 2."
He laughed shakily. "S-so, obviously I'm not doing that."
Aiko's expression turned stormy. "Of course you're not. That's exactly how they try to turn us against each other. You'd be shifting your so-called 'debt' onto someone else."
Shun looked at the floor. "It's not like it's real."
"Then why are you shaking?" someone whispered.
Across the room, a girl raised her hand timidly. "Um… Mine says something similar. I'm at 5, and if I get three people to 'vouch for me as reliable with money,' I can reduce it."
Another student spoke up. "I got 2. It says I can add my debt to someone else's entirely if they agree to 'cover me' in a text."
More voices trickled in.
"I'm at 9. I didn't even do anything!"
"Mine's 1, is that good?"
"It's random, right? It has to be random…"
Haruto leaned his chin on his hand, eyes drifting over the class, matching numbers to faces.
7, 5, 2, 9, 1.
He'd written every one of those yesterday.
So it wasn't symbolic. The game was using his assignments.
Aiko pressed her fingers to her temples. "Enough. No one responds. No one sends those texts. If we do, we're playing their game exactly the way they want."
"And if we don't play?" Shun asked quietly. "What if they decide the 'debt' becomes real anyway? They said they'd convert it at the end of the week. What if they send something to our parents? Or the school?"
"Based on what?" she snapped. "They don't have that kind of authority."
"But they have our numbers," Mina said. "Maybe more."
Silence fell again.
Haruto broke it with an easy tone. "Even if it's fake, letting some outside group decide things about us without any input feels worse, doesn't it?"
A few people glanced his way.
"What are you suggesting, Tanaka?" Aiko asked warily.
"Nothing much." He shrugged. "Just that it might be smarter to treat this like a quiz instead of a curse. See what they do with our responses first before panicking."
"That's literally the opposite of what the teacher said," she retorted.
"Yes, but the teachers also said they'd 'handle it.' Did they?"
No one answered.
Ryuuji leaned forward. "Haruto's got a point. If we pretend it doesn't exist and something blows up later, we'll feel stupid. If we test it a little, at least we'll know if they can actually affect anything."
Aiko glared at him. "You too?"
He held up his hands. "I'm not saying we go all-in. Just… controlled experiment, right? One person tries something small. If nothing happens, we relax. If something does, we have data."
"This isn't a science lab," she shot back.
"Everything's a science lab if you're desperate enough," Ryuuji said.
The class buzzed again, voices overlapping.
Haruto watched Aiko's shoulders tense. She was losing the room. Not completely, but enough.
"Fine," she said eventually, voice clipped. "If you're all so determined to poke the hornet's nest, do it in a way that doesn't screw anyone over. No shifting points, no 'I trust you with my money' nonsense."
Shun lifted his head. "But all the tasks are about shifting points."
"Then we wait," Aiko insisted. "Maybe they'll send something else. Or the school will track them."
Haruto's phone buzzed again.
Exchange Committee:
We appreciate the discussion.
Allow us to demonstrate that inactivity is also a choice.
A new message popped into the class chat at the same time.
Unknown number:
Since no one has acted yet, we will volunteer someone.
An attached image appeared: a blurred photo of a bank transfer receipt. The amount was clear.
50,000 yen.
Another line.
Unknown number:
One of your classmates owes us this amount already.
At the end of the week, they will be responsible for the entire class debt if their value is lowest.
Please choose your actions carefully.
The room froze.
"Is that real?"
"Which classmate?"
"50,000 yen?!"
Aiko's face went pale. "They're bluffing. They must be."
Haruto watched her, then the rest of the class. Some eyes were wide with fear. Others were calculating, already wondering who the "debtor" was.
His own phone buzzed privately.
Exchange Committee:
Representative, here is your additional information:
The bank transfer is real.
The debtor is in your list.
Below that, a single number.
Debt Value: 10
Haruto exhaled slowly through his nose.
So there was a 10 after all.
He hadn't assigned it.
Meaning the Committee had their own rules layered over his.
After classes, the atmosphere in 2-B was thick.
No one left immediately. Bags were packed slowly. Conversations stayed low, as if speaking too loudly might trigger something.
"So they're serious about the money part," Ryuuji said, flopping into the seat in front of Haruto's desk. "Fifty thousand yen. That's insane. What kind of high schooler owes that much?"
"Someone desperate," Haruto said.
"Or stupid," Ryuuji muttered. "If I ever owe that much, just shove me into a convenience store job and never let me out."
He tried to laugh. It came out strangled.
Haruto glanced around. Aiko was in deep discussion with the teacher near the door. Shun hovered by the windows, chewing his lip. A few students kept checking their phones even though no new messages had appeared.
"Hey, what number did you get?" Ryuuji asked suddenly.
Haruto blinked. "Hm?"
"In the messages." Ryuuji scratched his head. "Mine says 6. Like, what did I do to deserve a 6? I barely passed math last term."
6. Just as he'd written.
Haruto offered a small, sympathetic smile. "Could be worse."
"Yeah…" Ryuuji leaned closer. "What about you?"
"0," Haruto said.
Ryuuji stared. "Zero? As in, nothing?"
"That's what it says."
"Woah. Look at you, debt-free king." Ryuuji smacked his shoulder. "Guess if the world ends, you're the only one who walks away clean."
Haruto's lips quirked. "I doubt it's that simple."
"But still, that's unfair," Ryuuji complained. "I'm out here sweating in practice and still get saddled with 6. Meanwhile, you do nothing and get 0?"
"Life's not fair," Haruto said, tone light.
It came out a little too easily.
Ryuuji didn't notice.
On his way to the shoe lockers, Haruto's phone vibrated again.
Exchange Committee:
Individual progress report:
A list appeared.
Shun Takeda – Debt: 7 (unchanged)
Mina Kuroda – Debt: 5 (unchanged)
Ryuuji Sato – Debt: 6 (unchanged)
Aiko Nakamura – Debt: 8 (unchanged)
…
[Redacted Student] – Debt: 10 (existing external debt)
Below that:
No transfers have been made today.
In acknowledgment of your class's hesitation, we will adjust the stakes.
Haruto slowed his pace.
At the lockers, a first-year bumped into him, muttering an apology. He barely registered it.
Another message:
If no transfers are made by tomorrow's lunch break, we will randomly increase three students' debts by +3.
Randomness is often… unfair.
He closed his eyes for a moment.
So that was their play: punish inaction, push from stalemate to movement. Classic. If players were too cautious, introduce forced risk, make staying still feel more dangerous than acting.
Aiko would hate that. She'd cling to rules. Others would start looking for loopholes, for ways to protect themselves while technically obeying the "don't play" stance.
That friction would crack the class.
He slipped his shoes on and headed for the gate, phone in hand.
"Ayo, Haruto!"
Ryuuji jogged up beside him, bag slung over one shoulder. "Convenience store again?"
"Not today," Haruto said. "I've got something to do at home."
"Homework? Already? Nerd," Ryuuji said, but without his usual energy. His gaze kept flicking to his phone. "If they really do that random +3 thing, someone's going to get screwed."
"Maybe," Haruto said. "Maybe not."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," Haruto said, "you have until tomorrow to decide whether you want your number to stay where it is."
Ryuuji frowned. "I'm not shifting my debt to someone else. That'd make me garbage."
Haruto looked at him. "And if everyone else quietly shifts theirs onto you?"
Ryuuji hesitated.
"That's not… They wouldn't…" He trailed off.
They both knew he couldn't say it with certainty.
Haruto's tone stayed gentle. "Just think about it. That's all."
He turned down a side street before Ryuuji could answer.
At home, his room was small, neat, and quiet. A single bookshelf. A desk with a lamp. No posters, no clutter.
Haruto placed his phone on the desk and opened his notebook.
The same list of names. The same lines.
Next to each, he added the numbers he'd seen so far.
Aiko – 8
Ryuuji – 6
Shun – 7
Mina – 5
Others – unknown
He added one more line at the bottom.
Debtor (10) – identity unknown
Then he drew a circle around it.
The Committee wanted chaos, fear, desperate trades. Fine.
But they'd made one mistake.
They'd shown him the structure.
He flipped the page and started writing possibilities in small, tidy letters.
If random +3 is applied…
Worst-case targets: those already high (7–9).
Emotional fracture points: guilt vs self-preservation.
He tapped his pen against the desk.
If he let things play out naturally, the class would tear itself apart slowly, organically. He could blend into the background of that chaos, occasionally nudging.
But that wasn't enough.
He wanted to see who reached for a lifeline. Who offered one. Who refused both.
Another notification appeared.
Exchange Committee:
We will send a special task tomorrow morning to one student only.
Not the representative.
Watch how the others react to them.
Haruto stared at the screen for a moment.
Then he wrote one more sentence in his notebook.
Find the 10.
He closed it, the motion precise.
Outside, the last light of day faded. In the distance, sirens wailed briefly, then vanished. Somewhere, someone's life was already tangled in real debt.
Inside Class 2-B, that weight was still invisible.
For now.
He turned off the lamp and let his eyes adjust to the dark, faint glow from his phone the only light.
Tomorrow, someone would make the first move.
He just had to be ready to catch the thread when it snapped.