Idly fiddling with his personal terminal while occasionally checking the balance of his personal points account, Asakusa Tōru couldn't help but smile when he saw the figure—two million points.
Money that comes too easily really does have one drawback.
There's no sense of achievement.
The amount he'd only be able to get after grinding himself to death outside, selling tens of thousands of copies and then having all kinds of miscellaneous fees deducted before it finally reached his hands—here, in this school, he could get it just by moving his mouth.
Honestly, it made it frighteningly easy to lose one's sense of what money was worth.
But thinking about it carefully, perhaps that was exactly the school's objective.
Turn money into points, then recklessly distribute massive amounts of points in all kinds of ways, blurring the students' concept of money.
And then, upon graduation, release a large number of big-spending, consumption-habituated "high-quality consumers" into society all at once.
As for how those students would continue to sustain the high-consumption lifestyle they'd grown used to after graduating… that had nothing to do with the school anymore.
Students graduating from Class A would work themselves to the bone as corporate drones in major companies, relying on the school's connections. Students who didn't graduate from Class A would probably have to rely on loans.
Either way, it boosted consumption.
Jack that GDP way up!
His shopping was already done. He returned early to the dormitory, back to his own single room.
Everything else was garbage, but this one thing really was great—every student at Advanced Nurturing had their own private room. No need to squeeze in with someone else. He could enjoy his own personal time.
"Let's do a quick summary and review." Stretching, Asakusa Tōru fell into thought.
On the very first day of school, he hadn't followed the rules and stayed in Class B. Instead, he spent it at the door of Class C, chose to sell information to Ryūen, traded it for two million personal points, and got himself added to Ryūen's whitelist.
He'd already explained his reasoning for selling the information to Ryūen. The information he'd used for the trade was depreciating every single moment—its value dropped a little with each passing day, until it eventually became worthless.
Selling it early actually let him reap more benefits.
Although his purpose in enrolling at Advanced Nurturing was simply to make it easier and more convenient to write his diary, having enough personal points was still necessary.
Whether it was saving up the two million points needed as a get-out-of-expulsion-free card, or using a large amount of points to improve his quality of life over the next three years—money was essential.
And his reason for choosing Class C and Ryūen wasn't hard to understand either.
Class A didn't need that kind of information. Selling intel to them face-to-face would only create flaws and serve no purpose.
Class B was his own class. He couldn't charge them, and it would be hard to explain where the information came from anyway. There was no need.
As for Class D—there was no need to even mention them. They couldn't be unified at all, and there was no money to squeeze out of them.
So after thinking it through, the most suitable choice was actually Class C.
With a leader like Ryūen—someone with absolute control—it was possible to completely determine the class's direction. There was no need for unnecessary discussion or disputes, making it easy to sell the information at a good price.
So why wouldn't he do it?
As for any potential plot deviations caused by selling the information…
Tch. He was already writing a diary. Why would he care about that?
The more chaotic it got, the better.
Shaking his head, Asakusa Tōru ended his review of the day's actions and took out the diary.
It was time to write today's entry.
First, check the plot index.
[Today's Diary Plot Index: A]
"Oh?" Seeing the glaringly obvious "A," Asakusa Tōru raised an eyebrow.
Was it because it was the first day of school?
Yesterday's index was B, and today it had already risen to A.
Fair enough—this first day really was important. Whether or not someone noticed the true nature of the school was often decided on this very day.
But since the index was A…
Then the diary content couldn't be written carelessly.
A rare opportunity. He'd try to see if he could get an even higher evaluation.
There hadn't been any major problems with the structure of the previous diary entry, so there was no need to adjust that.
How interesting the content was wasn't something he could easily change—it depended on improvisation.
But the degree of spoilers and the emotional fluctuations the content could provoke were things he could adjust.
To test the limits of how much spoiler content was acceptable, he hadn't gone too far in the previous entry.
Judging from the A rating he'd received, his sense of balance probably wasn't too far off.
To maximize his chances of getting a higher evaluation this time, he'd try spoiling a bit more.
Of course, he'd also have to avoid going too far and having the score drop instead.
"..."
After a long stretch of thinking, Asakusa Tōru finally picked up his pen and began writing today's diary.
...
Today was Horikita Suzune's first day enrolling at Advanced Nurturing.
It was also the second day since she'd obtained that inexplicable diary.
Yesterday, while nervously and anxiously fantasizing about meeting her deeply admired older brother again after enrolling—imagining what kind of expression he would show her—Horikita Suzune had been entangled by the diary.
No matter where she went, it appeared at her side. No matter how she tried to throw it away, it would return to her again—clinging to her like a curse.
She thought it was just a hallucination brought on by excessive nervousness, so she didn't touch the diary for the entire day.
But after officially enrolling at Advanced Nurturing, once her tense emotions eased a little, the diary was still there—lingering at the edge of her vision.
"…Should I… open it?"
That thought suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Just taking a look shouldn't be a problem.
After all, curses couldn't exist in this world. The act of opening the diary itself could be seen as a way of examining her own hallucinations.
She needed to face her own psyche.
That's right—she was no longer the useless person her brother had once known. She'd come to this school precisely to catch up to him.
She had to find a way to resolve this erroneous hallucination, and the best way to deal with a hallucination was to face her inner self head-on.
"..."
Taking a deep breath, Horikita Suzune gently opened the diary.
The pages brushing past her fingertips felt overwhelmingly real—so real it was hard to believe this was just a hallucination.
As the diary opened, a faint scent like paper and ink wafted out.
Then, one after another, incomprehensible words leapt into view.
Technical school? Transmigrator? Cheat ability? Kidnapping? Spoilers?
…Are these things really what I'm thinking about?
No—no way. This absolutely couldn't be what was inside her mind!
So this diary…
Wasn't a hallucination?
Without realizing it, she'd already flipped through to the end. The diary didn't look particularly thin, yet she'd reached the last page in an instant.
Horikita Suzune hesitated.
The next moment, the final page of the diary suddenly gained weight.
New words refreshed into existence.
...