Ding... ding...
The shrill bell marking the end of class rang out. Teacher Chabashira cast a single, dismissive glance toward the cluster of 'defective products' loitering in the back rows, tucked her lesson plan under her arm, and walked out without another word.
Advanced Nurturing High School. Class 1-D.
Chris didn't bother lifting his head. Even as the bell jolted the rest of the class awake, he sat exactly as he had been — cheek propped on one hand, eyes half-lidded, yawning.
That is, until a pale blue holographic screen flickered to life directly on his retinas, uninvited.
[Today's Random Item Has Refreshed——]
["GANTZ · Black Sphere Core (Administrator Permission Edition)"]
[Retrieve?]
Chris shifted into a slightly more comfortable slouch and went back to feigning sleep.
GANTZ...
Gantz: O?
That thing — the so-called founding father of the 'infinite loop' genre. The one that plucked the freshly dead from the afterlife and used them as disposable pawns, stuffed them into skintight suits, and hurled them into bloody, desperate battles against alien monsters?
On reflex, he turned his head and glanced at the seat beside him.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka — the human chameleon — was staring blankly at the blackboard, his expression utterly vacant.
Up ahead, Horikita Suzune was mapping something out in her notebook with focused precision.
Further away, Karuizawa Kei was chattering and giggling with a group of girls about the latest nail art trends.
Chris turned his attention inward, sending his consciousness into the system's inventory.
The item hovered there on the list — a sphere of pure, matte black, radiating a cold and unsettling technological aura. He stared at it in quiet contemplation.
"Giving me something like this..."
"What, is the system sick of watching these elites live so comfortably?"
Sure, the original Classroom of the Elite novel had its share of entertaining mind games, but he had to admit — this school really was an ivory tower. Tuition-free, living stipends, private single rooms with their own kitchens and bathrooms. The facilities alone would make most other schools weep.
The only real restriction was the ban on outside contact.
But this thing — the Black Sphere — now that he was inside COTE...
It was simply part of what had to be tried.
Besides, as a transmigrator with a cheat system, he genuinely had nothing to worry about.
About three weeks ago, on the very first day after he crossed over into this world, he'd rolled a single draw and pulled out the "Devil's Passport" — and it hadn't disappeared when the next daily item refreshed. That was when he knew: the days of playing pretend were over.
He had to ask — was there anyone in this world who could stand against a combo like the Devil's Passport + Time-Stop Watch?
Whenever Chris felt like it, he could turn Advanced Nurturing High School into his own personal playground. Do whatever he wanted, to whoever he wanted.
And yet — just like how some people don't want to be Superman, they just want attention; or how some look for seriousness in the trivial, and depth in the shallow — that feeling of absolute, effortless dominance had actually made him lose interest surprisingly fast.
Things that come too easily always taste like nothing.
Like booting up GTA with every cheat code enabled. Fun for about twenty minutes, then nothing but a hollow emptiness.
Right now, his mindset was purely that of a bored thrill-seeker looking for entertainment.
Since GANTZ had arrived, and this place was a classroom built on the principle of meritocracy...
Tossing in a few alien monsters as a little 'pop quiz' shouldn't be too unreasonable, right?
Although, now that he thought about it — did this world even have vampires, yokai, or alien Buddhas for him to fight?
If it was just ordinary people who did nothing but study, forcibly dragging them into the Black Sphere's space for a slaughter would be... tasteless. Even for him.
He was a thrill-seeker. Not a psychopath.
Unless... this world wasn't as clean as it appeared.
Just as that thought crossed his mind and he furrowed his brow in consideration, a faint citrus fragrance drifted past him on a gentle breeze.
"Um, Chris-kun?"
He looked up.
What greeted him was a face blooming with a perfect, radiant smile.
Kushida Kikyo.
Class D's little angel. The reigning popularity queen, beloved by both boys and girls alike — at least, that was the surface of it.
Right now, she was standing in front of him, hands clasped behind her back, leaning forward just slightly. Even beneath the loose folds of her school uniform, the white dress shirt traced curves that absolutely refused to be hidden.
"Is something up?" Chris gave a mild nod, slipping effortlessly back into his harmless, approachable expression.
"Ah, it's nothing too major, really." Kushida blinked with a bright, playful tilt of her head, glancing toward the other side of the classroom. "It's just — Chris-kun always seems to go it alone, so Hirata-kun and I were talking about organizing a welcome dinner this weekend, and we really wanted to invite you along."
"We're all in Class D together — we should get along, right~?"
Chris studied the girl in front of him, who seemed to radiate light from every inch of her, and something shifted quietly in the back of his mind.
A class's social hierarchy basically solidified within the first week or two of the school year. From what he knew, Kushida had proactively approached the 'socially awkward' Ayanokoji early on — primarily because of Horikita. In a setting where interpersonal dynamics had already largely been established, her going out of her way to seek out a ghost like him was... interesting.
Was it because of his looks? Because he was, objectively, unreasonably attractive?
Or was it that the combination of a Men-in-Black-style memory eraser and Doraemon's "time furoshiki" wrapping cloth wasn't quite convincing enough — and she'd somehow felt something?
Or was it simply plain goodwill?
Given Kushida Kikyo's two-faced nature, Chris found that last option rather unlikely.
After a brief moment of consideration, he pushed himself up from his seat, casually slipping his phone back into his pocket, and declined with polite vagueness.
"A dinner party? Sorry — I've got some personal business this weekend."
Without waiting for a response — and without acknowledging the fraction of a second in which Kushida's perfect smile stiffened — Chris turned and walked straight toward the back door of the classroom.
"I'm feeling a bit stuffy. Going up to the rooftop."
——
Ten minutes later. The rooftop of the school building.
Hardly anyone came up here. Beyond the rusted chain-link fence stretched a sky of pristine, washed-out blue — and the full, unobstructed silhouette of the enormous cage known as "Advanced Nurturing High School."
After confirming there was no one else around, Chris snapped his fingers.
"Come out."
The air rippled like the surface of disturbed water.
A sphere of absolute black — radiating a cold, ghostly luminescence — materialized in the air before him from nothing.
Chris reached out and pressed his palm flat against the surface of the Black Sphere.
[Administrator Identity Confirmed.]
[System Linking to World Data...]
[Scanning Current Area for Anomalous Biological Signatures...]
With a hiss of electronic static, a holographic map of the entire school island bloomed across the surface of the Black Sphere.
The map, which had previously shown nothing but green dots, suddenly erupted with a dense, blinding scatter of red.
"This is..."
On the map's display, inside a convenience store beneath one of the student dormitory buildings, a single green dot representing a human was rapidly disappearing.
In its place, a massive red dot began to pulse.
Designation: [Ghoul · Class B]
Near the supermarket, several red dots sat calmly in position. Their designations read: [Parasyte · Incubation Stage] and [Malevolent Spirit · Unperceived].
Using the god's-eye perspective granted by the Black Sphere, Chris could see it with perfect clarity — the convenience store clerk who was always cheerfully scanning items at the register, back turned to the security camera, his face splitting open like the petals of a blooming flower, swallowing in one clean bite a stray black cat that had wandered inside.
Chris, who had been entirely casual up until this moment, couldn't help but let one eyebrow tick upward.
"...Ha."
"Well then."
"And here I thought giving me a cheat this broken could only mean they wanted me playing house forever."
Whatever moral reservations he might have had evaporated on the spot.
If this was the true nature of this world — if this filth had been lurking underneath it the whole time — then lighting the fire was something he could do with a perfectly clear conscience.
Chris gave the Black Sphere a light pat, his gaze drifting down toward the bustling campus below.
"Enjoying yourself alone is no fun at all."
"A dungeon with this kind of difficulty is exactly what 'meritocracy' deserves!"
"Now then — let me tweak the parameters just a little, and handpick a few lucky audience members~"
____
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