Since he had nothing else to do, he decided to pay Hiyori a visit to the library. Not only was she quite isolated in her own class, but there was a madman named Ryueen who had been trying to take control of the class from the very first day. At least that's what she told him the last time they met, although in better words.
[Name: Ryueen Kakeru
Class: 1-C
Physical stats:
Stamina - ??
Strength - ??
Combat technique - ??
Average physical stats - ??
Mental stats:
Academic ability - 93
Memorisation power - ??
Critical thinking - ??
Average mental stats - ??]
"Hmm… Seems like an interesting guy." Yamauchi muttered.
Ryueen was the only one in class C who had 5 of his stats higher than he could detect. While the average of class D was lower than class C, they had more than a few wild cards who were as good as class A students, if not far better.
Once he reached the library, it didn't take him long to find the silver-haired girl, seemingly zoned out in her book.
'I wouldn't be surprised if she spends more of her time here than her dorm… Sigh.' He couldn't help but think. It seemed that she hadn't noticed him yet.
"Hello there!" He spoke with a small smile, startling her. "Thinking about class competitions?"
Realizing it was Yamauchi, she relaxed and then responded with a nod. "Yeah… It seemed Ryueen-kun already had some sort of idea about this. Using the frustration of the rest of the class, he finally got support from quite a few people. Though his intentions seem just to lead our class to A, I really have questions about his methods."
'Damn, seems like I underestimated the guy because of his low academic abilities. Even in our class, only Koenji had the slightest idea of what was going on in the first month. At the very least, this guy's critical thinking would be in the top 5 of our year.' Yamauchi fell silent, concerned about the new name.
"It would have been even more difficult for you, right? You even have your clubmates, now suddenly they are your opponents." Hiyori spoke, looking at Yamauchi, who was in deep thought. "Oh, right! Do you have enough private points? Since I don't have much to spend, I have more than 100k left. If you need, don't hesitate to ask!"
"Heh, don't worry about it, I have more than enough. And if you talk about it that way, we both are opponents too. Besides, being that concerned about the class competitions will only make things more difficult for our own class." After thinking a bit more, Yamauchi found his answer. 'Truly, talking with others really helps, even if the other side didn't even know your question.'
"But yeah, that doesn't mean I won't help my class reach A, and I don't think you should, either. Until and unless we find some way to increase our class points, we are all essentially out of the race, anyway. Well, all except class A, of course." He added, with a smile. "Thanks a lot, Hiyori. You really helped me get rid of my doubts."
[The main mission has been chosen.
Rewards:
New ability - [(D Grade) Evolver]]
[(D Grade) Evolver - Evolves any one lower grade ability to D grade at the end of a month OR Gives a random ability of D- grade if no skill can be evolved. This ability evolves with class rankings.]
[Main Mission: 'Make your current class reach and maintain class A'
Difficulty: Unknown
Rewards: Unknown
Penalty: Unknown]
Looking at all these screens suddenly appearing, Yamauchi blinked. Somehow, the system gave him too much and too little information at the same time. Barely managing to keep a normal reaction, he turned away and started leaving.
"Still, try to get along with your classmates. Whether you like it or not, they are gonna be the people you have to trust the most for the next three years." He said while leaving, not bothering to look back.
Just when he was leaving the library, he saw a bald man, presumably in his 30s or 40s, walking towards it with a serious expression. His calmness somehow demanded attention, but what gave him even more attention was the fact that he was wearing a student's uniform.
[Name: Katsuragi Kohei
Class: 1-A
Physical stats:
Stamina - 106
Strength - 106
Combat technique - 111
Average physical stats - 107.67
Mental stats:
Academic ability - ??
Memorisation power - ??
Critical thinking - ??
Average mental stats - ??]
'Ah, so that's him. She really wasn't kidding when she said he looks like a full-fledged adult.' Yamauchi thought about how accurate Hana's description was and suppressed a chuckle. 'Still, a possible leader of class A is nothing to joke about.'
He vaguely knew that there was a split in class A for the seat of leader between him and a crippled girl named Sakayanagi Arisu. While allying with class A without backstabbing mostly seemed out of the question since only one class could win, even a temporary truce with a few students could be useful sometimes.
Before Katsuragi would notice his gaze, he quickly moved it and then walked away. However, just as they crossed their paths, Katsuragi called him out.
"Wait."
'Huh? Why is he calling me now?' Yamauchi couldn't think of any reason, so he just asked casually, "Hm? Yeah, what is it?"
"You were looking at me, any particular reason for that?" Katsuragi asked in a calm voice, shattering Yamauchi's confidence.
Of course, he had not committed any crime just by looking at him, but this was the second time in the same day he had been caught. He now wondered if all his previous instances of observing people were already known to them. But he quickly put on a facade and answered:
"Ah well, no offence but at first glance you seemed like an adult wearing a student's uniform, so I just got a bit curious." Yamauchi quickly replied, scratching the back of his head.
Katsuragi, who had been pretty much used to hearing these words, couldn't help but sigh. Pushing away his unpleasant memories behind, he extended a hand and said, "Katsuragi Kohei. Class 1-A."
Nodding, Yamauchi shook his hand and replied, "Yamauchi Haruki, Class 1-D. Nice to meet ya!"
With a nod of approval, Katsuragi went to the library, and Yamauchi decided to go back to his dorms.
Once he reached the dorms, he realised he had nothing else to do. So after thinking a bit, he finally decided to put to use his 'gifted' ability.
'Go all in on Academic Ability.' He mentally commanded the system.
[Academic Ability - 146 (+30) (+15)
Average mental physical stats - 144 (+15)
Available points: 0]
Then spent most of the remaining day improving the topics which were borderline complex for him to understand formerly, learning new ones, and also prepared a rough test of all subjects to check on his 'students' tomorrow.
While his gains in additional points of exceeding were limited to only 5, he could still study much more. That was because his academic stat was quite different from other stats; he could always learn more and grasp the current topics better by studying, his points just decreased the time he needed to learn them and allowed him to learn more complex topics.
But, to avoid what happened with his critical thinking task, he had decided to stop once he gained 4 additional points in any task for the past couple of days. And to his surprise, it worked as well as a cheat code. The task didn't get exponentially difficult, but only increased with respect to points.
This time, he had chosen to make an exception for academic ability, since, except for the first few days, he had never studied as much to make his task for the next day more difficult. So he didn't mind breaking the limits once or twice per month, as long as he could take full use of it for the rest of the day.
Feeling tired, he was about to hit the bed early, but his phone got a message. Curious, he picked it up and saw a message in the cooking club chat.
Mai: Hahaha, this year's class D surely managed to do something unprecedented, huh? Losing all the thousand points in a single month. Can't say I am not impressed.
Sure enough, it was their club leader bullying his class. Yamauchi really wanted to remind her that she was in class C in their third year, but thought better of it.
He had learnt that she was the representative of her class for more than two years they had been here, and was respected throughout her whole year. More to that, her undetectable stats spoke for themselves too.
Suddenly, there was another message.
Mai: Anyways, since you guys likely have it rough, there is no need to attend the club until your first exams are over. Second years still have to come on the usual 3 days per week though. That's all, enjoy and try not to get yourselves expelled already, we still need the funding.
'Is that her way of caring about us?' Yamauchi thought with a chuckle.
He had heard from Nakamoto that before the cooking club, she was vice representative in the women's basketball club in her first year itself, then representative of the women's swimming club too.
…She had just technically retired by joining the cooking club after seeing an empty seat, probably for free food, and taking away quite a few private points.