Chapter 9: I Have Never Seen Such a Speechless Person
The next day, early morning.
After giving the students a day to adapt to their new environment, today marked the official start of their classes.
"Good morning, Sakura-san."
Returning to his seat, Katsuragi Keima greeted Sakura Airi beside him.
"G-good morning..."
Sakura Airi responded in a voice that only she could hear. In her hands, she held a small red camera—the very one she had spent a long time choosing and buying the night before.
Keima turned his head to the other side and noticed Horikita Suzune watching him out of the corner of her eye. However, she quickly shifted her attention elsewhere, seemingly trying to ignore him on purpose.
"Good morning."
Keima gave a perfunctory greeting.
"Are you speaking to me?"
Horikita did not turn her head, merely tilting her glasses slightly to look at Keima with a haughty sidelong glance.
"I thought you didn't understand the concept of so-called manners."
Horikita was still brooding over the events of yesterday.
"What was your name again?"
Keima asked indifferently, as if he hadn't heard her remark.
Although Keima already knew her name through the cards Elsie had given him, in reality, she had not yet introduced herself; yesterday's self-introduction session was interrupted before it reached her turn.
"I have no obligation to tell you my name, do I?"
"Oh, what a stingy person. Won't even say a name."
"?"
The muscles in Horikita's face twitched uncontrollably for an instant. This was the first time she had ever been called that. A wave of irritation surged in her heart.
While Horikita was contemplating a retort, Keima had already pulled out his handheld console and started playing on his own.
"Horikita Suzune. That's your name, isn't it? I didn't really need to ask; after all, one can check the class seating chart and the schedule. Knowing your name isn't exactly a difficult task."
"..."
Countless words rushed to Horikita's lips, but she couldn't utter a single one for a long while.
'Does this guy have some kind of problem with his brain?'
"Even if your head seems decent, in the end, you're just a four-eyed otaku."
After simmering for nearly a minute, Horikita managed to squeeze out that sentence.
"Furthermore, you said yesterday that we should save points, yet you ended up buying a pile of things that sap one's ambition."
"These are not things that 'sap one's ambition.' On the contrary, they are very important existences to me."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Horikita let out a cold laugh and finally turned her face fully toward him. Even with an expression of disdain, that face was undeniably beautiful.
"And playing games directly in the classroom—aren't you worried about being criticized by Sensei?"
However, Keima never once looked up at her. His gaze remained focused on his screen as he spoke:
"Sensei probably won't say anything. After all, the school rules explicitly prohibit leaving campus and fighting. In a sense, as long as a student doesn't violate the rules, they can do whatever they want."
"But..."
"Having said that, there might be 'invisible' rules that haven't been announced. Haven't you noticed? The number of security cameras in this school is extremely high, far exceeding the normal needs of an ordinary school. Not only that, but the school store has almost every kind of equipment, and you can even use the student terminal to order things on the campus network that you can't normally buy. Yesterday, I discovered the same model of camera there; its precision far exceeds what is needed for daily life. It's possible the school knows every word we're saying right now."
Keima remained concentrated on his screen, operating the controls frantically while speaking at a steady, unhurried pace.
"I hypothesize that every student has a certain 'score,' and the school uses those high-definition cameras to observe our words and deeds to adjust that score. That is likely the
'value' Sensei mentioned yesterday. I suspect the points we receive each month are related to it."
Hearing Keima's words, Horikita finally snapped out of it. She quickly scanned the corners of the room. There were cameras in all four corners of the classroom, leaving almost no blind spots.
'Are the every moves of all the students currently under the school's surveillance?'
Horikita hadn't noticed the existence of those cameras before, but Keima had.
'Just how sharp is this guy's observation?'
"How exactly did you find out?"
"In a game, you can't miss any detail! These hidden details, like Easter eggs, are often what allow me to reach the hidden, perfect ending."
As he spoke, Keima pushed up his glasses and glanced at Horikita with a sidelong look before returning his attention to the screen.
"Someone like you definitely wouldn't know that."
This left Horikita dazed for a moment.
'Could it be that Katsuragi Keima plays games to train his thinking skills? That these games aren't just for entertainment—
No, absolutely impossible! Why am I even thinking about such a meaningless question!'
Horikita took a deep breath, then, as if remembering something, she looked at Keima with a frown:
"If you know the school is watching us, playing games in this setting is bad, isn't it?"
"Class hasn't officially started yet, so it doesn't matter. It might have some impact once class begins, but for the sake of Hana-chan, it's all worth it."
"Hana-chan? Who is that?"
"Hana-chan is a female character from the sixth branch of the game I'm playing now. I've already seen the ending—"
"Enough, I don't want to hear it."
Horikita sighed helplessly. This was the first time in her life she felt a sense of helplessness toward someone.
"Besides, even if our 'score' is deducted, there will surely be a way to increase it later. We can just add it back then.
You certainly make it sound easy. And from start to finish, this is all just based on your speculation."
Horikita shifted her gaze to the textbooks on her desk. Although she said that, based on what Keima had just said, she already believed about seventy or eighty percent of it.
While the two were talking, on the other side of the classroom, a meaningful gaze from Kushida Kikyo remained focused on them.