Are you waiting for someone to knock on your door?
That’s not how it works, Akira.
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It was the next day.
POINTS
Your current points: 109,295
Current Rank: #47,999
Getting up at my usual time, I put on some clothes and checked my phone—all the usual things a normal person would do. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, made my bed and all the other stuff that people do.
Locking the door behind me, I began to make my way through the quiet, flawless hallways of the dormitory. I could hear the slight noises of others in their rooms, probably getting up and going through their morning routine.
I pressed the ‘up’ button on the elevator and waited for it to come to my level.
There was a short ring.
The doors opened.
I took the long ride up to the 125th floor. It was the one where I had the highest chance of learning something new.
…
The doors opened again as I reached the level.
Walking through a slightly wider hallway, I made my way to the main lecture building. There weren’t a lot of students around, likely due to the unpopularity of classes in general, and especially this class. It was probably the most useless one out of all of them.
There was a little ‘bridge’ where the boys’ side of the dormitory connected to the girls’. On the other side was a single plain brown-haired girl. She had no distinct features, but her gait was confident, somewhat out of place of her appearance.
As we both made our way to the entrance of the hall, she looked over at me.
“I didn’t expect to see you here, Akira Kumagawa~”
What?
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“Do I know you?”
She tapped her chin with her finger and made a little hum.
“Hm, I guess you wouldn’t really know me.”
What was that supposed to mean.
She looked me up and down. It was an odd gesture and one that was definitely not especially socially acceptable. She showed some resemblance to Sumire, I guess, but their auras felt overtly different.
“Ah, class is starting soon, shouldn’t we head inside, Akira?”
“Yeah.”
We made our way into the hall. It was incredibly large, even bigger than the various exam halls during the entrance exam. It looked like it could’ve fit at least a few hundred students, with a large screen at the front which was projecting the whiteboard.
Despite that, it was almost completely empty. Walking through the gaps between the seats and the rows in front of them, I slowly made my way to the middle. I had plenty of choices so I found a seat that felt like it gave the best view of the front.
Even though she had every other seat in the hall to choose from, the girl decided to sit next to me.
…
I leaned back a little and watched the lesson. The teacher had begun and was presenting some topics regarding art history. It wasn’t necessarily uninteresting, but it was understandable that not many students at this school would be excited to attend. It wasn’t relevant to anything from the academy, after all.
We both silently listened to the teacher.
I guess this wasn’t too bad.
Two hours passed and there was a short break in the lesson. I could hear the sound of the few people leaving their seats a few rows behind me. I guess even they’d had enough.
I looked to my left.
The mysterious brown-haired girl seemed to be taking down notes from the lesson. They were messy and unorganised but they summarised the content pretty well.
At the very end, she drew a smiley face.
*
Despite having sat with me most of the day, at around 8 pm, just as the lesson was about to end, I noticed that she had left her seat. Only a few minutes ago she was still there, I guess she decided to leave a few minutes early.
It was weird, she didn’t speak to me the entire time we sat together, but just her presence beside me was somewhat comforting.
The teacher looked down at me.
“That’s it for today. You there, what’s your name?”
“Akira.”
“Akira, thank you for listening to my lesson. It gets demotivating, even for me, when I’m just presenting to nobody all afternoon. So once again, thank you. Do you have any questions for me?”
“No, but thanks for the lesson. It was interesting.”
He smiled before leaving the hall as well.
The lights dimmed and it was just me left alone again.
I guess I’ll head back to my room now.
…
…
*
Opening my door, I was greeted by a familiar blonde girl.
“Where were you all day, Akira?”
“I thought I locked my door.”
She laughed a little.
I don’t think that’s a valid response.
She was sitting on my table, swinging her legs up and down.
“I was listening to one of the lessons,” I continued.
“Those things? I guess it’s not a bad way to pass the time. I was busy dealing with Fern’s situation the entire day.”
“Ah, he decided to tell you guys about what he was facing?”
“Yeah, once he saw the lint ball you gave me, he explained it to Erika and me. It was pretty easy to figure out the rest from me.”
Sumire pulled her legs up and rested them on the table.
“It’ll be convenient to have a bit more income. I’ll be sitting at Fern’s place tonight to finish it off. I managed to get Jaerin and her boyfriend to sign the contracts with me.”
“That’s good.”
“Aren’t you going to try to get some more Points yourself, Akira?”
“I guess I’ll consider once I’m forced to.”
It was inevitable that the school was going to introduce new measures to cull more students. So this carefree life would only be able to last so much longer.
I took a seat on my bed.
Sumire tapped her feet.
“You know Akira, you really should try a bit harder, you might regret not doing so.”
“Maybe I will.”