I split the salad with Sumire.
I wasn’t sure if it was just a universal girl thing, but she insisted on having less than half. She mightn’t have been as hungry as I was, but we did split the cost. Twirling the lettuce around her fork, she gently brought it to her lips.
I simply stabbed the leaves and stuck them straight into my mouth.
After a few bites, Sumire looked up at me.
“Do you want to sleep first, Akira?”
“What do you mean.”
“Someone’s got to stay up and tap on the phone. We’ll take it in turns to sleep obviously.”
“Is it that important?”
To be fair, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to compete and fight for the higher ranks that much. Aside from a slightly more comfortable life, there wasn’t much else to be gained necessarily. I just wanted to have as normal of a schooling experience as was possible… here.
However, Sumire simply stared at me.
“It is important, Akira. We’re not just going to waste that time. You can sleep first and I’ll tap on our phones. Six hours and we’ll switch.”
“I suppose so.”
I guess it wasn’t a bad idea. We were somewhat stricken by a lack of Points to buy food.
A few minutes later, we finished our meals. We were both relatively quick eaters.
*
Sumire was back in my room.
“We can swap our phone after we wake up, no? You don’t have to sleep in my room, Sumire.”
“I just feel like it.”
Is that a valid response? This seemed like it was almost socially acceptable, but if you were to reverse the genders then the presumptions become clearer.
“Are we even allowed to?”
“There’s no rule against it, Akira.”
…
I guess it didn’t make that much of a difference. I might as well get those extra points while I was sleeping.
It was relatively late so I lay down on my bed.
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Sumire was still sitting on my table, swinging her legs. She seemed to be on her phone looking at stuff again. Whilst we did have a messaging system here, there wasn’t exactly any social media to scroll through. She was probably just checking names and reading through some of the information regarding the various apps.
I decided to get some sleep.
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My normal sleep schedule consisted of six hours of sleep.
“Time to get up, Akira~”
It wasn’t too hard to pull myself out of bed. I wasn’t sure what Sumire had done for the last few hours, but it seemed that she was able to entertain herself with something.
“Where are you going to sleep?”
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll just sleep on the table~”
“What? I don’t care if you sleep on my bed.”
“It’s not that. I just find your table more comfortable, Akira.”
I personally did not think that my table would’ve been more comfortable than the soft bed that the school provided, but to each their own, I guess. It wasn’t like I needed to use my table for anything anyway.
Lying down on my table, she curled up like a puppy, hugging her legs. It didn’t look very comfortable, but she seemed to be perfectly fine with it.
“Oh yeah, you should check your phone. The school doesn’t seem to care what time of day it is when they send notifications.”
I looked down—two notifications.
“Anyways, I’ll discuss these things with you when I wake up. I need to get some sleep, after all, Akira.”
She closed her eyes.
The room was silent aside from her soft breaths.
I opened my phone.
-
From: TAG Administration
The school will now introduce our Caste System. Every student has been allocated into one Caste based on a variety of factors. Those in Caste One will receive special privileges, access to the executive lounge and voting rights—however, their names and number of points will be public on the LEADERBOARDS App. All other Castes have no special effects aside from slight Point acquisition alterations.
Members in each caste will be ranked. The highest ranked student in each Caste may challenge a student of a higher Caste through a {Rank Challenge}. Specifics can be found on the DUEL App. To raise your rank in a Caste, you can choose to use a {Rank Challenge} on your own Caste member, or simply gain more Points and request a {Rank Reallocation}.
You have been placed in Caste 98-B. Your rank in your Caste is 12th.
-
This was an interesting system. It was clearly something designed to split students into smaller groups to make things more competitive. Points were still very important since you could purchase abilities, which would probably help in combat, or use them to directly rank up.
I decided to have a quick look at the LEADERBOARD app.
LEADERBOARD - CASTE ONE
1. Gehlee Mendoza - 143,984
2. Hiroto Kumagawa - 121,472
3. Darren Kangim - 88,238
4. Kamura Tsukamichi - 76,234
5. Hana Tobiichi - 71,843
…
There were some noticeably high point balances. The only real method to have been able to collect that many would’ve been to gather them from other people. There must’ve been large groups already forming around the school.
I don’t really want to get involved with any of that.
I looked at the second message from the school.
-
From: TAG Administration
Fit with our curriculum. We will be hosting our first exam in 7 days. The details will be sent to you at a later date, but be warned that 20,000 students will be expelled at the conclusion of this exam. This will be the largest culling event of this school.
If you make it past this stage, you will officially be recognised as a student of TAG. If you do so, we’re sure your parents will be very proud of you. To get to this stage, you will have passed the Initial Selection Round and the First Exam.
We wish you the best in your preparations.
-
I wonder where my parents were.