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I’m praying on your downfall, Akira Kumagawa
!&#^$&*#^@$*#
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A few days passed.
“Do you wanna head over now, Akira~?”
Poking her head through the small crack between the door and the frame, Sumire’s strawberry-blonde hair was slowly sneaking itself into my humble abode. I had my foot pressed against the door, stopping it from opening any wider, but she had her foot pressed against the frame so that I couldn’t close it.
Status-quo—or something.
“I just had a shower.”
“I can see that.”
The wet hair and towel around my waist definitely made that clear. Still, she acted as if she had no concept of common sense—like it was okay for me to just walk out in this outfit. I could feel some pressure against my foot, so she seemed to have no problem with trying to enter my room as is.
“I’ll go once I put some clothes on.”
“I’ll wait for you.”
“You can do that outside my room.”
Eventually, she retreated her foot and I was able to close the door. The exam wasn’t for another thirty minutes, so there was definitely no rush to get to the venue.
I looked down at my phone.
POINTS
Your current points: 119,274
Current Rank: #52,918
Neither of us spent very many points. Aside from food, there was nothing else that we were consistently spending points on. I had purchased a few [Star Minions] and [Lesser Bank Minions] which both had their uses.
FIELDS
[Wood Minion] x1
[Poultry Minion] x1
[Star Minion] x20
[Lesser Bank Minion] x5
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The [Star Minions] were a long-term investment which allowed for the ‘research’ of more minions and abilities.
[Star Minion]
Inventory: 0x Stars
[BASE] Produces 1x Star per week.
Stars can be used to research more items.
I still hadn’t received a single star due to the week-long wait time, but both Sumire and I decided that it was a good idea to invest in them in order to hopefully gain access to better minions. At the moment, the monetary ones, aside from the [Lesser Bank Minion], were all pretty bad, especially with our debuff.
[Lesser Bank Minion]
[BASE] Provides 0.5% interest on your Points at the end of the day.
(Max 5 per person)
It was the minion with the highest potential earnings and the quickest return on investment (with my spending habits at least). Sumire had also bought five as soon as we found out about its ability.
With my [Wood Minion] and [Poultry Minion], I simply let them sit and grow exponentially as much as I could. It wasn’t like I really had a use for their items at the moment.
Drying my hair, I turned on the school-issued hair dryer and plugged it into the wall. It had a really gentle stream, like something you’d expect from an expensive Kor™ brand hair dryer. The school really went hard on providing us with high-quality amenities at least. Before long, I put on my clothes and made my way to the door again.
There was a slight creak as I slid it open.
Sumire was leaning against the hallway wall. She stretched her arms up as she saw me, still with the same apathetic expression. Well, it wasn’t completely apathetic, her lips curled and her eyes bright enough to make her seem girlish in an oddly natural way.
Well, she also had some makeup on—so maybe not completely natural.
“Took you long enough.”
“I was getting dressed.”
“You should’ve done that earlier, Akira. Now everyone else is also leaving their dorms.”
Looking around, students were just about gathering outside to make their way over to the exam hall together. You were technically allowed to go to any venue, but the closest one to us was on floor 100.
As the two of us walked, we could hear the chatter from the other students.
“…do you think there’s going to be lots of science on this?”
“…surely they do. They had a specific class for it, it wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t put it on.”
“…yeah, but are they going to be able to fit every subject onto this test?”
“…if they’re going to be expelling people, it’s going to be fair.”
“…ahh… don’t talk about getting expelled. I really don’t want to go home yet!”
…
Sumire turned to me.
“Where would you go if you got expelled, Akira?”
Where would I go? That was a good question.
Nowhere really.
“I’d just hang around places, I suppose. It’s not like there’s anyone waiting for me.”
The elevator door opened and everyone crammed themselves in. There were so many conversations about the exam that I could barely hear Sumire anymore.
*
Walking silently into the exam venue, I saw actual teachers for the first time since coming to this school. I hadn’t gone to any of the classes since I wasn’t too bored and preferred to just stay in my room.
The venue was very large, filled with red seats, almost like a theatre. There was a slope that went down as you walked closer to the end of the hall, so everyone could clearly see the front. Every table had a tablet that showed a blank screen with the words: Wait for the exam to begin.
Everyone chose seats at random and looked forward at the large clock that was being projected onto the front wall. It was stuck at 04:00:00, waiting for the beginning of the exam time.
…
As people trickled in, time ticked closer to the beginning of the exam. There were about five minutes before it was scheduled to start. The tablets had privacy screens which stopped people from being able to peer over onto yours. It was certainly quite a formal setting.
Suddenly, the tablets flashed onto a new screen:
The exam will commence in 3 minutes…
Please note: You may not leave the premises until the end of the exam. All answers must be written on the tablet. No marks will be deducted for wrong answers. No communication with anyone is allowed. Any form of cheating will be severely punished. You will have four hours to complete the exam.