Chapter 373: Opening of the Second Year / Over-the-Limit Shimizu Akira / Special Exam
Spring break had come to an end.
When calculating carefully, it really hadn't been many days. Starting from March 24th and ending on April 7th, it was only two weeks at most. Today was April 8th.
Entering April, the weather had completely warmed up; true spring had arrived. This should be considered a fairly pleasant time of year—neither cold nor hot, with the wind carrying a hint of warmth against the skin. Walking through the campus, plants were quietly budding, and the cherry blossoms were beginning to tentatively bloom.
On this day, Shimizu Akira did not head toward the Class 1-C classroom as usual. Instead, following instructions, he went to the second floor and stopped in front of the door for Class 2-B. Without hesitation, he pushed the door open and entered.
"Shimizu!"
"Long time no see!"
"Haha, we've moved up to the second year, and even our class has become Class B! It felt a little strange at first."
Quite a few people had already arrived in the classroom.
Sudo Ken, Ike Kanji, and the others smiled and greeted him as soon as they saw him.
"Morning, everyone," Shimizu Akira nodded.
It had indeed been several days since he had seen these few people! After exchanging a few more pleasantries with other classmates, Shimizu Akira turned his gaze toward the blackboard.
A line of text was written on it: Please wait in the same seats you occupied during your first year.
'Hmm? This time it isn't written in chalk, but displayed on a screen?'
It seemed Advanced Nurturing High School had begun introducing electronic equipment. Shimizu Akira walked to his usual spot: the very middle of the last row.
Sakura Airi, to his left, had not arrived yet, but Horikita Suzune, to his right, was already sitting there.
"Suzune, I remember you and Kikyo had a one-month probationary period in March. You should have passed by now and officially joined the Student Council, right?" Shimizu Akira asked casually.
"Yes, that woman and I are now official members of the Student Council. We've been doing formal work for two or three days now." Horikita Suzune put down the copy of War and Peace in her hand and nodded.
That wasn't bad. If they hadn't been able to join the Student Council, Shimizu Akira might have actually had to go speak with Kiriyama Ikuto.
He glanced at Horikita Suzune; seeing that her complexion looked good, it seemed she had gradually accepted the fact that her brother had left this school.
"I heard that woman also wants to run for Student Council President." Suzune turned her head to look at him. "So, who will you help?"
Another familiar question.
"I won't help either of them." Shimizu Akira sighed with some helplessness. "By the way, are you underestimating Nagumo Miyabi too much? Even if he really steps down, by common logic, Vice President Kiriyama Ikuto should be the one to take over."
Horikita Suzune's brow furrowed involuntarily. True.
According to the rules, when the President abdicates, the Vice President is the most suitable successor. Furthermore, within the Student Council, Kiriyama Ikuto hadn't treated her poorly. Perhaps because he had been looked after by Horikita Manabu, the tasks he assigned to her were always important, and he was exceptionally serious when teaching her how to handle affairs.
This was going to be troublesome.
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The time reached 8:00 AM sharp, and Shimizu Akira's daily intelligence refreshed on time.
Nanase Tsubasa of Class 1-D and the late Matsuo Eiichiro are childhood friends. Ishigami Kyo of Class 1-A has a physical ability rating of D-. Among this year's first-year freshmen, someone knows Kushida Kikyo's dark history from middle school.
Shimizu Akira scanned it briefly and found today's information quite interesting. Likely due to the promotion to the second year, all three pieces of intel were related to the newly enrolled freshmen.
The first was about the freshman Nanase Tsubasa. To be honest, he couldn't quite make sense of it for now; after all, he didn't know the person at all, much less Matsuo Eiichiro, so he skipped it.
He did recognize Ishigami Kyo mentioned in the second piece; he had to thank them for their help during the previous Class Voting Exam. It seemed she/he had been assigned to Class 1-
A—quite excellent. However, with physical ability at only D-, they were in the same tier as the literary girl Shiina Hiyori, which was indeed a bit weak.
As for the last one...
'Hmm? This one is critical.'
What else could Kushida Kikyo's middle school dark history be? It was nothing more than the incident where she self-exposed her secrets and caused her entire class to be paralyzed. Could it be that a kouhai from that school had also enrolled here?
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Around 8:30 AM, Chabashira Sae walked into the classroom.
"Good morning, students," she greeted the class in a rare, gentle tone.
"Why is the sensei suddenly so gentle...?"
"Yeah, it seems she's been especially kind to us since the Event Selection Special Exam ended."
"I feel a bit unaccustomed to this..."
Whispers of discussion broke out below. Chabashira Sae had always maintained an indifferent, "none of my business" attitude; seeing her suddenly become enthusiastic was actually a bit frightening.
Shimizu Akira could roughly guess the reason. It was nothing more than the class rising from Class D to Class B, which brought honor to Chabashira-sensei. If they were to drop back to Class D one day, she would likely return to that bitter expression immediately.
At this time, several sharp-eyed students noticed Chabashira-sensei was holding a tablet computer.
"Sensei, is that...?"
"Right, there are so many more charging ports at the back of the classroom!"
"The blackboard has been replaced with an electronic screen too!"
"Correct." Chabashira Sae nodded. "As you can see, with the start of the new school year, the school is implementing a smart education pilot program. As a state-supported project school, Advanced Nurturing High School is the first to introduce this system."
She held up the tablet: "Starting today, paper textbooks will gradually be replaced. The school will issue a tablet to every student, and most textbook content will be stored digitally within them."
"Ah... is that so?"
"But I'm still more used to reading paper books."
"Electronic devices, huh? It feels a bit different."
Chabashira-sensei skillfully swiped a few times on the tablet, projecting the interface clearly onto the brand-new electronic blackboard.
"Specific usage regulations and data security precautions have already been sent to your phones in document form. Tablets will be distributed starting tomorrow; please be sure to read the instructions carefully. Subsequent course schedules, substitute teacher information, lesson progress, and supporting online courses are all recorded in the file. If you have extra energy, self-studying in advance is permitted."
Chabashira-sensei finally clapped her hands.
"Alright, since it's the first day of school, at 10:00 AM sharp, all second-year students will attend the entrance ceremony along with the third and first years. After the ceremony, you are free to rest for the afternoon. Official classes begin tomorrow."
At 10:00 AM, the entrance ceremony for Advanced Nurturing High School officially began. Following the tradition of previous years, the concluding part of the ceremony involved Student Council President Nagumo Miyabi taking the stage to deliver a speech. Unsurprisingly, his speech still centered around a declaration based on the principle of meritocracy.
Shimizu Akira had no interest in listening to his rhetoric. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the line of first-year freshmen. According to the intelligence he gathered earlier, someone who knew Kikyo's past was hidden among these freshmen. However, since there were a full 160 freshmen this time, he didn't know who the person was for the moment.
The next morning, the school followed through and issued the customized tablets as scheduled. From then on, all teaching content would be updated simultaneously to the online platform. Even the teaching process of every lesson by the teachers would be recorded in full and uploaded to a dedicated server on the same day.
Many students were clearly not yet adapted to this brand-new teaching model, looking a bit helpless as they toyed with the tablet interfaces.
However, for Shimizu Akira, this wasn't much of an obstacle—he was mostly used to it from his previous life. He felt this teaching method was actually quite good.
Students with slightly lower grades could replay the lessons repeatedly and deconstruct knowledge frame by frame if they hit points they didn't understand.
Meanwhile, students who were ahead could use the online resources for independent expansion. It was the same for teachers; teaching via tablet could significantly increase
efficiency and say goodbye to the trouble of chalk dust. In the long run, it was a win-win for both teachers and students.
Just like that, a smooth and uneventful week passed in a flash. Perhaps because the school considered that students needed time to adapt to the new model, the progress of all subjects was kept very slow. During this week, students also gradually became familiar with the various operations of the tablets.
On another Monday morning, Chabashira Sae's figure appeared once again at the door of the Class 2-B classroom.
"There are two important matters to announce to you today! The first is that the school has developed a new app called Overall Ability (OAA). You need to log into the school-specific software and complete the download. Before logging in, you must perform facial recognition and link your student ID. Once you successfully enter the system, you will be able to access a personal information database covering all grades in the school. Including this year's freshmen, the ability values of all students will be recorded. However, I suggest you start by checking your own attributes."
Consequently, Shimizu Akira followed the instructions to complete the registration and entered his name in the search bar.
Class 2-B: Shimizu Akira
First Year Results
Academic Ability: A (92) Physical Ability: A+ (100) Flexibility/Adaptability: A+ (97) Social Contribution: A+ (96) Overall Ability: A+ (96)
There was a question mark icon to the right of the Overall Ability. After clicking it, a detailed explanation of the scoring appeared below:
Academic Ability: Primarily calculated based on the comprehensive results of written exams throughout the year. Physical Ability: Evaluated based on PE class performance, club activity participation, and physical fitness items in special exams. Flexibility/Adaptability: Evaluates indicators such as interpersonal networks, communication skills, resourcefulness, and performance in special exams. Social Contribution: Covers classroom attitude, attendance records, behavioral norms, and contribution to the Student Council or school activities.
Overall Ability: Calculated by weighting the above four values, with Social Contribution having its impact on the total score halved.
※ Overall Ability calculation formula:
(Academic + Physical + Flexibility + Social* 0.5) /350 * 100 (Result rounded)
Looking at his own data, Shimizu Akira found the numbers were indeed ridiculously high. Especially the physical ability, which was a direct full score.
Among the four sets of data, only academic ability was slightly lower at 92. This was likely because his Japanese language scores during the first few months after enrollment weren't ideal, dragging down the average.
However, it still landed in the A rating.
He remembered clearly that at the beginning of the first year's third semester, the school forums mentioned that Student Council President Nagumo Miyabi was pushing forward a student strength assessment system.
The one before his eyes was likely the final result.
"What is displayed now are your results from the first school year. Starting today, you will enter the evaluation cycle for the second school year. Data will be updated at the beginning of each month, just like class points. Therefore, what you see now is actually a historical record based on your performance over the past year. As for the freshmen's data, it is generated based on their third-year middle school results and entrance exam performance; its reference value is relatively limited at this stage."
"Even if it's last year's performance, it hasn't been that long!"
"Yeah, we can totally use this to roughly judge a person's ability."
"Hey, hey, I just sorted by Overall Ability, and Shimizu in our class is first!"
"I saw it too! Overall Ability of 96?! That's too insane... I'm not even at 60."
"Hirata in second place has an Overall Ability of 78; that's a full 18-point gap."
"No, really? This data of yours is way over the limit! Others are probably going to cry after seeing these numbers!"
Hirata Yosuke's ratings were as follows:
Academic Ability: B+ (76) Physical Ability: B+ (79) Flexibility/Adaptability: B (75) Social Contribution: A- (85)
Overall Ability: B+ (78)
Actually, this data was quite good; he was prominent in all areas.
But compared to Shimizu Akira, the gap was indeed more than two levels.
How to put it... Shimizu's stats were like he had a cheat code, looking like a hidden powerful character that only appears in a New Game+.
Chabashira Sae also involuntarily glanced in Shimizu Akira's direction. The person she had chosen!
Shimizu Akira didn't pay much attention to the discussions around him. His attention was focused more on the students lower in the rankings.
After a quick sort, he found that the last place was Ijuuin Wataru, Ike Kanji was second to last, and Sudo Ken was ranked around 30th thanks to his outstanding physical fitness.
Airi and Haruka were roughly between 25th and 30th place. That was acceptable.
After Kikyo's tutoring, their academic ability had risen to around C, and they were no longer the ones dragging the class down the most.
Shimizu Akira also casually searched for Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's data.
Academic Ability: C (51) Physical Ability: C+ (60) Flexibility/Adaptability: D+ (37) Social Contribution: C+ (60) Overall Ability: C (51)
Plain and ordinary as always, ranked in the latter half of the twenties in the class. However, data is ultimately just a reference and does not completely equate to a person's true strength.
"Additionally, as a special case, only Sakayanagi Arisu of Class 2-A has had her physical ability evaluation adjusted to the same value as the student ranked last in the entire grade."
It was heart disease, after all; there was no helping it. But specifically explaining this at the start of the second year made it hard not to associate it with her fainting during the last Event Selection Exam.
Shimizu Akira rubbed his temples helplessly, catching a glimpse of some people in the class who couldn't help but stifle their laughter. In this closed school, fainting from anger because of losing a match was indeed quite a pride-losing event.
"Ahem." Chabashira-sensei cleared her throat.
"Due to the introduction of this system, your perception of grades will undergo a thorough change. Now, students of all grades can easily look up each other's names, faces, classes, and ability values. I personally speculate that starting this year, students whose overall ability consistently falls below a certain standard may face some form of punishment, which does not exclude the possibility of expulsion."
"For real?!"
"The worst performers will be forced to withdraw?!"
The classroom immediately fell into a commotion, and many people's faces changed.
Ijuuin Wataru raised his hand directly: "Is there no way to improve it?"
"There is." Chabashira-sensei's answer was much more patient than at the start of the first year.
"The most direct way is to work hard for good results in the upcoming mock exams. If you lack confidence in studying, you can also improve your physical fitness rating by actively participating in club activities. Students who are good at socializing can organize regular gatherings to expand their influence, or perform actively in the special exams that are about to unfold. These four paths can all effectively raise your evaluation."
She didn't want to see her class drop back to Class D at all, so she was reminding everyone as much as possible.
Hearing this, the faces of the Class 2-B students improved significantly. Regardless, the paths to increasing points were diverse, and everyone could find a method that suited them.
"Wait! What do you mean by 'the upcoming special exam'?!"
"Correct, that is the second important matter I have to mention today." Chabashira-sensei nodded. "As second-year students, you will undergo a special test called the 'Cross-Grade Partner Exam.'"
"A new special exam is here!"
"Finally!"
"Starting right off with cooperating with other grades? Is it with the first years or the third years?"
Actually, the students of Class 2-B were more concerned about the current gap of less than 20 points between them and Class A; everyone was looking forward to the special exam.
"Your cooperation partners are the first years. The theme of this special exam is written testing and communication skills."
"But we don't know the first-year students at all!"
"Exactly, it would be easier if we were cooperating with the senpais..."
"It sounds a bit like last year's partner exam, but that time we teamed up with classmates."
"That is why I introduced the OAA system in advance. You can use this software to understand various basic data and information on the first-year freshmen." Chabashira-sensei explained.
However, OAA only displayed ability values; specific information like age, personality, hobbies, and areas of expertise were all absent.
Seeing the distressed looks on some students' faces, Chabashira began to explain: "In the future, when you graduate and enter society, join a new company, a new team, or a new project, you will be facing complete strangers. You must establish cooperation and effective communication with them in a short time.
If things don't go well, you won't even pass your probationary period. And the purpose of this exam, in one aspect, is to test your communication and collaboration skills in a short period. Unlike the last partner exam, this time you can freely choose your cooperation partner."
Compared to the complex environment of real society, the difficulty this time had already been lowered significantly. There was OAA data for reference, one only needed to cooperate with one person, and they could choose freely. The core of the final contest was merely academic grades.
"Which person from which first-year class you team up with is entirely up to you. The exam period starts today and is approximately two weeks away at the end of the month."
"On the day of the exam, five subjects will be tested, each with a maximum score of 100, for a total of 500 points. This exam is divided into two types of rankings: Class Competition and Individual Competition."
Chabashira-sensei then provided a detailed explanation.
Class Competition: Rankings are calculated based on the average total score of all partners in the class. Following the average scores from high to low, classes will be awarded class point rewards of 50, 30, 10, and 0 respectively. Individual Competition: Rankings are based on the combined score of yourself and your partner. The top five pairings will each receive a special reward of 100,000 personal points. Pairings ranked in the top 30% will each receive 10,000 personal points.
Important Rule: If the total score is lower than 500 points, the second-year student will be expelled. For the first-year student, regardless of class points, they will not receive any personal points for the next three months.
If it is determined that there was intentional incorrect answering, manipulation, or lowering of scores, the students involved, regardless of grade, will be expelled. Anyone who forcibly demands a third party to get a low score will also be treated with expulsion.
Looking at it this way, the class point rewards were truly meager, with a maximum of only 50 points. However, the school surprisingly had not set any penalties for deducting class points this time.
As for the personal points for the pairing rewards, 100,000 points was also too little for him.
The expulsion condition this time carried far higher risk for the second years than for the first years. On one side was direct expulsion; on the other, it was just three months without personal point income.
'This couldn't be Tsukishiro's handiwork, could it?'
Among the current first-year freshmen, there was at least one assassin from the White Room. If the opponent intentionally teamed up with him in this exam and purposefully lowered their score, then Shimizu Akira would indeed be very likely to be expelled.
However, Shimizu Akira didn't panic in the slightest.
He opened his phone and glanced at his account balance. Previously, his personal points were 35.5 million; adding Chabashira-sensei's 1 million, Sakayanagi Arisu's 7 million, and the 1 million transferred to him by Sato-senpai before she left, his balance had now reached 44.5 million. He also still had the protection points saved from the Class Voting Exam.
The current Shimizu Akira was equipped with at least three sets of "resurrection armor." In that case, what was there to worry about?
By the way, the school had opened the OAA system to all students in advance. The safest strategy for this special exam was actually to refer to the academic ratings on OAA and try to team up with the students with the highest scores.
Shimizu Akira actually tried this out. The results showed that currently, the student with the highest academic rating among the first years was Ishigami Kyo with 95 points.
Hmm?
The person in the photo didn't look like a high school freshman at all; they looked quite mature. If the class was hidden, probably no one would doubt if you said they were a second-year student.
Ranked second was a freshman named Yagami Takuya, with an academic rating of 93—also quite good. This person had a baby face, appearing simple and harmless at first glance. There was also a kouhai girl named Amasawa Ichika who was also not bad.
Her academic rating was 87 points, which wasn't low either.
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