My [Mind Breaker] came with more conditions than I expected.

Thankfully, Kamura was really easy to read.

 

*

 

POINTS

Your current points: 90,275

Current Rank: #60,616

 

It was pretty early in the morning.

Lying on my comfortable, school-issued bed, as always, I browsed through my phone. There wasn’t a whole lot to look at, even now with all the new apps. I just wanted something to pass the time. Sumire seemed to have left my room so I had silence for the first time in a while. Looking up at the roof, I leaned back against my pillow and relaxed.

Ah, I wonder if I’d be able to get a normal school life here.

I just wanted to experience stuff, I guess. Things I didn’t get to do in the Ideal Human Project.

There was a knock at my door.

“Hey, Akira! We weren’t sure if you’d be awake yet so I’m sorry if we woke you up~”

It was a certain blonde-haired girl (not the usual one).

“Don’t worry about it. I was already awake.”

She was standing with Fern, as usual.

It was getting a little awkward standing at the door, so I invited them inside.

…

Erika looked around for a moment.

“So, where’s Sumire?” she asked.

“She’s at her duel.”

“Oh, right! Talking about that, how was your duel?”

“It went well. I managed to win.”

“That’s good! I also won my duel. Poor Fern didn’t though.”

She made a little pouty expression before patting Fern on the back. He looked over at me awkwardly before laughing a little. I guess the two of us did share a somewhat sensitive secret.

It was quite extraordinary how Erika was able to keep herself so positive. I guess her personality just allowed for it. She was smiling and laughing, like a normal, happy-go-lucky high-school student. Well, at least that’s how I’d imagine a normal high-school student.

“Were you guys here for something?”

Erika laughed, her voice saccharinely sweet.

“Nope. We just want to hang out. We’re friends, aren’t we, Akira?”

“I guess so.”

Fern took out something from his pocket.

“We were gonna go hang out on the 310^th level, with all the new shops, but Fern said that he wanted to play cards.”

“I just want to do something to take my mind off the loss. That’s all…”

Fern shuffled the cards in his hand.

“So, what games do you guys know?” he asked.

Erika looked over at me.

“Uh, we could play go fish?”

She giggled.

“Go fish? Really? Aha, I’m down for it if that’s what you want!”

I guess it wasn’t the most complicated game in the world.

Dealing the cards out, Fern chucked them to us. Everyone had a phone in one hand, which would look rather impolite if it were in any other setting. I assumed that Erika also had the {Special Point Booster} that was given to passers.

Mine gave {5x Points from clicks} for one day. It was a pretty substantial bonus, even after being diluted by my debuff.

“Erika, it’s your turn,” nudged Fern.

“Ah, sorry! My bad.”

She stared at my cards carefully.

“This one.”

She pulled it from my hand.

“Ah, you’re so hard to read,” she sighed.

Shuffling the new card in her hands a little, Erika gestured for me to have my turn. I guess I’ll go for Fern then.

…

A few moments later, another blonde-haired girl entered my room.

Erika quickly turned to greet her.

“Ah, Sumire, you’re back!”

“You guys are here again,” Sumire’s reply was less enthusiastic.

“How’d you go in your duel?”

“I won. But the fight was harder than I expected.”

I guess the school’s matchmaking was a little more sophisticated than I gave them credit for.

“So what booster did you get, Sumire?” asked Erika.

“I got 10x point gain from minions.”

“Ah, same!”

She looked over at me.

“Oh, Akira. I forgot to ask you, what about yours?”

“I got 5x point gain from clicking.”

I could tell that Sumire was starting to get annoyed by Erika’s personality. To be honest, I thought the two of them were the same type, but it seemed that Sumire did have boundaries after all—I guess she just doesn’t have any when it comes to social acceptance around me. She was leaning against my wall, keeping a bit of space between her and Erika.

After a little while, Fern and Erika got up.

“Alright, let’s head to the mall! Apparently, the prices are pretty high, but I reckon we’ve saved up a decent amount, right?”

“I mean, I’m not too sure…”

“It’s okay, Fern, I’ll treat you today~!” she turned to me, “How about you and Sumire? Have you guys saved up some points?”

 

POINTS

Your current points: 91,003

Current Rank: #60,510

 

I probably wasn’t going to get anything, but going along didn’t sound too bad.

“I actually have some on in a little while. So I’ll pass,” sighed Sumire.

Erika approached her a bit more.

“Are you sure? We don’t have to spend that long there,” she consoled.

“It’s pretty important. Don’t worry about it.”

Erika glanced at Fern and me.

“Just us then. That’s fine right?”

“Yeah.”

 

*

 

If a civilisation were able to spend trillions of dollars funding a massive, unconventional school, what would they put inside? Arenas weren’t exactly groundbreaking, considering many military schools around the universe had them.

Something that was out of the ordinary was a large shopping centre that looked like it came straight out of a capitalist’s fever dream. With literally hundreds of stores, accompanied by AI self-service systems and Servant Robots™, it was comparable to some of the most luxurious places in the entire world.

“This is amazing! Fern, Akira, look at all the stores!”

Despite the large population of students, the sheer size of the centre made even our school of tens of thousands look scarce. Walking on the tiled marble floor, you could see the grand architecture of the roof, with geometric patterns and depth, along with chandeliers which were larger than trees.

Even the 150^th floor didn’t compare to this.