COTE: A Gathering of Geniuses

Chapter 1 Class 1-D

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used nor the series any of them are from.

Class D 0

Advanced Nurturing High School

Located on its own floating island, it was just one of the many "modern" schools that had started popping up all over Japan that had drawn all the attention of graduating middle schoolers. What made it stand out from the rest of the others was how it was isolated on its own island with a mall and private district. It also boasted a 100% employment and college entry rate.

It was a school created by the Japanese government for nurturing its youth to the best they could be.

Not only was the tuition free, but the school also had its own currency.

Private points, or PP for short, was the virtual currency of the school complex with 1 PP being just about 1 yen. It was used by students of every year to buy their meals from the cafeteria, to shop at the Keyaki Mall, or whatever else goods or services.

Every class started school with 1000 CP which meant every student was basically handed 100,000 yen just by being accepted. This was a surprise to all the first-year students who soon learned to enjoy this "enrollment gift" to its fullest.

For the first month, it was paradise. The school didn't even require any sort of attendance limit which led to spots of empty desks. It did not help that, for many a teenager, having the equivalent of six digits in currency threw a lot of grounded sensibilities off.

That was until the new month had rolled over and every first-year student from Class-A, Class-B, Class-C, or Class-D found to be less than the 100,000 PP previously sent and, for most, expected.

Today, the first years were finally informed of the S-System, a point system which ranked each class by how much CP they had.

CP, Class points, were the basis for the monthly PP allowance. They were gained from doing well in classes and tests and even from special achievements. Likewise, they could be deducted as punishments for skipping class, being a bother to the teacher, and doing badly.

And it had just been revealed that Class D current had 0 CP, a record that had never happened in the history of the school.

This meant that this month, and without any future changes, any following months after, everyone would get their current CP multiplied by 100 in PP.

Of course, zero multiplied by anything was zero which meant empty wallets.

Thankfully, all their lodging at the dorm was paid for as well as no deductions for electricity and water usage. The school stores and cafeteria did provide the bare minimum for such broke students. Bottled water was always at 0PP while a dish made up of only vegetables was offered the same for meals.

However, everything else was now out of reach for the poor souls who had spent all their PP in the first month.

Although, to be fair to the now panicking students of Class 1-D, a lot of the finer details of Class Points and the allowances being deducted weren't really explained to them by either the staff or even the upper years. This all was intentionally done by the school.

It couldn't even be called a sort of hazing ritual for the new enrollees as the initial 1000 CP was already quite large. If a student somehow used up all 100,000 yen in the first month, they'd get the same refill the following month. Even if a class had been unruly, losing half of the initial amount still meant a monthly 50,000-yen allowance for a high school student with free lodging, tuition, and (vegetable) meals.

To have been deducted all the way to 0 CP meant that most of the class had gone out of their way to simply not go to school like they had enrolled for.

Yet here they were with some of them not having a single PP left in their virtual wallet.

The atmosphere of the classroom of 1-D could only be described as a forced somber. If it wasn't for the glaring woman assigned as their homeroom teacher standing at the front, no doubt some of the students sitting before her would be screaming in despair if they already weren't internally.

Amid wide-eyed disbelief and pupils that trembled with worry, two sharp reds framed by long dark hair reflected a different set of intense emotions.

Anger.

Distrust.

Rejection.

Even if her hand continued to note down what Chabashira-sensei would say, a single word burned through the mind of a girl that men would often call an icy beauty (though not to her face).

Defective.

That was what Chabashira-sensei called the whole class: a gathering of defectives.

The teacher was simply wrong. Not about her ignorant classmates, but about her.

Horikita Suzune truly believed she did not belong here. This would only prove her brother right. She needed to get to Class A. The grip on her pen tightened as she continued to take down notes.

Next to her, a male with a bored expression could only sigh. Compared to everyone else, he looked to be a handsome NPC which wasn't helped by his unchanging aloofness. All Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had told himself he wanted to do was to make friends and experience a mundane life of freedom.

Unbeknownst to the definitely normal and average boy, he had already triggered enough flags to the girl next to him.

Only God knew how exactly what plans had been set in motion.