Student Council Office.
Tachibana Akane was slumped alone at the desk, chin resting on her folded hands, staring vacantly at the dark screen of her phone.
"Haaah..."
She puffed out her cheeks and let out a long, slow breath, sending the stray lock of purple hair dangling over her forehead fluttering upward.
She'd figured that the accursed Black Sphere, having thoroughly wrecked all the first-years, would at least have the decency to leave the upperclassmen alone.
How wrong she'd been. In the span of a single week, the two first-year exams had barely wrapped up before the upperclassmen were hit with two special exams of their own — and the second- and third-years were lumped together for it, no less.
And just when everyone thought both sides were finally done, when the weekend had arrived and people could actually breathe again — this afternoon, without a single word of warning, a third exam had been announced.
"Seriously, how big does a sphere have to be before it learns the concept of work-life balance?!"
Tachibana blew a sulky spit bubble, fuming internally.
"Even capitalists know to give their workhorses the weekend off. Where's this broken system's sense of humanity?! Where's the vision?! It doesn't care at all whether people can handle it or not..."
But as the indignation ran its course, the fire in her eyes dimmed.
She stared fixedly at the black screen of her phone.
It wasn't the Black Sphere points she cared about. It wasn't the superhuman gear, either. She just wanted one thing — for the President, and everyone else, to come back safe this time. Same as always.
Just as she was quietly praying for exactly that —
Knock. Knock.
Two measured, unhurried raps landed against the office door.
"Wha—?!"
Tachibana jolted upright like a student caught snacking during class — spine straight, hand flying up to swipe at a corner of her mouth where absolutely no drool existed.
"C-Come in!"
The door swung open.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stepped in first, gaze sweeping the room in a single pass. The spacious student council office held exactly one occupant: a girl with a purple hair bun, now sitting very upright and very deliberately composed at the main desk.
"The President and Vice-President aren't here? They haven't come back yet?" Ayanokoji asked, cutting straight to it.
Tachibana swallowed, scrambling to project some semblance of upperclassman authority.
"They... went to participate in the special exam. It probably hasn't ended yet."
Ayanokoji's brow furrowed slightly, his thoughts turning inward.
Still not back...
A fair amount of time had passed since the exam should have concluded. If they were still delayed — were they in the final settlement phase? Had someone accumulated enough points and they were now debating how to divide up the Black Sphere equipment?
Chris, stepping in just behind him, caught sight of Tachibana's expression — that valiant effort at dignity barely concealing the fact that she was still half-asleep on her feet — and nearly failed to keep a straight face.
But this was a public setting, with someone of the opposite sex present, and it wasn't a private occasion. Chris reined in the impulse to tease her with admirable self-control.
A quick glance around the room, and he picked up the thread smoothly.
"Sorry to bother you, senpai."
"Actually — we're two of the uninvited guests from this latest special exam. The reason we came looking for the President is this: the exam is over, but our memories of the final stage have... a gap. A blank."
Ayanokoji followed up naturally:
"It resembles something we experienced in a previous exam. But this time, the hidden character we encountered — we didn't witness how it ended firsthand. Given the concern that we might face a similar creature again in the future, we came to ask the President for the specifics."
"An exam experience... you two have already been through Black Sphere exams before? That's really rough luck—"
The words were out before Tachibana could stop them.
A beat later, she caught herself. She was a senpai. Saying something like that to underclassmen was a bit of a morale-killer, wasn't it?
She gave herself a light pat on the cheek, expression flooding with apology.
"Sorry, sorry — that came out wrong. You've both been working really hard."
"That said... the exam is over, but the President still hasn't messaged me. They're probably still in the Black Sphere space. Let me try calling to ask for you."
Watching Tachibana fumble slightly as she grabbed her phone and started scrolling for the number, Chris said gently:
"There's no rush, senpai. We've never had three Black Sphere exams in one week before — let them rest a little longer. No need to hurry."
At those words, Tachibana's hand stilled mid-scroll.
She looked up and fixed the handsome underclassman with an expression that clearly said you sweet summer child.
"You really shouldn't make assumptions like that, junior."
"We thought two Black Sphere exams in a week was already the limit... but the one this afternoon? That was our third this week. You absolutely cannot let your guard down!"
At that —
Chris and Ayanokoji both went still with surprise.
Before either of them could ask for details, Tachibana's phone buzzed in her hand.
"Oh! The President's call came through!"
Her voice brightened by several notches as she answered immediately. A quick back-and-forth confirmed that the person on the other end was safe — then she muffled the receiver and leaned across the desk toward the two of them.
"What was it you wanted to ask? I'll pass it along."
Ayanokoji took a step forward.
"Please ask the President — how did the exam end, exactly? And that hidden boss that appeared outside the café — was it successfully eliminated?"
Tachibana nodded and relayed the question word for word into the phone.
Roughly two minutes passed.
She hung up and looked at the two of them.
"The President says — probably because the target this time was so unusual — even he only retained some scattered impressions. And apparently, Kiryuuin-kouhai's memory of exactly how the exam ended is extremely hazy as well."
"But..."
Tachibana paused. "Going by the final score tally from the Black Sphere... that hidden creature was probably not eliminated."
Hearing that, Ayanokoji fell into quiet thought.
As I suspected. My reasoning was right.
The creature hadn't died in the end. Which was entirely logical.
In that window where their memories went dark — the ragged group they'd had left couldn't possibly have killed something like that.
The only explanation was that the Black Sphere had judged the time limit expired, or that someone had cleared all the minor enemies and forcibly triggered the end condition.
"So the final boss that appeared doesn't factor into the exam's completion requirements at all. It's purely a high-risk, high-reward optional bonus," Ayanokoji murmured, summarizing quietly.
Chris turned it over beside him, then followed the logic through.
"Actually — whether in games or in fiction, if something earns the title of 'hidden boss,' that's almost always how it works."
"It's just that sometimes, the points from the standard objectives aren't enough on their own. If you want to push your score up fast and unlock high-tier gear, you have to actively take on that risk yourself."
Ayanokoji glanced at him — a brief, noncommittal look — and said nothing in response.
Having gotten the information he came for, he didn't linger for another second. He turned on his heel and walked straight out the door.
Chris watched that no-nonsense retreating figure, then turned back to Tachibana with a helpless wave.
"We'll get out of your hair then, senpai. Sorry for the trouble today."
"Hehe, no need to thank me — it's what a senpai is here for!"
With the President confirmed safe, Tachibana's mood had lifted completely. She waved them off with a cheerful smile.
"Come to the student council anytime you have questions! Barring special circumstances, I'm usually here!"
Strictly speaking, under Advanced Nurturing High School's unwritten rules, when underclassmen sought information from upperclassmen, they were generally expected to pay in points commensurate with the value of the intel.
But if the President had been willing to share freely, these two juniors were probably not ordinary people. Worth keeping the goodwill.
——
Out in the corridor.
Ayanokoji was already gone — the hallway ahead, silent and empty, held no trace of him.
Chris wasn't surprised. The guy had clearly had no intention of waiting.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was, after all, the central pillar of the original Classroom of the Elite — unmatched in both combat ability and raw intellect, in a tier entirely his own.
Against supernatural creatures like Ghouls or Parasytes, a normal human body without a combat suit did admittedly have its limits.
But in everyday life — in the baseline state, outside of any active exam — there was no way someone with Ayanokoji's level of perceptiveness wouldn't have already noticed something off about him.
Especially now, with NZT-48 still running through his system, his brain operating in overclock mode, his entire presence radiating something fundamentally different from baseline.
"Though, come to think of it..."
Chris strolled down the staircase with both hands in his pockets, unhurried.
"This NZT-48 hasn't really brought me any particularly substantial changes, has it."
The drug did make you smarter — thoughts ran swift and smooth, like a gear train freshly oiled.
The problem was... if anything, it had made him lazier.
Which made sense, when he thought about it. When a person already stood at the apex of their world — when even the underlying logic of the Black Sphere game could be adjusted at will — then in the face of absolute power and authority, all schemes and stratagems became pale and pointless. There was simply no need to burn mental energy on clever maneuvering.
Overwhelming force crushes all cunning. The ancients didn't lie.
"Still..."
Chris stopped walking.
Through the corridor window, he looked out at the students below — visibly fewer than usual, the energy on campus noticeably subdued.
Right now, in the shadow of Shiranami Chihiro's temporary exit from the stage, he had also stacked an extra Black Sphere exam on top of everything else for the upperclassmen.
Threats piling up one after another — it really did seem like he was applying too much pressure to a student body already teetering at the edge.
Pull a string too tight, and it snaps.
"I've been a little thoughtless," Chris admitted to himself, rubbing his chin.
As a competent game designer, you didn't just pile on the pressure — you had to follow it up with enough hope to keep people going. Otherwise, everyone really would start thinking their benevolent overlord was nothing but a pure villain.
Come to think of it...
The midterm exams at Advanced Nurturing High School were two weeks away, weren't they?
In the original storyline, it was nothing special — just a standard midterm, with Sudou Ken being used as the hook to demonstrate how points actually worked.
Honestly? That felt a little thin.
"As a show of respect for the midterms..."
"Should I go a little bigger?"
"Like... arranging a full first-year battle royale on an uninhabited island? A hundred-person survival match?"
"And then for the finals, set up an inter-class ranking tournament?"
Chris liked the idea. A lot.
On this stage called youth, at least everyone would have something to genuinely participate in. That wasn't a bad thing, was it?
But then the other shoe dropped.
Preliminary test. Black Sphere main exam. And a desert island battle royale on top...
For sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds — was that maybe too much?
Chris thought it through carefully.
"...Actually, it's not."
The so-called preliminary tests and Black Sphere exams had, so far, only been grinding down a fixed handful of participants and the occasional unlucky bystander. The overwhelming majority of the student body hadn't been directly involved at all — just standing in the wings, anxious and on edge, contributing to the atmosphere. No real physical strain.
And as the saying went — an army that wins grows arrogant; arrogance breeds defeat; defeat breeds decay; but from decay, victory is reborn.
Time to shake things up properly.
"In that case..."
It was time to add a proper incentive to the preliminary test tier.
Information access alone wasn't enough of a carrot. It needed more pull.
In this major content update, he was going to make something crystal clear — to every single person in this school:
[ TOP THREE in the midterm exams will receive a direct reward: additional Resurrection Charges. ]
[ Points accumulated in the Black Sphere Space can not only be spent on weapons — they can also be exchanged, at a fixed rate, for Miracles: the power to mend your regrets. ]
[ Small miracles — correcting congenital physical conditions. Large ones... turning back time. Returning to the moment before a regret was made. Changing the past itself. Or even — obtaining power beyond the ordinary. ]
That was exactly it.
What Chris intended to tell every person in this school was simple:
The energy of the Black Sphere is beyond anything you've imagined.
Take your time figuring out what that means.
...By the time they did, outsiders would probably be clawing for a way in just to serve as cannon fodder.
____
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