As the presentation board lightened up, Miss. Akkerman swiped on the board.
"As I said before, I am Lexis Akkerman, the homeroom teacher for Class H. We'll begin to go over the guidelines of this school and extra information about this school first."
She then went over the guidelines for this school, it was the usual rules that any other school would have, however, I was more interested in the extra information.
"Now then, as you all know this school prohibits any outside communication, and if anyone tries to communicate with the outside then there will be consequences to pay, and the penalties for it will be explained later on during this orientation. Secondly, this school offers dormitories for all students as they come in with a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom. In other words, these will be your living quarters for the next four years. Finally, as expected of you all already figured out by now, this school accommodates all of your materialist needs."
I'm certain we won't be able to get them for free, which could lead to a huge chance that this school could have its currency system.
And it seems like I could be right as I see Miss. Akkerman grabs two large containers that are filled with phones and a.... tablet.
"Now then, let's move on to the school-official devices that'll be handed to you all." She said as she went to all of us with the containers and we all grabbed one phone and one tablet as she went back to her desk.
"Now let's begin with your phones first. It operates as any phone would, however, the phones have been restricted such as the internet access is limited so that you don't try to contact the outside, and I would suggest not to try to hack, trust me it is in your best interest to not try. Anyways, the phones already have all the contacts of the other students attending this school so you don't need to bother to ask other people for their numbers. We also provided our very own social media app for you all to use if you want. Now then if you all can do so, tap on the screen twice as it will show you your daily allowance, and for the tablets, those are solely used for your academic assignments."
After doing what Miss. Akkerman instructed I saw that my allowance was 65,000 Requiems...
So the school currency is called Requiems, and by the amount of our allowance, I am sure the value is based on either the euro or USD. My safest guess would be the USD, since this school is opened up internationally speaking, so if English is the required language to speak here since it is the universally accepted language, then the Requiem value should be equal to the USD.
I decided to look at Leonid's expression to the amount we were given and he seemed heavily focused on it, as if he found it suspicious.
However, I can't say the same for Milicia who seemed genuinely unimpressed by the amount.
I wasn't totally surprised by her reaction to it given how she quite boasted about being the heir of the top company that produces weapons in that field, however, there was a possibility I thought that she would feel excited about it as well.
I looked at my other classmates to see them either slightly surprised, skeptical, or indifferent.
However, none of them looked so greedy and ready to spend it all, which is good in the sense that they all have at least some common ground when it comes to spending.
"Some of you may be surprised by the amount since if all of you are aware, the Requiem currency value is the same as the USD rather than the Euro. So what you got is a hefty some of the money for an allowance. This is also the benefit of the reward of getting accepted into this academy as every class gets given the amount of Requiem they deserve."
It seems my guess was correct on the value, this school tradition adopts a lot of Eastern and Western school cultures. Of course, it is surprising that they would give us such an allowance.
However, Miss. Akkermans wording was odd, not that she did it unintentionally, but the way she worded it was like she said that each class got the amount in their allowance that they deserved.
This school is supposed to reflect our false meritocratic society...
Could it be...
My eyes unintentionally wandered as I spotted a girl with long aqua-greenish hair who was glancing at me discreetly as she smirked, from the introductions her name was Alexandra Dolfuss, but she didn't give anything that would stand out besides she was part of the cleaning business along with her family.
However, from the looks of it, she has been observing me for a while longer than I thought.
How have I never noticed?
No, I recalled earlier that I felt a vulture watching me during the introductions.
Now this confirms that she is indeed why I felt someone was watching me.
Just as I was about to raise my hand, Miss. Dolfuss was the first to raise her hand.
"Alexandra Dolfuss correct? What is it you want to ask?"
I looked at Miss. Dolfuss to see what she would ask, however, I am unsure since there is the possibility she will ask what I was thinking or ask something that is slightly unrelated to the currency.
No, I am most definitely certain she is thinking of the four possibilities I had in my mind.
"Miss. Akkerman, is our allowance fixed or flexible? And if it does change, what exactly does cause it to change?"
As I thought about one of the four possibilities for my concerns about the Requiem monthly allowance.
Of course my other possibilities of what Miss. Dolfuss would ask were the other classes have a different amount in their allowance since Miss. Akkerman said 'every class gets given the amount of Requiem they deserve.'
With that, it can be inferred that the upper classes above H have a higher allowance income than we do, which would imply a hierarchy of sorts.
Another possibility, well more like a follow-up question to the question Miss. Dolfuss asked, would be if the flexibility of our daily allowance would be the same as a class or different individually, which would be extremely important if a hierarchy within this school exists I am at the point of absolutely believing it does exist.
Now for my final possibility of what she would've asked which would be extremely out of the box since Miss. Akkerman didn't openly state it nor implied so it would be a gamble to ask, which would be if it's possible to purchase things outside the essential needs, like for example if I could purchase an absent ticket so that I could not attend school for a day without it affecting my record or whatnot. Like I said, it is a stretch but not impossible.
"No it's not fixed, and before I go further I would like all of you to throw that theory you have in your mind away since this academy has no care for your collectivist concept." Miss. Akkerman said to us.
It appears that Miss. Akkerman already guessed that we all would have a similar idea to believe that this is class-based, however, it does look like this school wants to reflect a meritocracy in its manner.
Miss. Dolfuss's subtle smirk at me didn't go unnoticed by me...
Just what is she trying to pry from me?
Well, whatever it may be I'll just distance myself from her, even though we didn't talk.
"Now then, yes it does fluctuate, however, that all depends on your Requiem progress bar."
Miss. Akkerman brushed her finger on the board once more to show the information of the Requiem progress bar.
"Think of this Requiem progress bar similar to your video games where you level up and get an upgrade. Every level up will increase your Requiem by 500. Of course, your progress level can decrease as well if you violate the code of conduct."
I'm sure that there will be a different way to increase our progress rather than taking tests and coming to class on time, or acting like an honor student. After all, this school isn't simple so why would the school use simple methods like those?
I saw a boy with somewhat long brownish-red hair, his name was Enoch Beckham raise his hand.
He wants to follow in his father's footsteps by becoming head of the British Treasury according to his introduction.
"Considering that there is a way to decrease them by violating the school's rules, then what are the ways to increase them?"
"This school hosts events that can help you increase your Requiem progress. Some events are compulsory and some are voluntary. Of course, there is another way, which is to challenge your classmates or other students. Now if you want to know how to challenge them when I told you that you had the contacts of all the students here, there is a purple diamond symbol and you send that request to any student you want, and if they accept it, then it'll give an option on who sets up the challenge and one of you could decide who wants to do it. After doing so, a referee will come to one of you to get the details of the challenge in question and they will set it up within 1-3 days."
What an interesting concept for a school to do, and it encourages others to engage with each other in the form of challenges, or what I would call a gamble.
However, it looks like we're closer to the bigger revelation Miss. Akkerman is going to reveal.
Also, the last part she mentions the referee caught my interest. If I were to guess, they're a third party that'll make sure that the gamble is fair and the outcome transactions are completed.
I took a glance at Milicia and saw that she was incredibly invested in Miss. Akkerman's explanation is more.
"Explain more about this referee shit, perra~"
A girl with short messy black hair with red highlights demanded the teacher.
I remember her introduction as well, although she only said her name, which was Camila Pérez.
Just her introduction and her sudden rudeness from now alone tell me a lot about her, although not in a negative way.
She doesn't come off as a bad person to me, but not a kind person as well.
Like me, she is probably enrolled here just to get the opportunity to get a good life and move up since this school is the only chance to do so.
However, I can see some people giving her bad looks based on her comment of calling our teacher a 'perra'.
"She reminds me of you vile woman," Leonid whispered to Milicia although he didn't get a response back from her as she was in her world from the looks of it.
I focused my attention back on the teacher after Miss. Pérez insulted her and to my surprise, she held no anger nor any care from that insult as she was completely unfazed by her and answered her calmly.
"Of course, the referee system is a third-party group that ensures that the challenge and goals are completely met with no unfairness. A fair warning to you all that you shouldn't pick a fight with them. Since they are all former special ops they won't hesitate to use force if needed." She finished explaining.
Special ops? This school is going all out huh?
Well going back to the Requiem Progress bar, I saw another symbol under it, it was a red ruby symbol with a count of 0.
I wonder if someone will ask about—
"What's the red ruby symbol at the Requiem Progress and why is it at zero?"
To my surprise, it was Leonid who asked the question.
Leonid seemed to be the type of person who would just take in the information quietly and not ask any questions.
However, I guess he couldn't decipher what the red ruby symbol was so he had no choice but to ask Miss. Akkerman.
That same eerie smile came back on Miss. Akkerman's face, which means she has been waiting for someone to ask her that question.
Even before she explained it, I had my theory on what the red ruby symbol is.
I don't necessarily believe it entirely correlates with the Requiem Progress, but rather something else, an entirely different system.
What I mean by this is that I think the ruby correlates with the games or events, or more specifically our performance qualities.
And I am also inclined to believe it also affects our standing.
"Before I answer that question of yours, there is another system called the ranking system. And to access that, there is an app on your home screen labeled RSR. As you press it you'll see your ranking and everyone else."
I opened the app to see where I was and it said:
«Isaac Mahoka: Rank 200»
Can't say I feel great about my ranking since I am unfortunately dead last, but before I confirmed something, I decided to check Milicia, Leonid, and Aurélie's ranks.
«Milicia Milosevic: Rank 199»
«Leonid Novikov: Rank 195»
«Aurélie Louise: Rank 26»
I must say, I was expecting Leonid to be lower than Milicia. Although I think the reason why both are ranked differently than I imagined could be due to our interviews, which I have been thinking about since the moment that the Ranking System was mentioned the thought of the referees being the interviewers came right into my mind.
Due to the referees being special ops, and considering this school. They probably recruited the best of the best worldwide, and since psychology is one of the major subjects special ops are trained in, then they must have profiled our interviews and efficiently evaluated us to the corresponding rank and class we belong in.
This could probably explain why Milicia is below Leonid, although not by much, since Milicia has an extremely arrogant personality which is definitely why she is evaluated so low.
On another note, I wasn't expecting Aurélie to be incredibly that high, especially as she is one rank away from entering Class A if I believe moving up to different classes is based on our increase in these ruby points.
I glanced at Milicia again to see her reaction to her ranking, and to my surprise, she remained composed which could either mean she accepts her ranking or is plotting against Leonid as we speak.
I'm more inclined to believe it is the latter since it fits more into her personality and her torment against Leonid. Another thing why I believe this to be the case would be the scary hint of sadism in her eyes despite her smug expression not changing.
Nevertheless, it seems fate won't be on your side anytime soon Leonid...
I took a glance at the entire rank list for a second and put my phone down.
"Say I have a couple of questions to ask if you don't mind Miss. Akkerman."
All eyes came in my direction as I asked that question.
"You may ask them." With her ominous smirk that sent a chill down my spine internally, I began to ask what I wanted to ask.
"The Ruby Points system gives us points based on our quality performance in these events and matchups we do. And if that is the case then these points will help us in increasing our ranks right?"
"Yes you are right, the Ruby Points system does help increase your rank as they will update every 3 months, and depending on how many points you get, you can increase, decrease, or stagnate."
So it updates every quarter, well that is good to know.
"Miss. Akkerman, since the Ruby Point system and the Requiem Progress Bar system are different. Considering you said the progress bar is like a video game, then in a hypothetical situation, I can be let's say level 70 and still be ranked at 200 since the Requiem Progress Bar only affects our allowance. That is correct no?"
Miss. Akkerman chuckled a bit and some of my classmates murmured to each other not in confusion but in understanding.
"Yes by the mechanism of the system, that is indeed correct, however, your rank usually increases due to the effect of the matches or events you partake in that increases your Progress bar to an extent. But yes you are correct."
This saves me the trouble since I am not that addicted to getting rich and my spending habits are extremely regulated.
As I was about to ask my next question about the other classes, a girl with long white pigtail hair and a yellow iris named Marie Curie asked the question I was going to ask.
Most of us including me were surprised that she shared the same given and surname as the famous chemist from three centuries ago.
Although I think it's just a coincidence that Miss. Curie shares the same name with her, since I am not a firm believer in reincarnation, although if it does exist then I would be happy if she reincarnated to someone.
"You said earlier that we got our allowance that we deserved and I've been thinking that each class has 25 students in each of them. And our class got 65,000 Requiems and 0 Ruby Points. So what I am getting at is how much Class G has?"
I was kinda upset that I couldn't ask that question.
"Don't worry Houdini I am here to comfort your sadness for someone else stealing your questions," Milicia whispered to me as she had her usual smug look.
I have a name you know....
"On the contrary, I am perfectly fine since I had some of my questions answered," I said to her.
Even though I was upset, my face kept its usual smile.
"Sure~ believe that if you want."
I sighed at her implication as I returned my attention to Miss. Curie to see how Miss. Akkerman answers her question.
"Class G has 70,000 Requiems and 50 Ruby Points." Miss. Akkerman said bluntly.
I guess I was correct after all, which implies that our class represents the lowest part of the hierarchy of this school in terms of classes. But their real hierarchy systems function on the individual level.
So it's safe to assume that Class A students get the allowance of 100,000 Requiems and 400 Ruby Points since they are the top class of this school system.
I looked at our classmates and to my surprise, a lot of them didn't get mad, well not voice out their outrage but some seemed upset about it but accepted it.
"I believe I solved your entire school's nature!"
Miss. Curie began to have a blush on her face and it was pretty evident.
"This school is its very own world. And I'll break it down for the undesirables here to understand me! I'll start with the evaluation of when we entered this school. First, the entrance exams are just a contract between us and the school that we'll be their property if we pass their entrance exam, hence why they didn't consider our background or else someone like Milicia, Jun, and Enoch here would have been enrolled into a higher class than be at the straight bottom. We can already throw our academic results from our entrance exams out the window since the results are too close to evaluate. Our interviews were the ones that contributed to our evaluations due to the referees being the ones who interviewed us right? After all, hiring special ops is a perfect way to have them evaluate our thinking process and personalities to understand our value as an individual, and what is better than having a third party doing the evaluation and not the school itself since they'll play bias no matter how much they try to be 'fair'."
It was scary how Miss. Curie and I had similar thoughts. However, it seems like she thought a bit further than I did.
What caught my interest from her words was when she referred to us as property when we passed the entrance exam, which is a contract that made us now the property of the school according to Miss. Curie.
I looked at my classmates and saw them either confused, amused, or straight up just in deep thought about it.
I can think of two questions that Miss. Curie will ask and the reasons behind them.
One of the questions will be about how they treat their product, us, like testing our uses with any means even if it means pushing us to a near-death experience.
The other question I believe will involve the more so of the consequences of rejecting the idea of being the school property.
Although I can't rule out the possibility of her asking what the rewards of graduating from our corresponding classes maybe that would correlate with how they will use us as property.
"Which leads me to ask! What are the boundaries of these matchups? Like is death involved? And another question if you can answer it is what will happen if we want to drop out or get expelled and what is the reward for the highest class and the lowest class?"
Miss. Curie with her blush increasing more from asking her question and reasoning from before started to breathe heavily.
I saw two of our classmates who sat next to her move slightly away from her.
"Her turn-on is giving me a turn-off," Milicia whispered as she made a cringe expression at Miss. Curie's expression.
"Can't believe I am agreeing with you vile woman," Leonid whispered back.
Hmm...
"Well Marie, before I answer your questions, what a marvelous explanation from you of having a great understanding." Miss. Akkerman clapped as she said it in her usual tone showing neither being unimpressed nor impressed.
"Now then to answer that first question, the matchups in question can't involve killing someone intentionally. However, if the matchup happens and one party does die, then it will be seen as an inconvenience as long as the matchup doesn't include anyone dying intentionally...."
So in other words, as long as the matchup doesn't involve intentionally killing someone but rather someone dying inconveniently, then it is allowed and overlooked.
I could hear a few gasps in surprise at what Miss. Akkerman said, of course, it was an expected reaction given that the school would allow such a thing and probably makes them wonder why would this school even be permitted to allow such a thing to occur.
As unethical as it is, it doesn't surprise me at all given how our world functions as it doesn't look down on killing people, well, those who are deemed parasites and scum of society are fine being killed by most people's perspectives.
So I guess that even the governments that approved this school already knew that this would occur and don't care, most likely due to—
"... and to say what will happen if you choose to drop out or you get expelled....well you'll simply get cut off by society and live amongst the dirt like the other trash."
"And what do you mean by that?"
A voice that was almost as authoritative as Miss. Akkerman spoke.
We looked at Giovanni Bombacci who was probably the biggest guy in our class and had the aura of a mobster.
He had black hair with a white strand and a yellow piercing gaze.
"It seems you don't understand the grasp of the risks. This school has a wide-scale influence in the world that can quite send you to the bottom of the food chain. They wouldn't be able to pull off these things that this school allows like a near-death matchup if one party makes one if the governments didn't know of it." Miss. Curie fired at Mr. Bombacci.
Her blush is still there huh.....
"Of course, that is expected from someone who came to this school with the intent to atone for someone's sins no?"
Miss. Curie with her smile widening as Mr. Bombacci with his stern expression left unchanging, although the look in his eyes slightly darkened.
Well, now this is rather interesting.
I would have considered the possibility that these two know each other, however the chemistry line between them is non-existent.
Even if it's hatred like Leonid and Milicia have for each other, it will still be a form of an emotional chemistry connection line.
I wonder how Miss. Curie meant by Mr. Bombacci enrolling at this school to atone for someone's sins?
Considering the personality of Miss. Curie didn't have any information on Mr. Bombacci beforehand since it did not suit her. This means she was provoking him to confirm her reasoning and probably connected him to a specific person, most likely a politician and somehow she connected the dots that these two are related.
And it looks like from Mr. Bombacci's expression, that confirmed Miss. Curie's provocative deduction as her blush returned once more.
I think I have a good understanding of Miss. Curie now.
I am sure everyone here sees her as some narcissist who loves the praises of her deductions and reasoning and believes that she is superior due to her reactive expression when she explains her reasoning and when someone confirms it to be true as it gives her an ecstasy feeling.
Of course, anyone would view it that way.
However, I have a rather different perspective on Miss. Curie. I do not doubt that she has an incredible talent when it comes to her reasoning it's quite scary. However, I don't think she was so reactive when it came to explaining her reason.
I think she was neglected or rather not acknowledged for her talent which most likely stemmed from those close to her and that would most likely be her parents, they probably play a huge part in Miss. Curie's erotic expression behavior, the other outside influences to it could be teachers and friends, or from her perspective, fake friends if I am correct.
After such a long time of no praise or even a single acknowledgment, she started to develop something that falls along the lines of validation deprivation and some instances, emotional arousal.
I am sure she hates the feeling of arousal as she never wanted to feel the ecstasy of her talent and just wanted acknowledgment, but from her environment whatever it was, it regressed her psychological state to fall into a state like this.
Her pain through her eyes despite it showing her feel-good expression was evident to me since I can relate to some extent to not being praised....but that was a long time ago...
I think I could help her.....
I'll make up a plan to help her since I don't want to be so bold to approach her and say 'I want to fix your emotional arousal issue' since she would play it off and just ignore me and then distance herself from me.
Anyway, I got out of my mind and focused back on the conversation.
"Miss. Akkerman, continue where you left off." Miss. Curie told her.
"Right, the top four classes have the most benefits if you graduate from those classes. However, if you graduate from the bottom four classes, especially this class, well you might as well wish you were dead." She put it bluntly.
Miss. Naomi had a worried expression as she raised her hand. "Miss. Akkerman... Why is the school doing all of this? I know that this school simply wouldn't give us the reward on a silver platter. But the unethical boundaries in these supposed match-ups and events... It's excessive... even if this school is considered the most elite in the world."
Her worries are completely justified since it's not every day that a school is willing to host such a thing and the governments around the world allow this.
And it seems a few of our classmates agree with her.
"I agree with Naomi!"
"Me too."
More concerns about the traits of the school became more vocal among my classmates, but Miss. Akkerman showed no care about their concerns.
"Jun, I am sure you have a perfect understanding of this school, but why argue against it? As you said, this school obviously won't hand over a big reward like moving up in the hierarchy of this world. And as Marie here said, you are the property of this school, however, you can look at this as a citizen of this nation or anything that is under the ownership of this school and you have to follow the traditions of this school like you would from your homelands. This school wants to test the will of those who have the will of perseverance and those who are willing to adapt to see who deserves the right to even move up in the outside society and those who deserve to be labeled garbage, even if it means to use cruel and unethical methods. After all, the ends justify the means no?"
It seems my perception of this school was slightly incorrect.
This school follows a meritocracy alright, however, this school's method within the meritocracy follows the philosophy of a totalitarian selection of elitism on a collective level of those who are deemed the fittest in the outside world, and on the individual level within this school world.
"What a sadistic individual who ever created this school." Miss. Peréz commented on the teacher's description.
Miss. Naomi is still taken aback by Miss. Akkerman's comment, Miss Akkerman spoke once more realizing that Miss. Naomi had nothing else to say.
"Now then I believe that is all I have to say and since all of you already asked your questions, then orientation is finished with your actual class starting tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy your time at this fine institution." She said as she left the class.
Despite my classmates not showing any fear or being vocal about it, the heavy atmosphere here is pretty evident that we all aren't in favor of our predicament, but we all realize that we have no choice and simply have to adapt or we'll essentially 'die'.
Although I wasn't entirely worried, I was a bit overwhelmed but not enough to make me think irrationally about this ordeal.
Another thing that was in my mind was the existence of Miss. Dolfuss, since she has shown interest in me despite not doing anything noteworthy except maybe saying I want to be a magician.
But that shouldn't be enough to put a lot of interest in me.
I decided to get up and plan on meeting with Aurélie, to see what her opinion is about the nature of this school.
Although I can somewhat get an idea of what her answer might be, I think her goal would be incredibly difficult to pull off, but not impossible...
However as I was about to begin my plan, it was instantly shattered as I saw Milicia smirking at me.
"Say, Houdini, let's explore shall we?"
"Sorry but I have some plans, also my name is Isaa—"
"Oh, so you did plan to accompany me right?"
As she asked her expression darkened much more.
I looked behind me to see Leonid was no longer there….
How unfortunate for me…
"I do recall making plans of joining you to explore this school."
"I thought so as well!"
I'll readvise a new plan to meet up with Aurélie sometime later then.
End of Vol 1 chapter 1.2