I have a life simulator.

"That's really going too far."

Actually, there was a second half to the sentence, "So I've always had Ryo come to my side," but Horikita Suzune thought about it and decided not to say it.

"Sigh, I was actually looking forward to this summer's special exam on a deserted island. Rin, confess honestly, last year you and Ryo's group were in that desolate place without any surveillance, weren't you..."

"Stop, that's not true at all. Every night, Ryo slept in a tent by herself. The three of us girls slept in one tent together. If anyone sneaked out at night, everyone next to us would know. Besides, at that time, Fanbo and Youxi didn't seem to have any such thoughts."

Yuki simply rolled her eyes at Horikita Suzune's comment:

“Your group wasn’t the only one on that island. Anyway, I suspect that Ichika most likely made his move around that time.”

After saying that, she sighed again with a melancholy expression:

"As a result, when it was my turn to enroll this year, the large-scale special exam during the summer might not be held on the deserted island anymore."

However, soon, Xue unconsciously recalled the series of dreams she had that day, the most daring scenes that still made her blush and her heart race to this day. It seemed that they were all in a bustling metropolis, with the neon-lit Tokyo Tower in the background and fireworks bursting in the sky overhead.

Hmm... that seems pretty good?

----------------------------------

Inside the infirmary, Honami Ichinose returned after failing to stop Sae Chabashira, only to find her younger sister still sitting there chatting animatedly with Ryo Kitagawa, while the school nurse, Chie Hoshinomiya, was relaxedly scrolling through her phone, letting Ryo Kitagawa do his 'talk therapy'.

Actually, Ichinose Maki was injured, and she should have been accompanied by a club member or teacher who came with her. But since there was a local older sister at Dongyu who was very familiar with her, Honami simply brought her younger sister to the infirmary.

However, Ichinose Maki was indeed fine. She just stumbled a bit when crossing the finish line and scraped her knee. She felt that she could walk normally when she left school in the afternoon. She took the opportunity to have a good chat with Kitagawa Ryo about what had happened in the past year since she enrolled.

"Speaking of which, since Maki is injured and can't play this afternoon, would you like to come with us to Beechwood Shopping Center?"

As if suddenly remembering something, Honami Ichinose made this suggestion to her younger sister.

Although today is the day of the special exam for first-year students, it is essentially just a special exam for first-year students. Therefore, the shops in the Beech Tree Shopping Center are still open as usual. After all, for second and third-year students and faculty, today is a holiday.

However, these places are not open to students from other schools, or rather, teachers from other schools do not take students to these places. Ichinose Maki happened to be absent due to injury, which gave her this opportunity.

"Beech Tree Shopping Center? A place to buy things?"

"Yes, it's a pretty big department store; you can basically buy anything there."

As she spoke, Ichinose Honami subtly nudged Kitagawa Ryo's elbow again. Kitagawa Ryo quickly understood and took the opportunity to go to a corner while pouring water. After doing a few things on his phone, he came back.

"However, the purchases inside use Dongyu's unique personal points. To put it simply, one personal point is roughly equal to one yen, and as for you, sister... you have this many personal points on hand right now."

After spending 20 million personal points to transfer classes at the end of last year, and after accumulating for five months, Ichinose Honami's personal points have returned to nearly two million. In addition, Kitagawa Ryo just transferred more than three million personal points to her to support her, so the large number in her account now makes Ichinose Maki a little dizzy:

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million...five million! My sister already has five million yen?"

For students from other schools, personal points are essentially Japanese yen, so Ichinose Honami didn't care much. After all, that was the effect she wanted in the first place. She smiled when she heard this, thinking that if her sister knew that she had just spent 20 million yen on water five months ago just to hear the sound of Kitagawa Ryo, she probably wouldn't be able to think straight now.

"...Now I finally know how my sister convinced Mom. Mom couldn't earn that amount in years, let alone save that much money."

"Personal points and yen are not entirely equivalent, so you can't compare them directly. But for Maki, if she sees something she likes in the afternoon, she can just tell her sister."

Just as Ichinose Honami finally found an opportunity to show off in front of her sister and to offer some comfort to the family on the verge of collapse in another timeline because of a hair clip, Kitagawa Ryo received a text message from Horikita Suzune, informing him about the student council exam and her and Yuki's speculations.

Is it possible that this large-scale special summer exam will be held in a city instead of on a deserted island?

Moreover, before that, there is a high probability that a special exam with everyone taking the same test will be added.

Naturally, Kitagawa Ryo thought of Chabashira Sae, who had just left with Hotaru, and then subconsciously glanced at Hoshinomiya Chie, who was sitting there playing on her phone. Kitagawa Ryo also lowered his eyes and smiled slightly.

What a coincidence.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

Chapter 54: The Special Exam Ends

Since the drama club had already finished their special exams for the day, Kitagawa Ryo called them all over after dinner. After the group gathered, they leisurely headed to the Keyaki Shopping Center.

Although the Keyaki Shopping Center was a place that Kitagawa Ryo and his fellow second-year students had visited countless times, to the point of being somewhat boring, it was still quite impressive for the students who were visiting for the first time. The luxurious decor, the variety of stores, and the completeness of the goods sold all fulfilled their expectations of such a large-scale shopping center.

Even Kitagawa Ryo felt that this place was more effective for Ichinose Maki's rehabilitation than the infirmary. In no time, she and Hotaru could be seen moving around in various shops together, and their movements were much more free.

Although the two spent a considerable amount of time browsing through various shops and occasionally showed obvious interest in certain items, most of the time they did not actually take them off the shelf. Instead, they stared hesitantly at the price tag, clearly conflicted.

Even though I just saw that string of zeros on Honami Ichinose's phone account, it would still be difficult for junior high school students like them to buy those five-figure items without any psychological burden.

In a way, this could be considered as 'I really have a cow.' Neither Ichinose Maki nor Hotaru grew up in an environment where extravagance was common. However, after Ichinose Honami herself stepped forward again to say that it was no problem, they chose to accept this kindness and began to try to put some small items that they really wanted into their shopping basket.

Horikita Suzune once told Kitagawa Ryo that she thought girls liked shopping because they could enjoy the real feeling of living in the world during the process, but what he saw now was more like the simple joy brought by consumption.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo turned back to ask the first-year students who had just enrolled at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School less than two months ago about their thoughts and actions.

Because each class was aware of the relationship between class points and individual points at the beginning of the semester and consciously restrained their behavior, the first-year students did not fall into the predicament that the second-year students faced, where Class D's class points were reduced to zero after one month of enrollment and Class C had very few left. Even Xue's Class D in the first year retained a considerable amount of initial class points.

However, precisely because of this, the freshmen's spending was not forced to decline. In addition, many freshmen tasted the benefits of partnering with second-year students in the April exam and received a portion of personal points as a reward. Therefore, most freshmen were undoubtedly living a much more comfortable life than their second-year counterparts.

It could even be said that it is precisely because each class has retained a large number of class points that this year's freshmen are more confident and bold in spending. After all, as long as those hundreds of class points are still there, it means that they can still receive tens of thousands of personal points on the first of next month. On the contrary, they will not have the idea of ​​saving money like some second-year students who, even if they did not know the relationship between class points and personal points, still felt uneasy and actively controlled their spending at the beginning of last year.

"Actually, 100,000 personal points a month seems like a lot, but personally, I feel that compared to other high schools, the environment at Dongyu High School makes it very easy for people to fall into this kind of shopping spree. At least many students in my class are like that."

Although she didn't know why Kitagawa Ryo suddenly asked them about this, Nanase Tsubasa still frankly expressed her thoughts:

"First of all, the supervision of parents is suddenly gone. This is the drawback of the completely closed management model. Many college students who are admitted to university can easily lose their self-discipline habits of more than ten years under such circumstances, let alone high school students."

"Then there's the Beech Tree Shopping Center. Considering pedestrian traffic and safety issues, it's generally impossible for a shopping center of this size to be located next to a regular high school. So when I was in junior high, if I wanted to go shopping with my friends at a big shopping center, I could only do so on weekends or holidays. But here at Dongyu, it's just a short walk from the school building after school."

"Finally, there's the issue of online payments. The numbers in your account just don't feel as real as the cash in your hand, especially when you're spending money. You just have to click and pay."

Kitagawa Ryoya basically nodded in agreement with Nanase Tsubasa's views.

The rampant consumerism among students at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School did not originate during the tenure of Acting Chairman Tsukishiro Tsuneshige; the latter merely intentionally pushed it towards a more extreme direction. After all, Sakayanagi Shigemori was not a perfect person who could consider everything thoroughly, and Tokyo Educational High School's system was inherently prone to fostering this phenomenon.

Considering the series of measures taken by Sakayanagi Shigemori after his return as the chairman of the board of directors of the East Academy, including the swift passage of the resolution submitted by student council president Horikita Suzune to shut down the "Investment and Financial Management Classroom" shop, Kitagawa Ryo could understand Sakayanagi Shigemori's recent sweeping reforms in this special club exam.

That is why he was absolutely certain that the other party had also seen this problem among the students.

Thinking back to what Horikita Suzune had told her at noon today about the large-scale special summer exam, Kitagawa Ryo felt that she had vaguely grasped the thread of the matter.

If that's really the case.

The location for this large-scale special exam during the summer vacation must indeed be within the city.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was pondering the special exam, Hotaru, having finished shopping, came running up to him again, waved her hand in front of his thoughtful face, and asked as if she had suddenly remembered something:

"By the way, did brother bring Ying back?"

"Not yet, but that's what Ying wanted too. She said I should just spend quality time with you today."

"Hehe... Oh, is that so? Then brother, buy me a drink, I'm a little thirsty."

"Okay, let's go to that coffee shop next door. I heard it's a very famous brand."

"Yes, there's one near our school, but it's the most expensive one."

"If your allowance isn't enough, I can give you more."

"No need for that, but just like Sister Fanbo said, today is an exception, so please don't be polite."

Following Hotaru, they entered this branch of what is said to be a huge corporation from outside the country, located in the Keyaki Shopping Center in Toyu. Although they had been here many times before with Horikita Suzune and other girls, Kitagawa Ryo paid extra attention to the prices, probably because he had just been thinking about spending and pricing.

Just as Hotaru said, because these shops are all about high-end products, each cup is not cheap, especially for junior high and high school students. Considering that the minimum hourly wage for student part-time jobs in Tokyo is about 1,100 yen, it is definitely not a price that they can afford to drink every day.

However, the situation was different at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School. When Kitagawa Ryo and Hotaru entered, the coffee shop was already packed with customers. Even students who didn't need to work could easily enjoy the shop's services.

"Brother, come and pay the balance—"

"coming."

He placed the phone against the device, and with a ding, the balance, which had decreased by only a tiny amount compared to the enormous account, reappeared in Kitagawa Ryo's eyes, leaving him somewhat dazed.

In fact, not only the other students of Dongyu, but also himself, as well as Ichinose Honami who was acting in front of his sister today, have all undergone some kind of psychological transformation.

However, Kitagawa Ryo also believes that even if they leave the environment of Dongyu and return their personal points to the real realm of Japanese yen, he and Ichinose Honami will be able to quickly adjust their mindset and move forward as always.

Rather, it is in this respect that people are truly distinguished.

And this is very likely the question that Dongyu School set for its students in this special summer exam.

----------------------------------

The afternoon flew by in the midst of joyful shopping. Considering the location of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, students from other schools had to make sure to allow time for their return journey. So, around 4 p.m., Ichinose Maki and Hotaru received a signal from the school to gather. Each carrying large and small bags, they returned to the school bus that had arrived at the entrance of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, ending their day trip there.

After saying goodbye to her two younger sisters, Kitagawa Ryo also received a statement from the Dongyu School regarding the results of the special first-year exam.

As expected, over 60% of the clubs failed in this special exam. However, thanks to the strong performance of the basketball and soccer clubs, the latter even managed to win in a penalty shootout after a last-minute equalizer, which boosted the morale of Dongyu. As a result, the forum was mostly positive, since these two clubs were the largest in terms of membership.

However, this good fortune did not extend to Kitagawa Ryo's circle of girls this time. After congratulating Sudo Ken and Hirata Yosuke, as well as other familiar friends from the basketball and soccer clubs, Kitagawa Ryo began to take stock of the girls' side.

His drama club was defeated this time, and Shiina Hiyori's tea ceremony club also lost cleanly. The only good news was that the student council withstood the pressure and was recognized by the school as having passed the review and successfully completed the assessment.

During the time Kitagawa Ryo spent shopping for groceries with Horikita Suzune before dinner, he asked her about the student council's assessment for the day, especially the new information that afternoon.

Since she happened to be with Horikita Suzune, and was also a participant in this special student council exam, Yuki also took the initiative to come along, expanding today's food purchasing team to a three-person group.

To be honest, it does look a bit strange to have three people pushing a shopping cart, unless one of them is a child and happens to be sitting on the designated shelf inside the cart. Anyway, Horikita Suzune is currently staring at this part of the shopping cart and thinking about this strange thing.

"The topics for the afternoon were switched. I was given a unified topic for everyone, while Lingyin was given a large-scale special summer exam. However, the format was different. I was given a case study to analyze, while Lingyin was directly involved in the design process."

"Perhaps the school intentionally differentiated the difficulty level for first and second grade students."

"Yeah, I think so too."

As she spoke, Xue picked up a lettuce from the shelf next to her and put it in her shopping cart. In the simulation she had experienced, she had lived alone for a long time and had basic life skills. She usually cooked for herself in her dormitory.

"The case I was given was a special exam that was conducted with everyone agreeing on the same thing. The last question on that exam was a choice between one student dropping out and the class's points, which ultimately seemed to have caused quite a few negative consequences."

"...It sounds a bit like that special exam where both homeroom teachers, Chabashira and Hoshinomiya, were in agreement."

After briefly explaining the events involving Chabashira Sae and Hoshinomiya Chie from back then to Yuki, Yuki herself stroked her chin in approval:

"Indeed, the more I listen, the more it sounds like that year's class."

"The negative impact of that year's class was so severe that the school even converted double dorm rooms into single rooms. They turned classmates into enemies, and this situation continues to this day, ten years later."

"Yes, the school should have noticed this, which is why they asked us to try to avoid such consequences and make the special exam more lenient. I also made suggestions in this regard."

"If the school adopts this approach, this special exam with unanimous agreement should be different from previous ones, and there shouldn't be any more multiple-choice questions that challenge human nature?"

Horikita Suzune finally snapped out of her reverie and shook her head in disagreement with Yuki's opinion:

"Not necessarily, because our situation is completely different from that of the two homeroom teachers back then. For them, it was the last special exam before graduation in the third year, and the gap between them and Class A was extremely small, which is why they were so conflicted and resentful. Therefore, even if it were the same questions, it wouldn't create as much pressure for us first-year students. What do you think, Ryo?"

"my words……"

"I really hope that it can be reissued in exactly the same way."

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

Chapter 54: Transferring him to another class before summer vacation

Speaking of which, apart from the initial period when I first enrolled last year, this is the first time that Room 408 has been without Hotaru.

After putting away the cat food he habitually took out, Kitagawa Ryo lay on the bed and took out his phone, preparing to send a message to Chabashira Sae to inquire about her, much like a parent worried about their child who hadn't come home all night.

Although there were quite a few girls at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School who had taken care of Hotaru for him for a few days, such as Horikita Suzune, Sakayanagi Arisu, and Asahina Nazuna, Kitagawa Ryo was still a little worried about Chabashira Sae.

Thinking back, his ill-fated relationship with the other party began with the large-scale special exam on the deserted island last summer. At that time, he flipped the high and mighty Class A to Class D, completely shattering all of Chabashira Sae's psychological defenses and removing the fig leaf that the other party had been covering up for the past few years.

A homeroom teacher who could lead Class A to a dramatic reversal and down to Class D is now dreaming of leading Class D to Class A.

If Chabashira Sae could console herself with the issues of student recruitment and the gap in overall strength in the past, then that special exam on the deserted island was undoubtedly the heaviest blow. Lifting someone up high and then slamming them down is definitely more memorable than just standing on the roadside from the start.

Even though the sunk costs of the past have accumulated to an unbearable weight over a decade of her youth, if Chabashira Sae could openly admit her failure and leave the environment of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, Kitagawa Ryo might actually feel that she could start a new life.

But the reality is that the other party saw him as their last lifeline and, in a way that was almost self-deceptive, once again changed their mindset.

Looking back now, the reason he chose to use a counter-strategy and leverage the opponent's strength was essentially because his relationship with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was unclear. The two of them were relentlessly attacking each other, and Kitagawa Ryo couldn't resist the temptation to bring the other's homeroom teacher under his control.

It was precisely because of this that, for a long time after the special exam on the deserted island, Kitagawa Ryo and Chabashira Sae had quite frequent contact, and he also had exchanges and clashes with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka over her spy identity.

However, as his relationship with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji improved and they maintained an unspoken understanding, Sae Chabashira's role became increasingly awkward, and the frequency of contact between Ryo Kitagawa and her also decreased.

Especially after he officially transferred to Hoshinomiya Chie's class, this homeroom teacher, who had a past grudge against Chabashira Sae, kept a close watch on him, stirring up trouble in various ways, and even actually had a no-holds-barred fight with Chabashira Sae in front of Kitagawa Ryo.

In fact, Kitagawa Ryo himself knew very well that even though he took the initiative to tell Chabashira Sae about Hotaru on Valentine's Day, he was still thinking about keeping her calm for the time being. In a sense, it was a classic PUA tactic, still waving the carrot called "transfer class" in front of her nose.

But it's just a carrot that you can only look at but never eat.

After all, even if Kitagawa Ryo were to transfer classes again, his next destination would only be Shiina Hiyori's place.

Thinking of this, the text message he had just typed was left unsent, remaining quietly in the message box. Kitagawa Ryo tossed his phone aside, closed his eyes, and began to ponder the meaning behind Hotaru's actions and Chabashira Sae herself.

About thirty minutes later, just as Kitagawa Ryo was about to get up and go to the bathroom to take a shower, his phone, which was next to him, suddenly vibrated. Someone had sent him a message.