I have a life simulator.

From this perspective, for these non-ordinary high school students who already have a certain amount of experience outside the school, this special summer exam was indeed easier.

Conversely, it also seems to show that students who already have clear future plans and have achieved certain results do not need the school to worry about them, so they can simply use such a special exam to train them.

This is one of the reasons why the school deliberately separated all students into individual groups and sent them to the metropolis of Tokyo. After all, if you turn around after leaving the school gate and see a classmate who ate in the same cafeteria and attended the same class as you just a day ago driving a Maybach from home, your mood would be quite complicated. It wouldn't be good if two more Nagumo Masashi were to become possessed by demons.

Separating the students actually makes them focus more on themselves.

"YouTube, Twitter, TikTok... Where should I open an account? Liang, do you have any ideas?"

"I feel that neither of us has the ability to make long videos yet. Twitter or TikTok are probably better. Moreover, these platforms are prone to having tweets or short videos that suddenly become popular for no reason. Many small internet celebrities started out that way, but they rise quickly and fall quickly as well."

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo also logged into his main accounts on various platforms that he hadn't visited in over a year. The theater troupe was mainly managing these accounts for him, so they had basically become fully automated forwarding accounts. Karuizawa Megumi would occasionally log in, so there were a few posts liking her account's tweets, which was a mutual act of mutual liking.

"It seems Hui went to the theater troupe?"

Seeing Karuizawa Megumi's tweet and photos on Kitagawa Ryo's phone screen, Horikita Suzune curiously leaned over and asked a question.

"Yes, she originally planned to develop into a professional theater actress. When we have some free time, we can go and visit her. I know her very well over there."

"Then, Honami went to a bank in Chuo Ward, and Arisu went to Bunkyo Ward..."

"Hmm? Arisu went to Bunkyo Ward? I remember second-year students aren't allowed to audit classes, right?"

"It can only be said that the person applied for a management position as the chairman of the board of directors of a university, so they are not going there as a future university student to audit classes, but as the successor of the chairman of the board of directors of Toyu University, Sakayanagi Shigemori, to visit and learn."

"Was this arranged by Chairman Sakayanagi?"

"It's about half and half. Arisu herself is quite interested. She has experience in this area before. The only difference is that this time there are no White House factions competing with her on equal footing."

Since they were all people who had experienced the simulation, when Kitagawa Ryo said this, Horikita Suzune knew that this must have happened in Sakayanagi Arisu's past life, so she naturally nodded and accepted it.

"But let's not talk about them for now. Even if we have time to go find Megumi and Arisu later, we need to earn enough for transportation first. We can't just walk there, can we? They don't have to worry about food or lodging."

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo casually picked up Hotaru again, and stared at her seemingly innocent big eyes with feigned ferocity, threateningly saying:

"Besides, we also need to raise an extra cat. If we really can't afford to raise it anymore, we can sell Ying or use it as a food reserve."

Hotaru seemed quite cooperative, darting over to Horikita Suzune in a flash. Pretending to be startled, she began to act cute with her large, watery, firefly-colored eyes, easily attracting Horikita Suzune's attention and prompting her to suggest:

"Actually, Ryo reminded me that since our Ying is so smart, why not let her debut in place of the two of us? Cute pet videos also have an audience."

"Then I can only say that Hotaru is still nominally Chabashira-sensei's cat. It's fine for her to sneak out and stay with us now, but if we use her to film videos to complete the tasks assigned by the school, Chabashira-sensei will definitely be judged as violating the rules."

As they were talking, Kitagawa Ryo created a new Twitter account, and Horikita Suzune followed suit and created a new account at the same time. After submitting the account to the school, they quickly received 10,000 yen each from the bank cards that the school had prepared for the students in advance, and then went to a nearby bank to withdraw the cash.

You know what, after getting used to the environment at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School where you can just swipe your phone to pay, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune found it quite novel to touch cash again after so long.

Considering that there would be more occasions for spending money, the couple did not choose to use 10,000 yuan bills directly. Instead, they took some small bills and coins as a precaution, carefully stacking them together and putting them in their small wallets, which really gave off the feeling of a young couple living together.

However, just as Horikita Suzune was beginning to imagine the time she and Kitagawa Ryo would spend together over the next month, a familiar face suddenly caught her eye.

The firefly in her arms meowed affectionately twice.

It was as if she was comforting Horikita Suzune:

Don't be afraid, she (I) am also here to join this family.

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Chapter 72: Stomach and Money Bag

"Is that Liang's younger sister?"

After spotting a figure resembling Hotaru in the crowd, Horikita Suzune instinctively tugged at Kitagawa Ryo's sleeve and pointed in that direction.

However, as if deliberately avoiding the two of them, the person they had just seen disappeared into the crowd in the blink of an eye. Kitagawa Ryo followed the direction Horikita Suzune was pointing and also found nothing.

"Hmm? Where?"

"I just saw it was still there... or maybe I was seeing things. Come to think of it, junior high students should be on summer vacation by now."

"It is indeed a holiday. If it were Hotaru, she would probably come up and greet us. But it's also possible that she noticed we were off campus and were taking some kind of special exam, so she plans to come out when there are fewer people around."

“That makes sense. Let’s find a place to sit down and eat first. It’s almost noon. Or should we find a place to stay and cook our own meals, just like we do at school? That should save us a lot of money.”

"A place with a kitchen and cooking equipment... well, you'd have to look for a studio apartment. Regular hotels and internet cafes definitely don't have those things. But if we really want to save money on food, I guess we could just go straight to the convenience store and get a near-expired bento box. But we're not at that point yet, are we?"

"Too."

Horikita Suzune was never a girl with particularly high demands for material life. Rather, the incredibly disciplined lifestyle she led for the first ten years of her life could be described as super energy-saving in a sense.

The two chatted as they went into a family-run restaurant on the street, ordered two set meals that cost about 1,000 yen per person, and then waited at their seats.

In theory, Kitagawa Ryomi and Horikita Suzune first met in a family restaurant like this. However, it was Karuizawa Megumi who made the imitation. Horikita Suzune, who was just a junior high school student at the time, sat there reading Agatha Christie's classic work "And Then There Were None". The marriage that Sakayanagi Arisu had been longing for for a long time was actually originally made by Horikita Suzune.

However, Kitagawa Ryo would rather Horikita Suzune never have this memory of her life. If there were any screening event in the future, he would definitely have to replicate Hotaru's performance in a director's cut. It can only be said that if Arisu had done what Suzune did back then in the last simulation, Amasawa Ichika and Yuki would probably be making too many cameo appearances as the female lead in a "loser" drama by now.

The set meal was just an ordinary meal with nothing special: fried food, side dishes, miso soup, and rice that couldn't be refilled for free due to recent rice price increases. The taste was even worse than the regular set meal at Tokyo Advanced Education Junior High School. However, since it was just a temporary meal, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune didn't complain much and quickly finished their lunch with the intention of filling their stomachs.

Incidentally, because pets are not allowed in the store, Hotaru was temporarily left outside. However, because her cuteness skills were so good, she managed to get several female staff members to feed her. She was trying her best to support herself so as not to be a burden to her family.

"Two tasks this afternoon."

"One is to find a way to complete the 100-like stage task, get the reward and unlock the next stage task at the same time. The second is to find a place for the two of us to stay for the next month."

After finishing lunch, Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune took back Hotaru's food, which was glistening with oil from the waiter's mouth, who was clearly reluctant to part with it. They then began to discuss what they would do in the afternoon.

"If it weren't for the rules, I feel that if I just filmed the GIFs of Ying's actions and posted them on Twitter, I could probably get over a hundred likes already."

It can only be said that Horikita Suzune still hasn't given up on her vision of easily clearing the game with Hotaru's help. After all, she increasingly feels that this little cat is smart enough to understand what they are saying, and with her adorable appearance, she's practically beckoning to become the next big name in the world of cute pets.

"If Rinne doesn't have any plans, then come with me."

"Okay, President."

"So, a studio with only two people can already have a president and staff?"

“No problem. You are the president, screenwriter, lead actor, cinematographer, and editor. I am the staff member and secretary.”

"Why do you take on so few part-time jobs?"

"Because I serve as both a work secretary and a personal secretary."

"Please give me more advice in the future!"

Watching Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune perform what seemed like a street comedy routine, Hotaru twitched her ears with satisfaction. She had said all along that her brother and Suzune were the best match. With the gold content of clearing the game in one life plus her help, you'll be in charge of the household from now on, although she meant cooking.

"So, President, where should we go first?"

"Go contact the studio that the school has registered for us. It's definitely impossible for just two people to film anything, since we don't have any venue, props, or extras right now. They should have all that ready."

Are you so sure about Liang?

"Because this is a studio that my family operates, the investors and owners were probably changed this morning? After all, the higher-ups still thought that Ayanokouji and I were going up against each other. Before I could even say anything, they had already finished the job."

"...Why does it feel like the Urban Survival Challenge has suddenly turned into a reality show about the transformation of chaebol heirs?"

“Great idea. Actually, I happen to have a short drama I want to shoot that's about this topic. I'd make it into a series with one-minute episodes, and the last line of each episode would be ‘The happiness of the rich is so simple, unpretentious, and boring.’”

"So Ryo really was seriously considering the script?"

"Of course, after all, you have to go all the way when you're acting. And I'm actually quite interested in acting opposite Ayanokouji. I definitely won't have that opportunity after graduation, so I have to do what I want to do now."

Stretching lazily under the summer sun, Kitagawa Ryo opened his phone's navigation app, entered the studio's address, and it automatically started walking navigation:

"Let's go check out the place first. It's about two kilometers away from here. Consider it a good post-meal exercise."

"...Can I say that I'm already worried about my acting talent?"

"Lingyin looks good as long as she's on camera, and short videos don't need acting skills. Maybe a stiff, awkward performance would be more entertaining. It's just that in the future, someone might take a clip, add unrelated text, and turn it into a meme that goes viral on the internet."

"Is Liang saying these things to encourage me or to tease me? The more she talks, the more uneasy I feel. Come to think of it, the process of joining the drama club in junior high school was quite bumpy. I almost lost confidence."

"I'll play the male lead, and you'll play the female lead."

"Can we start filming right away after we familiarize ourselves with the location today?"

"We'll talk about it later, let's go!"

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

Just as Kitagawa Ryo and Horikita Suzune were flirting and heading towards their destination, other students who weren't in this freelance field had already enthusiastically (not really) thrown themselves into their respective jobs, beginning their month-long internship as corporate slaves.

Unlike the lighthearted atmosphere on Kitagawa Ryo's side, Ichinose Honami encountered a completely different, rigid, and almost oppressive atmosphere.

In fact, from the moment she left the bus and was dropped off in front of the giant office building belonging to that bank, Honami Ichinose had already felt a kind of pressure that was almost tangible and could never be experienced on campus.

Because it was a weekday, and she arrived right at the start of the workday, the first thing she saw was a continuous stream of people. The hundreds or even thousands of people dressed and acted as if they were all clones. The men were all wearing black suits and white shirts, with blue ties, black leather shoes, and briefcases. The women wore black blazers and white shirts, and almost all of them had the same hairstyle: a single ponytail. Moreover, there were no earrings, jewelry, or other accessories in sight.

Honami Ichinose had worked before, but unlike the atmosphere of convenience stores, family restaurants, and theater troupes, this kind of serious atmosphere, like dark clouds looming over the city, was indeed a bit too scary for high school students. It made one instantly understand those graduates who kept trying to avoid employment by taking entrance exams or further education.

After subconsciously swallowing twice, Ichinose Honami didn't even choose to squeeze into the elevator with them. Instead, she chose to climb the stairs according to the address. She climbed all the way to the fourth floor before finding the senior that the Dongyu School had arranged for her in advance.

Standing near the company entrance corridor was a woman who was almost thirty years old. She had an ordinary appearance and, according to Dongyu's history, she should be one of the first two students to enroll and graduate.

"Hello, senior. I am Honami Ichinose, a second-year student from Tokyo Advanced Educational Junior High School. I am here for an internship. Please take good care of me."

Honami Ichinose was very polite, and the other party returned the greeting with a smile and a bow, introducing himself to her:

"Welcome to our Chukyo Bank main branch for your internship, junior. I am Keiko Kobayashi, from the Public Relations Department. Nice to meet you."

Although he was facing a high school student who was almost ten years younger than him, he was, after all, a mature office worker, and in terms of appearance and etiquette, this former graduate of Dongyu University was still impeccable.

"Actually, I was quite surprised when I received the notification from the school, since Dongyu has never held a special exam of this kind since its establishment."

Since they would be working and interning together for the next month, the two naturally began to get to know each other. Since they both came from Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, this was a ready-made common topic. Therefore, after a brief introduction and greeting, Keiko Kobayashi took the initiative to bring up this topic.

"I'm really sorry to bother you, Senior."

"It's not that troublesome, after all, our company is quite happy to accept interns from Dongyu."

"On the surface?"

"Ah."

As Keiko Kobayashi led Honami Ichinose to collect their work clothes and identification badges, she began to explain:

"You probably don't know, but I graduated from Class A of our year. There were six or seven classmates who chose to work here with me, but ten years later, I'm the only one left in the company."

"Other seniors..."

"Yes, they were all laid off one after another within one to two years of joining the company."

Even as she spoke, Keiko Kobayashi's tone remained remarkably calm:

"But it has nothing to do with the company; it's simply because I'm not good enough."

As if to make Ichinose Honami understand this principle more deeply, after receiving her uniform and name tag, Kobayashi Keiko led her to another floor upstairs, where it was crowded with job seekers who were being interviewed or waiting for their interviews. They all looked tired and sat cautiously on folding stools, waiting for their numbers to be called. Occasionally, when they looked up and saw the name tags of Ichinose Honami and Kobayashi Keiko, which indicated their status as employees, they could clearly see envy in their eyes.

“If we had a senior who could have guided us through a whole day when we first came here after graduation, I might not be the only one who's still here today. Some things come too easily, so we don't realize what kind of opportunity this really is.”

After making this remark, Keiko Kobayashi turned her gaze to Honami Ichinose:

"I've seen the information the school gave me about you. You're currently a student in Class A, right?"

"Ah."

"You specifically chose the banking industry this time, so it seems you plan to work for a company in this field after graduation?"

"That's certainly a thought I have."

Upon hearing this, Keiko Kobayashi showed an expression of "I knew it," and then kindly reminded her:

"If that's the case, then I hope that during this month you will not only learn the relevant basic knowledge and experience, but also try your best to adjust your mindset."

"Ok."

Although the other person's words had a slightly didactic tone, Ichinose Honami could still sense that her senior was genuinely looking out for her, so she quickly nodded in agreement.

"Well then, you can help out here for a bit today. I think you have a good appearance, and the school's information says you have strong interpersonal skills. I'll help you contact the reception department and the external relations department later..."

"Senior, please wait a moment."

Honami Ichinose interrupted Keiko Kobayashi for the first time, looking intently into her eyes as she spoke:

"Sorry, you may have made a mistake."

"I don't want to do front desk work like liaison, publicity, or reception; I want to learn about finance."

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Chapter 73: Students Violate School Rules While Off-Campus

"Finance class?"