Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

96 Exploitative Arcade - Part 2

A few moments later, Kinoshita finished her first attempt, and everyone started the game together. After a loud beep, all the machines activated simultaneously. Fujiharu and Kimura were both trying with all their might.

Eventually, the game concluded. The machines were capable of syncing up with each other and displayed all of our scores on the screen.

Machine One (Kimura) - 54

Machine Two (Fujiharu) - 41

Machine Three (Me) - 35

Machine Four (Kinoshita) - 23

"You're still just an amateur, Fujiharu~"

"What did you rank on the last academic exam again, Kimura?"

"Nerd."

"What did you say?!"

I made my way toward the Point Games. I was interested in seeing what the actual chances of making a profit in this section were. The others followed shortly behind me. As I made my way over, I saw that quite a few people were lining up behind one particular machine.

Unlike the other machines in the general area, this one was completely luck-based. It was a simple spinning wheel with various prizes. The price for one spin was 500 points. In order of scale, the prizes were: 100 points, 150 points, 400 points, 1000 points, and two different grand prizes.

The first grand prize was 10,000 points.

The other grand prize was an immunity ticket.

Sitting at the machine was a first-year girl, playing it, spin after spin.

The only reason someone would reasonably invest so many tokens would be for the immunity ticket. Since the machine was basically rigged to make you lose money after a while.

!#$*&%$#^*&#

The biggest reason why things are such a hassle is that I have to resolve everything myself.

Maybe things would be easier if I had a proxy.

This looks like an opportunity.

***

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[Akihiko Harumi POV]

It was a few days ago when I, Akihiko Hachiro, found myself in an uncomfortably precarious position.

Since coming to this school, I've been living an easy life. Whilst everyone else was panicking about the special exams, I've been carefully analysing the situation and stocking up on points.

After the last academic exam, I thought that I was set for good.

Your Account

Current Points: 32,836

Owed: 0

Owing: 0

However, during my time, I may have made quite a number of enemies. One enemy, in particular, has been incredibly annoying for a while. She was the central figure of class 1-A, who was also liked by every student in the class, Ichinose Karin.

Unlike me, she hasn't been able to stock up on points, but what she does have is immense influence within the class. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. However, this recent special exam is going to spell the death of me. My unpleasant attitude caused me to be excommunicated from the class for the most part; I didn't really care about that since I never cared much about the opinions of others.

It was going to spell disaster during the special exam.

A few days ago, I opened Preseqta.

Popularity Special Exam (First Years)

Exam

In this special exam, we will be exploring the need to form mutually-beneficial relationships with our peers and coworkers.

In the next four days, you will be given an opportunity to cast both 'Praise' and a 'Criticism' votes for students in the class. Each student must cast at least two votes and a maximum of four (two Praise and two Criticism). At the end of the exam, the results will be shown, and the following rewards/punishments will be distributed.

A Praise is equivalent to +1 popularity, and a Criticism is equivalent to -1 popularity.

Results

(Ranked based on total popularity in class)

Rank 1: Gain 25,000 points

Rank 2: Gain 5,000 points

Rank 3-10: Gain 1,000 points

...

Second last: Lose 5,000 points

Last: Expulsion

This was a completely lost situation. In the past few days, Ichinose had already turned the entire class against me. Everyone else, in fear of being expelled and out of genuine disdain for me, were quickly convinced, leaving me to be sacrificed.

There was nothing I could do. The cost for an Immunity at this time was 100,000 points. Apparently, they cost more during a special exam. There was nothing else I could do. I could only pray that I would be able to win one from this arcade game.

Again and again, I scanned my card.

Win 100 points!

Win 150 points!

Win 100 points!

Win 150 points!

Win 100 points!

Win 400 points!

Come on... please... I don't want to leave this school... After finally escaping that terrible house... I thought I'd finally be free. I can't let it end like this. I want to graduate from this school. I want to make friends...

It's just that... my personality is bad.

I know it. I've always known it. But getting close to people... I just struggle.

Every time, I unintentionally push them away.

Every time, my tongue becomes toxic.

I brought this upon myself. I won't let it end. Until every last point has been used up from my account, I will keep playing this game.

Immunity is my only hope.

There were a huge crowd of students gathered behind me, all watching me as I wasted all of my points, aimlessly throwing them at this machine. Again and again, I would swipe my card, adding more points to the game and spinning it even more. My eyes were starting to get blurry, and my thoughts were fading, but I couldn't stop.

If I stopped, I would be expelled.

With that in mind, I could only pray to the heavens. Maybe god was there and maybe he would bless me with salvation.

Ah.

In the end, I knew I was bound to fail.

[You have run out of points, please restock at the counter]

I opened my bank account.

Your Account

Current Points: 336

Owed: 0

Owing: 0

It was all over.

I had completely run out of points.