I have to raise infatuation in Classroom of the Elite

"What do you want?"

Those words marked their defeat.

The second-year students had given up and were now ready to compromise.

Akira remained silent for a full minute—and to his surprise, the second-years showed no signs of impatience.

Their demeanor had shifted. The three boys who had earlier acted smug and overbearing were now unusually serious. The sudden change in personality felt almost eerie.

"How many private points do you three have?" Akira finally asked.

They exchanged glances again, wearing sour expressions. Hesitantly, their leader pulled out his smartphone and showed the screen to Akira.

534,327.

That amount was rather low, considering they had been enrolled for over a year already. Akira had been expecting at least 700,000 each from students of their seniority.

Still, this would do.

There were three of them—1.5 million points in total.

It was Akira's first day at this school. In fact, not even twenty-four hours had passed since he set foot on campus.

Extorting over a million points on Day One? That was something no student at Advanced Nurturing High School had ever accomplished.

This was the power of information—a core reason he had chosen Classroom of the Elite over any other world. And already, the rewards were showing.

"Hmm… Let's see. 500,000 points from each of you," Akira said coolly, "and I'll keep my mouth shut."

"Are you kidding me?! That's—" the boy on the right burst out, but he was immediately silenced by the one in the middle.

"…500,000 points from each of us who broke the rules, right? I accept," the leader said calmly.

That surprised Akira. He'd expected more resistance—maybe outrage or at least an attempt to negotiate. But this was surprisingly… reasonable.

"What's your name, junior?"

"Akira Kazama."

"My name is Yoshikawa Tetsuya," he replied. "Show me your ID. I'll transfer the points right away."

There was something unsettling about him. Tetsuya was just a background character in the original story—barely more than a passing name, if that. His only purpose had been to offer a vague hint about the school system. Nothing more.

Still, Akira passed him the ID without hesitation. Side character or not, a win was a win.

A few moments later, Akira checked his phone.

593,069.

The transfer had gone through. Clean and complete.

Next, Akira turned to the guy on the right and extended his ID again. But just as the second-year was about to take it—

"That's enough, Kazama-kun."

"…?"

Tetsuya had stepped forward, blocking the way.

The other two looked as confused as Akira was.

"What's the meaning of this, Tetsuya-senpai?"

"Our deal is complete."

"Complete? I've only received 500,000. I'm still owed another million. How is this deal complete?"

"You asked for 500,000 points from each of the ones who broke the rules. Therefore, the deal is complete."

"…"

Is this guy high?

"500,000 times three is 1.5 million, Tetsuya-senpai. You're a Class A student. You should know that much."

"That's correct. But…" Tetsuya paused, "your recording only captured my voice. I was the one who called Class D students 'defective.' I was the one who said you'd be in hell soon. The other two only laughed. They didn't say a word. The school won't punish them—only me."

"…"

Damn it. He was right.

Akira didn't have proof on the other two. If he submitted this to the school, Tetsuya would be the only one penalized. The others would get off scot-free.

Would Akira let that slide?

No. Of course not.

"The price of my silence just went up to 1.5 million."

"I've already given you everything I have," Tetsuya said, tapping the phone in his pocket. "I'm flat broke. And those two?"—he glanced at his friends—"They've got no reason to pay. They didn't say anything. The school won't touch them."

Akira let out a quiet sigh.

His first defeat?

And from a background character, no less.

He had clearly underestimated the caliber of students at this school. Tetsuya must have noticed the moment Akira revealed the recording. That's when the tables began to shift.

"Kazama-kun," Tetsuya said, "I can offer you something more valuable than points—information."

"I'll give you everything I know about Advanced Nurturing High School. The systems. The politics. How Class 1-D can climb all the way to Class A."

For any other first-year, this offer would have been irresistible. Information this early in the game, in a school like this, was a godsend.

"You can't squeeze any more points out of us," Tetsuya continued. "But take my deal, and you'll have the best of both worlds."

Unfortunately for him, the last thing Akira lacked was knowledge.

"You're wrong, Tetsuya-senpai," Akira said smoothly. "I can still extort you. In fact, I can extort your entire class."

Tetsuya's expression darkened. Any normal first-year would've taken the deal by now.

"How?"

"Simple," Akira replied, smiling. "This school's class system is competitive. That much is clear. If that's the case, then there must be penalties for failure. Like—say—a deduction in class points for every student expelled."

He hadn't deduced anything. He already knew this from the novel: 300 class points per expulsion.

But it worked.

Tetsuya's face tightened. 300 points was massive. In the original story, only Koenji had ever earned that much in one go.

"I-It's true there's a penalty if someone's expelled," Tetsuya admitted, "but it's not worth paying a million points to avoid."

"Let's find out how much it really is, then," Akira said, turning to walk away.

"Wait! Are you sure you don't want the information?" Tetsuya called after him. "It's worth far more than a million points!"

Akira stopped in his tracks, glancing over his shoulder.

"You already said that. But you're not telling me anything new, are you?"

"There's a student in class 2-A named Nagumo Miyabi. He was originally placed in Class B but not only did he manage to advance his class but control the entiretly of second year."

"Okay… Why do I care?"

Akira knew about Nagumo too, but he didn't really care. Maybe he can use him to farm infatuation from Ichinose later in the story? That was too far away, and the plot might change dramatically at that point.

"I can tell you how he did it."

Now that was good information. There was nothing about this mentioned in the novel, as far as the novel went, they just glazed Nagumo as some evil mastermind antagonist with great feats. He didn't even played any major role in the series…

But the information might be worth it, who knows Akira with it might be able to take control of entire 1st year.

"Alright… I accept"

…

After receiving the information and exchanging contact details with Tetsuya, Akira made his way straight to the dormitory.

As it turned out, Tetsuya was actually from Class 2-B—not Class A like Akira had assumed. And despite being a side character in the original story, he was surprisingly capable.

Akira had secured a valuable connection.

At the reception desk, he was handed a keycard for Room 404 along with a handbook outlining the dormitory rules. He boarded the elevator shortly after.

The room exceeded his expectations. For a high school dorm, it was remarkably well-equipped. Electricity and gas had no usage restrictions.

But despite the comfortable surroundings, Akira's mood was far from light.

Too much had happened in a single day.

He had been kidnapped by a mysterious system, transported into an anime world, placed into a new body, given strange powers and knowledge bases—all of which weighed heavily on his mind.

He was exhausted. Utterly drained.

Akira didn't even know how he was still functioning.

His heart was a whirl of mixed emotions. The idea of living as a high school student again brought a certain excitement, but also an unexpected wave of nostalgia.

From here on, his choices would define his future—whether he would be erased from existence or complete this twisted game and earn whatever reward awaited him.

Speaking of the reward, Akira wasn't even sure there was one. But the system had promised that completing it would be "beneficial."

He decided to stop thinking.

The moment his head touched the pillow, a deep fatigue wrapped around his body.

Within seconds, Akira drifted into sleep.

{Author here, thank you for reading, spare a few power stones and comments. They really motivate me.}