Chapter 18 18: Gacha Games

[Popularity Points: 85480]

Takada Hikaru smiled contentedly as he looked at the Popularity Points on the system panel.

It wasn't in vain that he had boasted in front of Ayanokoji just now.

Having established a powerful image in the eyes of Ayanokoji and the audience, his popularity wouldn't drop even if he didn't participate in the so-called Special Exam next.

'Speaking of which, if I do something that damages my image, will my Popularity Points decrease?' Takada Hikaru asked the system.

[Popularity Points comes from the audience's affection for you. If you do something that makes the audience dislike you, the Popularity Points will not decrease, but the difficulty of increasing it will grow.]

In other words, the audience can only increase the Popularity Points, not decrease it.

However, if Takada Hikaru makes an embarrassing blunder and is disliked by the audience, then those audience members might stop providing him with Popularity Points.

'It seems I still need to be careful.'

Takada Hikaru was about to do something that no student at Advanced Nurturing High School had ever done before. Perhaps, he could gather 20 million Private Points in the very first month.

But this matter involved deception, and the ones being deceived were not the school's students, but the audience watching the stream. If he didn't execute it well and suffered a backlash, things would get troublesome.

'If I approach it with the mentality of a Chaos Seeker, then there shouldn't be a problem.'

As long as he didn't do anything atrocious, the audience's tolerance for a Chaos Seeker was quite high.

After pondering for a moment, Takada Hikaru decided he still had to try out his idea.

Thus, he asked the people around him, "Have any of you played gacha games?"

"Huh?"

Amikura Mako paused, then smiled and replied, "Of course I have. I even spent real money on one back then."

Watanabe Norihito nodded in agreement, "Most anime-style mobile games these days are gacha games, you run into them all the time."

Andō Sayo, however, shook her head. "I don't really play games. I find browsing forums and short videos more interesting."

In this day and age, there are many forms of entertainment—games, novels, and short videos—all of which provide emotional value, so it's perfectly normal for some people not to play games.

But Watanabe Norihito's words indicated that gacha games were still one of the current trends, and many people were willing to accept this format.

Most of the time it's equivalent to directly buying a character. But precisely because they get lucky a small fraction of the time, people keep pouring money into them.

"Takada-san, have you played gacha games too?" Hamaguchi Tetsuya asked curiously.

Takada Hikaru paused, then smiled. "I just thought of something interesting, and it happens to be related to gacha."

— — —

The next day, at noon.

Takada Hikaru arrived at the teachers' office.

"Oh, what brings Takada-kun here?"

A cheerful and cute female voice rang out.

Hoshinomiya Chie, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-B, blinked her beautiful eyes and looked over with a curious expression.

"I have something I hope Chie-sensei can help me with." Takada Hikaru held a contract in his hand, intending to give it to her to review.

"Oh my, students these days are so forward, calling sensei by her first name."

Hoshinomiya Chie patted her cheek, acting as if she hadn't heard what he said.

"Takada-kun is so handsome. If you had been around during my student days, I definitely would have snatched you up."

Heh, and then discard me once you get bored, right?

Takada Hikaru scoffed at her words internally.

In his impression, Hoshinomiya Chie appeared approachable on the surface, but was actually a bad woman. It was like she changed boyfriends almost every week, always wanting to switch them out as soon as the relationship warmed up.

If he were to be swayed by a few of her flirtatious words, he would definitely be terribly deceived in the future.

"Chie-sensei, about my matter..."

"I know you came to me for something, but I want to ask you a few questions first."

Hoshinomiya Chie looked over curiously. "How did you manage to know so much information? Even Horikita from Third Year Class A, and Nagumo from Second Year Class A—the two most outstanding students the school has seen in decades—couldn't gather this level of detailed school information by the second day of school."

As the homeroom teacher of Class 1-B, Hoshinomiya Chie naturally knew what was happening in her class.

After learning that Takada Hikaru was the one who discovered the secret, she developed a strong interest in him. Originally, she had planned to use her authority as a teacher to summon him, but she never expected him to approach her voluntarily.

"Did sensei know about this because the school authorities knew, or did you learn about it from a classmate?" Takada Hikaru asked.

He had explained these things in the classroom at the time and hadn't avoided the school's surveillance. The school must have long realized that a new student had investigated the school's rules in such detail by the second day.

They must be very curious now about where he learned all this information. Perhaps Hoshinomiya Chie was inquiring on behalf of the school.

"Actually, Honami-chan and the others asked me, and that's how I found out." Hoshinomiya Chie's lips curved slightly.

"Although the school authorities were surprised by how fast you gathered information, they don't have any issue with you."

"They are also curious whether Class A will be able to surpass Class B in the next three years now that they've lost their advantage in the Quality Assessment."

After speaking, Hoshinomiya Chie paused, then lightly punched Takada Hikaru's abdomen with her fist and puffed out her cheeks.

"Honestly, I was the one who asked the question first, but I ended up answering yours instead."

"Takada-kun, can you tell sensei how you found out?" Hoshinomiya Chie widened her eyes, appearing genuinely curious.

"I asked someone."

Based on normal reasoning, for Takada Hikaru to know so clearly, he must have asked someone else.

"Who did you ask?" Hoshinomiya Chie continued to press.

"I can't say." Takada Hikaru shook his head.

This kind of behavior was perfectly normal in the eyes of others.

The school had issued a gag order to upperclassmen and teachers. If they told these things to new students and were discovered, they would definitely face severe punishment.

The school definitely knew that Takada Hikaru had obtained such detailed information from someone else, but they couldn't find out who leaked it.

Fortunately, in order to simulate a social environment, the school had not installed cameras in many areas and had even proactively provided means to avoid school inspection.

Even if the school ultimately found nothing, they would surely assume that Takada Hikaru and the student who leaked the information had skillfully utilized the gray areas without surveillance, thus leaving no evidence.

"Chie-sensei, now it's time to discuss my matter." Takada Hikaru handed the contract he had written to her.

"Takada-kun, a fellow who makes a woman work won't become a good husband, you know." Hoshinomiya Chie pouted, then began reading the contract.

Upon seeing the contents of the contract, she widened her eyes and exclaimed in surprise, "Takada-kun, are you trying to commit fraud?!"

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