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ArabicClassroom of the Elite: Standing Firm in Class A — Chapter 6
Chapter 6: An Encounter with a ‘Thieving’ Girl at the Convenience Store
Kaedehara Tetsu did not return to the dormitory right away. His past life as a corporate wage slave had hammered a specific coping mechanism into his skull: when the pressure mounted, retail therapy was the fastest release valve. Following the dispersing sea of freshmen out of the gymnasium, he made a beeline for Keyaki Mall, the commercial heart of the campus.
The sprawling complex was already swarming with students scrambling to stock up on daily necessities. Stepping through the automatic doors of a convenience store, Tetsu handled the crowded aisles with practiced efficiency.
Toothbrush, toothpaste, a couple of towels, body wash, shampoo. His eyes naturally gravitated toward the generic brands, calculating the highest cost-performance ratio. Frugality was a hard-wired survival instinct from his previous life, one he had no intention of discarding just because he had a fresh start.
He turned the corner toward the snack and instant food section, but his footsteps abruptly ceased.
His gaze locked onto a familiar silhouette loitering near a display of imported cosmetics and accessories. Long, purplish-gray hair was tied back in a careless, low ponytail. Her fitted uniform carried a distinct, rebellious edge—the skirt hem hiked up just an inch or two above regulation, drawing attention to a pair of slender, toned calves.
Kamuro Masumi.
The girl destined to become Sakayanagi Arisu’s loyal right hand.
Right now, her back was turned to him. She didn’t carry a shopping basket. Instead, both hands were shoved deep into the pockets of her skirt as she drifted aimlessly between the shelves.
Tetsu’s mind instantly connected the dots, pulling up her most guarded secret: a compulsive habit of shoplifting.
He had to admit, she had a good eye for terrain. The security in this particular convenience store was laughably rudimentary. Aside from the primary lens pointed at the checkout counter, there was only a single rotating camera mounted in the dead center of the ceiling. Blocked by the tall, densely packed shelves, it left massive blind spots scattered throughout the store.
Tetsu’s brain shifted into high gear. A flawless opportunity had just delivered itself to his doorstep.
Controlling Kamuro Masumi.
He made the decision in a fraction of a second, his pulse remaining dead calm. Setting his plastic shopping basket down in a shadowed corner by his feet, he silently backed away, slipping behind the adjacent row of tall shelves. Through the narrow gaps between bags of potato chips, he secured a perfect, unobstructed vantage point.
He slipped his phone from his pocket, muted the volume, and switched the camera to video mode. The lens focused sharply on the girl with the purplish-gray hair.
Kamuro hadn’t made her move yet. She picked up a few items, turning them over in her hands before setting them back down, her eyes darting in subtle, nervous intervals toward the cashier and the rotating camera above.
Tetsu waited. He possessed the infinite patience of a predator in the brush.
Through the digital viewfinder, Kamuro’s profile was taut with anticipation. Finally, her gaze locked onto an exquisitely packaged silver tube—a high-end, brand-name lipstick.
She lifted it, examining the metallic casing in her palm for a long, drawn-out moment. Then, she moved to put it back. Her hand extended toward the shelf, but the second her knuckles brushed the plastic display, her fingers curled inward. The lipstick vanished.
In the very next breath, she pulled her left hand from her pocket, casually brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. By the time that hand returned to its resting place, the lipstick had already been transferred and buried deep within the fabric of her skirt.
The sleight of hand was fluid, seamless, and executed with a practiced speed that would have fooled anyone not actively hunting for it. Her face retained its bored, apathetic mask, but through the zoomed-in lens, Tetsu caught the fleeting, unmistakable spark of adrenaline in her eyes.
Without lingering, she turned on her heel and strolled toward the exit, looking exactly like a bored customer who hadn’t found anything worth buying.
Only then did Tetsu tap the screen to stop recording.
He opened his gallery. The ten-second clip sat right at the top. Dragging the progress bar back, he watched the crucial frame—the exact second the silver tube slid from her palm into the dark recess of her pocket.
Irrefutable evidence.
Slipping the phone away, he stepped out from his hiding spot, picked up his basket, and resumed his shopping as if the entire sequence had been nothing more than a passing breeze. He grabbed his daily necessities and, feeling a sudden surge of indulgence, tossed in a can of premium imported coffee beans.
Standing in the checkout line, he glanced toward the glass doors. Kamuro was already gone, swallowed by the bustling crowds of Keyaki Mall.
The cashier scanned his items, and with a brief electronic chime, over ten thousand Personal Points vanished from his student terminal.
Lugging two heavy plastic bags, Tetsu finally arrived at his newly assigned dormitory. His room was on the third floor. It was a standard single—compact but fully furnished, boasting a private bathroom, a sturdy single bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a modest kitchenette.
He dropped the bags onto the hardwood floor and let himself fall backward onto the bed, limbs splayed out wide. The brand-new mattress was firm and highly elastic, catching his weight with a satisfying bounce.
He closed his eyes, letting his mind go completely blank.
For five, maybe ten minutes, he lay there in absolute stillness.
When his eyes finally fluttered open, they met the pure white ceiling, illuminated by a sterile, unadorned lamp.
A brand-new life. A blank slate.
He sat up, stretching his arms above his head until his joints popped in a sharp, staccato rhythm. The physical exhaustion of the day was bleeding away, rapidly replaced by a gnawing, predatory excitement.
Ignoring the groceries, he fished his phone out of his pocket and mentally connected to the System. His consciousness scoured the digital storefront, hunting for a very specific countermeasure.
Two and a half minutes later, his eyes gleamed. He found it.
[Hidden Account — 100 Points]
The moment he enrolled in the academy, the school’s proprietary Terminal System had been forcibly installed on his device. This gave the administration unrestricted access to monitor their students—tracking purchase histories, social networks, and private communications. For someone like Tetsu, whose future plans required operating entirely in the shadows, this surveillance was a lethal threat. A single misstep caught on the school’s servers could drag him into an abyss of expulsion.
He purchased the upgrade without hesitation.
With his digital footprint secured, he opened his photo gallery once more. He watched the shoplifting footage on a loop, carefully trimming and editing the file. He deliberately left behind a few subtle digital artifacts—traces of tampering that a skilled technician might spot if they looked hard enough. It was a calculated layer of deception.
He uploaded both the raw original and the doctored version to the newly established Hidden Account. To finalize the lockdown, he spent another 10 points on a [Formatting System] protocol from the store, permanently scrubbing the original files and any trace of the modification process from the phone’s native hard drive.
The school’s IT department would find nothing but empty space.
Only now did he feel truly secure. The blackmail material was entirely his, locked away until the perfect moment to deploy it.
Satisfied, he pushed himself off the bed and rummaged through the plastic bags for dinner. He pulled out a cheap, plastic-wrapped brick of instant udon.
Even though the Newbie Gift Pack had granted him Culinary Mastery, Tetsu was, at his core, incredibly lazy. The thought of actually cooking tonight was exhausting.
“Ah… time is dragging,” Tetsu muttered to himself, leaning against the counter as he watched the hot water slowly soften the dried noodles. “And it’s only the first day…”