<h4>Chapter 2: Chapter 1: True Ability</h4>
It was a certain year, long after people had be familiar with the 21st century.
As the world was facing all sorts of different problems, Japan was also at a turning point of its own.
Between declining birth rates, an aging poption, environmental issues, and a fall in national power, Japanese society was beginning to show signs of decay.
In order to rebuild from the ground up, the government began seriously focusing its efforts on cultivating its human resources.
And, as one part of this shift in policy, a certain high school was established.
The goal of this school is to gather various students from all over the country and foster them into individuals equipped to take on the outside world.
[Advanced Nurturing High School]
One of the most distinctive features of this school is that it doesn''t consider an applicant''s middle school grades when selecting who they enroll.
The students chosen through the school''s custom selection criteria have a wide variety of characteristics.
There are those who can study, but struggle when ites tomunication. And there are others who excel at athletics but struggle in their academics.
Some, on the other hand, don''t even seem to have a single redeeming quality, and yet the school still lumps them together with the rest and teaches them all just the same.
It''s a learning system that would be unthinkable at an ordinary high school.
Despite all of the vastly different personalities, these students are prompted to live their lives in groups andpete with each other for the sake of their ss.
The purpose behind all of this is probably to create the necessary foundation for them to take part in apetitive society and survive as a group.
And, those who are deemed as unqualified are doomed to the fate of expulsion without the slightest bit of mercy from the school.
Students won''t be able to survive at this school by simply being able to y sports or study effectively.
Each school year is divided up into four different sses, ranging from ss A to ss D.
At the time of enrollment, each ss is assigned 40 students, for a total of 160 students overall.
All that being said, there are other aspects of this school that makes it so dramatically different from other high schools.
Starting off with the basics, students aren''t allowed tomunicate with the outside world until the day they graduate, three years after enrollment. At the same time, they are prohibited from leaving school grounds and forced to live within school-provided dormitories. That being said, the school boasts an immenselyrge campus, fully equipped with all sorts of facilities to support its students with anything they could ever want or need during their time there. There''s also arge-scalemercial establishment for the exclusive use of students and school personnel called ''The Keyaki Mall'' that has everything the students might ever need, varying from cafes and volume-sales electronics stores to barbershops and karaoke parlors. And, even if there happens to be something the mall doesn''t sell, students can always purchase and order it over the inte.
Furthermore, students are provided with a form of money called ''private points'', which they can use to make these purchases throughout their time at the school. These points have an easy to understand one-to-one exchange rate with the Japanese yen, and can be used as real money.
However, these private points don''t just appear out of thin air.
Every month, the students are provided with private points equal to their current number of ss points times 100.
In other words, in order to stock up on the private points that the students need to live their lives, securing these ss points became the first priority.
There are several ways to earn these ss points, but the most standard method involves clearing challenges given by the school called ''special exams''.
Basically, during these special exams, the four sses wouldpete against each other, with those whoe out on top gaining ss points and thoseing out on the bottom losing ss points. If a certain ss ends up with 1000 ss points, then the students of that ss would earn a monthly allowance equivalent to 100,000 yen. Conversely, should a ss continuously lose these exams, their ss points would eventually plummet down to zero and they would be provided with a monthly allowance of zero private points as a result.
This inseparably interlinked rtionship between ss points and private points is probably the school''s way of getting students with different ways of thinking to work together for themon goal of preserving their ss points. This is because, for students, securing arge sum of ss points means that they would be securing the perfect, fulfilling school life that everyone wanted.
However, the charm of Advanced Nurturing High School went even one step further than that.
The school''s biggest selling point came from being a member of ss A upon graduation. The students who managed to win it all were granted the luxury of being able to move forward to any university or employment opportunity they desired. Even in the most extreme cases, whether it be a university boasting the lowest imaginable eptance rates or a major first-sspany, the students would be guaranteed to get in with a free pass. However, this didn''t mean they could afford to be overly optimistic. After being epted, if one''s raw potential wasn''t enough to get the job done, it''s only natural that they would be screened out and eliminated eventually.
Even so, there was no denying that this was still an exceedingly attractive offering.
I guess this is probably a good enough overview of Advanced Nurturing High School.
I, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, am currently a student enrolled in this remarkable high school where I''ll soon be embarking on my second year.
As of April 1st, I''m a student in ss D, with a total of 275 ss points. This means that every month, I''ll receive approximately 30,000 yen''s worth of private points. Incidentally, the current highest ranked ss, ss A, was led by Sakayanagi with an overwhelming total of 1119 points. Following behind that is ss B, led by Ichinose, with 542. And following only just barely behind that was ss C, led by Ryūen, with 540.
Whenparing our ss with the other sses, the difference in ss points may seemrge, but even so, it may be more urate to say that the gap between us has shrunk.
The extent to which we can close this gap over the course of this next year would make all the difference.
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TL Notes:
Note: 100,000 yen is like $930 for those that don''t know. Just a heads up.