Today would finally be the day when our class points and exam scores from last week's test would be released. Our private points were just transferred this morning. Though, I was a little disappointed because it was less than what I was hoping for.

I suppose I should've scolded my disobedient classmates more severely so that they wouldn't cost us more class points and become a burden to our class in the near future. However, there was little to nothing I could do to even attempt to modify Koenji's attitude. I couldn't even try to influence his behavior in class because he was already too far gone. But, I guess that's Koenji for you.

Naturally, there was a significant atmosphere of both excitement and tension throughout the classroom. After all, it would be disclosed whether our efforts had been fruitless or fruitful.

"Good day." As the bell rang throughout the campus, Chabashira-sensei waltzed in. "Sit down and listen up, students of Class B."

I raised an eyebrow in response to her statement and so did most of my classmates. Some of us must have assumed she had misspoken and waited for her to clarify herself, but she merely stood there calmly, the expressionless look she always wore was nowhere to be found and instead replaced by a contented grin.

"Umm... Don't you mean Class D, Sensei?" Mii-Chan was the one to break the uneasy silence while asking the obvious question.

"Nope. I meant what I said."

"Wait, does that mean..."

"I think you know exactly what it means, Hirata." Chabashira-Sensei casually replied. "Congratulations, all of you. Starting today you've all been promoted from Class D to Class B." Chabashira-Sensei let out a modest but sincere smile as she applauded us on our accomplishment.

The entire class went into an uproar as they heard the announcement. Each student's reaction was unique, yet they were all positive in some way.

"We did it, everyone!" Kushida couldn't help but tell out.

"LET'S G-" Before he could finish his sentence, Eichiiro accidentally banged his knee on the underside of his desk.

"AGH! FUCK!" Eichiiro unintentionally cursed loudly.

Chabashira-Sensei scolded with a frigid tone of voice while glaring daggers at Eichiiro.

"Y-yes Sensei..." He stuttered, feeling frightened by Chabashira-Sensei's scary demeanor. He hurriedly sat back down, his palms covering his face in embarrassment. Everyone giggled and had a good laugh seeing Eichiiro's antics.

Many of the females were giddy with joy as they smiled at their companions. Horikita, on the other hand, only gave a modest nod of approval. Couldn't she at least put on be a bit more cheerful and celebratory about this?

Actually, you know what? Knowing Horikita, I would be expecting too much from her.

"I'm sure the other classes are scratching their heads as to how you all could pull off this bizarre achievement, but it doesn't matter," Chabashira-sensei smirked as she used magnets to attach a poster on the chalkboard.

"Are these the results for each class...?" Horikita asked.

"As you can see, you've advanced above two classes. Only a few hundred points separate you from Class A." With a smile, Chabashira-Sensei clarified.

The points listed were as followed:

Class A (A): 980 cp

Class B (D): 680 cp

Class C (B): 650 cp

Class D (C): 490 cp

"Damn... Class A still managed to save up that many points despite not knowing much about the S-System..." I heard Ike murmur.

"That's insane!" Satou exclaimed.

"I guess they aren't Class A for nothing..." Horikita muttered to herself.

While we were obviously pleased with our scores, we were astounded by Class A's astronomically high number of class points.

"You were all judged according to the same set of criteria. I suppose this serves as a nice reminder of how each of you differs from Class A. Of course, none of you can now be classified as defective." Chabashira-sensei smiled at first, but then her face became solemn.

"However," she remarked, pointing at our score, "let me remind you... Right here is what you might call a fluke."

Many of the students in Class B hardened as a result.

"Ayanokouji is the sole reason why you're all even here. If it weren't for him, you might as well be in the low hundreds. Remember, you were all grouped together in this class because the school deemed your flaws unworthy of higher classes." Chabashira-sensei clarified the situation.

This is why I chose not to share the results of my entrance exam with the rest of the class. Horikita and Yukimura's findings were diametrically opposed to the thesis they support. Finally, Sensei made it clear that our selection was not only dependent on our admission exam scores.

"Before I begin to announce your exam results," Chabashira-Sensei said, taking out her phone and holding it up for us to see. "I'm going to need all of you to do something ahead of time. Something very important for the rest of your life here at school." She explained.

"Take out your phones and place them on your desks, everyone. You'll have to go back to your room and get it if you didn't bring it with you, although I doubt anyone forgot." She instructed.

Cellular phones have become a major necessity in today's society. You could even argue that it was the most crucial thing to have with you at all times.

Before long, 40 phones had been placed on the desks. After quickly checking to make sure nobody had forgotten theirs, Chabashira continued speaking.

"So, the first thing you all need to do is navigate to the school's homepage and install a new application. It should be available to download any second now. The official name of the app is 'Over All Ability', but once it's finished installing it'll show up as just 'OAA' on your phone."

The blackboard switched over to a different screen, where captioned live-action video demonstration began to play on the chalkboard. You could say that this was one of the many benefits that new technology has provided us.

After successfully installing the app and following the video's instructions, an icon of what looked to be an illustration of the school along with the letters 'OAA' appeared on my phone's home screen.

"After you've finished installing the app, put your phones down. Raise your hand if there's something you still don't understand."

The method of installation was really simple. Everything went off without a hitch because everyone here was used to utilizing their cellphones.

"You're not the only ones who are doing this right now. Every pupil in the school is currently installing it with you. This software will be a very important tool for you at Advanced Nurturing High School from now on. As they say, seeing is believing, so go ahead and start it up."

I pressed the icon on my home screen to launch the app, but my phone's camera came up instead.

"Just take a picture of your student ID card and it'll take care of the initial setup process."

I snapped a picture of my ID card in accordance with her directions. The app then proceeded with the login process after scanning the card for various pieces of information such as my ID number and a portrait photograph.

"Each of you should have your own personal account at this point. You won't need to login in the future because your account is tied to your phone, so please be careful so you don't lose it."

After finally logging into the program, a variety of menus appeared.

"This app stores all of a student's personal information for the whole school year. For example, if you select Class 1-B from the menu, your names will appear in alphabetical order. Go ahead and give it a shot."

The school photographs and full names of all 39 of us were displayed on the screen in alphabetical order, just as she had promised.

"You are welcome to browse at whatever profile you choose, but you should probably start with your own."

As Chabashira instructed, I touched on my own name. I was expecting to be met with basic information such as my date of birth, but that was not the case. Instead, data that I had never seen before was presented to me.

"S-sensei, it looks like my scores have been converted into video game stats?!" Eichiiro inquired, looking very puzzled.

I instantly exited my profile and tapped Eichiiro's name on the screen to examine his stats.

"That's correct. Based on your accomplishments from past records and what you've done in your first month here, the school determined those ratings for each of you. Of course, you aren't the only ones who have access to this data; students from any class or school year can view whoever's information they like. We chose the system because we feel it will be an important tool for your education in the future."

To put it another way, the goal of the OAA app was to provide a numerical assessment of everyone's talents. On the other hand, it appeared to have the potential to be used to deliver public messages to all students in the school.

On the upper right corner of the screen, there was a question mark icon that, when touched, gave me a full description of each of the numerous categories on my profile.

Interesting...

With an evaluation criteria like this, I could see why my academic and physical abilities were highly ranked. Because I was able to make deadly correct deductions about this school system in just a few hours of enrolling, my intelligence had been rated highly as well. However, I was still perplexed as to how social contribution was measured. There were more pages for my second and third years of information beside the information for my first year, but they were now blank.

"Currently, only your first month's ratings are displayed; however, as fresh ratings become available, they will be reflected on the first-year page. They'll be updated every month on the first day of the month, the same day that private points are issued. For example, Sudou, your present Academic Ability grade is an E, but if you achieve full marks on the next written exam, you'll gain a C+ on your evaluation page for Academic Ability."

This meant that our previous records would be assessed independently of our first-year ratings.

One of the most notable advantages of this program was the ability to monitor not only our own class but all the other classes as well. Before this, I couldn't find out about students I'd never met before without personally going out and gathering information, but now, with just a quick peek at the app, I could find out anyone's name, face, and rating, regardless of whether they were in my school year or not.

"There are likely some kids here who are dissatisfied with their grades and are angry with how they will be recorded. But I can only reply to those pupils, "You're the ones who spent the last three years of middle school acting like that."

As a student, the closer one's important ratings, such as Academic Ability and Physical Ability, were to an E, the more ashamed one felt.

"Your middle school records, on the other hand, are no longer relevant and will have no bearing on the evaluations you receive. It is critical that those of you who earned inadequate results take advantage of this opportunity to improve. The school anticipates that being able to visualize your progress will aid you in achieving your goals as a first-year student. In other words, it encourages growth in this way."

Because the app keeps a record of personal ratings that anybody can see, many students will likely start putting in extra effort to improve themselves. This would almost certainly have a promotional effect on achieving better ratings, as Chabashira predicted, but...

"Sensei, I'm still a bit confused as to how social contribution is measured?" Hirata Yosuke asked this topic because he was curious about how social contribution was genuinely valued.

"Academic ability, intelligence, physical ability, and cooperativeness are all important factors to consider. These four categories are incredibly significant to the institution. On the other hand, Social Contribution is a little different. Morals and etiquette are the foundations of social contribution. It's a general assessment of how you appear as a student, taking into account things like your tone and attitude toward your teachers, the number of absences or tardies on your attendance record, whether or not you're willing to follow certain rules, and even the impact of your voice and the accuracy of your words. It covers the kinds of common-sense skills you can't afford to be without."

Unlike the first four categories, where you couldn't expect to see significant improvements overnight, you could drastically increase your Social Contribution-related talents at any time by simply changing your mentality and how you approached things. That was the distinction.

"Everyone is treated equally with this app. The program evaluates you the same regardless of what class you're in or where you rank among your peers. As it stands today, those of you who received high scores in the Overall Ability category have done something deserving of commendation as individuals."

The students were displayed in alphabetical order in the app, but it also appeared to have a sorting feature. And thanks to that, there was no need for me to look through each student in Class 1-B one by one to find out who had the highest Overall Ability ratings.

The top five in our class were currently me in first place followed by Eichiiro in second, Hirata at third, Kushida at fourth, and Horikita at fifth place. Sudou, Ike, Yamauchi, and Sakura, on the other hand, took the top four spots when arranged in descending order.

"On a related point, while it has nothing to do with Class B, there are certain particular considerations for first-year students. Sakayanagi Arisu of Class 1-A will have the same Physical Ability rating as the student with the lowest Physical Ability rating for the school year."

Arisu had been physically challenged since birth. Even while walking, she needed to use a cane to get around. In other words, she wasn't capable of engaging in physical exercise, even if she wanted to.

However, the Physical Ability component could not simply be deleted from the overall score calculation. Having her take the same grade as the lowest-placed student seems like a sensible compromise in that regard.

"I'm confident that this app will establish itself as a valuable tool for not just altering your thoughts and developing yourself, but also for engaging with others, as you'll now have a way to swiftly familiarize yourself with the names and faces of students regardless of their school year. But... I believe there's more to it than that. This is only my conjecture, but perhaps in a year's time, pupils who fail to maintain an Overall Ability rating above a particular threshold will be penalized in some way."

"Penalized... Sensei, you're not implying something like expulsion, are you...?" Yukimura was the one who raised the issue.

"It's conceivable. But, as I already stated, this is just guesswork. It's not like it's a hard and fast fact. However, the closer your Overall Ability rating is near an E, the riskier your situation becomes. It's preferable if you remember that."

Sudou, Ike, Yamauchi, and Sakura were all rated at the very bottom for the time being. They'd be in hot water if they spent the next few months doing the same things they did in junior high.

"Some of you may be dissatisfied with the school's assessment, which may differ from what you believe you should have received, but keep in mind that this is how the school views you right now. If you're unhappy, you have the rest of the year to prove us incorrect. After all, the school is not without flaws."

"H-how are we expected to accomplish that, Sensei?" Yamauchi raised his hand frantically as he inquired, having realized he was at the bottom of the hierarchy.

"For instance, whether or not a student participates in club activities affects the accuracy of the Physical Ability assessment. Joining a club could be a fantastic decision if you're confident in your talents."

Chabashira-Sensei was implying that students who demonstrated their ability to the school would obtain better grades. However, it was still dependent on the individual. If a kid makes a negative appeal to the school, it could come back to bite them.

"It's as if we're battling alone." Chabashira-Sensei was aware of Horikita's faint murmuring.

Horikita undoubtedly felt like the launch of this app eliminated the class-focused competitiveness she had expected to face for her next three years here. And she was probably not the only one who felt this way.

"You're both right and wrong, Horikita. The school approved and implemented a proposal by the current student council vice president, Nagumo Miyabi, and that is the very system we're introducing this year."