The next day.
Although the midterm exams had ended yesterday, grading wasn't fast enough for results to appear on the same day.
So even though everyone was extremely eager to know their scores, they could only endure it and attend class patiently.
…Actually, according to some upperclassmen from the clubs, midterms and finals were usually scheduled on Fridays. That way teachers could work overtime over the weekend and finish grading before Monday.
But perhaps because of Class D's midnight confirmation meeting and the incident where Saé Chabashira fainted, this midterm had instead been scheduled on Monday.
Which meant they would have to attend several more days of class before the results came out.
However, Asakusa Tōru didn't care much about the scores.
There was no chance of him failing, and the other students' grades weren't something he needed to worry about.
He felt it was better to continue thinking about the diary changes he hadn't fully sorted out yesterday.
"Expanded reward pool."
Taken literally, that line was simple enough—it was basically the diary confirming that the reward draw range had indeed been limited before.
His guess had been correct.
"As for the 'expanded spoiler fluctuation'…"
There were two possible interpretations.
One: he no longer needed to worry about oversharing like the time he went off on Chabashira. He could freely spoil things.
The other: he didn't have to only talk about Advanced Nurturing High School anymore—he could also roast other diary holders or related people.
Both seemed possible.
But since the next line said "emotion scoring will include more characters," Asakusa suspected the first explanation was more likely.
As for the final line—
"Increased evaluation cap."
…Seriously?
If you're raising the cap, why not raise the index too?
What's the point of increasing the evaluation limit alone?
Without index points, he still couldn't reach a high evaluation.
The existence of an evaluation cap didn't surprise Asakusa.
He had already suspected S had been the previous maximum.
The key wasn't the evaluation—it was the index.
Even if the cap rose to SSS, if the index stayed at E, it would still be useless.
Unless the spoiler index and emotional scoring could override the index influence, this update was just cosmetic.
…After finishing that simple breakdown, Asakusa quickly realized the most important issue.
His diary-writing strategy needed to change slightly.
Since diary copies were no longer limited to Advanced Nurturing High School—and people outside the school could now count toward scoring—
He should start "provoking" other people as well.
However…
"Do unstarted storylines count for scoring?"
This time he received an answer very quickly.
They did not.
Scoring and reward expansion only applied to active storylines.
Unstarted storylines would neither generate points nor expand the reward pool.
…Then why the hell are you listing them to me?
Asakusa felt speechless.
But when he thought about how the diary might have come from Ciweimao, it suddenly felt oddly reasonable again.
Fine.
If you're from Ciweimao, I'll just go along with it.
Returning to the final update—
Messages.
Replies allowed.
But with that damned 50-character limit.
Labels removed, but a transparency option added.
What exactly was "transparency," anyway?
Asakusa blinked.
Soon, the diary gave him an answer.
"This message will only be visible to the sender."
…Isn't that basically featured comments?
Only selected messages get displayed.
Wasn't that already how things worked before?
You just changed the name and called it an update?
Another line appeared:
"After transparency is enabled, the sender can still see your reply. Proper use of transparency can better protect the sender's privacy."
"…?"
If it were any other system, he might actually believe that privacy protection nonsense.
But a diary designed for him to expose other people's secrets for fun had the nerve to say that?
Privacy protection ❌
One-sided blasting ✔
The message update was the shortest and easiest to understand.
It didn't require him to change how he wrote his diary.
He just gained the option to respond to a few questions left by others.
So…
Why not try replying to the two messages?
He had already checked Mashiro Shiina's message.
But he remembered there should have been another one.
Taking out the diary, he flipped casually to the message page.
After the spectacular Yamauchi Throne drawing, Asakusa opened the second message from yesterday.
"From the perspectives of past, present, and future, Mr. Diary Writer,
who is your favorite person in this school? Please tell me the reason."
"..."
Who are you?
Asakusa blinked with clear, innocent eyes.
…Probably a student from Advanced Nurturing High School?
Someone using the respectful tone "Mr. Diary Writer" probably hadn't been roasted by him before.
But why ask who he liked the most?
Trying to deduce his identity from his preferences?
A straight hook with obvious bait?
He casually pulled out the pen clipped to the diary, but didn't immediately write his reply.
He was still thinking.
He couldn't figure out the sender's identity.
Even if the scope was limited to Advanced Nurturing High School, there was no way to identify someone from such a simple question.
Especially now that diary copies had expanded beyond the school.
So what troubled him wasn't the sender.
It was the reply.
Should he respond with something unrelated?
Fill the fifty characters with nonsense?
…That would probably just make things weird.
After all, Japanese people wouldn't understand the Chinese pun of "purple sweet potato pudding" used as filler text.
Or maybe he should simply answer honestly.
After all, the question didn't look like a trap.
If he was worried about others analyzing his preferences from the reply, he could simply set the message to transparent.
Then only the sender would see the name.
They probably wouldn't be disturbed by others, and Asakusa could later observe who interacted with that person recently to figure out who sent the message.
What?
You're asking why he suddenly seemed so considerate?
Well…
Does someone need a reason to take care of a character they like?
He casually set the message to transparent, then quickly found the reply area.
[Reply to this message (within 50 characters)]
A faint gray text box appeared on the diary page.
Without hesitation, Asakusa wrote down his answer.
The character he liked the most in Advanced Nurturing High School.
The only "normal person" in this chaotic elite academy battle royale.
[Shiina Hiyori]
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