COTE: Fragments

Fragment: Midas

Midas

A normal, regular life? A genuine challenge? ... A harem? He couldn't care less. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is attending high school for one reason, and one reason only: To get filthy stinking rich.

—

A long time ago, as a young child residing in that great labyrinth of purest white that molded me into the existence I am today, I had come to a realization. A very simple, yet critical realization that massively influenced my decision-making. The plain fact of life was that power was everything, and the most reliable source of power in the modern day was money.

If I wanted freedom from my father, I needed power. Power that exceeded his vast reach and influence to establish my own self as an independent entity. Therefore, the simplest way to achieve my goal would be to amass as much currency as possible.

The complication, of course, was that I would have to do it all from within the confines of a high school that barred all contact with the outside world. I would have virtually no ability to interact with the wider world as a whole and access its economy. A daunting task, indeed. However, I had never failed a task in my life and didn't intend to begin now.

To reiterate, my new life plan was to enter Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School as a penniless, completely unknown student, and exit it after a mere three years as one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.

To be honest, the chances of this being successful were practically zero. I was attempting to pull off a scheme that, statistically speaking, was practically impossible. Any logical opinion would be that I was doomed to fail from the start.

However, there was a minor fact about myself that everybody in the White Room that I abandoned knew by heart.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka never failed.

That was the truth that I had built myself upon, the single inexorable facet of my reality that I had carved into the minds of all who had observed me inside of That Place. I didn't lose, not even when the odds were nigh-impossible.

It wasn't relevant whether my goal was absurdly difficult or not. All that mattered was that I achieved it.

—-

I sat in the classroom I was assigned- Class D. The girl next to me was glaring at me heatedly. How rude.

"I'm not sure why you are still so angry about this, stranger-san." I noted absently, returning her venomous gaze with a passive stare of my own. She opened her mouth to reply.

"I'm merely disappointed that I had the bad luck to sit next to a spineless reprobate such as yourself."

What an unreasonably vicious bus girl. I had only looked at her because she seemed to be rich judging by her demeanor, but lost interest after realizing she was just uptight and arrogant.

Apparently ignoring her yet again was the wrong move, because she attempted to stab me in the arm with a pen. After some thinking, I decided to let her stab me. Maybe the stress relief would help get the stick out of her ass.

Before she could escalate the situation further, the door opened for the final time and a stern looking beauty walked in. Our teacher, I assumed.

I was prepared to ignore her introduction speech in favor of using my mental facilities for more important matters, but she quickly put an end to that.

The S-System. Every student gaining the equivalent of 100,000 yen a month. It obviously wasn't sustainable, considering the real life ramifications of a school having that type of funding, but it was a truly huge amount of money. A huge amount of potential power.