COTE: Stealing Back What's Mine

New Preparations

The day of the exam arrived, the classroom's atmosphere nervous and tense. Students huddled together, quickly exchanging notes and information they had gathered from the previous day's study sessions. Everyone seemed almost scared at the upcoming exam, which makes sense, as it was clear that the intricacies of trading were far beyond the grasp of a typical high school student.

I observed the scene quietly, noting how the pressure of this exam was affecting everyone. Even the usually confident students like Yukimura were showing signs of unease. If this is the level of difficulty we're facing now, I wondered how much harder the exams would become as we transitioned into our third year.

The murmurs of the class gradually died down as Chabashira-sensei made her entrance, her expression as stern and unreadable as ever.

"Good morning, class. I'm sure you all know what today is, so I won't waste any time. Please take out your phones and download the Student Stock App, S.S.A for short."

There was a quiet snicker from Ike. "That's ass backwards." he said giggling at his own joke.

Chabashira-sensei shot him a firm glare, and any laughter coming from him quickly died down.

Without hesitation, I pulled out my phone, joining the rest of the class in accessing the school's website to download the app. The process was quick, and once the app was installed, I opened it to find that my school profile had already been synced with the application. The starting screen featured pictures of Class B, and the words "Please select two designated brokers" were prominently displayed.

Chabashira continued, "Alright, once you've downloaded the app, select two designated brokers. A two-thirds majority vote is needed."

This had already been decided the previous day, with Horikita and I chosen to take on the roles of brokers. Confident that there would be no issues, I selected myself and Horikita on the app. A quick glance around the room confirmed that the rest of the class was doing the same.

Moments later, the monitor at the front of the room displayed both my picture and Horikita's, confirming our roles. Chabashira gave a faint, almost imperceptible smile.

"It looks like Ayanokoji and Horikita will be the designated brokers," she announced.

With the selection process complete, the app on my phone changed to a new screen. The layout was clean and efficient, designed to display critical information at a glance. At the top of the screen, my current balance of 600,000 points was prominently displayed. A graph was shown indicating my losses and wins, but since I hadn't invested anything it was currently flat. Below that, various tabs and options were available, allowing me to view stock prices, market trends, and other relevant data.

The app was clearly designed to be user-friendly, but the sheer volume of information available would be daunting for most students. I could see the names of various stocks, their current prices, and recent fluctuations in value. A graph at the bottom displayed market trends, with options to sort by different time frames—daily, weekly, monthly.

I clicked on a random stock, once it was selected, it gave me a few options. There was the buy and sell tab, but there was also a "Short Sell" and "Buy Options" tab as well. This is because I was one of the designated brokers, all other students can only buy and sell stocks normally.

Chabashira-sensei continued. "Phones will be allowed in class, but only during market hours," She glanced at the clock mounted on the wall. "Which will open in about 20 minutes or so."

The school day officially started at 8:30 AM, giving us a brief window of time before the stock market opened. From 9:00 AM, we would have two hours and thirty minutes to make any trades before the market closed temporarily at 11:30 AM. It would reopen at 12:30 PM, giving us thirty minutes during lunch to discuss strategies and make any necessary adjustments, with it closing again at 3:00 PM, just half an hour before school ended.