Classroom of the Elite: The Phantom Masquerade (COTE X PERSONA 5)
"To be truly free, one must first break the chains of their own heart."
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji escaped the sterile hell of the White Room with a single desire: to live a life of mundane normalcy. He enrolled in the Advanced Nurturing High School, a government-sponsored utopia where merit is everything and the future is guaranteed. But beneath the school's glossy veneer lies a twisted labyrinth of suppressed desires, cognitive distortions, and social tyranny.
When a mysterious application-the Metaverse Navigator-installs itself on his phone, Ayanokoji is thrust into a cognitive world born from the twisted psyches of the school's elite. Designated as the "Wildcard" by the cryptic master of the Velvet Room, he realizes that to protect his peaceful life, he cannot remain a bystander. He must become a thief.
His first accomplice is Suzune Horikita, an isolated girl trapped by the shadow of her own inferiority. Bound by a contract of rebellion, they will navigate the treacherous hierarchy of Class D and the deadly Palaces of the Metaverse.
As the lines between the fake masks they wear and their true selves blur, Ayanokoji finds something he never calculated for: a partner who challenges his empty heart. In a world ruled by artificial ability, can they steal their own future?
