An open-air café around the corner on the first floor of Keyaki Mall.
The afternoon sunlight streamed through the glass curtain wall and fell across a round, dark wooden table.
Ken Kaneki, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, and Rokusuke Koenji sat around it in a triangle.
A server approached with a tray and set an iced fresh coconut latte before each of them.
The April weather was already growing rather hot, and cold drinks were better at soothing the body and mind.
Ken Kaneki picked up his cup, caught the straw between his teeth, and took a sip. An icy sensation spread through his mouth.
He set the cup down and tapped his fingers lightly against the tabletop.
"On the first of next month, Class D's Class Points will most likely drop to zero."
Ken Kaneki got straight to the point, his gaze sweeping over the other two.
"Judging by Yamauchi's situation, Ike, Sudo, and the others probably don't even have ten thousand left of their hundred thousand points now.
Buying game consoles, eating at fancy restaurants, going to KTV-those are all money pits.
It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but hard to go back. Once they stop receiving points next month, they might not even be able to stomach the free daily mountain vegetable set meal."
"People find it hard to stay rational when they have no money. They'll try every possible way to get some."
"So this is our opportunity."
Ken Kaneki leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table and his chin on the backs of his hands.
"Those luxury goods, game consoles, and designer clothes our classmates bought on impulse will be nothing but junk they can't eat next month. We can buy them up cheaply."
Ayanokoji and Rokusuke Koenji listened quietly, offering suggestions from time to time.
"We won't just resell things offline. We'll also build an online Second-Hand Trading Platform. One good thing about this school is that most people here are students. As long as we implement proper real-name verification, we can rake in the profits."
Ken Kaneki brought up his Student Terminal and typed rapidly on its virtual keyboard. He also took out a computer and put these ideas onto it.
A simple framework diagram immediately appeared on the computer. Ken Kaneki pointed to the process on the screen as he explained it to the other two.
"This is the direct sales business. Early next month, those idiots in Class D will absolutely be willing to sell us their game consoles for ten percent of the original price or even less just to afford food.
We'll stockpile those goods, then sell them to upperclassmen for seventy to eighty percent of market price. Upperclassmen have a steady income of points, and they'll be happy to buy nearly new things at a discount."
"This part is the platform business. The website will be open to every student in the school. Anyone can list their unused items on it, and we'll provide escrow services as a third-party platform, charging a five-percent fee on each transaction.
With real-name verification backing us up, we can eliminate fraud and quickly monopolize the school's secondhand trading channels. No one at school is doing this yet."
After hearing him out, Ayanokoji nodded lightly.
"A very sound business model. However, this will only earn us the remaining value of their belongings. What do we do once they've sold all their secondhand goods?"
Ken Kaneki and Koenji looked at Ayanokoji.
"What do you have in mind?"
Ayanokoji raised his eyes, a thoughtful look flickering through his brown pupils.
"Open a Micro Bank. Or rather, a campus lending institution."
He picked up his fresh coconut latte and took a sip, proposing an extremely aggressive plan in a level tone.
"The points they get from selling their secondhand belongings won't last long.
Students accustomed to spending freely will inevitably seek loans to maintain appearances, or simply to satisfy their desires.
We can offer point loans and charge a suitable amount of interest each month."
Ken Kaneki narrowed his eyes.
"But students have no collateral. If we end up with bad debts-in other words, if they shamelessly refuse to pay-how do we handle that?"
"Real-name verification gives us the best leverage." Ayanokoji leaned back in his chair, speaking at an unhurried pace.
"They must sign an electronic contract before borrowing, with an additional clause: if their payment becomes overdue, we have the right to publish information about their debt on the school network.
For university students who care about saving face, social ruin is a powerful deterrent. Online harassment is the best example."
He paused, then added more.
"If we run into shameless deadbeats, we'll use the school's rules.
The school allows points to be traded freely. We can stipulate in the contract that anyone who fails to repay on time must obey the creditor's instructions unconditionally and repay the debt through work or other means.
Failing that, we can threaten them with expulsion. As long as we handle it properly, in this school where ability reigns supreme, we can squeeze every last drop of remaining value out of a debtor."
Ken Kaneki looked at Ayanokoji, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile.
"You're a real piece of work."
"Likewise," Ayanokoji said without a change in expression.
Koenji suddenly burst into laughter. He swept up the blond hair hanging before his eyes, his gaze becoming as sharp as a hawk's.
"A secondhand market and lending. Your ideas are certainly interesting, but there's another way with a much grander scope."
Ken Kaneki and Ayanokoji both turned to him, curiosity in their eyes.
Koenji set down his coffee cup and traced a circle on the tabletop with his finger.
"Your sights are still confined to the points this school distributes. You're fighting over water in an existing pool. Why not channel water in from outside?"
Ken Kaneki's eyes flashed.
"You mean outside capital?"
"Exactly." Koenji snapped his fingers. "The school operates as a completely closed campus, and points can't be converted into cash outside.
But think about it the other way around. The owners of the supermarkets, restaurants, and other shops at school need real outside currency to purchase stock.
For them, points ultimately have to be settled in yen through the school's system anyway."
Koenji gave a confident smile.
"I'm the heir to the Koenji Conglomerate. I can easily approach the school supermarket's owner or the manager of a large restaurant about a partnership.
I'll use my family's funds outside to deposit yen directly into their real bank accounts.
In exchange, they'll transfer an equal or even greater amount of points into our three terminal accounts on campus, under the guise of merchandise refunds or fake transactions."
Ayanokoji's pupils contracted slightly, and Ken Kaneki's smile faded as well.
Koenji's proposal truly was an attack from a higher dimension.
They would bypass the school's point allocation mechanism entirely and use vast outside capital to print unlimited money within this closed campus.
"The school's monitoring system is very strict. Large transfers without a reason will definitely arouse suspicion," Ayanokoji pointed out a flaw.
"That's precisely why we need your secondhand website and Micro Bank." Koenji looked at the two of them. "The platform you build will generate a huge volume of transactions every day. We can mix the points transferred by the supermarket owner into those small transactions to clean them. In the outside world, this is called money laundering."
The three exchanged glances, and the air seemed to freeze at that moment.
A moment later, Ken Kaneki picked up his coffee and drained it.
"The plan is a go." Ken Kaneki took out the electronic notepad he carried with him and began rapidly assigning tasks.
"I'll handle writing the website's underlying code, building the server architecture, and setting the platform's trading rules. The first version of the Campus Life website will go live before midnight tonight."
"I'll draft the Micro Bank's loan contracts." Ayanokoji brought up the document interface on his terminal. "Including a credit rating system, a tiered interest calculation formula, and enforcement clauses for defaults.
I'll make sure every clause sits right at the edge of the school's rules."
"As for opening a channel for outside capital, that naturally falls to the perfect me." Koenji stood and straightened his collar. "I'll have a cup of tea with the owner of the fresh-food supermarket on the third floor. It won't be long before the first batch of startup funds reaches your accounts."
With their duties divided, the three wasted no more words and went their separate ways.
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