The first casualty of Ren's new, profitable life was the Axiom's morale.
Ren walked the halls of Section 35 High, wearing the baggy hoodie over his perfectly tailored, but slightly scorched, dove-grey suit. The scent of ozone and dimensional decay still faintly clung to the wool. The golden interface in his mind was stubbornly silent—Axiom-02 was actively ignoring him.
'Still angry about the umbrella excuse, Handler? Ren mused internally, adjusting his glasses.
AXIOM-02 (V.O., flat, robotic):The Axiom logic cores have determined that excessive expenditure and theatrical misrepresentation of power are suboptimal behavioral parameters for a Main Character. You successfully delayed Section Collapse, but your immediate debt to the heroic narrative is substantial.
'My immediate debt is to my wallet, Axiom-02. And 3 million AC says I'm optimizing where it counts,' Ren thought with cheerful ruthlessness.
His arrival in the hallway was met with the usual threat display. Koji, the muscular bully from the Advanced Section Chaser track, slammed his hand against Ren's locker.
"Where were you yesterday, four-eyes? They found some of your scorched umbrella pieces at the Section 31 cleanup site. Did you try to fight a Grave-Shade with your pitiful luck?" Koji sneered.
Ren flinched, collapsing into his exaggerated posture. "K-Koji-san! I was there, but I ran! I threw the umbrella! I think… I think the light from the real hero's attack reflected off the plastic and blinded the monster! Pure chance, I promise! I'm too weak to fight!"
Koji, seeing the tears welling in Ren's eyes and sensing the complete lack of resistance, scoffed and swaggered off. Ren's over-the-top fear always worked on brute-force simpletons.
"You're going to give yourself an actual aneurysm with that performance," a cool voice stated.
Akari, the class genius, stood a few feet away, her dark eyes piercing and analytical. She held a local newspaper, the headline shouting about the Section 31 incident.
Ren instantly adopted his most whiny, apologetic nerd voice. "Akari-san! I'm so sorry! I'm just used to Koji-san's gentle teasing! It's better to accept the inevitability of suffering, as the—"
"Stop," Akari interrupted. She walked over, her expression neutral, and pointed to the newspaper. "The official report says the Grave-Shade was vaporized by an Aether-Class weapon. That weapon requires the Hero's Mark. You don't have the Mark. Yet, the cleanup crew reported finding your discarded umbrella right at the epicenter of the blast."
She leaned in, her voice dropping. "And Ren, you reek of expensive laundry detergent and high-grade wool. That doesn't match the stench of poverty you usually project. You look like you just came from a funeral, but your hair is impossibly bright. What are you hiding?"
Ren's mind raced. He had to give her a plausible, pathetic lie.
"My hair! Oh, the stress! It's the stress from Section 35! It's going grey prematurely! And the suit—this is a hand-me-down! My uncle died! He was a very rich butler! And the umbrella was my defense mechanism! It's better to prepare a terrible, desperate weapon than none at all!" Ren nearly shouted, shaking so violently the glasses slid down his nose.
Akari frowned, her suspicion only partially mollified by the sheer absurdity of his excuse. "A rich butler who was an Aether-Class combatant? The lie doesn't fit the evidence, Ren. But you should be in class. Something big is about to happen."
She walked away, leaving Ren to realize the terrifying truth: Akari was not motivated by malice, but by logic. She was a constant threat to his operation.
Inside the cramped classroom, the atmosphere was dominated by the flickering holographic news display. The headline was grim: Two Section Chaser Trainees Confirmed KIA in Section 30 Gate Assault.
The teacher, a weary woman named Ms. Tanaka, sighed heavily. "As you know, the Advanced Chaser Program at the prestigious Aegis Metropolitan Chaser Academy (AMCA) reserves two slots annually for students from financially disadvantaged sectors, subsidized by the Iron Lotus Hardship Fund."
She gestured to the news display. "The two students who were awarded those slots last month—Momo and Ken—tragically died yesterday defending the Section 30 Gate. Their sacrifice is noted. But their places in the Academy are now vacant."
The entire class murmured. AMCA was the best Section Chaser school in Japan, producing genuine national heroes. Getting in was a lottery, and two sudden vacancies were unprecedented.
Two slots. Two students, Ren calculated. The Axiom is panicking. It needs to stabilize its narrative by getting the Main Character into the high-tier development program immediately. I have to force the issue before the system defaults to a truly 'heroic' replacement.
Ren pulled out his cracked phone and, using a secure, custom-coded app, initiated the same type of transaction he used for the tuition scam. He moved 10,000,000 AC from his account to an obscure AMCA foundation account, and then immediately withdrew 9,999,999 AC, repeating the cycle thirty times in two seconds. The goal was not to steal, but to create a catastrophic spike in his net worth that the low-security, emergency Iron Lotus algorithm would detect.
The digital notice board in the classroom erupted in flashing gold text, overriding the news broadcast.
IMMEDIATE ANNOUNCEMENT!
AEGIS METROPOLITAN CHASER ACADEMY (AMCA)
IRON LOTUS HARDSHIP FUND
The vacant slot for the Advanced Chaser Track has been immediately assigned based on urgent need and latent mana screening.
The screen whirred, building the suspense until the full text appeared:
RECIPIENT: REN SHIROISHI
GRANT STATUS: 90% HARDSHIP SCHOLARSHIP
Note: Student is responsible for the remaining 10% of annual tuition and supply fees.
The silence was even more profound than before. Ren, still slumped at his desk, looked up with an expression of utterly convincing, shocked disbelief, allowing a single, pathetic tear to roll down his cheek.
"N-no! Not AMCA! I can't go there! They have mandatory combat assessments! I'll fail!" he squeaked.
Internally, Ren was having a fit. 90%?! I manipulated the core algorithm, and you still stuck me with a 10% annual fee?! That's thousands of AC per semester! The absolute nerve! I have to pay money to save your stupid world!
AXIOM-02 (V.O., defensively):A 90% scholarship is incredibly generous! The Axiom is obligated to enforce some level of personal commitment! And Ren, you will be reporting to the AMCA campus next week.
'Personal commitment is for heroes, Handler. Debt is for CEOs. This 10% is going to cost you a fortune in VMP.'
Koji was speechless, sputtering insults. But Akari wasn't surprised by the announcement. She was only surprised by the details. She watched Ren's trembling performance—the collapsing, weak nerd—but she noticed the brief, infinitesimal tightening around his jaw when he read the "10% Note."
It wasn't the look of a poor boy overjoyed by an impossible opportunity. It was the look of a financial predator who had just been charged an unexpected transaction fee.
Ms. Tanaka, thrilled and bewildered, rushed to congratulate Ren. "Ren! This is amazing! The AMCA! You've done it! You've been chosen for an elite education!"
Ren sniffled, burying his face in his hands. "But the 10%! I only have two yen! It's still too much! I'll be ruined!"
He had just secured a free ticket out of poverty, access to the nation's best training, and the perfect cover for his new life as the Aether-Marked Protagonist. But all he could think about was the thousands of AC the Axiom now expected him to pay every year.
His greed was absolute. And now, he had to go to the AMCA campus and find a way to make that 10% back—with interest. The first person he would meet would undoubtedly be the new recipient of the second, equally tragic, scholarship .