Prologue

Server name: Alpha Scarlet.

Starting location: Tokonatsu City, Mega-Float II.

Log-in credentials accepted.

Welcome to Money (Game) Master, Kaname Suou.

The young man saw bright lights and intense colors flashing in his eyes, burning his retinas. He suppressed the knot in the back of his throat, overcome with sudden vertigo and nausea. Eventually, the storm began to quell, giving way to sensations of a new world.

A few seconds later, his vision focused, and he found himself in a low-built right-hand-drive sports car. Neatly contained in the driver’s seat of the stationary vehicle, Kaname checked his face in the rearview mirror. A pair of piercing eyes glared back at him, framed by silky black hair. He was wearing a white dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a loose red necktie. He looked down at his arms to find a smart watch strapped on one of his wrists. His eyes trailed down his arm to his legs, clothed in a pair of blue pants, attached to which was a small black carrying case.

For a second, he’d been disoriented, but then he settled into his new environment.

This was him now. As for where he was…

He opened the door and stepped out of the car. Beams of sunlight and a clear sky greeted him, and the warm, dry air reminded him of the tropics. He was in a seaside industrial area dominated by asphalt and concrete. The car he now stood outside sat just off the road by the seafront—a small two-seater coupe painted a garish green color, like mint ice cream.

And upon the hood, sprawled out on her front, lay a beautiful woman who oozed sex appeal. Every now and again, she would take a languid sip from a straw stuck into a coconut. It was as though she was relaxing on the beach, sunbathing. Except what she wore wasn’t a swimsuit exactly. A white bikini top and a pale-green miniskirt, over which was a cropped jacket trimmed with fur. It seemed to be based on a pit babe’s outfit.

ToyDream. MegaloDiver Shipping. Fiamma Securities. Logos traced the seductive curves of her body. They weren’t printed on, but rather they scrolled constantly like on an LCD screen or projection mapping.

There was something even more striking about her than the way she dressed. Her long, fluffy hair was dyed a mint green, and a pair of white horns, cowlike, sprouted from the sides of her head. She had bat wings on her back and a tail that extended from her waist, arrow-shaped but forked at the end in a way reminiscent of a bident or a stag beetle’s horns.

“Tselika.”

“Why, if it isn’t you, My Lord. Punctual as ever, I see.” The pit babe grinned without changing her posture.

“What exactly are you up to?”

“I was just in the middle of taking a selfie using the dashcam,” she said. “After all, it would be blasphemous were we not to preserve such beauty for future generations.”

Kaname was about to retort when an electrical sound came from the car on which Tselika was lying. It was gentle, like a cell phone’s ringtone. At the same time, lines of text, large and small, began to wrap around the entire frame of the car. They looked like the sponsorship messages on a race car, but that’s not what they were. The polished surfaces of the vehicle became a monitor, and a large square window appeared on the side of the car facing Kaname.

A video message started to play, and a timer appeared in one corner of the screen. A short-haired girl popped up on the window, looking around with a somewhat nervous expression. It was as though she was trying to record herself without ever having used a video camera before. To Kaname, her speech sounded different from normal. Stiffer.

“Ahem… How’s my dear brother?

“I’m thinking of going to see a movie with my friends Mich and Tanya. It’s called Kotemitsu Gold Rush. It’s that one about the Swiss Depression. You know, the one that nearly got out of hand.

“I wasn’t sure how to respond when they asked me, but I don’t think it’s right for me to stay cooped up in here all the time. I figured this could be a good chance to try to switch it up. Can I go? If it’s okay, then please give me permission to leave.

“…Ack, hurry! I don’t have a lot of time left!”

There were movie theaters here, but the one that Kaname’s sister was referring to was in the real world. Kaname moved his gaze around a digital keyboard, typing an e-mail granting her request, and sent it off to his sister’s address.

Tselika was stunned. “Rather overprotective, I must say.”

“I know how it looks,” Kaname said, “but it’s what she wants. She gets even worse if I don’t pay attention to her, so I have to go along with it. Besides, my stomach is on the line.”

“Oh? You make Ayame cook for you?”

“Not really. My parents usually take turns. But when Ayame gets frustrated, she often heads to the kitchen. To ‘clear her mind,’ she says. I don’t know what secret ingredient she uses, but it’s enough to ruin supper for the night. So you see, I’d prefer to keep her happy.”

Anyway, back to the task at hand. After taking care of business, Kaname checked the time on his smart watch and shifted his focus back to taking stock of the situation.

“I want to know everything that happened while I was away. What’s the vehicle’s status?”

“Why, everything is as your shopping list demanded. Tank full, tire pressure optimal, all systems are go. Since we’ve got a job coming up, I also took the pleasure of ensuring it was cleaned inside and out, and I’ve even included a little drink for when this is over.”

“Weapons?”

“A fully stocked short-range sniper rifle in the trunk. However, as requested, there’s only one magazine.”

“And how are things going with F. Ober Industries?”

As Kaname inquired further, Tselika rolled about on the hood of the car—from her front to her back. She was crushing her wings or bending them out of shape, but it didn’t seem to hurt her. As she answered his questions, she continued to show off her body.

Among the strings of characters crawling over her pit-babe outfit, which included a pair of thigh-length boots, F. Ober became particularly prominent. Numbers scrolled horizontally across her. Even the odd graph would surface. Although these logos belonged to companies, they weren’t her sponsors. Her clothes were displaying all kinds of information pertaining to the prices of various products and commodities from every company, alongside the trading names of notable stocks and securities, in real time.

Tracing from her chest down to her thigh with her finger, Tselika pointed out one graph that moved across the curve of her body.

“As you can see, they’ve been in the red for some time now, owing to the sharp increase in the price of rare-earth elements. But if somebody was to give their stalled research a little push in the right direction, I daresay things could change quite suddenly.”

“All right,” muttered Kaname to himself.

His basketball shoes hit the asphalt as he marched to the rear of the mint-green coupe and raised the trunk door. Just as the demon had said, the weapon was there. Kaname took it out. The short-range sniper rifle Short Spear. Kaname ran his eyes over the characteristic red rubber covering both its grip and collapsible stock.

It would be more accurate to describe it as a large handgun with an added stock and extended barrel, rather than an assault rifle with its best components accentuated. It was even chambered in .45-caliber ammunition instead of rifle rounds. The muzzle velocity was subsonic, so the weapon prioritized stealth over range. The magazine was not located within the grip like a handgun but had a separate slot, like a rifle, and loading a fresh magazine would automatically chamber the first round.

“Get in the car, Tselika,” ordered Kaname.

“As you wish, My Lord,” she replied.

The two sat down in the coupe, with Kaname taking the driver’s seat on the right. As if by magic, the wings on Tselika’s back neatly folded themselves away, revealing the smooth skin of her back through her cropped short-sleeve jacket. Since it would be difficult to drive with the weapon, Kaname tossed it into Tselika’s lap. After inserting the key and depressing the clutch, he thumbed down the ignition button, and the engine flared to life.

The vehicle roared like some terrible beast. Releasing the hand brake and putting the car into first gear, Kaname nudged the accelerator with his right foot while smoothly taking his left off the clutch. The transmission engaged cleanly, and despite the horsepower of the sports car in which the pair sat, it set off quite gently down the left-hand lane of the road, like a needle settling into the groove of a record.

Tokonatsu City was made up of a peninsula shaped like a shark’s tooth, a bunch of islands that extended off the coast, several artificial islands created using industrial flotation systems, and a coral reef, all connected by a huge circular bridge. Kaname and Tselika were currently on the enormous Mega-Float II, which stretched for several kilometers in all directions. Yet even amid this gray world of pipes and factories, other Dealers had noticed him and drew secretly closer.

Here’s a question: How can you guarantee a return on investment without taking any risks? There are many ways to do this. One example would be insider trading, where you trade securities with advance knowledge of some large upcoming event between the companies involved. Another would be threatening the director or some big investors to stage a hostile takeover. You could lower a company’s value by spreading false rumors or stealing technical information through cyberattacks. If you wanted, you could even choose to induce technological innovation yourself by uploading diagrams of new technologies in an internet video, like a puzzle to be solved, or even blow up trucks and trains containing your rival’s newest product.

Of course, some might object to such behaviors in the real world. But here, that wasn’t the case. Money (Game) Master was a place cut off from the rules of reality, after all.

“Several publications have reported that Asgard Motors, known under brands like Hunts and Arhen, has branched into the defense industry, producing tanks and other armored vehicles. Their AI press secretary has said…”

“The Rainy Girl Study, widely touted as an efficient way to combat poverty and increase production of edible insects, has been called into question recently by information revealing that it has barely any management or regulations…”

“The rumors of internal discord within the management of Rush General Trading Co. was allegedly confirmed several days ago, as the board of directors announced their decision to remove the current sitting president. This has prompted the president to bolster his ranks by recruiting PMCs and Dealers, which has aggravated the…”

In-game broadcasts. All you could hear on the radio was Western music or economic news like this. It signaled the beginning of an event. You could choose to go with the flow or against it, make money sucking up to the big AI companies or even go so far as to destroy them. It was an open-world game with no wrong way to play.

“Remind me of the mission,” Kaname instructed.

“We’re currently buying up as much aluminum as possible, a metal you might recognize. It’s used to produce a one-yen coin in real life. Not much is happening at the moment, but if prices spike within the next hour, our stock will skyrocket, by a factor of up to ten thousand. That will give us the opportunity to sell off the metal we purchased for tens of thousands of snow at a price in the hundred millions. In fact, we’ve already taken steps to do so by making use of a large but declining corporation named F. Ober.”

It was tempting to invest in expensive metals like gold or platinum, which cost at least three thousand snow per gram, but aluminum, at one snow per gram, was the target here. It was easy to buy, and if the per-gram price went up by even a single snow, you could double your money.

The coupe sped out of Mega-Float II onto a long highway-like bridge. One side looked out onto the coral sea, the water a greenish shade of blue. Kaname accelerated, weaving between the other cars as he made his way over the gently curving bridge. The speedometer hit two hundred kilometers per hour in an instant, but Kaname didn’t feel his life was in danger. It just felt like playing a racing game.

“How can we make that happen?” he asked.

Tselika explained. “F. Ober Industries is an AI business in the camera sector, but it’s currently not even in the top ten. It’s been difficult for them to obtain semiconductors, thanks to the sharp increase in the price of some particular rare-earth materials: metals the average person has never even seen or heard of called kuchnoids. But there’s this new technology that smaller companies have discarded, ignorant of its true value. Once F. Ober gets its hands on it, it’ll be able to substitute kuchnoids with regular old aluminum. The company will become a global leader, and the price of this metal we’re sitting on will shoot through the roof.”

Windows popped up all over the display-like windshield. They showed stock numbers and estimated trading prices of the aluminum that F. Ober would soon need, various routes from the park to the main offices, predicted numbers and strength of enemy Dealers, and the locations of possible attacks.

“So what do we actually need to do?”

“Pick up a briefcase from the park on the peninsula and deliver it to F. Ober headquarters on this landmass. However, this is a big moment in history—a tug-of-war between kuchnoids and aluminum, between tradition and the future. We must handle any opposition that comes our way, or else it’s all over.”

Money (Game) Master was best thought of as a game of financial dealings where nothing was against the law. The players, called Dealers, entered a virtual financial district known as Tokonatsu City and competed to see who could grow their seed money the most. There were no levels or experience points. A Dealer’s strength could be boosted only by cash, which players used to secure items and equipment. Those reduced to nothing could collect empty cans for change and try to earn it all back, and a serious player could begin to own land and businesses, turn their hand to financial dealing, and even blow up the buildings of enemy Dealers. That was the kind of world this was.

Reaching the end of the long bridge, the car approached the shark’s tooth–shaped peninsula. White beaches lined the shores, and palm trees and hibiscus flowers flourished along the roadside and in flower beds. Tall skyscrapers reflected the sunlight like mirrors. A cesspool of money that gobbled up desires and bloated itself on them. Sometimes even the Dealers couldn’t control it.

“One last question,” said Kaname. “Are you ready?”

“When you are, My Lord,” Tselika replied.

The sports car, vibrant like mint ice cream, arrived on the peninsula and headed for the financial district.

Kaname received the silver-paneled briefcase in the park from an AI agent whose smile was just a little too perfect and threw it in the trunk. The estimated distance to the F. Ober headquarters was about fifteen kilometers. He turned the vehicle around, brushing dangerously close to a large metal dumpster about the size of a small car. As soon as he left the park, enemy Dealers immediately closed in on him. Kaname shifted gears up and up, quickly manipulating the stick, pushing the car into sixth, then seventh gear, even though he usually stuck to fifth. The needle on the speedometer flew up to three hundred kilometers per hour.

But this was nothing but an ordinary day in Tokonatsu City. The flashy sports car behind Kaname remained visible in his rearview mirror, and although security cameras covered the walls of buildings and streetlights, not a single one of them would bother to report him.

In the passenger seat, Tselika scanned the map that covered the windshield in front of her and spoke in a puzzled voice while turning to her right.

“My Lord? We’ve veered off our shortest route!”

“If we go that way, we won’t stand a chance.”

Racing down the main road, Kaname ignored the traffic signals and cut across the curve of the intersection. He forced the gears back down, making them drop speed, and yanked hard on the hand brake to cause the rear wheels to skid. The tires screeched, painting a black crescent on the surface of the road, and he completed the right turn while narrowly avoiding a large truck coming in from the side.

By using the hand brake and gearshift, Kaname was slightly outpacing his pursuer. It didn’t look like this was going to be enough to shake them off, though. The roof of the bright-red sports car opened, and a man poked his upper body into view. He was holding something in his hands.

“Submachine gun!” yelled Tselika.

“He’ll never hit us when we’re moving this fast.”

Rat-a-tat! A quick burst of fire sprayed, but just as Kaname said, not a single shot hit the tires or the gas tank. That said, it still wasn’t fun to see sparks fly from the asphalt so close.

Tselika began to protest. “He could have a red dot sight that lets him auto-aim or something! It won’t matter how fast we’re moving if his sights are lined up automatically!”

“Why is an AI-controlled Magistellus so scared of taking a bullet?” he asked.

“Because it still hurts to get shot! And if I take a fatal wound, I get frozen and can’t move! But most of all, I couldn’t bear the thought of damaging this vehicle that serves as my temple!”

“Why not? It’s not like anything would happen to your AI data if they destroyed it.”

“And? Do you think the temples and cathedrals of your world were only meant to serve a functional purpose? The glory of my vehicle is how I present myself to the other Magistelli! How humiliating! For it to suffer even a single scratch would be like shattering every single window in my bathroom, so the entire street might feast their eyes on me while I’m showering!”

“And that’s a big deal because…?”

“Aaargh!”

“Tselika. The auto-aim is especially susceptible to any kind of sudden movement. At this speed, in this wind, there’s no way he’ll be able to line up a shot.”

Kaname appeared unperturbed as he gripped the wheel. Just then, something started to happen in the bright-red sports car behind them. The man, appearing to give up, shrank back down inside the vehicle and reappeared with a new weapon resting on his shoulder.

Tselika’s eyes went wide. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that a rocket launcher?!”

“Don’t worry. It’s not guided. Only a direct hit will deal enough damage to destroy us.”

“Are you still counting on the auto-aim?”

“He won’t hit us. The most he could do is blow up one of these dumpsters.”

“How can you be so sure?!”

“I can smell it. I’m not getting that tingly feeling yet. We’re still safe.”

“The Lion’s Nose, I presume? Listen, how am I supposed to place my trust in something that’s not an in-game skill or physical booster?!”

At that moment, he realized something. Scattering 9mm bullets was one thing, but what would happen if a rocket launcher missed and took a piece out of the sidewalk? Of course, these accidents were one of the best parts of Money (Game) Master, but in some cruel twist of fate, a hardworking Dealer girl had just so happened to pick that exact spot to set up a fruit stall.

“…”

“My Lord? Are you listening?”

Kaname had a split second to decide. He slammed his foot down on the brake pedal. The coupe suddenly fell back, like it was stopped from advancing by a huge hand. Tselika, apparently too cool for seat belts, flew forward and nearly struck her forehead on the windshield. Then, in what felt exactly like being blasted backward, the vehicle closed in on the red sports car that was approaching from behind. Kaname fell in alongside it, matching speeds. The two men, one driving and one above, looked on, flabbergasted.

Kaname took Short Spear from Tselika’s lap and used it to break the glass of the driver’s seat window. Without relying on auto-aim, Kaname manually lined up the sights with the driver of the red sports car, focusing on the man’s forehead. He pulled the trigger once.

There was no loud gunshot. The barrel sported an integrated silencer. There was only a short metallic ringing sound, like plucking a metal pick. The bullet punched straight through both the other car’s window and the driver’s skull. The red sports car spun out of control, crashing into a nearby camera-equipped traffic light, the other man still hanging out of the open roof.

Tselika gave an almighty shriek. “Aaaaaaaaarghhhhhh! My vehicle! My temple! What are you doing, My Lord?! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhh!”

“What? Sorry, I can’t hear you over the wind!”

“Don’t play dumb with me, My Lord! It’s not like that fruit-vending woman is going to thank you, and yet you chose to defile my precious windowpane!”

“Helping others isn’t about bragging rights or asking for something in return,” Kaname replied offhandedly, hoping to shut Tselika up. At that moment, something else happened.

As if to block the road, a huge tanker broke across the intersection and slammed on the brakes. More cars were closing in from behind. Kaname was trapped.

“What are we going to do, My Lord?!” asked Tselika.

“We get that huge thing out of the way.”

“Ha! You sound very confident. And how exactly do you plan to do that?!”

As the wind roared around him, Kaname fiddled with the gun in his hand.

“You mind if I break the front window, too?” he asked.

“ARE. YOU. OUT. OF. YOUR. MIIIIIIIIND?!”

Clicking his tongue, Kaname shoved his right arm out the broken side window and pointed the barrel. Of course, it wasn’t like he needed to use the scope at this range, but he would still have to eyeball the aim.

---

---

To kill a person, you aimed at the head.

The car equivalent was its gas tank. Hit that weak spot, and it didn’t matter how much HP it had. For a tanker, besides the fancy reinforced tank in the trailer, there was a separate square one right below the front tractor.

One shot was all it took. The gas tank exploded with a boom. As heavy as the cylindrical trailer was, the force of the explosion still lifted it a few feet off the ground. Pulling his arm back into the vehicle, Kaname took that moment to speed up as fast as he could toward the opening. The car barely made it through the meter of space before the huge steel maw clamped down behind him. The pursuing vehicles, a second too late, plowed into the tanker with a succession of loud crashes.

As he checked behind them in the rearview mirror, Kaname mumbled to himself, “I think we can relax for now.”

“But there’s still a bunch more cars coming from down a different road!”

“They’re probably just a contingency team. The ones we crushed will have been the elites. These guys are the backup. They won’t be as strong. No problem for us.”

“How can you sound so sure?”

“We’re close to F. Ober headquarters. If we assume that somebody planned this, they should have positioned their main forces closer to the target. I mean, otherwise…”

Kaname didn’t finish that thought. After checking the sidewalk was clear, he swerved the coupe right onto it and up an accessibility ramp, launching the carbon frame of the vehicle into the air like a skier making a jump. The car flew past an intersection, over a row of short metal posts, and straight into the F. Ober building. Not the lobby or the parking lot but straight through the glass window of an upper floor.

“Aaaaaaaaaagh!” Tselika screamed from the passenger seat. Kaname ignored her.

The glass shattered everywhere. Kaname yanked on the hand brake and spun the car around ninety degrees, using all four tires to bleed off the vehicle’s speed. Tables and chairs were strewn across the space as the car plowed through the meeting room, stopping just centimeters short of crushing the AI employees against the wall.

Meanwhile, Kaname’s pursuers tried to stop their momentum, screeching to a halt on the F. Ober grounds.

Then there was a terrifying, mechanical growl. Not from the coupe or the pursuers outside. Out of nowhere appeared several enormous armored vehicles, and attack helicopters rushed between the buildings to join them. The new force opened fire on the intruders.

Kaname looked exasperated.

“…Sounds like the company’s PMCs got them. Don’t they know it’s suicide to go up against AI mercenaries unprepared? What do you think will happen if you try to fight infinite soldiers with only a finite amount of ammunition?”

PMCs protected only the grounds of the companies that contracted them, but they were unmatched on that front. You could have as many Dealers as you wanted, break whatever laws you wanted, have all the money and items you could ever ask for, and they still wouldn’t allow you to land so much as a scratch on the company’s factories and buildings, much less interfere with their business directly.

…Well, that was what made fighting them so engaging. It was more fun to play smart.

Anyway, now that they were on the grounds, Kaname and Tselika were safe. Not because the mercenaries harbored any particular favor for the two but because they possessed something of great value to the company: the briefcase. The surviving enemy Dealers came to a halt, surveilled by the multiple armored vehicles and gunships of the PMCs. It seemed unlikely that any one of them would be able to set foot on the premises without being blasted in retaliation. The worst thing that Kaname would need to be on the lookout for would be an attack from a sniper, he thought, as he slowly got out of the car.

But for some reason, Tselika didn’t seem to want to leave her seat.

“What’s wrong? Hurry up, Tselika,” Kaname urged.

“Ugh. I hate going onto other people’s property. We Magistelli deal in contracts; it’s not right for us to touch things that don’t belong to us.”

Of course, she could still open doors or walk down hallways, but it was beyond her to grab a fire extinguisher and bash somebody over the head with it or to break into a vault and steal wads of cash. Nevertheless, she had no problems taking the wheel of Kaname’s car and running over an AI employee or grabbing his rifle and going on a shooting spree. In many ways, the restrictions were rather lax. Perhaps it was supposed to hold Dealers liable for the actions of their Magistelli.

“It’s not about whether you like it or not. I need your abilities.”

“Bleh.”

Tselika reluctantly got out of the car. Kaname gave her a sidelong glance and went to retrieve the briefcase from the trunk. Almost pinned to the wall of the trashed meeting room, the AI-controlled manager responded with a smile that was just a little too perfect.

“Thank you kindly. After confirming the success of the mission, we will deposit the funds into your account as per our agreement.”

Kaname waved his hand dismissively. It wasn’t the reward that interested him. It was his stockpile of aluminum, currently only worth its weight in pebbles.

“Tselika, check the metal trading prices!”

“Yes sirree! Everything has gone according to plan, so I expect we shall see our jump… Aha! In just the last couple of minutes, the price of aluminum has risen from one snow per gram to ten thousand! A free market with no trading limits is a force to be reckoned with. We’d better sell immediately or the AI might freeze the market!”

As the demon smiled, graphs scrolled across her green-and-white pit-babe outfit—fur-trimmed jacket, bikini top, miniskirt, gloves, thigh-high boots—detailing the sharp turn in aluminum and kuchnoid trading with F. Ober.

Kaname felt something that wasn’t quite a smell. It wasn’t a jolt, like electricity, or a numbness. It was an inexplicable sensation that tickled the tip of his nose.

“Not yet,” he said. “Ten thousand isn’t good enough.”

“My Lord…? Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“Wait another five minutes. We’re aiming for twenty-five thousand. Hold out until then.”

“But if the market gets flooded, our transmission might get jammed, and our orders might not get through! Wait, forget that—if the price rises too much, the buyers will pull out! We’re in a good position right now because we have a large stockpile of the stuff, but aluminum itself is everywhere. You can extract it from empty cans, for crying out loud! Once F. Ober finishes its buying frenzy, it’ll have plenty of sellers to choose from, and they’ll go with the lowest bidder. There’s no point in having a mountain of aluminum that nobody wants to buy!”

“Two and a half minutes.”

“There’s ten thousand transactions being carried out every second! A few seconds is like an eternity in the investment world! Once the peak passes, that’s it, and our gold mine will be reduced to worthless rock again!”

“Ninety seconds.”

“Grgggh!!!”

“Trust me. I can smell it.”

“The Lion’s Nose? There are wrinkles all over your forehead!”

Tselika bit her lip, as though she was watching a baby crawl across a rickety rope bridge.

Yet Kaname still waited.

And he waited.

And then…

As the graph on Tselika’s bikini top passed a certain threshold, the color changed to a bright red.

“Ah! Threshold passed! That’s twenty-five thousand!” Tselika yelled.

“Then sell it all! And don’t leave a single gram!”

“Got it! There! Phew, that was a close one.”

Numbers raced across her curves.

Besides F. Ober, countless Dealers snapped up the aluminum like a pack of hungry piranhas, hoping to make a quick profit off reselling it. The money came rolling in. Just a second later, the line took a sharp downturn. The bubble had already burst.

The dream had lasted only a few minutes, and aluminum cans had once again become regular old trash. If they had been seconds too late, any hopes of profit would have gone down the drain with it. The weird sensation in Kaname’s nose had disappeared as well.

“I estimate our tens of thousands of snow worth of aluminum have turned into roughly 1.7 billion, My Lord.”

The AI employees continued to observe as though nothing had happened, despite the future of their very company being batted about left and right like a tennis ball. Kaname paid them no mind, either.

“We’ve completed the first step,” he said as he approached the car. “We have enough funds to get started.”

“So you’re going to use this to secure the Legacy?”

“This is no ordinary mission. We need money if we’re to grab their attention.”

“I hoped you’d say something like that,” Tselika commented as she watched the numbers and graphs float across the windshield, leaning back into the passenger seat. “But are you sure this is what you want to do? The exchange rate for snow to yen is one-to-one. You, a high school boy, could have 1.7 billion yen right now if you so wished.”

Kaname’s response to that was quite short.

“This is more important than that.”

04/01/20XX 10:20 AM

Money (Game) Master

Currently the largest online game in the world, Money (Game) Master is an open world of financial dealings where nothing is against the law. Compete with other players by dealing in property, futures, and stocks to grow your starting capital. There are no levels or experience points. A Dealer’s strength can be boosted only by cash, which players use to secure items and equipment.

Tokonatsu City

The fictional city that serves as the stage for Money (Game) Master. A financial district in a tropical environment that comprises a peninsula shaped like a shark’s tooth and several islands scattered off the coast, as well as a number of artificial industrial mega-floats, all connected by a huge circular bridge. Guns are legal, steering wheels are on the right, and cars drive on the left side of the street like in Japan. While there are many servers, they all constantly share information, so your experience will be the same regardless of which one you connect to.

Snow

Originally just an in-game currency, snow has been growing in value as the in-game population skyrocketed, before stabilizing at a value rivaling the dollar or the yen. It has become a famous example of what is now called “virtual currency.” In countries and regions where the exchange rate is unstable, snow is often preferred over the local currency, and it has already started to make an impact on continent-wide economies. As a result, the very best players can not only attain personal success but also influence the economy on a global scale. It is said to have been named after the rarity and transience of snowfall in the tropics, but nobody knows for sure.

Dealer

The name given to a player character. Their origins are varied: Some players are casual; others have a professional business background. Some are backed by multiple patrons, while others invest taxpayer money gathered from public services.

Magistellus

A name originally given to a human who made a contract with a succubus. In the game, however, Magistelli are navigators and partners to the player. Although they are capable of conversing like humans, they are in fact tapped into artificial intelligence. There are many theories, but few facts, as to why they are the only fantastical element of the game. Besides succubi, other types such as mermaids and elves have been confirmed to exist. A Magistellus shares attributes with its Dealer such as money, property, and skills, but they cannot even ride a bicycle if it does not belong to them. The exception to this is that if they have a shopping list, they can purchase goods with their Dealer’s money.

AI Business (Virtual)

Large in-game companies named after ones in the real world. Every employee, from the CEO to the lowliest intern, is an AI-controlled NPC. The majority of listed companies in the game are virtual, therefore Dealers needn’t feel guilty about engaging in unfair business practices such as intimidation, fearmongering, or violence.

PMC

Soldiers that protect the AI companies. They are also controlled by AI but are not part of the companies, since they work on a contract basis. This contract restricts their movements to terms that have already been agreed upon, but they wield unmatched firepower. Ordinary Dealers cannot defeat them in a fair fight, no matter how much equipment they have.

Once upon a time, Money (Game) Master was home to a legendary Dealer named Criminal AO.

When he Fell, his equipment was scattered across the land.

In that world, there were no levels or experience points. A Dealer’s strength could be boosted only by cash, which players used to secure items and equipment. Even someone who had been playing for only ten minutes could be equal to Criminal AO in power if they possessed his equipment.

This was equipment so heavily customized and strong that it was thought to be a hack. It was the only exception to the gritty realism of the metropolitan crime setting that permeated Money (Game) Master. These items were so heavily modded that they had exceeded even the preset physical limits of the world, and the incredibly powerful artifacts were known as the Overtrick—End Magic.

The value of snow was currently stable and on par with the yen or the dollar. If you made one thousand snow in-game, it was as if you’d been wired one thousand yen. In some places, it was not uncommon for people to store their savings in-game, as property or gemstones, rather than in a bank. And this was not the practice only of a few eccentrics but financial institutions on which entire countries relied.

Controlling the economy of the game meant you could control the economy of the real world.

That was why everyone wanted to get their hands on the Legacies of Criminal AO.

Some, simply to be the most powerful in all of Money (Game) Master. Others, to restore order to the game world. Still others wished to throw that same order into chaos and bring turmoil to the businesses and nations of the real world. Each had their own motivations.

The Legacies of Criminal AO had been modified beyond the limits of the game world as if by cheating, each boasting monstrous stats.

As ridiculous as it sounded, if snow were a real virtual currency, then so long as humanity remained dependent on the financial institutions of the world, the Legacies were a terrifying weapon on the level of an atomic bomb.

Why?

That depended on how you used them. You could lay waste to the economy of an entire continent, turn a country’s banknotes to worthless paper with a flick of your wrist, or put an end to the lives of billions of people.

This is a story about those Legacies.

04/01/20XX 10:20 AM

Legacies

The name given to the equipment wielded by the legendary Dealer Criminal AO. The owner poured mountains of money into them, modifying them beyond recognition, in order to grant them stats higher than those of anything on the market. Their many customizations allow them to exceed the preset physical limits of the world. Their monstrous stats have earned them the somewhat ironic moniker Overtrick (or End Magic) among Dealers.

Fall

The closest thing in the game to a Game Over. When a character dies for any reason, the player is forcibly logged out and prevented from conducting business for twenty-four hours. Usually when logging out, the Magistellus serving as a player’s partner is programmed to continue operating automatically, but when you Fall, you don’t even have that saving grace, and you’re left defenseless and at the mercy of the other Dealers. Even if you’re a snow billionaire, one Fall is all it takes to plunge players into the deepest depths of debt. In the real world, this can be a fate worse than death.

Down

This happens when a Magistellus such as Tselika suffers a fatal wound. A Downed Magistellus is not erased completely but frozen for a fixed time. They become frozen immediately upon taking lethal damage, and recovery time depends on the severity of the injury. A slit artery will mean a short downtime, while being blown to pieces a longer one. It is not as bad as a Fall, as the downtime ranges from a few minutes to an hour. And since they’re controlled by AI, there are some Dealers who use Magistelli as decoys to open an escape route while under heavy fire.

While a Magistellus is Down, you will have no access to features such as navigation, financial news, or programmed buy and sell orders. Keeping in mind that since transactions take place ten thousand times a second, it’s best to avoid your Magistellus going Down as much as possible, unless you are skilled enough to perfectly and manually make market predictions while also engaging in gunfights and high-speed pursuits.

Housing

It is possible to purchase land and buildings in Money (Game) Master. However, you will mostly deal in stores and warehouses, as there isn’t much use in building elaborate mansions. Rather than living in them, it is far more common to remodel such buildings in order to flip them for a profit.

Gemstones

Like housing, it is possible to purchase gemstones to be used as equipment. These are more restrictive in their use, but they can grant rare skills, and certain communities even require the wearing of specific jewels to gain access.