COTE: Popularity System

"I feel like the Sports Festival arc isn't very interesting."

Eeeveent, an anime content creator, watched the anime playing on his computer screen, his eyes becoming somewhat bleary, as if he were about to fall asleep in the next second.

He was currently watching the Sports Festival arc of Classroom of the Elite.

In this arc, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the protagonist, temporarily gave up on continuing to support Horikita Suzune and instead joined Hirata Yosuke's camp, thereby making it easier to manage the class.

Besides that, he also exposed a portion of his strength during the Sports Festival, achieving good results in many events.

Compared to his performance in previous special exams, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's efforts finally bore fruit, and he was no longer so stifled.

However, the content of the Sports Festival wasn't very interesting. Events like running, the scavenger hunt, and the cavalry battle made one feel sleepy just watching them.

Although Class C's leader, Ryūen Kakeru, had planned to use tricks to interfere with the competitions of Class A and Class D, these tricks were executed too forcefully. It was as if he were treating the referees like blind and stupid people.

After Money-Giving Guy and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gathered evidence, Ryūen Kakeru was reported to the Student Council, causing Class C to be deducted 50 class points before the Sports Festival had even ended.

"This episode is so boring."

After forcing himself to stay awake to finish the latest episode of Classroom of the Elite, Eeeveent had originally intended to go catch up on other new anime. Subsequently, he discovered some familiar characters in the video list on the right sidebar of the website.

"Is this Money-Giving Guy?" Eeeveent narrowed his eyes slightly, almost squinting them into slits.

Money-Giving Guy, whose real name is Takada Hikaru, is a supporting character in Classroom of the Elite who has appeared since the first episode. The personality and strength he displayed are deeply loved by the audience.

Recently, because he has been too overwhelming compared to the protagonist, discussions have broken out among the audience, such as "Must the protagonist always win?" and "This is an ensemble drama, it's normal for supporting characters to win."

When Eeeveent saw the character appearing later in the video, he subconsciously felt that the other party was Money-Giving Guy, but upon closer inspection, he discovered that the character in the video was clearly more mature, feeling more like an adult Takada Hikaru.

The difference between the two was like the difference between Misaka Mikoto and Misaka Misuzu.

"Fan-made content?"

If it were fan-made, just looking at the cover, the quality seemed very high.

Eeeveent clicked to view it, and subsequently discovered that this video was not fan-made, it was actually a new anime.

An individual spin-off for Takada Hikaru!

"The original series hasn't even finished airing yet, and they've already released a spin-off? Are they crazy?"

Eeeveent was a veteran otaku who had seen many bizarre moves in the anime industry. Actions like releasing spin offs for highly popular characters had been seen many times before. But releasing an individual character spin off while the original series was still airing was rare.

Rather, unless it had been planned long ago, it would be impossible to catch up in terms of production schedule.

Eeeveent straightened his posture and began to watch seriously.

It just so happened that the plot of Classroom of the Elite had been weak recently, so he could watch the spin off to kill time.

The beginning of the video was filled with black, and then, a string of white text appeared.

[The story takes place ten years after Takada Hikaru graduated from Advanced Nurturing High School]

"Holy crap, it's actually the plot ten years after the original series?!"

Eeeveent was stunned when he saw the text provided at the beginning of the anime.

You call this a spin off?

This could be called a sequel, okay?

Eeeveent felt confused again, watching helplessly as the anime switched scenes.

He saw the screen change to the interior of a company, with a man wearing a suit walking through a crowd of people working with their heads down.

When people passed by the man, they would greet him enthusiastically, saying, "Hello, President Takada."

The man wearing the suit, looking full of spirit, was none other than Takada Hikaru.

Ten years after graduating from Advanced Nurturing High School, he had actually become the president of a game company, and several of the games he developed had become hits, bringing him immense wealth.

[Money-Giving Guy, you've really made something of yourself.]

[Looking at this setup, Money-Giving Guy must have graduated from Class A, right?]

[Spoilers?]

[You can't say that, Money-Giving Guy was able to earn 60 million while in school. With his ability to make money, opening a company to continue making money certainly wouldn't be difficult.]

[I saw it was a spin off for Money-Giving Guy and thought it would be about his experiences before high school, but it actually jumped straight to ten years later.]

[The animation production team is truly wild.]

[My husbando is so handsome!]

"Earning money every day, it's really meaningless."

Sitting in a private office, Takada Hikaru rested his cheek on one fist, looking uninterested.

"How about I just give away the company now and go around the country to visit my high school classmates?"

[Do you hear what you're saying?]

[Is this the trouble of a rich person? Please give me one too!]

[Rich bro, transfer me 5 billion to show your strength!]

Just as Takada Hikaru was planning to give away a game company with good development prospects to someone else, a phone call came through.

"It's actually her?"

Seeing the name of the caller, the eyebrows of the now-adult Takada Hikaru raised. His face, which had originally shown a hint of disappointment due to boredom, actually displayed an expression of excitement.

The scene shifted to a magnificent city that seemed to exist only in the future.

[City of Wealth, City of Gold, City of the Future... This city, built by the joint investment of countless major financial conglomerates, has been given too many titles by the world, yet up until now, the city's name has not been determined.]

[According to the city's administrators, the existence of this city has already exceeded human imagination. It is impossible to summarize everything about this city with existing vocabulary.]

[Until now, this city remains a nameless city, yet it is inhabited by countless major financial conglomerates from around the world. Without immense wealth, one simply has no qualifications to become a member of this city.]

Watching the narrator's introduction, Eeeveent suspected that he had watched the wrong anime.

Was he watching a spin-off of Classroom of the Elite?

Why did a financial conglomerate city that has absolutely no connection to the original series suddenly appear?

The story continued.

[In the nameless city, the last heir of a major financial conglomerate is about to die of illness.]

[Before dying, he summoned seven heirs of smaller financial conglomerates with blood relations, requiring them to participate in a test he designed, using the performance of each heir in the test to determine the resources that could be distributed in the end.]

[The seven heirs of the smaller financial conglomerates vary in age. Some are elderly, some are young, and some are underage girls who haven't even finished high school.]

[For the sake of fairness, underage financial conglomerate heirs can use the opportunity to call for outside help, calling another person over to participate in the test together.]

And so, the heir, who was still a high school girl, used the opportunity to call for outside help and called the president of a game company over to act as external support.

That person was none other than the bored Takada Hikaru.