Chapter 16

Ayanokōji's POV

I started the stopwatch function on my phone and, after approximately one second, stopped it again. The time displayed was 00:01:362. The inbuilt stopwatch function of our phones was useful because it used a minutes:seconds:milliseconds format.

"Two," I said aloud.

Then I once again started the stopwatch function and stopped it shortly after.

00:02:118

That was no good. I repeated the process again, since I had stopped the stopwatch on a time couldn't be used.

00:02:935

"And five. That makes seven total," I declared to my classmates who were seated around a large table with me.

Checking the last digit or digits of the milliseconds component of the current time is a widely used method for computers to generate a pseudorandom number. It is impossible to generate a truly random number due to the way computers work, so the next best thing is pseudorandomness, where a number is generated based on a 'seed,' whether it be a string of numbers or an aspect of the environment.

It's important that pseudorandomly generated numbers appear random, so that they cannot be predicted or manipulated. The exact time down to the thousandths of a second is one of the simplest ways that this can be accomplished.

In our case, we were using this method of random number generation to simulate the roll of a dice, since we didn't have any with us.

"Seven, huh? You know what that means, right Ayanokōji?" Sora taunted from across the table.

I sighed an affirmative.

"That puts you on Regent Street; in other words, you owe me 900 points!" he said maniacally.

Operating my phone, I transferred the 900 points to Sora. Now, I only had 364 remaining. I definitely wasn't in a good position; I was extremely low on points and I didn't have many assets either. My situation was shaky, to say the least.

I was currently playing a game of Monopoly with Sora, Lelouch and Ryuzaki. More specifically, the London-based classic edition Monopoly. Of course, we hadn't brought a Monopoly board with us to the Karaoke Parlour so we were playing it purely in our heads. There are so many different elements in Monopoly, from the piece positions to owned properties and so on, that at first I had my doubts about whether we would be able to remember everything, but it seems that my doubts were misplaced.

Kururugi didn't have the calculating ability nor a good enough memory to join in, so he was just sitting in silence with mild confusion written on his face. Honestly, I felt bad for him since he was left out due to his mental ability - Kururugi was by no means stupid, in fact he was probably in the top 10 percent of students at this school academically, but he simply wasn't on the same level as the rest of us.

Shiro on the other hand wasn't a player by choice; instead she was acting as the banker. We had unanimously agreed that Shiro possessed the best memory and calculation ability in Class E, so she was the natural choice for the neutral party that had to keep track of the entire game mentally and fairly clear up any misunderstandings.

Before the game, we had noted down our point totals and then transferred everything we had to Shiro, and she had distributed 2000 points to each of us to act as our money. This system was convenient because the school had already set up a method to easily transfer points and check your balance at any time, making it easy to make payments to the other players. I'm sure the school would be very confused if they checked our point transfer history, however.

After the game, Shiro would give all of our points back to us, minus an amount equal to the sum she had distributed throughout the game divided by four. This way, all of the points won by the winner would be taken from the balances of the losing players, as opposed to Shiro's.

Ryuzaki had already gone bankrupt earlier in the game, so only Sora, Lelouch and I remained. I was in dire straits though, since I had just lost most of my points by landing on Sora's 3-house Regent Street and I had also been almost excessively unlucky throughout the course of the game.

The properties I owned were Old Kent Road, Kings Cross Station, Bow Street, Vine Street, Fenchurch Station and Mayfair. In other words, I owned less than one third of the properties on the board and didn't own a single color set, so I couldn't build any houses either. My one saving grace was that I owned two of the orange properties, so my best bet was to try and get the third.

"Say, before I end my turn, would you be interested in a trade for Marlborough Street, Sora?" I queried to the man who just took three-quarters of my money.

"Sure. My demands are that in return, you give me Old Kent Road as well as both of your stations." he replied looking smug.

"You know that's a wildly unfair trade. You have Whitechapel Road, so getting Old Kent Road would give you a monopoly, no? A color set for a color set is a mutually beneficial agreement for us." I said.

I was sure that a slight trace of irritation was present in my tone, but Sora either didn't notice or pretended not to.

"Sure, getting the brown monopoly would be beneficial to me. However, the orange color set is objectively the best set on the board due to the fact that it covers the 6th, 8th and 9th spaces after jail. Those numbers are some of the most common rolls when rolling two dice because of the amount of different combinations of rolls that can make them; since they are located that number of spaces just after jail, a space that each player usually visits multiple times per game, the orange properties are the most frequently visited spaces on the board. Combine that with the fact that building on those spaces is relatively cheap while still costing a lot of rent should other players land there and you get by far the best set of properties in the game."

Sora analysed Monopoly with a surprisingly high amount of depth. This was the first time I'd ever actually played Monopoly, and I'd previously thought it would be almost purely luck-based. I didn't realise this much thought could be put into it.

"But more importantly," Sora began, his smug grin growing wider, "You aren't really in a position to bargain for a fair deal are you? Being on the brink of bankruptcy and all."

He was right. I was the one who was in dire need of what he possessed, whereas he could continue with no worries whether he accepted my trade or not. In other words, he held the power to set the price at anything he wanted.

"Fine, then. I'll give in to your demands." I sighed exasperatedly.

Eventually, Lelouch won the game. Ironically, I was driven to bankruptcy by the very Old Kent Road that I had given to Sora; at this point he had collected all of my assets and since he already had the most wealth, his victory looked assured.

Through a brilliant display of luck and... perhaps some skill, Lelouch had managed to come out on top in the end. As a result he had won 12432 private points total, which was made up by me, Sora and Ryuzaki all losing 4144 points each.

"It seems that I've made back what I lost in that chess match on the first day and even came out with a bit of profit! What was that about never losing again, by the way?" Lelouch taunted, smirking at the deflated Sora.

"I had such an advantage too..." he cried in exaggerated sorrow.

"However, you made one mistake, Lelouch." he said, snapping back to his usual tone. "I never said that I never lose, I said that Blank never loses - Shiro and I lose to each other all the time. You are the first person other than Shiro to ever beat me in a game though, so you should be proud of your well-played match!"

It seems that Sora was actually serious about Blank being undefeated. If it's true then it was definitely impressive, in fact it is a feat that will probably never be done again in history. While I still couldn't ascertain that his claims were true, Blank nevertheless had some respect from me.

"Do you really think you can go the next three years without losing once?" Lelouch asked.

"Blank never loses." Shiro said assertively.

"Hmph."

After around ten more minutes of sitting around, the door to our room swung open and Light finally arrived. I felt an angry presence flare up behind me when he entered.

"Sorry I'm late, I got held up a bit." Light said as he strolled into the karaoke room.

"A bit?! We were supposed to meet at five PM; it's almost seven now, dumbass!" Sora, the angry presence, scolded him.

"Aha, I guess you're right. Sorry." Light sheepishly stratched his cheek.

Light picked up a chair and joined us at the table. I briefly wondered what exactly he had been doing for the past three to four hours, but he would probably explain it soon anyway so I stopped pondering it.

"Let's share what we found out starting with Class A and make our way down," Kururugi suggested, not wasting any time.

We had already wasted over an hour and a half by now, so nobody had any objections.

"So what did you find out on your date, Playboy-kun?" Sora inquired sarcastically.

It appeared that Sora was holding a grudge against Light for being able to easily get dates with girls. I wondered if that would be troublesome in the future.

"The situation in Class A is much more interesting than I thought it'd be; two different students have tried to assume the position of leader, and the class is equally divided between the two factions. One is led by Kōhei Katsuragi, a large bald man with an intimidating appearance. The girl I went on a date with, Ryōko Nishikawa, is backing his rival faction which is lead by a crippled girl named Arisu Sakayanagi. Sakayanagi prefers innovative leadership whereas the Katsuragi Faction prefers a more conservative approach."

Light summarised what he had learned over the past few hours. Unexpectedly, his intel was excellent which surprised not only me but apparently everyone else at the table as well. Was this the power of being good-looking and sweet talking girls? Maybe I should try it out for myself sometime.

"Sakayanagi..." Shiro muttered.

"Sakayanagi?" Sora questioned in puzzlement. "What do you mean, Shiro?"

"Sakayanagi. That's the name of the chairman of this school."

"It is?" Kururugi asked in surprise.