When waking up in the middle of the night, one sees one's self at an alien time and space. Too early to call it night; too late to call it morning. A space devoid of interaction and commonality. Where one's nature becomes apparent: no eyes to judge you, no appointment to rush you, no time to hinder you. It is a free realm that only lasts so long. Where 20 minutes and 2 hours fuse to feel like one moment. Nothing to do. Yet, nothing to stop one from doing anything they want.
To those awake, they call it "boundless time"
To most, they just call it "3 AM."
Naoki awoketh and shot straight up from his bed.
"My god
I have to take a fat shit."
.
.
.
He walked down the hall to the nearest bathroom and spent 20 minutes expelling his bowels whilst reading comics on his phone.
After completing his business, he left the restroom and noticed that the computer lab still had its lights on.
"The hell? It's like..."
He checks his phone.
"uh.......
really late
Who the hell would be up at such a time in the computer la-
oh
oh
fuckin- yeah, Kyouji, duh"
Naoki sauntered over and creaked the door open.
"Heeeeyy...pal. Whatcha... whatcha doin there"
Kyouji.
The 5'9", 19 year old creep who was like the weird older brother of the students. His disposition was rather... iconic, even amongst the other students.
Naoki had his pilgrim-looking ass outfit. Akemi had the 3 masks along with a relatively normal presence- so normal that it made him stand out. Makoto was one of the few students who wore normal people clothes on top of her uniform. So what made this dude so out there compared to the rest?
First off, his shaggy swept back hair had an obnoxiously noticeable dyed purple streak running towards the back of his head. His demeanor had that aura of an Italian greaser from the 40s mixed with that aura that eccentric loners and people who are too obsessed with their hobbies have. Additionally, if the guy isn't working on an important assignment, there's a high chance he's strutting around with his bathrobe. And his most iconic feature yet, those shamanistic tattoos that wire his body with a technological motif. Hell, at first glance to the usual student, they would naturally think "oh this guy wears gloves 24/7, that's pretty weird but alright", until they look closely and realize "those aren't gloves; those are a bunch of layered ones and zeroes tattooed from his bicep all the way down to his fingertips; the bicep section was faint and grey, yet the lower it went, the more pitch black and dense the tattoo became.
The technological gremlin kneeling by his computer slowly glared back at the intruder, studying him in silence for what felt like 5 minutes, before turning back to his task.
"I'm installing a grill on the right side of my computer desk."
Naturally, Naoki was dumbfounded.
"Why uh... why would you do that"
"I realized, why go to the kitchen and waste 20 minutes making something for myself and eating it there when I can just grill while working or gaming. I don't have to (really) stand up and I can do what I love while eating any meal. Less distraction, more time with my loved one."
At this point, Naoki was unsurprised.
This plan was so schizophrenic it was outright genius.
For how weird Kyouji is, Naoki couldn't help but look up to him in an unnatural way.
"uhm... right, kinda what I expected."
"Are you going to stand there or are you going to help me"
"I think I'm just gonna leave if I'm being honest like... its 3 AM"
"Pussy"
"Uhhhhhhhh- yeah!- bye-"
"WAI-wait wait wait wait... I just remembered something."
"Kyouji come on dude, I only needed to take a dump, I wanna go back to-"
"Hang on hang on hang on hang on- before you go-" replied Kyouji as he stood up.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"-Just to fill out my daily interaction quota, I want to show you something real quick."
Naoki tilted his head
"Daily interaction quota?"
"Yeah I talked to Ms. Gretchen and it had something to do with me talking to a person for more than 5 minutes. It was something about preventing mental and social issues and something about that 'oh we're social animals we need interaction!" bullshit people spew. Of course I don't believe it but, I might as well do it occasionally just so I can say I ''''tried'''', ya know?"
"Dude you're fucked."
"...No need to compliment me..." blushed Kyouji.
"Anyway-
Have you ever heard of Bitcoin?"
Naoki sighed.
"Okay no this time, it's a real thing and not something I made up a couple hours before, I promise you."
Naoki realized that if didn't go with this, Kyouji would invite himself into Naoki's room so he just sighed and went "Aight, what's the gist."
"So basically, there's this Japanese individual or group that, one way or another, had the great idea of creating digital currency and paying for real world shit with it. With some computer wizardry (I'm slightly exaggerating with that statement), they somehow made it work!"
"That's... kinda cool... I guess"
"Nononononono, but that's not the cool part. You know the stock market?"
"No"
"Pretend you do"
"okay"
"So with the stock market, you could invest some money in a firm and (hopefully), see that money grow. Of course there's the off chance where that money dwindles but hey, that's why you research what you're putting your money into.
This is kinda like that.
Right now I only have 100 Bitcoins."
"...But what can you get with it?"
"-Oh, nothing. Its useless-"
"wh-w...wha-whe-"
Naoki made a face as if he experienced an aneurism
"ARE YOU STUPID?"
Kyouji replied.
"I wasn't finished. It's useless right now.
But like the stock market, you invest money in the digital currency, and then eventually, it'll make you a millionaire. At least that's the idea."
"...so it's a waiting game."
"Yup."
Naoki pondered for a sec
"Alright. I guess that's not the most egregious thing ever."
"Do you know what an NFT is"
Silence.
"Naoki"
"..."
"Naoki
Do you know what an NFT is"
Naoki glared at Kyouji
"Dude I just want to go to sleep"
This part onwards is non-canon due to timeline shit
"Answer the question Naoki"
"No. Is that an American sport thing?"
"No, its way worse"
"Dude- how"
"Oh shut up, we got inarguably the worst sport from them"
"...which one?"
"Baseball. Honest to god, you'd have to pay me to watch a full game of those. You'd have to apply for monkhood if you watch that shit sober- nae, for FUN. I don't understand how those Americans and the rest of our population has fun watching this shit for 3 hours minimum. They are the most patient people I know of, I shit you not."
"Okay okay, I kinda agree.
But for real, what's an NFT because I actually want to go to bed now."
"An NFT is an internet picture that is randomly generated, and that you can buy."
"...uh huh?"
"Yeah, yeah, and its like, you can buy it, and its the same idea as bitcoin."
"...okay?
So you can make money off of it."
"Sort of."
"...."
"Okay it's a little misleading. It's like bitcoin in the sense that you can buy it. And its digital. But for the most part, you just collect them."
"... why"
"Cuz they're neat"
"Wouldn't you want to make money off of them?"
"You'll only get money from them if someone else is interested in buying them off of you"
"...
This is horseshit"
"Nahnahnahnahnahjust-just... hold up lemme uhhh"
Kyouji looked through his folders to show Naoki an example
"Look man
Its uh
Its my very own Cniva NFT"
"Huh.
You know what. You're right.
This Cniva NFT does fuck hard 😰 😰 😰 😰"
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/775778634677092396/1211245246915289098/Kyouji_and_Naoki_revamp.png?ex=65ed7f0a&is=65db0a0a&hm=112fe09edec177b059e8d0ba7473813b3ba2bce6804cf0105b11fe3bfdd72b0b&]
image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/775778634677092396/1151841171975438358/Kyouji_and_Naoki_revamp.png]
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"..."
"Ok goodnight man."
"So does that mean you're going to buy-"
"Absolutely fucking not."