Hikigaya Hachiman, The Supreme Meritocracy

#3 Teachers recognize an extraordinary genius.

The characteristic of a genius is that he does not put his ideas on the rails laid down by ordinary people.

　- Stendhal.

　I stood in front of the staff room, knocked four times, and said, "Excuse me." I walked into the staff room. Some teachers looked at me, but I didn't care, I looked for Mashima-sensei and found him immediately.

　"I'm Hikigaya from 1st year A class. Is Mahima-sensei here?"

　"This way. Hikigaya. What do you want?"

　Mashima-sensei says so bluntly. Well, I don't say anything because I don't want to be friendly.

　"It's a simple matter."

　"If that's the case, tell me what you need quickly. I don't have much time on my hands either."

　"I understand. I'm here to answer questions about the S system."

　As I said this, the atmosphere in the staff room changed and silence fell. The teachers were staring at me. This seems to be a very important matter. Mashima-sensei also narrowed his eyes.

　"...... So, what do you think of the S system?"

　"The first thing I've noticed is that there are an excessive number of surveillance cameras. It's too much for crime prevention, and you wouldn't normally let students who have so many problems in."

　"You make it sound as if this school is not normal."

　"It's not normal when points can be used to buy all kinds of things, right? For example, you can buy a person's right to do something, can't you?"

　"Isn't that a violation of human rights?"

　Normally this would be a problem, but this is a near-island, completely isolated from the outside world. There is no way the problem will be exposed.

　"Isn't that almost the answer when you don't say you can't.?"

　"It's true that you can buy just about anything with points. Is that all you're saying?"

　"There's more. The points that will be transferred next month are not fixed at 100,000 and will change depending on our actions. If we are late, absent, etc., there will be another kind of class points deducted from our individual points. And isn't our position in the class determined by those points?"

　Sweat poured down from the teacher when they heard that. Probably, no student had reached this point in such a short time. Hence the upset.

　"The points we get are determined by class points. And class points will never increase in normal life. They are only supposed to decrease. It's normal not to be late, not to be absent, and it doesn't matter how good your answers are to the teacher's questions, they won't increase because it's normal in school.

　Only in the world of Harry Potter you will get points for giving good answers. Besides, if points were to rise and fall on a daily basis, the class would go up and down several times. I'm sure they won't do such nerve-wracking things on a daily basis.

　"And the points would increase based on the results of regular tests, sports festivals, and other events that measure the skills learned and mastered at school, well, maybe not all of them. If that were the case, the second and third year seniors wouldn't be living in poverty. ...... So? Am I saying something wrong?"

　"...... No, you're right."

　Mashima-sensei looks at me as if I'm something abnormal. All the teachers around did the the same. I've been used to this kind of gaze for a long time,......, but I wonder why I feel a little sad about it.