Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Sakiko Toyokawa arrived in Academy City, dragging a large suitcase filled with her belongings.

She had nowhere else to go, hoping only to find a school here that would accept her.

There wasn't much else to say about the place, except that its educational facilities completely outclassed anything in the outside world. Many people who came here never even wanted to go back to their old schools.

The effectiveness of the AI teachers far surpassed that of incompetent human instructors. After just two trial lessons, Sakiko used the money she got from selling her father's assets to place an order.

And honestly? Renting a place in Academy City and studying on her own was far more effective.

What is technological progress? This is technological progress!

The AI teacher even planned out excellent extracurricular activities for her, ensuring she wouldn't lack social interaction while she studied.

Once she was sure of the learning effectiveness, Sakiko even inquired at an Academy City school about their exam contents. The exams in Academy City were open to the public, similar to how it was in other countries.

As long as you wanted to take the test, even an eighty-year-old man or woman could just sign up at a designated location.

After passing, you could use your score to apply to the school of your choice.

The only catch was that these exams didn't grant a diploma from the school itself, only an official certificate of your admission score from the local registration center, which you could then use to apply to relevant schools.

Sakiko was truly moved. She had never imagined that such flexible and excellent educational resources could exist in this day and age. Compared to this, the educational resources outside were utterly crushed by what Academy City offered.

This Quantum Computer AI Teaching System, operating under the Anti-Entropy banner, was a savior for students like her who were short on money and couldn't afford traditional schooling.

Unfortunately, being one step behind meant being forever behind.

For the students of the United Student Council, the old divisions between junior high and high school studies had been completely shattered by Academy City's accelerated learning pace.

Those connected to Stigma Battlesuits could even personally experience their education and studies within the Stigma Space, further refining their specialized knowledge.

This system integrated production, learning, and research to a higher degree, completely eliminating any concerns about re-education for the workforce.

The academic progress of the United Student Council students had already surpassed the wildest imaginations of outsiders.

Just as little Sakiko was celebrating this educational opportunity, the higher-ups were already beginning to view the current teaching system with disdain.

They believed all teachers should be dismissed and sent back for retraining to better adapt to Academy City's speed of knowledge transfer.

After briefing Hachiman Hikigaya on the matter of the Far East's future Prime Minister, the group immediately began discussing plans for the region's educational system. Academy City was to establish a new academic qualification system.

This system wouldn't be static; it would be a new competitive arena that had to be readjusted periodically.

"This thing... it feels kind of familiar..."

Bronya looked at the academic reform plan in her hands. Her gut feeling was that Academy City was planning to conduct a massive, comprehensive assessment of the entire Far East's population to determine the upper limits of their abilities.

"This... isn't this just the season system from video games?"

Kiana looked at the plan Noldrei had provided and suddenly felt a wave of pity for the future of humanity.

Forcing all of humanity into a seasonal learning system... wouldn't that mean everyone would be stuck in a rat race, forced to take a placement exam every six months?

What kind of exam hell was this?

"The cost of learning has been reduced. As the speed of learning increases, people can better retain more knowledge. In fact, I still think this seasonal school system is a bit inadequate."

"We should turn schools into something akin to clubs. This would allow people to maintain a high level of enthusiasm for both knowledge accumulation and competition."

Noldrei's idea was good, but the others were still hesitant.

Welt Yang couldn't help but ask, "We all know that learning is different from gaming. How can we ensure, or rather, make learning as appealing as competitive gaming?"

Noldrei had already researched this thoroughly. He stated bluntly, "The reason learning is painful is, for one, the lack of suitable teamwork. In educational theory, learning is, in fact, an isolated experience. You never hear about a team taking a math, literature, or English exam together, do you?"

"The process of learning has become increasingly utilitarian, rigid due to a lack of communication and interaction, which leads to boredom and monotony. This boredom is the greatest enemy of humanity's quest for knowledge."

Welt still thought Noldrei's idea was too fantastical. He didn't believe such a situation was possible, but he listened intently to Noldrei's explanation nonetheless.

"Secondly, this is based on my research into the imperial examination system of ancient China. Learning cannot be directly monetized. We need to create a mechanism that allows the learning process to be intuitively monetized, allowing people to transform their studies into... a reward system."

A mobile game reward system, is that it?

Bronya felt that Noldrei was going a bit too far. So she proposed, "My suggestion is to let learning unlock certain levels of authority or access, like in some workshop-style games where reaching a certain level opens up new functions for players to explore themselves. We can just convert those levels into seasonal academic ranks."

Welt looked at Bronya in shock.

Bronya, you're a genius!

"We've all seen the effects of the imperial examination system, but for the sake of fairness, it had to sacrifice the study of many other subjects. This also meant a lot of knowledge was abandoned. But that won't happen in today's Academy City."

Noldrei said matter-of-factly, "Our Academy City has no shortage of monitoring systems to perfect the examination of other subjects. We can completely seasonalize the imperial examination system. This way, the top-tier 'players' in learning will emerge in every era."

"The research and creations these top players produce during their studies will be evaluated by our system and transformed into real-world products, thus completing the entire feedback loop."

Otto was a little confused. He asked, "But wouldn't that create a massive amount of redundancy at the lower levels?"

Noldrei agreed. "Correct. And that's precisely why we're using a seasonal system as the foundation. Every season, we can wipe the slate clean of all the redundancy created in the previous season."

"The wealth generated by this redundancy will be 'cleared.' Each season, we'll set new research directions based on different societal needs and then adjust the percentage allocation for research and production in each subject. We'll implement a ranking system with both individual specialty competitions and comprehensive club team matches."

Kiana thought Noldrei was an absolute devil. He wanted to drive all of humanity to compete themselves to death, and what's more, he wanted them to do it willingly.