chapter01 · 018-ep18
Episode 18: "A Classroom of 100,000"
The first alert went off before the rice cooker.
"'Shin's Course' Passes 100,000 Students—Fastest Ever for a Solo Operation"
"Commemorative Stream Tonight? Speculation Swirls That 'All Five Students' Will Appear"
"Expert: 'This Is Beyond the Scale of a Single Stream'"
I looked over the three headlines and turned my terminal face down.
What I had to do hadn't changed. Cook rice, flip through notebooks, prepare for the night's stream. A wholesome unemployed life. I'd stopped counting the days.
Only one thing had changed. Two sheets of paper the size of tatami mats now stood propped against the wall.
◇
That night, the viewer count was already six digits the moment I pressed the Start Streaming button. Apparently a commemorative stream starts before it starts.
"Good evening, this is Shin. If anyone's new, here's the usual: this is a course for beginners. No flashy techniques. No talk about the strongest gear. It's dull. Probably shockingly dull."
【We know】
【Congrats on 100,000!】
【CONGRATSSSS】
【So what's happening tonight? Are all five coming?】
"First, let me say thank you. Apparently the channel passed a million subscribers last week. I'm grateful, but honestly, it doesn't feel real. The number I count is the roster. —A hundred thousand people signed up for that plain old roster I made so you could turn in assignments. Those are the students in this classroom."
I bowed my head. The comments filled with celebratory emojis.
"When I made the assignment dropbox, I thought fewer than ten people would use it. ...Thank you, really."
【Glad you made the box, Sensei】
【Okay, but what's the big celebration event!?】
"Now, as for what we're doing to celebrate—nothing new at all."
【Huh?】
"Today we're going back to the beginning. We're doing lesson one again: 'Before we talk gear—please let me start with how you stand.' The one about your center of gravity."
【A rerun for the 100,000-student celebration!?】
【Wait. Sensei wouldn't do it for no reason】
【The sound of ten thousand people opening their notebooks】
"It's a little different from a rerun. Unlike lesson one, today we have—a demonstration model."
The tatami groaned.
A giant stepped into the frame. Beside the cheap cushion stood the hardest man in the world, his neck bent a little so his hair wouldn't touch the ceiling.
"I'm Shishiomaru. Today I'm the teaching aid."
【Teaching aid lolol】
【Humanity's hardest shield is a teaching aid】
【The world's most extravagant demonstration model has arrived】
"Maru-kun, before that. Your homework?"
"Did it. It's due next week, but I couldn't wait."
Out of his cloth bundle came an enormous roll of paper. He spread it out to show a large drawing of the soles of a pair of feet. The writing in the corner was bold, a little uneven, and careful.
"That sixteen-year-old kid. 'Bite the ground' didn't work. But I asked around and found out he was from a village by the sea. So I said it another way. —'Plant your feet like you do on wet sand.' Got through to him first try."
"Yeah. Full marks."
【What a massive homework assignment】
【Homework that gets him teaching while he's learning...】
【It's kinda nice seeing an S-rank so pleased to get full marks】
◇
"All right, then. Lesson one: your center of gravity."
I opened the first of my notebooks to the same page as that night. The first line I'd read aloud to a classroom with zero viewers.
"Human beings sway just standing still. There's nobody who doesn't. People who stand well simply keep that sway within the soles of their feet. Don't put too much weight on your heels. Grip the floor with your toes. Lesson one was about how to keep that sway contained. —Today, you get to see it."
I stood facing Maru. A mountain in a fighting stance, in my six-mat room.
"Maru-kun, your usual stance. ...Right. This man is probably more stable than anyone in the world right now. Let me try something."
I planted both hands on him and pushed with my whole weight. I think a rock would've given me more feedback.
【Didn't budge】
【Figured】
【Sensei's pushing with everything he's got and he's basically a statue】
"That's what it looks like when it's done right. Now, Maru-kun, shift your center of gravity toward your toes by one fingertip's width."
"Yeah."
Nothing appeared to change. On a screen watched by a hundred thousand people, that huge body couldn't have moved even a millimeter.
This time I touched him with only two fingers. Pushed.
Humanity's hardest shield—staggered half a step.
The comment section exploded.
【!?!?】
【What just happened!?】
【Two fingers!?】
【First time I've ever seen the hardest shield stumble】
"No trick to it. The line of his center of gravity moved just a fingertip's width away from the middle of his support. E-rank or S-rank, human bones line up the same way—so when people lose their balance, it starts in the same place."
"And I didn't go easy on him, either," the teaching aid said. "If anything, I braced myself. Still happened. ...I spent two years thickening my shield. But shifting my weight a fingertip makes more difference than armor. I'd started to forget that. It's why I came back."
【So that's what he means when he says there's only one kind of fundamentals】
【It's the same lesson as the first one, but the detail is on another level】
【Verification: correct even by the mechanics of falling. The closer the center-of-gravity line moves to the edge of the support base, the more force it takes to restore balance. And the heavier the person, the more mass there is to bring back. In short, the bigger you are, the easier you topple】
【There's the verification guy again】
【He's here every lesson. You can tell by how he writes】
"The person doing the verification is right. Thanks, as always. ...And since it's a special occasion, let me say a little about the roster."
I held up a printout.
"I looked at who our hundred thousand students are. Only about thirty percent are actually active explorers. The rest are students planning to register, retired explorers, and—explorers' families. Also, from what I can confirm on the roster, there are more than two hundred instructors from training schools around the country."
【Bet my instructor's in there】
【So the rumor that the Association training division's circulating the archives as 'reference material' was real?】
"I think having a lot of family members here is a sign of a good classroom. The people waiting for someone to come home often listen more closely to fundamentals that keep them alive than the explorers themselves do."
The tone of the comments softened a little.
【You know, just sitting through these lessons makes me feel stronger】
【It's not just a feeling. Shallow-layer accident stats have visibly dropped since the course started】
【S-Sensei! I still reread my lesson one notes every morning!】
"Good habit, senpai," said the teaching aid.
【Hina-senpai got praised by her S-rank junior】
【I love how seniority works in this classroom】
"—To sum up: even at a hundred thousand students, we're doing the same thing we did in lesson one. You don't graduate from the fundamentals. You just review them. That's it for today. ...Oh, and here's a special assignment. Before bed, clench your toes inside your shoes ten times. That's all."
【Dull!】
【The 100,000-student celebration assignment is ten toe clenches】
【But it'll stop you dying, won't it】
◇
Once the stream was off, quiet and one enormous man remained in my six-mat room.
Maru wound the equipment cables deftly around his thick fingers and muttered,
"Pops. You haven't noticed, have you?"
"Hm? Noticed what?"
"Your course is training more people than the country's training institutions now. There are already more students in your classroom than the training schools turn out new explorers in a year."
"I'm not the one training them."
I answered as I put my teacup away.
"They're the ones making a fist with their toes a thousand times in a hallway. I'm just talking beside them."
"...Yeah. Thought you'd say that."
Maru laughed like a rock splitting, bowed deeply at the door, and left. On his way out he added, "Don't run out of paper, Pops. Bigger homework's gonna show up sooner or later."
I missed my chance to ask what he meant.
On a new page in the notebook, I wrote two lines.
【100,000 students. Commemorative lesson: a return to lesson one. The fundamentals land well with a demonstration model.】
【The classroom's grown. But one blackboard is enough.】
◇
That same night.
Three screens glowed in a room with the curtains shut tight.
When the stream ended, the man logged out of his three accounts, one at a time. One for long verification posts. One for quick wisecracks. And one just for silently leaving a like.
He was as methodical as he was at work. Leave no traces. Let nobody connect the dots. Never use the same face twice.
On the desk in the dark was an envelope for tomorrow's "job." The national crest and a classified stamp marked its face.
The man—Yagarasu—had a reason he couldn't come out in public.