Classroom of the Elite: Crimson Usurper (Volume 1)

The concept of life is as vague as the aftermath itself.

I'VE never thought that I would die. Not before I had a chance to find meaning in this unique experience called 'life.' The question of life's meaning is iconic, yet it feels far too broad and vague to fit my existence.

I always knew death awaited me someday. The more time I spent in this world, the more I came to understand its cruel nature. Life isn't neatly black and white; it's really just a story, full of bad chapters that people hate, with fan-favorite chapters constantly remembered and talked about. A beginning and an end. That's all.

Most children, in their innocence, run through their childhoods blissfully pure and free. Most of them are untouched by the harsh realities that come with growing up. I'm sure most miss that, or perhaps are dreading the fact that they're going to miss it.

Yes... to be free. To be able to do things without worrying about anything else.

To think I would die, of all things, from a murder in the streets of Tokyo—that was beyond my imagination.

How hypocritical of me. 

Crimes happen every minute, and Japan is no exception. But stabbing me in the chest? Especially in public, that would be a quite idiotic idea to do.

But... I would say one thing. Besides what happens after death, as I have no absolute clue to what happens after life.

Do you... do you live up to the expectations placed on you?

...

Hold on! I wouldn't want you to go away. I don't have any Minecraft parkour content but please listen!

Let me go on a rant; how well do we live up to the expectations set for us? How do people expect us to behave? If one day you decided to turn your back on those expectations, would you still be seen as the same person? Would that shock the world? Hell, what if we switch the roles? Expecting others to act how they always act and then it turns it out it's really not true. Of course, it depends.

Imagine someone thinks you're useless. Why? Because you've acted a certain way, fulfilling their expectations. But if you decide to transform, to act smarter or differently—what then? 

People might distrust you. Some might dislike you. A few might even accept the change.

Humans are inherently creatures of predictability and pattern recognition. We excel at planning events and predicting outcomes. When disaster strikes, we often adjust quickly. In the short term, we build plans that respond to immediate feedback.

If there's a disaster happening and we have time to fix it, with combined efforts and motivation we'd likely can. Soon we would expect something to go a certain way. But when it doesn't? Well, what do you do? Panic? Solve the problem? But what if you don't know how to solve the problem?

Even then, we're not great at long-term planning, that is to say, not just a couple months of planning. There, yet again, can be exceptions to this. However, humans usually are masters of short-term planning solely because we're able to adapt to unknown variables that's in a short timeframe. 

If something goes wrong, although we don't expect it, we'd adjust to it. Long-term? That poses a probably, a lot of resources would be placed into long plans. Besides, there's less cognitive overload, less unknown variables.

Short-term plans provide more immediate feedback. When we complete a task or achieve a small objective, we receive a sense of accomplishment. 

Heck! Even biological factors play a role in this, our brains require quick and immediate survival needs so we plan quickly within a short time frame, for a short-term timespan.