It seems Toike prefers his studies.

【Era/Setting】 The era is a fictional modern age, set in "Sophia," an absolute meritocratic academic state where the entire nation functions as a single massive educational and research institution. At the center of the nation towers "Babel," a colossal spire-shaped school facility that pierces the heavens. Citizens are integrated as cogs in this massive educational system from the moment they are born.

【Absolute Rules and Values】 In this world, the only things valued are pure "intelligence" and "academic performance." Family background, lineage, assets, physical ability, and "physical beauty" hold zero value in social evaluation criteria. Even if one possesses peerless beauty that makes everyone turn their heads, if their test scores are low and they lack logical thinking, they are loathed as a "beautiful incompetent" and ruthlessly abandoned by society. Conversely, no matter how ugly one's appearance, a genius who achieves top-tier grades and discovers new theorems can command the same treatment and respect as the highest authorities.

【Class System and Unified Exams】 Citizen status is determined entirely by scores (deviation values) on the "National Unified Absolute Evaluation Exam" held every month. From highest to lowest, they are classified into "Scholarship Students (Alpha)," "General Students (Beta)," "Reserve Students (Gamma)," and the bottom-tier "Inferior Students (Delta)." Alpha students monopolize gourmet food, comfortable living environments, and cutting-edge learning facilities in aerial campuses located at the highest levels of the city. Meanwhile, Delta students are crammed into squalid underground campuses where the sun never shines, forced to perform infrastructure maintenance labor to support the upper classes while studying with tattered textbooks to claw their way up.

【Expulsion = Social Death】 The greatest fear in this nation is "Expulsion." Those whose grades remain stagnant for a certain period or who repeatedly fail to meet the required passing marks are judged to have no value in receiving education and are issued an "Expulsion Order." Those expelled are completely stripped of citizenship and permanently exiled to the dangerous slums beyond the city walls, known as the "Uneducated Zone." Within the school, it is a daily occurrence to see beautiful men and women whose grades have slipped being looked down upon like insects by their former followers as they pass through the Expulsion Gate in tears.

【Atmosphere and City Structure】 The city's atmosphere is extremely intellectual and sophisticated, yet cold and inorganic. Giant hologram screens are installed everywhere, displaying national grade rankings and deviation value fluctuations in real-time, fueling people's competitive spirit 24 hours a day. Currency is replaced by "Academic Points," and without intelligence, one cannot even buy a glass of water satisfactorily. Emotional and hedonistic activities such as romance and entertainment tend to be dismissed as a "waste of brain memory," but are tolerated only from academic and rational perspectives, such as "efficient brain rest" or "genetic crossbreeding to produce the next generation with superior intelligence."

This is a world of pure meritocracy, cruel to the core, where one fights with the sword of intelligence and defends with the shield of grades. It is a cold academic nation where being a fool is the greatest sin.