CH 122

The difference between 0 and 1

Translated by Dawn

The difference between 0 and 1

The next day.

When we went to work at the MIC, we found that the MIC members who had received an e-mail from Vice Minister Sayuri had gathered one after another.

Unlike the other psychics with plenty of money, the jobless combat-oriented psychics were poor, just like the stereotypical young people.

Like me before, most of them probably have no plans during the summer vacation.

“Oh Okui, I heard it was your guys’ idea?”

Everyone gathered around me, starting with my classmates, the boys.

I didn’t work with combat-oriented abilities at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, so other than my classmates, I didn’t know any other students.

But they were all Inou Gakuen students, and they seemed to know me.

“Thanks for doing that for us.”

“I was actually worried. More and more places are restricting us.”

“It was kind of uncomfortable, you know?”

“But thanks to Okui, we were saved.”

“I’m sorry for always relying on you, but I will definitely play an active role in return.”

I flinched at the response of gratitude, not applause, even though the plan had not yet succeeded.

I knew I had not lost my lower-middle-class citizen mentality.

“S-stop it. I originally started this for Kiriha, and I’m doing it for her.”

Then the girls shouted in shrill voices.

“Hey, did you hear that? He said he did it for his girlfriend.”

“Okui is surprisingly a good guy.”

“Hey, did you two already kiss? Have you done the thing yet?”

“You’re so brave to have MIC move in for the sake of the girl you love.”

Finally, one of the boys gritted his teeth.

“Kuhh, so this is the difference between me and Okui…”

I was so embarrassed and tickled by all the praise I was getting from all sides that I felt like teleporting home and shutting myself away.

“Wow, Honey, you’re so popular.”

“Kiriha, you’re saying that on purpose, aren’t you?”

“I got caught.”

Without apology, Kiriha let out a sneer.

“But Honey-san’s actions are of great value. There is no IF in history, but if there will come a time in the future when psychics are discriminated against, Honey-san will save tens of thousands of psychics.”

Maria said yesterday.

“The difference between 0 and 1 is huge, but 1 can easily turn into 5 or 10. Beyond the discrimination against combat-oriented psychics is the persecution of us psychics ourselves.”

She was right that interests and restrictions could start from something trivial and then expand, leading to tremendous interest groups and persecution movements before you know it.

In the past, child pornography laws were passed to protect children from sexual crimes.

However, for some reason, this led to the bashing of sexy scenes in manga and anime characters, as sexually explicit images of people under the age of 18 were considered illegal.

Furthermore, the design of the girl character was bashed as bad just because she had big breasts, not even in sexy scenes, and finally, the use of a girl as the image character itself was considered an act of sexual exploitation that tramples on women’s dignity and was akin to a sex crime.

It was not surprising that they would leap to the conclusion that if combat psychics were dangerous, then all psychics were dangerous.

It was easy to imagine a future in which psychics themselves would be treated as a potential criminal group.

“Then, Okui Honey Ikuo, please teleport us all to the underground parking lot. There we can deal with the flames and the blasts without causing too much trouble.”

“I don’t mind, but can’t you do something about the way you call me that?”

I made a reluctant face, and the eyes of the assembled students lit up.

“Okui Honey, see you later.”

“Okui Honey, we’ll do our best to make your plan work.”

“Don’t hate us if we become even bigger stars than you, Okui Honey.”

“We love you, Okui Honey!”

“Okui Honey, you’re so cool, embrace me.”

—I don’t know what to do, I want to do the sewer shoot on someone.

Suppressing my inner wickedness, I teleported everyone to the underground parking lot with a gesture that seemed to dispel an annoying spider’s web.