"Mr. Josen, this is a proposal the Association has been planning for a long time. Since it directly affects your interests, I disturbed your rest so early in the morning. Please take a look."
"You said it was important. Of course I don't mind."
Josen nodded, set down his coffee cup, and picked up the document. His eyes soon settled on its most conspicuous term.
"S-Class?"
"Yes. With Monster incidents continuing to escalate, the Association's operations officers identified many existing problems and decided to establish a special sequence separate from the existing A, B, and C classes..."
Listening to Lanny introduce the proposal, Josen understood perfectly.
So that was what this was about.
The establishment of S-Class.
Until now, the Association's Hero Rankings still placed more weight on popularity, achievements, and contributions than combat strength. This was also the most scientific ranking method arrived at through discussions among multiple parties.
Most achievements required Heroes to report them personally for verification. Only a small number confirmed by the public or media were credited directly to a Hero's ranking points.
The overly simple verification system left capable Heroes who found it troublesome or did not care about rankings lingering in the lower classes, while Heroes who happened to discover Monster corpses and falsely claimed credit, or who liked standing in the spotlight of the cameras, could advance quickly.
For someone like Saitama, who came with his own background-extra buff, even footage caught on camera would be ignored for all sorts of reasons. At best, he would be credited with picking up an easy win.
Such incidents were commonplace. Even the idea that whoever discovered something first got the credit had, to some extent, become an unwritten rule of the profession.
Seeds that ran counter to professional ethics slowly sprouted in the darkness.