wow, the kpop guy was even less of an issue than I expected. but, to be honest, for a moment I thought they messed up by him going and getting the E rank, and then he'd become a laughing stock. it's nice to learn that sometimes they do think through and he got an assessment beforehand... but A means he should be a reall big deal.
it's kinda of stupid that they went through the trouble of locking his file, but then announced that there's a new S-rank and didn't stop him from getting infront of the cameras.
I think that having a shadow soldier running arround the town makes it much more dangerous, imagine someone seeing it calling the cops, and they some C rank attacks the shadow and gets killed...
sidenote: Wasn't there a wolf or goblin in the first post-strong dungeons that tried to escape? didn't some red-orcs try to run? i thought it was pretty obious that monster can feel fear. maybe he just wanted to say the Vegeta line

the mana poisonning idea is the one intresting idea, "am I being culled" made me think of Jujisu Kaisen, I wonder if they'll follow this plot.