I dislike Alice. She seems to view strife as the only way to better oneself. She doesn't have any room to criticize the "top and bottom culture" when her motive for self-improvement is to stand atop others.
I've long felt something discomforting when reading certain manga that this chapter helped me give form to. Competition merely to prove your superiority is rooted in the vile notion of just hierarchy. Competition should be about self-improvement, social friendship, and having fun. God, I feel like I just dislodged a piece of food from my teeth that has been nagging at me for years. I needed to get that out.