“Wow, we all ranked back in the Top 10 again!” Lavie said excitedly.
“I know right?” Pleasantly surprised by our Rankings, “I mean I never expected any of us to rank below 1,000th, but to think we’re all actually in the Top 10!” Thinking, “I know they said they haven’t done much the last few weeks, but obviously that wasn’t true if these Rankings are to be believed.”
Counting the Rankings above, there were 26 different categories in total, but only 22 I haven’t looked over yet. Those being the: Highest Level, Quest Completion, Hidden Quest Completion, Dungeon Clear, Dungeon Boss Kill, Monster Kill, Player Kill, Total Kill, Title, Production, Profit , Expenditure, Hoarder, Explorer, World Renown, Mysteries Of Novus, Fighter, Healer, Mage, Ranger, Rogue, and of course the Tutorial Rankings.
Quickly glancing over each of them, I learned that I ranked 1st in almost everything, while the others were more or less in the range of the Top 10 or Top 50. That is except for in the Dungeon and Kill-type categories where most of the others didn’t even make to Top 5,000; apart from Dream, Faust, Lavie, and Tobias who ranked Top 5 in Monster and Total Kills. Altogether the Rankings were pretty self-explanatory, but I did note that World Renown, Mysteries Of Novus, and the Class Rankings weren’t categories before now.
Though luckily in the case of the Class Rankings, our exact Classes were still hidden from the other Players.
The Production, Profit, Expenditure, and Hoarder Rankings also really stood out to me, as the others absolutely dominated the ranks.
“Hey, we're a pretty amazing group of people, don’t you think?” Lavie asked, looking over all the Rankings too.
“Yeah, I think we really are...” I replied, in awe of our high ranks as well. “But from the sounds of it, it doesn’t seem like the other Players necessarily agree with us.” Hearing them loudly voice their complaints about the Rankings to Nulla.
“What the fuck is this bullshit, you dumbass Admin?” Someone questioned.
“That’s what I said!” Another jumped in, pointing out “I mean some of these Rankings don’t even make sense! Like how the hell is a Lv.10 and a Lv.4 even Ranked 1st in the Healer and Mage Rankings?”
“Yeah, they’re obviously cheating! Look at those ridiculous numbers in the Rankings!” Someone else openly accused us, “You know that right, so aren’t you gonna do something about it?”
“Haha…” Lavie laughed in amusement beside me.
“What? What are you laughing at this time?” I curiously inquired.
“Oh, it’s just that the others are hearing the same things where they are, but they couldn’t care less about what the other Players think of us.” Lavie explained, referring to the Top 10 Chat.
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I chuckled to myself after reading their messages, thinking “I’m 100% percent sure none of us were aware, or even cared about our Rankings until today. But if the other Players think we’re cheating now, what would they say if we actually put some effort into being at the top?”
“I wasn’t done speaking yet...” Nulla mumbled to himself; then clapping his hand together again, he created a booming shockwave that shocked everyone into silence. “It’s quite rude to interrupt someone when they’re presenting something, you know? So I highly advise none of you ever do so AGAIN!” Without warning he unexpectedly emitted the same overwhelming, heavy, and fear inducing pressure as he did in the Tutorial.
“What an absolute fucking monster!” I thought, feeling all my senses telling me to run like before.
“And to those spouting blasphemous claims against the Evolutionary System the Creator himself designed, thinking something so omnipotent can somehow be cheated on and exploited by beings so meager and insignificant as yourselves, know that I will not tolerate such malicious slander against the System or the Creator, and will personally come down there and show you the exact reason I was chosen as the Administrator above all others if it happens again as well!”
The entire space was in complete silence, frozen in overwhelming fear, but Nulla soon relaxed and lifted his overwhelming pressure from over us. He then smiled again and said, “Now before I get rudely interrupted again, allow me to finally award you the Total Tokens deserving of your Overall Rankings!”
“200k!?” I exclaimed to myself, seeing the Overall Rankings change to match.
“Now I know some of you may be wondering what these Tokens are for, but allow me to direct your attentions to the all-new Player Shop Menu recently added in the System Update.” Nulla waved his hand and the Player Shop Menu opened up in front of us.
[More]
Miscellaneous Items
[More]
Remaining Tokens(T): 219,972
“Holy shit, there’s a lot in here!” Completely overwhelmed by what I was seeing again, “I don’t even know where to start with all of this!”
Nulla continued speaking, explaining “As you can obviously figure out for yourselves, Tokens are entirely used as the only currency accepted in the Player Shop to purchase the various Items and Goods sold within—the possibility of which their Quality is equal to, or even in some cases greater than those you may find throughout your travels in Novus.” adding, “Although at this current moment, being as it is only your First Ranking Results, most will likely find it hard to purchase anything truly impactful on your journeys. But fret not, as Tokens are merely monthly awards, and only simply need to wait until next month’s end comes around to obtain more.”
“Monthly awards, huh?” Thinking, “I’m really tempted to buy the New Player and Pet Keeper Packs right now, but maybe I should save up and buy the Top Ranker Pack? Or maybe even something else that's more expensive in the Shop?” contemplating what I should do.
“With First Ranking Results being announced and the Player Shop finally opened up, I believe that should conclude all the matters we needed to attend to here.” Nulla then smiled towards all us Players and said, “However, before I let you return Novus and continue on with your journeys, I’ve been explicitly told by the Creator to allow you all to briefly return to Earth for 24 hours—giving you all the chance to truly strengthen your resolves, as well as to settle any lingering feelings or unfinished business you may still have in your previous world.” It took a second for all of us to even process what we just heard, noticeably being too distracted by Player Shop to have properly listened to anything Nulla said, but in a moment of simultaneous realization, the entire Waiting Hub erupted in a roaring excitement.
“A chance to settle unfinished business…” Lavie mumbled to herself; she then shouted “Now that's exciting!”
“You still have unfinished business on Earth, Lavie?” I inquired, hearing some of the Players who were previously yelling at Nulla now praising him and the Creator for the amazing opportunity.
“Oh, you could say that.” Lavie replied, having an angry and vengeful expression on her face. “I honestly had no intention of ever returning to Earth, but now that we’re being given a free chance to… I might as well accept the perfect opportunity to repay all those who betrayed and conspired to have me killed!”
“Wait, what? People conspired to have you killed?” But Lavie only hummed in response, “I thought you said you were an ordinary fashion designer, why would people want to kill you?”
“Ordinary may have been a little bit of an understatement…” She then glanced over to me and curiously stared into my eyes, seemingly contemplating on whether she would tell me what happened or not. But simply giving her a warm smile, she smilingly sighed back and said “I swear, elves that look like you and Dream, with your beautiful faces and charming smiles, are deadlier than any monster, person, or weapon I could encounter in Novus.”
“Thank you?” Unsure if that was a compliment or not.
“You’re welcome.” Adding, “And at least you aren’t prying as much as Dream was when she wanted to know my past while we were traveling to Leon together.”
“Sounds...annoying.”
“Oh, it was. Though I will admit she does have a strangely lovable and charming quality to her that you eventually find yourself surrendering to.”
“You think that’s why Faust is so obsessed with her?”
“Well from the way Dream complains about him to me all the time, I don’t think he’s the only one who’s obsessed.”
And in that exact moment, we could hear Dream running across the section from above, shouting “Help! Help! This guy’s stalking me!”
“What!? No! It’s not what—Dream, that’s not funny!” As we heard Faust loudly chasing after her, “Look, people are staring at me like I’m a weirdo now!”
“That’s because you are! Haha…” Their voices disappeared in the distance, and Lavie and I both laughed at the perfect timing of our conversation.
Lavie was then about to share her past with me, but Nulla began speaking again, saying “Alas, it’s time I bid you all adieu once again.” Rapidly forming the same magic circle to teleport us again, “I hope you can all find some semblance of closure with the brief time you’ve been gifted.” widely smiling towards us, “For we expect to be greatly entertained when you return to Novus!” With the echoing clap of his hands, the magic circle floating above the entire space fully activated, teleporting everyone away in an instant.
My eyes quickly recovered from the bright flash, but surprisingly I still found myself standing in the same exact spot in the Waiting Hub; alongside Lavie whose eyes were still recovering. Subsequently after Lavie’s eyes did mostly recover, Nulla suddenly appeared in front of us and asked, “You didn’t think I forgot about you two, did you?”
“Not really...” Lavie answered first, while still rubbing her eyes.
With me finishing her sentence, “We were just waiting for you to freeze time again.”
“I see… Well I just decided teleporting everyone away was much more convenient this time around, though I don’t think you two care all that much about my reasoning, and would rather be rewarded for your efforts, correct?” We both nodded, but Nulla gave us an unnerving and mischievous smile that put us both on guard. “Then shall I awaken them for you? Annihilation and Salvation?”
As Nulla spoke those words out loud, our Quests finally completed, but what came after was an immense surge of energy unexpectedly seeping and radiating out from each of our earrings. The two energies were so powerful that once they made contact with each other in the air, the very space around us began to visibly ripple from their obvious incompatible clash. Then almost in a single moment, seemingly unable to contain the seeping energies no longer, our Earrings of Annihilation and Salvation both shattered at once; creating with them a intensely powerful shockwave that sent Lavie and I both flying in opposite directions, helplessly crashing against the bordering walls of the space.
While Lavie and I slowly recovered from the powerful shockwave, we heard Nulla say “Welcome back you two. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
