"Here it is, bro." Sean broke Chen Mo's train of thought, pointing toward a much more modest, far less imposing leaderboard:
[Newbie's List: Highest Accuracy This Week]
[1st: Fuchsia4th (S rank) - 100% The Bottomless Basement]
[2nd: XiaoBai (F Rank) - 99.8% School of Apparitions.]
[3rd: NoahBaader (B+ Rank) - 85.2% Python Prairie.]
[...]
The list extended on for much longer, but Chen Mo decided that a brief skim through the rankings was more than sufficient. That short scan alone told him everything he needed to know: the majority of players on the list were of various B ranks, with a single C rank sprinkled in, and then himself, an F rank who had somehow secured second place.
He was E rank now, but the board clearly displayed only the ranks of players during the specific games listed beside their names.
"You can tell why I'm your fan." Sean smirked knowingly. "Mm. If it wasn't for the Glass Queen, you might be as famous as Fuchsia... Eh, actually, maybe not..."
Fuchsia4th. One hundred percent accuracy. That meant she had completed the game exactly as it was intended to be completed, without a single deviation, not even the slightest error.
"Do you know how rare that is, by the way?" Sean elaborated further. "S rank as a newbie. Uhh... I should probably explain this first. Mm. Players enter the game during the first week of every month, recruited either randomly or by rich dudes who can afford to burn Sapphires for an invitation. Then, during that week and the week after, the newbie leaderboards are active, and only new players who joined during that first week qualify for them. You joined on the sixth day, by the way."
It had been a Monday, but the month had started on a Wednesday, so the calculation checked out cleanly. Tomorrow, Tuesday, would be the final day for new players to join.
"She." Sean pointed directly at Fuchsia4th at the very top of the leaderboard. "She joined just yesterday. And became the first player, in a freakin' DECADE, to start off as an S rank player!"
Chen Mo pondered deeply just how powerful Fuchsia had to be in real life for the system to deem her worthy of an S rank in-game...
Sean could barely suppress the geek within him. "There wasn't even a single player that started as an A- rank in your batch, or A, or A+. Just her at S, mm, Tactical Gunwoman."
Chen Mo immediately checked her profile.
[Username: Fuchsia4th (Age: 19)]
[CT: Tactical Gunwoman (Marksman-class)]
[Power: 1471 (S Rank)]
[Guild: The Golden Syndicate (Member)]
Four-digit power... and a member of the Golden Syndicate?
Sean noticed Chen Mo's puzzled stare lingering on the guild section of her profile and quickly filled in the blanks. "You must not know about BTK."
Chen Mo shook his head. "No, I don't."
Sean smirked wryly before explaining, "It's a programme in the Golden Syndicate. Uh, you know who the—"
"Yes, I know about the syndicate." Chen Mo answered before Sean could even finish forming the question.
"Nice." Sean gave a thumbs-up. "So you already know they're a bunch of psychopaths. Mm, no offence to you, Psychopathic Psychiatrist."
"None taken." Chen Mo casually slipped his tiny female hands into the pockets of his edgy leather jacket.
Sean continued, "They have this programme called BTK. Basically, they abduct children, then train them from the moment they're still toddlers, moulding them into the perfect assassins."
That explains the S rank. Chen Mo concluded internally.
Sean suddenly remembered another detail. "Oh! It's actually pretty easy to identify the programme's lab rats. All of their names end with a number, and they're all part of the Golden Syndicate. Aside from First; no one knows where First is."
Fuchsia4th... and there was another name Chen Mo could recall. The player with the second-highest power: Christopher2nd. A very fitting name. "What do these numbers represent?"
"Uhhh... I can't ever be completely sure." Sean scratched his head, his expression uncertain. "But! Looking at it logically, it really does seem like a ranking of their strength."
"And whoever bears the name of First doesn't exist?" Chen Mo pressed further.
"Mm. No." Sean denied without hesitation.
The supposed first-ranked assassin of all those trained killers was missing, but Chen Mo knew it couldn't possibly be that simple. He analysed the situation carefully, because the Syndicate would eventually become his enemy, considering his goal of winning the Titan's Tournament and freeing all slaves.
"Oh, and, uh... In terms of intelligence, there's no leaderboard for that, but I think you're number one." Sean casually added a compliment. "Because, technically, since Fuchsia is S rank, mm, she brute-forced the level. But it was still the most efficient method, so the system awarded her the 100%.
Technically speaking, if she wasn't such a unicorn-level S rank... you, my bro, would've gapped the runner-up by more than ten percent. That's unprecedented, and also the record accuracy for School of Apparitions by any A rank or lower."
Chen Mo raised his brows slightly, somewhat surprised by his own performance. He hadn't really thought he had done anything particularly extraordinary, but according to Sean, his run in School of Apparitions was generational.
Then, the third most eye-catching leaderboard, right behind individual power rankings and guild standings, captured his attention. This board was neon blue in colour, decorated in a modern, flashy style with various emojis scattered across its frame.
It was the popularity board.
[1st: Jeremy_:D (No CT/C rank) - 1.4M followers]
[2nd: Ace♠of♠Spades (Blind Duelist/Z rank) - 991k followers]
[3rd: V. Violet (Bringer of Nightmare/SSS rank) - 810k followers]
The lone Z rank player and the infamous vigilante ranking highly on this list came as no surprise.
But Jeremy?
Who's Jeremy? No CT? Only C rank?
Sean noticed the perplexed look on Chen Mo's face. "Jeremy, we call that guy the Unawakened Grim Reaper."
Chen Mo's attention was immediately seized by the word Unawakened.
Sean grimaced, as if he didn't even want to explain Jeremy at all. His hands fidgeted aimlessly, unsure where to rest, and his molars subtly ground against each other. "Yeah... Unawakened Grim Reaper. For a player to be awakened, to receive a CT, AE, and AAs... you know what those are, right?"
"CT is the Character Title. AE is Arcane Energy. AA is Arcane Abilities." Chen Mo answered calmly.
"Mm. Mm." Sean nodded repeatedly. "Exactly, bro. He has none of that. For a player to be awakened, one must secure their NPC in the first minigame, or th beginner minigame. He could've one hundred percent done that, but... um... he chose to kill his NPC instead."
"Why would he do that?" Chen Mo tilted his head slightly, curiosity evident.
"..." Sean visibly struggled to find the right words when describing Jeremy. Eventually, he settled on a single explanation. "...Fun. I think. He's the most popular because, frankly, it's incredibly difficult for games to be as entertaining as his runs.
First off, mm, unawakened players shouldn't even have a future, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of ten thousand.
Second, the whole point of the Unawakened Grim Reaper is that he only plays multiplayer games. And uh... um... every single player who enters a game with him... eventually dies before the minigame ends. No exceptions. He's killed SSS ranks, with nothing but a terrifyingly brilliant mind. He enters games in a group, but always... always leaves solo."
Sean was clearly unsettled, borderline fearful of the Unawakened Grim Reaper, who somehow had the absurdly goofy username of Jeremy_:D.
Chen Mo, on the other hand, was only mildly impressed, mainly because he had just witnessed an A+ rank like Mikkel Meinhof and had already concluded that the man was incredibly stupid.
Brains could overcome brawn. Chen Mo was firmly certain of that. Nonetheless, a mere C rank killing SSS ranks was still an undeniable feat, and Chen Mo acknowledged that silently.
"Let's not look at the general boards; let's stick with the newbie ones." Sean waved dismissively, then gestured toward the smaller-scale boards. "See, there's a popularity board here too. Well, you're not on it, mm, because of the Glass Queen... but you're on that one."
Sean pointed toward the Newbie's Relevance Leaderboard:
[1st: Fuchsia4th - 59k Views. 3k Mentions on Twitter.]
"Yes, Twitter." Sean nodded before Chen Mo could even finish reading the second line. "The one in real life got renamed to X, so some smartass in Fair Hand, after winning a tournament, spent his Gold Coin just to rename the in-game social media back to Twitter."
Interesting... a rather amusing usage of a supposedly limitless wish.
Chen Mo continued scanning the board and quickly found himself:
[2nd: XiaoBai - 33k Views. 4k Mentions on Twitter.]
"Yeah, you've got more mentions..." Sean nodded. "Inevitable, since you have literally the Glass Queen downvoting you. It's also why Theodon Willow enjoys writing about you. People love a good controversy."
"I see..." Chen Mo nodded in understanding.
"Actually, I changed my mind, bro. We're done with the tour here. Like, let's get you to the Physical Store first, before your Personal World." Sean turned and began leading the way once more, continuing the tour forward.