CHAPTER 158: RANKING LADDER

[Designation complete. 17,643,988 champions have arrived on Trial World. All worlds with sentient life are successfully represented by 12 champions.]

[The Convergence Trial will now proceed.]

[Notice! – Premature hostilities detected. Resolution: Nullification. Cause: Safety protocols active. Clarification: No hostilities are allowed until Grace Period ends.]

"Wha—?! There are people who have attempted killing already?!" Zephyr whispered in shock like he wasn’t just about to the same to the bird guy a few seconds ago...

[Grace Period Effect Duration: Twelve hours – planetary standard measure. During this span, no harm may be inflicted. Physical aggression, coercion, magical constructs, and mental interference would all be nullified.]

[Purpose: Preparation. Within this interval, you may secure terrain, conceal positions, fortify locations, or explore assigned sectors. No interference between champions is permitted.]

[Trial World Configuration: Twelve sectors. Each sector reflects a dominant terrain. Allocation is balanced. One champion from every world is present in each sector. Distribution verified.]

[Ranking Protocols Engaged. Each sector maintains an independent progression ladder. Visibility across sectors is restricted. Champions may view only the ladder of their current sector.]

[Notice! – Language Standardization in effect: All communication barriers have been removed. Every participant shall comprehend and be comprehended without error.]

[Information Access: To view personal statistics, sector ladder, or related data, direct will through mana to Origin. A panel will manifest in a format suited to the individual. Visibility is restricted to the user.]

[Victory Condition: Survival. Advancement is determined by performance within your sector. Failure results in erasure.]

[Grace Period: Commences now...]

...

And all of a sudden... silence...

Zephyr let out a deep breath. The barrage of information from the Voice of The World had been much, but it had been clear enough to be easily understood without being overwhelming.

Across from him, the bird guy had stilled completely. Just like Zephyr, he looked like he was processing the information every champion had just heard.

Zephyr turned his gaze away, but kept the bird guy within his peripheral view. The Voice of The World had said there was a twelve hour grace period where any attack on another contestant would be nullified...

But he still wasn’t going to leave his safety up to some... "Voice of The World."

With the bird guy safely within his peripheral vision, he immediately willed the sector ranking into being, just like the Voice of The World had directed.

And instantly, without any fuss or strain, it appeared within his view, taking on the form he was most familiar with — exactly like the status panel Aegis built to his needs.

It was jarring to say the least.

Zephyr scrutinized the whole thing carefully. From the transparency, to the glowing, functional font style, down to even minute details like spacing and formatting... It was exactly the same.

Origin, on some level, was really translating just their intentions alone, and actualizing it into the real world...

"Damn..." Zephyr muttered in awe and slight perplexion... just more questions to be buried along with the ever growing pile...

He brought his attention back to the actual content of the panel, where he saw his unranked status, along with the blank space that his name was supposed to take.

Rank No: Unranked

Name: ?

Rep: Planet 7. J–22. 02–0038

It was simple and straightforward. Zephyr could also see the same of some others closest to him on the list as he mentally scrolled.

He wondered whether their current entry positions had anything to do with the order of names. In which case, bird guy some ways away in the distance should very likely be a name next to his.

He glanced back up at the guy, expecting to see a vacant look in his eyes that would tell Zephyr he was scrolling, paging, or flipping through his panel — he wondered what form it would take, tailored to the guy’s needs and frame of experience —but he didn’t see any such look.

Bird guy was still locked in concentration, with a hand outstretched in front of himself like he was shaping something.

’What—What is he doing...?’ Zephyr was puzzled, watching him carefully just to be safe.

’Huh...?’ Zephyr realized what was happening after a while.

The bird guy was still trying to call up his ranking panel!

Was it really that hard to do? Zephyr thought in humor. He had so easily called up his that he didn’t think much of it.

Yet it seemed a few others were struggling with it.

Just as he was having this thought, he saw a name suddenly shoot up to the top of the rankings.

Rank No:

1

Name: Queen of The Dunes

Rep: Planet 3. B–14. 01–0142

’So there was someone else who also called up their panel very quickly...’ Zephyr mused. He had done the same, but didn’t get ranked yet, so he figured it had something to do with the name.

’Queen of The Dunes? An alias...? What a gaudy title...’ Zephyr nearly scoffed.

He then paused in thought, thinking of a title that would befit him... Something that would capture his essence without revealing much about himself...

He could already tell from the alias ’Queen of The Dunes’ that the owner of the name was the type who wanted to dominate, to brand herself above the others. Someone who wasn’t afraid to stake a claim immediately, like the entire sector already belonged to her.

"That’s the mentality of someone who thinks this competition is theirs by right..." Hmmh. Zephyr snorted lightly. "It seems there’s no shortage of those types here..." Another person had just jumped onto the list again, taking second place.

Rank No: 2

Name: Lord Supreme Overlord of Absolutely Everything (First of his name.)

Rep: Planet 13. B–14. 01–0153

"..."

If Zephyr thought the ’Queen of The Dunes’ was overbearing, then this new guy’s name...

Zephyr was left speechless.

He didn’t even bother to try and analyze such a person. Their personality was very plain for all to see.

So he instead moved on to his own name before anyone would take the third spot. Even if he wanted to stay under the radar for now, the competitive side of him still wanted to rank high at least.

He sped through name ideas in his mind.

First, he thought of the names Aegis had brought up back when he was thinking of pathway names – it mentioned something like Threadripper, Xeon, Snapdragon and the like...

He could already sense Aegis about to send more ideas to him, but he shut it down.

No.

He wanted this to be his. Those names meant nothing to him and his experience so far, so he discarded them.

He wanted something that captured his essence without revealing too much.

He wanted it to be cryptic, but to still point to himself...

’All processing..?’ No... too overbearing, and also too broad.

’Etherflux...?’ Sounded cool, but didn’t really capture him fully.

’The thinking core... or Core of Thought... ThoughtCore Supreme...?’ No... It was okay, but it still wasn’t doing it for him...

He dug deeper, removing all the fluff, all the cool-sounding ideas shuttling through his minds just because they were cool.

Instead, he drove directly to the core of what processing was. Behind the CPU... The ALU... The Registers...

Logic gates?

’Logicore Master? Boolean King?’

He was getting close... There was still more beyond that.

Transistors.

He didn’t even have much ideas here, so he moved on immediately...

The Bit.

1 or 0. The state of On or Off. The building block of it all.

This was what Zephyr wanted to base his name off... something simple... basic... without all the bells and whistles.

He smiled lightly as a name came to him, and immediately, he logged it in.

It appeared instantly on the ranking ladder, announcing him to the whole sector just like the others had been.

Rank No: 3

Name: ZeroOne Sovereign

Rep: Planet 7. J–22. 02–0038