CHAPTER 47: CHAPTER 46: WORLD RANKINGS

[Hello everyone, I’m Lv Shu.

While adventuring in the Apocalyptic World, I didn’t pay much attention. It was only after it ended and I checked the forums that I realized everyone was quite focused on me.

I’ve read some posts praising me and expressing fondness, thank you all, I appreciate your affection.

I also read some discussions about the true nature of the World game, which inspired me greatly, thank you.

I saw analysis about the rankings, and also analyses of the mystery of the Apocalyptic World... Oh right, I also read some of the analytical posts about me; although they were a mess, they seemed very interesting. The analysts’ self-confidence and pride gave me quite a bit of amusement, so thank you for that too.

I noticed other top players on the rankings all posting their own messages, some declaring war, others expressing gratitude. I felt it wouldn’t be nice not to post anything, and having zero posts under my account looked bad, so I decided to write one too.

But then I felt like I had nothing to say, I’ve never been good at speaking, sorry.

...I really don’t know what to say.

Oh, right, I remember now, I’ve seen a lot of posts about my interactions with the Number One Player, although I don’t understand why they keep saying it’s so sweet, clearly we didn’t eat any candy.

But it seems everyone is quite interested, so to fill up the word count, I’ll talk about that.

The Number One Player, his theories—I regret that I didn’t see them myself, only learned about them through the bullet chat. But in that moment of realization, I understood, he is someone I want to follow my whole life... Since I was young, I’ve always admired people who always hold hope, and the Number One Player is such a person. His goals are firm, his strength is formidable, his wisdom is extraordinary, he’s persistently unwavering, strong and unyielding, persistently unwavering, always ready to help others... (omitting others)—I hope to be like him, even if many don’t understand, I still hope to be like him, never stopping due to loss or failure...]

Then, Su Ming’an read this long article praising him, written by the person who claimed "I’m not good at speaking."

...And this person even used ’persistently unwavering’ twice.

Just as he wanted to see other people’s replies, he suddenly heard a "ding-dong!" sound, it seemed like there was a reply in his friend’s tab.

—It’s her!

Su Ming’an’s spirits jolted, lifting some of the heaviness from his heart.

—She replied to me!

He immediately moved his trembling fingers to the friend’s tab and then clicked on the message notification.

...

[System Notification: Due to Player (Yuanyuan) not responding to the friend request within 24 hours, the friend request has failed.

...

The light in Su Ming’an’s eyes gradually faded as he stared at that short line of text, not knowing what to think.

After sitting in front of the light orb for a long time, he stretched out his hand, closed the notification, and then opened the World rankings.

[World Ranking (Comprehensive Evaluation):

1. Su Ming’an (Combat Power: 310) (Number One Player) (Perfect Pass*1)

2. Noel (Combat Power: 485) (Perfect Pass*1)

3. Mizushima Kawa Sora (Combat Power: 395) (Perfect Pass*1)

4. Lv Shu (Combat Power: 400)

5. Arthur (Combat Power: 395)

6. Adolf (Combat Power: 379)

7. Iris (Combat Power: 360) (Perfect Pass*1)

8. Wang Wanyu (Combat Power: 398) (Perfect Pass *1)

9. Jesse (Combat Power: 378)

10. Edward (Combat Power: 397) (Perfect Pass *1)

...

...

The world ranking list provided by the system is apparently much more credible than any "Hall of Fame" list compiled by the players themselves. It obviously considers more than just combat power. Otherwise, Su Ming’an, with an individual combat power of 310, couldn’t possibly rank above those with 400. His actual combat capabilities are actually all in his clones.

Thinking of the "Main God Space" that had already opened, Su Ming’an saw the door in the room before him. He stepped forward and pushed it open.

[You are about to enter the Main God Plaza (37198 server—due to a large number of spectator players, the system automatically divided the Main God Plaza into fifty thousand sections, each accommodating twenty thousand players.)]

[Do you choose to remain anonymous and hide your appearance?]

"Yes." This choice had to be "yes," or he might be overwhelmed the moment he stepped out.

A flash of white light passed before his eyes.

When his vision returned, he heard the bustling noise of people around him. Su Ming’an opened his eyes and saw a massive fountain in front of him; the sound of water cascading down was clear, and in the center of the fountain was a huge, twisted statue covered in white paint—clearly, the statue with poor taste was a statue of the Boss Rabbit.

He noticed that his whole body was cloaked. When he touched his face, he felt something cold—there was a mask covering his face. Good, the mask was well-hidden and appeared very safe.

He was seemingly in a corner. The fountain was near the street corner, and there weren’t many people around. He opened his mini-map—this seemed to be the so-called "Main God World," which looked like a small city blending Eastern and Western styles. The nearby vacant houses displayed a combination of Dragon Country’s ancient town style with tiled white walls and the ornate Western Fantasy town style.

The eliminated spectator players could now, other than watching live streams and browsing forums, rent houses here to become "Casual Players." They could forge props, refine potions, create secondary weapons, and even open bookstores and coffee shops, then wait for Adventurer Players to return for selling their goods to earn points... The spectators finally became somewhat useful logistic occupation players, rather than spending their days ranting on forums.

—However, this also created a potential problem.

That is, the number of people willing to enter the game for life-and-death adventures would decrease—humans always prefer comfort. The organizers seemed to want the spectators to immerse themselves in this state of ’entertainment until death.’

Su Ming’an stood in the corner looking outward. The plaza was so vast that he could not see its boundary, and there were people selling and browsing stands everywhere—although most of these people were Adventurer Players, in the future, these sellers would be replaced by the eliminated logistic players.

Beyond the plaza, numerous alleys led elsewhere. These seemed to be the locations of Forge Houses, Potion Houses, and possibly in the future, bookstores and coffee shops as well. No one had rented them yet. Boss Rabbit seemed to understand the Zhai Xing people’s sense of belonging to a "home." Once the points were sufficient, both Adventurer Players and eliminated players could buy or rent their own houses here, and even purchase furniture to decorate their homes instead of cramming into small, standardized personal spaces.

... However, all of this was a waste for Su Ming’an since he didn’t have the time to enjoy it.

After confirming the cloak and mask were perfectly concealing him, he walked out of the alley, eager to check out the merchandise at the players’ stands.

The plaza was bustling, filled with continuous shouts from the vendors.

"Buying all types of forged Equipment, come with offers!"

"Selling bladed weapons in white and green, available for points or trade!"

"Selling all props, survived fifteen days in the First World, not planning to return, selling all my equipment, 250 points take all..."

"Buying forum likes, 1 point per post! Ready to work anytime without fees, message privately if you want to earn some pocket points in your spare time..."

"Anyone want to improve their forum video editing skills? We’ve started a group teaching Photoshop and Premiere skills, no need to attract members, join fast +q836894275..."

Right next to the alley was a woman in her twenties setting up her stand, displaying an iron longsword and some small forging trinkets. Su Ming’an had long wanted to own a weapon of his own and was naturally interested in these items.

He approached to activate the information panel on the longsword, but suddenly noticed the woman’s gaze on him turn strangely intense.

Her face suddenly flushed red as if splashed with paint, turning blood-red in an instant, her eyes sparkling like stars, her expression one of disbelief. She even reached out a hand, as if wanting to touch his mask.