SL: Chapter 723 – Day 5,914 Part 3 – Public Ranking List

Vote Public Ranking Initiated
22 Yes
1 Uncounted
Majority Reached
Vote Closed
Public Ranking Initiated

I was incredibly nervous as I kept my hands on the pillar. I was hoping there wouldn’t be a tournament. But we had come this far, we couldn’t not vote on this option. “Any change?” Young Michael asked after a minute.

“No change, it just says ‘Public Ranking Initiated’, that’s it. Nothing else. It is probably going to take some time like the last vote,” I answered.

“I wonder why it is taking so long?” Clarissa asked.

“Perhaps it has to handle issues with the store first or other processes,” Michelle suggested. There was clearly an intelligence behind the Almighty System. I didn’t think it was like a computer where it could get back logged. But the delay was making me question that assumption.

“So which place do you all think?” I will get Young Michael asked. We all looked at him in silence. “What? I got a meta-point and boosted my stats, I should be up there somewhere.”

“That isn’t a bad question. How good is our understanding of this place? I would say that I am going to place second, possibly third,” I replied.

“What? You will be first,” Young Michael replied in shock. “That is why I was wondering what placement I would get.”

“This place isn’t so nice to put me at the top. Trust me. There is going to be so old monster hiding somewhere ready to make my life miserable. I just have a gut feeling,” I replied.

“An old monster?” Michelle asked and I shrugged.

“Someone like the Divine Empress still counts as a monster in human form. There is going to be something. I have no doubt that stupid sword will rank higher than me. But there is probably something else out there. No way it just puts me at the top. As for you, I am going to guess tenth,” I replied.

“Tenth? That low?” Young Michael asked in surprise.

“Well there are these two lovely women who have a good chance of beating you. The sword, some other nonsense, and myself. That would place you at sixth. There is probably some other people who survived the Sphere out in the wilderness, that is why I am guessing tenth,” I replied.

“I would say seventh for him,” Clarissa said.

“Sixth,” Michelle said. Young Michael gave me a pouting expression, and I just shrugged. Humans were fragile but we were also tenacious. I had no doubt that there were people who had somehow survived and were laying low.

That would be the smart thing to do in the face of my overwhelming power. Even if we weren’t enemies, keeping a low profile was a way of life. And it wasn’t like people just walked around announcing that they were strong. People like Clarissa’s minions were the perfect example of people who managed to survive no matter what.

While they might be no threat to me and want nothing to do with me, they were out there. Personally, I thought tenth might be too high, but Young Michael was pouting since he thought I had ranked him in a low placement. While he might have grown up in the Systemic Lands, he didn’t have enough experience to know how small of a fish he truly was.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if I came in tenth. Maybe a bit surprised, but with how things normally went, I had no doubt there would be a super cult out there that was stronger than me. Where all the members gave their meta-points to their leader or some nonsense like that. At this point, I was mentally immunized to the nonsense of this place.

I didn’t say all of this since it was too depressing and I really didn’t want it to be true. Put me at number one so I could sleep easy with the knowledge that it would be far too difficult to catch up with me. The ideal ranking would be myself, then Clarissa, Michelle, Doctor Katz, and then Young Michael. The sword was hopefully destroyed by that System Golem already.

Or the sword could have taken it over and was coming for me, for some sweet revenge. That was another horrible possibility. Since the sword got a vote, I figured it would be on the public ranking as well and no one seemed to question that.

“Still waiting?” Michelle asked.

“Yes. At least we know I didn’t break it,” I replied.

“I was expecting a wave of energy or some other sort of scan,” Clarissa said.

“That would have been interesting and obvious. So, you think the public ranking will only show up here, or also in the store?” I asked.

“It should show up here for sure,” Clarissa replied.

“Don’t underestimate how annoying things can be,” Michelle said. The silence stretched out again as we kept waiting.

“What if this goes for much longer than the last vote?” Young Michael asked.

“We will wait for at least a day. We have waited long enough for this moment. Unless there is some place else you need to be?” I joked back.

“No. No. I don’t mind waiting,” he replied. I wasn’t going to kick him out of the group. He was important for picking up crystals from monsters I killed. The most annoying and important job out there.

“It only says public ranking, not what it is ranking. What if it uses some weird criteria that it doesn’t tell us?” Clarissa asked.

“How many ways are there to rank people? By attractiveness?” I joked.

“Potential, or whatever purpose this place has,” Clarissa replied.

“That could be the case. Once we have an actual list we will know,” I said.

“If we actually get a list,” Michelle replied quietly with a bit of pessimism. The waiting continued as we all were wondering when we would finally get some answers.

There was no way we would get any answers that were worthwhile. That would be too easy. But I was honestly curious to see what twist the Almighty System would give on this vote to defy any expectations we might have. I was expecting the unexpected, so perhaps it would do something expected instead which would be unexpected.

“Will we be doing another vote after this?” Young Michael asked.

“One vote at a time,” I replied. I liked the young man, but he was such a kid sometimes. Way too much excitement and wanting to move on while we were still waiting for results from the second vote.

“Ah, okay,” he replied. He was clearly on edge and didn’t know how to handle the pressure with silence. I honestly found it quite amusing. Otherwise, things would have been too depressing.

Public Ranking Complete
Purchase Ranking Sheet, 1,000,000,000,000

I slowly removed my hands from the pillar. “Was there a result?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes, it just said public ranking was complete, ranking sheet is now available for purchase,” I said while holding back a laugh. I hadn’t been expecting this, but it wasn’t a surprise. The Almighty System wouldn’t do anything for free. Young Michael went over and hesitantly put his hands on the golden pillar.

“That…that is ridiculous,” he said. Clarissa and Michelle went over right after him to check when the Almighty System was willing to share with us.

“Who would even purchase that?” Clarissa muttered.

“A trillion points,” Michelle muttered.

“That isn’t impossible, but it will take forever,” Young Michael said. I was thinking that it was the cost of a portable store. A trillion points. Who would ever spend that much on a public ranking list? A trillion points was far too much to spend so casually.

If it had been only 100 billion, then there might have been some consideration. It would have been difficult, but I would have saved up that many points. Ten times that was completely out of the question. It was such a ridiculous amount, that the vote shouldn’t have even been offered in the first place.

“It is clear that the Almighty System doesn’t like sharing information,” Michelle said.

“The loss of points to get information when those points could be spent on stats, is insane. No one would even consider such a thing unless they had already invested trillions of points into their stats,” Clarissa said, and I nodded in agreement.

“It is worse than that,” I said with a sigh. They all looked at me. “What if no other votes can be done until this vote is cleared?” I asked and there was complete and utter silence.

“No, exit portal, how devious,” Clarissa muttered.

“It wouldn’t have worked or required payment as well,” Michelle replied.

“But I wanted to know how strong I was compared to everyone else,” Young Michael complained. Well, it sucked to be him and all of us for that matter. Clarissa was absolutely right that, I wouldn’t be purchasing this list for a very long time.

“We will have to check the other cleared towers,” Michelle said.

“And a level 6 store once a city is upgraded enough to see if this is a purchase option,” I added.

“That’s it? It seems so, bah!” Clarissa just waved her hands. I completely understood that emotion. All of this and we got absolutely nothing of value. Sure, there was more information we had gained, but it felt like I had taken two steps backwards, one from each vote at this point.

“That is way too many points, come on Almighty System, offer a discount,” Young Michael said while putting both his hands on the golden pillar.

“I don’t think that will help. The Almighty System doesn’t seem interested in talking,” Michelle muttered.

“Why did I even think the word ‘public’ meant free?” Clarissa said.

“A misunderstanding of cultures. The Almighty System is ultimately alien. And whatever translation it uses clearly isn’t perfect. At least for more complicated things like this. Public probably means available to anyone who meets the requirements and not reserved for a select group of individuals,” I replied. I wasn’t trying to defend the Almighty System, just try to come up with an explanation for this disaster.

“Voting is cursed,” Michelle said.

“Could very well be. Well, I don’t see much benefit to sticking around here for much longer?” I asked everyone.

“It might be worthwhile to wait for as long as it took the vote to process, to see if there are any other changes or the vote clears up,” Clarissa said.

“I have no problem with that,” I replied. Clarissa then purchased several chairs we could sit on while we waited. A portable store was the only thing worth a trillion points. Not some public ranking, which was a complete and utter scam. While purchasing the list might yield useful information, it was too much of a hassle to do so.

Young Michael moved away from the pillar and took a seat with the rest of us. “Any change?” I asked Clarissa.

“Nothing,” she replied.

“Wait, you have a portable store?” Young Michael asked her.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Can I take a look?” he asked. Clarissa handed the rod over and he spent a couple minutes looking at it before handing it back. “That is amazing. Where did you get it?”

“Someone spent a meta-point on it and I was able to acquire it,” she replied.

“Acquire, ooohhh,” he realized that the person had been killed, and the portable store had been taken forcibly.

“It is Clarissa’s. We had a discussion about it,” I said so there wouldn’t be any confusion.

“Ah, I wasn’t looking to take it,” Young Michael said. He really was too innocent in some ways.