Chapter 5: Ranking
Pepe knelt in the shallow stream, water droplets dripping from the tips of her pale golden hair. At this moment, she wore an expression as if she had seen a ghost.
"Hmm~"
A strange sound escaped Pepe's mouth, like a moan, or perhaps a questioning of fate's injustice. Where was the protagonist's opening she was promised? Where was the inheritance of power? Where was the handsome imperial officer?
"Teacher, your transformation spell is truly amazing. To be able to turn into a War Demon—there must be such a thing, right? A transformation spell, it must exist, right?"
Tears welling at the corners of her eyes, Pepe spoke. She had already begun to indulge in delusions, fantasizing that such a spell existed in this world. In reality, there was none.
"Treason, attacking imperial soldiers, aiding the escape of a Chaos Legion High Lord, defecting to the enemy—with all these charges combined, you're already one of us, Pepe."
Su Xiao's hand moved from the top of Pepe's head to her neck. If she said one wrong word, she would die on the spot.
"Waa~"
Pepe couldn't hold it back and burst into tears. Su Xiao withdrew his hand, mainly to avoid getting her snot on it.
"Smoke Ridge Mountain is over there. I... I have one request. Can you let me die neatly?"
"Speak plainly."
"Leave my body intact."
"Alright."
"!"
Pepe's soul nearly jumped out of her body. She had just said it casually, but he actually agreed, and with such casual indifference.
*Crack!*
A very thin bolt of lightning struck down. Su Xiao raised his hand to block it, arcs of electricity surging along his left arm. He felt this might be a side effect of the [Sky-Rending Storm] title? He couldn't be sure for now.
Fortunately, this kind of lightning was weak, and Su Xiao could ignore it.
However, to Pepe's eyes, this scene straightened her worldview in an instant. She realized that doing too many bad things really did invite divine retribution. And it was a clear, sunny day.
[Prompt: Main Quest · High Lord has been activated.]
[Main Quest: High Lord (First Ring)]
Difficulty Level: Lv.67
Mission Info: Arrive at Smoke Ridge Mountain · Black Ring Fortress, reclaim the position of Chaos Legion · High Lord.
Mission Duration: 3 days.
Mission Reward: True Attribute Points ×5.
Mission Penalty: Forced Execution.
...
Seeing this main quest, Su Xiao frowned. From the looks of it, the main quest had nothing to do with the World Tree Fruit, but it shouldn't be like this.
He had entered this world using the [Eternal Will] gem as a coordinate. By that logic, the main quest should most likely be related to the World Tree Fruit.
According to the information from [Eternal Will], the native inhabitants who had betrayed that Holy Light Paradise contractor back then were not just one person. The description referred to them as "they," not "he."
If the main quest really was related to the World Tree Fruit, then these few betrayers were likely within the Chaos Legion.
Or perhaps, these betrayers had formed a temporary alliance. Among them might be elves, high-ranking officials of the Doin Empire, or even Grey Orcs.
There were no eternal hatreds or enemies, only interests. Driven by immense profit, it wasn't impossible for a few individuals from the Six-Tribe Alliance and the Chaos Legion to join forces and enter the Viking Sea.
What Su Xiao needed to do was find these betrayers. The World Tree Fruit was in the hands of one of them.
Even if the World Tree Fruit had already been used by these people through special methods, Su Xiao couldn't leave empty-handed. At the very least, he needed to make a profit before leaving.
Su Xiao looked at Pepe. This girl was somewhat peculiar. She was indeed a very ordinary mage apprentice, but when he had scanned her earlier, her Luck Attribute was 5 points.
Su Xiao wasn't sure if this was average or not. Back then, he only had 1 point of Luck Attribute, so 5 points was probably not the average.
Ignoring that, after going through the previous life-and-death ordeal, Pepe's Luck Attribute had actually reached 12 points.
Su Xiao could confirm that Pepe was not a World Child or anything like that, nor did she have any hidden power within her. But her Luck Attribute had indeed increased.
This sudden increase was definitely abnormal. It reminded Su Xiao of someone—the Goddess of Fortune. Of course, Pepe wasn't the Goddess of Fortune in disguise, but she might have received the Goddess's blessing.
What would happen if he killed someone like that? Su Xiao felt he might be in for a period of bad luck—the kind of subtle, hard-to-detect misfortune, like... getting struck by lightning?
Su Xiao began to recall. Earlier, when he was inside the Ring-Sealed Tree, that tree had been struck by lightning. That time could be explained as being caused by a spell, but what about this time? It struck out of nowhere.
The idea that [Sky-Rending Storm] had side effects was completely dismissed by Su Xiao. An eight-star title wouldn't produce side effects so easily.
Looking at the timing of the two lightning strikes, both occurred right when Pepe was about to be killed by him. Twice in a row couldn't be a coincidence, especially with Pepe's suddenly increased Luck Attribute.
Having formed a rough hypothesis, Su Xiao activated his Devouring Core ability. Dark blue smoke enveloped his entire body, and the world before his eyes turned black and white, with only energy retaining color.
Pepe's aura was a faint pale gold, very faint, representing her good fortune. Su Xiao shifted his gaze, his blood-red pupils slightly contracting. Soon, within the surrounding alternate space, he saw a few strands of golden thread-like aura, seemingly the remnants of someone.
The Goddess of Fortune had been thoroughly frightened by Mawen Hua'erzi and the other ancestral Law Destroyers, hiding away for a long time. Now that the scars had stopped hurting, she dared not approach Mawen Hua'erzi, the old Law Destroyer, or the black mist figure, so she had set her sights on Su Xiao.
Su Xiao felt that the opportunity to draw blood had arrived. Pepe was the bait. With this thought, he grabbed Pepe and hoisted her onto his shoulder.
Pepe had already given up struggling. After multiple blows, she decided to accept her fate.
Su Xiao dashed westward. He planned to head to Smoke Ridge Mountain, but before that, he needed to rendezvous with Bubu Wang and Baha. As for Amu, Su Xiao used the team channel to instruct him to head to Smoke Ridge Mountain first.
After traveling for over an hour, he successfully met up with Bubu Wang.
"Woof?"
Bubu Wang looked at Pepe with some confusion. Through the team channel, it quickly understood the situation.
Bubu Wang's eyes widened, meaning they had to catch her and draw blood on the spot.
Half an hour later, Baha also successfully joined them. After Baha arrived, Pepe was handed over to him. Baha let Pepe experience the thrill of high-altitude flight, and Pepe was so happy she passed out.
...
Doin Empire, Royal Capital, by the fountain flowerbed in the Rich Water District. A man and a woman stood facing each other, separated by an artificial fountain, water splashing everywhere.
The woman wore a backless leather jacket, with short black hair. Her eyes were like two black gemstones, so dark they made one's heart uneasy.
As for the man opposite her, he wore an incongruous tracksuit, his face pale, his aura twisted.
"Mu Xiao, the Royal Capital is already my territory. To put it plainly, get the hell out of here."
Wild Beast · Jiasike stood with his hands in his pockets, a smile on his pale face. Don't let his smile fool you—once he went berserk, he was someone who wouldn't recognize even his own family.
"Were you a comedian before entering Death Paradise? You're so good at cracking jokes."
Mu Xiao's black gem-like eyes stared intently at Wild Beast · Jiasike. The last time they met was in a survival trial world.
Mu Xiao was silent for a moment before speaking:
"You still don't get the situation? This is a fully open seventh-rank world, and a war-oriented one at that. The Battle Merit Ranking is about to open. I have no interest in killing you. Taking the top spot is what I want. According to the rotation certified by the Void Tree, this time the rewards for the top five are provided by Apocalypse Paradise—the most resource-rich paradise. Aren't you tempted?"
Mu Xiao's words carried a lot of information, but she was sure Wild Beast · Jiasike already knew this.
Wild Beast · Jiasike snorted and jumped down from the edge of the flowerbed. Of course, he knew all this—it was the reason he had entered this world.
[Announcement: Battle Merit Ranking is opening...]
[Announcement: Join any faction, complete faction missions (escorting supplies, etc.), or participate in small, medium, or large-scale battles to earn a certain amount of Battle Merit.]
[Announcement: All contractors in this world will be ranked on the Battle Merit Ranking based on the Battle Merit they earn. When all contractors in this round have left this world, the Battle Merit Ranking will distribute rewards based on the rankings (1st place gets exclusive rewards, 2nd to 5th get rare rewards, 5th to 100th get basic rewards. To view the rewards, open the announcement branch to check).]
[Announcement: Battle Merit Ranking has been opened.]
...
Mu Xiao wasn't surprised by these announcements. Everyone had just entered the world and hadn't joined any factions yet, so everyone was unranked. But this was an opportunity to see who the competitors were. With several hundred contractors in total, Mu Xiao began scrolling through the list.
Before long, Mu Xiao's expression turned very ugly. In the ranking list, she saw many familiar names, such as Reincarnation Paradise's Bai Ye, Contractor (Pseudo) · Huishenshi (Seal Burning State), Sanctuary Paradise's Flame Master (Super Divine Stick), and Apocalypse Paradise's Yueshitu.
Bai Ye, Huishenshi, Yueshitu—seeing these three names made Mu Xiao's chest tighten.
"Jiasike, did you see that?"
"..."
Wild Beast · Jiasike was silent for a long time. Clearly, he had also seen these competitors. Wild Beast · Jiasike seemed to be having trouble staying wild.