"What would I be betting on?"
The man smiled thinking that he caught another gambler in his sights. He was a bookie who arranges the bets made in the ranking facility. He saw that a newcomer had come inside the building and he immediately approached Hugh.
"Generally, you bet on who wins and loses the fights. There are other more complicated betting like betting on the specific minutes the fight would take and so on."
Hugh looked towards the middle of the fight where there was a clear winner due to the extent of the injuries sustained by the other party. The bookie saw Hugh's line of sight and spoke.
"You can't bet right now because the fight had already started. You can bet on the next fight though."
"...."
Hugh kept silent and observed the fight going on in the middle. Both of the fighters were using their Desire by projecting it outwards into a focal point. This indicated that the two of them were at the very least in the 1st advancement. Hugh calculated the power exerted by both of them and concluded that he wouldn't lose in a fight against them.
"These guys are both F-rank in the 1st advancement. Their desire intensity is about 200."
"Desire intensity?"
"Yeah, don't you know? Desire intensity is the most basic way to know how powerful a person is. It indicates the quality of your Desire but it does not take into account the fighting skills of the person."
The bookie then pointed his hands at a flatscreen display to the wall at the right. The text displayed rankings from the top 10 and below for different advancement levels. There were rankings for the unadvanced, the same for the 1st advancement, the second advancement, and so on.
"See that? That's the current rankings, the best of the best in this world."
"What's the Desire intensity of those people?"
Hugh inquired about how the rankings worked and how the Desire intensity played a role in the rankings.
"You know what, let me just give you this pamphlet."
The bookie took out a blank piece of paper from his pockets and gave it to Hugh. Once Hugh touched the paper, it disappeared from his hands and a display appeared in his vision.
Unadvanced: 0-200
1st advancement: 200-400
2nd advancement: 400-600
3rd advancement: 600-900
4th advancement: 900-1200
5th advancement: 1200<
"The way the Desire intensity works is that once you advance in ranks, your desire intensity will advance with you but the amount it increases is up to your talent.
For example, an S-rank unadvanced has S-level talent therefore his Desire intensity will be 200, which is the best quality of Desire. Once he ranks up to 1st advancement F-rank, then his Desire intensity will approximately be 266.
Compare that to another S-rank unadvanced with F-level talent then his Desire intensity will be less than 200, like 160. When he ranks up to 1st advancement F-rank, then his Desire Intensity will approximately be around 210."
The bookie explained to him how the Desire intensity worked and he now understood the way it worked. E burning question remained in his mind. What would be his Desire intensity? When he was tested for his talent, he found out that he had an F-level talent but that was before the Fat God System activated on him. He didn't know if his talent would change or not.
"How about those in the power ranking for the unadvanced, what are their Desire intensities?"
"The man in the first position in the ranking has a Desire intensity of 199. He's a one-in-a-million talent that only comes every hundreds of years or so. You might have heard of him, he's quite famous in the news."
"....."
Hugh didn't answer and looked unimpressed by the accomplishments of the top 1 spot in the power ranking. The bookie was speechless that Hugh wasn't amazed by their top spot so he doubled down on the praise.
"His name is Sader, you have got to know him right? He's famous on Earth and attends the famous school, Blacklade!"
Hugh still had an unassuming face as he looked at the bookie with disinterest in his eyes. The bookie relaxed and assumed that Hugh was ignorant and didn't know how strong 199 Desire intensity is or he didn't know how prestigious Blacklade academy was. He just chalked up Hugh's indifference to naivety. However, he couldn't believe what Hugh said next.
"What happens if I get into the top 10?"
The bookies' jaw was on the ground and even the people close enough to hear Hugh's unassuming voice turned around and faced them. In their faces was disbelief and some assumed that Hugh was joking.
"HAHAHAHAHA"
The bookie started laughing which cause a chain effect that carried on to the people looking at Hugh. They laughed at the absurdity of his question and laughed at the confidence he had. They had to wipe the tears in their eyes as they looked at Hugh. When they saw that he had the same deadpan face, they had to stop laughing and look at him seriously.
"What happens if I get into the top 10?"
Everyone was dead silent and even some of the spectators of the fight in the middle stopped to look at the commotion that was happening. They could not believe his words yet he repeated it for all of them to hear it clearly.
The bookie looked at Hugh's entire body up and down. He saw the white hair and the sharp jawline, a good trait to sway the ladies but useless in a fight. He looked at Hugh's muscle and saw good proportions and volume. It looked like Hugh could take on a fight properly with just the muscles alone but it wasn't enough to be put into the top 10. The top 10 was only reserved for the best of the best. They rarely show up in the ranking facility unannounced and without an entourage.
Usually, those who were in the top 10 were already established in the real world, so signing up in the ranking facility was merely a formality. Hugh showed up here alone and didn't know anything about the Desire intensity and the ranking. Being in the top 10 cannot be merely obtained by anybody.
"You have guts kid, but the top 10 can't be obtained by some mere nobody."
"Just answer my question."
The bookie looked directly into Hugh's eyes and saw that he wasn't relenting. He didn't know if it was just stupidity or he had some kind of ace in the hole. If the bookie had to guess, then it was just stupidity. After seconds of waiting, the bookie answered Hugh.
"For the unadvanced ranking, you'll get
10,000 for the top 10
30,000 for the top 3
40,000 for the top 2
50,000 for the top 1"
With 10,000 points, Hugh will be able to complete his daily mission and upgrade his armor. He felt confident in getting into the top 10 and maybe even the top 3. With power flowing in his body and his veins, he felt like nothing could stop him.
After hearing the information from the bookie, Hugh immediately turned around and left. This made the crowd that was watching him become disinterested thinking that Hugh gave up. Only the bookie looked at Hugh and shouted in his direction.
"Where are you going?"
Without turning around, Hugh stopped in his tracks and spoke in a normal voice.
"To get into the top 10"
After saying his piece, the disinterested crowd became enraged and infuriated that Hugh was confident enough to take the top 10 spot. The crowd became wild as they discussed amongst themselves how Hugh will fail and what his Desire intensity will be.
"Hear that kid? He says he'll reach the top 10."
"No way! That kid? He looks like he lifts but that doesn't matter in the Desire intensity."
"Is he like an up-and-coming talent from some rich background?"
"No, I heard he's a nobody."
"Yeah, I also heard that he's a poor man that stole a capsule to play this game."
"What? Why did I hear different? I heard he was a rich young master that came here to play with us, low mortals."
Different rumors and speculations about Hugh's background came to their ears as gossip spread around the ranking facility.
The bookie smelled the opportunity as he immediately took this chance to earn some money.
"Who would like to bet?"
As soon as the bookie shouted his proposal, the spectators rushed to his place to make some quick and easy money. A majority of the people believed that Hugh will not reach the top 10, some liked to bet against the odds so they bet that Hugh will get into the top 10.
"I'd like to bet 500 on him not being in the top 10"
"I bet 1000 that he wouldn't even reach 160 Desire intensity!"