"Who the hell is this?" Mae muttered as she saw the name at the top of the leaderboard. "One point Four billion in bounty?" Mae thought to herself just how huge that number was.
"Oh yeah, No one knows who Hudat Mann is," Leona muttered and pulled out a card.
It was a small, sleek metallic card, with Leona's name embossed in bold letters. Besides that, there was a very detailed etched photo of her, albeit with shorter hair.
The card exuded a subtle white glow, as there was magic energy flowing underneath everything.
Mae took a good look at the card, and she saw Leona's current bounty, which was Three Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand.
"I've just been a part of this system for two years now, so it's not much ehehe..." Leona shrugged as she put her card back in.
She also saw other details such as organization name, general role, and class, among other things.
"You're a mage Leona?" Mae asked, her eyes glued to the card as she took in all the details.
She then took another look at the leaderboard and noticed that there was a huge gap between number one and number two.
She was in awe at the sheer difference between the second place on the leaderboard and the top one.
The second place was another person named Raven, and she had only around two-thirds of the bounty of Hudat Mann.
Raven - 873,444,302
Mae was appalled at the gap between numbers one and two. "Do you know who these people are?"
Esther replied "Nope, most of them are pseudonyms, and you rarely meet them, they get the super juicy missions, ones so serious that normal people can't handle them."
She then saw the rest of the leaderboard and also noticed that the gap between the top two and the rest of the leaderboard was huge.
Here was the rest of the leaderboard that Mae was seeing:
1. Hudat Mann - 1,456,988,373
2. Raven - 873,444,302
3. Viper - Twilight Warriors - 564,321,987
4. Mirai - 478,221,556
5. Wraith - 396,889,045
6. Hinotori - Mythic Explorers - 312,709,563
7. Yami - Ruin Hunters - 257,632,112
8. Rai -Ghost Assosciation - 189,785,421
9. Inushi - Crimson Scorpion Guild - 138,946,729
10. Kalder - 92,308,506
"Woah..." Mae audibly exclaimed as she saw the numbers.
"How much do you have, Esther?" Mae asked, curious.
Esther's face instantly went gloomy. "Please... I don't have much..." She said, as she shed a single tear from her eye, and wiped it.
"Aww it's okay Esther, we all start somewhere," Mae said, and walked up to hug Esther.
Just as Mae was about to wrap her hands around Esther and lean onto her, Leona pulled her away, and Mae almost fell to the ground.
"Why did you pull Esther away from me?" Mae asked, bewildered.
Leona's face remained blank as she turned to Esther and said, "Esther."
"What is it?" Esther responded.
"Gimme," Leona demanded.
"Give you what?" Esther replied, her face showing signs of embarrassment.
"Card," Leona insisted.
"No, I'm too embarrassed," Esther protested.
Leona was having none of it. "No, you're not. Give it."
Esther hesitated for a moment before responding with a firm "No."
There was a moment of silence before Leona quickly dashed to Esther's pocket, but she had moved back enough to dodge it.
"Esther, look there!" Leona shouted and pointed her hand to somewhere behind Esther.
As Esther turned around, Leona went ahead and grabbed it from her.
"Hey! Give it back!" Esther said, her face pouting and she tried to grab it from Leona, but strangely, she wasn't trying to wrangle it from her.
"Here." Leona showed the card to Mae, and her eyes went wide.
"Esther, you see this number here right?" Mae asked, her face also turning blank.
Esther blushed and looked to the side while she brushed some of the hair on her head to her side.
"Pfft." Esther let out a small laugh to the side, which sounded entitled.
"You have thirty-four million points, Esther," Mae reiterated in disbelief.
Mae's admiration for her friend was evident. "That's incredible! I had no idea you were such a successful bounty hunter. You're amazing!"
Esther's cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red, and she mumbled a modest response, "Ehehehe Well, I've had my share of good exploits, I guess."
"Screw good exploits, you're downright loaded!" Mae shouted, loud enough for everyone around to hear.
"Hey Esther, how is it going?"
"Hi Esther, been quite some time, how are you doing?" A bunch of burly bald men suddenly pulled up, and they did a fist bump.
"I'm doing fine, Dasumoto!" She said, with a lot of energy in her voice.
The room began to light up with comments and questions about Esther, and she started to answer them one by one.
Mae slowly walked to Leona's side and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Looks like Esther is pretty popular, huh?" Mae asked, with lingering curiosity.
"Yeah," Leona said, shrugging. "Way more popular than me or anyone else here by a long shot."
"Why is she so popular?" Mae asked, curious. "Is she good at fighting or doing her job?"
"She is. She's one of the most popular people around here in the City With No Name." Leona said as she walked towards the small crowd that was gathering around Esther.
She got into the group, grabbed Esther's hand, and pulled her out of it.
"W-wait, Leona! what are you doing!?" Esther exclaimed as Leona continued dragging her away from the crowd, which was now watching.
Mae wondered about how interesting this was, where Leona was terrible around groups of people while Esther seemed to be doing pretty good.
The roles entirely flipped when they interacted with each other though.
Mae quickly caught up to Leona and Esther, and they had seemingly switched back to their initial personalities.
"You two have such an interesting dynamic," she said, smiling at them. "You seem to switch personalities when you're together and when you're apart. It's like you balance each other out."
Leona nodded in agreement. "It's like we bring out the best in each other," she added. "But when it comes to missions, we make a great team too."
Mae's eyes lit up with interest. "Missions? You go on missions together?"
"Yeah, just because you belong to an org doesn't mean you can't go on missions with people who aren't in your org, the org just takes the cut," Leona explained, and Mae nodded.
"Speaking of missions, don't we have one today?" Esther asked Leona, who just stopped in her tracks. She pulled out her card and checked the mission schedule, and it read:
" Estimated time for Quest To Start : 2 hours. "
"OH MY GOD I FORGOT LET'S GO WE HAVE TO HAUL ASS ESTHERR" Leona screamed as she started to sprint to the entrance, with Esther in tag, and turned a corner.
Mae wanted to ask if she could tag along, but she couldn't get her words out.
She was intrigued by the idea of joining them on a mission and wanted to be a part of the adventure. With determination, she chased after them, trying to keep up.
However, as they turned another corner, Leona suddenly glanced back and noticed Mae's determined expression and the hint of longing in her eyes.
She could see that Mae wanted to be a part of their adventure, even without her saying a word. They exchanged a glance before breaking into wide smiles.
Leona seized Mae's hand, while Esther took the other, and together they pulled her with them, practically skipping as they exclaimed, "You're joining us, Mae! Come on, let's speedrun your registration!"
Mae couldn't contain her excitement as she was being swept away by her enthusiastic new friends. With a genuine smile, she responded, "Yes! Let's do this!"