Leo was calmly walking on his way to the treasure location when a world-wide announcement sent absolute shivers down his spine.
[ Worldwide Announcement:- The first 10,000 players have already crossed level 10 in the game Terra Nova Online and the global rankings have been opened as a result ]
[ System Notification:- Player 'The Boss' has been identified as the number one ranking player in Terra Nova Online at the moment. Do you wish to announce your position on the global rankings board? ]
[ System Notification:- It has been detected that player 'TheBoss' possesses the actor class and cannot deny a global announcement!
It has been detected that the number two ranked player 'DarkEmperor' is currently level22.
Automatically setting your display level to 32 ]
[ Global Level Rankings :-
1)TheBoss ( Level - 32 )
2) DarkEmperor ( Level -22 )
3) PurpleRock ( Level-13 )
4) ******* ( Level-12 )
5) WhiteFlower ( Level-12 )
6) ******** ( Level -12 )
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1000) Orion(Level-11)
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9999) BigWolf(Level 10)
10,000) LittleSheep (Level 10) ]
[ System Notification - Congratulations Player 'TheBoss' to actually be ranking number one on the global rankings without relying on the system cheat.
For ranking number one, you have been rewarded with :-
3x Death Evasion Token ]
"No- No- Noooooooo!" Leo shouted on-top of his lungs as he cursed towards the skies.
His name was once again thrown into a global announcement and this time it was worse than ever.
While even the elite players of the game were averaging only around level 10-12, some freak of nature 'DarkEmperor' was actually level 22!
Only and only because of him, Leo could not act as a peaceful bigshot who was hiding his strength and instead of displaying a modest level 22 and stunning the world, he was now revealed as level 32 which was completely incomprehensible and a lie.
"Why???? Why??????" Leo cursed as his illusion that he was sitting safely at level24 and had enough time to improve until others caught up instantly shattered.
With trembling fingers, Leo opened the global chat and just by reading the first three messages he felt like his heart was getting pierced by arrows as his pain intensified.
"Hacker! The Boss is a hacker….. Please, I request the developers to ban him! It's not even been 3 days since the game launched and he's already level30? Motherfucker, I'm not even level3 yet!"
"The Boss you motherfucker! Wait till I get my hands on you in the real world! I'll beat the shit out of you senseless you flexer! You've made a big mistake by making your name public-"
"Watching someone at level30+ is making me contemplate committing suicide. I'm a very competitive person as is and worked really hard to get to level8.
If everyone was around level10 I would have felt good and worked hard to beat them, however, 32 just makes me want to commit suicide.
Curse you The Boss"
Leo read these comments and instantly closed the global chat.
He felt a wave of depression rolling over his body as he wished to find a corner and cry his eyes out.
He did not want to attract so much attention and felt troubled by the negativity on the forums regarding his success, however, while he was depressed there was one individual who was even more depressed than he was and that was DarkEmperor.
**********
( Cervantez's POV )
"How….?" Cervantez questioned as he fell to his knees and tried to understand where he went wrong.
He was absolutely sure that he had worked extremely hard and reached a level that no other player should be able to even come close to at the start of the game and yet he was beaten and that too by a huge margin by 'The Boss'.
The same messages that troubled Leo made Cervantez feel envious as just like his last life even this time around the spotlight was on 'TheBoss' and how he was miles better than the rest.
The texts that felt like haters hating on him to Leo, felt like soul-satisfying jealousy to Cervantez who thrived on such hate.
"I must recruit you, TheBoss, you're too valuable to give up on" Cervantez said as he made up a firm decision that if he could not beat the monstrous talent of 'TheBoss' even with his reincarnation cheat then he would try his best to join him.
The reason behind why he was working this hard and levelling up as fast as he could was because he desperately wanted the death evasion token that the system gave to the player that was on-top of the ranking list for earning the top spot.
It was instrumental in his future plans as from this point forward he would most likely be unable to level up for a few days as he focused on establishing the first guild and recruiting important talent.
Terra Nova Online was more than just levelling up and constantly improving one's evaluation as the true purpose of the game was something entirely different.
Although the levelling boards were cool and it gave a benchmark for how high one needed to be to be considered a top player, it did not reflect a player's actual abilities.
"Sigh, it's too frustrating…. But it also goes to show that everything won't be the same as my past life. If I'm improving faster, then some other monsters will strive to improve faster too" Cervantez said to himself as he accepted the fact that TheBoss was too difficult to beat.
However while he accepted his defeat today, his desire to recruit Leo only grew stronger than ever.
He was ready to do whatever it took to find his identity and recruit him as in his mind his position as the ultimate talent had been solidified.
"Just you wait…. One day you will be my Co-Leader" Cervantez said as he painstakingly closed the global rankings list and walked towards his next destination.