Chapter 5 Chapter 5: Thee Leaderboard Opens, Safe Zone Protection
Carter!"
Derek Walsh gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached.
"It's all because of Carter!"
He slammed his fist against the trunk of the nearest tree, bark biting into his knuckles and didn't stop.
"If he hadn't killed me, I wouldn't have lost my level! I wouldn't have dropped my sword! And I definitely, wouldn't have been forced into wearing this godforsaken title!"
He looked up at the words hovering above his own head.
【 CURSED 】
Glowing. Mocking. Impossible to remove.
His fists clenched at his sides until his knuckles turned white, eyes burning with a hatred that had nowhere to go.
"You just wait." His voice dropped to something quiet and absolute. "I, Derek Walsh, swear on everything you will pay for this. Every single bit of it."
Deep in the forest, Alex sneezed.
He pressed the back of his hand to his nose and kept walking without breaking stride.
Someone's thinking about me.
He rubbed his nose and glanced at the mini-map. The safe zone, Riverside Haven wasn't far now. The marker sat close on the display, northeast, through the last stretch of thinning trees.
He'd been busy getting here.
Along the path, he'd cleared dozens more Slimes and Wild Rabbits methodical, unhurried, working through every spawn he crossed.
His experience bar read 51 / 100.
He opened his backpack to take stock:
【 BACKPACK — ACE 】
Basic HP Potions: 11
Basic MP Potions: 9
Common Enhancement Stones: 15
Currency: 1 Gold | 98 Silver | 101 Copper
Equipped:
- Common Trousers (Constitution +1, Magic Attack +1)
- Common Shoes (Agility +2)
- Common Shoulder Guards (Magic Attack +2)
Current Magic Attack: 44
He nodded to himself.
A few lucky drops along the way had filled out his armor slots nicely. Magic Attack already at 44 and he was still only Level 1.
He was still missing a belt and two jewelry slots. A ring and a bracelet would round out the set and push his stats even further ahead of the pack.
One thing at a time.
The trees thinned. Through the gaps in the canopy, the outline of a town appeared low stone walls, a simple iron gate, and two guards standing at their posts in mismatched, functional armor.
Above the gate, a worn wooden sign:
【 RIVERSIDE HAVEN 】
Alex walked up to the closer of the two guards and reached into his inventory without breaking stride. He produced a Basic HP Potion and held it out.
"Hey. Mind if I come through?"
The guard looked at the potion. Looked at Alex. Looked at the potion again.
Adventurers generally didn't do that.
He accepted it, and something in his posture shifted not dramatically, but the set of his jaw softened a fraction.
"Adventurer," he said, "once you're inside, look for a blacksmith named Nick. See if he needs help with anything."
The iron gate groaned and swung open.
"Thanks for the tip," Alex said with a genuine nod, and stepped through.
Building a good rapport with NPCs in the End World he'd figured that out early. It clearly mattered.
The moment his foot crossed the threshold, a chime rang through his mind.
【 DING! Survival Mission (1/5), COMPLETE! 】
【 Reward: 1 Gold Coin | EXP +50 | Resurrection Count +1 】
A wave of golden light washed over him warm, full-body, unmistakable.
Level up.
【 DING! Congratulations, Adventurer "ACE" now Lv.2! 】
【 EXP: 1 / 500 】
【 Free Attribute Points: +5 (Base +3, Title Bonus +2) 】
【 Sin Value fully cleared. Name status restored: WHITE. 】
His gray name vanished. Clean.
He didn't think twice about the attribute points.
"All five into Magic Attack."
Magic Attack: 49.
What he needed right now was raw killing speed. The faster he cleared monsters, the faster Enhancement Stones dropped. The faster stones dropped, the faster he could widen the gap between himself and every other Adventurer in the sector.
His biggest advantages were his 100% drop rate and his 100% enhancement success rate. Those two things together, compounded over time, would build a lead that nobody could close.
He just had to use them.
He kept walking and thought through his enhancement strategy.
I have 15 Common Enhancement Stones right now. But spending them on Level 0 bronze equipment is a waste I'll replace that gear the moment something better drops. Better to save up. I need 200 Common Enhancement Stones total to synthesize enough Silver-grade stones to max-enhance the Goddess of Luck necklace.
That's the priority. Silver-grade accessories are permanent investments. Bronze armor is not.
Plan set. He pushed the backpack screen closed and looked up.
Riverside Haven's main street was alive with noise.
For a town that hadn't existed in its current form this morning, it had assembled itself into something surprisingly functional. NPCs ran market stalls along both sides of the street. Newly arrived Adventurers moved in tense little clusters, checking system interfaces, talking over each other, trying to figure out what came next. Merchants called out from behind storefronts that still smelled like fresh lumber and sawdust.
"Come and look, come and see!"
"Quality equipment, fair prices!"
"A true powerhouse needs more than a brave heart they need the right tools."
That last voice caught Alex's attention.
He turned.
Sitting in the middle of the street anvil set up directly on the cobblestones like it had always been there was a broad, shirtless, sweat-drenched man with arms like industrial cable. He was hammering steadily at something metal, entirely unconcerned with the chaos happening around him.
The nameplate above his head read:
【 BLACKSMITH NICK 】
Alex felt something click in his mind. The guard's tip.
He walked straight over.
Nick looked up mid-swing as Alex approached. He took him in the glowing staff, the purple title, the calm in his eyes and his own eyes sharpened with recognition.
"Young man." Nick set his hammer down slowly. "Didn't expect the first hero through the gate to come find me."
【 DING! You are the first Adventurer to arrive at Riverside Haven in the New York Eastern Sector! 】
【 Blacksmith Nick Favorability: +20 】
Alex didn't know yet whether the favorability would unlock a quest but the guard's advice was already paying off, and his instincts said to push further.
"Uncle Nick," he said, keeping his tone easy and respectful. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
Nick wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm and jerked his chin toward the half-formed shape on the anvil.
"Bow commission. Needs to be finished by sunset." He picked up the hammer again. "Missing fifty Boar Skeletons. I can't leave this forge. Think you can bring them back in time?"
It worked.
Alex kept his expression steady even as the excitement moved through him.
【 DING! Blacksmith Nick has issued you a quest. 】
【 NICK'S COMMISSION (I) Difficulty: HARD 】
Objective: Collect 50 Boar Skeletons.
Time Limit: 6 hours.
Success Reward: 10 Silver Coins + 100 EXP
Failure Penalty: -50 EXP
(Quest Difficulty Scale: Normal → Hard → Disaster → Nightmare → Hell)
"I'll have them back before sunset," Alex said without hesitation. "Count on it."
Nick gave a small nod that might, from a certain angle, have been approval.
"Go on then."
Alex accepted the quest and turned for the gate, energy already building in his chest.
Let's go.
He was four steps from the gate when the sky changed.
The golden canopy silent since the world merger completed bloomed back across the heavens in full, spreading from horizon to horizon like a second sunrise. Everyone on the street stopped moving at once, heads craning upward.
"What's happening?"
"The canopy again does this mean things are going back to normal? We can go home?!"
"Stop dreaming and read it!"
Text assembled itself across the gold, slow and deliberate, visible to every Adventurer in the sector simultaneously:
【 SECTOR-WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT 】
【 Adventurer "ACE" has successfully arrived at Riverside Haven, New York Eastern Sector Safe Zone. 】
【 The District-Wide Level Ranking is now UNLOCKED. 】
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rankings finalize at midnight daily. Top 100 Adventurers receive exclusive rewards.
【 1st Place: 3 Gold Coins + 5 Free Attribute Points 】
【 2nd, 3rd Place: 2 Gold Coins + 3 Free Attribute Points 】
【 4th, 10th Place: 1 Gold Coin + 2 Free Attribute Points 】
【 11th, 100th Place: 50 Silver Coins + 1 Free Attribute Point 】
【 Rankings update in real-time. Open your system interface to view at any time. 】
Walking back toward the gate, Alex opened the leaderboard the instant it appeared.
【 NEW YORK EASTERN SECTOR LEVEL RANKING 】
| Rank | Name | Class | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 1 | Ace | Mage | Lv.2 — 1% |
| 2 | ForeverFriends | Archer | Lv.1 — 80% |
| 3 | IceBlade | Archer | Lv.1 — 78% |
| 4 | EndlessHorizon | Archer | Lv.1 — 75% |
| 5 | BornForGreatness | Warrior | Lv.1 — 74% |
| 6 | WantToGoHome | Knight | Lv.1 — 69% |
| 7 | StormAndSong | Archer | Lv.1 — 67% |
| … | … | … | … |
【 Active Adventurers: 89,451 / 100,000 】
The regional chat exploded the moment the announcement dropped. The channel flooded so fast that individual messages were being pushed off screen within seconds.
【 AmIABadPerson 】: Are you kidding me?! Everyone else is still Level 1 and ACE is already Level 2?! How is that even possible right now?! (Shocked)
【 LuckyMagnetAlert 】: First kill. First +20 enhancement. First to reach the safe zone. First place on the Level Ranking. Is this Ace person literally the universe's favorite human being??
【 GrindingStartsNow 】: THE LEADERBOARD IS LIVE!! I'm not stopping until I crack top 100, let's GOOO! (Hyped)
【 KickedMyself 】: I got way too absorbed killing Slimes and completely forgot I had a quest to reach the safe zone. I am so unbelievably angry at myself right now.
【 EternalGuildOfficial 】: Attention all talented Adventurers of the New York Sector the Eternal Guild is actively recruiting! B-rank talent minimum to apply. We are pushing the rankings as a unified force. Those interested, please change your display name to include ++++++++ and message for details. Together we rise!
Alex scrolled through it while walking, a quiet feeling settling in his chest that wasn't entirely comfortable.
There are a lot of strong people in this sector.
He had to acknowledge that honestly. His Level 2 had only come through the 50 EXP from completing the Survival Quest a shortcut the others hadn't had access to yet. But the people sitting just below him on that leaderboard were already pushing 80% through Level 1 without
completing the quest. Some of them had clearly been grinding hard from the very first minute.
Once they completed their own Survival Quests and hit Level 2, the gap would compress fast.
Three Gold Coins and five Free Attribute Points for first place every single day. He looked at that reward again and felt the urgency sharpen into something very clear.
That slot belongs to me. Every day. No exceptions.
He also noticed something else in the top ten.
Only one Mage. Him. Every other high-ranked player was an Archer or Warrior.
Mage is a weak class early on.He'd known going in fragile, cooldown-dependent, dangerous at close range. The early game favored Archers who could attack from distance safely and Warriors who could absorb hits while grinding. Mages needed stronger gear to compensate.
Which meant his enhancement advantage wasn't just useful. It was essential.
His eyes drifted back to the one number that had nothing to do with rankings.
Active Adventurers: 89,451 / 100,000.
He stared at it.
The sector had started with a hundred thousand people.
It had been a few hours.
Over ten thousand people.Gone. Permanent death. In a single sector, in a single morning, while he'd been hunting Slimes and arguing with his former boss in a forest clearing.
Across the entire country across the entire world the number was incomprehensible.
The fresh, electric feeling he'd been riding since the world changed since the system interface bloomed in front of him and handed him SSS-rank talent and a new beginning cooled in his chest like water poured over an ember.
This isn't a game.
He knew that intellectually. The pain when Derek's sword had cut his arm. The way his ribs had screamed when the Berserk Wild Boar's charge connected. The realness of it had been obvious from the first second.
But ten thousand people dead made it land differently.
"Two resurrections," Alex said quietly to himself, still walking, the gate getting closer. "I have two. That's not as many as it sounds."
He meant it. Whatever recklessness had been sitting at the back of his confidence the part that said I have the best talent in the sector, I can afford to take risks he pressed it down deliberately.
Maxed Luck doesn't mean invincible. Don't be stupid.
He filed it. Kept walking.
He was almost at the gate when the final chime of the day rang small, clear, private, just for him:
【 DING! You are the first Adventurer to arrive at Riverside Haven in the New York Eastern Sector. 】
【 First Arrival Reward: RARE SKILL SCROLL added to backpack.
Alex stopped walking.
Rare.
He hadn't expected a skill scroll. An extra gold coin maybe, or a handful of enhancement stones. Something useful but ordinary.
A Rareskill scroll was not ordinary.
Skill tier ladder: Common → Excellent → Rare→ Epic → Legendary → God-Tier.
Two tiers above the starting level. At Level 2. On day one.
The anxiety the death count had stirred in him settled back down not erased, but balanced. Steadied by the reminder that he was not walking through this world the same way as everyone else.
He opened his backpack right there on the street, took out the scroll it was warm against his palm, pulsing with a deep violet glow li
ke something alive and held it.
【 DING! Rare Skill Scroll detected. Would you like to learn this skill? 】
"Learn."
The scroll dissolved. A column of purple light spiraled up from his hands, curled around his arms, and sank into his chest deep and warm and permanent, like a key turning in a lock that had always been there.
