Speaking to Lavie while we watched more and more Players returning from the Event, we pointed out to each other that neither of our Annihilation or Salvation Quests were completed even though we both already won our Events. We started to come up with potential reasons as to why that was, but eventually we came to the conclusion that it might be similar to the situation as before, and only needed to wait for Nulla to show up and talk to us privately again. However in the meantime, we decided to inform each other of the details of our different sieges, except we learned that they weren’t all that different from one another.

In the case of the Human Siege, Lavie couldn’t make-out anything the Elven side was saying, but she did tell me that the one leading the Human’s side was someone simply referred to as the Sword Saint. Apparently with his steadfast leadership and flawless swordsmanship, he and the 10 knights who accompanied him were all that was needed to absolutely decimate the entire elven encampment. Though Lavie did describe a very intense and bloodied battle between the Sword Saint and a unique Dark Elf archer—recounting how the elf only ever fought at close-range with his blackened bow and amazing hand-to-hand skills; and that although they were both severely wounded by the end of their duel, it was ultimately the Sword Saint who stood victorious and gave the Dark Elf an honorable death deserving of a true warrior.

“A Dark Elf archer who can stand toe to toe with someone called the Sword Saint? I wonder if it was the last Master Trinity Archer from House Baen’Mtor?” Remembering Odelia once mentioned he died during the Second Trinity War, making me think this battle might’ve been the explanation as to how.

After sharing the details of our memories, we wondered if the others had already returned from their Events, but that was quickly answered when we saw all of them in the group chat chaotically having four different conversations at the same time.

Top 10

...

Faust- Pay up!

Dream- Haha wat?

Da Vinci- (⌐■_■)

Casino- Look here, I told you I don’t know what any of that means!

Omega- I couldn’t understand a word they were saying.

Xian- Aw, that’s pretty lame.

Essex- No matter how many times I asked them, they just wouldn’t leave me alone!

Tobias- Well did you ask politely?

Da Vinci- (⌐■_■) $$$

Casino- Is that money? Oh, you should have said that in the first place. Of course I'll pay, so does that mean you'll do the reconstruction?

Omega- What about yours?

Xian- Mine had humans, but they were so unbelievably boring compared to the flying dwarf that I just ended up focusing on the dwarves instead, regardless of whether I could understand them or not.

Essex- Of course I did! I only wanted to eat my food in peace, was that too much to ask?

Tobias- So as a response, not once but twice you blew everyone up with flammable gas that you can somehow create inside your body?

Faust- I got here first!

Dream- The bet was who got the highest event ranking not first one back!

Omega- A flying dwarf? Did they use an item or a spell or something?

Xian- No, not a literal flying dwarf, I mean one riding a flying creature. Specifically something called a wyvern. And perfectly commanding it in a language I know wasn’t Dwarvish, the dwarven leader directed the wyvern to breathe fire onto the fortress the entire time the dwarves were attacking.

Essex- In short, yes. But the unnatural method I discovered to extract individual molecules from the things I eat, as well as the method to form specific molecular compounds, are much more complex than just simply being trivialized as something I ‘somehow create’.

Tobias- Alright, alright, I’m sorry, Ms.Scientist. So what happened next?

Faust- Uhh no it wasn’t? But even if it was I still won!

Dream- Yes it was! And once they show us the rankings we’ll c who really won!

Da Vinci- ♪ (⌐■_■) ♪

Casino- Ahhhhh!

When we scrolled back to when they first started chatting, they questioned where we were since no one could tell if we’d finished our Events yet, thanks to the Rankings Menu being made unavailable to view so they could keep the Players from being spoiled by the results. However, to get away from the spawning crowds disturbing us, Lavie and I made our way down the nearest stairwell back to the base of the hub and entered the group chat to finally respond.

Lavie- Can you guys get a hold of yourselves? Like what is this mess of a group chat right now?

And can you believe some of them actually thought we wouldn’t be done yet? Hah, we were just bored of waiting in chat for everyone else to be done too, you know?

Xian- You guys were already here?

Tobias- I told you so.

Omega- Don’t you think it’d be strange if they weren’t?

Essex- I guess they were ranked the highest in terms of Levels after all.

Da Vinci- (✿◠‿◠)

Faust- Yo where’ve u been?

Casino- You two go on a secret date or something?

Dream- Lavie! Eyes! I’m so glad you guys finally decided to show up! But forget your explanation for now, have you guys heard the gossip and crazy rumours being spread in the World Chat right now!?!

Da Vinci- ¯(o_o)/¯

Casino- I prefer to stay off that shit, too many annoying millennials and zoomers in there.

Xian- I think you, myself, and Eyes are the only ones who bothered to join the World Chat, but no I haven’t seen any of it yet.

Essex- Ooh, I see what you did there.

Omega- Yeah, that was a good one.

Xian- Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.

Faust- Man u ppl r so lame

Tobias- Well sorry we’re not a bunch of children, like you and Dream, who can't appreciate a good pun every now and then.

Dream- Hey, don’t lump me up with him! But yeah, that pun was pretty lame…

Lavie- I liked it...

Guys, this is getting off topic.

What about the World Chat, Dream?

Dream- Okay, so here’s the gist of it:

Every single one of us is basically the centre of all the talk.

Apparently most of the Players in our Guides have openly complained in the World Chat about how we ruthlessly killed everyone in our Events(Specifically Essex, Eyes, Faust, Omega, and Tobias), or they’re jealously arguing that we aren’t deserving of being the Top MVPs in our Guides(Specifically Casino, Da Vinci, Eyes, Lavie, myself, and Xian).

Faust- Oh boohoo! So wat if I dropped them 2 their deaths at least they died quickly

Casino- Hold on, how am I undeserving? I mean I’m the one who stumbled into the secret chamber and unlocked the Hidden Quest for us, how much more deserving could I be? Those ungrateful lil’ bastards, I’m never sharing my luck with them ever again!

Dream- There’s also the crazy rumours about us somehow cheating the System, but from what the recent conversations are saying, it looks like most of the Players don’t believe that’s true and just think we received Unique Classes from unknown Quests(The source being the Chat Owner herself).

“Global must want to stay on my good side if she’s releasing the info I told her to lessen the accusations of cheating against us.” I thought to myself, pulling my hood further down over my face while a few Players walked by. “Though fortunately she’s still keeping my Subclass and where I got it from to herself for now.” Suspecting she might not want to motivate the other Players if these Events also reward more Unique things to the Top Rankers.

That is except for Da Vinci, Eyes, Lavie, and Xian.

Xian- Huh? What did I do?

Da Vinci- ┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘

Dream- Seems like the Players believe everyone else has Unique Classes, but with you and Da Vinci in particular, your abilities are supposedly too unexplainable to just be Skills from Unique Classes, and instead actually more resemble Players who found real ways to cheat the System.

Essex- Considering how they’re the Architect and the Respawner, I can understand how they would think that.

Tobias- From what I know of Eyes and Lavie, they shouldn’t have anything that unexplainable, so how do they fit into the narrative of cheating?

Dream- Well according to basically everyone in Guide 1 and 13, there were multiple Players who’ve somehow permanently died during each Event, with Eyes and Lavie being the only obvious suspects.

Omega- Curious...

Dream- Although Lavie is only suspected due to her having Assisted on every kill in her Event, and is technically innocent since no one actually saw her do anything when the other Players died. However in the case of Eyes, his entire Guide claims he purposely and sadistically murdered every single one of them without remorse, and even pickpocketed everything from the dead Player's Inventories for himself. Now The Guided Faction put up a 1,000 Gold bounty for his exact whereabouts/capture since Eyes murdered some of their higher-level members, but luckily the Deicide and Elseworld Factions don't seem to be getting themselves involved with the situation.

“I guess I’m innocent until I’m proven guilty, right Eyes?” Lavie jokingly whispered beside me, already knowing she was definitely guilty.

“Well good for you.” I spitefully replied, opening up the World Chat to see what they were saying about us for myself.

World Chat

...

IRL Troll- 100% that guy's a cheating piece of shit!

Memer- True!

Simp- Sounds like the Lavie chick’s innocent to me.

Jo Mama- Nah, she’s hella sus.

Hoax- Yeah, no way she captured all the Attackers by herself without cheating, especially when we know she was going against full Parties of Lv.30s from Deicide, Elseworld, and The Guided.

Cain Morris- Not only is he a fucking fraud, but now he's a known serial killer! What a fucking disgusting human being!

Coffee- Well technically he doesn’t have to be human, he could be an elf or a dwarf for all we know?

Oscar Otting- Actually he’s confirmed to be a hot wood elf.

Coffee- A hot wood elf?

Oscar Otting- I mean that’s what Guide 13’s Players described him as when they saw him talking to Cullen, Penelope, Ravi, and Crystal Mornings earlier.

Amor- Is it wrong to say that I’d be okay being murdered by hot elf guy?

Memer- Wtf?

Celine- Yes, me too!

Jo Mama- Ayooo

Raisin- Lol

IRL Troll- Why not?

Some of the stuff they were saying about me was somehow both flattering, yet also insultingly slanderous. But with the description of my general appearance being spread throughout the entire chat, I decided to unequip everything I had on and disguise myself until everything concluded—putting on the new clothes Lavie made me, plus a cloak to hide my face and crown.

“So what do we do now, the timer still says we have 10 hours to wait?” Lavie asked, also changing from her cloth wraps into only wearing a large oversized sweater.

“It’s probably not going to take that long.” I figured, “I’m sure the timer will end early when all the Players are done, just like in the Tutorial.” sitting myself against the wall, “So all we need to do now is wait.”

“If you say so.” Lavie sat down next to me and we watched the timer in the sky slowly tick down while eating some leftover food I stored in my Inventory in case I ever got hungry.

Waiting For the Results Of The Siege Event: 10 Hours, 11 Minutes, 12 Seconds

COMBAT IS PROHIBITED

10 hours later…

I jumped straight awake in panic as a resounding alarm constantly rang throughout the entire space. “Wakey, wakey, my little sleeping Players!” Nulla loudly voiced from above, “It’s time to announce not only the results of the Siege Event, but also the results of this month’s Player Rankings!”

“Mmmm…” Lavie tiredly moaned, slowly getting up from my lap. Then groggily looking around, she asked “Huh, what's happening? When did we fall asleep?”

“I have no clue. But it looks like we weren’t the only ones.” Pointing up to the Guide sections where seemingly everyone was asleep and were only just awoken as well. “Did they really just put everyone to sleep? Why? And where the hell did all these notifications come from?”

System Update Complete. Adaptability/Development of the System has exponentially grown. User Interface changes and Bug fixes have been applied. Potential Quest outcomes have been greatly expanded upon. Player Ranking Categories have been adjusted and altered. New Features have been implemented. Maximum Player Level has been increased. Skill Evolutions has been unlocked. New specific Questlines have been released.

Nulla began to speak again before I could fully grasp anything I was reading. “I hope you all had a nice rest. I know you must’ve all needed it after completing your very First Event in the middle of the night, and with no sleep no less. Although before I reveal the results to all of you, I would just like to say on behalf of the Guides and myself, thank you Players for being our amusing entertainment this past month.” Nulla mischievously smiled for everyone to see, “I do hope you can continue bringing us even more entertaining enjoyment in the future. Now, it’s about time I—”

Before he could continue, the entire hub erupted in an uproar, with someone in the section directly above us shouting “Go fuck yourselves!”

“Yeah, fuck you and the Guides!” Another added.

“Just let me go home!” A woman pleaded on her knees nearby, “Let me go back to my family!”

“I promise I'm gonna kill all you Gods, or whatever you want to call yourselves!” A man maliciously declared.

“You sick bastards, what do you want from us!” Someone else questioned, with many more people openly expressing their pent-up anger towards Nulla and the Guides. However their voices became increasingly meek in the frighteningly daunting presence of Nulla from above, as his faceless smile and unreadable demeanour gave off an unnerving sense of indifference towards us Players.

Silently standing in the air smiling, Nulla patiently waited until all the Players had quieted down before speaking again. “Now as I was saying, allow me to finally show you all the results of the Player Rankings!” Loudly clapping his hands together, Nulla suddenly conjured a small deck of blue transparent cards in his hands and evenly spread them out; then throwing all of them up into the air at once, they instantly grew in size and individually displayed each of the Ranking categories in the sky for everyone to see—slowly rotating in a circle in centre of the Waiting Hub.

The several Rankings were honestly too much to look at all at once, even for me who could focus on three things at the same time, but my eyes were able to pick out the three Rankings related to the Event for me to view first.

Event Record Rankings Siege Event Contribution Rankings Siege Event Completion Time Rankings

1st- Casino (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Da Vinci (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Dream Manic Pixie (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Essex (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Eyes Thalion Ven'Thyl (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Faust (1 Victory ; 0 Defeats)

1st- Lavie En Rouge (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Omega (1 Victory : Defeats)

1st- Tobias Casper Grim (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

1st- Xian (1 Victory : 0 Defeats)

…

1st- Eyes Thalion Ven'Thyl (251% Contribution)

2nd- Lavie En Rouge (250% Contribution)

2nd- Tobias Casper Grim (250% Contribution)

3rd- Casino (200% Contribution)

4th- Da Vinci (175% Contribution)

5th- Xian (150% Contribution)

6th- Essex (145% Contribution)

7th- Omega (140% Contribution)

8th- Dream Manic Pixie (100% Contribution)

9th- Faust (100% Contribution)

…

1st- Guide 13 (30 Minutes)

2nd- Guide 1 (35 Minutes)

3rd- Guide 99 (40 Minutes)

4th- Guide 66 (41 Minutes)

5th- Guide 47 (47 Minutes)

6th- Guide 4 (50 Minutes)

7th- Guide 11 (52 Minutes)

8th- Guide 52 (54 Minutes)

9th- Guide 26 (58 Minutes)

10th- Guide 20 (59 Minutes)

…

After closely viewing all three, I couldn’t help but be a little confused at what it all meant, as the Event Rankings were clearly ranked very differently from the other ordinary Rankings. In the case of the Records Rankings, it seemed everyone who won their Siege Event all got places in 1st, while everyone who lost got placed in 2nd; although notably my Top 10 group were still placed above all other Players. Next the Contribution Rankings were honestly a complete mystery as to how it was ranked and calculated, since the percentages seemed quite nonsensically arbitrary to me. And finally the Completion Time Rankings I felt absolutely clueless about, for they were only ranked by Guides and time, and I had no clue who’s Guides they actually were—besides mine and Lavie’s who got 1st and 2nd place.

However my eyes were naturally drawn to one more Ranking, being clearly larger and more prominent than the rest, and that of course was the Overall Player Rankings.

Overall Player Rankings

1st- Eyes Thalion Ven'Thyl

2nd- Lavie En Rouge

3rd- Essex

4th- Da Vinci

5th- Casino

6th- Xian

7th- Tobias Casper Grim

8th- Omega

9th- Faust

10th- Dream Manic Pixie

…