- - - - -Charlotte POV- - - - -

January 6, 2050

I just left my last class for today and was heading to Michelle's place for a meeting about the news in New World. Michelle is also going, but she will not be able to come early because she was still doing her part-time job.

Along with me is two boxes of pastries, one is for the family of Michelle while the other is solely for us three during our discussion.

A day already passed by since I finished the quest [A Beautiful Garden] which took me at least 30 hours of clearing monsters. I have not redeemed the rewards yet and was planning to do it early in the morning, but an announcement from the game in their official website forbids me to do so.

This announcement is also the purpose why I am currently in front of the gate of Michelle's home because this was an update that would change the structure of the New World.

I read the update on my phone once again while waiting for Michelle to come out.

-New Chapter of New World

*Introduction of Guild System. Visit the Guild Manager of your city for more details.

*Ranking System has been added. Leaderboards could be viewed in-game or 'here'

List of Leaderboards

-Player Ranking (City/Country/World)

-Guild Ranking (City/World)

The post on the front page of their website contains only a few details, but the uproar it caused was huge.

Introduction of a Guild means everything for a game such as New World. I am more surprised that there was no guild in the beginning. Maybe they waited for the players to have a feel of the world first before implementing it.

Next is the Leaderboards. Guild ranking was empty for the meantime because the game was still offline and will be up again later 8 pm. But the player ranking was already filled with names.

The board was only up to 1,000 players for City Player Ranking while both Country and World count up to 10,000 players.

Players got rank by their levels. Many names were placed almost at the bottom but can be considered as somewhere in-between because many players were similar levels at this time.

The lowest levelled player in the city ranking was 21 and 22 in the country ranking. Amazingly, the world ranking has an outstanding Level 24 as its lowest listed player.

Both LadyQueen Blade and Michi Mochi were Level 22 that is why they were listed on both city and country rankings. LadyQueen Blade is rank 421 and 9444, respectively. Meanwhile, Michi Mochi is rank 617 and 8816.

Their ranking was confusing because the level difference was still marginally low.

I was Level 20 at the moment that is why I was not in either ranking.

However, among all these names, there was a single person whose level is not identical to anyone in any ranking. The number 1 in the world ranking and the only Level 27 in all New World, Mystic Xiye.

I checked what country he or she from and I discovered that he or she came from China. And from the looks of it, almost half of china leaderboard was also taking a spot of the world leaderboard.

"You should have messaged me that you have come."

While I was checking more interesting stuff on my phone, Michelle who was dressed homely came to greet me at the entrance.

"Oops. Forgot to do that. I was busy checking the leaderboards."

"It's better to do that inside. Come in before I'll drag you in."

"Hahaha, no rush. Here, I got some cakes on the way. You can eat this one with your family."

"Oooo~ Red Velvet. You're amazing, Cherry."

I stepped into the house with permission after greeting her father who came out of the door and went gardening at the side. It was not my first time going to Michelle's house rather, I have been here numerous times already because we were always groupmates whether there are projects that would be done in groups.

Having to stay here is already comfortable for me that even my phone automatically connects through their connection without inputting any password.

"I heard XnoVa virtual concert is online right now. How about we watch that while we wait for Aria."

She turned on the monitor and flop herself on the couch while I sat on the unoccupied sofa. We both intently watched her favourite virtual idol sing on the screen.

Well, we tried to do so but it was obvious both of us cannot focus on what we were watching.

"This is annoying! I'm itching to play New World right now, but I can't. Is Aria done with her work?"

"She should be right now. You've been completely hooked to New World, huh."

"Right!? Beating up monsters are so satisfying. Besides, who is not hook in New World these days?"

"You have a point. But beating up monsters is what get you the most? Really? Never have expected that would be the reason why you're so different inside the game."

"It's liberating every time we hunt. But I also like many things in New World like how creative you can kill a monster using different weapons or how exciting is it to get new items from random drops."

"Looks like you can't wait to enter the ETHER Link."

"Hate you, maintenance time! What's new anyway? I didn't check yet… Guild System and Ranking system… Look!!! Our names are on the leaderboard."

Michelle showed me her the phone which shows the same leaderboard I was scrolling a while ago. She looks immensely proud of herself forming a victory sign with her left hand while showing it.

"Yeah, I already saw it."

"That's amazing~ This makes me want to aim number one."

While Michelle was drooling over imagining her name on the top of the leaderboard, her father suddenly called out.

"Michelle! Your friend is here."

"Finally!"

After waiting a long time, Michelle turned off the monitor and went outside to invite Aria in while I was browsing my phone. I can hear them talking outside.

"Good afternoon, sir"

"Don't bother with papa, let's go inside."

"What do you girl like for dinner? I will order it later."

"Don't worry Pa, they won't stay long. We will dive right back into the ETHER after it became online again.

Michelle dragged Aria into the living room making all that ruckus on the way.

"Let's go upstairs."

I followed both of them to the room of Michelle making sure I brought the box of pastries along with me. Her room is what you expect a normal college girl's room would be. It was all organized except for the ETHER Link helmet on top of her bed.

Aria and I sat on the floor while munching on the sweets I brought since Michelle was typing something on her PC. It looks like she will not be finishing anytime soon, so I had a small chat with Aria mostly about the things they did while I was away for my quest in Moonshire.

"Come look at this."

Minutes later, Michelle who was busy on her own world called us.

"I've been looking in NWF for the new guilds that are forming right now even though it is not official yet. There are already hundreds in our city alone. See this one, their leader is supposed to be the 21st player in Twilight City ranking. That's the highest levelled player I saw in our location that is deciding to form a guild on his own."

"We're joining a guild and not creating one?"

I asked like that option was strange. I always thought we would be creating our own guild from scratch.

"If we three create one from scratch, who will become the leader and manage the guild?"

Among us three, no one even tried to consider being one and just went silent for a good minute. Now that she mentioned it, I do not see anyone of us being a leader anyway, so creating a guild is out of the question.

"Is it better to join a guild that is close to us since I predict we would be needing to meet a lot later on?"

"Hmm. That would be difficult."

"I have an idea! Did you remember some of our classmates a while ago talking about creating a guild together? And from some group chat I'm in, it looks like the son of our school director is planning to create one for our school."

Aria showed us some past conversations on her phone which many of our schoolmates are interested in joining.

"But are they based on Twilight City?"

"Oh, let me backread for a while… It says here that most of them started in Solstice City, so they are planning to build it from there."

"That's another option down."

We went silent the second time.