The ringing sounds of the computers running their calculations filled the room. The blue projection flickered and buzzed as names started filling the screen from the bottom up.

[837: Anchovy Fisherman

836: Slillith Beatle

835: ....]

Exalted sighs left the students as their names slowly came up on the computer one after the other. Even the professors watched with widened eyes, curious about how the computers interpreted the feeds from the cameras inside the Dream Gate and assigned the rankings.

{Quite the names, Host. Do you think you'll be fine?}

I nodded at the system's window and answered him under my breath. "Yeah, it is possible to read the mana signature of the attacks with the tools inside, but a dungeon is a dungeon, complete control over a natural phenomenon like that is impossible."

{Is that so? They were surprisingly well-coordinated for it to not be completely under their control.}

That was true, but it was natural. I took a few steps back to get away from the crowd of students and answered. "The Dream Gate is an exclusive dungeon that Agriche has been using for years. It is a persistent type that keeps opening and closing every year for the past 100 years."

{So that's why they have managed to control it as much as they can?}

"Correct, it was almost impossible when the gates first opened, but we do manage to keep magical phenomena and spaces under control now. The most interesting example is Agriche City itself. It was formed magically two hundred years back and is now being maintained with our development in science and magic."

[634: Reina Tsubame

...

...]

{Oh, look! We know that one!}

Familiar names started appearing in the rankings. I was still nowhere on it.

[522: Cauldron Cauldron

...

...]

Oh? Cauldron survived too. I was slightly curious about him and ringlet curls.

[402: Jin Xuefeng

401: Indi Silkmeadow

400: Ralph Rubinstein

...]

A handful of gazes turned toward me.

400.

{Congratulations, host. You managed to do what you wanted}

"Yes, things should be smooth from now on."

A perfect rank. It wasn't high enough for me to attract outside attention at all, and it was also not low enough to get negative attention from my peers. It was perfect, the only thing that could get in my way would be my associations, but I also won't have to worry too much about that.

My gaze went towards the black-haired youth that had come over in the end and helped us take down the Ent with his sword skills. Yes, all the attention will stick to him. The first-ranked student.

I ignored Zachy's and the blonde-haired kid's suspicious looks and turned back to the screen. The number was steadily climbing.

[243: Colette Battier

242: Anna Krivic

...]

Another familiar name.

The rankings kept increasing higher up.

[102....

101....

-------]

The systems stopped at 101.

The screens flickered again and the previous names disappeared.

{Hm? Did it glitch?! What mismanagement!}

"Man, shut up. They are just preparing for the next phase."

Excited eyes gazed up at the projections for the names of the top 100 students.

[100: Milea Romero

...

...

...]

The names came up one by one. Some students squealed after seeing their names on the list while others widened their eyes in disbelief. Slowly, the numbers got closer and closer to the top.

Sounds dwindled down and everyone in the room watched with bated breaths once again as the number got closer and closer to one

[13: Florris Yergsil

12: Raj Kumar

11: Argathon Minan]

Another familiar name appeared. Florris, the girl with ringlet curls. She ranked much higher than I could have imagined.

And then, the computer screens buzzed even more. The top 10 were to be announced.

[10: Ardreth Vallen]

[9: Nyrio Riathal]

[8: Soliana Neriren]

[7: Leslie Fenrir]

A new tension unlike the previous filled the room. The name Fenrir was one well known in the world, the legendary wolf family that was the right-hand of the Exise family. Everyone turned towards the redhead that had entered the battle near the end.

Standing next to the girl was a gray-haired wolf girl and a platinum blonde elf cheering quietly for themselves.

[6: Blaine Sothsfield]

'Oohs' and 'aahs' rang out, the attention still stuck in that zone. The pretty girl with light blue hair pushed her glasses up as the wolfkin and the elf hugged her.

The computers buzzing brought people back toward the screen. Like children waiting to receive their results, everyone waited with excitement threatening to bubble out of them.

The leaders of their year, the people that could be called the representative of youth their age all over the world. Those people were about to be listed out.

[5: Kristina Steitz]

Who was that?

Everyone seemed to have a similar reaction. Compared to the names listed back to back, no one had heard of this person.

{Host, look over there}

The system's message popped up. He didn't point at any place though. "Where, idiot?"

{!}

I shifted my eyes back towards the black-haired swordsman that had come to help us. He was congratulating a person next to him with a bright smile. I couldn't quite see how she looked. "That must be her..."

{They seem to know each other}

I made a note in my mind to avoid those people at all costs and turned to the screen again.

[4: Leone Hendrickson]

This was strange.

This time, the attention collectively shifted to the blonde youth that had jumped into the battle after coordinating with me. So, he was Leone Hendrickson. The son of the 7th Ranked Hunter, Emperor Hendrickson.

[3: Seraphina Exise]

Third? How was she in third? Was there a new person who had swooped into the second position?

The girls who were celebrating a while back seemed to be a little confused as well as they placed their hands on Seraphina Exise's shoulder.

[2: Luke Reese]

Was this the person who swooped in second? I turned towards the professors to see all of them staring at the screens with widened eyes, especially Don Brocious who looked specifically shook. Who was this kid to warrant this reaction?

{Host!!}

At the system's message, I turned towards the black-haired youth again to see him laughing and being congratulated by the girl this time.

"What in the world..."

They were not surprised because it was someone they didn't know. It was because the person who should've been first was ranked second instead.

-BUZZZ

The computer's screen flickered again.

Everyone's attention was completely swallowed by the projections. Even the sounds of breathing stopped.

[1: Zachary Ainsworth]

"W-wh..."

White wings fluttered out as a man elegantly stepped back, summoning all the gazes toward his majestic form. That's what it looked like, but he had just stumbled back and opened his wings in surprise.

"What...?" Zachy's soft words flowed out like a whisper...

"WHOAAAA!!!!"

... and were drowned out by the students' deafening cheer.

A new leader for a new generation had stepped forward.