Chapter 37: World ranking

Though he didn’t know the exact use of the skill, its description gave him a rough idea.

He could gain attribute points from bosses after killing them. However, the skill required him to reach Level 11 before he could learn it, and he was still quite far from that mark.

"Come out," he said calmly. Instantly, his ten generals emerged from his shadow, standing respectfully before him.

"My liege, what is your order now?" Kaiser asked in a respectful tone.

"I am going to send all ten of you into the Divine Dungeon. Clearing 120 phases should be easy for you. If you think you can’t go any further, just tell me. I’ll level you up," Arthur said.

He had already calculated the rewards. If they could clear up to the 120th cycle, they would have to fight one hundred Level 12 Mythical-grade bosses.

The total earnings would be around 700 million Divine Gold after his 10,000x multiplication. That would be more than enough to reach Level 11.

Then, if they failed after that, he could simply buy more Divine Keys. It would become a continuous process of earning wealth, and he would need all those resources to level himself up as well as strengthen his army.

"As you wish, my lord," Kaiser said before bowing respectfully.

Arthur took out the Divine Key and threw it into the air. Instantly, a dazzling white portal appeared above them, radiating a mysterious spatial energy.

"Go in."

Whoosh!

The ten God Generals, along with their 1,000 Nuclear Soldiers, immediately entered the portal.

The soldiers would be necessary for high-level combat. Their sheer numbers could distract powerful opponents, while their nuclear explosion damage could also inflict devastating area-of-effect attacks.

After they entered the portal, it vanished after ten minutes.

At that moment, his ten skeleton soldiers also returned from the upper level. Arthur immediately took the space ring from one of them.

As soon as he put the space ring on his finger, the number of inventory slots that had previously been a pathetic ten suddenly skyrocketed to a whopping 9 billion.

After all, one cubic meter of storage space was considered one inventory slot, and the space ring contained a total of 9 cubic kilometers of storage space.

"Hahahaha! I won’t have to buy another space ring for the rest of my life. Maybe if I need one at a later stage, I’ll buy one or two," he muttered excitedly.

"Alright, go and collect all the monster cores and put them on the ground. Take the boss cores directly to me," he ordered his skeletons again.

Arthur needed to activate the self-sustaining barrier immediately so that no humans or monsters could enter the shelter again.

It was one of the functions of the Omega Shelter. Besides that, there were special areas where he could cultivate plants, raise livestock, and even produce resources such as minerals.

Using these services would still cost him money, but they would be far more cost-effective than purchasing everything directly from the System Shop.

In a few days, the world would enter the true apocalypse phase, when food and water would become increasingly scarce.

People would have to purchase them from the System Shop at enormous prices. However, shelter owners could produce their own food and even sell it to players at a lower price than the System.

Even then, they would still make an enormous profit.

...

While Arthur was happily planning his future, more and more players were entering Herian City.

However, the moment they arrived, they were thrown into a nightmare.

There were no safe zones and no guaranteed protection.

As soon as players were killed, one Revival Scroll would be consumed, giving them another chance to respawn within a one-kilometer radius of where they had died.

Some players had died without purchasing Revival Scrolls and were gone for good in the real world as well.

Others were horrified when they discovered that the entire one-kilometer area around their death location had become infested with monsters.

They couldn’t even find a safe place to respawn.

As for the powerful teams, they could barely hold themselves together. Even killing a single Level 11 Common-grade monster was extremely difficult for them.

Inside the government team, several people were discussing the current situation while fighting monsters. They also entered the city.

"Have you contacted Darklord? Do you think he has something to sell us? We have many people now, but only four Legendary-grade items in our possession. The upper echelon is pressuring us to acquire more equipment."

"I’ve already messaged him a few times, but he isn’t replying. Maybe he’s busy killing monsters as well."

...

[Worldwide Announcement: Congratulations to player Darklord for obtaining the first shelter in the Genesis Realm. You have gained 5 Reputation Points.]

[The World Ranking System has now been published.]

[There are two primary ranking systems. One is the Level Ranking, while the other is the Combat Prowess Ranking.]

[The rankings will be displayed both Server-wide and Worldwide.]

.....

As soon as the announcement appeared, people went into a frenzy once again.

"Him again? What the fuck? And what the hell is a shelter? We can’t even respawn after dying, and that bastard already has some kind of shelter. Is he the illegitimate son of the Creator of the Genesis Realm or something?"

People were frustrated.

They had almost forgotten about Darklord as more and more players entered the game. Arthur hadn’t triggered a worldwide announcement for quite some time, so everyone’s attention had gradually shifted elsewhere.

"The big shot is back on the market. Damn! I really wish he were on our government side," one soldier said excitedly.

"He is on our side. I heard he hasn’t sold any equipment to anyone else except us," Alex muttered.

"I mean, I wish he were actually part of our forces."

"Yeah, that would have been awesome."

Suddenly, four enormous ranking lists appeared in the sky across all the servers.

They could be seen from anywhere within the server, causing countless players to look upward in curiosity.

[Level Ranking: (S1)]

[1. Heavenly God: Level 10]

[2. Zero the Hero: Level 10]

[3. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas: Level 10]

[4. I Am the Boss: Level 10]

[.....]

The Level Ranking wasn’t very impressive. Most of the top players had already reached Level 10.

By now, everyone understood the importance of leveling up properly. No one was foolish enough to use lower grade currency to level up. So they were progressing slowly now.

Then their eyes shifted toward the Combat Prowess Ranking.

[Combat Prowess Ranking: (S1)]

[1. Darklord]

[2. Dragon Sword]

[3. Why Do You Hate Me?]

[4. Donalt Orange Head]

[5. I Love My Ex.]

[.....]

[Combat Prowess Ranking: (Worldwide)]

[1. Darklord (S1)]

[2. Son Goku (S3)]

[3. Sung Jin Woo (S3)]

[4. John Wick (S2)]

[5. Your Ass Is Fat (S8)]

[.....]

When people saw the hundred names displayed on the ranking, they were astonished to discover that Darklord was currently ranked as the strongest player in the entire world.

At the same time, countless people couldn’t help twitching their mouths when they saw some of the names on the list.

What kind of ridiculous names were these?

Alex was still staring at the ranking with his mouth twitching when he suddenly heard a notification sound.

"Meet me at this location. I have quite a few things to sell."

It was a message from Darklord himself.

"Let’s go. The big shot has summoned us," Alex said with a grin as he looked toward his teammates.