After B-rank trainees declared that they had wrecked their instance, apart from D-rank newcomers who had yet to realise its significance, everyone else was stunned. The news spread like wildfire, reaching everyone under the dome.
The S-ranks on their thrones, catching wind of the discussion below, also looked startled.
They turned to Tsuchimikado for the confirmation—after all, their other choices were the ruthless No. 2 and the aloof No. 8, neither of whom made for good conversational partners. Tsuchimikado was usually easy to get along with; like the Exorcist, he was an expert at playing neutral, and everyone was more than happy to engage him in conversation.
The Yin-Yang Master didn’t skirt around the subject. Not only did he admit it very readily, but he even roughly summarised what had happened in the B-rank trainee instance, to which many S-ranks clicked their tongues in wonder.
AD
This was a historical moment—the first successfully destroyed instance done by someone other than No. 1. What was even more surprising was that No. 2 was actually not the conductor. Instead, according to Tsuchimikado, the entire plan was carried out under the Magician’s orchestration. As the saying went, the young deserve to be treated with respect.
In fact, from the moment the system announced that [all trainees have assembled], there was a stir amidst those on the thrones.
The reason for this stir was due to a vacant throne.
It wasn’t the most grandiose one in the centre, even higher up than the other thrones and perpetually empty. It was one towards the fringe.
The throne that belonged to No. 9.
Truth be told, any one of the S-ranks missing would have ignited countless waves of discussion. This time, however, it was probably due to the shocking destruction of the B-rank instance that most had not yet noticed the vacant throne.
As it happened, No. 9 and No. 4, the Exorcist, had been assigned to the hardest of the lot, the C-rank trainees’ collective instance. The Exorcist looked worse for wear, and when he was just transferred back, many saw that he had a deep bloody gash on his shoulder. Though he had spent survival points to fix it in time, his visage still remained pale due to the excessive blood loss.
There was only one scenario in which a throne would be vacant. That was… the person who had occupied the throne had died in an instance.
But no matter what, that was still an S-rank! Not to mention that he was the only top-notch psychic who had reached the culmination of his pathway. He was an existence that any organisation would bend over backwards for.
AD
Psychics were as rare and as precious as giant pandas. There were no more than a handful of advanced psychics, let alone top-notch psychics. As someone capable of communicating with all spiritual beings, No. 9 was constantly being harassed, such that he had no choice but to put a shield over his head. Once he took it off, he could hear the voices of every lingering soul from the past to the present. Although his combat power wasn’t as high as other S-ranks, he was still truly formidable in instances.
The Exorcist took a long time to recover, and only after did he say, “…No. 9 was struck down by a god.”
This short sentence was simply not enough to convey exactly how dangerous the C-rank collective instance was.
Mount Olympus was a battlefield of the gods. Trainees had to choose to join a deity’s camp, then select a High Priest from them.
There were good and bad camps to be in. Some deities didn’t care about their devotees and sent them up to die in battle. Some were a bit more hypocritical due to their convictions, such as Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War, who was selected in the first round.
It was one thing for players to go to battle against each other, but their god might even call divine punishment upon them for losing.
At first, High Priest was a popular position, for he only had to sit in the temple and issue commands. In the end, little did anyone expect for a deity to intervene in a war in the mortal world during a battle in the last ten days, sending divine punishment upon the High Priest.
It was through that battle that all trainees came to realise a fact.
Despite being deities in name, in actuality, they were gods abandoned by mortals, entities that had descended into evil.
They had never seen the true faces of the deities, assuming that they were just as holy as their ivory statues, unaware that at midnight, the shadows cast by moonshine on the grass behind the statues were malevolent ghouls with teeth and claws bared.
Those who had previously received the glory and the protection of the deities died violently with their fall, including the High Priests who had served near their thrones—they were merely better vessels for their descent.
“Actually, No. 9 can’t be faulted for being careless. The system had deliberately given us a lot of confusing stipulations in the main task. At the outset, every trainee wanted to be under the command of the better gods. Not to mention the number of special props that the twelve deities had endowed…”
The special props in Mount Olympus’ treasure trove were innumerable, any random piece offered as a reward was B-rank and above.
Almost every C-rank was a veteran. Considering their middling position, who wouldn’t want to take advantage of props to soar to the top? Gradually, under this sugar-coated attack, everyone lowered their guard, even swearing allegiance to their deity in exchange for more benefits.
Regrettably, swearing allegiance to an evil deity was tantamount to tying their fates to the Mafia.
These devotees ultimately weren’t able to bring back the props and treasures that they had received. Instead, because of their greed, they were buried in the instance for eternity.
“No. 9 could have circumvented it at first, but unfortunately, his psychic ability was too outstanding… he was targeted from the moment he entered the instance and missed the best time to escape. Before we realised it, he had already become a vessel for an evil deity.”
“What a pity.”
After listening to the Exorcist recount No. 9’s death, the other S-ranks sighed.
They all had some contact with one another. No ordinary figure could rise to S-rank from millions of people. All else aside, each of them were confident that they could compete for the final c-position. Yet it was unimaginable that one would ‘fail to complete his quest before death’, even folding someplace far short of an S-rank instance. It really was lamentable.
“However…”
Messiah ruminated. “If there’s a vacancy in the S-ranks, I wonder who will fill it.”
That was right. People couldn’t rise from the dead, so instead of harping on this, wouldn’t it be more practical to guess who would fill the position?
In the infinite loop, death was all too common an occurrence. No S-rank, long inured to these sights, would waste time mourning a colleague that they didn’t know that well.
“Maybe Anthony of the Night Clan? He has a pretty high placement amongst the A-ranks.”
Someone immediately piped in, “If that’s the case, the Night Clan will have two S-ranks.”
They threw out guesses, including mentions of several other notable A-ranks such as the Feng Shui Master who always carried a compass in his hand, the Parasite Breeder who had a strange encounter in the Miaojiang instance, the Golden Monk, and the Forest Shaman—all of whom were A-ranks placed high in terms of overall strength. If it weren’t for the fact that there were only ten spots for S-rank, these few would probably be on the list too.
On the contrary, it was Tsuchimikado who sat contemplatively on his throne without speaking.
It was definitely not difficult to get an S-rank rating from the system for something as tremendous as destroying an instance.
As long as the instructor evaluation didn’t go awry, where the position of No. 9 might go could… perhaps cause everyone to goggle in shock.
He looked over where the B-ranks stood, his mind made up.
While the trainees beneath were still gushing about the B-ranks blowing up the school, the D-rank and C-rank trainee evaluations had come out.
No D-rank had dropped to E or F; minimally, they retained the same rank. Then again, dropping a rank wouldn’t get one thrown into a punishment instance, so everyone was rather relaxed now.
There weren’t many surprises from these two ranks, and the only ones worth mentioning were Xu Sen and Xu Su.
Xu Su had ascended from D-rank to C-rank. It was to his fortune that the D-ranks were placed on a deserted island. He was naturally a bit of a nerd, thus made great contributions to the team’s efforts to uncover the humanoid aliens. He was one of those to watch out for amidst the newcomers.
Xu Sen, on the other hand, was now the most dazzling in today’s rank evaluation, jumping from C-rank straight to A-rank, shocking everyone.
It was general knowledge by now that Xu Sen was one of the Magician’s ‘little bros’. He had followed the Magician to participate in the King’s Game, then got lucky with a blind box, drawing an A-rank prop. Everyone had formed an impression when the prop was drawn; after all, it was an A-rank prop, which was rare even among A-rank trainees. Sure enough, he had now risen to A-rank in the subsequent ranking evaluation. While others went green with envy, it was still within expectations.
Soon, the step under the spotlight was the B-ranks’.
[B-rank trainee evaluation in progress… System rating is being released…]
It was clear that the backlash from this instance was too great, as well as the camaraderie they had formed from fighting side by side in the instance. While Zong Jiu didn’t say a word, when he stood to one side, the other ninety-six trainees of Class 9 silently moved over to stand with him on the step.
Although everyone didn’t speak of it, they all knew that the system rating would not be low this time.
Not only for Class 9, but also for all B-rank trainees. After all, everyone had worked together as a whole to destroy the instance.
As expected, the system rating that appeared above everyone’s head was at worst a B, and everyone in Class 9 attained an A.
But amidst the delighted cheers, index 98 asked in puzzlement.
“Wait, that’s not right. Jiu-ge was clearly the person who organised and drove the execution of this plan, so why did he also get an A? Shouldn’t it be an S?”
Once he brought it up, everyone’s doubtful gazes roved over.
He had a point. How could the Magician have gotten an A when his contribution in the First High School instance was obvious to all, even unlocking the perfect achievement of blowing up the school?
The instructor rating came after the system rating.
The instructor rating generally followed the system rating, with few exceptions to this trend.
This time however, he stood out from the Class 9 members with double As above their heads.
Once again, a blood-red S slowly emerged above the white-haired young man’s head.
This S-rank rating symbolised the instructor’s recognition of the Magician’s achievements in First High School.
In that case, why did he only receive an A from the system?
Zong Jiu stroked his chin, a thought flashing past his pale pink eyes.
For some reason, he had abruptly recalled a certain devil flickering away into the flames at the end of the instance.
After B-rank trainees declared that they had wrecked their instance, apart from D-rank newcomers who had yet to realise its significance, everyone else was stunned. The news spread like wildfire, reaching everyone under the dome.
The S-ranks on their thrones, catching wind of the discussion below, also looked startled.
They turned to Tsuchimikado for the confirmation—after all, their other choices were the ruthless No. 2 and the aloof No. 8, neither of whom made for good conversational partners. Tsuchimikado was usually easy to get along with; like the Exorcist, he was an expert at playing neutral, and everyone was more than happy to engage him in conversation.
The Yin-Yang Master didn’t skirt around the subject. Not only did he admit it very readily, but he even roughly summarised what had happened in the B-rank trainee instance, to which many S-ranks clicked their tongues in wonder.
AD
This was a historical moment—the first successfully destroyed instance done by someone other than No. 1. What was even more surprising was that No. 2 was actually not the conductor. Instead, according to Tsuchimikado, the entire plan was carried out under the Magician’s orchestration. As the saying went, the young deserve to be treated with respect.
In fact, from the moment the system announced that [all trainees have assembled], there was a stir amidst those on the thrones.
The reason for this stir was due to a vacant throne.
It wasn’t the most grandiose one in the centre, even higher up than the other thrones and perpetually empty. It was one towards the fringe.
The throne that belonged to No. 9.
Truth be told, any one of the S-ranks missing would have ignited countless waves of discussion. This time, however, it was probably due to the shocking destruction of the B-rank instance that most had not yet noticed the vacant throne.
As it happened, No. 9 and No. 4, the Exorcist, had been assigned to the hardest of the lot, the C-rank trainees’ collective instance. The Exorcist looked worse for wear, and when he was just transferred back, many saw that he had a deep bloody gash on his shoulder. Though he had spent survival points to fix it in time, his visage still remained pale due to the excessive blood loss.
There was only one scenario in which a throne would be vacant. That was… the person who had occupied the throne had died in an instance.
But no matter what, that was still an S-rank! Not to mention that he was the only top-notch psychic who had reached the culmination of his pathway. He was an existence that any organisation would bend over backwards for.
AD
Psychics were as rare and as precious as giant pandas. There were no more than a handful of advanced psychics, let alone top-notch psychics. As someone capable of communicating with all spiritual beings, No. 9 was constantly being harassed, such that he had no choice but to put a shield over his head. Once he took it off, he could hear the voices of every lingering soul from the past to the present. Although his combat power wasn’t as high as other S-ranks, he was still truly formidable in instances.
The Exorcist took a long time to recover, and only after did he say, “…No. 9 was struck down by a god.”
This short sentence was simply not enough to convey exactly how dangerous the C-rank collective instance was.
Mount Olympus was a battlefield of the gods. Trainees had to choose to join a deity’s camp, then select a High Priest from them.
There were good and bad camps to be in. Some deities didn’t care about their devotees and sent them up to die in battle. Some were a bit more hypocritical due to their convictions, such as Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War, who was selected in the first round.
It was one thing for players to go to battle against each other, but their god might even call divine punishment upon them for losing.
At first, High Priest was a popular position, for he only had to sit in the temple and issue commands. In the end, little did anyone expect for a deity to intervene in a war in the mortal world during a battle in the last ten days, sending divine punishment upon the High Priest.
It was through that battle that all trainees came to realise a fact.
Despite being deities in name, in actuality, they were gods abandoned by mortals, entities that had descended into evil.
They had never seen the true faces of the deities, assuming that they were just as holy as their ivory statues, unaware that at midnight, the shadows cast by moonshine on the grass behind the statues were malevolent ghouls with teeth and claws bared.
Those who had previously received the glory and the protection of the deities died violently with their fall, including the High Priests who had served near their thrones—they were merely better vessels for their descent.
“Actually, No. 9 can’t be faulted for being careless. The system had deliberately given us a lot of confusing stipulations in the main task. At the outset, every trainee wanted to be under the command of the better gods. Not to mention the number of special props that the twelve deities had endowed…”
The special props in Mount Olympus’ treasure trove were innumerable, any random piece offered as a reward was B-rank and above.
Almost every C-rank was a veteran. Considering their middling position, who wouldn’t want to take advantage of props to soar to the top? Gradually, under this sugar-coated attack, everyone lowered their guard, even swearing allegiance to their deity in exchange for more benefits.
Regrettably, swearing allegiance to an evil deity was tantamount to tying their fates to the Mafia.
These devotees ultimately weren’t able to bring back the props and treasures that they had received. Instead, because of their greed, they were buried in the instance for eternity.
“No. 9 could have circumvented it at first, but unfortunately, his psychic ability was too outstanding… he was targeted from the moment he entered the instance and missed the best time to escape. Before we realised it, he had already become a vessel for an evil deity.”
“What a pity.”
After listening to the Exorcist recount No. 9’s death, the other S-ranks sighed.
They all had some contact with one another. No ordinary figure could rise to S-rank from millions of people. All else aside, each of them were confident that they could compete for the final c-position. Yet it was unimaginable that one would ‘fail to complete his quest before death’, even folding someplace far short of an S-rank instance. It really was lamentable.
“However…”
Messiah ruminated. “If there’s a vacancy in the S-ranks, I wonder who will fill it.”
That was right. People couldn’t rise from the dead, so instead of harping on this, wouldn’t it be more practical to guess who would fill the position?
In the infinite loop, death was all too common an occurrence. No S-rank, long inured to these sights, would waste time mourning a colleague that they didn’t know that well.
“Maybe Anthony of the Night Clan? He has a pretty high placement amongst the A-ranks.”
Someone immediately piped in, “If that’s the case, the Night Clan will have two S-ranks.”
They threw out guesses, including mentions of several other notable A-ranks such as the Feng Shui Master who always carried a compass in his hand, the Parasite Breeder who had a strange encounter in the Miaojiang instance, the Golden Monk, and the Forest Shaman—all of whom were A-ranks placed high in terms of overall strength. If it weren’t for the fact that there were only ten spots for S-rank, these few would probably be on the list too.
On the contrary, it was Tsuchimikado who sat contemplatively on his throne without speaking.
It was definitely not difficult to get an S-rank rating from the system for something as tremendous as destroying an instance.
As long as the instructor evaluation didn’t go awry, where the position of No. 9 might go could… perhaps cause everyone to goggle in shock.
He looked over where the B-ranks stood, his mind made up.
While the trainees beneath were still gushing about the B-ranks blowing up the school, the D-rank and C-rank trainee evaluations had come out.
No D-rank had dropped to E or F; minimally, they retained the same rank. Then again, dropping a rank wouldn’t get one thrown into a punishment instance, so everyone was rather relaxed now.
There weren’t many surprises from these two ranks, and the only ones worth mentioning were Xu Sen and Xu Su.
Xu Su had ascended from D-rank to C-rank. It was to his fortune that the D-ranks were placed on a deserted island. He was naturally a bit of a nerd, thus made great contributions to the team’s efforts to uncover the humanoid aliens. He was one of those to watch out for amidst the newcomers.
Xu Sen, on the other hand, was now the most dazzling in today’s rank evaluation, jumping from C-rank straight to A-rank, shocking everyone.
It was general knowledge by now that Xu Sen was one of the Magician’s ‘little bros’. He had followed the Magician to participate in the King’s Game, then got lucky with a blind box, drawing an A-rank prop. Everyone had formed an impression when the prop was drawn; after all, it was an A-rank prop, which was rare even among A-rank trainees. Sure enough, he had now risen to A-rank in the subsequent ranking evaluation. While others went green with envy, it was still within expectations.
Soon, the step under the spotlight was the B-ranks’.
[B-rank trainee evaluation in progress… System rating is being released…]
It was clear that the backlash from this instance was too great, as well as the camaraderie they had formed from fighting side by side in the instance. While Zong Jiu didn’t say a word, when he stood to one side, the other ninety-six trainees of Class 9 silently moved over to stand with him on the step.
Although everyone didn’t speak of it, they all knew that the system rating would not be low this time.
Not only for Class 9, but also for all B-rank trainees. After all, everyone had worked together as a whole to destroy the instance.
As expected, the system rating that appeared above everyone’s head was at worst a B, and everyone in Class 9 attained an A.
But amidst the delighted cheers, index 98 asked in puzzlement.
“Wait, that’s not right. Jiu-ge was clearly the person who organised and drove the execution of this plan, so why did he also get an A? Shouldn’t it be an S?”
Once he brought it up, everyone’s doubtful gazes roved over.
He had a point. How could the Magician have gotten an A when his contribution in the First High School instance was obvious to all, even unlocking the perfect achievement of blowing up the school?
The instructor rating came after the system rating.
The instructor rating generally followed the system rating, with few exceptions to this trend.
This time however, he stood out from the Class 9 members with double As above their heads.
Once again, a blood-red S slowly emerged above the white-haired young man’s head.
This S-rank rating symbolised the instructor’s recognition of the Magician’s achievements in First High School.
In that case, why did he only receive an A from the system?
Zong Jiu stroked his chin, a thought flashing past his pale pink eyes.
For some reason, he had abruptly recalled a certain devil flickering away into the flames at the end of the instance.
