Of course, the AI of Boundless did not just make this announcent and leave players hanging. It ca with subsequent screens that dutifully inford players what these three things were, how they functioned, and how to utilize/join them.
The Area Rankings displayed the top 10 of various different categories. For example, top 10 kingdoms in an Area Zone, top 10 dungeons, top 10 blacksmith NPCs, top 10 blacksmith players.
Just, any category at all, no matter how small, was included and calculated. There were even Class Rankings, as in the best within a single class like an assassin, swordsman, spellblade, etc.
It was a comprehensive way to distinguish the best in various areas worldwide. The Continental and World Rankings were just bigger versions of this concerning larger pools of choices.
Area Zone Rankings were definitely a pat on the back, and the true monsters would be ranked on the Continental Rankings for their categories. Even the 10th place ant you were a titan of epic proportions.
As for the World Rankings, please do not have extravagant hopes with your ager skill. Only the true godlings of the world would be found there.
Those on the World Ranking were people who the entirety of the playerbase and the NPCs would have to fearfully kowtow when they passed by, much less accord them respect and reverence.
These Rankings were not just to stroke your ego and make you feel good, they ca with tangible rewards. Placing within the top 10 of an Area Zone Ranking gave the person variable amounts of gold as a reward.
10th place got 500 gold, 9th place 1,000 gold, 8th place 1,500 gold, 9th place 2,000 gold, 8th place 2,500 gold, 7th place 3,000 gold, 6th place 3,500 gold, 5th place 4,000 gold, 4th place 4,500 gold, 3rd place 5,000 gold, 2nd place 5,500 gold and 1st place 6,000 gold!
The Rankings were refreshed every month and one would earn that amount once the new Rankings ca in based on their position over the last month. If you had been first the previous month and soone had usurped your position, you would still earn your 6,000 gold.
However, even if you took back first place in the next refresh, you would just earn 5,500 gold for being second that month.
As one could imagine, these Rankings had been introduced far later in the previous tiline. They had been one of the notable additions during Update 6 because majority of players reached Rank 3 by then, while upper echelons like Draco and co had been knocking on the door of Rank 5.
However, since almost everyone in Umbra was currently Rank 3, just like so of their affiliates, as well as the fact that general playerbase who had joined the ga from the first day with Draco and co entering the early stages of rank 2, the playerbase had grown stronger than the AI had predicted.
It wasn’t so much the quantity this ti, but the quality. They had grown too much in a short period of ti, leading the AI to resolve its past calculations and release this content as the conditions had been t.
Back then, the gold reward had been just a way to motivate top players and feed so others. After all, 6,000 gold was the equivalent of 60 platinum which had still been a big deal to players of that ti.
Currently, 6k gold was a huge sum beyond the comprehension of most players. Slightly over two in-ga years had passed since the launch and the first batch of players were now off silver and were earning small bits of gold here and there to empower themselves, especially with the help of Umbra’s various actions and sches.
This would have the effect of further galvanizing the playerbase, especially those powerful enough to rank near the top. Competition henceforth would be brutal and cutthroat for that great monthly reward.
For example, the current Area Rankings for wealthiest players in Vita’s Area Zone were;
｢Area Zone Rankings
Individual Rankings for Wealth (Players):
1. Draco - 55 billion platinum (Author’s Note: he doesn’t have the raw cash, it’s mostly due to his Aether Crystals which are counted as currency and converted.)
2. Riveting Night - 2.5 billion platinum
3. Essence Stalker - 1.2 billion platinum
5. Loving Aunt - 25 million platinum
6. Subli Notion - 24 million platinum
7. Rina - 20 million platinum
8. Dreary Traveler - 3 million platinum
9. Intellectual Monkey - 990,000 platinum
10. Tunder Power - 950,000 platinum
Rewards will be privately sent to each player accordingly upon refresh.｣
If the Area Zone Rankings were enough to spark a second boom in player growth, then the rewards for the Continental Ranking were enough to start wars over.
10th place earned 500 platinum, 9th place 1,000 platinum, 8th place 1,500 platinum, 9th place 2,000 platinum, 8th place 2,500 platinum, 7th place 3,000 platinum, 6th place 3,500 platinum, 5th place 4,000 platinum, 4th place 4,500 platinum, 3rd place 5,000 platinum, 2nd place 5,500 platinum and 1st place 6,000 platinum!
Those who could rank here were the topmost echelon of their various field and Draco, Eva and Shangtian had ranked at the top naturally. It was with this monthly infusion of high funds that they were able to ease the worries of their Divine Guilds.
In the future, large guilds like theirs had produced less inco than they had consud, which was exactly why they had been in need of sponsorship from various AAA companies.
The entire playerbase had played the ga wrongly from the start and if they had been cultivators, one would have to say that their foundations had been trash, and they had only gotten so far by consuming endless pills.
It would have required huge reforms to change things at that point which required money. Even with these free bonuses, it still hadn’t been anywhere near enough. Even the current Umbra with hundreds of millions of platinum would have found it tough to reverse the situation back then, much less this peasant amount of platinum.
For example, the current Continental Ranking for most wealth kingdoms on Cario were;
｢Continental Zone Rankings
Cario Continental Rankings for Kingdom Wealth (Joint):
1. Vita Kingdom - 300 million platinum
2. Gerdo Kingdom - 34 million platinum
4. Purita Kingdom - 15 million platinum
5. Longtian Dynasty - 6 million platinum
6. Killtear Fort - 900,000 platinum
7. Earthwater Land - 500,000 platinum
8. Hunian Kingdom - 200,000 platinum
9. Operan Kingdom - 50,000 platinum
10. Sturgehaven Kingdom - 10,000 platinum
No rewards dispensed.｣
As for the World Rankings, they were far more direct. Based on your position, you could choose a variable reward when the refresh ca in. You could only choose materials or resources at the Legendary Rank or below depending on your position.
He had been convinced that it had all been due to his luck and that the heavens wanted to reward him, when in actuality it had been mostly the work of a certain yandere with personality issues.
Sigh...
Anyway, that was it for these three Rankings. They were separated into player and NPC Rankings in various sectors, instead of being joint. Otherwise, how were players supposed to compete against NPCs who had lived their lives in this world, whereas they had been here for such a short period of ti?
Of course, there were also Joint Rankings so players could see where they stood against NPCs, but such boards did not give rewards as they were just for reference.
The second announcent about the addition of the Universal Rankings was more concise when it ca to what that Ranking ant and what it stood for. The Universal Rankings were a player-only worldwide leaderboard that ranked all players based on their overall skill and combat power.
These were the Rankings were Draco had been 3rd, Eva 4th, and Shangtian 5th back then, Gentle Flower had occupied 6th place, Noble Soul 7th, Joker 8th, and Happy Scholar 9th, with Armonia coming 10th. The Three Pinnacles had occupied the late 20s whereas the Five Generals could be found in the early 30s, except for Kiran who had been 28th.
The first two had been those lucky blokes with two inferior Divine Items. There were no rewards for ranking here, except for the raw prestige. It decided your pedigree among the playerbase more than the previous Rankings.
The current top 30 in the Universal Rankings was as follows;
｢Universal Rankings
Individual Rankings for all players:
1. Draco
2. Riveting Night
3. Essence Stalker
4. Rina
5. Kiran
6. Cobra
7. Uno
8. Boyd
9. Slim Fatty
10. Deployed Soldier
11. Silent Walker
12. Dreary Traveler
13. Loving Aunt
14. Rambunctious Buttlover
15. Jada
16. Jade
17. Fitter Cleric
18. Tunder Power
19. Subli Notion
20. Happy Saint
21. Cold Sumr
22. Warm Spring
23. Gentle Flower
24. Noble Soul
25. Joker
26. Happy Scholar
27. Panty King
28. Wee Cunt
29. Johnny Sins
30. Loli King｣
Umbra was brutally dominating the Rankings, but that was to be expected. Unfortunately, Armonia was unable to enter the top 30 as he had joined the ga not too long ago and was currently in the midst of a Class Up.
Then ca the most important announcent this ti around, the First Inter-Player International Gas!
This was sothing that was normal in the e-sports genre, where they would organize large-scale tournants and many popular VR gas before Boundless had done this. But in the scope of Boundless, this beca a whole different ballga. All players around the world turned solemn imdiately, for they knew things were heating up this ti.
With the advent of Guild Wars in Update 1, PvP had beco more intense, and Update 2 had introduced Kingdom Wars, which didn’t do much to help in this regard. However, directly bringing in a competition like this was bound to change the structure of the playerbase in and outside the ga.
This competition had occurred far later, during Update 6’s ti as well. It was back then that Draco had made the President of the Central Country kneel down on live TV, as he had brought the overall championship ho back then, though he had faced Eva who had represented Japan and Shangtian who had represented China.
With this, various countries who had their agents working in the ga to establish their own territories and gain revenue quickly reported upward. The guild most bothered about this was unsurprisingly Umbra.
Subli was dealing with various delegates over the span of 15 days in real-ti and 60 days in the ga - the exact ti period in which Draco and Eva were fixing her Heaven - while all the mbers of Umbra were facing intense pressure from their ho countries to sign on.
This was one of the weaknesses of Boundless overall. You could be a player of great power and import, but in the early stages of the ga, you were easily susceptible to external influence.
After all, you needed money to live, and your life to play. If soone offed you IRL, you were offed forever in the ga too, at least in the relevant tiline. Since Boundless was not yet in its third phase where the entire world was connected and a slave to it, outside influence on the players was still strong.
So countries enticed mbers while others directly threatened them. Subli had received reports of this from various mbers and was frowning continuously, until a certain person visited her and smiled.
When she saw him, she breathed a sigh of relief and almost burst into tears. It was Draco’s avatar that he had left to manage the Airforce One airship for the sea route.
Still, this clone and Draco did not share the sa mind and their mories were only the sa up until the mont of their seperation, so the actual Draco was unaware of the current happening. However, this avatar possessed all of his mories and knew what to do.
He smiled and passed a hand through his hair. "Tell everyone to simply accept whether they are being threatened or coerced. It’s just a competition, so why act hard? Just note down the countries who have threatened our mbers, and my other self will make sure to deal with them when I am done with the Unique Quest."
Getting the verdict from the Guildmaster himself made Subli relax and she relayed his orders down. This also caused the mbers of Umbra to feel much better, and after so fishing for so additional boons, they gave positive answers.
On that note, it was important to delve into the structure of the competition.
The International Competition had three main sections, Combat, Tradeskill, and Technical.
The Combat section involved different gas that focused on martial power, the Tradeskill section involved different gas that had to do with practicing various Tradeskills, and lastly, the Technical dealt with miscellaneous gas that were pretty much fun mini-gas.
As this was the first competition, the AI had preselected 5 gas for each segnt and explained them to players via its info panels.
For Combat, the five gas this ti would be the Individual Battle Tower, the Group Battle Tower, the Raid, the Individual Tournant, and the Group Tournant.
The Individual Battle Tower was an event where players of each country would simultaneously climb a tower by having to defeat a monster which would guard the entrance to the next floor. The types of monsters would vary, but all would have the sa Rank as the player in question.
However, the difficulty grew with each floor and exponentially after every 10 floors. There was a ti limit of 3 hours, where the winners would be decided by the amount of progress made on every floor.
The Group Battle Tower was the sa, only that all 5 mbers of the countries combat player would challenge it together. All Bosses were stronger and designed to fight against groups. If your teamwork was lacking, you would find yourself in a tough spot, and in the worst case you might get eliminated before the 3-hour duration.
The Raid was as one expected. The entire Combat playerbase from every country would fight an OP Raid Boss together. The highest amount of contribution would decide the winners, with the duration being 24 hours.
The Individual Tournant was the typical PvP battle. It had group stages for each player then heading onto a round of 32, the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals before crowning the winner.
The Group Tournant was a team-based PvP battle, which was pretty much the sa, only with your entire group again.
For the Tradeskill section, the five gas were the Crafting Battle, the Writing Battle, the Theory Battle, the Performance Battle, and the Quality Battle.
The Crafting Battle gathered all individuals whose Tradeskills involved making items like Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Magical Engineering, etc. They had 3 hours to craft the best item they could make, and they would be judged based on their technique during creation and the amount of ti taken, not the actual quality of what they created.
The Writing Battle gathered all those with Tradeskills that involved literary or artistic work like Accountants, Cartographers, Painters, etc. Sa as those who ca before, they too had 3 hours to draft a pre-selected map, solve a balance sheet or paint a certain image within that ti and would be judged by the sa criteria.
The Theory Battle gathered all those who worked in Tradeskills that involved knowledge or wisdom like Scholars, Advisors, Tacticians, Researchers, etc. For 3 hours they would have to answer questions related to their specific specialties, just like a typical exam from the real world.
The Performance Battle gathered those whose Tradeskills focused on producing a service, like a Masseuse, Privateers, Hoteliers, Tars, etc. They had 3 hours to render their service to a chosen NPC that would grade their work when done or accomplish the goal that their Tradeskill sought.
The Quality Battle was not a direct competition, but a grading sche. Here, all the creations and works of those in the first four categories would be graded and those who had the highest quality creations would rank as winners.
For the Technical section, the gas here were the Identification Ga, the mory Ga, the Guessing Ga, the Gathering Ga, and the Picking Ga.
The Identification Ga was a mini-ga in which contestants were presented with items and material and had to determine their ranks, properties, and uses as best as possible.
The closer you were to being right, the higher your score. The entire ga lasted 2 hours with various items being brought forth randomly. Those with the highest score by the end would be ranked.
The mory Ga involved a selected contestant of every country being presented with a long pattern of lines, buttons, or numbers for a short amount of ti and they would have to recreate it within 30 minutes. The more correct your pattern, the more score you earn, the thod to win was the sa as before.
The Guessing Ga involved a slew of contestants from all countries being presented with an item that was shuffled so fast that no thod could follow it. They were then supposed to guess in which container it was hidden.
The number of containers was equivalent to the number of contestants, so each person picked one. The one who got it would win the round and continue until 2 hours are up. This ga focused on luck through and through.
The Gathering Ga would have a group of contestants rush into a valley where items and materials had been randomly placed. They would have to gather as many as they could, and after 3 hours all their items and materials would be converted to an overall score, with the highest one winning.
The Picking Ga involved a slew of contestants choosing between a pre-arranged assortnt of monsters. These monsters would then beco their representatives and would fight in a ring.
The monster that survived till the end would net its master the win.
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