Chapter 6: The First Leaderboard
The air in the financial district felt increasingly toxic, thick with the gray ash of dissolved monsters and the acrid smoke of burning rubber. Leon didn’t look back to see if Elena was following him. In this new world, people either adapted instantly or became fertilizer for the next wave of dungeons. He couldn’t afford to waste energy babysitting a future powerhouse who still had training wheels on.
He walked past a row of abandoned, door-flung luxury sedans, his eyes scanning the rooftops. His Perception stat was humming like a tuning fork, warning him of the distant, rhythmic thuds of more gates anchoring themselves into the concrete miles away.
Then, exactly at 1:00 PM, a sharp, crystal-clear chime rang directly inside the skull of every living human on Earth.
The smoke in the air seemed to freeze. High above the ruined skyscrapers, a massive, golden translucent scroll unrolled itself across the crimson sky, replacing the standard static screens. It was visible from every corner of the planet, glowing with a divine, blinding authority.
[The First Hour of the Incursion has concluded.]
[Global Synchronization: 100% complete.][Calculating performance metrics for all designated ’Testing Grounds’ candidates...][The Regional Leaderboard for Zone 44-B (North America) is now public.]
Leon stopped in his tracks, crossing his arms as he looked up at the massive sky-display. A cold, cynical smirk played on his lips. He remembered this moment vividly from his past life. This was the exact hour humanity’s false sense of equality shattered forever. The moment the world realized that some humans were born as lambs, while others were granted the teeth of wolves.
In the original timeline, the top five spots of this specific board had been entirely monopolized by the sons of billionaires and high-ranking military officials who happened to be surrounded by bodyguards when they awakened high-tier combat classes.
The golden text on the sky-scroll began to shift, drawing the eyes of millions of terrified survivors hiding in basements, cars, and offices across the continent.
[ZONE 44-B REGIONAL LEADERBOARD (TOP 5)]
Rank 5: Bradley Croft (Class: A-Rank Vanguard) — 450 Points
Rank 4: Charles Garrison (Class: A-Rank Heavy Knight) — 480 Points
Rank 3: Elena Thorne (Class: S-Rank Frost Sovereign) — 600 Points
Rank 2: Michael Sterling (Class: S-Rank Judgement Paladin) — 750 Points
Leon’s eyes lingered briefly on the third spot. Elena’s sudden awakening had catapulted her straight into the global top three, purely based on the sheer raw potential of her newly awakened S-rank class. The system valued rare, high-concept attributes above all else.
But it was the number one spot that caused the golden scroll to vibrate, bleeding a dark, abyssal violet light that seemed to swallow the surrounding gold text entirely.
Rank 1: Anonymous (Class: Unknown) — 4,200 Points
[Warning: The performance of the Rank 1 Candidate has exceeded the standard parameters of the Tier-1 Testing Grounds.][A special first-blood reward chest has been sent to the candidate’s personal inventory.]
Across the city, and likely across the entire continent, a profound, suffocating silence fell.
Four thousand, two hundred points.
To the normal hunters who had just spent the last hour crying and struggling to kill a single Level 2 goblin with a crowbar for ten points, that number was an absolute absurdity. It was a statistical impossibility. The gap between second place and first place wasn’t just a hurdle—it was an ocean.
"Four thousand," Leon whispered, his voice dangerously low as he closed his eyes, checking his internal inventory.
Inside the black space of his mind, a heavy, obsidian-iron chest sat pulsing with dark energy. He knew exactly where those points came from. The System didn’t just count the number of kills; it calculated the weight of the life taken. By hunting down and completely erasing the Level 15 Elite Overboss Abyssal Larva before the game even officially started, Leon had essentially cheated the algorithm. He had slain a localized calamity as a Level 1 mortal.
"Open," he commanded silently.
The obsidian chest unlocked with a heavy, metallic groan.
[Opening Legendary Rank First-Blood Chest...]
[You have received: 5,000 Mana Stones (Low-Tier)]
[You have received: ]
[You have received: 1x Skill Evolution Stone]
A heavy, charcoal-black fabric materialized into his physical hands. The cloak felt like liquid silk, cool to the touch, but the moment Leon draped it over his shoulders, the fabric seemed to dissolve into his clothes, turning his dirt-stained office shirt into a dark, reinforced combat duster that completely masked his physical presence.
— Passive Effect: Automatically dampens the user’s biological signature. Anyone with a lower ’Perception’ stat than the user will only see a blurred shadow. Grants +15 to Agility.
Leon felt his body grow even lighter as the stat points integrated into his muscles. His Agility was now pushing past forty, making him faster than a cheetah before he had even allocated a single manual attribute point.
"Now for the real prize," Leon murmured, his eyes locking onto the glowing blue pebble in his palm—the Skill Evolution Stone.
These stones were rarer than dragon teeth in the future timeline. Mega-guilds would wage bloody wars across multiple dungeon floors just to secure a single one to upgrade their leader’s primary skill. Leon didn’t hesitate for a single second. He crushed the stone between his knuckles, forcing the raw, concentrated conceptual energy straight into his soul.
"Target: Sovereign’s Domain."
[Skill Evolution Initiated.]
[Your SSS-Rank Class Skill has evolved into .]
New Effect: The domain’s radius has expanded from 10 feet to 30 feet. Entities within the domain now suffer a permanent 20% reduction to all physical attributes. Any object turned to ash within the domain will now restore 1% of the user’s maximum Mana.
Leon let out a slow, cold breath. The mana regeneration clause changed everything. With Wither, he was no longer a warrior who would eventually run out of fuel during an endurance battle. As long as there were enemies to rot, his pool of dark energy would remain infinitely full.
He looked down the long, empty avenue. The golden scroll in the sky was fading, but the panic in the city was only beginning to boil over. From the northern districts, the heavy, rhythmic thudding of military artillery began to echo—the United States army was finally trying to fight back against the incoming horde.
"They’re still trying to use old iron to fight gods," Leon said, pulling the hood of his dark cloak up, his eyes flashing with a cold, predatory light in the shadows. "Let’s go show them how the game is actually played."