Chapter 37: The Top of the Leaderboard
The exit of the Myriad Beast Domain was a chaotic scene of exhausted, wounded, and traumatized freshmen.
Thousands of students poured out of the blue portal, collapsing onto the dirt of the canyon. Medics rushed around healing claw wounds and burns. The air smelled of burnt hair and defeat.
Most students had barely survived. The "Free-For-All" rules established by Aethelred's bribery meant that student-on-student combat had been rampant.
High above the canyon, on a floating observation deck, Prince Aethelred sat on his throne. He sipped wine from a crystal goblet, watching the carnage with a satisfied smirk.
"Report," Aethelred commanded.
His aide bowed. "Your Highness, the casualty rate is 40%. The bounty hunters failed to secure Rudra's arm at the entrance. However..."
The aide checked a tablet.
"...The Void-Touched Chimera in the Northern Zone has been slain. The signal is gone."
Aethelred's eyes lit up. "The Chimera? That Rank-5 monster? It must have been Gareth or the Elite Team I sent in secretly. Excellent. That proves the superiority of the Middle World."
He looked at the portal.
"And Rudra? Has he exited?"
"Not yet, Your Highness. He is likely... deceased. Or hiding."
"Good," Aethelred swirled his wine. "Prepare the scoreboard. I want to see his name at the very bottom, marked 'Zero Points.' Then I will expel his team."
WHOOSH.
The portal flared.
A group walked out.
They didn't look tired. They didn't look wounded.
They looked like they were returning from a picnic.
Rudra led the way, eating a bag of dried spirit-fruits.
Seraphina walked beside him, her dress pristine, looking bored.
Anya was riding on the shoulders of Prince Valerian, who—despite being a bit sweaty—looked fiercely proud.
Lyra and Kael flanked the rear.
And behind them, limping slightly but alive, was Kassandra of the Oracle Clan.
The canyon went silent. The injured students looked up. The medics paused.
"He's alive?"
"He looks... fine?"
"Wait, is that the Oracle Princess with him?"
I walked to the center of the registration area, where the massive Spirit Scoreboard hovered.
"We're checking out," I told the Registration Elder.
The Elder, a wrinkled man who had taken a heavy bribe from Aethelred to rig the scores, sneered.
"Team Aerthos. Finally out of your hole? Hand over your cores. Let's see if you managed to kill a single rabbit."
I tossed a bag onto the table.
It clinked.
The Elder opened it. He pulled out a handful of Rank-2 and Rank-3 cores.
"Pathetic," he scoffed. "This barely puts you in the top 500."
"Keep digging," I said, chewing a fruit.
The Elder dug deeper. His hand touched something cold. Something that vibrated with Time Qi.
He pulled out a massive, swirling grey core the size of a melon.
The air around the core distorted, aging the Elder's hand by ten years in a second.
"AH!" The Elder dropped it on the scale.
"This... this energy..."
The Scoreboard flickered. It analyzed the energy signature of the core.
[Target Identified: Void-Touched Chimera (Rank 5 Boss).]
[Point Value: 500,000 Points.]
The numbers on the scoreboard rolled up like a slot machine hitting the jackpot.
[Rank 1: Team Aerthos - 502,300 Points]
[Rank 2: Northern Ice Palace - 4,500 Points]
The gap wasn't just large. It was insurmountable.
The entire canyon gasped.
"500,000 points?!"
"They killed the Boss Monster?"
"That thing eats time! How did they kill it?"
I looked up at the observation deck where Aethelred was sitting. I waved.
"Hey, Pinky! Did I break the high score?"
The Accusation.
Aethelred crushed his wine goblet. Divine glass shards bit into his hand, but he didn't feel it.
"Impossible," he hissed. "That beast exists in the future! No student can hit it!"
He stood up and flew down to the canyon floor, his Divine Platinum Armor glowing menacingly.
"Fraud!" Aethelred roared, landing in front of the table. "This is fraud!"
He pointed a finger at me.
"You did not kill that beast! You stole the core! Or you used a forbidden artifact! I disqualify you!"
"On what grounds?" I asked calmly. "The rules were 'Free-For-All'. You made them yourself."
"I am the Crown Prince!" Aethelred shouted, losing his composure. "My word is law! Guards! Arrest this cheater! He stole the core and he stole the Oracle Princess!"
He looked at Kassandra.
"Princess Kassandra! Come here! Did this savage kidnap you?"
Kassandra stepped forward. Her veil was pulled back.
She looked Aethelred in the eye with her new, golden pupils.
"No, Your Highness," Kassandra said clearly. "Lord Rudra did not kidnap me. He saved me. And he killed the Chimera with a single strike."
"Lies!" Aethelred screamed. "He brainwashed you! Enforcers! Seize him! Cut off his arms!"
Fifty Academy Enforcers—armored elites loyal to the Crown—marched forward. They drew their weapons. The atmosphere turned deadly. The students backed away.
"You want to play the 'Law' card?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave.
I reached into my pocket.
"Ria. Interface."
"Ready, Master," Ria stepped up. She extended a cable from her wrist and plugged it into the gemstone I was holding.
The Eye of Truth.
"You accused me of cheating," I said to Aethelred. "You accused me of using forbidden methods. Let's see what the Eye of Truth saw inside the dungeon."
The Eye of Truth wasn't just a key. It was an artifact that recorded reality without distortion.
And Ria, being a Divine AI, could hack the scoreboard to broadcast it.
BZZZT.
The massive holographic scoreboard changed.
The rankings disappeared.
Instead, a video began to play. It was projected into the sky, fifty feet tall.
[Video Log: 4 Hours Ago]
The video showed a secluded cave inside the dungeon.
It showed Prince Aethelred handing a bag of money to a masked assassin.
"Kill Rudra," the video-Aethelred said clearly. "I don't care about the ranking. I want him dead. Make it look like a beast accident."
The crowd gasped.
"That's the Prince!"
"He hired an assassin during the exam?"
The video shifted.
It showed the Registration Elder (the one currently standing at the table) accepting a bribe from Aethelred's aide.
"Rig the points," the aide said. "If Team Aerthos kills anything, mark it as invalid."
The Elder turned pale. He tried to cover the projector. "Turn it off! It's fake! It's an illusion!"
"The Eye of Truth does not show illusions," Kassandra announced, her voice ringing with the authority of the Oracle Clan. "It shows only what happened."
The video shifted one last time.
It showed the battle with the Chimera.
It showed me walking through the time distortion. It showed me severing the timeline. It showed me saving Kassandra.
It proved two things:
* I was strong enough to kill the monster.
* Aethelred was a corrupt, murderous coward.
I pulled the plug. The video vanished.
I looked at the Enforcers.
"According to Academy Law," I recited, "interfering with a Ranking War via assassination is punishable by expulsion and stripping of rank. Bribery of an Elder is punishable by imprisonment."
I pointed at Aethelred.
"Officers. Are you going to arrest the criminal? Or are you complicit?"
The Enforcers froze.
They looked at the Prince. They looked at the video evidence witnessed by thousands of students. They looked at the angry mob beginning to murmur.
If they attacked me now, they would be proving the Academy was lawless. The reputation of the Divine Sky Academy would be destroyed.
The Captain of the Enforcers sheathed his sword.
He turned to Aethelred.
"Your Highness... we need to ask you some questions."
"What?" Aethelred backed away. "You dare? I am the Future King!"
"This is the Academy, Sir," the Captain said stiffly. "Royal immunity does not apply to academic sabotage."
Aethelred looked around.
He saw the disgust in the students' eyes.
He saw Seraphina laughing in the background.
He saw me, smiling like a shark.
He had lost. Not the fight, but the narrative.
"Fine!" Aethelred spat. "Investigate! You will find I did nothing wrong! This video is a fabrication by the Oracle Witch!"
He turned to flee, engaging his flight boots.
"Going somewhere?" Seraphina taunted. "Running away again, darling?"
Aethelred shot into the sky, retreating to his palace to do damage control.
The Captain turned to me. He bowed slightly—not out of respect, but out of fear.
"Student Rudra. The points are valid. You are Rank 1."
The New Kings.
The scoreboard solidified.
[Rank 1: Team Aerthos - 502,300 Points]
[Reward: Access to the Core Formation Chambers (Alpha Tier)]
[Reward: 100,000 Spirit Stones]
[Status: UNTOUCHABLE]
The students of District 9—the slum dwellers—erupted into cheers.
"He did it!"
"He slapped the Prince!"
"District 9 is number one!"
I walked over to my team.
Valerian was hyperventilating. "We... we just declared war on the Crown. Officially."
"We declared war on corruption," I corrected. "Sounds more heroic."
I looked at Kassandra.
"You stood up for me. That was risky."
"I saw the timeline where I didn't," Kassandra whispered, her golden eyes glowing. "In that timeline, you burned the Academy to the ground. I prefer this one."
"Smart girl."
I turned to the registration table and grabbed the Golden Key for the Alpha Chamber.
"Let's go," I said. "We have a prize to claim."
"Where?" Anya asked.
"The Core Formation Chambers," I pointed to the massive central spire of the Academy. "It's a cultivation room built directly on top of a ley line. The energy there is dense enough to liquefy steel."
I looked at my hand. The Ouroboros Ring was pulsing.
My clone, Chronos, was hungry. He needed energy to continue processing the Time Laws. The ambient Qi of District 9 wasn't enough.
But the Alpha Chamber... that would be a feast.
"We are going to cultivate," I told the team. "And when we come out... we won't just be students anymore."
I looked at the sky, where the invisible eyes of the Arbiters were searching for me.
'I'm going underground,' I thought. 'By the time I come back up, I'll be ready to cut your strings.'
End of Chapter 37.