Chapter 545 - Preparations for the International Competition

Of course, the AI of Boundless did not just make this announcement and leave players hanging. It came with subsequent screens that dutifully informed 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 meant you were a titan of epic proportions. 

As for the World Rankings, please do not have extravagant hopes with your meager 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 came 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! 

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 timeline. 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 some of their affiliates, as well as the fact that general playerbase who had joined the game 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 time, but the quality. They had grown too much in a short period of time, leading the AI to resolve its past calculations and release this content as the conditions had been met. 

Back then, the gold reward had been just a way to motivate top players and feed some others. After all, 6,000 gold was the equivalent of 60 platinum which had still been a big deal to players of that time. 

Currently, 6k gold was a huge sum beyond the comprehension of most players. Slightly over two in-game 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 schemes. 

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 

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 

4. Fitter Cleric - 300 million platinum 

5. Loving Aunt - 25 million platinum 

6. Sublime Notion - 24 million platinum 

7. Rina - 20 million platinum 

8. Dreary Traveler - 3 million platinum 

9. Intellectual Monkey - 990,000 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! 

3rd place alone got the total amount of liquid funds of the entire Hellscape back at its peak, which had been one of the five Divine Guilds. So one could imagine that having this as monthly income was a mind-boggling thing. 

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 income than they had consumed, which was exactly why they had been in need of sponsorship from various AAA companies. 

The entire playerbase had played the game 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; 

Cario Continental Rankings for Kingdom Wealth (Joint): 

1. Vita Kingdom - 300 million platinum 

2. Gerdo Kingdom - 34 million platinum 

3. Pulava Kingdom - 22 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 

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 came in. You could only choose materials or resources at the Legendary Rank or below depending on your position. 

By placing high, Draco had slowly acc.u.mulated the Legendary Materials he had needed to craft his Pseudo-Legendary Mana Sword back then. He had been unaware that Eva had redeemed materials he needed to indirectly help him by placing them in auctions she knew he would go to. 

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 time? 

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 announcement about the addition of the Universal Rankings was more concise when it came to what that Ranking meant 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. 

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. Sublime Notion 

20. Happy Saint 

21. Cold Summer 

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 game not too long ago and was currently in the midst of a Class Up. 

Then came the most important announcement this time around, the First Inter-Player International Games! 

This was something that was normal in the e-sports genre, where they would organize large-scale tournaments and many popular VR games before Boundless had done this. But in the scope of Boundless, this became a whole different ballgame. All players around the world turned solemn immediately, for they knew things were heating up this time. 

With the advent of Guild Wars in Update 1, PvP had become 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 game. 

This competition had occurred far later, during Update 6's time 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 home 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 game to establish their own territories and gain revenue quickly reported upward. The guild most bothered about this was unsurprisingly Umbra. 

Sublime was dealing with various delegates over the span of 15 days in real-time and 60 days in the game - the exact time period in which Draco and Eva were fixing her Heaven - while all the members of Umbra were facing intense pressure from their home 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 game, you were easily susceptible to external influence. 

After all, you needed money to live, and your life to play. If someone offed you IRL, you were offed forever in the game too, at least in the relevant timeline. 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. 

Some countries enticed members while others directly threatened them. Sublime had received reports of this from various members 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 same mind and their memories were only the same up until the moment of their seperation, so the actual Draco was unaware of the current happening. However, this avatar possessed all of his memories 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 members, 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 Sublime relax and she relayed his orders down. This also caused the members of Umbra to feel much better, and after some fishing for some 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 games that focused on martial power, the Tradeskill section involved different games that had to do with practicing various Tradeskills, and lastly, the Technical dealt with miscellaneous games that were pretty much fun mini-games. 

As this was the first competition, the AI had preselected 5 games for each segment and explained them to players via its info panels. 

For Combat, the five games this time would be the Individual Battle Tower, the Group Battle Tower, the Raid, the Individual Tournament, and the Group Tournament. 

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 same Rank as the player in question. 

However, the difficulty grew with each floor and exponentially after every 10 floors. There was a time 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 same, only that all 5 members 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 Tournament 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 Tournament was a team-based PvP battle, which was pretty much the same, only with your entire group again. 

For the Tradeskill section, the five games 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 time 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. Same as those who came before, they too had 3 hours to draft a pre-selected map, solve a balance sheet or paint a certain image within that time and would be judged by the same 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, Tamers, 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 scheme. 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 games here were the Identification Game, the Memory Game, the Guessing Game, the Gathering Game, and the Picking Game. 

The Identification Game was a mini-game 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 game lasted 2 hours with various items being brought forth randomly. Those with the highest score by the end would be ranked. 

The Memory Game involved a selected contestant of every country being presented with a long pattern of lines, buttons, or numbers for a short amount of time and they would have to recreate it within 30 minutes. The more correct your pattern, the more score you earn, the method to win was the same as before. 

The Guessing Game involved a slew of contestants from all countries being presented with an item that was shuffled so fast that no method 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 game focused on luck through and through. 

The Gathering Game 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 Game involved a slew of contestants choosing between a pre-arranged assortment of monsters. These monsters would then become their representatives and would fight in a ring. 

The monster that survived till the end would net its master the win.