Rise Of The Hoarder

[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT!]

<The Tower Of War Has Been Cleared!>

Torrents of thoughts flowed in my mind as I looked at the System Window displayed in front of me.

‘What the hell…?’

Why?

How?

Who?

It didn’t make any sense.

The average Level for the current denizens of the world was 50. The strong ones were about to reach Level 100, but I didn’t expect anyone to have attained Level 150 talkless of 200.

The Levels and Grades of the monsters climbed as one advanced through the Floors, and since the Towers had similar difficulty, I expected others to receive the same treatment I experienced.

No one could have succeeded in that venture, but me. It wasn’t pride… but reality!

However…

‘Could it be.—?!’

Perhaps it was something I failed to consider. I had always suspected it, but after the Tutorial ended and I kept a watchful eye on the Leaderboard, Auction, Tower Updates, and several other elements of this new world, my doubts were cleared.

There shouldn’t have been anyone else who was granted something ‘special’ except me. If they had memories from the Sacred Hall—future knowledge concerning the upcoming scenarios, they would have acted differently.

I got the highest achievement in the Tutorials and won by a large Margin.

No one came close.

If someone else had future knowledge, wouldn’t they have put up more of a fight? That was my rationale.

But, what if they were just biding their time?

‘The Tutorial is important, but… can it really be compared to the other Scenarios in terms of anything?’

In the end, I let my guard down and had my prize snatched away from me.

“But, who could have done that…?”

There was only one way to find out— The Leaderboard.

Also known as Rankings, The Leaderboard basically graded Gifteds based on performance.

Of course, with billions of people in the world, it couldn’t contain everyone, so it was streamlined to only accommodate a hundred people.

These people got the title of ‘Rankers’ and were known to be the most powerful in the apocalyptic world.

Most of these Rankers banded together, forming various Parties to make their journey easier, while a few went Solo, or even created Parties of less-powerful individuals.

While the latter could be considered unwise, having weaker members in a Party established a clear hierarchy. This usually made the Rankers absolute leaders while the rest were obedient followers.

Rankers who banded together often had issues in terms of leadership. However, since the rule of the world never changed, the strongest always stood at the top.

Solo Rankers like me were rare, since it was clear that it would be hard to achieve much by oneself.

In fact, I would call anyone who was a solo Gifted stupid, considering the current circumstances.

Though that perception would change if I figured out that person was like me—and knew the future!

[LEADERBOARD]

<Rank 1>

The Hoarder: [Achievement Point: 41]

It was a relief I remained at the top, and my Achievement Point was the highest by far.

Achievement Points—AP for short—basically measured how far a Gifted was in completing a Scenario.

This first Scenario that consisted of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse had major Points attributed to every action and task.

Conquering a Tower granted one 20 Points. If you included completing the Hidden Floor, that was an additional 10 Points.

Killing monsters outside the Tower didn’t really count as an achievement unless you killed a large amount or fulfilled a particular quest—for example, saving a bunch of people who were going to die, or taking out a whole nest of monsters.

I took part in these quests because I wanted to prepare as much as possible for climbing the Towers.

If a person cleared all the Towers, gaining 20 Points each, that was a total of 80 Points. Of course, this didn’t include the Hidden Floor Achievement Bonus.

Adding those would make it a total of 120 Achievement Points, but the cap of Achievement for each scenario was 100, and it was practically impossible for anyone—or, at least, almost anyone—to get that high.

Gaining an Achievement Point of 50 at the end of a Scenario already guaranteed a person some pretty nice rewards.

But, I wanted it all!

I wanted to get 100 Points and beyond!

So far, I had 41 Points—a total of 30 from the Tower, and 11 from several Quests outside it.

‘If I conquer the remaining two and get to the hidden Floor, that’s 30 Points each… I should still be able to get there—100 Points!’

My plans had been greatly hindered, but there was nothing I could do about it. Unless…

<Rank 2>

Pariah: [Achievement Point: 31]

“This guy, uh…?” A mumble escaped my lips.

There was no way I could forget this name, considering how he had been in second place since the end of the Tutorial.

Of course, I knew whoever he/she was, they had to be skilled. However, they were never on my level, to begin with…

… Until now…

’31?! Does that mean this guy also got to the Hidden Floor?!’ My eyes bulged.

No, no, I was overreacting.

It could be that some of the Points were obtained from other Quests, like mine. I couldn’t be too certain, though.

In any case, I had to make a decision.

‘Should I investigate the Tower of War to see if the Hidden Floor is still present, or…?’

“Na! I’ll just go to another Tower!”

Making up my mind, I jumped to my feet and shook off whatever fatigue was left within me. Having seen something like this, there was no way I could take a break.

“I can’t be overtaken again! If I lose another Tower, it will mean the end!”

Getting Quests outside the Tower—and fulfilling them—wasn’t easy. Even though I spent 3 months on it, I could only amass 11 meager Points.

There was no way I could rely on those to reach an AP of 100. The Towers were my only choice to achieve my goals.

‘Once I’m done with the other two Towers, I’ll simply return to War and check if the Hidden Floor is still present…’

My reward for clearing the other Floors would be diminished, considering I wasn’t the first to conquer them, so I simply couldn’t afford to waste time on the Tower Of War any longer.

“Time to head out once again… to the Tower of—”