The trio reached the parking lot where they parked their boards and headed up to the elevators. However, upon taking their first step into the academy, they all halted as they felt their devices ringing in their pockets.
“Hm?”
They instantly looked down and then at each other as they noticed that everyone had the same ringing notification at the same time. Not only Herculia and Danny but also every single student with them on the elevator.
“What is this?” Arthur muttered as he pulled out his bluelink. There, he noticed that he had sent a message. But, that message wasn’t from anyone he knew and instead, it read ‘Important Announcement’.
Immediately, Arthur felt a cold sensation in his heart. ‘Here we go again… My gut feeling is always accurate!’
He didn’t even bother to open the message to know that it was going to be some kind of important news that would send a shockwave across the entire student body. Sighing, he tapped on the notification which opened a long message for him written in an eye-catching red color.
[To all students,
With the start of the second day in the academy, we would love to announce that we have added a new feature to your BlueLink devices. If you open your main menu, you will see a new icon. ‘Scores’. The feature shall be your guide on how to be a good student. Based on the actions you do, the app will calculate your score, from studying, to how you perform in tests, to your way of conduct on the academy grounds.
The higher your score, the better position you have. Each month, the scores will be counted and the people with the lowest scores will enter the ‘Red Zone’. The ‘Red Zone’ is a threatening position where any mistake you might make would lead to your expulsion from the academy permanently. If you have the lowest scores for two months back to back, you shall be expelled too.
We have organized the points in a ranking system that you might access through the app itself. It will also have many other additions for future competitions that require point-based systems.]
Reading all of that, Arthur blinked as he slowly sucked in a small breath. Then, he uttered one single word.
“… Fuck…”
‘A ranking system? Are you kidding me? Another one?’
Although Arthur was taken aback by it, he wasn’t completely shocked. A ranking system seemed to be something Divinity Corp liked a lot as it used it in both of its biggest projects as a way to separate the best people from the worst.
‘Why did they add it on the second day and not from the start? Were they waiting to gather information so that they could rank students?’ He asked himself.
“A ranking system?”
“Come on, man! We just started!”
“They’re really putting all the pressure on our shoulders already!”
“Didn’t they say the tests are going to determine who stays and who leaves?”
“No, didn’t you hear what the Founder said yesterday? Tests are simply going to determine who gets promoted to a higher class or gets demoted to a lower class. It seems they want to slowly filter out the worst students and keep only the hard-working ones.”
Such conversations could be heard among the students. The reactions were mixed, some were laughing at the exciting news while others had dreadful expressions, feeling the disaster approaching them very quickly.
‘This red zone thing is particularly really bad. Being put in a situation where any mistake will expel you is no joke. They’re definitely not intending to keep anyone they deem useless.’
Arthur bit his lower lip as he exited the announcement and tapped on the score app. Immediately, he was met with a long list of names categorized in ‘S-Class’, ‘A-Class’ and the rest of the classes, and his name was highlighted out of them all.
“…”
That was when the second surprise hit Arthur. He was not number 1, nor 2, or three… Or the top ten for that matter. Arthur was the 25th out of 30 students with 5 points on his name. Scrolling down with a stunned expression, he realized that he was one position away from the red zone.
“…”
Arthur went completely silent as he stared at his name, very confused. ‘I’m that low?… You have got to be kidding me…’
Arthur was aware that he didn’t particularly stand out on the first day, but he didn’t think he did badly either. He expected to at least be considerably far from the red zone. But, his expectations were crushed as he was in a very dangerous position.
“Damn, I’m 5th in my class. What about you, Danny?” Herculia asked.
“3rd.” The latter replied. “This ranking is a very reckless idea. It will only cause even more chaos in the near future.”
The rankings in the game had already started showing effect on the player base. People became far more aggressive, killing each other and doing everything to get stronger and gain more points. They wanted recognition from everyone and they were ready to do anything to get that.
Now, this ranking has been implemented in the real world on a smaller scale. ‘And here I thought being segregated into different classes was already bad enough. They aren’t holding back at all at this point.’ Danny frowned visibly.
“What about you, Arthur?”
“Huh?” The boy snapped out of his daze and looked a little flustered.
“What ranking did you get? Wait, let me guess, you’re number 1 hahaha! As usual!” Herculia laughed as he tapped his friend’s shoulder jokingly. However, his smile vanished quickly when he heard the response.
“No… 25th… I’m one position away from the red zone in my class.” Arthur said in a bland tone.
“… What?” Herculia stopped tapping his shoulder. “25th?!”
“Yeah.” Arthur nodded. “Well, I guess I need to push myself more and be better or I will be in danger.”
“…”
Danny and Herculia stared at Arthur silently as if they were looking at some kind of alien. They didn’t know how to react to the news at all. Arthur, the best player in the world, was not the rank 1 in his class.
“What kind of nonsense is that?! How are you 25th?! You’re the best go-”
“Shush! Don’t yell loudly, man.” Arthur quickly silenced his friend as there were many students around them that noticed the ruckus.
“Oops, ehem, as I was saying, this is ridiculous. You’re the best player in the world.”
“But, I’m not the best when it comes to academics or actual proper training. I was mediocre yesterday so this is actually fair, I suppose.” Arthur replied.
He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t a little annoyed that he didn’t get a good position, but this was also a wake-up call for him to snap back to reality. Even if he excelled in the game, in the real world, he was still far from good. He lacked too many things and needed to work harder in order to cut the gap between him and his peers.
“…” Danny stared at the calm Arthur with a weird expression. As much as he didn’t like that boy, he wasn’t dumb enough not to admit the truth. Arthur was very clever and attentive, he could’ve not been stupid.
‘Maybe he didn’t work hard before arriving here. That could be the reason. He isn’t stupid at all, unfortunately.’
“In any case, let’s go. There is no reason to keep standing here. What happened had happened, I will deal with it.” Arthur exhaled a small breath. There was no reason to linger on this problem. He simply had to put in extra work and be better in order to avoid disaster.
“That’s the spirit, Arthur. I know you will get back to the highest position soon. You’re a goddamn monster.” Herculia nodded his head with a wide grin. He had no doubt Arthur was going to be number one soon. This boy was the most outstanding person he had ever met next to Isla. Both shared a very special aspect about them that he never saw in anyone else.
They were something unique on every single front.
With that, the trio left the main hall and headed to their classes. The shock slowly disappeared and the rest of the students moved too. The atmosphere was way more tense than usual with this new ranking and people discovering their positions.
Some were determined even more to work harder and be better while others had their egos hit hard and their insecurities surfacing. It didn’t take long for them to start picking up on others in the lower classes to try and feed their damaged confidence. But, unaware of it, those above them were eyeing the weaklings already.
However, the conflicts would get quickly diffused by the guards moving around the place. Nobody dared to defy them for fear of losing even more points. They could not afford to lose anymore.
With that, the second day of the academy started.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3