Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 109
Chapter 109: Ranking System
The ranking of real-world adventurers.
When you hear the word “rank,” what immediately comes to mind is taking an exam at a guild to raise your rank, which in turn removes the restrictions on the difficulty of quests an adventurer can accept.
In some games, there are restrictions on what you can buy based on your rank, but in ?Astral Online?, there’s no such system.
I’d like to say, “What’s the point of having a ranking system in reality?” But the self-proclaimed god enthusiastically writes “Ranking System!” in large letters on a whiteboard.
When I asked what exactly this ranking system was, El Aurum responded with a radiant smile.
“The card you adventurers possess accumulates contribution points, which you earn from battles and progressing in ?Astral Online?. By handing this card to a messenger of the ?Guardian? stationed at schools or public offices, we assign you a rank based on the points you’ve accumulated.”
“Wait, wait, wait. How exactly are these points being accumulated? There’s no slot for a card in the headgear.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
The VR headgear we use is a piece of precision equipment, shaped like a full-face motorcycle helmet.
By wearing it, it directly connects to the user’s brain, delivering virtual sensory information and generating a virtual world.
There’s a feature where you can insert a small game chip at the top, but there’s no slot or function to read something like a credit card.
Even the charging method isn’t through an old USB plug but via a dedicated stand, so there’s no way to attach anything externally. Even if you modified it to attach something, I don’t think the system could read contribution points from the game in the first place.
When I pointed this out, the self-proclaimed god reached into the chest of her white dress and pulled out a card.
…I’m not going to make any comments on that.
Sora was overwhelmed by the urge to retort, “Where did you pull that from, with such a flat chest?” but she held it back.
El Aurum raised the adventurer’s card for everyone to see and began her explanation.
“This card is a high-tech device that directly reads your gameplay data. So even for those like Sora-sama, who received the card later, the points from your battle with the Demon Lord are properly added. You can rest assured.”
“It reads gameplay data…?”
“Yes, in fact, although this looks like just a card, it’s actually a precision device. It automatically syncs when you log in. If your contribution points are unusually low for the play period, a warning will be issued on the spot.”
“Ah, I see. So it’s a system to check if the cardholder is actively participating in the game. I’m curious about how it reads the data, but what happens if you ignore the warnings?”
When I asked that, El responded with a smile.
“Of course, I’ll let it slide up to three times, but if you ignore it a fourth time, like I said on TV, you’ll die. It’s the whole ‘three strikes, you’re out’ rule.”
Death, huh?
Whether it’s a literal or psychological death, I’m curious about their methods, but I decided not to ask.
Why? Because even though El was smiling, her eyes weren’t smiling at all.
It felt like staring into the abyss. If I had to compare it to a game, the creepiness was enough to reduce my sanity by at least 50 points.
As Sora thought she’d seen something like this before, a specific game came to mind.
Ah, that’s right.
I once played a VR game adapted based on Cthulhu, where an elder god disguised itself as an adorable young girl.
Having reached a conclusion, Sora decided to just say it outright.
“You’re more like an evil god, aren’t you?”
“Oh my, would you say something so mean directly to the person? That’s not very nice… Well, if it wasn’t you, Sora-sama, I’d have cursed you to death by now.”
The white-haired girl placed her hands on her cheeks and shyly shifted her body, her face flushed with embarrassment.
With her appearance, anyone out of a hundred would call her a beautiful girl, and just looking at that gesture, you could say it was quite cute.
But when she talks about cursing someone to death, it doesn’t sound like a joke.
No, her eyes aren’t smiling this time either, so she’s probably serious…
The chairman, principal, and Kirie were all sweating profusely in fear of her words, so I decided it was time to change the subject.
The topic, of course, was the meaning behind this whole “ranking” system.
“So, does a higher rank come with rare items you can use in the game, or some kind of special perks?”
El gave me a somewhat exasperated look.
“… You have the typical mindset of a gamer. As expected of someone who’s at the forefront of clearing ?Astral Online?. As for the items you’re hoping for, unfortunately, there’s nothing like that.”
“What? In that case, I don’t need it.”
My interest dropped from 100 percent to zero in an instant.
If you don’t get items, no matter how high your rank is, it’s nothing but a self-satisfying decoration. For some people, it’s just a tool to look down on those with lower ranks, so I lost interest even more.
Completely deflated, I let out a deep sigh.
But even seeing that, the self-proclaimed god’s smile didn’t falter one bit.
Instead, she looked even more amused, with a smug expression as she continued.
“Rest assured. While there are no in-game items, the rank still has meaning.”
“Meaning, huh. What, does a higher rank make you a noble or something?”
“Well, to put it simply, the higher your rank, the more ?skills? you’ve acquired in ?Astral Online? will be unlocked for use in real life.”
“Skills, huh. Even if I could use ?skills? in real life, what would that even—… huh?”
Did this self-proclaimed god just casually say something insane?
The higher your rank, the more ?skills? you can use “in real life”?
In other words, for me, it would mean I could use skills like ?Perception? or ?Insight?.
If attack skills are also usable, it would become possible to kill a person in an instant.
No matter how you think about it, that’s seriously dangerous.
“Hey, that’s…”
Just as Sora tried to stand up, Kirie, sitting next to her, tapped her shoulder.
With the same serious gaze she had when forging a sword, she directed her question at El Aurum.
“I’m against this ranking system. God, what are you going to do if someone with these ?skills? goes out of control?”
“That will never happen.”
“How can you be so sure? Humans are creatures driven by desire. If people like that gain power, at least one or two will inevitably cause trouble. That’s just how humans are.”
“Hahaha, it seems the top-tier Miss Blacksmith is quite the worrier.”
“Yeah, I’m scared. A person going out of control could drag my friends into it. If I lost someone dear to me, being scared is the natural response!”
Kirie glared sharply at El.
The intensity of her gaze was so strong that it even surprised me, knowing how she usually was.
But even with all of this, El didn’t let her smile falter in the slightest.
With a snap of her fingers, the whiteboard in front of us disappeared.
El, under the scrutiny of Sora, Kirie, the chairman, and the principal, snapped her fingers again.
Suddenly, a white-haired woman in a suit appeared at her side, holding what seemed to be a device for reading cards.
“The *world’s contamination* will worsen from here on. This is a means for humanity to survive. If anyone strays from the path, divine punishment will fall upon them.”
El stepped closer to Kirie and lightly touched her cheek with her right hand.
“!?”
Just from that, Kirie went limp and collapsed onto the sofa with a thud.
“Well then, shall we see what Sora-sama’s and Kirie-sama’s ranks are? After all, that’s what I’ve been looking forward to today!”
With a smile as if nothing had happened, the self-proclaimed god beamed cheerfully.
That smile… I found it eerie and terrifying.