The D-Rank Guild Master of the No. 1 Guild

[The winner is… by a narrow margin, Agasa Guild is the final winner!]

Even though the fourth round had ended, the girl holding the blood-stained axe stared blankly into the void, unable to accept the results.

‘Why…?’

I toyed with that amusing wolf, Unahar, or whatever his name was, and Rudel even fled from my overwhelming presence. So why didn’t my guild even make it into the top five? Why is Rudel’s guild in first place?

For this bloodthirsty maniac who could only live by seeing blood, it was the second shock since falling from Death Run. The victory condition for the round was to capture as many spots as possible, not to kill more people. So making Rudel run away didn’t bring me closer to victory.

The girl looked down at Spot 50 in the factory where she stood.

‘Rudel didn’t flee because she was scared of me, but to capture more spots?’

‘In Rudel’s mind, dueling with me wasn’t her top priority? She was looking at me, but thinking only about increasing her capture spots?’

At that moment, Yudirei recalled the ‘comments’ that had arrived after losing to Rudel.

‘Ah… Gio was unbeatable…’

‘You fought well despite losing, good job.’

Damn it… Who are they to judge whether I can beat Gio or not?!

‘Yudi, you can’t just charge like a rhino all the time. When will you grow up? LOL’

‘Not everything can be solved with violence. You need to look around more. Just because you can fight well alone doesn’t mean your guild rank will go up. This is all for your sake.’

‘Shut up, don’t preach to me!’

She screamed in her mind. Thud! The axe she threw lodged firmly into the factory wall. Despite being thrown in a fit of rage, it landed cleanly, looking quite threatening.

‘…They say I’m like a child? That I’m doing something wrong?’

Comments were just trivial dribbles or backseat driving from viewers watching the game characters. But now, combined with the bitter taste of her second defeat, those sentences felt more significant than ever, making her hands and feet tremble with anger.

‘You need to train your guild members like Rudel. Control your anger. Yudi is the best, but I’m afraid she might make the guild rank last and get eliminated, and we won’t be able to see her anymore.’

If I train my guild members, and if I hold back the urge to stab, cut, and kill everything I see, will I then be able to catch up to Rudel and kill her?

As the girl stood in a daze, a man with twin swords approached her hesitantly from behind. He had only just regained his senses after crashing into the wall when Rudel knocked him down.

“Y-Yudirei…”

The guild leader snapped her blood-red eyes toward the man. A small hand shot out. The man squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself. But the blow he was expecting didn’t come. He had been sure she’d hit him over the head.

Yudirei’s small hand instead grabbed the man’s hair.

‘Ah, so she’s going to slam his head into the ground.’

But again, that wasn’t the case. Instead of his head being buried into the ground, he felt her breath on his ear and slowly opened his eyes.

To his surprise, Yudirei was examining the torn wound on his head.

She then withdrew her hand.

“…Let’s go back. Get your head treated first.”

Because they needed to start training.

The last part didn’t come out as she gritted her teeth.

The man was bewildered. His face turned even paler than when he was being hit.

As the vice-guild leader, he secretly communicated with his guild members.

“Hello? It’s me. Our berserk queen has gone completely mad after losing twice!”

He was unmistakably like a terrified herbivore caught in headlights.

As they returned to Skull Castle, Yudirei gripped the handle of her axe so tightly it began to bend.

Using the viewers’ words, this was the first sign of ‘a child becoming an adult.’

* * *

Reality.

The first-generation round has ended.

We will have a one-month reorganization period for the opening of the second generation, during which user access will be restricted. We ask for your understanding.

Various events and merchandise sales are prepared during the reorganization period, so please look forward to them^^

The announcement of the end of the first-generation season of ‘Ranking of Soul’ brought much regret to users worldwide.

However, it wasn’t long before the highly anticipated first-generation ranking results were released to all users.

Not only to the users but also to the game characters themselves.

Top 10 Individual Overall Rankings

[Champion] Taggiros

1st Aleon

2nd Gio

…

4th Lesia

…

6th Akata

…

8th Blance

9th Yudirei

…

16th Rudel

As the characters’ individual rankings were announced, their status windows were also revealed to the real-world users.

Among them was the status window of Rudel, the mysterious character who started off small but eventually garnered the most popularity.

[Name] Rudel

* * *

[Health • Strength • Agility Average] B

* * *

[Ability Group] Pure Nature

[Unique Ability] Fire

[Overall Rating] B+

“Rudel is ranked lower than I thought.”

“At first, she was really a D-grade trash character, but now people are saying even B+ is too low for Rudel. Who is she really…”

“She didn’t use her fire ability much. Maybe she didn’t practice it properly?”

“Rudel isn’t the type to slack off.”

“Commander Rudel, 

The key player who capped off the fourth round:

Tank: Gio, Unahar

DPS: Rudel, Akata

Support: Lilith, Kanel

Rudel is legendary…”

“Wow, but she never showed her fire ability until the end of the first generation.”

“She’s a businessperson to the core…”

“With Rudel’s intelligence, she’s saving content for the second generation. Absolutely certain.”

“It’s frustrating but also makes me look forward to it more. LOL. Rudel knows how to play the game.”

Following the individual rankings, the final guild rankings for the first generation were also released.

Guild Overall Rankings

1st Agasa

2nd Red Monarch

3rd …

4th …

5th Anawing

6th …

7th Ice Castle

…

Agasa Guild, after securing first place in three rounds, finally claimed the top spot overall.

And where there is a top rank, there must also be a bottom rank.

The guilds that ranked lowest will not be able to participate in future rounds.

Users are advised to check the list of characters that will be removed.

Compared to the grand announcements, the notice of eliminations received much less attention from users. Characters who were unpopular and didn’t receive proper support had lukewarm reactions to their final moments.

* * *

A smirk involuntarily crept up my face. The results of this guild war were quite encouraging.

Firstly, Gio proudly achieved second place in the individual rankings. Although Aleon, a formidable obstacle, stands in the way, it’s a situation where surpassing just one person would mean taking the top spot.

Also, it’s very commendable and pride-inducing that Akata reached sixth place solely through his unique ability. 

Unahar, despite being ranked around the 30th overall, is the top in the Switch category, which is very reassuring.

And I… being ranked 16th isn’t bad for my first appearance in the rankings.

Most importantly, Agasa proudly secured the number one spot in the guild rankings. I want to maintain this first place as much as possible until Gio surpasses Aleon.

To challenge for the Champion title, we need to secure both the number one guild and the number one individual ranking. If we can’t surpass Aleon in the second generation, we’ll have to keep maintaining the top guild ranking in the following quarters while we wait… but we’ll figure it out when the time comes. I’m sure we can do it again.

However, it’s clear that the next challenge won’t be as easy. Shemarin’s Red Monarch, which came in second place, is quite a threat.

‘Shemarin, you told me you just needed to avoid last place to secure your survival, but your performance was way too good. Were you lying to me?’

Lilith, unable to bear watching me frown and worry while sitting on the sofa, eventually pulled me out of my thoughts.

“No, Rudel! Stop thinking about difficult things! The system notice also said that it’s the rule to rest until the second-generation new players are recruited!”

“I am resting right now.”

“You need to rest your mind too! You need to have fun!”

What is fun? How do you do it?

I’ve been working so hard in this game that I’ve forgotten what play is.

“Oh, right. The promise I made to you all.”

Seeing Lilith reminded me of what I had forgotten. I immediately gathered the guild members and distributed the leftover points entertainment funds from the round three party.

“Use this to do what you want. You can go to the shop and buy items for your hobbies or decorations for the fortress.”

I noticed Gio heading straight to the restaurant as soon as he received his points, but I let it slide. Seeing the rest of the members happily counting their points made me feel content.

“What do you plan to buy with your points?”

“Hmm, I think I’ll need to give it some thought!”

It seemed I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what to do now that training was suspended. None of my guild members knew what they liked or what their hobbies were. Other guilds probably had leisure time all along, but our guild’s strict leader—me—only focused on training and never gave them time to develop hobbies.

But it’s thanks to that relentless training that our guild became number one.

However, it didn’t take long for everyone to find something they wanted to do.