Chapter 9: The Bridge and Contemplation on Imaginary Foes
When Alister opened his black eyes again, the twilight of A City had already passed, and what greeted him was a dimly lit night.
The wind was constant, gently tousling his black hair.
He pondered on the bridge for a long time.
As the holder of the "Blank" ability, he had the capacity to assimilate the abilities of other players, a strong and formidable concept in a fantasy work.
The colorful lights of the Nine Capital Amusement Park gradually brightened in the twilight, and behind the doll costume workers, the roller coaster ride restarted.
According to the storyline of those works, once a player with such potential showed progress, their strength would grow at a terrifying exponential rate, surpassing everyone else.
It could be considered a completely protagonist-level ability.
A young girl holding snacks happily crossed the bridge on her way home but stumbled and scattered the coins from her pocket onto the ground.
However, things always had two sides, and Alister always kept that in mind.
No matter how high the upper limit of the "Blank" ability was, no matter how terrifying the potential, it was only the inevitable outcome of "having grown"...
"Are you okay?" Alister walked over and helped the little girl up.
She stared at Alister, "Thank you, big brother!"
Alister looked at the little girl, thinking about the other side of "having grown," which was "not having grown," and it was something that couldn't be ignored and had to be considered first.
"Xiao Xi, are you hurt?!" The little girl's mother hurriedly rushed over and checked where her daughter had fallen, stealing a glance at Alister's profile.
"My daughter has embarrassed you," she said.
...And the level of growth that would result in an exponential increase in strength had the prerequisite of encountering higher-ranked players, and one must be the ultimate winner.
"Children are so cute," Alister said, seemingly indifferent.
In a fantasy work, this might not be a problem because the protagonist was always the center of the world, continuously encountering opportunities and destined to be the winner...
The mother playfully pinched her daughter's cheeks and said, "Xiao Xi, thank your big brother properly."
"Thank you, big brother. I'll work hard to marry you in the future!" the little girl said earnestly.
"Haha... My daughter loves to say nonsense, please don't mind..." the mother chuckled and hurriedly led the girl away.
...But this was reality, and high-ranked players would not just come knocking at the door, and it wasn't possible for oneself to be the only powerful one.
Players of the same level or even higher level...
"Goodbye."
With that in mind, Alister turned in the direction he had left Yumikou and his gaze became deeper as he looked up at the towering skyscrapers in the distance.
The level of the "Blank" ability was "?," and the level of "Shadow Domination" was "A," Alister remembered it clearly.
Question: What should be done if an ability with an "S" level appears?
Answer: It would be best to assimilate it.
"Ah..." Alister sighed.
But that was only theoretical; an ability evaluated by the system as having an "S" level would undoubtedly have terrifying aspects.
In an instant, countless troublesome abilities flashed through Alister's mind, causing his thoughts to swirl.
Absolute dissolution, infinite regeneration, time manipulation, space manipulation...
Even if his "Blank" "?" was the pinnacle of ability levels, there could still be the possibility of "???" and "???" levels.
To put it more simply, there might exist players in the sequence game who possessed "invincibility."
Alister glanced at the comic book store below the bridge, where a poster of a certain superhero glistened under the neon lights, making one wonder if such a character truly existed in the world.
Of course, these possibilities might just be his own overthinking.
However, it was always better to be cautious, to proceed with caution and plan each step.
Alister walked with his hands in his pockets, passing by the steps where Yumikou had left, brushing past pedestrians as he wandered through the dimly lit night.
But just as he was descending the last step...
"I look forward to meeting an opponent."
He muttered to himself and turned away from the direction Yumikou had gone.
...
...
"In the night, sequence titles are always conspicuous." This statement could be narrowed down further to say, "Sequence titles are always prominent."
Players like Alister who concealed their sequence titles were in the minority. Most players did not exercise such caution and proudly displayed their sequence titles above their heads.
A student waiting for the bus after school - "E Rank, 14,789,503rd."
The owner of a pet shop feeding the cats - "D Rank, 499,912th."
An amiable elderly person announcing the store's closing - "D Rank, 499,836th."
When Alister joined the sequence game, he truly realized that fantasy existed right beside ordinary people.
Estimating based on the population of approximately 30 million in A City, there were around 30,000 sequence game players in the city.
"Not bad luck..." Alister thought as he walked through the streets like an ordinary person. "In a short time, I've already encountered one E Rank player and two D Rank players."
He hadn't seen a single player while he was with Yumikou during the day, and there seemed to be something peculiar about that.
But Alister didn't have the leisure to speculate about such matters, and even if he did, it wouldn't have much significance.
"Since it's a game of competing for sequence rankings, conflicts between players should inevitably occur, right?"
Alister rested his hand against his chin, passing by the closed grocery store, taking a right turn, and arriving at a narrow alley.
There, he stumbled upon a standoff between street hoodlums.
A young man in a vibrant tracksuit, one hand in his pocket, the other fixing his hairstyle - "E Rank, 13,699,955th."
A guy in a black jacket, arms crossed, refusing to budge an inch - "E Rank, 13,699,954th."
Behind each of them stood their respective lackeys, all ordinary people.
"Hey, this area belongs to our Gang of Vibrant Spirits. Do you understand?" the guy in the black jacket said arrogantly.
"Know your place and willingly make way for someone higher-ranked than you." The guy in the black jacket exuded a sense of pride.
"Just because you're one rank higher, you think you can act all high and mighty?" The tracksuit hoodlum walked over and disdainfully poked the other guy's chest.
The lackeys, unable to intervene due to their lack of strength and courage, could only watch from the sidelines.
While ordinary people couldn't see the extraordinary, they could see the consequences of the extraordinary, such as the aluminum can that was crushed into a flat shape out of thin air by the guy in the black jacket.
They knew that their boss seemed to be a superpower.
At this moment, the street hoodlums in confrontation noticed Alister, and their gazes turned towards him.
"You guys can continue. I'm not here to film," Alister said calmly.
The street hoodlums weren't just itching for a fight with anyone; it was normal for them to attract curiosity as they stood off, so they allowed Alister to be an audience.
Just when the atmosphere couldn't be sustained any longer and the two sides were about to start fighting...
"You punks think you can act recklessly just because you've obtained powers?!" an old man from the grocery store came over and scolded them. "You've gone astray!"
Whether it was the guy in the black jacket or the tracksuit hoodlum, when they saw the sequence title of the old man from the grocery store, "D Rank, 499,836th," they instantly became apprehensive.
"Brothers, let's run! Retreat!"
"I'll be back!"
They lost all their arrogance, and the hoodlums hastily fled.
"Just E Rank and you dare to fight for territory," the old man grumbled.
It seemed that sequence rankings were a symbol of status, Alister summarized.
After that, he continued walking through A City.