Leaderboards
"It's... definitely too big."
My uncle borrowed me a plain gray T-shirt of his, but due to the vast difference in the sizes of our bodies, the short sleeves reached my elbows and the hem of the shirt nearly touched my knees.
I really am a scrawny guy...
"Just...tuck it in maybe."
For the trousers, there really wasn't any choice, we had to sacrifice 600 points for the cheapest pair of jeans, a belt would've cost a lot more.
I tucked in the shirt and the resulting appearance was somewhat acceptable.
It doesn't stand out as much as the pajamas set did since everyone around was also in urban wears.
"Alright, let's get some food then."
Walking around the shopping district felt enchanting, it really is a beautiful place.
My uncle showed me where the important buildings are, such as the game lobby building, the one I woke up from, which is located directly at the centre of everything, surrounded by the shopping district.
The building has a futuristic vibes, incongrous with the humble and cozy countryside atmosphere of the shopping district.
It's an impressive approximately 40 story tall hemispherical building with a simple yet aesthetic design.
There wasn't any windows or decorations on the building, just painted in various hues of white in a pattern that's very pleasing to the eyes.
Only openings of the buildings were the near hundreds of glass sliding doors on the ground.
Between every consecutive doors, there were holographic information boards of various sizes.
"Those are leaderboards for every stages, it's ranked based on time taken to complete the task. Every time a record is broken, it's announced on everyone's earpieces, that's how I heard of your arrival here in the games." My uncle explains with a look on his face that I couldn't really decipher.
"There's also leaderboards of power levels of individual players or alliances, power levels being how strong the game evaluates you to be physically."
"You said something about me breaking a record?"
"Nothing unexpected for me. Your intelligence exceeds anyone I've ever met, I can imagine you doing this well, just couldn't imagine that you actually ended up here..."
That look on his face is back, I think I understood it now, it's a mix of being proud and disappointed.
He stopped me during our walk to the food section of the shopping district, and pointed at one of the leaderboards.
"There you are."
I turned to look at the direction my uncle pointed at, it read:
"CAMPAIGN STAGE 1-1 LEADERBOARDS
1. Sean Anthony 9 hours 34 minutes
2. silencer 10 hours 2 minutes
3. Shockwave 34 hours 44 minutes
4. The Reaper 34 hours 45 minutes
5. Gunner Cain 35 hours
6. magazine 35 hours 11 minutes
7. trigger 37 hours 20 minutes
8. Addison Holland 37 hours 59 minutes
9. bullet 38 hours 34 minutes
10. hammer 38 hours 39 minutes"
"You broke silencer's record, he's a whole day ahead of the runner up for as long as I can remember. He is now the strongest player in game, which is why a lot of recruiters wanted you in their alliance."
The recruiters that were following me actually dissipated a while ago, I'm fairly certain it's because of my uncle, because looking at the leaderboards not so far away, it reads:
"POWER LEVELS LEADERBOARDS
1. silencer (Mage) 7179
2. bullet (Fighter) 5894
3. GOLDEN MAGICIAN (Mage) 5888
4. The Reaper (Mage) 5861
5. Gunner Cain (Mage) 5802
6. Tiger (Fighter) 5763
7. Frostbite (Tank) 5709
8. Blizzard (Mage) 5704
9. magazine (Tank) 5689
10. Corpse (Marksman) 5617
11. Ghostdoctor (Support) 5600
12. Phoenix (Mage) 5517
13. Cupid (Marksman) 5511
14. hammer (Support) 5402
15. Shockwave (Marksman) 5306"
Since my uncle, the seventh strongest player and the strongest Tank in the entire game is next to me, with no intentions of ever leaving permanently, recruiting me is now an impossible task for the recruiters.
"What's my power level." I thought.
"System evaluates you as 2789, you are in the top 75% of players!"
Considering how I'm completely new to the game, top 75% is actually ridiculously good already, I would've expected top 99%.
"How'd you do it? The record was thought to be unbreakable you know?"
"I just figured out who the spy was with clues at hand."
"Smartass." He says with a grin then pats me on the back.
"Ah it doesn't matter anyways, even if we reenter the stages, all our memories regarding the stage will be erased temporarily." He said.
"You're pretty strong." I said while pointing at the leaderboards that shows "7. Frostbite".
"I've been here for 3 years, trained everyday, just so I could get a chance back into life."
He says that with a sorrowful expression, it must've been tough being stuck down here for this long, commiting every blood tears and sweat to make yourself stronger to see the real world once again.
Couldn't be me though, if I can find video games that I can play in this world, I could care less about the real world.
"There is no video games here." You know how to ruin my mood, telepathic earpiece.
"We should make our own alliance so that we can participate in the monthly tournament. We're gonna need teammates though."
"How do we do that?"
"This." He points at his earpiece.
"With a single thought, we can form our own alliance, you got any ideas for a name?"
I thought for a while, I don't really care about sounding cool to be honest.
"Also, you can change your own name just by thinking too, your earpiece will handle it, I remember you like using weird goofy names."
I did? Well even if I did, I certainly don't now.
"I'll stick with just my name, and for the alliance..."
"What about Dawn Breakers, our old clan name in that game umm what was it called again?" He says as he snaps his fingers repeatedly, trying to recall the name of the game we played.
I don't even recall ever being in a clan named "Dawn Breakers", I certainly wouldn't remember which game it was, but since I don't really care about my labels.
"Yeah, yeah sure, let's do that."
And just by thinking it, the earpiece did the rest of the work.
"Alliance formed. Name, Dawn Breakers. Members, Frostbite, Sean Anthony."
"I swear to god, Sean, I'll get you out of here, I'll get you back to life." Uncle said treacly.
Well, good to know.