The ranking was updated on Thursday.

Kai was at the window when it happened, the building screen across the street cycling through its morning rotation, names and levels and clear counts scrolling in the ambient light of an overcast afternoon.

[Rank 44.]

[Kai Rosefield.]

[Class: Null.]

[Level 22.]

[Dungeon Cleared: 16.]

He looked at it for a moment and saw he had reached forty-four. Out of every active player in the city.

Every district.

Every guild.

Every organized team with gate access and resources behind them.

He heard Leo before he heard the door. "—forty-four, forty-four, do you understand what forty-four means—"

The door opened, and Leo rushed towards him. "You were at eighty-six a week ago, and now you’re already in the forties–"

"I know," Kai said.

"Then why aren’t you excited! Now isn’t the time to be acting weird! You should be reacting—"

Mina appeared in the doorway behind him, moving at a pace that was significantly more sustainable than Leo’s, a cup of coffee held in both hands. She looked at the building screen across the street and then at Kai with the expression she used when she had already processed something and was giving him room to catch up.

"Forty-four, congrats," she said.

"Thanks," Kai said.

She nodded once and came to stand beside him at the window.

Leo was still talking about the rankings and all the other players he had passed. Such as those with Rare classes, with guilds behind them, or a very good team. All of it was delivered at the speed of someone who had been sitting on this information since the update dropped and had been physically unable to not share it until now.

"Leo," Mina said.

"—which means if he keeps going at the same rate, he could be in the top thirty by—"

"Leo."

Leo stopped. "What?"

"Breathe," she said with a faint smile. "If you keep this up, we’re worried you will pass out."

Leo blinked before he chuckled in embarrassment, looking away. "I’m just saying the math is insane. I checked it three times." He held the phone out toward Kai. "Also, Sora posted a reaction. You need to watch it."

Kai took the phone.

Sora’s stream had been live for four hours by the time the clip had been cut and posted. The thumbnail was her face, eyes wide, one hand over her mouth, with text overlaid in large white letters:

The Null Cleared a C-rank!

He’d texted her what happened inside.

"—Okay, so for people just joining, I’ve been covering this player since the first clip, the NULL class solo clear, and I want to walk you through what just happened because I think—" She paused and looked directly at the camera. "I think people are not understanding what they’re watching."

"So, a C-rank dungeon has a standard clear time for a prepared team of experienced players. That standard time, for context, is somewhere between forty and ninety minutes, depending on team composition and dungeon layout. Solo C-rank clears, which are extremely rare, normally have a clear time of almost two hours." She pulled up the gate data on her secondary monitor and turned back to the camera.

"One hour," she said. Her chat was already moving faster than she could read it. "I know! It’s amazing! I’ve been watching this guy for two weeks, and I still can’t explain it. I just know he’s getting better at whatever it is he’s doing."

Leo’s voice reached him from behind. "She’s been talking about you for like three hours," he said. "Her viewer count went up forty percent during the stream."

"I can see," Kai muttered.

"She’s calling you—" Leo looked at the phone. "— ’the most dangerous.’ Which honestly feels like an understatement, but I’ll take it."

Kai handed the phone back.

He looked at the ranking screen across the street. His name was still visible, cycling through in the standard rotation, forty-four sitting next to NULL in the light.

Mina was sipping her coffee with her eyes closed.

"People are losing their minds online." Leo reported as he showed him some.

He climbed 40+ ranks in days!

Nah, this pace is impossible!

He must be farming C-ranks like E-ranks.

If he hits the top 20 before the month ends, then the city will go crazy.

I heard Raze finally noticed him!

"There’s a section of people who think you’re cheating, but they’re getting ratio’d hard. And there’s a thread about—" He scrolled further. "—okay, there’s a lot of threads. One of them is analyzing your movement patterns from the Black Vein footage. Someone built a spreadsheet."

"A spreadsheet," Kai said.

"Several spreadsheets, actually." Leo looked up. "People are invested."

The forum notification came through at the end of the afternoon.

Not a comment thread or a tagged post.

A direct message from an account that had been active for three weeks, no profile information. The account only posted clear-time records for C-rank and higher dungeons with the precision of someone who ran them personally.

Kai read the username.

Then the message.

Interesting.

One word. No follow-up. The message had been sent four minutes ago and had not been edited.

Leo was looking over his shoulder. He had been looking over his shoulder for the last twenty minutes, which was not a new development in their relationship but had become more frequent since the ranking update.

"That’s Raze," Leo blinked before rubbing his eyes as if he didn’t believe it. "He’s messaging you," he said in disbelief. "Raze... Is messaging.... you."

"I see it."

Leo pointed at the message. "What does ’interesting’ mean? Is that good? Is that a threat? Is that—"

"Leo," Mina said, without looking up from her coffee. "Again, slow down."

"I’m just asking—"

"Ignore it," she said. "People like that send messages like that because they want a reaction. Giving them one is what they’re hoping for."

"But it’s Raze—"

Mina set her coffee down, turned in her chair, and pinched Leo’s cheek between two fingers.

Leo froze.

"Ow," he said, with the dignity of someone who was trying very hard not to visibly react to something that was objectively not that painful.

"Ignore it," Mina said again, releasing him.

Leo subsided, rubbing his cheek. He picked up his own phone and started scrolling through the ranking comments again. Still trying to act normal about it, his expression cycling through several things before settling on something that was trying to be casual and not quite managing it.

Kai looked at Raze’s ranking.

[Rank 3.]

[Raze.]

[Class: Blood Tyrant.]

[Level 34.]

The gap looked large.

Kai didn’t think it would stay that way for long.

He glanced at Mina.

She was sipping her coffee again, eyes half-closed, already several steps ahead of wherever the conversation was.

"You know the drill, right?" she said.

Kai smiled. "Crush those who provoke us?"

Mina nodded. "Of course."

He pointed at Raze’s ranking on the screen. "He’s at three," he said.

Mina looked at the number and then at Kai. "And?" she said. "You’re still better."

Leo stood up as he quickly made a call and then said. "Hana! Did you see the news?!" He headed towards the door and walked past. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. He’s literally at forty-four, I told you—"

His voice faded.

Mina looked at her coffee while Kai looked at the ranking screen. Then he picked up his phone and opened Raze’s message.

Then he replied with one word.

Same. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He put the phone face down on the table and looked at the city outside the window. But then he noticed Mina’s smile directed at him. And then he realized she had noticed his change and said nothing.

Their eyes met quietly and both of them understood.

She nodded before going back to sipping her coffee while he looked toward the ranking screen. It was cycling through names and levels, his own name appearing and holding for two seconds before the rotation moved on.

Forty-four.

He started thinking about forty-three.