NOVEL WEB Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Leaderboards and Bloodshed
"What?!"
An S-rank talent?!
Yuan Feng's heart skipped a beat. Shock. Then doubt. His grip on the axe tightened, ready to swing at a moment's notice.
A part of him was already regretting walking into this room with Kai. The memory of Lei Ming almost killing him was still fresh—the chill of death brushing past his neck.
If this guy really had an S-rank…
Shit. This is Kai's fault. That damn bastard.
In under a second, Yuan Feng had already mentally thrown Kai under the bus—and was prepping his escape plan.
But to his surprise, Wu Yuan didn't look like he wanted to fight.
"My S-rank gift doesn't have combat functions," Wu Yuan said quickly, "but its utility? Absolutely game-changing."
Yuan Feng relaxed. Slightly.
No combat ability meant lower risk—for now. Still, he didn't let down his guard.
And then came the full explanation.
As Wu Yuan detailed his ability—to refine corpses into Talent Crystals that could grant players extra powers—Yuan Feng's eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store.
But he kept his cool. "Big claims. Zero proof. Why should I believe you?"
Wu Yuan shot Kai a death glare. "I would've shown you right now, but he burned my brother's body! You know what my brother had? Another S-rank gift! I could've refined it into an A-rank crystal, and it's gone. All because of him!"
Yuan Feng looked at Wu Yuan, seething with rage and grief. He was starting to buy it.
And the moment he believed, the regret hit like a freight train.
An S-rank body. A lost A-rank crystal.
Kai just burned a priceless treasure—might as well have set a million bucks on fire.
Yuan Feng clenched his jaw. He understood Wu Yuan's fury now.
Then Wu Yuan growled, "I'll make you a deal. I'll craft you a Talent Crystal. But first, that asshole kneels and apologizes."
He jabbed a finger straight at Kai.
And Yuan Feng didn't hesitate for even a second.
He turned coldly to Kai and snapped:
"Kneel. And apologize."
Oh?Kai smirked inwardly.
He wasn't even rattled. Calmly, he asked, "Boss, after everything I've done for you… you really want me to kneel?"
"Cut the crap!" Yuan Feng's voice went frosty, full of contempt. "You're just a dog tagging along behind me. When I say kneel—you kneel. Disobey me, and you die."
Brutal. Arrogant. Absolute dominance.
Wu Yuan watched gleefully, feeling like justice was finally being served.
Honestly, just making Kai apologize wasn't enough for him.Once he got stronger, he'd personally gut the bastard.
Kai's response?
"Alright, if that's what you want…"
His tone sounded… agreeable?
But just then—
Ding! More than 999 players have reached Level 1. Global features now unlocked:
Level Leaderboard
Kill Leaderboard
Chat System
Forum System
Trade System
More rules to be discovered. Good luck, and enjoy the game!
In an instant, everyone's attention snapped to the new menus that appeared in their heads.
Sure enough, the promised rankings had arrived.
The Level Leaderboard displayed 999 players—and sitting right at the top?
Yuan Feng.
Level 1.
Most of the names below were foreign.Until #9: Lei Ming.
Then it was back to foreigners.
Across the entire Great Xia Empire?Only nine people had cracked the list.
Less than 1%.
The Kill Leaderboard was even worse.Only three Xia players on it—barely clinging to the bottom.
It wasn't surprising.
In this game, if you wanted to rank up fast—you had to kill.And not just monsters…
The Chat System had three channels:
World Chat: One message per player, per day.
Nation Chat: Ten messages per day.
Local Chat: Unlimited messages.
Each feed was already exploding with messages.
World Chat Highlights:
"Holy crap! It's been over 4 hours and only 1,000 players hit level 1?! This game's brutal!"
"How the hell do you even level up?! I've killed like 10 bugs—no XP!"
"Yuan Feng hit level 1 hours ago, but he's still not level 2. Does anyone know how much XP it takes?"
"Hey! I'm ranked #999. It takes 100 XP to hit level 2. Problem is—you can only absorb 10 crystal cores per day!"
"Wait… what's a crystal core?"
"Are all the monsters just white bugs for you guys too?"
"There's not even enough monsters to go around. People are starting to fight over them!"
"We ran out of bugs. Now they're fighting each other. Literally."
The Forum System also opened up.Players could post once per day—but only if they paid ten level-0 crystal cores per post.
Unless…
You were on the leaderboards. Then you could post as much as you wanted.
The #1 ranked player could even pin their post globally.
As for the Trade System, it worked on barter rules for now.No one was using it much yet.
Still, players everywhere were losing their minds, digging for intel, trying to wrap their heads around the new systems.
Back in Dorm 411…
Even Yuan Feng and Wu Yuan—still fuming over the lost crystal—got sucked into the menus.
But Wu Yuan's focus suddenly shifted.
He stared at Yuan Feng's forehead and gasped:
"You… You really ARE him! You're on the leaderboard! Number one!"
Yuan Feng blinked. "Huh?"
He looked up but saw nothing. "What're you talking about?"
Wu Yuan pointed. "Above your head. It says 'Level Rank Numb—'"
He never finished the sentence.
His eyes froze.
Widened.
Jaw slack.
As he witnessed the unthinkable:
Kai slit Yuan Feng's throat with a boxcutter blade.
The Level Rank #1… just got his throat cut.
One slice. One move.
Gone.
Wu Yuan stood there.
Shocked.
Frozen.
He couldn't believe what he just saw.