He snapped out of his contemplative state and looked around him. Suddenly ashamed at how he had not even bothered to look out for enemies as he pondered his Dao, he ran towards Rax. The herpetopede was mostly unharmed, but he had some bruises lining his body. The insane woman who had tried to kill him had only struck the lizard lightly, in order to get him away from her. Most of her focus had been on Sam. With a start he remembered that she had pierced his arm through, but he didn't feel any bleeding. He must have leveled up during that fight. As if it had been suppressed before, his notifications came in.
You have killed Lena Scarlet!
You have leveled up! (x3)
Now that he had a baseline for how leveling worked, he saw that there was some sort of inefficiency in the system. Common sense dictated that if he killed someone who was of a higher level than him, he should level up to that level if not beyond it on account of gaining the extra power. Instead, most of the energy that he got for killing something was leeched away into thin air and was lost to him. When he saw the party link, he saw that some of it had in fact been diverted away from him, to Rax, but the herpetopede had only gained a single level, which was not enough to add up to the amount that he should have gotten. Sighing, Sam accepted it. It was probably some sort of tax from the System, in order to pay for its workings. Just the ability to level up at all was more valuable than a few missed levels.
Sam and Rax stumbled back through the woods, and entered the shack. Jeffrey was snoring when they went in and the man woke suddenly as they entered, clutching his shotgun.
“Do you never have that thing out of sight?”
Jeffrey snorted.
“This thing has been my best friend for the last few years. Between this and my intimidating reputation, nobody has bothered me in a while.”
“Well yeah, nobody was stupid enough to bother a madman with a gun.” “Really? That must have been pretty useful.”
Jeffrey nodded happily, not knowing what Sam was really thinking.
Sam and Rax went to the back room and Sam changed his clothes. They were filthy from the events of the previous day and luckily Jeffrey had a closet full of clothes. Unfortunately for Sam, they were all what he would describe as redneck chic, but he put on the overalls and matching attire anyway. Beggars couldn't be choosers during the apocalypse. With his wardrobe change completed, Sam fell into his cot and slept. His entire body was sore and he felt as if he had just run a marathon.
A bright white light cajoled him out of his slumber.
“Jeffrey? What’re you doing with that light?”
A few voices conversed out of proper earshot of Sam. Someone started shaking him vigorously. He opened his eyes in annoyance and then saw that he was no longer in the shack. He lay on the floor of a vast atrium, filled with other people. A massive floating figure hung over the area, a humanoid being that was made up of starlight. The people who had woken him up smiled at him absently.
“Sorry, you really didn't want to miss the System announcement,” a woman said to him. Sam bolted upright and stood up. The people around him made room for him and a man was about to say something, but then the lights went out.
“Greetings, humans of Planet Earth. I called you all here to congratulate you. Out of the billions of people on your planet, you are the only survivors.” Shocked whispers drifted around the atrium at this announcement.
“Not only that, but out of the various species of your universe, you have the largest surviving percentage. For that, you will all be rewarded. In the upcoming inter universal tournament, you will all be given favorable seeds. Finally, it has come to my attention that one of you has formed a Dao. Not only that, but that it is the very first one in the universe. I implore that person to explore their talents to the fullest and most of all, trust nobody.” Three expanded charts appeared in the air in front of them. A notification surfaced in front of Sam as well.
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Choose your display name for the planetary leaderboards.
_
Sam thought about what would be a good name for him. Obviously he didn't want to reveal his full name, so he needed a pseudonym. What better name than that of his Dao?
You have picked the name ‘The Arbiter’
Other names started to appear on the leaderboards and after a few minutes, they were filled. A smaller version of them appeared before him and he read them.
Levels Leaderboard.
1. The Overlord: Level 18
2. Rodney Kane: Level 17
3. The Scourge of New York:Level 17
4. Phoenix:Level 17
5. Melissa Tang:Level 16
6. The Angel of Death: Level 15
7. Profound Visionary:Level 14
8. Elminster Judge:Level 13
9. Anonymous:Level 12
10. The Bear of the Motherland: Level 11
It was easy to tell stuff about these people from their names. The name of the third place person sounded like a title to Sam, maybe one for clearing New York of monsters or something like that. The first place was pretty fitting, belonging to the Overlord. Some of the names were probably the real names of the people whereas the others were made up. He studied the next leaderboard.
Dao Leaderboard
1.The Arbiter
He was the only one on it. A broad smile lifted his cheeks as he looked at it, drawing some stares from the other. He could hear a few muffled whispers coming from around him.
“Who’s this Arbiter guy? He's not on the levels leaderboard.”
“What's a Dao?”
Sam was very glad that he had chosen to conceal his name. The final leaderboard popped up in his vision.
Overall Power
1.The Overlord
2. Rodney Kane
3.The Scourge of New York
4. The Arbiter
5. Phoenix
6. Melissa Tang
7.The Angel of Death
8. Profound Visionary
9. Elminster Judge
10. Anonymous
After he finished reading them, two more notifications came up.
You have gained the temporary title, #1 Dao, Planet Earth: Mythical.
+5% to all stats and plus 10% chance of a Dao breakthrough.
You have gained the temporary title, Top 5 Power, Planet Earth: Legendary. + 2.5% to all stats.
Temporary titles are titles that are dependent on some impermanent requirement such as the possession of an object.
These titles were nowhere near as good as his Celestial title, but they were still quite good. Sam pored through the leaderboards in depth and discovered that he could see the top 1000 people if he scrolled down far enough. After a moment, the avatar of the System resumed its spiel.
“After one year, intergalactic teleportation will become available to purchase. After that, then the Galactic, Intergalactic, and Universal leaderboards will come into being. Strive to get on those, for even the top million in the universe will recieve great rewards. Achieve number one, and you will gain the opportunity for even greater power. Unfortunately, as part of the stipulations created by the ruler of this universe, Tantalos Veruvax, travel into other universes will be banned for as long as he is alive. Merchants and faction representatives can enter this universe, but none of you can leave. Finally, in one week, there will be a tournament among the inhabitants of this planet, creating opportunities for regional governance to those who place highly, and the vaunted ability to create a faction for the top three placers.” The figure vanished, leaving the people standing there. Everything that they had just heard was like a revelation about their true place in the universe. Sam tried to count the people in the room, coming to the disheartening realization that there were nowhere near the number of people on Earth there. There were probably close to 10 million, but that was it. Over 99 percent of the population had died already. And that was good compared to the rest of the rest of the universe. Suddenly, the fact that aliens existed wasn't that crazy after all. The humans were left to talk for a few minutes and then there was a flash of white light.