Ranking System



"Claire, do you want to walk around the town together? We haven't had much time together."

Out of everyone I knew here, Claire was the one who joined the latest. Claire, hearing what I said, had her eyes beam.

"Really? What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Claire held my arms tightly as she led the way. We had no idea where we were going, but it didn't matter if we knew nothing about the place.

By the way, the mini-town was set up. We were at the park. Many social classes could be seen in this place—children from high-class families, butlers, maids, couples, and even slaves.

This place had a variety of people doing their own thing. Claire and I sat down on an oddly comfortable bench and relaxed.

"Charles, do you mind if I ask you something insensitive?"

"You might as well."

"Did you lose your ability to reproduce? You're sleeping with all these girls, but none of them is pregnant."

"Is that all? I can see why it's insensitive. It's not just me but everyone from Earth."

"You should know that our world was a first-rank world. Overpopulation may seem good for the ranking system, but it isn't."

"Did you know the more people there are, the worse your prize gets? The people of our world have discovered this over the past two hundred years. To counteract that, the people of our world used a drug to make our "seeds" less compelling."

"If you're worried that I can't make a kid, there's a drug that quickly fixes these problems."

This was also better for me. I don't want a kid to come to me one day and say they were my child. I would explode due to shock. Relief could be seen in Claire's eyes. Now that the question was done, we sat down in silence.

In the park, children were playing with each other. Looking at them, I could see a group of kids bullying that one kid. Kids are ruthless creatures, especially when they are born into wealthy families.

"Are we really going to watch this?"

"I ain't going to interfere. These kids must learn for themselves. Besides, their parents should be watching."

Claire's eyes widened upon hearing what I said. I had looked at where the bullied child's mother was, and she looked at her child with disgust. My favorability toward the woman had declined, but I did nothing but watch.

The woman saw my stare and glared at me back. I wouldn't flinch from someone like her. She was a shitty parent who shouldn't have brought her child here.

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing much. I was just interested in why you let your child be played like that."

With us staring, the mother initiated a conversation. Her tone was unfriendly when asking me a question.

"My child? That good for nothing should be grateful that I am even here! Him being picked on is his fault! He should stop being an idiot and fight back!"

Shouting like a madwoman, she had attracted the attention of others. Even the bullies and the mother's child watched this woman talk.

"Yikes..."

"What a horrible woman."

The mother's words were heard, and everyone's mouth inserted an insult towards the mother. Upset by everyone here, the mother fought back.

"You don't know me! Do you think I have it easy??? You're all lousy people with no worries! I bet you won't survive with your parents wealth!"

So the person before us was just a bitter woman. Even so, no one cared. Their hatred towards the woman had increased.

"This woman here thinks the world revolves around her. How pathetic."

"She lashes out her anger at everyone. How pitiful."

"SHUT UP!"

The mother had lost it after hearing everyone's insults. Claire and I watched the whole spectacle in amusement. Claire was surprisingly into this fight. I didn't think she was someone who enjoyed situations like these.

"Joe! From now on, you're disowned! I should have done this a while ago!"

Finding this situation too much, the mother walked around, leaving her child alone. To think we would find a child abandoned and, hearing the mother's words, the child would cry in sorrow.

After a while, some people tried to cheer up the boy. Adoption was something I would never consider. Taking care of other people, which I had no interest in, didn't sit well with me.

"I think it would be better for the mother to leave the child."

Claire spoke her mind. What happened next depended on whether it was the best choice for the child. The mother could not take care of her child, and the child would never be happy to be raised by a mother like that. It might not be the best choice unless someone can care for the child.

"When we have our child. I will take care of them with all my care."

Claire's determination for her future child had risen. I hope our child will be given love if I have a child. Who knew that a thought like this would come to my mind? This was the last thing I would think of if it were the old me.

After the short outburst from the woman, we left the part and went to the shopping district. The shopping district here was similar to the one on the island we lived in, but the only difference was the class of people.

This is a small town where only the rich could live, which means that other than the rich, only servants, slaves, and vessels could be seen. There were exceptions, but that was something that should rarely happen.

"Hey, Claire. There is an auction house. Want to see what they're selling?"

Whenever you were bored and had nothing to do, what could go wrong with an auction house? Maybe I could pick up something that I thought was interesting.

"Maybe there's a poisonous material I could buy."

If Claire hadn't mentioned that, I would have forgotten that she specializes in poison. With our destination set, we went into the auction house. Before we were allowed inside the main hall, we needed a pass.

"Welcome to Melody Drive's auction. What can I do for you?"

"I would like to sell everything I don't need."

"Are you new here? Before we buy your artifacts, we would need to check them out. In this auction house, we only offer and buy artifacts that are worthy of this place. Anything below par would be useless to us."

I dumped the thousands of useless artifacts that I had collected over the past few months on the ground. Of course, I had already checked out all my stash and had put these artifacts in the useless category. While it may be useless, it might be helpful to someone else.

The receptionist's jaw dropped, seeing me dump so many artifacts. While there was some junk collecting, this was something people wouldn't see too often.

"Could you collect anything first? We need a private room. We have a specialist that can organize everything within minutes."

"Oh. How proficient."

I clapped, seeing how much time could be saved because of one man's talent. We followed the man and went to a private room.

"Broccoli! We need your help!"

An elf named Broccoli, whom I had pitied from the bottom of my heart, had appeared. Broccoli was a little elf that had green hair like her name suggested. I wondered which parents would name their child like this.

"Not bad..."

Broccoli was going over all of the stuff that I had for sale. Looking at Broccoli's eyes, they were surprisingly moving so fast. She must be a genius if her thought process was that good. As the receptionist had said, the elf had finished everything in minutes.

She then organized everything they needed and put it in two piles. One side was useless, while the others they would buy.

I brought more useless items than useful ones to this auction. At least 80 percent of my artifacts were deemed useless, and put aside. I needed to sell them somewhere else.

"If you're planning to sell everything, we will be paying 230 billion tokens."

230 billion? It was much more than I thought. While I had five trillion, 230 was nothing to scuff at.

"Sure."

They paid me the amount and thanked me for the artifacts. Before we went back, they had something to say.

"Take it. I have a feeling you would be a frequent guest. You deserve something like this."

Looking at what I got, it was a VIP pass for the auction house. The benefits were unknown, as this was my first time entering the store.

"What benefit does this give?"

"You will get your own private room, and you will have access to seek out the items before the auction, and you can prepurchase items that are allowed."

And with that, we left the private room. The auction was already doing its thing, but nothing stopped us from entering. I wonder what items I could find here.