Taking the Mafia to the Magic World
chapter-956

"Here we are." Enoch opened his mouth as he looked at the gigantic billboard that covered one of the facades of the Combat Center's administration building.

It was easily the largest billboard Vicente had ever seen in his two lives, over 500 meters long and 50 meters high, extremely bright and clear, showing the top 100 positions of one of the Center's ranks.

"The Center's primary display shows the top 100 positions of each rank daily. It shows the ranks of Outer Disciples, Inner Disciples, and Core Disciples 80% of the time. 20% of the time it shows the ranks of the Outer Elders. The other Elders and Masters don't have their ranks displayed, so we can't easily see them. But they do exist and are important in the upper echelons."

As he listened to Enoch's explanation, Vicente observed the divisions in this magnificent screen. Closer to its center were large squares, similar to status cards, with the appearances of the most important names of the rank. On the sides, in smaller squares that were harder to see, were the worst ranked of the top 100.

Vicente could easily see that some of them had nicknames instead of their real names, some of them carried flags and symbols that were famous in Light Cay.

Enoch had been introduced to this place in the past and knew what might be on Vicente's mind now. He said, "The major forces on Light Cay are the groups behind the trade on our island. For them, their 'poster boys' are crucial in maintaining the dominance of their families and groups.

It's not uncommon for a large family of blacksmiths to invest in members from outside the family to draw attention to their weaponry. Such groups give free artifacts to great talents youths, resources to strengthen them, and opportunities. In return, these talents represent their forces in competitions, attract business, and more.

Look at number 78, Eli from Hot Threads. Hot Threads is the name of a major craft store. He usually uses Hot Threads artifacts in his fights and helps sell the brand."

Vicente's eyes narrowed as he remembered how sports had been exploited by the aggressive marketing of large corporations on Earth.

'What a crock of shit! Even in the world of cultivation, there's something like that?' He asked himself, making a strange expression.

However, he wouldn't judge others for using such a strategy. It made sense to gain resources to promote a brand. In fact, in the world of cultivation, it made even more sense to "sell" one's soul for opportunities like the one these people had.

This could be the chance for them to grow faster, to avenge their defeats, to live longer, or even to live better. In such a world, it was worth everything to grow.

But Vicente didn't like these methods.

'Now I understand the {Affiliation} part better... It seems like they take that factor seriously here.' Vicente looked at the top of the rank, where he saw an extremely absurd score.

[99.983 pts.]

"What are those points?" He asked, as he had heard nothing from Prisiche about it until now.

"Every time you fight, you gain points until you leave your hierarchical rank. If you defeat an opponent of the same strength as you, you'll get between 10 and 100 points. It also depends on your opponent's rank. If you face someone weaker and win, your gain will be lower, between 1 and 50 points. If you beat someone stronger, between 100 and 200 points.

It's variable, and it's best not to try to guess how many points you can earn by challenging someone. Once you make the challenge official, the number of points you can earn will be announced before the match.

Losers also receive points, but less. Usually the loser gets 10% of the winner's points."

Vicente looked into Enoch's eyes. "Why?" He asked in surprise.

Enoch laughed, showing his sharp snake teeth. "You must think it's strange to reward a loser. But that's because the sect values those who fight official contests. Even a loser who doesn't give up is more valuable than a coward who hides from fighting.

Anyway, because of this, it is difficult to reach the top 100. Every time one of the top 100 disciples fights, they earn points, whether they win. So, in order to reach them, you have to perform almost perfectly or wait for one of them to move up.

When an Outer Disciple becomes an Inner Disciple, their record is erased from our rank and entered into the Inner Disciple's rank, and so on."

"I see." Vicente turned his eyes back to the rank, curious to fight an official match. "How do I challenge someone? Are there any limits that prevent me from challenging them?"

"No. You can challenge even the number one in the rank right now. But the ranked game has its order. Everyone wants to fight the strongest, so some disciples have 10, 15, 20 challenges waiting for them.

If you receive more than one challenge, you can choose to ignore some and accept the one you are interested in first. Depending on how influential you are, this may allow you to never have to accept some uninteresting challenges... In other words, challenging the top of the rankings is hard to do well. In short, it would depend on whether the challenger wanted to fight you. But they usually only fight other well-positioned people.

Fortunately, disciples are required to take up to 3 challenges per month. This is especially true when a disciple with a lower rank than the challenger is behind the challenge. So if the challenger has up to two challenges besides yours, you have a 100% chance of getting your fight against that individual. Beyond that, there are no guarantees."

Vicente liked the rules of the Combat Center. It really wasn't fair to force the top warriors to fight the weaker ones who were only interested in scoring points. On the other hand, there was the possibility of promotion, as long as one had the strength.

The only downside was the possibility of being seen by people from all over the island, but that was a downside he would have to accept.

Clenching his fists, Vicente was determined to spend some of his time over the next few days working out who would be his first opponent in a ranked match.

"Just make sure you do the challenge 24 hours before you want to fight. Fights will take place at least one day after the challenge. But they can also take days to happen, depending on how quickly the challenger accepts."

"I see."

With that settled, Vicente would soon follow only Prisiche through the Combat Center to return to his study routine there.