Kill The Old Ones!

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The sudden appearance of the phenomenon in the skies startled everybody in Central City.

Nobody was warned about this. Nobody was expecting this to appear.

Some people were shocked not just because of this sudden appearance but also because they recognized it. Some felt excited and felt the anticipation rising.

”The city’s honor roll is manifesting. What’s it going to be?”

That’s right. The massive ancient scroll that suddenly appeared above Central City was the Honor Roll—an ancient phenomenon that only appears when historic or incredible achievements are made. These achievements will be ranked and immortalized in this scroll, reminding everybody of the existence of the person who worked hard for the specific achievement.

”It’s here again. What is it this time?”

”Well, this one’s a bit different from the previous one.”

”How?”

”The previous one was the World’s Honor Roll and only revealed the Martial Arts List. Basically, it looks at the whole civilization, or the entirety of the human race. The Green Lotus Core Technique, created by [REDACTED], qualified for the world record and caused the World’s Honor Roll to appear.”

”It would make sense because the Green Lotus Core Technique was just that good. It basically raised the qualifications of the human race as a whole. It would take time, yes, but it’s so easy to do so there’s just no excuse to not use the technique.”

”And this one?”

”It’s the City’s Honor Roll. Someone in Central City achieved a feat that broke the city’s record. Whatever it will reveal wouldn’t be as impressive as [REDACTED]’s achievement, but still pretty impressive. The major difference is that the City’s Honor Roll doesn’t reward the record breaker. It just lists the achievement and gives the record breaker some bragging rights.”

”Ah, I see.”

The appearance of the city’s honor roll did not escape the attention of the city lord’s mansion. Well, considering the commotion it caused, it’d be harder to not notice it.

It was, after all, up there in the clouds.

After around 15 minutes since its appearance, enough time for everybody in the city to step outside to take a look, the scroll slowly unfolded.

[Dungeon Clearing Rankings (Letter Kingdom - Central City)]

These words revealed the category of the achievement, and it was enough to cause everybody’s eyes to squint in anticipation.

Then, once the scroll unfolded completely, the whole list of dungeon-clearing achievements became visible to everybody. Again, this list was localized to those who were born and raised within the Central City.

Some people exclaimed when they saw familiar names. It reminded them of the times when the city’s honor roll materialized to write those names. Some of the names in there were still alive, and when the owners of those names saw the list, they felt nostalgia hitting them hard.

Other names that should’ve been there but are not anymore indicate that they’re either no longer in this world or have died.

After a minute, the list began shuffling. A golden line began rising above the list like a rocket. It only slowed down once it reached the top 10 list, which was more than enough to make a lot of people gasp in surprise.

Their surprise turned into shock once the golden line slowly crept up to the first place, emitting a golden radiance that was almost blinding.

Once the radiance faded, the new name that occupied the top of the list was permanently etched on the scroll. It reads:

**

[Dungeon Clearing Rankings (Letter Kingdom: Central City)]

#1. Soren Marek Vire (20 yrs.)—Banished Arms Clan

Stage Cleared - 100 (Sea Biome - Flood Dragon King (Boss))

Record Time - 1 hour, 35 minutes, 42 seconds.

Solo Clear

Achievement Grade - SSS Rank

Unique Achievement—Mr. Soren Marek Vire has cleared all 100 Dungeon Stages Solo.

**

The shock rippled across the whole city. Some people’s eyes constricted, some inhaled sharply, some lost their minds, and some just completely blanked out.

”Holy shit!!”

”Seriously?”

”What the fuck? Solo clear? On stage 100? That’s insane!”

”What is he? A young god? What the fuck?”

”I mean, I knew he was strong, but holy shit! A solo clear?”

”It’s just a simple solo clear either! Look at the record time! He did it in only a little bit more than an hour and a half!”

”Holy crap, yeah! That’s insane! I remember hearing that Stage 100 gives you a full 24-hour time limit to clear it. Geez, that’s crazy!”

”At 20 years old, by the way.”

”SSS Rank evaluation, from the local honor roll. That’s a historical record if I ever saw one.”

”Yeah, his name will be immortalized from here on out. He might not be rewarded from this achievement, but the honor this brings to his name and his clan? That will last for hundreds of years.”

”He’s crazy. He cleared all 100 dungeon stages solo? Brr, I can’t imagine doing that. I can’t even imagine myself clearing the spider biome solo.”

”Dude, I can’t even get past the Orc Swamps!”

”With this, the Banished Arms Clan completely cemented themselves as a true Ancient Martial Arts Clan.”

”That clan used up all of their luck and fortune just to give birth to Soren Marek Vire. And you know what? I’ll call that worth it.”

Everybody in Central City were losing their minds right now. Ren had become a hot topic again, and this time his achievement was even more impressive than his feats during the city-wide tournament.

The Four Heavenly Kings of Central City, the heirs of the four ancient martial families, the three sects, the two guilds, and most importantly, the City Lord’s Mansion were all shaken at what they saw.

Adrian Arclight, Lucian Skyrend, and Elena Frostmere had the same thought: ’The gap is this huge? ’

Out of three of them, only Adrian managed to reach Stage 80, and he’s barely making it out alive. To him, the horrors of stage 80 were no joke; even with his outrageous talent and skill, he could barely keep himself alive.

Comparing that to Ren, who had basically conquered every single dungeon stage, makes him look inferior. It was so outrageous that he couldn’t even imagine how Ren did it.

And if Adrian already feels this way, imagine what it’s like for others...

On the other hand, Seraphina looked at Ren’s name like she wanted to wipe it out from the face of reality but was powerless to do so.

Her life had been miserable since he defeated her. And while she’s still the heir of the White Haven Clan, in truth, they couldn’t want to get rid of her. Her elders were practically eager to marry her off to the Heaven’s Reach Clan.

Hell, they’d probably even accept if Lucian told them that he could only accept her as one of his concubines.

She had completely fallen from grace, and she blamed it on herself but mostly Ren. She badly wanted to warp reality and erase him completely from existence, but she can’t.

She hates him from the bottom of her heart. And the more impressive he was, the more she hated him.

Seraphina knows that she’s being unfair and irrational. She should be aiming her hatred to the clan since they were the root cause of this all. But as bad as they are, they’re family. It was easier to aim her anger at an outsider and a rival instead of her own flesh and blood.

To be fair, though, she knew she wasn’t alone. She could already imagine the clan head seething at the sight of the Banished Arms spawn entering the city’s honor roll.

This was the kind of glory that the White Haven Clan have been chasing after for so long, one that would solidify their position as a true Ancient Martial Clan and would pave the way for their climb to the top.

Seraphina originally had the highest hope of giving that to them, but her momentum was crushed by those accursed thugs.

Seeing their rival clan, the ones they thought were beneath them, achieve something they were originally striving for and getting it basically for free, was just such a bitter pill to swallow.

The worst part is that they can’t even do anything about it. They’re under scrutiny from the City Lord’s Mansion. And with Ren’s name having this much weight in this city? Anything that happens to him will automatically put their clan in a bad light.

Meanwhile, in the City Lord’s Mansion...

Secretary Alice practically bolted to her boss’ office. Once she was there, the city lord gave her one look that told her everything that she needed to know.

She already congratulated Ren for this massive achievement and already gave him her word that the City Lord Mansion will do the rest.

Alice sat down on her office chair and began filling out the submission for Ren’s seeded participation in the City vs. City Tournament. As she was tapping away at her virtual keyboard, she saw her boss watching a video.

It was the video replay of Ren clearing stage 100. She didn’t see everything, but from what little she saw, her mind and her heart dared to hope.

’The City Lord expects a lot from you, Mr. Vire. I hope you won’t fail him.’