Chương 46: Ace

I tilted my head, staring at the glowing wall of digital fame while my brain tried to process the sheer weight of all that gold-plated ego. I shifted my weight, trying to find a comfortable way to stand in my mismatched gear while absorbing the fact that we were staring at the literal gods of this world.

"So, hold on a second," I said, pointing a thumb at the name Hinata Yamamoto.

"Does this Ace title mean she is the one running the whole show? Is she the Guild Leader?" June didn't even look at me. She just stared at the leaderboard with a gaze so sharp it probably could have sliced through the ivory walls of the building. She let out a long, weary sigh, the kind of sound a queen makes when a peasant asks her why she wears a crown.

"Do try to keep up, Arthur, it is truly not that taxing," she remarked, her posh British accent making the correction feel like a light slapping of a glove across my face.

"No, the Guild Leader is the administrative head of the organization. The Ace, however, is the member who has accumulated the most staggering array of achievements. It is a title reserved for those who possess such an absurdly high level of skill that they are considered utterly invaluable. They are the tactical center of gravity around which the rest of the guild rotates."

"Right, okay," I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck.

"So she is essentially the LeBron James of the top tier players. That sounds like a pretty big deal." June turned her head just enough to give me a look that was roughly ninety percent pity and ten percent genuine concern for my intellect.

"Calling it a big deal is a laughably quaint understatement," she continued, her voice dripping with royal condescension.

"But one does not become an Ace simply by being the most competent person in a room of mediocrity. Your guild must be prominent for the title to carry any weight whatsoever. If you are the finest member of a pathetic, weak guild, your status is effectively meaningless. To be the Ace of a truly powerful guild is a feat so significant that other organizations will shamelessly attempt to bribe and sway you into their ranks. It is the pinnacle of social and martial standing."

Dimitri stepped forward then, his massive iron cuffed boots thundering against the floor like a pair of falling safes. He looked up at the golden text of the Aetherion Sovereign with a smile of such pure, unadulterated warmth that I half expected a choir of angels to start humming in the background.

"And that, my friend, is exactly how the Aetherion Sovereign came to be!" he boomed, his thick Russian accent turning the history lesson into a grand, motivational epic.

"That guild is not merely a collection of players! It is a glorious tapestry woven from the Aces of many different powerful guilds who chose to unite their spirits into one super guild! It is a powerhouse consisting only of the most magnificent players in all of Eteria. And even in that sea of legends, Hinata Yamamoto stands alone as the Ace of Aces!" If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I stood there for a second, feeling like the literal definition of an NPC. Honestly, Hinata sounded terrifyingly powerful, like she was the protagonist of her own high-budget anime while I was just some background character hired to stand in the crowd and make shocked gasps every time she breathed in the direction of a boss. I was essentially the guy whose only job was to provide the "Whoa, did you see that?" reaction shots while the real heroes did the heavy lifting.

June didn't seem particularly interested in joining my pity party. She turned on her heel and began to stride away, giving her hair a sharp, regal flick that probably required its own physics engine.

"The girl should enjoy her little moment in the sun while she still can," June remarked, her posh British accent cutting through the noisy hall like a diamond-tipped drill.

"She ought to remain vigilant, for I am coming to dismantle her legacy and claim that throne as my own. It is only a matter of time before the natural order is restored." She didn't even look back to see if we were following, she just assumed the universe would naturally gravitate toward her. Fiona and Dimitri didn't miss a beat, trailing after her like a loyal, mossy entourage and a walking mountain of iron.

Dimitri gave me a quick, encouraging thumbs-up as he passed, his face still glowing with that relentless, soul-crushing optimism. I stayed behind for a heartbeat, casting one final, lingering look at the leaderboard. The golden light of Hinata's name seemed to mock my own mismatched gear and general lack of a plan.

"Being the Ace of the most powerful guild in existence," I whispered to the empty air, feeling a tiny twinge of genuine envy.

"Must be a pretty sweet gig. You probably never have to worry about looking like a thrift store explosion." With a sigh, I turned away from the shimmering wall of fame and jogged to catch up with the others, leaving the crowd of awestruck players behind. The four of us stood huddled together at the grand entrance of the Player Center, looking like a collection of mismatched action figures that had been dumped out of a toy box.

I took a deep breath, scanning the crowd as I tried to wrap my head around our group's glaring tactical holes.

"Right, team, listen up," I said, leaning in as if I were about to drop some top-secret military intelligence.

"We are officially one soul short of a full house. We need to figure out exactly what kind of candidate we are looking for to fill that final slot. We have Fiona covering the nature magic and bear-shaped violence, June is our resident human disaster, I am providing the ranged support, and Dimitri is a walking fortress of positivity. It is pretty clear that we are missing a dedicated, meat and potatoes melee physical damage dealer.

We need someone who can stand right in the thick of it and help Dimitri soak up the punches whenever Fiona is busy playing doctor. In my head, I am picturing a massive, barrel-chested guy lugging around a sword the size of a surfboard. Someone who looks like they eat iron for breakfast and forget to chew." I was really getting into the flow of my breakdown, feeling quite proud of my sudden burst of common sense.

I looked over at my companions to see if they were following my logic, but I realized quite quickly that they were not listening to a single word coming out of my mouth. Their eyes were locked onto something right beside me. I blinked, realizing there was a distinct presence hovering just a few inches to my left that I had somehow managed to completely miss while I was busy listening to the sound of my own voice. I turned my head slowly, and my gaze landed on a girl standing perfectly still.

She was looking down at the cobblestones as if they contained the secrets of the universe, her face completely obscured by a curtain of shoulder length hair that was as black as a digital void. She was just there, standing in the middle of our group like a quiet shadow that had decided to stop and join the conversation without actually saying anything.