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Victor raised his eyebrows and pointed a finger at Caelan. "Are you subtly saying I'm bad? That my gaming skills aren't as good as Cassius's?"
"Of course not," Caelan denied vehemently. "Everyone has a different attitude toward my illusion games. You just see it as a game and don't feel the need to be so serious, unlike Cassius who takes games very seriously and has a strong desire to win. You truly play games with a 'game' mentality."
Victor's expression relaxed, and he chuckled. "Right, right, right. I just don't take games seriously. If I were to get serious, how could Cassius possibly be my opponent?"
Ah, nineteen years old and still as easy to fool as a child. I wonder if he's intentionally accepting this explanation.
Caelan took out the newly engraved, brand-new version and handed it to Victor. "Precisely because of your attitude toward games, I specially created a completely new version for you that's slightly different from what others play. It's very special. An exclusive, unique version just for you." Caelan was almost out of excuses.
Victor's face lit up as he took the runestone tablet. "Very good, very good, that's more like it! I still consider you a friend. Tomorrow, my family's caravan will bring some delicious Earth Dragon meat from the Dragonspire Empire. I'll send you some to try. Oh, and what's special about this game you gave me?"
"The one for Cassius is the home version, with only five lives. Once they're gone, they're gone—you can't continue or get more lives, you have to start over. The arcade version, which is the one played in stores, allows you to continue with ten more lives, for a total of fifteen lives." Caelan himself knew these settings were unreasonable, but he'd just make do for now. Anyway, he was the authority, and no one could refute whatever he did. "Your version is amazing—you start directly with fifteen lives. Absolutely unique."
Victor nodded, clearly satisfied.
The two chatted idly for a while. After Victor went to watch others play to learn from their experience, Caelan pondered the unfair treatment between the home version and the arcade version and reluctantly came up with a way to compensate.
He acted on the thought immediately. Found the smallest size 1 runestone, input what he'd just conceived, then activated it with a mana crystal on a relatively open and conspicuous wall that everyone could easily see. He adjusted the angle and projected the image onto the wall.
Some guests who hadn't gotten to play noticed Caelan's action and looked toward the wall.
At the very top, it read: Elite Player Completion Board
Then came the content:
Elemental Contra
Rank, Name, Affiliation, Deaths on Completion, Difficulty, Score, Time
First Place: Quinn of House Stormcall, Crimson Academy Third Year Class Zero, 2, Normal, None, 17 minutes 36 seconds
Second Place: Joyce of House Crimsonsword, Crimson Academy Fifth Year Class Zero, 4, Normal, None, 16 minutes 12 seconds
Third Place: Cassius of House Everflame, Crimson Academy First Year Class Zero, 0, Easy, None, 14 minutes 29 seconds
Fourth Place: Cora of House Fishbrook, Mare Street Fishbrook Tofu Shop, 1, Easy, None, 14 minutes 11 seconds
Fifth Place: Unknown, Unknown, 2, Easy, None, 13 minutes 57 seconds
Sixth Place: Rowan of House Peachtree, Crimson Academy Second Year Class Twelve, 2, Easy, None, 15 minutes 23 seconds
Seventh Place: Tobias of House Turncoil, Whitewood Middle School Fifth Year Class Three, 2, Easy, None, 16 minutes 06 seconds
Eighth Place: Unknown, Unknown, 2, Easy, None, 16 minutes 07 seconds
Ninth Place: Adrian of House Winebrew, 2, Easy, None, 16 minutes 31 seconds
Tenth Place: Garrett of House Stonefist, 3, Easy, None, 13 minutes 13 seconds
After that was the Super Mario leaderboard, which no one paid much attention to—only seeing that first place was still Quinn of House Stormcall.
Next was Tank Battle, and first place was surprisingly a dwarf uncle from Mare Street.
Salamander—too few people played it, so no one had completed it yet.
Finally, Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors. Currently no one had completed it either, but now, the first thought in the minds of those who saw the leaderboard was to get their names on it.
"What? So many people have completed Tank Battle?" Victor leaned over, his tone a bit disbelieving. How many days had it been?
"This game isn't difficult. Besides Elemental Contra, this was the first game to be completed," Caelan replied.
"Alright, does 'Unknown' mean you don't know or aren't sure who it is?" Victor asked.
"Yes. Beyond a certain range, I can't sense who it is."
"So you can name everyone in the academy?"
"Pretty much. As long as I've heard and seen them once, I can remember."
"My goodness, are all you Illusionists so abnormal? No wonder the Weave wants to weaken you." Victor gave a thumbs-up, genuinely shocked.
With the existence of the mind palace, he couldn't forget even if he wanted to, Caelan thought with a touch of pride. However, relying on himself to record wasn't a long-term solution. Once his mana grew stronger, for the next game, he'd have to engrave an input method so they could enter their own names after completion.
It was clear that displaying this leaderboard had quite an effect. At least, the people still in the store were noticeably more motivated to play, all eager to be the first on the Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors leaderboard. If not first, then at least in the top ten. And those who played for a while and found the game too difficult unconsciously turned their attention to other games—especially Salamander, which currently had no one on the board. They might be able to contend for that one.
Caelan could only smirk at this.
The leaderboard also brought another benefit: it spurred another wave of purchases for other games. Many who had some spare coin and hadn't bought other games before now eagerly opened their wallets and bought some. Caelan was deeply gratified.
"Sigh, if only Tank Battle could also be cheated..." Victor murmured for a moment, then silently looked at Caelan.
Caelan also looked at Victor expressionlessly. The two remained silent for a long time, until Victor finally gave in. "Alright, alright, I'll just complete it myself."
"The fewer deaths, the higher your rank," Caelan added.
Victor felt the road ahead was long and arduous, but in a moment, he rallied again.
"It's rare to encounter something so fun. I really should take it seriously."
Caelan was noncommittal.
At six in the evening, to everyone's reluctance, Caelan announced the closing of the shop. After everyone and Oliver left, Caelan tidied up the shop briefly. In the evening, he went to that Fishbrook Tofu shop for dinner.
The owner and proprietress was Cora of House Fishbrook, who was ranked fourth on the Elemental Contra leaderboard. When Caelan entered the shop, she was playing Elemental Contra. Without even needing to use his abilities, Caelan knew she was currently playing on Normal difficulty, had reached the fifth level, and was on her last life.
He ordered the spiciest Fishbrook Tofu, slurped it down in a few quick bites, paid, and left under the astonished gaze of the staff.
Hmm, not spicy at all.
Before leaving, Caelan saw the proprietress restarting a new game.
Upon returning to his residence, the shop in front had already been cleaned spotless by Ella. Caelan placed the runestone for the leaderboard next to the promotional animation, letting it loop continuously.
He closed the shop door, stretched his limbs a bit, then pulled out the box containing unengraved runestone tablets and the box with mana crystals, and began diligently engraving.
After working for an hour, he found that he could now engrave nearly seventy copies of Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors in an hour. It seemed his mana had increased quite a bit. If so, that merchant Riverdale's order could be completed in even less time.
However, even if his mana were the same as before, there would still be no pressure. Currently, only Chronicle of the Fierce Tortoise Warriors took a bit longer to engrave. For other games, including Elemental Contra, Caelan could now engrave at least two hundred per hour.
For every 300 Power stones bonus chapter.