Chapter 013: Number of Factions
In the class group.
After skipping the topic of sharing the same name as the top of the list and chatting idly for a bit, Yan Cang logged out.
Thinking back carefully, he felt that Sister Qiao seemed to have deliberately steered the conversation away just now.
Sister Qiao wasn't much older than the classmates in the class and was usually easygoing with jokes, but this reaction felt a bit forced.
Could it be...
In truth, Yan Cang wasn't entirely without a secret thrill of showing off about the "identity exposure."
But as soon as he thought about becoming the focus of gossip among his acquaintances, he started overthinking and imagined it would be incredibly awkward.
So he subconsciously resisted it.
It was a contradictory yet perfectly normal mindset.
If he truly wanted to hide it completely, with his talent, the "Great Fate Art," he could easily distort everyone's perception, making them overlook the absurd gap on the ranking list.
For the all-powerful force of fate, it was just a matter of expending a bit more energy.
But Yan Cang didn't think about that, not even a flicker of it crossing his mind.
It was simply a matter of indifference.
As for Teacher Qiao Yue, she might have suspected something but didn't directly call him out.
Yan Cang, being carefree, brushed it off and eagerly dove into lurking in various corners of the Fate Net.
At that moment, there were almost only two topics on the entire Fate Net: celebrating the Huaxia Faction's top ranking and heated discussions about the overwhelming gap of the top individual on the contribution ranking.
As for the faction being first, Yan Cang wasn't as excited as others.
Having been born near the 2010s and growing up during the nation's prosperous period, he had a natural confidence in this.
Moreover, as the creator of the Fate Net, he knew better than anyone the massive disadvantage other factions faced without its support.
In his eyes, the Huaxia Faction ranking first was simply a given.
Of course, there was one thing he hadn't anticipated.
He had initially thought India, with its population advantage, would be the main competitor in the early stages, with Huaxia later pulling far ahead.
That was how the original script had imagined it.
But he hadn't expected that opponent to suffer an "internal split" right from the start and blow itself up.
It was honestly hilarious.
And although he had mentally prepared himself for the faction ranking, seeing the celebratory posts on the forum still stirred a sense of excitement in him.
Then, he turned his attention to the topics related to himself.
How did the top of the list gain so much faction contribution?
Everyone's guesses almost all pointed to the Fate Net.
After all, it was too obvious.
Beyond that, it was hard to find any other reasonable explanation.
Some further speculated that the [Fate Net] was an incredible treasure the top of the list had opened from a supply box.
Whether this guess was correct or not, it unexpectedly flushed out a bunch of people who had been "quietly making a fortune" before.
They all showed off the good stuff they had opened—there were all sorts of bizarre Mysterious Artifacts, and even a flying sword that made Yan Cang a bit tempted.
"Good grief, they were all hiding things!"
Now, realizing that their "treasures" were nothing compared to the Fate Net, they just broke down and gave up.
Of course, the most devastated were those who only opened junk. They originally thought everyone's start was about the same, but... reality was harsh.
In truth, very few people actually got anything good from the supply crates.
It only seemed like a lot because they all showed up at once.
After scrolling through everything, not a single treasure could even come close to the Fate Net.
This actually made the vast majority, who had opened ordinary items, feel a bit more balanced.
Watching these discussions, Yan Cang's lips curled up slightly.
The Fate Net was just his Talent "Creation." Even if something comparable existed, so what?
But could the supply boxes in the Trial Ground really produce a "cheat device" on the level of the Fate Net?
He thought it was extremely unlikely.
Not only that, but others shared the same view.
Seeing that everyone thought they were the Chosen One with incredible luck, Yan Cang felt a little smug, thinking, "Only I know the truth."
"But opening a Talent Fruit from a supply crate right at the start—my luck really is pretty good, isn't it?"
Then...
Amid all the excitement and praise, a particular post caught Yan Cang's attention:
"You wouldn't believe it until you see it—the number of factions in the Trial Ground is actually in the hundreds of thousands!"
"Huh?"
The moment he read the title, Yan Cang was a bit stunned.
There were only about two hundred or so modern countries on Earth, right?
What did hundreds of thousands of factions even mean?
Although he understood that the factions were divided entirely based on each person's "inner inclinations."
That is, if someone's heart leaned toward independence, then that person alone was a faction.
If a group of like-minded people came together, they would be grouped as one.
The existence of several factions from the Indian System on the Faction Ranking had already perfectly proven this.
But he had estimated there would only be a few thousand at most, maybe even just tens of thousands?
He never expected it to break into six digits!
If this data was real, it meant that aside from some ethnic groups unwilling to submit to local governments, there were undoubtedly plenty of people "founding their own nations."
In the twenty-first century, there were still this many ambitious people on Earth?
Half-doubting, Yan Cang went to check the Faction Ranking and confirmed it was true.
Scrolling to the bottom of the list, it reached over two hundred thousand.
He was momentarily speechless.
Some people wanted to rule the world with a nine-second time stop, others just wanted to act out a real-life adult film with a three-minute time stop, and some had nothing but still harbored grand ambitions, defying heaven and earth...
"Impressive!"
Other than those two words, he felt there was nothing more to say.
Then, after browsing the Fate Net Forum for a while longer.
As if remembering something, Yan Cang clicked into Yu Jing's post.
He secretly glanced at that selfie.
He then looked at the comment section, thinking gleefully to himself, "Ranked second on the contribution ranking, let's see how you explain this."
Earlier, when he first heard about the ranking being opened, besides immediately thinking of his identity being exposed, the second thing that came to mind was the fun to be had with this woman.
After all, given the content of this post, Yu Jing shouldn't have had so many contribution points.
The other post was also published anonymously.
She was bound to face scrutiny, and it might even cause her persona to collapse.
And that was indeed the case.
There were some recently posted comments inside, all suspecting that the thread starter was just someone with the same name as the second-ranked person.
This heightened Yan Cang's schadenfreude.
However, when Yu Jing's own confirmation reply appeared, the atmosphere instantly shifted.
The comment section suddenly turned into a "praise group."
Almost no one delved into the specific sources of her faction contributions, let alone questioned that a single "inspirational post" like this wasn't enough to earn so many contributions.
This was completely different from what he had imagined.
Perhaps it was because, under the impact of the astronomical number at the top of the ranking, people were too lazy to ponder the mere few hundred thousand faction contributions of the second-ranked person.
So... she managed to smooth things over like this?
"Sigh!"
Not seeing the expected scene, Yan Cang felt a bit disappointed.
He stubbornly scrolled through the comment section.
Then, he saw another reply from Yu Jing.
She claimed to have just obtained a weapon from a treasure chest, hinting that she was about to change her image, and even attached a picture of a large handgun.
"Is she... turning her image around?"
"But she just happened to get such a big killer? Is her luck that good?"
Yan Cang was a bit skeptical.
After thinking it over, he couldn't sit still and used his talent to take a small peek at the fate trajectories behind it.
The result revealed that Yu Jing had actually gotten this handgun from a supply box yesterday.
"Sigh, the more beautiful a woman, the more she lies."
Yan Cang deeply felt the truth of this saying at the moment: "Wuji's mother was right."
And in that brief peek, he also saw that Yu Jing had indeed gotten something good from a treasure chest today.
This made his fingers itch.
He couldn't help but turn his gaze to his own supply box, quietly sitting in the corner of the wooden cabin.