An extremely muscular rabbit over three meters tall groaned as he lay on a pink couch.

“Are you okay, Sir Pippin?” asked Rabbah, the mayor of Carrot, from beside Pippin.

“Do I look okay? I almost lost my other ear,” Pippin grumbled as he stroked his remaining ear.

“Then why did you even get involved?”

“What was I supposed to do, then?! Sit idly by and watch as those fucking chickens trespass on our territory?”

“So, it wasn’t because of Thumper?” Rabbah said as he stared at Pippin with narrowed eyes.

Thumper threw a massive tantrum after receiving contact from a human named Cheon Seong-Hwi. He threatened the adults that he would become the first rabbit to hang himself if they didn’t let him help his friend.

“Keh! No way. I wanted to check the gap between a World Ranker and myself,” Pippin remarked.

“So, how wide was it?”

“I thought I was almost there, but... I’m still one step behind. Tsk, what am I missing for that one step?”

Pippin frowned and wondered, What is the difference between me and the birdfolk World Ranker, Remus? Why am I a spare and he a main? I joined forces with the demon Taizet in the middle, and it still wasn’t enough. What is it? What am I missing?

He did not feel he lacked skill mastery, but Remus always had the upper hand in the crucial moments of their battle.

“How about you ask the Beast King?” Rabbah suggested.

“That nasty geezer? Do you think I’m insane?” Pippin replied as he turned away.

Beastfolk, an intermediate race, had produced four World Rankers, and the one with the highest rank was the Beast King, Modak. He was the Sixth Lord of the Ten Lords and Fiends, and the chairman of Barbaria. However, Pippin hated him because he treated everyone like children, just because he was old.

“Keh! I’ll figure it out by myself. Tell the geezer to wait as he witnesses the birth of the fifth beastfolk World Ranker!” Pippin shouted.

“Okay, okay,” Rabbah replied half-heartedly.

Pippin thought about ripping off Rabbah’s ears, but decided not to because his body was aching.

“That aside, I hope Thumper is doing okay,” Rabbah said worryingly, not knowing his ears had almost been ripped off.

Pippin shook his head and replied, “Why worry about a rabbit who ran away from home? Also, I’m sure he’s alright. He’s with a rather competent human.”

“That human? Did he seem competent?”

“Yeah. I could see it in his eyes. Not many can have eyes like those.”

Pippin recalled the human who had confidently met his eyes without fear. His eyes looked as if they had experienced pandemonium. They were filled with thick despair, but still contained hope. Such people tended to possess an unwavering will.

He chuckled and continued, “Even without him, there’s no need to worry about Thumper. After all, he possesses the most ferocious Beast Force of anyone in the history of Carrot.”

The true power of Beast Force, the secondary force of the beastfolk, appeared unconsciously. The power of a beastfolk was drastically amplified when one’s sense of reason disappeared, and they let their innate Beast Force take over.

It all depended on how well one could suppress their sense of reason and let their ferocious subconscious take over. Beast Force could now be increased through effort, thanks to stats in the Mirror World, but originally, one was born with it. Thumper was born with a highly potent Beast Force.

In terms of quality, his Beast Force surpasses mine. I was planning on raising him well as my successor, but he wandered off again, Pippin thought as he clicked his tongue.

“I worry for the opponent who angers him for real.”

***

“Waaah! I’m so glad, fox friends! I’m so glad!” Thumper hopped in place as he congratulated the reunion of the fox beastfolk. “Such a joyous moment calls for ice cream!”

He rummaged through the yellow randoseru backpack Jurie had given him with a built-in cooling skill, perfect for storing ice cream. He joyfully licked his vanilla ice cream as he watched the heartwarming reunion of the fox beastfolk. Just then, he noticed a black silhouette quickly hiding in an alley.

“Huh? A rabbit beastfolk? Wow!”

He was certain the silhouette was that of a rabbit beastfolk. He hopped toward it, excited to have found a fellow rabbit beastfolk.

***

“Huff! Huff! Kurgh!” Rabbit of Clan Earthly Branches groaned, running along the alleys as he frequently changed directions. “Dammit! Dammit!”

He recalled the black-haired Asian man, Cheon Seong-Hwi, an absolute monster. He would not have felt this way if he had lost against an ordinary Ranker, but not only could Seong-Hwi use an endless array of skills, but he also exuded bloodlust so chilling that it froze his blood. Most of all, he could freely use the secondary forces of other races. They never had a chance against him from the start.

Thank God I regained consciousness. I was almost captured!

Rabbit had been unconscious after being hit by Catastrophic Thunder, but the footsteps of the approaching spec force woke him up. He used his speed and agility to run to the secret passage. Although he was shocked to see Ox and Sheep, who had become minced meat, he managed to escape regardless.

“Huff! Huff! I have to... get out of here! I must get to... somewhere safe!” he mumbled as he pulled a green card from his pocket, his eyes gleaming with hope.

It was a Green Key, which allowed its holder to stay in the Cecil Hotel.

I’ll be safe in the Cecil Hotel! I must hurry and—

As Rabbit continued to run toward South Earth, he heard a cheerful voice.

“Wow! Hey, friend! Where are you going?”

Rabbit turned back in shock to see a small rabbit beastfolk around a meter tall.

“A rabbit...?” he mumbled.

“Yeah! I’m a rabbit beastfolk, too! I’m from Carrot! Where are you from?”

Rabbit realized the rabbit beastfolk was mistaking him for a fellow rabbit beastfolk. It was the same reason that transformation D Weapon users often received amity or animosity from beastfolk. Thankfully, the rabbit beastfolk seemed to see him in a good light.

I can’t make a commotion! This place is still filled with spec force members! Rabbit gulped as he thought about how to deceive the rabbit beastfolk.

“I-I don’t know where I’m from,” he said.

“What? Really?” Thumper asked as he widened his eyes.

“Y-yeah... When I was born... my parents weren’t anywhere.”

“Oh, no! Poor thing!” Thumper said sorrowfully. “But where are you going? Are you lost? Do you want my help? I know the Capital like the back of my hand now!”

Rabbit was thankful that the confident Thumper seemed stupid.

“T-that’d be great. It’s my first time here, and... I can’t find my way out of the alley,” he said as he grabbed a dagger from his back.

“Okay! Follow me!” Thumper shouted, happy that he could help a friend, and hopped along the alley.

Now’s my chance! Rabbit thought, charging at Thumper once he turned around.

However, Thumper turned back to Rabbit and dodged the dagger once it was about to stab his neck. The dagger was stuck in a wall, and Rabbit clicked his tongue as he glared at Thumper, exuding bloodlust.

“You’re fast for a little thing. No, am I just tired?” Rabbit wondered.

“You! You shouldn’t attack your kind! That’s super bad!” Thumper shouted, shocked by the fellow rabbit beastfolk’s attack.

Rabbit cackled and remarked, “My kind? Fuck that. I’m a human, you fucking beast!”

“Does that mean... You tricked me?”

“Of course, I did! Just let me cut off your head already! I have places to be!”

Rabbit charged at Thumper, who stared at him as his eyes began to turn gold.

“You... tricked me? You impersonated a rabbit—Huh?” Thumper looked down at his hand. The vanilla ice cream in his hand was gone, leaving only crumbs of the cone. “That was... my last ice cream!”

His eyes turned fully gold, and he was enveloped in an aura so ferocious that it could tear apart anything around it.

“Wha—”

“MY ICE CREEEAAAM!” Thumper screamed.

His lost sense of reason was replaced by instinctual wildness.

“GRRR!”

“W-what in the—”

The moonlight cast two shadows on the wall. They were initially the same size, but one shadow instantly became gigantic. The gigantic shadow charged at the small shadow and swung its fist. The small shadow instantly vanished like ice cream melting in the sweltering heat. Moments later, the gigantic shadow returned to its original size.

“Huh? Where am I?” Thumper wondered, looking around once he returned to his senses.

He was surrounded by rubble from a collapsed wall, and the ground was covered in something resembling tomato ketchup.

“What am I doing here? I was guiding my rabbit friend, and... Hm?”

He couldn’t remember anything after that. He tilted his head in wonder, and his pink ears twitched. Just then, he noticed a green card on the ground.

“What’s this?” Thumper said as he picked up the card, but had no idea what it was. “Wow! It looks like the coupon the coffee shop hands out! Could it be an ice cream coupon?”

Thumper took the card and hopped away from the alley.

***

Dozens of people were gathered on the ninth floor of the Empire State Building. The clicking of camera shutters echoed as they shouted across a closed door.

“Please, just give us one statement! Is it true that Cheon Seong-Hwi was the one who captured Kim Seo-Gyeong of Clan Earthly Branches?”

“How is that possible? Cheon Seong-Hwi is ranked 943rd, and Kim Seo-Gyeong is ranked 143rd! They are exactly eight hundred ranks apart!”

“Many Rankers are complaining they cannot trust the bureau’s ranking system! Please, just one statement!”

The ranking bureau, responsible for ranking humans, was on the other side of the door, in utter chaos.

“Chase those sons of bitches out of here!” shouted a middle-aged man in formal wear.

“W-we can’t do that. They can gather news materials by right. On top of that... they’re backed by major clans.”

“Dammit! Why do they have to get all over my ass about it?! I didn’t do anything fucking wrong!”

Jose Garcia, a man who looked like an ordinary salaryman, suffered the most in the Union lately. The ranking bureau determined the capabilities of every human to give them a rank for the purpose of preventing unnecessary deaths.

For example, an individual ranked 1,000 would not challenge someone ranked 500 because the ranks were determined by accounting for one’s stats, skills, items, and caliber. No idiot would pick a fight they couldn’t win.

Quantifying power prevented unnecessary quarrels and served as an acknowledgement of one’s power by others. It was no different in the animal kingdom; once the hierarchy was decided, peace continued until it was rechallenged.

However, an event unlike anything anyone had ever seen occurred; someone had shot up eight hundred ranks. This would destroy the existing order and would likely result in countless Rankers thinking it could be the same for them. This incident was bound to cause an uproar.

Cheon Seong-Hwi! It’s him again! Jose shouted inwardly.

He had been the talk of the Capital when he became a Semi Ranker after defeating Budiono of Hard Drug. A nobody instantly became a Semi Ranker, but the result was irrefutable because there had been testimonies from those who witnessed his battle. However, he caused yet another uproar in just a few months.

“What do we do, Director? We have to announce... a new ranking.”

“Goddammit!” Jose shouted.

There were too many irrefutable results and testimonies for them not to raise his rank, but there would be backlash from existing Rankers and clans if they did.

Why have there been such incidents back-to-back lately?!

The ranking was belatedly changed after the death of Filipe Kabuka, formerly sixth in the human ranking, was confirmed. Onie Yuki, formerly ninth, took his place. The ranking bureau determined that Yuki had killed Kabuka based on traces left on the scene and witness testimonies.

However, Gao Weiguang of Clan Seven Swords, seventh in the human ranking, expressed dissatisfaction over the decision, leaving the ranking bureau to deal with his complaints for a while.

Not just that, but based on information about the recent increased incidence of corpses missing hearts on South Earth, the Dark Human Nicholas Art, the Heart Collector, eighth in the human ranking, also seemed dissatisfied.

“Dammit, Cheon Seong-Hwi! What the hell is he? Category! Skills! Items! No information about him is concrete!” Jose screamed irritably.

There were considerable witness testimonies about Seong-Hwi, but the problem was their reliability. According to witnesses, he was sometimes a master of stealth, a genius at fire magic, a Grim Reaper who used a giant scythe like an extension of his body, or a swordsmanship expert.

“He’s in the building, right?” Jose asked.

“Yes. He’s currently meeting with the spec force captain, Douglas Montgomery.”

Jose frowned once he heard the spec force captain’s name. Douglas had come to the bureau a few days ago to criticize them for not doing their jobs right.

“Do you think he’d tell us about his category and main skills if we asked?” Jose wondered.

“Would you if you were in his shoes, Director?”

“Huuu... Not a chance.”

One’s private information was directly related to one’s survival. Even asking about it was incredibly rude. They couldn’t even pressure him with the backing of the Union because he had received a first-class murder license from the Tortoise Emperor, Lee Kang-San himself.

“Huuu... What do we do about this?”

As Jose continued to sigh, his subordinate cautiously suggested, “Why don’t we just raise his rank?”

“What? That’s an increase of eight hundred ranks! You think the ranking is like Bitcoin? Ranks don’t just suddenly rise by 800%!”

The subordinate shrugged and said, “Just call him a genius.”

“What?”

“Everything will be resolved if we just announce that Cheon Seong-Hwi’s potential is on par with that of Lee Kang-San.”

“Continue,” Jose remarked as he stroked his chin.

“Yes, sir! We make Cheon Seong-Hwi an outlier. Let’s exaggerate and call him World Ranker material, and put him on a pedestal as the hope of humanity.” As Jose continued to show interest, the subordinate continued, “Lee Kang-San also issued him the first-class murder license, right? We could make it so that he gives off a successor vibe—”

“We can’t do that. You don’t know what the Tortoise Emperor is like. If he got mad for real, he could wipe the Capital off the face of the Mirror World,” Jose said firmly.

The subordinate winced and continued cautiously, “Regardless, people have been calling Cheon Seong-Hwi Record Breaker lately.”

“Record Breaker?”

“Yes, just based on his feats. He does things that others can’t. I simply suggest we solidify the image that others have of him.”

“Solidify his image, huh?” Jose replied as he nodded.

The subordinate regained his confidence and claimed, “And once we make him a genius, some people will naturally oppose, complaining about what could be so special about him.”

“So?”

“Their attention will shift from the ranking bureau to Cheon Seong-Hwi. After all, if he truly is a genius rivaling Lee Kang-San, how could we be the judge of his potential?”

Jose snapped his fingers. He loved his subordinate’s idea of shifting public attention from the ranking bureau to Seong-Hwi.

“Very well. From now on, Cheon Seong-Hwi is a superstar-class genius who rose eight hundred ranks overnight!”

It couldn’t be helped even if Seong-Hwi were killed by Rankers dissatisfied with him. After all, countless flowers wilted before fully blooming. Rising stars were far too common in the Mirror World.

Jose picked up a pen and fixed the ranking.

Human Rank 143: Record Breaker, Cheon Seong-Hwi.

It was also the headline of the countless articles that would soon flood the Network.