Himuro Leina was standing ten feet away. She wasn't looking at her.
She was staring up at the name TSUKISHIRO SHIINA with a look of cold, quiet devastation.
She turned and walked away, ignoring everyone. To her, Rank 2 in Math through Rank 4,000 were all the same. Dust.
"Found us," Maya exhaled, scanning the scrolling list. She paused, her finger hovering over the screen. "Wait... that can't be right."
Rank 315: Sterling Leo (Score: 350)
Rank 802: Tachibana Maya (Score: 302)
Leo stared at the screen, his eyebrows knitting together in genuine confusion. He pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of the board, zooming in on the list of top scores above them.
"315?" Leo muttered. "This doesn't add up."
"What's wrong?" Maya asked, looking at her own number with dismay. "Rank 802... I thought 302 was a good score. How am I almost out of the top thousand?"
"Look at the board," Leo said, pointing at the static list of top scores. "I've been counting the rows. Look. Rank 1 is Tsukishiro Shiina. Rank 2 is Tokugawa Shinichi with a score of 401. Shinozaki Arisa got 400. The next scores below her are 399, 398, 397, and so on. I counted exactly '52 unique scores' above mine. 52 rows."
He turned to Maya, frustrated.
"If there are only 52 scores better than mine, I should be **Rank 53**. Maybe Rank 60 if there's a glitch. But 'Rank 315?' That's a drop of over two hundred places! How does the math even work? Is the school system broken?"
Maya blinked, counting the rows herself. "You're right... I count about 100 scores above me. So I should be 'Rank 101'. Why am I 'Rank 802?' Did they penalize us? Did we lose hundreds of ranks because of a typo?"
They stood there, the "Prince" and "Princess" of Class 1-4, looking completely baffled by the cruel arithmetic of Zenith Academy. To them, ranking had always been a simple list: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th. They couldn't see the invisible ghosts pushing them down.
They turned to Albert simultaneously. It was a reflex honed over ten years. When the world didn't make sense, you asked Albert.
"Albert," Leo said. "Fix this. Why am I Rank 315 when there are only 52 scores above me?"
Albert sighed. He adjusted his glasses, shifting his gaze from the screen to his friends.
They look like puppies who just realized the ball doesn't come back when you throw it into a river. If you look at it at first glance, in a 500-item exam, the perfect 500 is Rank 1 and the 0 is Rank 501st. So the last place should be Rank 501st. But that's not how it actually works. Leo and Maya are thinking in 'Ordinal Numbers' (1st, 2nd, 3rd). They need to think in 'Cardinal Volume'.
"The system isn't broken," Albert said calmly. "You are calculating your rank based on the number of scores. The school calculates rank based on the number of humans."
"What does that mean?" Maya asked, tilting her head.
"It's called **Standard Competition Ranking**," Albert said. "It's a dense-gravity system. Imagine a 10-Student Model."
-
Albert wrote on the a notebook to illustrate:
5-item quiz
Student A: 5/5 -> [Rank 1: Perfect Score]
Student B: 4/5 -> [Rank ?]
Student C: 4/5 -> [Rank ?]
Student D: 3/5 -> [Rank ?]
Student E: 3/5 -> [Rank ?]
Student F to G: 1/5 -> [Rank ?]
-
"Let's say 10 students take a 5-item quiz.
'Student A' gets a 5. He is **Rank 1**.
'Student B' and 'Student C' both get a 4. They are tied. So they are both Rank 2."
"Okay," Leo nodded, following along. "So the next guy, Student D... he is Rank 3, right?"
"No," Albert said sharply. "This is where people get confused. In this system, your Rank is determined by a simple formula: One plus the number of people who defeated you."
He held up three fingers.
"Look at the next student, Student D. How many people scored better than him?
.
Student A beat him.
Student B beat him.
Student C beat him.
That is three people.
Therefore, Student D is Rank 4."
-
Albert lowered his hand.
"Student B and Student C might be tied, but they still occupy two physical spots in the hierarchy—the 2nd and 3rd spots. Since those spots are taken, Rank 3 vanishes. The line skips directly to Rank 4."
Leo's eyes widened. "Rank 3... disappears?"
"Exactly," Albert continued. "Now apply that to your score. You saw 52 'rows' of scores above you. But inside those 52 rows, there were clusters of students tied at the same score.
Maybe 5 people got 390.
Maybe 10 people got 385.
The system counts every single body. By the time it gets to you, 314 humans are standing in front of you. That makes you Rank 315."
Leo's eyes widened as the logic clicked. "I get it. It's not about the score label. It's about body count."
He pointed at Maya.
"Same for you. You saw 100 scores. But inside those 100 scores, there were 801 actual people. You are standing in line behind 801 people. That makes you Rank 802."
-
Albert finished the illustration in his notebook and showed it to Leo and Maya.
10-Student Quiz Results
Student A: 5/5 -> [Rank 1: Perfect Score] (0 people scored higher than A)
Student B: 4/5 -> [Rank 2]
Student C: 4/5 -> [Rank 2] (1 person (A) scored higher than both of them. So they are both 2nd.) -> Rank 3 is skipped because the 3rd seat is occupied by Student C.
Student D: 3/5 -> [Rank 4]
Student E: 3/5 -> [Rank 4] (3 people (A, B, C) scored higher than them. So they start at 4th.) -> Rank 5 is skipped because the 5th seat is occupied by Student E.
Student F to G: 1/5 -> [Rank 6] (5 people (A, B, C, D, E) scored higher than them. So they start at 6th.)
-
Leo and Maya looked at the illustration in the Albert's Illustration of Standard Competition Ranking (1224) system.
Leo stared at the board again. The numbers suddenly looked different. They weren't just a list anymore; they were a crowded room. He could feel the weight of the 314 invisible people standing on his shoulders.
"That is..." Leo ran a hand through his hair, letting out a long, heavy breath. "...absolutely ruthless."
"It's honest," Maya whispered, looking at her '802' with a new sense of fear. "It doesn't matter how close I was to the top score. All that matters is how many people are in my way."
"Welcome to Zenith Academy," Albert said, tapping his own ID card on the terminal to reveal his Rank. "Where every single person above you pushes you down one step closer to the bottom."
They're impressive. The 11th to 50th items on the test of each subject were actually a mix of college level to master's level. Leo and Maya must have studied the materials really well. This school is actually so advanced compared to other high schools.
"What about you, Albert?" Leo asked, scrolling down the massive list. "Where are you hiding?"
"Way down," Albert said, pointing near the bottom middle.
Rank 2001: Atherton Albert Total Score: 250 / 500
(Math: 50 | Science: 50 | English: 50 | Japanese: 50 | Social Study: 50)
Leo didn't gasp. He didn't do a double-take.
He just stared at the number "2001", then at the scores—**50, 50, 50, 50, 50**—and let out a long, heavy sigh, like a parent watching their kid make the same mistake for the hundredth time.
"Again?" Leo muttered, rubbing his temples. "Seriously, Albert? We're in high school now. New start. I thought you might... I don't know, actually try?"
"I passed," Albert said, keeping his voice flat. "250 is the passing grade."
"Yeah, and you landed at Rank 2001," Leo said, his voice dripping with exhaustion. "You know what that means. You let exactly 2,000 people beat you. It's frustrating. You let them all walk right past you. You held the door open for half the school."
He looked at Albert, not with awe, but with sharp annoyance.
"It's boring, man. Watching you play the NPC is getting old. We know you can solve the Hamiltonian stuff. I bet you can even have a perfect score. 500/500."
Maya leaned in, looking at the screen with a sad smile. She didn't scold him. She just reached out and poked his arm, right where she used to poke him in middle school when he got gloomy.
"You're still scared, aren't you?" she whispered, her voice cutting through Leo's frustration.
Albert stiffened slightly but didn't look at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're scared that if you get a Rank 1, people will look at you weird again," Maya said softly. "Like back in middle school. So you hide right here in the middle, where the data is thickest, so no one notices you."
"It's efficient," Albert deflected, adjusting his glasses. "Rank 2001 is the safest statistical position. Zero visibility."
"It's not efficient. It's lonely," Maya said.
Leo groaned, throwing his arm around Albert's neck and squeezing—a playful chokehold, but with a little real frustration behind it.
"Whatever. If you want to be the King of Mediocrity, fine. But if you accidentally slip and get a 49 because of a typo, that will be bad."
"I won't make a typo," Albert said.
"Yeah," Leo released him, shaking his head. "I know you won't. That's the part that pisses me off the most."