At the same time that Big Daddy suffered a psychological breakdown from having gained only +12 levels, Spicy Ramen emerged from the gaming lobby, looking like he had aged 6 years in just 6 hours.
"Oh Spicy Ramen is here!" Cervantez said, waving excitedly to his friend, who dejectedly walked over to the group.
"Man, my career as a ranker is over…. Will I ever recover from this loss?" Big Daddy questioned, which prompted Spicy Ramen to look up to him in hope.
"You lost a lot of levels too?" Spicy Ramen asked, sounding hopeful that his brother Big Daddy was going to join him in his misery, only to be disappointed big time by his response.
"Yes…. I was up by 40 levels at one point, but then lost 28 of them. In the end I only gained 12 levels" Big Daddy said, sounding depressed, as Spicy Ramen instantly slapped his friend hard across his face.
*SLAP*
"Gained 12 levels? GAIN? How dare you play with my emotions like that! How dare you!
I lost 70 levels….. I'm not even level 100 anymore. At one point I was going to become a level 0 player and you dare talk about only gaining 12 levels?
I'll show you…. You ungrateful piece of shit…. I'll show you–" Spicy Ramen said, bursting with emotion as he seemed to have lost his mind after losing 70 levels from the event as he tried to bite Big Daddy's ears off.
"You lost 70 levels? Did you choose to play gambling games?" Cervantez asked, as Spicy Ramen paused his assault on Big Daddy and broke down in tears.
"I made a grave mistake! I should not have gambled.
But the potential of gaining unlimited levels was too attractive for me. I just couldn't help myself–" Spicy Ramen said, as he began weeping in the presence of grown men.
"There, there…. It's okay—" Cervantez said, patting Spicy Ramen on the back, trying to console him, while also giving Luke and Leo smug glances that said 'I told you so'.
'So this is why Cervantez warned us against gambling. One could lose a lot of their real levels if they had a bad night' Leo thought as he finally realized as to why Cervantez had warned them against gambling before the event began.
Soon, as more and more players emerged, Leo began to notice that a lot of players suffered mental breakdowns as it wasn't just Spicy Ramen who seemed to have gambled his fortune away, as a good 50% of the rankers participating in this event seemed to have walked out of it with less levels than they walked into it with.
"I'm a level 0 player now! Hahaha! I'm a level 0 player….. all my gains are gone. I'm down to the rock bottom" a ranker declared as he ran around the general lobby hitting his head.
"I feel your pain brother…. Don't give up, we will bounce back surely–" Spicy Ramen encouraged from the side, although at this moment he genuinely doubted the authenticity of his own words.
He was now sitting at 60 levels behind the top1000 ranks before this event started, and approximately 4-500 of them were going to gain anywhere from 10-112 levels from this event, which would widen the chasm between the top 500 and the rest of the players, making it impossible for others to catch up anytime soon.
"The gap to the top has opened up. Those who have gained anything from this event will take up the top spots and the top rankings will no longer be cluttered with all the top rankers being nearly the same level.
Those who have won big from this event will be several levels ahead of those who have not and it will stay this way for the foreseeable future" Cervantez commented, as he recalled how things were in his past life where after the first year anniversary, the leaderboards were no longer cluttered and no longer changing every week.
"Does this mean that Leo will stay a top player even as a Merchant for the foreseeable future?
I mean, surely even 'TheBoss' will not be able to catch-up to Leo now, will he?" Luke asked, as Cervantez shook his head in dismay.
"It's really a shame that Leo is a merchant class player and all those additional stat points are wasted on him.
But still, I guess it's good for him.
I guess he will be on top of the rankings even as a merchant class player for the foreseeable future now" Cervantez said, as Leo internally scoffed at this comment.
He was 'TheBoss' and 'TheBoss' was him, so if he had gained 112 levels, so did 'TheBoss' who was most likely going to break the global forums as soon as he returned.
"All players, please pay attention…." A sweet voice said, garnering everyone's attention, as Raya the Elf seemed to be back.
"I can see how some of you rankers have had a great night tonight, while some of you have not enjoyed this event as much.
However, let me assure you that participating is more important than winning or losing in this event, as while leveling is an important part of the Terra Nova Online game. It isn't everything about it.
For every player gathered in this lobby tonight. The game developers will distribute a [ Class information pack ] as a participation reward.
This pack will reveal to you deep secrets about your class.
Secrets that will help you improve your mastery over your profession and become players that can transcend level differences like they don't matter at all–" Raya said, as just as she was done speaking every player got a system notification that they had received a gift pack in their inventory.
"With this, we conclude the First Annual Rankers Event….. and I hope to see you all in the second one, which will take place at the same time next year for only the top 1000 rankers" Raya said, as she sent everyone back to their original spots in the world of Terra Nova.