The Rankers Guide to Live an Ordinary Life - CH 0 Prologue

“Not measurable?’

The headquarters for the awakening management bureau of Korea

The so-called ‘Center’

Jang Il-hyun, the Capital’s general team leader, took a deep breath up to his chin

He didn’t know how many red lights he had violated as he was called in to come on his way home from work

“We will put you in the waiting room for now”

“The new measuring machine we brought in from Washington the other day, is it set-up yet? Get it ready immediately”

“However Chief, there is a possibility of a mechanical error….”

“Right now!”

At his sharp cry, the staff hurriedly ran out. Jan il-hyun swallowed his dry-saliva and stood in front of the waiting room

There were only two possibilities for when a rating meter says ‘unmeasurable’

First is that it’s a simple malfunction in the machine, but in the other case, in this country, there would finally be…!

‘A-a kid?’

“Are you Miss Gyeon Zio?”

So little, and young

It was surprising, but the agility of the korean public officials who went through many hardships before was truly amazing

Jang Il-hyun calmly and politely lowered his standards

“By the way”

“…forgive my rudeness, is your guardian here with you”

“I’m here alone”

“Forgive me again, are you old enough, or rather how old are you?”

“I’ll be in my 4th year the day after tomorrow. Hey do you usually ask this question when registering to be a ranker? It’s an invasion of privacy”

“…my apologies”

Looking down on kids these days will bring you lots of trouble

Jang Il-hyun, 32 years old and an elite, was crushed by a wild 3rd year elementary schooler

In the meantime, the new measuring machine was being prepared. It was the newest version that had just arrived from Washington last night

The unidentifiable ‘black tower’, the ‘gates(cracks) where monsters pour out from, and… the ‘rankers’ whose abilities break through the limits of normal mankind

It had already been a few years since the genre of the world suddenly changed along with its appearance

This meant that the research data related to ‘babel stone’ that could read information of the awakened people had already accumulated a lot

The latest version, which was the closest to the completed product, was a new product that could perfectly identify the growth limitations of awakeners and their magic power

“Hmmm. the max limit for the old version was AAA level right? Maybe Chief’s prediction is right”

“Deputy Chief. Weren’t you supposed to get off work?”

“I am the same as you. I ran here after receiving an emergency call. By the way, won’t this be a problem?”

She is so young…

The deputy chief muttered to himself, glancing back towards Zio

“Did you see the report? She is only in her 3rd year of elementary school. She is quick to be awakened also”

“It’s not small when you consider the country’s name depends on it. I am sick and tired of the constant visits to the funeral parlor”

“What. You’re too serious, man. Personally I’m looking forward to it”

“Sure. After all she is just a unregistered nine-year-old awakened”

There was only way to awaken without having to go through the tutorial tower

A star(deity) contract

(the word used for deity is written in Chinese and the exact meaning comes from a Chinese folk belief where they believed that each star had their own deity)

That… ‘contract(covenant)’

(this sentence uses the Chinese word for covenant, it has the meaning of a ‘holy agreement’)

The mysterious and transcendent beings that emerged from the tower

That was the only to be chosen by the great ‘stars’ who sat at the ‘sky(heavenly gate)’ of the Babel tower and watched over humanity

(Heavenly gate is written in chinese, it can also mean a sky gate)

Jang Il-hyun wiped his sweat under his glasses. But despite that he kept breaking out in cold sweat

“I mean…i’ve never heard a case of such young awakening anywhere else in the world”

“…”

“One of those tricky and arrogant stars must have given a ‘contract(covenant)’ to a child who can’t even properly communicate”

“…”

“Whether or not this child is the hero or the monster we’ve been waiting for…  it’s clear that this is the birth of an infinite number of star spoons”

It was hard to not look forward to it. Jang Il-hyun kept those words to himself

The air surrounding the elementary schooler who was sitting down while drinking chocolate milk started to stir up

“Chief! The measuring room has been set up”

“Let’s go. Miss Zio, this way”

Following the guidance of the Chief, Zio got up. Contrary to her coy and sullen appearance, a chick shaped keychain rattled from her bag

“[Awakened Gyeon Zio, let’s start the grading]”

Zio went towards the box that looked like an opaque shower booth

People inside the center stared at the child with tense expressions

It was way past the clock

The measuring room was quiet with not even a sound of breathing, Jang Il-hyun was nervously biting on his fingers…

Ding-

With the clear sound of a notification, the hologram finally printed out the results

Everyone quickly picked up the letter. Zio also looked up

Gyeon Zio 20xx 01. 01.

Understanding of User Gyeon Zio;

Type: specialized in combat and magic

Growth Diagram: Phase 1

Potential limit: unknown

Holding Magic Power: Unable to be measured

Mana sensitivity level: Extreme

[Final Rating: S]

“This is crazy…”

When someone unknowingly let out their thoughts. Everyone realised they felt the same way

“I-it really is an S Rank!”

And at the same time, on the Babel network, the world channel, rang

[Congratulations Korea]

[For the first time in Korea, an S-ranker has been awakened]

[Local Server – ‘South Korea’ channel extension]

[Sublocal Server – Capital, Seoul, and Metropolitan channels opened]

*With the awakening of a strong front runner, the local republic of Korea will be upgraded from ‘General administrative country’ to ‘Priority Administrative Country’

*Channels will add ‘Formal Dungeon’ and ‘Notify of Crack coordinate’ functions

*High Ranking ‘stars’ are located in Korea’s tower of Babel, the ‘heavenly gate’

God, thank you

May our country finally see hope and light!

Jang Il-hyun gave an ovation while standing with tears in his eyes. Crying, his arms wide open pointed at Zio

“Finally an S class! Dear Gyeon Zio, I wonder what kind of a star(deity) you have! What are you all doing, hurry and call the director!”

‘The fuck….’

With a fed up expression, Zio avoided the approaches of the sweaty soldiers

Not only the world server notifications, But also private notification windows that only Zio could see were flooding

▷All rankings have been updated

▷Local – Republic of Korea

▷Domestic Rankers Channel 1

Ranked in 1st position

/Gyeon Zio, please set a nickname/

|14| Hamlet: ….Is it real?

|27| Gold Roger: Wow;; An S-class Ranker

|30| Kindergarten: All?? All the rankings have been updated? All over the world????

|49| Miss guide: Before when an S-ranker appeared, major regional channels opened up and it was real; starting from Seoul, all Metropolitan cities seemed to have opened up

|12| Old-schooled: I was just thinking of moving out, look at this timingㅋㅋㅋ

|8| Kinopio: who is number 1, say something

|3| Alpha: Kong was also pushed back…

‘….unni. Did you have to count like this?’

[Your contractor, the ‘reader of fate’ feels deeply wronged]

[Did I not say that, what I didn’t know was that you are a cheeky little girl who wasn’t even listening to me]

No, but it’s too much for an elementary schooler to be an S-Ranker. This star doesn’t understand what’s appropriate

Zio stepped backwards, the grown ups were approaching her while crying

‘Fuck, here we go….’

Mother, what do I do?

It wasn’t my intention, but it seems your daughter has ranked 1st place

T/N: Some terms to note before continuing on with the story;

Star Spoon is similar to gold spoon, where instead of being given a rich environment, you are basically given a ‘star’ without effort which is considered to be a blessing

Covenant can mean multiple things in this story, a contract created by a ‘star’, the ‘star’ who has signed the said contract with you, and just ‘star’ in general. It depends in the context