Prologue: Rank No. 5,068,642,185
On an early winter morning, warm sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, spilling into the room and landing on an old, slightly worn laptop on the desk.
The female protagonist sipped the black coffee she had just brewed and unlocked her phone. A new notification popped up on the app's home screen—
> "The all-new Gaia King App is now live!
Register your data and check your global world-asset ranking!"
She froze for a moment.
What kind of cringey, edgy app was this? Some fantasy game pretending to be a finance app?
But the words global world-asset ranking made her heart beat a little faster.
Rationally, she knew she was just an ordinary office worker earning thirty thousand a month, with savings not even reaching a hundred thousand. Still… she wanted to know her place in the world.
Unable to resist, she registered immediately.
After swiping through several pages, she noticed the rules: below the Top 100, rankings were anonymous; only the Top 100 were shown with real names. All information had to be truthful—any falsification or abnormal data confirmed by the system AI would result in removal. Work experience was optional.
It looked like a surprisingly well-designed app.
She checked her global ranking—
Approximately five billion something.
Title: Civilian.
She let out a bitter smile.
"…Wow. I'm really poor."
She muttered softly, her voice carrying both resignation and quiet frustration.
At the top of the screen was the named Top 100 Wealth Ranking. She glanced at it—just as expected, every entry was a famous figure everyone recognized. Their profiles were dazzling: careers, companies, investment portfolios, asset values—laid out clearly and mercilessly.
Staring at the Top 100, a thought surfaced in her mind:
> "I really want to become the richest person too… but compared to them, I have basically nothing."
She sighed deeply.
Then she tapped into one of the Top 100 profiles. The system thoughtfully displayed:
Work history
Primary investment fields
Public résumé
Her eyes lit up.
She began calculating in her head—if she worked hard, observed closely, learned from them, maybe even took a few risks… could she shorten the distance between them and herself?
Seeing her position.
Seeing the rules.
Seeing the possibilities.
She realized that although she was far behind, at least now she could clearly see who was ahead, what they had done, and which paths might be worth following.
The gap was enormous, yet a strange sense of excitement surged inside her.
Just as she sank deeper into thought, another system notification popped up—
> "Users who improve their ranking rapidly or engage in high-potential industries may receive opportunities for investment from top-ranked wealthy individuals."
Her heart jolted slightly.
It felt like an invisible shortcut upward. Success wasn't guaranteed—but it was far more concrete than waiting helplessly.
She clenched her phone, her gaze firm.
> "If this app has already shown me the rules… then I'll climb."
Outside, the city remained calm. People came and went through the streets, unaware that a quiet competition had just begun.
And she—starting from rank five billion and something—
Had just stepped into the opening chapter of her journey.