Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1829: Ranked

It was five minutes before the lead tester came up to Ning and stretched out his hand for a shake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir Valen. I am Menard, the head of the testing group today. If you will follow me, I would like to go through some things with you.”

Ning shook his hand before following the man away. They left through a different door, and after a short hallway, they arrived at a small office with an open window.

“You must be feeling rather strange,” the man said as he gestured for Ning to sit down.

“No, I’m fine,” Ning said.

“Really? Oh! I thought the power dampeners were especially nasty to people with stronger powers,” the man said.

Ning’s eyes narrowed, and he saw some sort of compartment up at the ceiling that hid a machine within it.

’Power dampeners? The same thing they use in the prisons?’ he thought. There weren’t any of those things out in the hallway, so this region had to be important. Or maybe it was just because it was a government building.

Ning knew some rich hotels and malls in the cities had these things as well. This was made using Aullazire as the source too.

Ning shook his head. “If you don’t mind, I would like to skip the formalities, please,” he said. “What rank did I get?”

The man looked at him for a moment before nodding. “Before I answer that, do you mind if I ask whether you know what the Ranks mean at all?”

“They’re how strong you are or can be, right?” Ning said. “Something about your potential with the power.”

“That’s absolutely correct,” the man said. “The Ranks are simply ranking your power, not your ability to use the power. You could have a Rank 10 ability, but if you can’t use it properly, it would not matter. We try to include that too in our consideration when giving someone a rank, but those are usually in cases where someone’s power is so complex and difficult to control that we just have to give them a limited potential.”

Ning nodded. “But that’s not the case for me, right?” he asked.

“No. We’ve tested your powers, and they’re simple. Frankly, their simple nature made it much harder to determine your rank,” the man said.

Ning waited as the man was getting to it.

“If you didn’t have the ability to turn into a bat, we would’ve given your power a Rank 7 in potential,” he said. “But since you can, you have a Rank 9.”

Ning paused for a long moment. “Rank… 9,” he said with disbelief. He had been worried about how he was going to get ranked between 6 and 7 because of Waveshot, and here he was getting Rank 9.

“Yes, Rank 9,” the man said.

“Why?” Ning asked.

“What do you mean why?” the man asked with an astounded expression. “Have you seen what you can do? Your strength, speed, stamina—it’s far beyond anything we’ve ever seen. You could fall from a plane and walk away with some broken bones. You could get hit by a train and run away with scrapes.”

“Your agility is profound, teetering on insane. You could most likely run a marathon in a matter of minutes. Your reflexes are insanely fast as well. The world must look to you as if it is moving so slowly.”

“And your stamina…” the man sighed. “I’m not going to lie, our machine has a bit of difficulty when it comes to testing stamina, but from what I can tell, you could go on for days without sleeping.”

Ning internally cursed himself for not being more prepared. He should have told the system to limit his strength as well, but he had expected the system to know what he intended it to do.

But that time had passed now, so he could only deal with the consequences.

The man continued talking for some time, speaking of how great Ning’s results were, wanting to learn more about what he did and how he had awakened.

Ning strung together a believable lie and let it be. The man was satisfied with his answer.

“If you don’t mind,” Ning said, “why would there have been a jump from Rank 7 to Rank 9 just because I can turn into a bat?”

The man gave him an expressionless stare for a bit before slowly pointing up. “Because it opens up another domain for you to use your power aside from just the ground,” he said.

“Ah! Flight,” Ning said. “My mistake. I thought it had something to do with it being a transformation-type power.”

The man nodded. “May I ask if you have any plans on what you wish to do? You could honestly join a Hero Agency. In fact, I suggest you do.”

Ning shrugged. “I might do that,” he said. “Before that, could I ask how rare my situation is?”

“The late awakening?” the man asked.

“No, Rank 9.”

“Oh!” the man said, pausing for a moment. “I believe there have been a total of eight people with Rank 9 power since our machine was created after the war. There should be more that never got tested either, and the initial machine was full of glaring issues, so many might’ve been missed too.”

“What about currently?” Ning asked.

“There are three still alive, and that includes you,” the man said.

Ning raised an eyebrow. “What about Rank 10?”

The man chuckled. “Rank 10 would be someone who has the power to bring destruction at a level never seen before. We don’t have a Rank 10.”

Ning nodded, wondering what Tritus would show if he was tested. That damn being was a Rank 10, surely.

’Are there any Rank 10 alive?’ Ning asked the system.

<One>

Ning raised his eyebrows. ’How did they dupe the machine and not get caught? Are they one of the 9s and were misranked?’ he asked.

<No. The single Rank 10 of this planet is only 15 years old and has yet to be tested>

’Oh! Interesting.’