Lofty Aspirations

"Ladies and gentlemen, beings of the universe! We're broadcasting history in the making as the top Worldrunner, Khol'gazar, is aiming to be the first one to achieve Immortality% on Planet D3-47-E!" Standing on a raised platform in the middle of space was a being made out of various tentacles, his voice being picked up by the thousands of cameras in front of him even though there was no air.

"As we all know, Planet D3-47-E is a newly discovered planet, given a planet difficulty rating of nine stars on the Worldrunner Difficulty Scale. But even with that difficulty rating, Khol'gazar is determined to be the first to do it, wanting to add another prestigious title to his already long list of accolades!"

"Fortunately, to all of our viewers, our channel has been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to interview Khol'gazar! With that, let me introduce to you the greatest Worldrunner of our time, Khol'gazar Zenfer'drugax!"

Click.

"Haah… when will it be my turn to be in the limelight?" A young man with light green hair could not help but sigh as he turned off the screen in front of him. Recalling what he was watching earlier, the young man could not help but turn green with envy, letting his emotions get the better of him as he left his house in a mad dash.

Unsurprisingly, with his emotions controlling him, he had ended up tired by the time he had arrived at the place he was planning to go to, the city center. Looking at the giant building in front of him, the young man could not help but take in a deep breath as only now did he realize what he had done. Taking a few more deep breaths, his emotions soon returned to their previous tranquility as he entered the building in front of him, quickly being greeted by the sight of a large crowd in front of him.

Seeing this sight, the young man could not help but shake his head. "I guess the interview with Khol'gazar lit up the flames of passion in many of these people. Because of that, they want to start becoming Worldrunners as well."

"If only they knew it wasn't that easy." He sighed as he scratched his head, slowly weaving his way through the crowd as he eventually ended up in front of one of the counters. Once he had gotten there, the young man rummaged something out of his pocket, bringing out a badge. Seeing the badge, the attendant behind the counter to paid more attention to him as the attendant asked, "How may I help you, sir?"

"Can I get a list of all available achievements?" he said in response, ignoring the cacophony that ensued around him thanks to him cutting in line.

In response, the attendant nodded. "Certainly, however, with your position as a Junior Worldrunner, you'll have to pay a price to get access to it."

Pondering over it for a bit, the young man lightly nodded, with the noise around him slightly dying down amidst their conversation. Extending out his arm with a light sigh, he told the attendant, "Alright, give me the list."

Nodding, the attendant quickly did their task, scanning the young man's arm as a small holographic display soon appeared above the young man's wrist. Watching the numbers on the holographic screen go down, the young man could not help but feel a slight twinge. 'Well, since I'm here either way, might as well get an updated list of achievements.'

Retracting his arm, the young man placed the badge back into his pocket as the attendant gave him a small chip not long after. "In it are all of the achievements you could choose to attempt. The organization has taken the liberty of ranking those achievements by their level of difficulty, which I'm sure you won't mind."

"Just insert the chip in any compatible device, and you could look through the list at any time." With those final words from the attendant, the young man left the counter as he made his way towards another part of the building.

…

"Identification please." Just as he was about to enter what was considered the building's technology section, a guard barred him from going any further, giving off an intimidating feeling. However, the young man shrugged that feeling off as he brought out the badge once more, a bronze badge with a star embossed on it.

Looking at the badge, the guard grabbed something from his back pocket before pointing it at the badge. As the item the guard brought out scanned through the badge and let out a beep, the guard nodded in satisfaction as he said, "Corius Valtrezar, Junior Worldrunner. Your identity has been confirmed. You're free to pass."

"Thanks." Corius nodded in response as he made his way to one of the cubicles in that section, sitting in front of what looked like a miniature supercomputer. Hovering his badge over it, the small computer turned on to life as a holographic screen greeted him. Seeing this, the young man inserted the chip he had gotten into the computer, with the screen giving him the list he had requested from the attendant.

"As expected, Death% is still the easiest achievement out of all of them," he murmured as he scrolled down to the bottom of the list, showing all of the achievements that was given a completion difficulty of one star. Looking through the other achievements, he could not help but find some of the other achievements stupid, such as First Step%, Sound%, and Cry%. "Well, I guess those are the easiest for a reason. After all, all of them could be completed the very moment they're born into their new lives."

As he thought about this, he could not help but think about the reason why he had become a Worldrunner in the first place. Now that he was an actual Worldrunner, he could not help but find such a job like this quite ludicrous, with many of the achievements on the list more or less finding thrill in the mundanity of a new life. However, back when he was a kid, he watched the Worldrunners do these seemingly mundane things with great awe, wanting nothing more than to become a Worldrunner himself and become the greatest at it.

"Then again, I guess being a Worldrunner is fun," he said to himself as he scrolled to the top of the list, looking at all of the achievements that were given a completion difficulty of nine stars. "Type 3 Civ%, Starship%, World AI%…"

"Hmm… which one looks easy to do among all of these… ah, found it. Immortality%." Looking at the achievement, Corius brought up more information on it, instantly bombarding him with various rankings of the same achievement on different planets. Looking through all of them, he noticed that almost all of them had rankings that spanned into the hundreds, with planets that had high difficulty ratings naturally having less.

However, there was one planet among the list that was an outlier.

"Earth…" Corius muttered, bringing up more information on the planet that had what he thought was the most mundane name ever. "Well, that's weird. It has a planet difficulty rating of two stars, but only around 20 people have successfully completed the achievement."

Becoming more curious, he brought up even more information on the planet, eventually finding the reason why so few have completed the achievement. "Unlike other planets with the same planet difficulty rating, Earth is one of the very few planets that have no ambient source of energy. To make up for that, their technology level is close to a Type 1 civilization, which is already better than some of the planets with three star ratings."

"Hmm…" As he continued to think about it, he could not help but be inclined to try and attempt it. After all, any being who successfully complete Immortality% become well-known throughout the universe. With that in mind, he was certain that he was going to be more well-renowned if he chose to complete this achievement on Earth.

Eventually, his mind was set on wanting to attempt it, heading out of the building's technology section before making his way towards another part of the building, the section specifically made for Worldrunner attempts.

…

Noticing Corius making his way to one of the attempt pads, one of the attendants in that area approached him, prompting Corius to bring out his Junior Worldrunner badge. Seeing the badge, the attendant lightly nodded in response. "Shall you be attempting a speedrun, sir?"

"Yeah." Corius nodded, standing on one of the attempt pads as the attendant inputted his information on a machine next to the pad. Soon after, the pad gradually lit up in a myriad of colors, causing a hint of nervousness to appear on Corius' face.

"What achievement shall you be attempting, sir?" the attendant asked.

"Immortality% on Earth," Corius responded, making the attendant look at him with slight incredulity. Noticing this, he then asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

"Not at all." The attendant shook its head. "It's just that beings that attempt this specific achievement as Bronze Worldrunners at the very least. Are you really going to try it out?"

Although he was thankful that the attendant was thinking of his safety, Corius was adamant. "Thank you for the concern, but I'm still willing to try it out."

"Well, if you say so…" Seeing as it was not possible for Corius to be dissuaded, the attendant pressed a few more things on the machine before telling him, "Your skill loadout has been set to your latest previous attempt. Once you start this attempt, accompanying information on the planet you shall be reincarnated into will be sent to your memory. Do you have any other questions?"

"I have none." Corius shook his head.

With that, the attendant lightly nodded before pressing a button on the machine, prompting the light around the pad to grow in intensity as Corius gradually disappeared. Seeing this, the attendant told him, "Best of luck on your speedrun."

Whoosh!

"Break the records, Worldrunner."