A Glorious Task

"Glenn, dinner's ready!"

"I'll be right there! Let me quickly watch PlatinumOne's latest video!"

With a heroic expression on his face and a bare upper body, PlatinumOne showed off some poses on Glenn's laptop screen. In the background, the singing of a choir could be heard while PlatinumOne welcomed his viewers with the words "Greetings, I hope you all have a glorious evening.” He made his chest dance through the sheer power of his muscles before beginning to adress his message to the world.

"It has been an honor for me to inspire you through my strength and greatness for years. Many of you have long ago chosen the path of the alpha, deciding to discard the effeminacy imposed by society; many have only recently started to follow this path. But regardless of when you began to revolutionize your life, I am proud of you either way. Sadly, there are many unfortunate souls still wandering around desperate and lost, who have not yet come across my videos, or reject me due to societal prejudice. In today's society the alpha lifestyle is ridiculed. The elite itself is way too lazy to follow it and prefers to brainwash people into thinking it is better to indulge in consumption and laziness. Thus, it’s important that I do not serve alone as a mouthpiece of transformation. Go within yourselves and think of the first six people who, in your opinion, would need a transformation of their lives the most."

"Six people??" Glenn coughed, almost choking on his protein shake. "Why exactly six?"

"Inspire these six with your alpha lifestyle!", PlatinumOne continued to preach "Help them with their challenges in life and show them that only the alpha transformation, the continuous strengthening of body and mind, is a truly sustainable solution to their problems."

"But I'm not going back to those nerds in the WTP Club!", Glenn objected defiantly .

Although PlatinumOne obviously couldn't hear him, he confirmed "Even if you have to deal with people who don't seem worthy of your time, who might even act foolish and ignorant, only this is a real investment in the much-needed, sustainable alpha transformation of society as a whole."

PlatinumOne ended the video by saying "Six people, keep it in mind!" 

Glenn looked at his screen in disbelief. Then he closed his laptop, trotted downstairs to his waiting parents, and sat down at the table with them.

Had PlatinumOne indirectly told him to return to the WTP Club? PlatinumOne's word was usually considered as law by him. He was a great source of inspiration for Glenn. But this time Glenn disliked PlatinumOne's order a lot.

He tried to tell himself that Va, Sousui and Sikh did not necessarily need his instructive words. Although all three seemed a bit odd and were most certainly not alphas, they still seemed at peace with themselves. Unfortunately, as desperately as he thought about it, he couldn't think of any other six people who would benefit from his expertise nearly as much as the WTP Club.

So before dinner was over, Glenn had made up his mind and decided to attend the next meeting again. Even if the club had only been created for nonsense reasons, perhaps something useful could actually be made of it: an alpha transformation club, so to speak. The longer Glenn thought about it, the more he liked the idea.

-----

When Glenn entered the classroom for the WTP meeting the next day, he was surprised to see that everyone, except Va, had already arrived. In the meantime, he had been wondering if the others would even show up again. Apart from Bane, no one had really seemed enthusiastic. And Sikh.... Had he even understood what this was all about? Glenn looked over to Sikh, who gave him a friendly wave and pointed at his T-shirt, which showed drawn people with big glimmering eyes. Apparently, he thought he'd landed in an anime fan club. Glenn wondered how Va would react after interpreting such a deep, negative meaning into anime enthusiasm the day before.

"I'm glad you decided to come back", Sousui whispered to Glenn as soon as he sat down.

Then Va came strutting into the class with her head held high, her chest thrust out, and Lenin on her shoulder. "Nice to see that we are already complete, and no one is under the illusion that lateness would be tolerated!", she said in her usual military manner. The possibility that someone could have dropped out completely had not even occurred to her. Even though none of the six had ever signed up for membership, they were all considered as club members for lifetime.

Va’s eyes roamed contentedly over her member's faces. When her eyes crossed Sikh, all had to grin, expecting a thunderous rebuke from Va. The latter, however, started to smile and shouted "Good idea Sikh! We'll pretend to be anime fans too, so Keiichi won't suspect us to be his enemies. Brilliant, +10 importance!"

Sikh seemed to understand that he had received a reward and replied politely "Thank for this gift!"

Va continued "I will now explain to you what importance is all about. Lenin, importance!"

Lenin jumped from her shoulder to the teacher's desk where everyone could see him and began to enumerate:

"#1 Va, +2000 importance
#2 Wark, +10 importance
#3 Sousui, +10 importance
#4 Sikh, 0 importance
#5 Bane, 0 importance
#6 Lenin, 0 importance
#7 Glenn, -10 importance
#8 Beat, -10 importance"

"What you see here", Va explained, "Is the official WTP importance ranking. It is the core of WTP’s decision-making process and is a visionary attempt to revolutionize politics. As we all know, only bad solutions come out of democratic decision-making because the majority of people are simply not very intelligent." 

"Oh! I didn't know that", Wark whispered to Beat.

And Sousui whispered to Glenn "I'm not quite sure which side really has the world domination claims."

Va was not put off by the critical chatter and continued "For this reason, the WTP Club has decided that those, who have proven to be excellent members and have contributed the most to the success of the WTP Club so far, should be entrusted with decision-making."

"Isn't this simply an aristocracy, a rulership of the so-called best?", Sousui interrupted.

"Aristo... what?... uh... yes, that's right, Sousui. You figured that out brilliantly! +10 importance. Thanks for explaining it to the others here!", Va replied, feeling a little exposed.

"Then what's visio…", Sousui was about to follow up, but was directly interrupted by Va.

"So, as Sousui just explained, the WTP club advocates anistocracy. Those at the top of the importance list have the most power when deciding on club activities. Importance can be given to the people below you, but not to the people above you, tied with you, let alone directly to yourself. This ensures that the importance gap can not become too big. It's a great system for maximum success!" 

"Can't the system be tricked by simply not making use of the ability to give importance? This way one could secure their position", Sousui said critically.

"Such unsportsmanlike behaviour is not to be expected from people with a lot of importance!”, Va countered "Any other questions?"

Beat raised his hand. "I don't understand it."

"What don't you understand", Va replied impatiently.

"I don’t understand anything."

"If you don't want to use your brain, I can't help you." Va smiled. "Any smart questions?"

Beat ran bright red once again, while Glenn laughed heartily at Va's dry comment. She had an unintentionally funny way of saying attacking things with a completely innocent expression on her face; he liked that.

Glenn sarcastically took the floor "And it must be pure coincidence that you're already starting with a 2000 point lead, right?"

"I started the club, that was an insanely important merit that brought us much closer to our goals", Va justified herself.

"Anyone can start a club for nerds", Glenn replied unimpressed "I should be at the top. My awesomeness alone makes me more important to the club than you will ever be.”

Va laughed. "No! Any other questions?" 

Glenn suddenly had a great idea. He sneaked over to Sikh, who was busily writing down various words he didn't understand on a piece of paper, and whispered something in his ear.

Then Sikh raised his hand and said "+2020 importance for Glenn."

Glenn laughed victoriously. "Well, I guess that puts me in first place. Lenin, importance!"

Lenin enumerated:
"#1 Va, +2000 importance
#2 Glenn +90 importance
#3 Sousui +20 importance
#4 Wark, +10 importance
#5 Bane, 0 importance
#6 Sikh, 0 importance
#7 Lenin, 0 importance
#8 Beat, -10 importance"

"Why...?", Glenn stuttered, slightly disappointed that his plan hadn't quite worked out.

"Only 100 importance points can be awarded per day", Va explained "The only exception to that rule is when you achieve something special. Lenin, rewards!”

Lenin declared:
"Defeat Keiichi, +1,000,000 importance.
Start the WTP club, +2000 importance.
Expand WTP’s knowledge on Keiichi's plans, +200 importance."

Glenn protested "I'm a role model to these nerds! Whether your importance ranking allows it or not, I'm going to set the rules here so we can actually make something useful out of this stupid club!"

"Go ahead", Va said calmingly "As you are now the 2nd most important member, you can obviously make suggestions!”

Glenn wanted to protest further at first. Second most important member didn't appeal to him at all. But then he decided to play along. After all, Va had been surprisingly cooperative.

"Alright", he said "Then I declare that we will include daily workouts into our club activities from now on. And we will start off today! Everyone down on all fours. I want to see ten push-ups from everyone!"

The group's enthusiasm was lacking. Contrary to Glenn's wishes, no one immediately jumped up.

Wark grumbled "What's the point? Are you going to pick a fight with Keiichi? I don't feel like doing sports now..."

"Wark!", Va scolded "It is possible that Keiichi has already hired thugs to intimidate those who stand in his way. We need to be in top physical shape to deal with any threat! So, you've heard the words of the second most important member, let’s get down to work everyone!"

To Glenn's surprise, the whole thing was an easy for Va. Within a fraction of a second, she was in position and pushed herself up from the floor the required ten times. With a broad grin and without a single drop of sweat on her face, she straightened up again.

Glenn inspected her. Apparently, she was way more muscular underneath her loose clothes than he had expected. Then Glenn glanced at the other five.

Eventually, they had all followed suit, but for them the task posed an unbeatable challenge. With a lot of effort, Bane and Sikh managed to push themselves off the ground twice before giving up. The rest already failed to even lower themselves from the starting position to the floor without experiencing muscle failure and dropping to the ground.

"I expect this to get better in the future!", Glenn said. He had suddenly adopted Va's military tone. "Check out PlatinumOne's Internet videos! You'll get glorious training advice there." 

Bane seemed pissed off. "Muscles are just for proles who need them to compensate for their low self-esteem. For defense, we can just use weapons. And besides, why would we listen to Glenn, when he only got his importance by cheating."

"I don't see how he cheated", Va replied "Sikh, who was ranked above Glenn in importance, gave Glenn the benefit of the doubt, and as far as I can tell, he made a good decision."

Seemingly, Bane didn't want to accept being behind Glenn in importance. "Sikh!", he shouted "Say, +100 importance for Bane!"

"Wait a minute", Va interrupted "Sikh is tied with you in the rankings, so he can't give you any importance. Didnt you listen before?"

"Well then, Wark, give me +100 importance!”, Bane commanded stubbornly.

"I'm sorry, but I don't see what you contributed to the club to deserve those", Wark replied, taking his job as fourth in the rankings very seriously "I rather think Va should get even more importance for her dedication!"

Bane signaled Wark that he made him sick.

To calm the mood, Sousui changed the topic. "I'm going to look for PlatinumOne's videos sometime. I'm really out of shape. It's time for that to be changed. Thanks for the hint." 

Proudly, Glenn patted Sousui on the shoulder and preached "Soon, you too will be an alpha male too." Then he rewarded him 10 importance points. As ridiculous as he had found the system in the beginning, he enjoyed playing along and being in one of the top spots.

Va glanced at the clock. Almost 20 minutes had passed since the beginning of the meeting. But the most important point on the agenda still had to be discussed.

She instructed everyone to sit down again and said "We must now decide how we are going to proceed against Keiichi! Here you have a great opportunity to pick up a lot of importance!"

Bane took the chance. "We could dress up as clowns and chop him up with an axe at night."

Shocked, Sousui, Glenn and Wark looked at Bane with wide eyes, wondering what was wrong with him.

Beat laughed again, assuming that Bane's statement had been intended as a joke.

Va, on the other hand, considered it a serious suggestion and replied contemplatively "No, I don't want to be a murderer. Besides, we don’t know yet if Keiichi has any allies. We can't risk the whole plan simply being turned into reality by someone else." 

Bane was visibly unhappy with his plan simply being turned down like that and gave the group an angry look.

Wark spoke up "Why don't we spy on him for a while, then maybe we'll find out more about potential allies?"

Va pondered, while Glenn looked at Wark incredulously, wondering if he suddenly actually believed all this crap and really thought they had to stop Keiichi.

"That's a really good suggestion! +20 importance, Wark!”, Va ultimately said, “Let's meet tomorrow right in front of the school and go after Keiichi! Don't forget your anime shirts so we don’t attract attention!"