Don't know if people have mentioned this but? Doesn't Tess have 3 to 8 levels to make now? Possibly even 2 to 8?
I love this game, i want all levels but wtf!! I don't want her burned out!
Don't stress too much about the ranks -- it's better to think of them in tiers. Individual ranks might have 1-2 extra scenes as bookends (either start or a side branch or end somehow) but it is impossible to have extreme depth for 8 ranks, so you have to kind of bunch tiers together for larger parts of the story. As Veronica said in her own talk in 0.5, there are kind of a few tiers (actually, not mentioned this yet, but will now) So you bunch the ranks together mostly in tiers, with only a few deviations here and there (such as perhaps one sex scene, a room you start in, certain additional choices to main set of them, those kinds of things)
K1: The deplorables, can't find salvation anymore - (save before you get here if you do...have another save basically...)
K2 to K4: Jokingly called the "loser" track by a few guards, but very much a real glass ceiling for most prisoners that will have it hard getting to K5 and beyond. Being evaluated for future positions at the company, but likely servants/lower positions serving at the pleasure of higher ranks.
K5 to K8: Basic prisoners being evaluated for possible manager/executive potential. Useless back story lore/history in my mind: 10% make it to K5, 5% to K8. Prisoners stuck here have a slightly better outcome after program -- middle management possibly...more "normal" life possible to some extent. Kind of hard to get past K8 in theory...small percent make it up but this is a story for the player, so of course he will have his chance!
K9: Technically part of K5-K8, but this rank kind of also pairs with K10 in that the person will be provided staff, office, servants, and formal management duties (some work outside scope of current program and not testing) as part of possible executive transition (will have a few extra scenes in the future for dom (edit: this is actually possible for "normal" but sub to specific people too players) players but separate from main tree trunk of plot)
K10: Extreme testing by the Board personally -- executive track. Very difficult to pass this roadblock. Useless prior history in my mind: 0.2% of all prior program participants (4 out of about 2000 in program) go beyond this rank. Will require allies/push by multiple powerful people to pull it off, it's not always just about merit -- just like the real world at times.
Z1: New executive (Katsumi's rank right now) -- approximately 25ish Z1s exist overall at company.
Z3: Olivia's current rank - major executives managing their own area of responsibility. Granted extreme power at this level in that they are allowed total autonomy over certain lower ranks -- even ordering killings/extreme actions for company benefit. (Katsumi cannot do this at her rank)
Z4-1, Z4-2, Z4-3 etc to 7: Board Members (also referred sometimes by the rank of MASK1, MASK2, MASK3, etc.)