If I remember correctly, the last spot where you talked to one of the NPC buddies (don't remember if it is in the Hydratech building or not), head up the staircase once and there will be another NPC buddy with a new quest that will set things in motion. I remember having difficulty with this too. There is absolutely no…
Same thing happened to me. Rank 8 out of 0. Got 20k skulls and never received the reward. The leaderboards have not been updated for a few hours now. It really sucks that a game can be this glitchy with how much money people spend on it.