In case the item and weapon unlocks weren't incentive enough, Rockstar has now thrown another bonus in to spur players towards ranking up. A player spotted a new promo during a loading screen while playing GTA Online offering a money reward for hitting the soft level cap of the game before a certain deadline.

Like so many multiplayer video games out there, GTA Online features a kind of leveling system, wherein players collect experience points in order to level up, making them stronger and unlocking new items and missions. In GTA, levels are called "Ranks" and XP is replaced with RP, but it is still essentially the same system.

Ranking up brings myriad bonuses, such as the increase of stats like health, weapon unlocks broadening your arsenal and a higher chance of not getting kicked out of a Heist lobby just because the host assumes a low rank player is obviously without skill. Like in other games, the higher your rank, the harder it is to reach the next rung of the ladder. You'll practically zoom through ranks 1-10, however climbing from 134 to 135 takes a lot of time and effort.

However, now your efforts will be rewarded like never before. If the loading screen ad is legit, all players who hit rank 135 before the 14th of September, 2016, will get a bonus 1,000,000 in GTA $ deposited into their in-game bank accounts. This presumably applies to all players who are rank 135 or above prior to that date, not only players who reached it recently. Long time players who are long past that level are still eligible for the bonus.

This isn't the first time Rockstar handed out free cash to players. It happened after some mishaps with the servers caused issues for players, after which Rockstar gave everyone 500k as an apology. More recently, before the release of the Further Adventures in Finance and Felony DLC, all GTA Online players got wired 150,000 in game cash.

Now, this is either a marketing stunt to get players playing more GTA Online, grinding their way to rank 135, or, like in the case of the 150k handed out prior to Finance and Felony, this is prepping for a new DLC. If it is the latter, that has some pretty immense implications.

Further Adventures in Finance and Felony added a black market mechanic where players had to buy a corporate office, starting at one million, a warehouse and crates to play the new missions. Granted, if you invested enough time and effort, moving crates can be one of the best sources of income, however there was a high initial investment - which got some people mad.

Obviously crate missions are meant for high level players. However, if a DLC where the starting investment into the new content is well over one million got players 150K prior to launch, what kind of DLC warrant a 1,000,000 handout? If our suspicions are true and this is the preface of a new DLC launch, then we are looking at one aimed at high level players with plenty of cash to spare.

Either way, it is a nice move from Rockstar to reward their dedicated players with some hard-to-earn cash. Reaching rank 135 in GTA is no small feat, and requires quite a bit of playtime. However, if you're already near the soft cap but are doubting that you'll hit it before Wednesday midnight, we've got a detailed guide hand to help you hit that goal in time. You might also want to take advantage of the double RP promo going on right now - plus, you know, rake in the double cash too.

Will you reach rank 135 in GTA Online before the deadline arrives?