See, it is true that you need only merit to rank up now but this is not the right way to achieve it. By doing this, you are taking risk of getting negative trust from senior members which will make all these hard earned 9 merit points useless. Just make 4-5 quality posts and you will get that one merit point. I have myself tried to be help members with some merits remaining to reach member level in my merit giveaway thread. But, asking for merits is something that really irritates me.