100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 643 - Project Done

Three days passed.

That was all it took.

Three days for the first stage of the public Intercontinental Teleportation Array network to be physically completed.

Three days for the private instant teleportation network to be upgraded.

Three days for Lucien and Lilith to realize something unsettling.

They were getting faster.

Every time they created an array, the rhythm became easier.

Living Creation remembered the previous foundation.

Genesis Forging refined the next one before the first carving was complete.

Leyline data shortened calculations.

The map reduced errors.

The merged Origin Core helped align continental routes.

The arrays were not identical, but the process learned.

By the third day, what had taken half an hour at the beginning took far less.

Lucien stood beside Lilith before the final completed foundation and looked at the glowing rings.

Neither of them spoke immediately.

Then Lilith said, "We finished early."

Lucien looked at the array.

"Yes."

"By several days."

"Yes."

"You announced the end of the week."

"I did."

Lilith was very satisfied.

Lucien stared at her with an equally satisfied smile.

"Let us not announce the completion yet," Lucien said.

Lilith’s eyes narrowed with understanding.

Lucien continued, "The next few days will be for testing, route stress, emergency shutdown drills, false-entry rejection, crowd control planning, and public instruction."

Lilith nodded.

The official announcement would remain on the seventh day.

Until then, the network would be tested until everyone ran out of new things to worry about.

Which meant forever.

Lucien was willing to settle for four days.

•••

After the final foundation was completed, Lilith did not immediately leave.

For once, she did not open another report.

She simply stood beside Lucien in the quiet glow of the array.

Lilith looked at the array, then at him.

"You know," she said, "I have been very busy these years."

Lucien turned to her.

"That is true."

"Extremely busy."

"Also true."

"Unreasonably busy."

"That one may be partly my fault."

"Partly?"

Lucien did not answer.

Lilith smiled.

It was not the same smile she gave difficult arrays.

This one was softer. More dangerous in a completely different way.

"I think I deserve a reward."

Lucien felt a warning rise from somewhere deep and ancient.

Probably survival instinct.

"What kind of reward?"

"I will decide when everything settles down."

"That sounds concerning."

"It should."

Lucien looked at her.

Only then did he realize how long it had been since they had truly spoken without war, construction, enemies, routes, fragments, or disasters standing between them.

Lilith had been there through too many impossible tasks.

She had built, fought, adjusted, repaired, followed, argued, and trusted.

And like many people close to him, she had been given responsibility more often than time.

Lucien felt a quiet guilt settle in his chest.

"You are right," he said.

Lilith blinked.

Lucien continued, "When everything settles enough that I can breathe without three disasters entering through the window, I will give you the reward you ask for."

Lilith’s eyes brightened.

Then a dangerous glint appeared in them.

Lucien immediately regretted not adding more conditions.

"Anything?" she asked.

Lucien stared at her.

The array light suddenly felt colder.

"Reasonable things."

Lilith’s smile returned.

"Of course."

That did not reassure him.

At that moment, Lilith’s smile still made him shiver.

Perhaps the next disaster had already arrived.

It was simply standing beside him, looking pleased.

•••

The work did not stop.

Vivian continued coordinating surveys for the World Fortification Plan.

Eldran and Reaper sent reports on coastal sites, hidden routes, and unstable districts.

Eirene’s teams refined the private network.

Kael began preparing public usage rules before anyone could invent foolish ones.

Clara prepared guidance stations near future public array entrances.

Lilith returned to the construction schedule with suspiciously good morale.

Lucien looked over the updated five-continent map.

The five continents were still wounded.

The seas were still restless.

The small worlds were still hidden.

The Black Mass still waited beyond the known side of the world.

But for the first time since the Keeper war, the map did not only show damage.

It showed roads.

Private roads.

Public roads.

Emergency roads.

Future roads.

And soon, if Lucien succeeded with the Reincarnation Disc, roads into worlds no map had ever named.

The world was still in danger.

But distance was beginning to lose.

That was enough for today.

•••

A few days later, another report arrived.

This one came from the slimes.

The five-continent stabilization project was complete.

Lucien read the report twice.

For the first time since the Keepers had begun bending the world’s hidden rhythm, the five continents breathed properly.

The West no longer limped.

The North no longer held hidden pressure under its frozen routes.

The South’s soul-scarred lines no longer trembled with wrong echoes.

The East’s broken passages had stopped trying to fold back into enemy rhythm.

The Middle Continent, wounded most deeply by the final array, had finally stopped pulsing like a battlefield that refused to believe the war was over.

The world was not healed. But its rhythm had returned.

That mattered.

It meant the continents were harder to exploit.

It meant hidden enemies would find fewer cracks to pry open.

It meant the next disaster would not arrive to find the world still bleeding from the last one.

Lucien released the news through the public channels.

Across five continents, communication devices lit up.

His message spread.

[The five-continent stabilization project has reached its first completion stage.]

The world listened.

[The leyline rhythm across the five continents has returned to a stable state. Remaining damaged zones will continue to be monitored, but the immediate risk of false rhythm exploitation has been greatly reduced.]

For a moment, many people did not react.

They had grown too used to reports that carried warnings.

Then the meaning settled.

The land beneath them was no longer being pulled apart.

The world had taken one real step away from collapse.

Lucien continued.

[This was not accomplished by Lootwell alone. The slimes led the rhythm restoration, but many stood guard, maintained formations, protected workers, and held damaged zones while the work continued.]

[Lootwell thanks the slimes for their work.]

[Lootwell also thanks the allied forces who guarded and supported the stabilization period. The world is standing steadier today because many people did not leave their posts after the battle ended.]

The announcement ended there.

It did not need more.

The reaction came quickly.

At first, it was relief.

Then applause.

Then cheering.

Then, in several places, confusion about whether cheering for slimes required a formal etiquette.

The answer became irrelevant when the slimes began returning to the West Main Territory.

They arrived in groups.

Then Skittles appeared.

He did not simply return.

He led a parade.

There was no other word for it.

The Rainbow Slime bounced at the front with majestic solemnity, six faintly colored aspects trailing behind him like ceremonial attendants. Behind him came rows of slimes rolling, sliding, hopping, stretching, and pulsing in rhythm.

Someone started clapping.

Someone else cheered.

Then the cheering spread.

Lootwell citizens lined the streets.

Children waved little slime-shaped flags that someone had somehow designed, produced, and distributed within an hour.

Skittles stopped in the middle of the street, expanded slightly, and accepted the cheering with the dignity of a ruler returning from conquest.

"Sage work complete," he announced.

The crowd roared.

Lucien watched from a balcony with a faint smile.

The slimes had been gone for far too long.

Now the world had seen them repair continents.

That kind of reputation would not fade easily.

’Good.’

They deserved it.

The parade continued.

For a little while, the world felt lighter.

Lucien let himself enjoy it.

A little.

Everything was going well.

Or so he thought.

•••

The next report arrived quietly.

That was usually the dangerous kind.

It came through the shadow network.

His smile faded before he opened it.

The message unfolded.

[Northern Sea. North of the North Continent.

Three flashes observed rising from the waters.

Forms unclear. Visual contact unstable.

Pressure unbearable.

Figures did not move toward the North Continent.

Direction appears to be beyond the known side of the world.

Estimated trajectory: Black Mass territory.]

Lucien’s eyes changed.

The balcony, the parade, the cheering, and the bright slime banners suddenly felt very far away.