100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 729 - Rewards

Three days passed after the Team Trials ended.

The preserved region did not empty.

If anything, the atmosphere became more relaxed.

For the first time since the Grand Intercontinental Competition began, there was no immediate trial waiting for everyone the following morning. Factions used the interval to rest, review their performances, visit the training facilities, and wander through districts they had barely had time to see during the competition.

Lootwell used those three days for something much less exciting.

Counting.

There were individual placements spread across countless classifications, achievement rankings, four-person Interweaving results, faction and coalition rankings, rescue records, battlefield performances, and enough special accomplishments to bury an ordinary organization beneath paperwork for months.

Lootwell finished verifying everything before the three days ended.

Lucien considered that normal.

Several visiting administrators from other factions did not.

•••

The reward period began on the fourth morning.

Vivian returned to the central platform with several Lootwell administrators beside her.

She was no longer nervous about addressing the world.

After everything she had announced over the past weeks, distributing mountains of treasure apparently ranked somewhere below explaining surprise Law suppression to several continents at once.

The enormous projections above the preserved region changed.

Rather than displaying a single ranking, thousands of classification boards appeared across the network.

Nobody was expected to travel toward the central plateau to collect anything.

That would have been ridiculous.

Reward halls had already been established throughout the residential districts, while temporary distribution stations operated near the major teleportation hubs.

Participants only needed their competition registration marker.

The network verified the recipient, confirmed the ranking, recorded the claim, and directed Lootwell staff toward the correct secured storage formation.

For especially valuable rewards, transportation formations moved the item directly from protected vaults to the designated distribution point only after verification.

There were too many recipients for ceremony.

So Lootwell made the process ordinary.

Lines formed.

They moved.

Treasures disappeared from storage.

People walked away significantly wealthier than they had been several minutes earlier.

By midday, several factions had begun studying Lootwell’s distribution system almost as carefully as they had studied the competition.

•••

The first day belonged to the individual rankings.

Vivian explained the reward structure once.

After that, the network handled the rest.

Every official classification possessed its own reward ladder.

Where enough participants existed, the first six placements received the six treasures Lootwell had already revealed before the competition.

First place received the Sovereign Soul Anchor.

Second received the Second Origin Vessel.

Third received the Concordance Crown.

Fourth received the Life Link Talisman.

Fifth received the Adaptive Bastion Mantle.

Sixth received the Everlasting Meridian Pearl.

The world did not know how Lucien’s system classified any of them.

It did not need to.

By now, enough information had spread that simply seeing the names appear beside the highest placements caused entire viewing districts to erupt.

And there was not only one copy of each.

Every eligible classification had its own winners.

That realization took some people longer to understand than it should have.

Then the first Sovereign Soul Anchor was handed over.

Another appeared in a different district.

Then another.

The noise across the preserved region increased considerably.

Lootwell had never said the previously revealed rewards were unique.

Apparently, many people had simply assumed treasures of that quality had to be.

Lucien saw no reason to correct assumptions that had never come from him.

•••

The rewards did not stop at sixth place.

Participants ranked from seventh through one hundred received a lower reward tier containing valuable Lootwell equipment and resources appropriate to their classification.

Among the most popular prizes were certified Lootwell Law Interweavers.

Many recipients already owned public versions.

That did not prevent them from looking pleased.

Lootwell’s own devices remained smoother, more efficient, and considerably more reliable than most ordinary copies.

Below that came another broad tier extending through the ten-thousandth placement where the size of the classification permitted it.

Those rewards were less extravagant but still useful: equipment, materials, recovery resources, training privileges, and access to selected Lootwell facilities.

Even participants below those rankings were not sent away empty-handed.

Anyone who had properly completed a recognized portion of the competition received a consolation package.

The contents varied according to classification and participation, but Lootwell had deliberately made sure the package contained things people could actually use rather than ceremonial scraps.

Nobody was going to become famous because of a consolation prize.

They also would not regret coming.

Lucien preferred it that way.

The competition had been designed to strengthen people.

Rewarding only a tiny fraction of them would have been wasteful.

•••

The achievement boards were handled alongside the classification rankings.

They followed the same principle without blindly copying placement.

Exceptional achievements received rewards appropriate to what had been accomplished, and the most significant board winners could receive treasures from the same upper reward pool.

A participant who had never approached first place in direct combat could therefore leave with something better than the prize of someone ranked far above them if their achievement had been extraordinary enough.

That caused arguments.

Lucien ignored them.

The competition had spent weeks teaching people that usefulness had more than one definition.

Changing that philosophy during the rewards would have been rather stupid.

By evening, the individual distribution was complete.

The last verified recipients left the reward stations while Lootwell staff began preparing the next day’s inventories.

The preserved region remained awake much longer.

Too many people had new treasures to examine.

•••

The second day belonged to the Interweaving Trial.

This time, the ranking boards displayed teams of four.

The reward system produced immediate excitement for one simple reason.

Lootwell did not hand one reward to a team and expect four people to decide who deserved it.

Every member received the full reward corresponding to the team’s placement.

When the first-place teams approached the distribution stations, four Sovereign Soul Anchors were prepared.

Second-place teams received four Second Origin Vessels.

The pattern continued through the upper placements.

That decision received almost universal approval.

Dividing an Interweaving reward would have made little sense when the entire event had been built around four people depending upon one another.

Lower-ranked teams received the same broader reward tiers used during the individual distribution, including certified Interweavers, materials, training privileges, and other Lootwell resources.

The process continued across thousands of distribution stations without slowing significantly.

The numbers were enormous.

So was Lootwell.

Citizens who had spent years managing trade across multiple continents now treated the reward period like another unusually busy market day.

Warehouse staff moved sealed containers.

Formation operators handled secure transfers.

Administrators verified disputes.

Guards kept traffic flowing.

Food districts remained open because people waiting for valuable treasures became remarkably patient when fed properly.

Lucien had expected chaos.

Lootwell turned it into lines.

He found that strangely satisfying.

•••

The third reward day belonged to the Team Trials.

Faction forces and independent coalitions filled the rankings.

Again, the upper placements received the same headline treasure pool.

The difference appeared farther down.

Several reward tiers contained items intended for entire battlefield units rather than individual fighters.

One of the most popular was the Concord Relay Crest.

Each qualifying force received a matched set rather than a single artifact.

When worn by members operating under the same registered command structure, the crests improved the stability of communication formations, reduced delays when transmitting battlefield signals, and helped coordinated techniques maintain timing across larger distances.

They did not share thoughts.

They simply made people who were already trying to work together considerably better at doing it.

Commanders loved them.

Several independent coalitions loved them even more.

Groups that had formed only for the competition suddenly had another reason not to dissolve afterward.

Other team rewards supported medical coordination, formation deployment, supply management, or battlefield communication.

Nothing replaced training.

Lootwell simply gave competent groups better tools.

The consolation rewards followed the same philosophy.

Even forces that ranked poorly received useful resources, facility privileges, or equipment that could improve their weaknesses.

By late afternoon, the reward halls had processed numbers that would have overwhelmed entire kingdoms.

Lootwell’s citizens continued working.

The lines continued shrinking.

And before nightfall, the last Team Trial rewards had been distributed.