100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 730 - Invasion

For three days, treasures had flowed through the preserved region.

The effect was impossible to hide.

People compared rewards in restaurants.

Factions inspected new equipment inside temporary training grounds.

Researchers surrounded recipients willing to let them examine unusual artifacts.

Some winners guarded their prizes like dragons.

Several actual dragons found that comparison insulting.

The atmosphere had changed completely from the tense opening weeks of the competition.

Most people believed the Grand Intercontinental Competition was effectively over.

The announced trials had concluded.

The rankings were settled.

The rewards had been distributed.

Only one mystery remained.

The highest reward had never been shown.

That fact had survived every stage of the competition.

Lootwell had revealed the Sovereign Soul Anchor.

The Life Link Talisman.

The Second Origin Vessel.

The Concordance Crown.

The Everlasting Meridian Pearl.

The Adaptive Bastion Mantle.

Yet the promise made before the competition began remained unchanged.

The highest reward had not been revealed.

Speculation returned with impressive speed.

The old theories appeared again.

Someone suggested an Origin Core fragment despite Lucien having already denied it.

Another person revived the theory that Lootwell intended to give away an entire small world.

That had also been denied.

Apparently, being told something was impossible only made certain people more creative.

Lucien let them speculate.

They only needed to wait one more night.

•••

The following morning, the central districts filled earlier than usual.

Projection formations activated across every residential region.

Communication devices automatically opened the official broadcast for anyone who had enabled competition announcements.

Even many people who had already begun preparing to leave delayed their departure.

Nobody wanted to travel across half a continent and discover the greatest reward had been revealed while they were sitting inside a teleportation corridor.

Vivian appeared above the central platform.

The administrators stood behind her.

Several large sealed formations rested nearby.

Lucien watched from farther back.

Vivian waited until the major districts had connected.

Then she smiled.

"The announced rewards of the Grand Intercontinental Competition have now been distributed."

A roar rolled across the preserved region.

Vivian allowed it to settle.

"One reward remains."

The reaction was even louder.

Somewhere in the beast districts, something enormous howled.

Several nearby races answered for no reason Lucien could determine.

Vivian looked toward the sealed formations.

"The final reward is something Lootwell has not previously made available."

That was enough.

The entire region seemed to lean toward the projections.

Lucien could practically feel the curiosity.

Vivian raised one hand.

The first layer of the sealing formation began to open.

Then something changed.

The light across the preserved region dimmed.

At first, only a few people noticed.

Then the shadows stretched, the distant sky darkened, and more faces slowly turned upward.

Whatever was happening had nothing to do with the reward.

A heartbeat later, something vast moved across the heavens.

Every projection flickered.

The sealing formation stopped.

Vivian looked upward.

So did everyone else.

Across the preserved region, conversations faltered as the darkness continued spreading beyond the central districts until even the distant mountains disappeared beneath it.

Then the ancient scars buried throughout the land began to glow.

The first alarm sounded almost immediately.

It was nothing like the competition signals people had heard for weeks. The tone was lower, harsher, and carried enough urgency that the remaining conversations vanished entirely.

Emergency formations awakened across the safe districts as thousands of people turned toward the northern horizon.

That was when the sky tore open.

A black rupture split across the heavens, stretching so far that its edges disappeared beyond sight.

Something began descending through it.

The pressure reached the ground before anyone could make out its form.

Practitioners staggered beneath the sudden weight. Others instinctively reinforced their Laws, while ancient beasts rose from their resting places and fixed their attention on the rupture.

The Red Dragon was already staring upward.

Then the silhouette finally emerged. Authority rolled from it in waves strong enough to make the surrounding air tremble.

A Primordial Incarnation.

Before anyone could properly react, another rupture opened farther east.

Then another appeared behind it.

The preserved region shuddered as black figures began pouring through the breaches across the distant sectors.

Some resembled beasts twisted far beyond anything natural. Others crawled across the land on too many limbs, while larger shapes descended behind them through the darkness.

The projections had barely focused on the approaching horde when someone in the observation districts shouted the name everyone else had already begun to fear.

"Black Mass."

That single realization did more damage than the pressure.

The observation districts erupted almost immediately.

People who had spent weeks competing, celebrating, and training beside one another were suddenly staring at what appeared to be an actual invasion.

Across the region, teleportation hubs flashed as crowds tried to move, only for several routes to fail before they could activate. Warning formations spread through the districts at the same time, marking new hostile signatures appearing along the outer sectors.

Then something struck one of the distant defensive barriers.

The impact lit half the horizon.

Whatever uncertainty remained vanished with it.

Confusion swept through the crowds, but it did not last as long as it might have before the competition.

Faction commanders began pulling their people together while independent coalitions instinctively gathered around the leaders they had already learned to trust.

Healers moved toward the established medical districts instead of rushing toward the fighting, while scouts rose above the crowds to determine where the breaches were actually forming.

Around them, beast clans were already reorganizing beneath their elders, and the glow of activated Interweavers began appearing throughout the districts.

Lootwell moved even faster.

Citizens who had been distributing rewards only moments earlier left their stations and shifted into emergency roles with practiced efficiency. The administrators beside Vivian were already coordinating with the surrounding districts by the time the central projection changed.

The rankings vanished.

In their place appeared a map of the preserved region, with hostile sectors spreading across it in red.

Lucien stepped forward as another distant impact rolled across the land.

He studied the map once, then looked toward the darkened horizon before his voice carried through every active communication formation in the preserved region.

"All registered forces, follow wartime command."

There was nothing about rankings or prizes in the order, and no announcement suggested that another competition stage had begun.

Behind Vivian, the highest reward remained sealed.

Ahead of them, the first defensive lines were already forming.

As far as everyone in the preserved region knew, the competition had ended just in time for the war to begin.