100\% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? Chapter 739 - 738 - Preparation

As the days passed, an old rumor began resurfacing across the five continents.

At first, it appeared only in scattered conversations.

Another war was coming.

Some claimed it would surpass the Keeper War. Others insisted that the signs had already been appearing for years and that the Grand Intercontinental Competition had only been the latest piece of evidence.

Naturally, nobody agreed on the details.

That did not stop anyone from inventing them.

Some communication channels claimed the Black Mass was gathering beyond the known borders of the world. Others argued that the Primordial disturbances recorded over the past months were connected. A few particularly enthusiastic theorists managed to connect ancient ruins, changing monster behavior, unusual movements among the ancient races, and several completely unrelated natural disasters into a single elaborate prediction of the end of civilization.

Most of it was nonsense.

The problem was that not all of it sounded like nonsense anymore.

People remembered the competition.

More specifically, they remembered the fourth stage.

Lootwell had constructed an enormous battlefield simulation involving Black Mass armies, Primordial Incarnations, evacuation networks, collapsing fronts, Law suppression, medical logistics, and large-scale command.

At the time, Lucien had explained that it was meant to test how people behaved when they believed the danger was real.

Now that explanation was being examined again.

Why had Lootwell chosen that particular danger?

Why had the preserved region been filled with Authority Resistance Fields?

Why had the Interweaving Trial focused so heavily on continuing to fight after one’s original Law became unusable?

Why had the Team Trials emphasized evacuation, supply lines, command structures, and battlefield losses instead of simply determining which faction was strongest?

One question led naturally into another.

The rumor grew.

•••

Reports about it reached Lucien almost every day.

The Recorders collected discussions from communication devices. The Shadow Information Network got them from public gathering places, faction channels, trading hubs, and countless smaller sources.

The subject had spread far beyond powerful practitioners.

Merchants talked about it.

Academy students argued about it.

Adventurers used it as an excuse to charge more for dangerous work.

Even people who had never attended the competition had opinions about what Lootwell was supposedly preparing for.

Lucien read several reports before setting them aside.

Like last time, he had no intention of clarifying anything.

He would not confirm the rumor.

He would not deny it either.

At this point, uncertainty was more useful than reassurance.

If Lucien publicly declared that a catastrophe was coming, panic would spread faster than preparation.

If he denied it, too many people would return to their old habits.

A rumor occupied a useful middle ground.

People remained unsettled.

But they could still think.

Lucien was perfectly willing to let them think.

•••

Eventually, the unease began changing shape.

People started preparing.

At first, it was subtle.

A few factions expanded their emergency stores.

Others inspected old formations that had not been maintained properly in years.

Several cities reviewed evacuation routes.

Independent practitioners who normally spent everything they earned began keeping reserve supplies.

Then the movement accelerated.

Training halls became crowded.

Interweavers that had once been purchased as interesting equipment were adjusted, and tested seriously.

Medical organizations began asking for more battlefield personnel.

Formation specialists received requests for defensive arrays rather than decorative or convenience formations.

Beast clans started conducting joint exercises with neighboring settlements.

Nobody knew whether the rumor was true.

That increasingly stopped mattering.

The reasoning was simple.

If nothing happened, they would become stronger and better prepared.

If something did happen, they would be grateful they had started early.

Requests to enter the preserved region multiplied.

The training branch was already public, but entry still required registration and permission through Lootwell so that the enormous facilities could be managed safely.

Applications arrived from everywhere.

Factions requested entire training blocks.

Independent groups applied together.

New coalitions formed specifically because shared access made training cheaper and more efficient.

Some people traveled across continents simply to spend several days inside the Authority Resistance Fields before returning home.

Lucien watched the numbers rise.

He liked what he saw.

The Thousand Races were beginning to prepare themselves without being ordered to do so.

That was better than fear.

It was habit.

•••

Lucien had preparations of his own.

The competition had given him something more valuable than rankings.

A list of capable people.

He had watched people reveal qualities that ordinary trials rarely exposed.

Some had remained calm when stronger people panicked.

Others had taken command without seeking authority.

Several had protected strangers when retreat would have been easier.

There were scouts who noticed battlefield changes before anyone around them.

Healers who kept functioning under pressure.

Independent practitioners who understood exactly when courage became stupidity and withdrew before wasting their lives.

Commanders who could make ugly decisions without becoming cruel.

The Grace System had already marked many of them.

Lucien had added his own observations afterward.

Now he had their names.

He sent it to Lootwell staffs.

The instruction was simple.

Contact them.

•••

The first messages went out quietly.

There was no grand announcement.

No public ranking was attached.

Lootwell simply informed selected individuals that Lucien wished to personally oversee part of their future training.

The response was predictable.

Very few declined.

For independents, the opportunity was almost absurd.

For members of factions, refusing was hardly easier.

Being personally selected by Lootwell did not require abandoning one’s organization, and most factions understood the value immediately.

Several leaders practically sent their people before the recipients had finished reading the message.

Lucien did not mind.

He was not trying to steal anyone.

He wanted to develop them.

The people on his list already possessed something important.

Potential alone was not enough to describe it.

Many had already proven that when circumstances became dangerous, other people naturally began depending on them.

Some were already heroes without realizing it.

They simply lacked the strength, experience, resources, or opportunity to become what they were capable of becoming.

Lucien intended to fix that.

He had no interest in raising people who looked impressive only during peaceful times.

By the time the next true disaster arrived, he wanted the people he had selected to be terrifyingly competent.

The kind of people who could walk into a collapsing battlefield and make everyone around them believe survival was still possible.

The next stage of the world’s preparation had begun.

•••

The following days became increasingly strange.

Across the five continents, people trained.

They stocked supplies.

They repaired equipment that had been sitting unused.

They reviewed evacuation plans.

They studied battlefield recordings from the competition.

Independent coalitions continued practicing together even when there was no prize waiting for them.

Factions that had once guarded their training methods jealously began exchanging information where cooperation made sense.

None of them had received confirmation that another war was coming.

Yet the possibility alone had been enough to move them.

Lucien considered that progress.

Then Lootwell made things worse.

A new document appeared through its communication network.

It was available freely.

The title was painfully ordinary.

[General Training Plan]

People opened it expecting a collection of basic recommendations.

They found something considerably more thorough.

The plan covered physical conditioning, energy management, Law suppression drills, Interweaver familiarity, emergency withdrawal procedures, battlefield communication, first-response medical knowledge, group movement, reserve supplies, mental stabilization, and recommended practice inside the preserved region’s facilities.

There were different versions for independent practitioners, factions, support personnel, beast clans, and people who rarely fought at all.

Nothing in the document mentioned an approaching war.

Nothing claimed a disaster was coming.

There was not a single sentence confirming the rumor.

That somehow made the reaction worse.

Across the communication network, discussions exploded again.

People stared at the training plan.

Then they stared at the rumors.

Then they remembered the fourth stage of the Grand Intercontinental Competition.

One question began appearing so frequently that even Lootwell’s recorders started grouping the messages together.

If nothing was coming...

Why was Lootwell preparing everyone for it?