100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full?

Chapter 735: Chapter 735 - Conclusion

The silence lasted only a few breaths.

Then the preserved region exploded.

Questions came from every direction at once.

Some people were still holding weapons. Others had not even dismissed their Domains. A few commanders were halfway through reorganizing their forces when Vivian’s announcement reached them, leaving them staring at the projections as though they had suddenly forgotten what they were doing.

Relief mixed badly with disbelief.

Several people laughed because they had no idea how else to react. Others looked genuinely offended. Some simply sat down where they stood and stared at the battlefield they had spent hours believing might become their grave.

The complaints arrived soon afterward.

There were far too many for Vivian’s megaphone to compete with.

Lucien listened from the central platform.

He could not really blame them.

They had watched what appeared to be Primordial Incarnations descend from the sky. They had fought Black Mass armies, watched defensive lines collapse, evacuated entire districts, and seen people disappear after attacks that looked fatal.

Some had probably already begun reconsidering every decision that had led them to attend the competition.

Their anger was reasonable.

Lucien let them have it for a little while.

Then the noise began growing instead of fading.

He sighed and held out his hand toward Vivian.

She surrendered the megaphone immediately.

Perhaps a little too happily.

Lucien raised it.

The projection formations shifted with him.

His image appeared above the major districts and battlefield sectors while his voice spread through the preserved region.

"That was the fourth and final stage."

The complaints did not disappear.

Lucien continued before they could recover their momentum.

"The Battlefield Simulation was deliberately concealed."

That earned him another wave of noise.

Lucien waited.

Eventually, curiosity began defeating outrage.

•••

"The earlier stages tested you while you knew you were being tested."

The surrounding districts gradually quieted.

"You knew there were rankings. You knew there were safety formations. You knew your decisions were being recorded, and you knew rewards were waiting afterward."

Lucien looked across the battlefield.

"That would not have been enough for the final stage."

The projection behind him changed.

Images from the battle appeared across it.

An Eternal guarding an evacuation corridor.

An ancient beast carrying injured strangers instead of joining the fight above.

Independent coalitions reinforcing factions they had never known before the competition.

Commanders abandoning objectives once the cost became unreasonable.

Healers and scouts continuing to work when, as far as they knew, no score remained to reward them for it.

"The last stage was meant to answer a different question."

Lucien paused.

"What would you do if you believed the competition was already over?"

The region became quieter.

That explanation reached considerably farther than an apology would have.

Lucien continued.

"Not everyone capable entered the competition. Some of the strongest beings here came only to watch. Many merchants, craftsmen, healers, researchers, administrators, and faction elders never intended to compete at all."

Several ancient beasts glanced toward one another.

They knew exactly who he meant.

"If I announced a final battlefield event, I would only be testing the people who chose to register for it."

Lucien gestured toward the enormous region around them.

"So I did not announce one."

That produced several expressions that suggested people understood the logic while remaining deeply unhappy about being included in it.

Lucien considered that fair.

"The fourth stage began the moment you believed an invasion had started."

•••

Another image appeared above the battlefield.

The Primordial Incarnations.

Then the Black Mass hordes.

The atmosphere tightened again despite everyone now knowing the truth.

"The enemies you fought followed the same principle as the Echo Crucible."

Recognition spread almost immediately.

"They were echoes reproduced through the preserved region’s formations and authority network. The Black Mass forces were built to behave, fight, and respond closely enough to what we understand of the real enemy that treating them casually would have defeated the purpose."

Lucien did not explain how convincing the miasma had been made.

There was no reason to.

"The Primordial Incarnations were echoes as well. Their authority pressure and Law interference were real enough for training purposes, but none of those entities actually entered the region."

That finally caused a visible wave of relief.

The ancient beings reacted more subtly, but even several of them relaxed.

Lucien moved to the question he knew many people cared about more.

"And before anyone asks, nobody died."

The reaction was immediate.

People turned toward companions who had disappeared during the battle.

"The injuries were part of the simulation. The physical consequences were intercepted by the safety network, while the sensations and shock were reproduced strongly enough that your bodies and minds would respond as though the danger were genuine."

That explained why people had remembered pain from wounds that should have killed them.

It also explained why the extracted had recovered suspiciously well.

"The Clear Mind Halls and recovery districts are already prepared to deal with any lingering psychological effects."

Lucien looked around.

"Lootwell organized a competition. It did not organize a massacre."

That earned the first scattered laughter since the reveal.

More importantly, millions of people finally released breaths they had apparently been holding since Vivian’s announcement.

•••

The complaints did not disappear completely.

Lucien had expected that too.

Being told that a terrifying experience had been carefully controlled did not somehow erase the experience.

So he moved to the next part.

"Everyone caught inside the fourth stage will also receive compensation from Lootwell."

That worked remarkably well.

The remaining noise diminished.

Lucien almost felt offended by how quickly it happened.

"You may each choose one rare attribute-granting extract available from Lootwell. The choice does not need to be made today. Collection will open after the competition formally concludes."

Silence followed.

Then the communication network nearly collapsed beneath people checking whether they had heard correctly.

Attribute-granting items were already sold through Lootwell.

They were not impossible to obtain.

They were simply expensive enough that most people did not buy them casually.

More importantly, choosing the attribute themselves made the reward useful to nearly anyone.

Someone whose Law was suppressed could still possess another means of attack.

A healer could obtain something useful for survival.

A combatant could reinforce an existing weakness.

Even people who had never competed could benefit.

Lucien considered it an appropriate apology.

The cost to Lootwell was also much less horrifying than outsiders probably imagined.

One suitable attribute-bearing fruit could produce enough material for many extracts.

Lootwell had stock.

A great deal of stock.

Across the preserved region, the anger changed character almost visibly.

Several people who had been complaining moments earlier were now discussing which attribute they intended to choose.

Vivian stared at them from beside Lucien.

Lucien handed the megaphone slightly away from his mouth.

"I thought that would work."

She gave him a look.

Lucien decided not to elaborate.

•••

Once the compensation had settled in everyone’s mind, another question began spreading.

At first it appeared only in scattered conversations.

Then more people started looking toward the Covenant Disc still in Lucien’s hand.

The final reward.

The same object had filled the sky with enough Creation spears to erase entire fronts and destroy multiple Primordial Incarnation echoes.

Everyone had seen it.

Everyone now knew that Lucien had deliberately used the fourth stage to test people who had never entered the earlier competitions.

That changed the obvious question.

Who had won it?

Lucien could hear fragments of speculation even from the central platform.

Many expected one of the Eternals.

Others argued for one of the faction commanders who had held the most important fronts.

Several names from the Team Trials reappeared.

Ancient dragons entered the discussion.

So did practitioners who had spent hours protecting evacuation districts.

Independent commanders who had barely been known before the competition suddenly had supporters of their own.

Lucien allowed the speculation to build.

There was no need to hurry.

The Covenant Disc deserved the attention.

Eventually, he raised the megaphone again.

"The final reward is called the Covenant of the Thousandfold Echo."

The name spread through the projections.

Lucien lifted the translucent disc.

"You have already seen what it can do, but the effect itself is simple."

The battlefield recordings shifted to the moment his first Creation spear had multiplied across the heavens.

"The Covenant records the next technique its bearer releases and reproduces that technique additional times at nearly the same strength."

Interest immediately sharpened.

"The number of echoes depends on the technique and the energy supplied to the Covenant. A simple technique can be reproduced far more extensively than something complex or overwhelmingly powerful, provided the bearer possesses enough energy to sustain the result."

The image changed to the final bombardment.

Countless spears covered the preserved region.

Nobody needed another demonstration.

"This is not an artifact meant to make weak attacks impressive."

Lucien lowered the Disc slightly.

"It multiplies what the bearer is already capable of producing."

That distinction mattered.

In the wrong hands, it was valuable.

In the right hands, everyone had just seen what could happen.

•••

The guessing became quieter after that.

People were no longer merely wondering who had ranked highest.

They were considering who could actually use such an artifact well.

Someone with enormous reserves.

Someone capable of producing techniques worth multiplying.

Someone with enough control that repeating an attack hundreds or thousands of times would not simply murder everyone standing nearby.

And perhaps most importantly, someone Lucien trusted with a battlefield-changing weapon.

Several ancient beings became obvious candidates.

Lucien looked toward the projections.

During the hidden fourth stage, he had watched commanders emerge.

He had found potential candidates.

He had seen healers, scouts, faction leaders, independents, ancient beasts, and ordinary Lootwell citizens reveal things no normal ranking could measure.

But the Covenant was not a reward for every kind of capability.

It had a purpose of its own.

Lucien had already made his decision.

"The recipient of the Covenant of the Thousandfold Echo..."

The preserved region went quiet again.

Lucien’s gaze moved toward the northern districts.

The projection followed.

A massive red figure remained there among the other ancient powers, looking considerably less pleased now that the Black Mass enemies had disappeared.

The Red Dragon noticed the projection centered on him.

His expression changed.

Lucien smiled.

"...is the Red Dragon."

For once, the ancient dragon looked completely unprepared.

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