The countdown ended.
The Will of Blue Star fell completely silent.
And for a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen.
No thunder splitting the sky. No earth-splitting cataclysm. No dramatic "end of the world" scene.
Which instantly confused the entire internet.
"What the hell? Nothing happened."
"Aren't we supposed to see the heavens crack open or something?!"
"Yeah—nothing changed. So it was a scam?"
They kept arguing—
Completely unaware that the world was already changing.
Because the Will of Blue Star hadn't lied.
Global resources were being pulled away—quietly and efficiently—then redistributed.
Not evenly. Not fairly.
Just… cut down to a minimum baseline for every nation.
It took people a moment to notice.
Then the realization hit like a punch.
"Holy—resources really did vanish!"
"Are they serious?! Dragon Nation already has too many people and not enough resources. If this keeps going, we won't last two months!"
"So if our competitors die in the Divine Domain… and our resources get halved again… we're finished?"
"LOOK—check the streaming platforms! The Divine Domain broadcast just went live!!"
For Adrian Vale, it was simpler.
The moment the countdown ended, the world flashed white.
When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in a place that felt like a dead planet.
A desert.
Endless yellow sand. An empty sky with no kindness in it. Silence so complete it felt unnatural.
Here and there, cacti rose from the dunes—massive, far larger than anything you'd see outside.
At least two or three meters tall.
He hadn't seen any of the truly monstrous ones yet—ten meters, maybe more—
…but he had a feeling those existed too.
And beside him—
The tall, white-haired woman from before.
Raven Shaw.
At the same time, the livestream went live worldwide.
The broadcast was split into countless channels, one for each competitor.
Finding Dragon Nation's two feeds should've been difficult—
but the internet was the internet.
Within minutes, people dug them up, linked them everywhere, and flooded in like a tide.
"Oh?! It's starting!!"
"We have visuals—WE HAVE VISUALS!"
"First! First!"
"So this is the Forbidden Zone?! A desert?!"
"Wait—are those two really Dragon Nation's competitors?!"
Dragon Nation's feed finally came into focus.
The desert filled the screen.
People were still taking in the barren landscape when they noticed the two figures—
And the chat exploded.
One of them was a stunning woman in a fur-lined long coat, tall and cold as a blade, short white hair framing a face that looked carved rather than born.
And the other was—
A kid?
A student?!
Adrian Vale was still in ordinary clothes. His frame and face were young enough that, at a glance, he still looked like he belonged in a classroom.
What stood out most wasn't even that.
It was the matching white hair—
And the white eyepatch over his left eye.
Old. Worn. Like it had been there for years.
The mood in the chat shifted immediately.
"A woman and a kid… yeah, we're cooked. Dragon Nation is dead in two months."
"Watch your mouth—do you think they volunteered for a death match?"
"I'm just hoping they come back alive…"
"Why does the white-haired guy wear an eyepatch? Is he injured?"
"Looks kinda beat-up too… don't tell me he's blind?"
"Calm down. Maybe they're not normal people. Trust them!"
Dragon Nation's viewers were stunned—but more than anything, they were worried.
Because "Forbidden Zone" didn't sound like a place you survived with prayers.
A woman and a student?
Even if this was "fighting for the nation"—
people cared more about whether these two would even make it through the first day.
But the wave of overseas viewers pouring into the channel didn't share that concern.
The moment they saw Dragon Nation's lineup, the sneering started.
"That's Dragon Nation's team? Seriously?"
"So many people, such a 'great power'—and you send this?"
"Hahaha, you're done. Maybe you should just merge into the Eastern Isles."
"My god, I almost feel sorry for you. Compared to Miracle Nation's competitors, yours look hopeless."
Dragon Nation viewers snapped back instantly.
Even if they were scared—
even if their own hearts were pounding—
they weren't about to let outsiders spit on their people.
The channel turned into a battlefield of words.
No smoke. No gunfire.
Just pride and panic colliding in real time.
And still… even while arguing, many Dragon Nation viewers did the same thing:
They opened other channels.
They went to "scout the enemy."
And the moment they saw what other countries had drawn…
their stomachs sank.
"No way… Miracle Nation got Noah Drake?!"
"You don't understand—he's a monster."
"The Eastern Isles' competitor looks like a real blade master… that's a katana user."
"This is bad… their teams look way stronger than ours…"
Back in the desert, Adrian Vale didn't react to any of it.
He didn't know the chat was screaming.
He didn't know the world was already measuring him and finding him wanting.
He just stared at the horizon, where heat shimmered like a mirage…
…and felt his throat tighten.
The place smelled dry.
But underneath that—
something else.
A faint, metallic hint that made the ghoul inside him stir.
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