Yes—Raven Shaw was honestly stunned too.
That dark blur happened in a single instant.
Forget the viewers—
even Raven Shaw, standing right there with sharp senses and overwhelming strength, didn't actually see what happened.
But one thing she could confirm:
It wasn't her.
And it couldn't have been a third person either—she would've sensed them.
Which meant there was only one answer.
Adrian Vale moved.
And in that same heartbeat, Raven Shaw noticed something else—
the lower hem of Adrian Vale'sBlack Reaper outfit… quietly sealing itself back together, healing like living flesh pretending to be cloth.
That tiny detail nailed it down.
Still…
Fast enough that even I couldn't track it?
The deeper Raven Shaw thought, the more unsettling Adrian Vale became—like a calm mask stretched over something starving.
The curiosity in her chest didn't fade.
It thickened.
Who are you… Adrian Vale?
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the figure ahead—
the same boy who was now calmly eating as if nothing had happened.
Dragon Nation goes wild
Back in Dragon Nation, the whole nation erupted.
Some people believed Adrian Vale was the one who struck.
But far more decided it had to be Raven Shaw's work.
And with that, public worship for Raven Shaw surged overnight.
Idols. Streamers. Celebrities.
None of it mattered anymore.
"Raven Shaw yyds" became a national chant.
At this point, if you didn't shout it during holidays, people looked at you like you'd committed a crime.
The leadership grows uneasy
It wasn't just the public.
Even the higher-ups were shaken.
Because the "profile" they had on Raven Shaw…
didn't match reality at all.
A normal person?
What normal person moves like that?
No chance.
So Victor Hale went digging—properly.
If the state wanted to pull someone's background apart, and that person belonged to Dragon Nation…
then unless they were a ghost, it was never truly impossible.
Because the world was never as peaceful as it looked on the surface.
Beneath calm water, there was always another layer—
a hidden circle of "specialists" who almost never stepped into public sight.
They existed.
And in many ways, their existence quietly held the world together.
So if Raven Shaw couldn't be understood through civilian records…
the only path was that underground circle.
Victor Hale did get an answer.
But it was only one sentence:
"She's not simple."
And even that came from a highly respected elder—someone who clearly didn't want to say more.
That alone was terrifying.
Raven Shaw wasn't just "strong."
She was the kind of person the world learned not to touch.
And Adrian Vale?
Adrian Vale's file was much easier to pull.
Which somehow made it worse.
Because the conclusion on paper was:
"Normal student."
That line made the leader frown.
The most glaring detail was an incident from three years ago.
No one knew what really happened.
A group of students vanished as if they'd never existed.
No bodies.
No trace.
Like they'd been erased—cleanly, without noise, without a stain left behind.
And that incident was the only "explanation" the records could vaguely connect to the Adrian Vale of today.
The leader sighed.
He rarely felt this helpless.
Both of them were mysteries—
one hidden behind silence, the other hidden behind a laughably ordinary label.
A "normal student"?
With Adrian Vale's behavior in the Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone?
Nineteen years old?
Even with a genius IQ, who believes that?
Forget the D-rank one-shot (which they still didn't fully understand).
Just the fact that he ate a Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone beast raw was enough.
A normal student doesn't do that.
Even if you dropped a Northern Bear Nation kid in there, most wouldn't dare.
In the end, the leader stopped forcing answers.
Whether they were monsters or miracles—
they were Dragon Nation's representatives now.
Dragon Nation's fate was tied to them.
All he could do was throw every resource he had into supporting them.
The world breaks mentally
The rankings refreshed.
And the competitors in the Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone everywhere went numb.
Dragon Nation's score had jumped past 8,000.
Second place—Miracle Nation—was only 3,000.
Even Northern Bear Nation was around 2,800.
Most others were stuck between a few hundred and a thousand.
That gap wasn't just big.
It was suffocating.
"How are we supposed to overturn this?"
One competitor stared at the Points Leaderboard, lit his last cigarette, and inhaled.
"…Hah…"
"…Hoo…"
A long silence.
Then he finally snapped:
"Challenge my ass—this is cheating!"
"Unfair!" goes global
News of Dragon Nation securing a D-rank resource detonated worldwide.
The outrage spread like wildfire.
And the loudest voices, as expected, came from Miracle Nation and the Eastern Isles.
"Unfair!"
"This can't be real!"
"This is rigged!"
And behind the scenes, Miracle Nation began fanning the flames—pushing a very specific message:
"If Dragon Nation is benefiting from 'cheating,' then those gains should be shared with all humanity."
The storm was only getting started.
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