Victor Hale placed the folder into the middle-aged leader's hands.
Silence fell over the conference room.
According to the file, three years ago Adrian Vale had been a perfectly ordinary student.
His parents had died in an accident. Left alone, he still refused to bow to life.
At sixteen, he worked while studying—on his own—and even then his grades were outstanding.
If things had continued like that, he would've become one of Dragon Nation's pillars sooner or later.
But the dossier contained one detail that made the leader's blood boil.
School bullying.
It wasn't unique to Dragon Nation—every country dealt with it.
Teenagers, high on hormones and cruelty, venting their chaos in the easiest way possible—
by building their "courage" on someone else's pain.
The leader's face darkened.
"Unforgivable."
BANG.
He slammed the file onto the table.
"What era are we living in that this still happens?!"
Victor Hale stayed silent.
Bullying had long been a priority for Dragon Nation's enforcement and education systems.
But even with crackdowns, cases still surfaced.
It wasn't just a national problem.
It was a human problem.
And no matter how furious you became, you couldn't rewrite what had already happened.
After a moment, Victor Hale spoke softly.
"Sir. Please read the next page."
The leader drew a slow breath, forced his anger down, and picked the file back up.
He flipped to the last page of Adrian Vale's record.
And the moment he read it—
he fell silent again.
Three years ago, on the way home from school, Adrian Vale had been bullied yet again.
But that incident was also the final recorded bullying case involving him.
After that day, Adrian Vale vanished from everyone's sight.
No traces. No sightings. No updates. Nothing.
And the bullies involved in that incident…
also disappeared.
Adrian Vale's next appearance in the public record was inside the Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone.
Considering the drastic changes in his appearance—and the colder edge to his personality—there was only one conclusion that made sense.
The leader exhaled, voice heavy.
"What a tragedy…"
Victor Hale didn't respond.
A boy who should've had a future—twisted by reality until his life veered off course.
It was society's shame.
And Dragon Nation's shame.
"It's our failure," the leader said quietly. "We failed him… and now he's fighting for us in the Forbidden Zone. It's…"
He didn't finish.
After a long pause, he straightened.
"The anti-bullying measures. Increase enforcement. Immediately."
"Yes, sir."
The leader rubbed his temple, then opened the second file.
Name: Raven Shaw
Age: 18 (?)
Profile: Civilian
He stared.
Her information was even thinner than Adrian Vale's.
A single page. A name. An age with a question mark like a bad joke.
And a summary so vague it was almost insulting:
"Civilian."
That was it.
No background. No education. No work record. No origin.
As if she'd been deliberately erased.
While Dragon Nation's leadership reviewed those files…
the Forbidden Zone delivered another shockwave.
After the first deaths, the world finally saw what everyone had been waiting for:
The first confirmed resource.
And it was Miracle Nation.
They'd discovered a massive iron deposit buried beneath the sand—an enormous ore vein.
More importantly, the area was guarded by only a single F-Divine Domain lifeform.
And this F- wasn't anything like the Crimson Sandstalkers.
No disaster storm.
No swarm.
Just one creature.
Manageable.
That was when Miracle Nation's second competitor—the silent, muscular man—finally revealed what he really was.
Because the huge tactical backpack on his back wasn't supplies.
It was an arsenal.
Rifles. Pistols. Grenades. Combat knives—everything.
A moving, modern armory.
With that kind of firepower, a lone F- creature didn't stand a chance.
Gunfire cracked across the dunes.
The creature went down—forced back, shredded by bullets, finished when they escalated all the way to a grenade.
Then Miracle Nation's two competitors claimed the area.
And the moment the stream confirmed it, viewers poured in from everywhere.
Not just ordinary people.
Even national leadership circles were watching.
"No way—someone found a resource already?!"
"Miracle Nation… figures. They really are the world's #1."
"That guy's fully armed—who the hell is he?!"
With more eyes came more digging.
And the internet, as always, did what it does best.
Before long, the silent brute's identity was ripped into the open.
His name was Marcus Kane.
A notorious figure from Miracle Nation's underground mercenary world.
Infamous internationally.
The idea that someone like that had entered the Forbidden Zone made a chill run through the global audience.
Back on Pineapple TV, I'm Watching the Divine Domain switched their feed to Miracle Nation's stream.
Derek Vaughn stared at the exposed gun barrels with undisguised envy.
"Man… Miracle Nation really has it good. They even get guns."
The studio went quiet again.
Dr. Hart's brow tightened, as if he were filing that comment away.
Captain Cole's jaw ticked, a vein pulsing at his temple.
But it was a public broadcast.
Some things couldn't be handled on camera.
The livestream chat, however, had no such restraint.
"If you love Miracle Nation so much, go live there. Dragon Nation doesn't want you."
"Why did the program invite this clown?"
"My bad, everyone—sorry I didn't teach him better. He's burning our eyes."
None of that mattered to the competitors inside the Forbidden Zone.
They didn't see the studio.
They didn't see the comments.
They only heard the next announcement, ringing in every competitor's mind:
[Congratulations. Miracle Nation competitors Noah Drake and Marcus have discovered an F- resource.]
[Resource will manifest at 100× into Miracle Nation territory.]
The Divine Domain wasn't theory anymore.
It was a machine.
And it had started paying out.
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