100% DROP RATE : Why is My Inventory Always so Full? - Chapter 298

Chapter 298: Chapter 298 – Caught
Lucien returned to the patrol corridor without haste.

Every step matched the rhythm of the Alloykin he had replaced. Even his expression mirrored the original, indistinguishable at a glance.

The other two noticed him at once.

Their gazes flicked toward him, as if silently asking what had taken him so long.

Lucien met their eyes and spoke evenly.

“It was nothing,” he said. “Just the wind.”

Neither questioned him.

The strongest among them gave a short nod and turned away. The patrol resumed its steady circuit.

Lucien walked with them.

For several breaths, he said nothing.

Then casually… as if speaking to pass the time, he let his voice drift out.

“This place never changes,” he remarked. “Endless tunnels. Endless watching. Sometimes I wonder why we even bother.”

The Alloykin at the fifth stage glanced at him, amused.

“Bother?” he said. “What do you think would happen if we did not?”

Lucien did not answer directly.

He tilted his head slightly, watching the corridor ahead.

“The mortals here can barely move without permission,” he said. “They break if pressed too hard. They hide if they can. It hardly feels like guarding an enemy.”

The senior Alloykin slowed his steps.

He turned, studying Lucien with a sharp look.

“You have said that before,” he said. “More than once.”

Lucien met his gaze calmly.

“I speak out of boredom,” he replied. “Standing watch for centuries dulls the edge. I was only thinking aloud.”

The senior’s eyes lingered on him for a moment longer, then he snorted softly.

“Thinking is not your job,” he said. “Patrolling is.”

He gestured forward with his chin.

“There is unrest in the Big World. Our seniors were recalled for a reason. If anything happens here while they are gone, the fault will fall on us.”

The Alloykin at the fifth stage nodded.

“The slaves are slipping away,” he added. “More each cycle. Rebels hide deeper now. If we catch them, the rewards will be substantial.”

Lucien felt something cold settle behind his eyes.

He kept his expression neutral.

“Slipping away,” he repeated lightly. “Strange that mortals would risk that.”

The senior scoffed.

“Hope makes them foolish,” he said. “They forget their place.”

Lucien walked a few steps in silence, then spoke again.

“It must be significant,” he said, “for so many seniors to return to the Big World at once.”

The senior Alloykin did not look at him.

“You concern yourself with matters above you,” he said. “The era is shifting. Power is consolidating. Opportunities are opening that did not exist before.”

The other Alloykin grinned.

“They say the Big World is entering another golden age,” he said. “Resources, territory, influence. Everything is being rewritten.”

Lucien’s chest tightened imperceptibly.

“A golden age,” he echoed.

“Yes,” the senior said. “And it is better that we remain here. This world is stable. Profitable. The seniors will carve their names into history while we maintain what is already ours.”

Lucien let out a quiet breath.

“So they will not return soon,” he said as if concluding a thought rather than asking a question.

The senior shook his head.

“Not for a long while,” he said. “A decade, perhaps more. Establishing dominance in the Big World is not a quick endeavor.”

The Alloykin at the fifth stage laughed softly.

“By the time they return, this place will be even more productive,” he said. “The mortals will learn obedience again.”

Lucien nodded slowly.

“And if we wished to leave,” he said carefully, “hypothetically speaking.”

The senior stopped walking.

He turned fully this time.

“You cannot,” he said flatly. “You know that.”

Lucien inclined his head.

“Of course.”

“The Celestial and Eternal seniors brought us here,” the senior continued. “Only they can activate the teleportation disc. Until they return, this world is sealed.”

Lucien exhaled.

He had hoped that this place might offer a path back to the Big World.

But that hope faded quickly.

Waiting for Celestial and Eternal realm experts to return would take far too long.

And if they did return, it would not be salvation. It would be suicide.

The senior’s lips curved faintly.

“Now enough talk. Return to your watch.”

The patrol resumed its circuit.

Lucien walked with them, silent once more.

Inside, his thoughts moved rapidly.

His probing was complete. He had learned far more than he expected.

For a moment, Lucien was not sure what to think of it all.

The Big World was changing.

Power was shifting.

And this world was being exploited while its true guardians were absent.

What Lucien knew for certain was this. He could not allow his enemies to grow any stronger.

For now, he waited.

Lucien kept his pace steady, waiting for the right moment to act.

•••

Lucien was just about to move. His plan was already unfolding in his mind.

But then—

Footsteps.

Lucien halted his intent at once.

The sound echoed through the corridor. The two Alloykins beside him turned in unison.

Five figures emerged from the passage ahead.

Alloykins.

Four radiated the steady pressure of the Transcendent Realm. One at the center carried himself with heavier gravity, unmistakably Ascendant.

They moved with practiced cohesion. Their Astrafer bodies gleamed faintly as the light bent around them.

The patrol senior stepped forward.

“How did it go?” he asked. “What did you find at the disturbance site?”

The Ascendant from the new group inclined his head.

“There is a crater,” he reported. “Something large impacted the site. Whatever caused it is gone. There was no residue and no trace of departure.”

That answer drew silence.

A Transcendent among them frowned slightly.

“Do you think,” he said slowly, “that someone entered this world?”

The senior patrol shook his head.

“That is impossible,” he replied. “There is a non interference treaty among the factions in this galaxy. No one crosses resource worlds without declaration. And this place holds nothing worth that risk.”

He gestured toward the surrounding stones.

“Astrafer is the only valuable asset here.”

The others exchanged glances.

Confusion lingered.

Lucien listened without reacting.

Inside, his thoughts tightened.

‘So there are many more factions in this galaxy,’ he realized. ‘Entire planets are treated as holdings.’

This was larger than he expected.

The situation had just become more complicated.

Before he could deepen the thought, one of the newcomers broke formation.

She moved toward him.

She was Alloykin but refined with exceptional precision. Her Astrafer body reflected light like a thin veil of stars. When she walked, there was no sound at all.

She stopped beside Lucien and smiled.

“Senior,” she said warmly. “I am back.”

Then she looped her arm around his. The contact was intimate.

Lucien froze.

For a fraction of a second, his mind went completely blank.

His instincts screamed, but there was no immediate threat.

He did the safest thing he could.

He nodded.

“Good,” he said.

The word landed wrong.

The corridor went quiet.

Too quiet.

The woman stiffened slightly.

The senior patrol turned slowly.

Even the other Alloykins stared.

Lucien felt it then. A subtle shift. Not hostility yet but attention sharpening like a blade finding its edge.

The woman loosened her hold and stepped back. Confusion flickered across her face.

The senior took one step forward and raised his weapon.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

Lucien did not move.

The woman looked between them, startled.

“Sen?” she said. “What is happening?”

The Alloykin at the fifth stage exhaled sharply.

“That,” he said, pointing at Lucien, “is exactly the problem.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Everyone knows how indulgent you are with her,” he said. “You never answer with one word. Not once. You always tease. You even said that when she came back, you would have a gift waiting for her.”

A ripple of realization passed through the group.

The woman’s eyes widened.

“…that is true,” she said slowly. “Just now… he looked uncomfortable when I touched him.”

Lucien felt something crack.

Of all the ways to be exposed.

Of all the variables he had calculated.

This had not even registered as a possibility.

Inside his mind, disbelief surfaced first. Then something close to genuine outrage.

‘Curse the heavens,’ he thought flatly. ‘There are simps in this universe too?’

The senior’s weapon did not waver.

“You spoke strangely earlier,” he said. “Your questions were wrong. Your timing was wrong. And now your behavior is wrong.”

He stepped closer.

“So I will ask once more,” he said coldly. “Who are you?”

Lucien exhaled.

Slowly.

His disguise had failed, not because of power, or aura, or form.

But because he had missed something far more dangerous.

Personality.

And now—

His plan had crumbled.

He did not bother to reason anymore. This moment had been inevitable.

“Well,” he said calmly.

His voice already shifted away from imitation.

“It seems,” he continued, “that I have overstayed my role.”

The Alloykins reacted instantly.

The plan had failed.

The war had not.

And Lucien had never needed permission to begin it.