With the entire world holding its breath, the chest finally opened.
The moment Noah Drake placed both hands on it, the bronze chest erupted in a blast of golden light.
The glare was so intense that even viewers watching through a screen instinctively squinted.
"What the—?!"
"Light pollution?! This is just an F- Chest and it's this dramatic?!"
"Wait… is this the legendary golden pull?!"
The golden glow didn't fade.
It intensified—pulsing brighter and brighter.
Even Noah Drake and Marcus had to squeeze their eyes shut against the glare.
But their hearts were already racing.
Because this kind of spectacle only meant one thing:
They'd hit something good.
"Marcus!" Noah Drake shouted, unable to hide his excitement. "We got something huge!"
"…Mm." Marcus finally answered, his voice low—but the thrill in it was real.
At last, the light began to weaken.
Ding. Ding.
And then, under the stunned gaze of millions—
the bronze chest broke apart into golden particles and flowed into their bodies like a warm tide.
The chat surged again.
"That's it? It just… dissolved?!"
"So what did they get?!"
"Noah Drake! Say something—what changed?!"
Neither of them had the time—or the patience—to respond.
As the particles sank into them, a warm current surged through their limbs, spreading from their core like heat returning to numb fingers.
Then the Will of Blue Star announced it.
A banner flashed across the livestream:
[Congratulations. Miracle Nation competitors Noah Drake and Marcus have opened an F- Chest.]
[Reward: All Attributes +3.]
For a second, the chat went silent.
Then it erupted.
"ALL attributes +3?!"
"That sounds… weirdly small?"
"It's an F- chest—small makes sense…"
But Noah Drake's expression said otherwise.
"All Attributes +3…?" he repeated, stunned.
Because he could feel it.
Strength. Stamina. Reflexes. Vitality—something fundamental had been raised, like his body's ceiling had been nudged upward.
Marcus didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
His grin said everything.
He walked over to a boulder a short distance away—big and dense, the kind that would shatter your knuckles if you were stupid enough to punch it.
Marcus stared at it.
Flexed his fingers.
Then, in front of the world—
he threw a straight punch.
BOOM!
Everyone expected blood.
Everyone expected torn skin, broken bones, a shattered hand.
Instead—
the boulder exploded into fragments.
And Marcus's fist came back clean.
Not a cut.
Not a bruise.
Nothing.
The chat froze in disbelief.
"That rock had to be over a hundred pounds—he shattered it with ONE punch?!"
"Force goes both ways—his hand should've taken the same impact!"
"So his body is tougher than that boulder now?!"
"This is what 'All Attributes +3' means?! That's insane!"
It wasn't just the viewers.
Even Noah Drake looked stunned.
And the truth was, Marcus's feat wasn't only because of the +3.
He'd already been close to the human limit before entering the Forbidden Zone.
This wasn't a normal man.
So when All Attributes +3 landed on top of that…
it didn't just improve him.
It pushed him past the limit.
Punching stone into dust became… natural.
Noah Drake understood the gap immediately.
He couldn't replicate that feat—even with the same +3.
Because their starting lines were different.
For Noah Drake, +3 brought him up toward where Marcus used to be.
For Marcus, +3 shattered the ceiling.
But either way, the message was clear:
Even an F- Chest could produce a reward that changed what "human" meant.
And if F- could do this…
What about higher grades?
E-rank. D-rank. B-rank. A-rank.
Would they be looking at +100?
+999?
Would the Forbidden Zone be able to manufacture gods?
Only now did people truly grasp how important chests were.
And by extension—
how important the Points Leaderboard was.
Because the weekly #1 reward wasn't an F- Chest.
It was a guaranteed D+ Chest.
A tier so far above F- that it felt like a different universe.
When viewers pulled up the Points Leaderboard again, they found something else:
Miracle Nation had climbed to 200 points.
Dragon Nation still sat at 100.
Miracle Nation had taken #1.
Instead of being satisfied, Miracle Nation's chat flooded with complaints.
"We found an F- resource and killed an F- creature—only 200 points?!"
"Dragon Nation just got near those monsters and got 100!"
"That's unfair! Remove Dragon Nation's points!"
The Will of Blue Star, of course, didn't respond.
It didn't negotiate.
It didn't explain.
It simply ran the rules.
And everyone—regardless of nation—understood one thing:
If you wanted power in the Forbidden Zone…
you needed points.
Because the #1 nation's weekly chest was guaranteed D+.
And that "guarantee" could still be upgraded.
Every +1000 points, the chest tier rose again.
In theory, if a team snowballed hard enough…
even an S-rank chest might not be impossible.
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