Fifteen minutes before the bombshell.
After getting up that morning, Slaughter Blade brought his four buddies to meet Gwent Card Master and his group of four.
Their unusual identities had allowed them to exploit this mechanic.
Over the past while, the two groups had farmed an average of around fifty thousand points per person.
Then the Darkfire Prince had noticed something was wrong and captured them to use as sacrifices.
At the critical moment, they had blown themselves up, then respawned on Diamond Star a few days ago.
With the fighting nearly over, they had stayed on Diamond Star lately, waiting for the rewards to be distributed.
As public beta players, this was their first time experiencing the settlement of such a major event, so they had gotten up very early.
When they saw the enormous holographic projection above the Imperial Palace, they immediately remembered the signature summons their respective bosses had mentioned.
Soon, they saw countless players heading straight toward the Imperial Palace, and naturally followed along.
When they saw the sea of more than ten million players gathered together, an indescribable excitement and passion surged through them.
I Am at the Wailing Demon-Blasting Sword exclaimed, "Holy crap, this is spectacular!"
"It reminds me of the huge crowd I saw at my first sports day in elementary school!"
Kelly's Husband said in amazement, "This is way more fucking spectacular than watching a crowd gather around some big shot upgrading their gear through a screen!"
Along the way, they met quite a few familiar faces. As they exchanged greetings, they naturally showed off their points to one another.
"Look! The rewards are out!"
Hearing that, a large number of closed beta players immediately accessed the Imperial Palace's internal network to check the rewards.
The newbies around them followed their example,