Uncle here isn't your average office worker!

Roy shrugged helplessly. He always followed Xuan Tie's orders, but he had never encountered a situation like this before, where he was given a "surprise" without any prior notice.

What is that old man thinking?

Roy stroked his chin, somewhat suspicious. He'd been too excited to notice when he answered the phone, but now that he'd calmed down, he sensed something amiss. Old Xuan Tie was over a hundred years old; was he really that lively? And to give him a surprise like this was rather strange. Or perhaps, the one who just gave him the order wasn't the Xuan Tie he knew?

As everyone knows, there are three Xuan Tie leaders in the Wuzhou Alliance. Apart from the first Xuan Tie who founded the Wuzhou Alliance a hundred years ago, even Roy doesn't know the identities of the other two Xuan Tie leaders. Moreover, because the Xuan Tie always uses a voice changer and an anonymous mobile phone to contact him, it is also difficult for him to determine which Xuan Tie issued the mission.

However, regardless of who it is, asking him to participate in the Special Championship is a real challenge for him!

Roy looked at the TV screen. After Mob announced that Roy would participate in the Major as a special guest knight, not only was Viviana, who had just boldly confessed her feelings in the air, wide-eyed in surprise, but the other two—Left-Handed Knight and Blood Knight—were equally incredulous.

As the largest sporting event in Kazimir, and even in all of Terra, the Kazimir Knights Tournament has always maintained a very strict selection system to ensure the quality of participants and the prestige of the competition. Among these, the first two requirements are that participants must have been registered as a knight for at least six months and have participated in at least twenty matches.

As for these two points, Roy could say they are completely unrelated, if not entirely true!

Since Kazimierz started the special knightly tournament, there has never been a precedent of giving special permission to a knight who did not meet the participation standards to join the competition! Let alone that this is a violation of the rules, even if it is in accordance with the rules, describing a novice knight as the dark horse of this knightly tournament and praising him so much that he was said to kneel on rusty copper and lose to candlelight is just putting him on the hot seat.

Leaving aside the Bloodthirsty Knights of Rusty Copper, those scoundrels who profit from human suffering, just considering the sheer number of Viviana's fans—based on what Roy and his companions saw on TV today—if half of them were to fight back, they could probably drown Roy.

The three knights on the stage quickly realized this as well, and their surprise was mixed with pity and worry.

Viviana, needless to say, immediately looked towards the commentary booth. During the match, the spokesperson for the Business Federation would often stay there to monitor the progress of the match, and this time was no exception. But before she could speak, the Blood Knight next to her reached out, grabbed her, and shook his head.

Dichaopolis was unaware of Roy's relationship with the Candle Knight, but he knew that one of Roy's few matches was against Viviana. The arena was a place where Minos interacted and formed friendships; judging from Viviana's anxious expression, he could roughly guess that she had probably met Roy in that match and become acquainted, perhaps even friends.

But now is not the time to question the Business Federation’s decision. The smart thing to do is to ask privately. Questioning the Business Federation’s spokesperson in front of nearly 150,000 people here will not only not help Roy, but may also ruin his own life.

So he lowered his voice and said in a tone only the two of them could hear, "Candle Knight, I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush, calm down."

The Candle Knight turned around with some surprise, looking at Dicaipolis. He nodded seriously, while slightly tilting his head towards the Left-Handed Knight—who had clearly also noticed Viviana's mood and was gleefully preparing to watch the show. Seeing Viviana looking at him, the Left-Handed Knight quickly lowered his arms from his chest, stood up straight, and stared straight ahead, clearly trying to hide something.

Viviana calmed down, nodded slightly to express her gratitude, took a deep breath, and returned to her normal state.

Seeing this, Roy, watching on TV, breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want anything to happen to Viviana. Even setting aside personal preferences and emotional factors, Viviana was an absolutely good person. Otherwise, she wouldn't have risked her life to stand with the Radiant Knight during the Four Cities Great Separation Incident, stopping the spokesperson McKee who had been pursuing her, thus ruining her promising future.

However, what Viviana was worried about was also what Roy was worried about—after making such a high-profile statement without knowing the full story, he would inevitably be targeted by all the knights participating in this Major. It would be a disservice to his status as a dark horse, a favorite to win, and an invited knight if they didn't target him.

Off the field, the pressure he faces is even greater than it is now. Although Marna Nearl was born into the Nearl family, he has kept a low profile for over a decade and has long been forgotten by the modern-day Kazimierz in the face of information overload. The claim that "Roy disrespects knightly heroes and destroys Nearl's mansion" is merely a temporary hot topic that will be completely overshadowed by even bigger ones.

But things changed after that. The Major lasted for up to two months, and during those two months, he was practically the star of Casimir's game every day. How could that be allowed? The Cavaliers' fans, the unscrupulous media, and the entertainment-obsessed business associations would hype him up to the heavens! Would he ever be able to control his reputation after that?

Wait, very famous?

Roy recalled Xuan Tie's excited little tone and the mission instruction to "completely attract the attention of the Business Federation," and his face darkened.

Good heavens, so this was where they were waiting for me.

I thought the two jobs I'd already taken on were big enough, but you've gone even further, dumping this huge task on me all at once. If you manage to pull this off, you might as well give a lecture and become the godfather of marketing instead of selling Yuanshiyun brand hand sanitizer!

Noticing Roy's suddenly enlightened expression, Little Platinum opened her mouth, but then gave up on asking what had happened—she figured even if Roy did tell her, she wouldn't bother listening, and besides, Roy probably wouldn't tell her anyway. Not asking too many questions was an excellent habit she'd developed since becoming a member of the Unarmored Alliance. So she changed her words:

"Master, what do we do next?"

"What should we do? This is a difficult situation!"

Roy pursed his lips, took a standard longsword from the sword rack (this thing was already a consumable for him, and based on the principle of not wasting money, he applied for a box of it from Xuan Tie), took a longbow, and walked towards the balcony.

"However, no matter how difficult it is, it has to be done. Little Platinum, remember this: this is the professional ethic of us Wuzhan Alliance assassins!"

Even if it means facing a whole squad of Silver Spear Pegasus warriors all by yourself, you have to go!

Hinterlea nodded blankly. Going alone against a bunch of silver-speared pegasus? Isn't that just suicide?

Before she could even retort, Roy had already placed his longsword on the bowstring.

Prepare for the Great Wilderness Starfall!

Since I was mentioned at the opening ceremony, how could I not show my face and repay the kindness of the Business Federation and Xuan Tie?

P.S.: A student at school tested positive and even went to the cafeteria. This is terrible.

Volume 1: Leave Request

There's always something going on upstairs in my dorm. This time, another person tested positive. They even went to the cafeteria and shopping street. My health code turned yellow. I just got back from a nucleic acid test and I'm feeling a bit unwell.

I need to take a day off today. If my nucleic acid test result comes back tomorrow and is negative, I'll make it up. If not, I'll make it up after I move out of the quarantine dorm. I'm very sorry.

Book 1: Chapter 40 McKee: For Viviana

Mob's voice had disappeared, and the cheers of the audience had subsided. However, unlike the previous ones, no new knight rose on the stage at this moment.

As the murmurs among the audience grew louder, a smug smile spread across the spokesperson McKee's face.

Roy wasn't coming; he hadn't informed Roy of this.

In fact, ever since he officially took over the Special Championship project from Charlize, he had secretly arranged for people to investigate Roy's life. Unlike the Business Federation's detailed investigation into Roy's background, McGee focused on investigating Roy's movements and social circle during this period.

This investigation actually uncovered some clues.

Aside from Roy's contact with the Nearl family, which the Business Federation considered irrefutable evidence of his affair with the Knights of the War, and the indirect result of Marna's visit to the Overseer's Council to request the National Assembly to drop the charges against Roy, Roy's second most frequent contacts were three people.

And the identities of these three people are not simple either.

The first suspect is Monique White, a Filin woman who immigrated to Casimir from Victoria and now works for a security company. Her resume is clear, her life trajectory complete, seemingly that of an ordinary white-collar woman. However, based on the extremely high frequency of their contact, mostly between evening and early morning or the following morning, McKee analyzes that Roy and Monique are likely a couple, or at least casual sex partners. Most importantly, McKee, using his access privileges, obtains Monique's bank statements and discovers that Monique receives a large, unexplained transaction every month. She is highly likely a spy sent by Victoria to Casimir!

The second position is even more prestigious. Hinterlea, the highest-ranking member of the Kazimir Unarmored Alliance in terms of contact with the outside world—the Platinum Rank. The ranks above them, Azure Gold and Black Iron, are kept secret; even the higher-ups of the Business Federation are unaware of their identities. Those below them in the Unarmored Alliance are considered expendable, recruitable at any time with money. Roy's connection to the Platinum Rank is worth investigating further.

Was it that the Unarmored Alliance had already taken notice of Roy and thus sent assassins to make contact and monitor him in advance, or was the Unarmored Alliance connected with Roy, even attempting to use Roy as a connection to the Supervisory Council and betray the Commercial Federation? He needed time to investigate this further.

Finally, the third one.

McKee's gaze, through his glasses, fell upon Viviana, who stood center stage. The Candle Knight—this was the last of the three people Roy interacted with most frequently, and the one he admired.

According to his investigation, Candle Knight's first encounter with Roy was most likely during that impromptu mega-tournament warm-up match. At that time, Roy's entrance in that manner successfully garnered cheers and applause from the entire arena, and he also used that same method to ultimately defeat Viviana, a player from a higher level.

McGee admitted that although he had never witnessed the so-called Great Wilderness Starfall in person, judging from the incomplete video footage recorded on site, it was indeed incredibly cool.

It was after that match that Roy and Viviana started having more contact.

McGee would deny it; it wasn't jealousy. Although Roy wasn't as rich, as powerful, or as promising as him, it certainly wasn't jealousy.

The young master of Rose Newspapers wasn't so down on his luck that he needed to be jealous of someone.

He just... just...

Okay, it's just jealousy.

Each time he tried to comfort himself, he thought, "Don't overthink it. Roy and Viviana are just friends. He's so handsome; even I would probably want to be friends with him."

It was as if someone was mocking him in his ear:

"They just had a meal together."

"It was just a candlelight dinner."

"They just watched a movie together."

"It's a pity I watched a horror/romance movie!"

"They just happen to appear together often."

"It's nothing, we were just holding hands!"

"....." No, I can't stand it anymore! This is something that can be tolerated but not tolerated!

What good could a guy with a girlfriend, possibly already turned by Victoria's spies, targeted by the Unarmored Alliance, and a rigid, old-fashioned warrior who despises competitive knights, possibly bring Viviana? Only trouble and suffering!

Therefore, even though his own father criticized him for being narrow-minded and petty, he repeatedly asked the "reporter" Kane to strip Roy of his knighthood on the grounds of harming Nearl, or to send the Undead to assassinate him.

But Roy managed to defuse all of this. Because Marna was backing him up, and his father also disagreed with arbitrarily sending the Unarmored to cut down a cash cow.

Not only that, but Charner, for reasons unknown, actually proposed that Roy participate in the Major as a special guest rider. This was something that had never been done before.

It's not that McGee thinks Roy isn't good enough to participate in the Special Major; objectively speaking, based on Roy's current performance, McGee believes he has the potential to win. Even if he does participate in the Special Major, as the person in charge of the Special Major, McGee has plenty of ways to counter him.

But the problem is, what if Roy actually gets a place?

Do you want to replicate the Radiant Knight incident again, labeling Roy an infected and banishing him? Don't be ridiculous. This method only works once. How many people would buy it if we did it again?

If he wins a prize, he will inevitably have more interactions with Viviana. As the spokesperson, how much of an advantage will he still have?

McGee isn't love-struck, but he analyzed the situation with the utmost composure and ultimately concluded that it would be best to prevent Roy from participating in the Major.

As for methods, the simplest approach of bribing him probably won't work; Roy has laid down the Radiant Knights' three no's principle, making it clear that he won't cooperate. Hiring some thugs to cripple him is also unlikely, as it's not easy to find thugs capable of taking down Roy in a direct confrontation. Since neither soft nor hard tactics work, the only option left is to create an unexpected situation.

He creates chaos by driving a dump truck, he orchestrates gang fights by walking, he gets embroiled in fan brawls by participating in competitions, and if he does nothing but stay at home, then the only thing left to do is to wrong the construction company, pay them some money, and let them artificially create some "shoddy construction projects."

As a result, McGee, who had made up his mind, discovered that Roy had no car, never went out, the Cavaliers Association did not arrange games for him, and he was staying in one of the city's most upscale hotels.

Damn, flawless!

After much thought, he decided that he could only resort to the most underhanded tactics.

I'll just not notify you about the opening ceremony and make you automatically forfeit your participation, is that alright?

Frankly speaking, this approach is very risky. Even if Roy is tricked, he will still face a lot of trouble later on – as the spokesperson, failing to notify the Knights in a timely manner is a dereliction of duty on his part, and he also bears responsibility.

But he was determined to do it, for no other reason than his pure goal: for Viviana.

Five minutes passed, and Roy still hadn't appeared on stage. The murmurs of the crowd had begun to drown out the music. McGee seized the opportunity, his smile fading, and feigning impatience as he questioned:

"Where's Roy? Hasn't he arrived yet?"

The staff surrounding him looked at each other, then shook their heads helplessly: "This..."

The notification to Roy was a matter for the Cavaliers Association and the Major Organizing Committee, and had nothing to do with them. Instead, it was related to McGee, the spokesperson for the Organizing Committee. But could they question McGee?

Obviously not, so he could only remain silent with a troubled expression.