Uncle here isn't your average office worker!

“Marna actually has friends other than me. Should I say that person is a masochist or just unlucky?”

“Don’t joke around, Toran.” Marna’s voice was a little impatient, clearly not interested in Toran’s joking conversation. He wasn’t one for small talk, and even with old friends he hadn’t contacted in a long time, he wouldn’t bother asking about their health. “He did me a favor, and I’m just returning the favor. There’s nothing else strange about it, so don’t overthink it.”

The Sarkaz man laughed heartily, slapping his thigh and saying, "Alright, alright, you're the boss, you call the shots. So, what do you need me for? Is it business or trivial, big or small, commission or favor, old client or new customer?"

Marna's eyebrows twitched: "You're asking a lot of questions."

Toran was equally adamant, stating directly, "Even if you recommended him, you still have to do your due diligence. I've been very busy lately, and if it weren't for your sake, I wouldn't even listen to you."

"Give me the microphone."

Roy's voice came from the other end of the terminal. Marner was silent for a moment, then Roy's voice rang out after a busy tone:

"Mr. Toran, is that right?"

"Sir, please don't call me that. Just call me Toran or Bounty Hunter. May I ask what business our recently triumphant Grand Knight, Meteorite, has with a lowly person from the fringes of civilization like me?"

Toran asked casually, but immediately revealed Roy's identity. Roy wasn't surprised, and simply replied in the same relaxed tone:

"You know who I am? I thought I'd have to go through the trouble of introducing myself."

Toran is a shrewd and cunning man. Even though he's not in the Great Knight Territory, his legend is everywhere. He's a super bounty hunter who managed to smuggle the Corrupt and Decay out of the city right under the noses of the Supervisory Council and the Commercial Federation, and who also sent people to infiltrate the Great Knight Territory to assist in Operation Meltdown. If you say he doesn't know who the hottest person in Kazimierz is right now, you're practically insulting his intelligence.

Roy had already guessed that he was pretending to be ignorant, trying to trick him. It wasn't necessarily for any particular purpose; it was just that people living in the darker side of society liked to do this. Roy had done the same thing before he started his part-time job; he would back down if he was scared by a few targets.

Seeing Roy's calm reaction, Toran knew what was going on. Roy wasn't some newbie and wasn't so easily fooled, so he took the opportunity to say, "Seeing is believing. I've only seen you on TV. Marna said he knows a friend named Roy, but I didn't believe it. With his personality, he might not be able to make any good friends even in his next life."

"So, Lord Roy, what brings you here?"

“Let’s make a deal,” Roy said bluntly.

Toran raised an eyebrow with interest, put down the fruit in his hand, beckoned to the person next to him, picked up a set of paper and pen, and asked:

"Everyone who contacts bounty hunters is looking to make a deal. I wonder what kind of deal Lord Roy is planning to make?"

"Two things," Roy paused, organizing his thoughts, and said, "First, you bounty hunters should have information about each other, right? I want you to help me investigate someone."

"One person, that's simple, who?"

"Old Jose, the hunchbacked old man with a tattered cloak, a cane, and a necklace around his neck, he should be quite famous among the bounty hunters in your circle."

Roy said calmly, throwing this memory from the depths of his mind.

Old Jose, from the story of Under the Tide, is the head of the bounty hunters who took Skadi in when she first arrived on land. After his son Juan had an accident and Skadi left, he gave up his bounty hunting job in Casimir and went to the wilderness near Iberia alone.

Judging by the time, it should be around this time. Roy wanted to try his luck and see if he could snatch Skadi away.

This wasn't just a whim. In fact, if you think about it carefully, the modules Roy currently possesses—including [Bounty Hunter A's Power], [The Last Knight], and [Kal'tsit's Riddle]—are all related to the deep sea and Skadi to some extent. Roy couldn't help but wonder if this was some kind of omen.

Time travel is a very fantastical thing. After time travel, Roy's observational abilities as a higher-level narrator disappeared. In other words, even if he knew the plot well, he couldn't be sure what would happen in the future, especially given that Yostar had set up an "IF" scenario. A whole bunch of ocean-related modules appeared in Kazimierz, a place that shouldn't have any connection to the ocean, along with the roguelike update. It's really hard for Roy not to suspect that the world he's currently on might be the "Water Moon and the Deep Blue Tree," or the "Sea Heir's World Destruction" scenario.

If it's not, that's fine; but if it is, then Roy needs to plan ahead.

So how do we prevent the Sea Child's world-ending timeline from happening? The answer is simple. As we all know, the premise of the Sea Child's world-ending timeline is that during the Fool's Day incident, the third captain's verbal dice roll failed, the hunters were lured back to Agor by the Deep Sea Cultists, Isamara's consciousness within Skadi was forcibly awakened, and Sea Child connected to the swarm of mainframes, beginning its Gemini evolution. Therefore, the way to stop Sea Child is obvious: become the Fourth Calamity... cough cough, that is, stop Skadi!

The Fool's Incident takes place even 1099 years after the main storyline's Battle of Londinium. Old Lynx was even in prison. Roy couldn't just wait six years until the Fool's Incident started before trying to intervene. The best way, of course, was to find Skadi in advance and teach her from scratch not to go with strangers, to always check if someone knocks on the door to make sure it's her parents, and to call Uncle Roy if she's in danger!

To fill the gaps in the failure of Ulpian education, to rescue the stragglers of compulsory education in Agor from scratch, and to prevent the world line from shifting at its source!

Upon hearing the name, Toran showed some surprise, but fortunately, the phone was between them, so he quickly composed himself and replied:

"I do know this person, but betraying a fellow bounty hunter is a taboo in the bounty hunter business, so..."

“I’ll pay more,” Roy blurted out.

Toran was taken aback, then his face lit up with a smile: "You're an expert, Mr. Roy, you haven't dealt with bounty hunters before, have you?"

Roy rolled his eyes, ignoring Toran's probing, and continued:

"The second thing is that I'm giving you two people."

"I don't deal in human trafficking here."

"Your compatriots, two unfortunate Sarkaz who were raised on drugs, don't you want them?"

Roy said.

Toran fell silent for a long while before speaking:

"I won't ask you why you know about my race or why you want to help the Sarkaz. I won't charge these two. Just bring them when we exchange information, and I'll handle the rest."

“Then…” Roy said.

“The contract is established.” Toran nodded and ticked a box on the ledger filled with numbers.

Volume 1: Chapter 85 Collectibles: [Disaster Lab ID Card]

[Unexpected Encounter Quest: Dance of the Light (Fake) Completed]

[Rewards are being processed...]

[The reward will be drawn from the following two options. Please choose.]

[Random Grade B Module], [Random Collectibles]

【please choose. 】

Upon opening the module system, a flood of prompts rushed into Roy's mind, causing him to fall into deep thought.

Although he had long anticipated facing the choice between modules and collectibles, Roy still found himself in a dilemma when the moment actually arrived. From a cost-effectiveness standpoint, modules were undoubtedly the fastest way to boost his strength, and their various characteristics allowed Roy to handle many troublesome situations. For example, the [Kal'tsit's Riddle] module alone had saved Roy countless problems.

However, collecting items is also a good option. As we all know, once you have a good collection, you can solo the entire roguelike game even with just one operator. Although choosing to collect items may lead to the tragedy of pulling the wrong one, if you are lucky enough to pull a coin toss, Knight's Discipline, or a standard artifact like the Gin Cup, then with Roy's current assets, it can be said that he will take off like a rocket.

Not to mention, the Rogue Collection also contains several items that are of vital importance to Roy—the [God] Set.

If he doesn't reclaim the power of the gods, then the [Stranger] module is just a useless piece of junk for Roy. Originally, it could be used to deal with heavily armored units like the Left-Handed Knight, but now, with the Kiss of Kheshig, Roy can directly inflict mental damage. Combined with the corrosive damage from his true Originium Arts, how many heavily armored units can stand in front of Roy?

Moreover, each of the collectibles required by the gods provides an extremely powerful boost to Roy, and once obtained, its value will definitely far exceed that of a B-grade module.

While Roy was still hesitating, the Cavaliers terminal finally sent him the opponent for the next game.

Looking at the familiar names on the screen, Roy immediately made a decision.

"Looks like we don't need any new modules. Let's just pull for a collectible!"

Select [Random Collectibles].

A brand new roulette wheel appeared in Roy's mind, with various collectibles, both familiar and unfamiliar, arranged on the wheel. With a dull thud, it began to spin.

The fire of the courtroom, the shattered hand, the goblet of gold—collectibles shimmering with golden light swept past Roy's eyes one by one. Caesar's feathers, the golden king's scimitar, the Fool's ship model—a series of collectibles shrouded in ominous light also passed by. With a clattering sound like old gears coming to a stop, the pointer finally landed on a card with a ghostly blue light.

[Congratulations, host! You have received the [Natural Disaster Lab ID Card]]

To combat natural disasters, we create them; yet, oh world, we still do not know how to save you.

[Effect: This ID card can open doors to places unknown to others.]

"...What is this thing?"

Looking at this short introduction, Roy felt a chill run down his spine.

His intuition told him that he had indeed drawn something troublesome. Putting everything else aside, the mere five words "world, oh world" in the description were enough to give Roy a headache.

It's important to understand that in modern Terra, people simply refer to the land they stand on as "the earth." The concept of "world" has long since become an obscure and rarely mentioned term. Even Saint Carmen, the first judge of Iberia, needed to consult Kal'tsit to confirm the existence of the term "world."

But this term was not unfamiliar to Roy. In fact, before arriving on Terra and deliberately changing his way of speaking, he had always used the word "world" to encompass all nouns, including the sky, the land, and the sea.

In other words, this word does not belong to Terra; it belongs to "humans."

The person who said this in the description of this so-called "Cataclysmic Lab ID Card" is very likely not a Terran, but a "pre-civilization," or "pure-blooded human civilization," that has been deliberately hidden by the authorities and only hinted at in crucial places.

Honestly, the pressure Roy felt from drawing this collectible was far greater than from drawing those negative collectibles that glowed with blood. He'd even played the Water Moon Rogue on difficulty 15 before, so he knew their effects and how to deal with them. In his spare time, he could keep them at home—crowns, scepters, blood diamonds, etc.—as decorations. But this was different. It opened a door to an unknown realm; who knew what lay inside? A catastrophe?

If Roy had to put it bluntly, he felt like he'd stumbled upon a hidden route—the Grand Lock, the Mouthpiece, the Playwright, the Knight, or the Big Die—because this card, like those route-altering collectibles, had no effect other than "leading the ending down a different path." Moreover, the ending brought about by this ID card was even more serious, because he'd never even seen it before, let alone been able to predict the future.

It's reasonable to change routes unexpectedly.

"I'm so frustrated. I should have just chosen the module."

With mixed feelings, Roy muttered a complaint and stuffed the small card in his hand into the inner pocket of his clothes.

Who knows when this thing will be useful? Let's just leave it for now. No matter what the future holds, life has to go on.

Judging by the time, they should have received the message from the terminal by now.

Roy took his phone out of his pocket, placed it on the table, and waited quietly. Sure enough, less than a minute later, the phone rang. Roy picked up the phone without surprise and answered:

"Viviana, it's been so long! I haven't seen you lately."

"Mr. Roy hasn't come to watch a single one of my matches, so how can he possibly see me?" Viviana's tone was filled with grievance and resentment. Before she participated in the Special Championship, Roy always watched her matches without fail from the stands. But now, even though they were colleagues, Roy had missed many of her matches.

Every time she defeated her opponent and looked happily towards the audience, only to find Roy nowhere to be seen, she felt that something was missing from the victory.

Without anyone to share the joy, such a victory is like drinking alone. Drinking is meant to dispel sorrow and express one's feelings, but with no one to accompany you, can you only confide in the bright moon?

The poet Viviana also hopes that her poems will have a touch more pink.

"However, this time, Mr. Roy will not be able to escape."

Viviana said with a hint of excitement.

"Yeah, good luck in the next match! Have you figured out a way to deal with my Great Wilderness Starfall?"

“Of course,” Viviana said confidently, “I will try to steal the brilliance of your meteor with my candlelight!”

Book 1: Chapter 86 Viviana: Our First Encounter

The quarterfinals featured a massive crowd of people watching the match between Viviana Drost, the Candle Knight, and Bill Winter, the Winter Knight.