About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

"Why are you here too...!" "I knew you'd peek!" "I'm here to see my dad!" "Then I'm here to see Patriot-senpai too!" "Mr. Orson's sleeping posture... hehe."

The noise of commotion continued to be heard, and Orson got up helplessly and pushed open the door.

Boom, boom, boom!

As Orson pushed the door open, the group of people who were peeping outside all scattered.

"Haha. What a bunch of people who don't even give me a chance to feel down... huh?"

Orson noticed a photo on the ground. After picking it up, he found that the photo showed himself sleeping in a hospital gown with his belly exposed.

"...??"

Orson began to consider whether he should simply join places like Penguin Logistics or Black Steel International.

——My arms are almost numb... My vision is a little blurry. Is this because of the aftereffects of the attack on my head in the previous battle?

——The weapons are already in tatters, but that group of people will definitely not provide new weapons. After all, from the very beginning, their purpose was not to "find useful guys", but to see how we would die.

In the dark and gloomy basement of a building, a Zalak girl with short silver-brown hair endured the pain to check the condition of her body and weapons, while thinking about what kind of "battle" she would encounter next.

This basement was originally a warehouse of a factory, but now it has been transformed into something like a small arena.

The Zalak girl and some other young infected were locked in a crowded cage, and behind the iron bars on the other side of the arena, no one knew what kind of enemy was prepared this time.

Maybe it's a hyena, maybe it's a claw beast, maybe it's an infected Originium worm, or maybe it's an infected person who was also brought here.

No matter who the enemy is, the goal is the same - to kill the enemy and live a few more hours.

At this time, the underground arena known as the "cage" has not yet welcomed the next fight. Some infected people are cleaning the arena in panic. The organs and flesh flying on the ground may have been alive a few minutes ago. They are encouraging each other and think that there is a chance to leave here alive.

Once the corpses from the previous round are cleaned up, it will be your turn.

"Sona... you must have escaped, right? Please stay safe..."

The short-haired Zarak girl was praying quietly for her friend, and at that moment, a commotion suddenly broke out behind her.

"I just stole an electric scooter. There's no need for you to make such a fuss—RUA!"

A short, black-haired infected boy was thrown into the prison of the "cage" by the guards. Seeing that he still looked confused about the situation, the girl sighed silently.

"Break time is over—how are your preparations, fellow Knights? I'm sure the next match will be exciting. This time, our renowned Gray Hair Knight has proactively requested a fight, so we've specially found a fresh and ferocious Claw Beast as our opponent!"

A disgusting voice came from the loudspeaker. After hearing this, the Zarak girl known as the Gray Hair Knight stood up from the ground with great pain and slowly walked towards the arena.

"Xiao Hui...! Your condition is too bad now. You will be killed like this!"

Some infected people nearby looked at Huihao preparing to fight and spoke in panic and despair.

"I will do my best to survive. Don't worry too much. Take this opportunity to rest well and conserve your energy."

Xiao Hui looked at the frightened infected people behind him with a serious expression.

When his internal organs were pulled out, who would be able to continue to protect these infected people who had no fighting ability at all?

"If—if I scream, close your eyes, cover your ears, and don't look."

Xiao Hui sighed, then clenched the broken sword and shield in his hands, ready to enter the arena to meet his own end.

"Why don't you let me go first."

"—?"

Before the Gray Knight left the prison, an infected person raised his hand and stood up. Xiao Hui took a look and found that the other person was the infected boy who was out of condition and had just been thrown into the prison.

"You don't understand what it means to be thrown here... This is not Casimir's prison, but a graveyard for the infected, a meat grinder built by those who satisfy their curiosity. We will continue to fight here - so go back and live as many days as possible."

The Gray Knight tried to persuade the boy to face reality, but the boy seemed to have ignored his words and walked straight in front of him, extending his hand.

"jump!"

"it hurts……!"

The black-haired infected boy hit the gray-haired knight on the forehead with a bang.

"You can't even dodge such a slow 'attack', what else do you want to do?"

The boy asked Xiao Hui in a relaxed tone, which made the latter almost certain that the boy in front of him was either a 24k iron idiot who still didn't understand the current situation, or...

"You don't understand the situation at all—the situation ahead is very dangerous, people could die!"

"Danger? I am the danger myself."

The young man smiled crookedly.

——What a cheesy line…!

The infected people around him, including the Gray Knight, all had this thought in their hearts.

The person on the loudspeaker had already begun to impatiently urge the infected to send out this time's "scapegoat", and the Gray Knight could only frown and look at the black-haired boy.

"Who are you?"

"[Silent Knight] Orson."

"No... The title of knight can only be obtained after officially being selected for the Knight Competition. I have never heard of this knight."

"Uh...then I'm just a Kamen Rider passing by, okay?"

Orson couldn't hold it anymore when he was ruthlessly interrupted while pretending to be cool.

Stopping chatting with the Gray Hair Knight, Orson took the broken sword from the other and walked into the center of the arena as if on a picnic.

"Hello--!"

The Gray Hair Knight was stunned for a moment. For a moment, she didn't even know how the weapon in her hand was taken away by that ordinary-looking boy.

"It seems like there's some internal strife among the 'knights'! The Grayhair Knight didn't make it to the stage, but instead, a... Durin?"

"Durin you *Ursus swear*!!"

"Anyway, a ungrateful fellow has joined the fight! Come on, Claw Beasts, let's eat!"

The loudspeaker was filled with an excited voice about the impending massacre. The iron fence on the other side of the arena slowly rose up, and two strange-looking beasts with claws on their front ends that could easily cut off human limbs slowly crawled out.

"..."

Looking at the claw beast in front of him, Orson's face was solemn.

——I want to eat crabs.

It has been a few years since Orson came to the Terra continent, and he found that there is no seafood to eat here, or he can't even see the sea.

Some say that unspeakable things are hidden in Terra's oceans, and everyone is afraid of the unknown.

At that time, Orson was thinking about whether those "indescribable" things could be used to make teppanyaki.

"Move! The Claw Beasts' attacks are powerful, but their movement speed isn't that terrifying!"

The Gray Knight in the prison held the iron bars tightly with both hands, trying to command Orson to survive.

Are you teaching me to do things?

Orson did not dodge or evade. He stood there waiting for the claw beast to rush towards him, while reaching out and gently brushing the broken sword.

"Ah-"

The long sword instantly became extremely hot, and the two pincer beasts pounced towards Orson one after the other, but Orson simply swung the long sword twice sideways, seizing the pincer beasts of countless infected people, and was split in half from the middle.

“W-what…!?”

A voice of disbelief came from the loudspeaker while people were waiting to see how they would die.

"You...what was that just now?"

The Gray Hair Knight also opened his eyes wide. He had to fight the Double-Clawed Beast for a while even in his prime, but the opponent killed it so easily.

"It's just a normal slash, but I used the Originium technique to slightly increase the attack power of this sword."

Orson plunged his sword into the ground beneath his feet and stood there with both hands on the hilt.

At this moment, the young man who had seemed inconspicuous before seemed to have really acquired some of the aura of a "knight".

It is not those sensational "competitive knights", but the purest impression of the element of "knight" in people's minds.

"who are you?"

"I was caught stealing an electric scooter and thrown here as a stowaway. Just call me Orson."

——Well, this guy has absolutely nothing to do with the Knights.

The illusion that the Gray Hair Knight had about Orson was quickly shattered as the other party introduced himself.

"Also, I've said it before: [Silent Knight], this will be my future title, so consider it an advance announcement—"

Orson drew his sword and walked to the iron bars of the prison, performing a standard knight's salute to the panicked, confused, and desperate infected people in front of him.

"I, Orson, swear in the name of knighthood that I will protect the lives of everyone present."

Orson raised his head, and until their eyes met at close range, the Gray Hair Knight noticed that the boy's eyes were different from everyone else's.

Firm, serious, calm, confident, yet without any airs.

Just like... the "Knight of Glory, Margaret Linguang" who won the championship of the knight competition at that time.

——So why do you want to steal electric bikes?

The Gray Hair Knight still couldn't let it go. It was like telling her that the Radiant Knight would be dancing on the beach. It was really hard to believe.

01. [Silent Knight] Orson

"A concise and efficient fighting style. What's your name?"

Not long after Orson's blazing sword (in the physical sense) killed two pincer beasts in seconds, a middle-aged man dressed elegantly came to the side of the prison.

"Orson."

"Well done, Orson. Now you can leave the 'cage' and participate in the knight competition selection, trying to take the next step to become a formal competition knight. Feel happy, more than 9% of the infected have become garbage in the sewer system before reaching this step. Of course - if you leave the Knight Association and the United Chamber of Commerce without permission, you will never have a similar opportunity next time. I hope you can understand that we will grant anyone who is worthy a certain degree of [freedom], but it is definitely not endless [indulgence]."

The middle-aged man threatened Orson while leaving a message on his device.

"Thank you very much, but these infected people are my friends. How are they going to leave here?"

Orson looked at the huddled infected people behind him and the frowning Gray Hair Knight, and asked for the contact person.

"Don't be too greedy, young man. The reason you can leave here alive is that you still have value. Participating in the knightly tournament can bring uncertain benefits. Not everyone has such value."

The middle-aged man pushed his glasses and spoke in a calm and cold tone.

“Is the value right?”

Orson gently stroked the hilt of the sword in his hand.

Although he could completely destroy this underground arena from inside to outside right now, this behavior would only make him feel good, and the situation of these infected people would become even more unfavorable.

Make sure your goal here is to "protect the infected in the underground arena" rather than "detonate the powder kegs."

"There's an ancient boxing master in Yan Country who has a famous saying. I wonder if you've heard of it."

After a brief thought, Orson opened his mouth and asked for the contact person.

"What?"

"—I want to fight ten."

Orson twisted his wrist.

"My current value isn't enough to offset these infected people, right? Then I'll create more value. Release all those hairy crabs—I mean, claw beasts—of yours."

"Orson-!? Do you know what you're talking about?!"

The Gray Hair Knight suddenly rushed in front of the iron fence and asked loudly.

"Of course I know, to raise the price."

Orson signaled to Hui not to worry. As for the contact, he was stunned for a moment and then burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! What a funny guy! Okay, control panel, release all the Claw Beasts at once!"