FATE: Target of Grand Master

"My first question is, why did you betray the Western Army? Was the trial mission you showed us fake?"

Lan Muyan was also concerned about Xia Yan's problem. He slightly adjusted his posture forward so that he could hear more clearly.

"The trial mission is real; I don't have the ability to tamper with BB's system. As for the reason for betraying the Western Army, Li Zhuang and I belong to the same Master Order: the Knights of the Round Table. You should have seen this name in the world chat channel. Our Master Order has a relatively high recruitment threshold, so those who come in are all Masters with decent strength. However, there are still differences among them. Masters with stronger Servants are generally stronger. Remember what I complained to you about before? Just because they were lucky enough to summon a stronger Servant, some Masters could clear the trial more easily, which is inherently unfair. That was the truth."

That's a bit of a tangent. As the number of Masters in a group increases, it's inevitable that two Masters from the same group will meet in the same trial. Especially when their mission objectives conflict, the Master group will certainly suffer losses. Therefore, our group has implemented a rule: if this happens, the two Masters must meet extremely discreetly and compare their strength rankings based on the information submitted by the Master group. The Master with the lower ranking must unconditionally abandon their mission in this trial, while the Master with the higher ranking will give the Master with the lower ranking a teleportation orb.

"A teleportation ball?"

Xia Yan didn't have much of an impression of this word.

"Don't you know? This item was just released recently, and it's been discussed in the chat channel for days after it was released," Lan Muyan said.

"I didn't pay much attention, could you explain?"

Because of the previous hidden trial, Xia Yan didn't pay much attention to the shop during his break, so he didn't notice that any new items had been added. And during the days when the chat channel was most popular, he happened to be in the hidden trial.

"Simply put, it's an item that can be actively triggered to directly escape the trial."

"Doesn't that mean we can exploit a loophole?"

"Find a loophole? How?" Lan Muyan asked.

Xia Yan said, "Of course, we use the teleportation ball to dodge when we encounter troublesome trials or when the enemy is too strong."

"Looks like you really haven't looked at the store."

Xia Yan: ?

"The teleportation orb costs 50 points each. Moreover, the teleportation orb can only take away the Master and their Servant at the time of use. It is not limited to the Master who purchased it, nor can it bring back Servants who have died in the trial."

Xia Yan immediately realized that the teleportation ball was not a loophole at all.

The price of 50 Master Points can sometimes be higher than the reward of clearing a trial. Moreover, the Teleport Ball is usually used when you know you will lose, and you have already suffered some losses by then. So, although the Teleport Ball can be used as a safety net, it is not an item that every Master can afford to use in every trial.

However, the Knights of the Round Table used their strength in a very clever way, which not only avoided conflict but also preserved their power.

"Chester, since you had the opportunity to leave from the beginning, why did you stay and remain an undercover agent for Li Zhuang?"

Chester chuckled self-deprecatingly. "What else could it be? Greed, of course. I was originally planning to leave, but Li Zhuang said he hoped I could help him out. After defeating the Western Army, all the props and costumes left behind by Lan Muyan would be mine. You weren't here yet, and I thought that with two against one, and with me as an undercover agent, we couldn't possibly lose, so I stayed. Who knew you would appear later, and that you would hide Morgan, this ultimate weapon?"

"Hmph, you're blaming Xia Yan now?" Lan Muyan mocked.

Chester remained silent.

"I still don't quite understand. Even if the Knights of the Round Table set such a rule, you can simply disregard it, right?" Xia Yan continued to ask.

"No, you're wrong. I don't know about other groups, but in our group, members must abide by our rules. Take this rule for example: the group leader has the authority to see which trials a member has participated in. Although we can't see the specific experiences or gains of a member in a trial, we can still see which member went to which trial. It's said that each trial we experience actually has a unique string of characters, or coordinates. Therefore, if two members go to the same trial but only one returns, they must explain immediately upon their return. If the person doesn't explain, or if their return is not at the very beginning of the trial, and their reason is insufficient, the group leader will expel them directly and launch a group-wide manhunt and bounty campaign against them."

Xia Yan rubbed his chin, surprised that the rules of the Knights of the Round Table were quite strict, which would be of great reference value for him to form his own Master Group later.

"Even if he's expelled from and wanted by the Knights of the Round Table, can't he still find a new Master?" Xia Yan continued to ask.

"There's no explicit rule against it, but our leader will post the wanted notice on the world channel. That's like saying outright that anyone who dares to take him in is going against the entire Knights of the Round Table. Our guild follows an elite route, and unless a large number of Masters enter the same trial, other guilds won't want to offend us."

"I see."

Xia Yan basically understood that if it weren't for the irreconcilable enmity that Chester caused Lan Muyan to lose a servant, Xia Yan would really want to let Chester go back and see how the Knights of the Round Table would handle it.

Putting aside his amused thoughts, Xia Yan continued, "What if the stronger member of your group didn't buy a teleportation orb?"

"Then there are two scenarios. If the weaker person has a teleportation orb, they can ask the stronger person to help them complete the task and then give the teleportation orb to the other person. If neither of them has a teleportation orb, then they'll just have to rely on their own abilities."

Xia Yan narrowed his eyes. This rule could indeed mitigate internal conflicts within his group to some extent, ensuring the survival of its members while promoting unity. However, it also had a significant drawback: it would consume an unknown number of extra 50-point units. Currently, there were still many surviving Masters, so this problem wasn't apparent. But as the number of Masters decreased, the probability of internal clashes would increase. Implementing this rule would waste points that could have been used for enhancement, while not implementing it would lead to continued internal strife within the group.

As things stand, this is indeed a rule that only the Knights of the Round Table, who follow an elite path, can enforce.

However, there is one person who is not subject to this rule: the Grand Master of the Knights of the Round Table.

Only he can see the information about which trial his teammates went to, so as long as he eliminates any teammates he happens to encounter, he won't need to spend 50 points to buy a teleportation orb.

Xia Yan suddenly had a flash of inspiration: Could it be that this rule, which on the surface appears to be meant to promote harmony, is actually intended to suppress the growth of the elites in the group?

After all, there are only 7 Grand Master slots in the end. The more you suppress others, the greater your chance of success. But this only suppresses your own team. Other teams won't care about this rule. Is it really meaningful to do this?