FATE: Target of Grand Master

Faced with the candy vines' mockery, Hu Xia wasn't angry. Instead, he calmly said, "I'm not stupid, nor am I crazy. Besides, this isn't something I'm asking for; it's what you should be giving me."

"Hahaha. Master Hu Xia, did you think I was about to get off work, so you told me a joke on purpose? I..."

"BB originally reserved two spots for the winners of our trial, but you deliberately changed it to one. I'm just asking you to give me the rights that are rightfully mine."

Hu Xia interrupted the candy vines' mockery, and her words surprised the little purple-haired girl for a moment.

"I don't know you..."

"Don't play dumb with me. I'm not like Xia Yan, who's more skilled at this than you are. Just answer me, am I right or not?"

Hearing Hu Xia's words, Xia Yan glanced at her.

What does it mean to not be yourself?

You guys can talk your own thing, why are you putting me down?

Seeing that Hu Xia's attitude was firm and that he was not easily fooled, Candy Vine gave Kotomine Kirei a wink.

Kirei Kotomine understood and said to Xia Yan, "Master Xia Yan, congratulations on your victory in this special trial. You can bring Nero, the Servant you contracted in this trial, with you. I will take you to the teleportation array."

Xia Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, naturally recognizing that this was a signal from the Candy Vine that it wanted him, an unrelated person, to leave.

He then looked at Hu Xia and saw that Hu Xia was also looking at him, but did not say anything.

"The teleportation array shouldn't disappear so soon. I'm also quite interested in the answer to Hu Xia's question and would like to hear the host's explanation."

Xia Yan was polite and spoke in a calm tone, but he conveyed the message that "you want to get rid of me? No way."

Kirei Kotomine couldn't suppress the slight upturn of his lips as he turned to look at the candy vines.

The little purple-haired girl really wanted to lash out, but considering that these two were among the top-ranked Masters on the BB Grand Master candidate list, she had no choice but to patiently continue the conversation.

"Master Hu Xia, since you speak with such certainty, then present your evidence."

Hu Xia crossed his arms and said helplessly, "Candy Vine, you are the host of this trial, and I am just a Master who is participating in the trial according to your rules. You are the one who is doing dirty tricks behind my back. How could I possibly have any evidence?"

The candy vines immediately revealed a mocking smile.

"Since you have no evidence, this is purely a baseless accusation and a case of making trouble out of nothing. I can use my authority as the host to take action against you."

"I may not have evidence, but that doesn't mean the evidence doesn't exist. Since you want to hear it, I'll tell you."

Hu Xia remained unmoved by the Candy Vine's threat, staring intently into its eyes, and said, "The battles between Masters only began in the first round of the elimination tournament, when there were 16 Masters. You yourself said that according to BB's rules, we should have continued with 1v1 eliminations in each round. According to the rules, after the first round of eliminations, there should have been 8 Masters remaining, and after the second round, 4 Masters remaining. The final round would then determine 2 Masters who could take a contracted Servant. But you changed the elimination rules, resulting in only 2 Masters advancing to the final round, and only 1 Master winning. Isn't this you deliberately taking away one of the winning Master's spots?"

The candy vine listened quietly to Hu Xia's words, and its attitude changed from impatience to interest.

That's right, BB did give Xia Yan and Hu Xia four survival spots and two winning spots in this trial, but Candy Vine was extremely unhappy after seeing those Masters isolate Xia Yan, so it changed the advancement rules and directly reduced the number of survival spots.

All the changes to the Candy Vine were reported to BB, so strictly speaking, they were not unauthorized alterations. However, as Hu Xia said, she did encroach on the rights of the other Master who should have been able to win.

While squeezing the yellow inflatable duck plush toy in her arms, she said, "Even if, as you say, I reduced the number of surviving and winning Masters in this trial, what can you do to me if I simply don't want to give it to you?"

Looking at the little purple-haired girl who was even shorter than him, Hu Xia understood for the first time how it felt to be called a "little devil" behind someone's back.

However, he had already considered this level of "playing the rogue".

She shrugged, replying with utter helplessness, "I can't do anything about it. After all, we players aren't on a fair playing field with you administrators. All we can do is report you. Don't you think so, Xia Yan?"

Xia Yan now had a new understanding of Hu Xia's insight. She had actually noticed the irrationality of the Candy Vine's rule-changing long ago. It was likely that when she recruited him, she had already planned to ask the Candy Vine for the winning spot by saying that she was willing to let him win without a fight.

If she weren't the leader of the "Knights of the Round Table," Xia Yan would have really wanted to recruit her immediately.

However, that's a matter for later. The most urgent task now is to respond to Hu Xia's appeal for help.

Xia Yan's presence here at this moment serves two extremely important purposes for Hu Xia.

1. Ensure Hu Xia's personal safety.

Hu Xia wasn't sure if Candy Vine would ultimately give up and not only refuse to return her due rights, but also use her administrator privileges to silence Hu Xia, who had exposed her. However, if Xia Yan was present, Candy Vine would absolutely not do that, unless she killed Xia Yan as well.

But if she did that, she would have crossed BB's bottom line. After all, BB's trials are supposed to be fair. A trial can result in only one winning Master and only one surviving Master due to various reasons, but if a trial doesn't even have a single surviving Master, that would be a huge problem.

BB would never accept the claim that the Master "committed suicide by being shot eight times in the back".

2. Xia Yan can act as an observer, understand the whole story and who is right and who is wrong, and then reveal the truth about the matter to the public when he returns to the safe house.

Once made public, BB's pursuit of a fair trial will become a joke, and no Master will be willing to continue participating in the trial.

No matter what BB's purpose is in selecting a Master, it will not achieve its goal, which is something BB absolutely cannot accept.

Do you think BB can exercise information control?

Of course, BB doesn't know when Xia Yan and Hu Xia will go public, so they can't just block their normal communication, that would be too much.

Ultimately, Hu Xia's demands are within the bounds of the rules. Even if BB agreed directly, there would be nothing to criticize. Why would BB choose a complicated and troublesome option when there is a simple and easy one?

As for the possibility that BB might be protecting the Candy Vine, anyone who asks this question must not understand AI well enough.

Advanced intelligent AI would always think that humans who cover for each other are foolish, so why would they do such a thing?