Asura in Arknights

This kind of all-around crushing defeat has almost no chance of turning the tide, after all, Raine is a muscle-bound barbarian who doesn't know a single spell.

"Marna! This is a task personally assigned by the boss, so don't mess it up!"

The minister was shouting at him from the side, and Li Ang was a little worried that Marna might suddenly explode and kill this annoying guy.

As it turned out, Li Ang was overthinking it. Marna was just like an ordinary middle-aged office worker who was bullied by his boss but dared not resign, nodding and bowing repeatedly.

"Yes, yes! Please rest assured, Minister! I will definitely do my best to complete this task."

"Hmph, I'm still a little worried. After all, it's a task personally assigned by the boss... How about this, to avoid distracting you, I'll excuse you from other tasks. You can just focus on completing the task assigned by the boss."

The minister was quickly calculating his own plans.

Assigning this task to Marner was tantamount to relegating him to the very edge of the department, making it impossible for him to carry out normal business. He would have to spend all his time dealing with some greenhorn who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

No business means no performance, and he wanted to see how long Xianmana could hold out under these circumstances.

The minister had already found out that the company's top star, the Rein Knight, wanted to get one of his relatives into the company, under the name of the Racing Knight, and the boss had agreed.

In the minister's view, wasn't this guy just here to collect his salary? If this guy could even play one match, he'd consider it a loss. After seeing Li Ang with his own eyes, he was even more convinced of this idea.

If he hadn't had to give Knight Renn some face, he would have almost burst out laughing on the spot. What could such a skinny guy do?

Most importantly, when this task was assigned to Marner, no one else dared to say anything, since it was a task personally assigned by the boss!

Having worked in the workplace for so many years, he has long since mastered this skill.

Under the manipulation of that fat minister, Marner became Li Ang's temporary agent, making Li Ang feel somewhat uncomfortable.

But Marner seemed unconcerned about the minister's difficult behavior and continued to do his job diligently. The first thing he did after signing the contract was to choose a suitable set of equipment for Li Ang.

Li Ang's current fighting style is mainly based on mid-range Originium Arts, supplemented by close-range combat.

Following this logic, Li Ang should be wearing the thickest armor, enduring the most brutal attacks, and engaging in a fierce battle with his opponents. However, the performance of armor is limited, or rather, the armor they can buy does not meet Li Ang's requirements at all. The truly powerful equipment is simply unavailable on the market.

Sacrificing speed for a little bit of defensive power is putting the cart before the horse.

In fact, the most suitable armor for Li Ang is the high-performance armor produced by a company called 'Howling Guard'.

This is a company that specializes in researching lightweight armor. They have achieved the ultimate in the portability of their armor, ensuring it is lightweight enough while maintaining a certain level of defense.

Plasticized gel has a density less than one-fifth that of isoflavones, but its defensive capabilities are not much different. Its only drawback is that it is too expensive.

Bell Health Products isn't a big company, otherwise Raine wouldn't be their top star. While they could afford just a suit of armor, Li Ang is a newcomer who hasn't achieved anything yet, so equipping a newcomer with this kind of high-performance armor is a bit excessive.

Therefore, they had no choice but to settle for a monkey-print suit of armor made by another company. Although its performance was not as good as the original, it was sufficient for their current needs.

After finishing all that and returning to the company, it was already late at night.

"call……"

Leaning against the wall behind her, looking at the empty office in front of her, Marna suddenly felt extremely annoyed.

How long will this kind of life continue?

Just as Marna was lost in thought, a second voice suddenly rang out in the empty office.

"Tsk tsk tsk... That's really impressive."

"I doubt anyone would have guessed that the legendary Knight of No Light would be hiding here, content to be a lowly clerk."

In an instant, Marna's pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints.

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Knight Without Light

Marna drew the rapier hidden under her coat and thrust it in the direction the sound came from.

A dull light flowed across the sword's surface, seemingly unremarkable, but where Marner's blade slashed, it left an incredibly clear black trail, as if even the light itself had been swallowed by this sword mark.

The powerful shot landed on empty air; Marna had no sense of hitting the target.

As the sword marks in the air slowly dissipated, countless particles, barely visible to the naked eye, drifted out from every corner of the office, forming a blurry human figure in front of Marner.

This humanoid figure seems to scatter if blown by the wind, making it impossible to discern its physical features. Its gender can only be barely identified by its voice... But who knows if this voice is a disguise?

Assassins are among the most treacherous and cunning people in the world.

The humanoid figure patted its chest dramatically and said, "I almost got killed. That was really dangerous."

“…The position of Xuan Tie.” Marna held the rapier in front of him and spoke slowly.

Although she had never seen the man before, Marna was able to identify him.

Throughout Kazimir, the only people capable of remaining undetected while lurking beside him are the three mysterious leaders of the Unarmored Alliance, who are known as the Xuan Tie Grand Masters.

But the problem is... what did Xuan Tie Dawei come to see him for? And why did he deliberately reveal his existence?

"You lackey of the business alliance, are you trying to get yourself killed by showing yourself here?"

If someone wanted to assassinate Marna, Marna would have a hard time detecting his presence before Xuan Tie Dawei made his move, and there was a good chance that he would be killed in one blow.

However, if one wants to confront Marna head-on, at least two Xuan Tie Grandmasters are needed to contend with him. Only if three Xuan Tie Grandmasters attack together can they be confident of permanently capturing Marna.

The actions of this Xuan Tie Dawei were completely illogical, and Marna sensed something unusual about them.

"No, no, no, I didn't mean any harm."

The man whose face was obscured retreated repeatedly, warily avoiding the range of Marna's sword. "Being pointed at with a sword by the Lightless Knight is not a pleasant experience."

"Can't you put down your weapons and let us have a proper talk? I just wanted to take this opportunity to communicate with you."

"Communication? I have nothing to say to you."

Marna squinted, carefully observing the strange humanoid figure before her.

The Unarmored Alliance... is a force secretly cultivated by the Commercial Union, specifically designed to deal with knights who oppose the Commercial Union, and Xuan Tie Dawei are the three strongest assassins in the Unarmored Alliance.

Although Marna appears to be more powerful, the Wuzhou Alliance already possesses most of his information, while he knows nothing about this Xuan Tie Dawei. This intelligence gap could cost him his life if he's not careful.

So... what kind of magic did this Xuan Tie Dawei use?

Did it break its body down into tiny particles, or is the thing that appeared here not its original form at all? If we don't figure this out, taking rash action will only put us in a disadvantageous position.

"I knew it would turn out like this."

Xuan Tie Dawei seemed completely unsurprised by Marna's answer. "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have come to you for cooperation."

Upon hearing a word from Xuan Tie Dawei, Marna frowned and said, "Cooperation? Are you kidding me?"

Partnering with a dog raised by a business alliance? Marna almost laughed himself to death in the street. What could be more ridiculous than this? If Marna were willing to submit, he would have accepted the olive branch offered by the Knights Guild three years ago and become the nominal Long Knight of the Nearl family, instead of staying in a remote corner for three years.

“I think you’ve misunderstood something,” Xuan Tie Dawei said calmly. “The cooperation I’m talking about is neither a business alliance nor the Wuzhou Alliance. I mean, let’s do a deal between the two of us on our own.”

“I have replaced the person in the Unarmored Alliance who was monitoring you with my trusted confidant. However, he will not actually monitor you. In other words, no matter what you do during this period, the Business Alliance will not receive any information.”

"Is a dog that's been raised for decades finally going to bite its owner back?" Marna said sarcastically.

Xuan Tie Dawei wasn't angry; he just shrugged and said, "Then you should understand. Nobody likes to be someone else's dog for the rest of their life... Well, at least I don't."

"And now, I feel it's time."

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell the business alliance about these things?"

"How could that be?" Xuan Tie Dawei chuckled. "Lightless Knight... let's just call you that for now. According to the information I've gathered, because of your brother's death, you hate the Business Alliance to the core. Even if the enemy of my enemy isn't my friend, are you really willing to do such a big favor for your enemy?"

Upon hearing this, Marna's expression finally changed.

Very few people in the world know the inside story of the Dark Knights; most of them have been buried forever. The fact that this Xuan Tie Dawei can reveal such a thing proves that he has truly delved into the very core of the matter.

"Besides, even if you tell this news to the business alliance, do you think they will believe you?"

Marner had no rebuttal.

The remnants of the Lin Guang family, and Xuan Tie, the leader of the Wu Zhou Alliance—it's safe to say that neither of them needs to be considered.

Seeing that Marna did not refute, Xuan Tie knew that the purpose of this trip had been achieved to the extent that it was 80%, and the rest would not be a big deal even if it failed.

"Alright, I won't waste any more words. You don't need to answer me now. You can go back and think about what to do later."

"You must have heard about what happened at Pol Pharmaceuticals the day before yesterday, right? I really should thank those people who broke in. It was because of that riot that my people found an opportunity."

“I discovered some clues in the laboratory of Bohr Pharmaceuticals. They have joined forces with some alien races and are experimenting on some very interesting drugs with the people of Kazimir. I can’t tell you the specifics directly.”

Xuan Tie Dawei's body decomposed back into countless tiny particles, which slowly drifted away to other places with the flow of air.

"The testing ground is quite obvious; it's located in the dirtiest part of the Great Knight's Territory. If you're interested, you can look it up yourself. I don't think such a small matter should be difficult for the renowned Dark Knight,"

"I hope we will have the opportunity to cooperate again in the future."

His voice faded into the distance, and after he finished speaking, Marner could no longer find any trace of anyone else in the office.

……

As everyone knows, the Dark Knight assassinated the traitorous servant and saved Kazimierz from crisis.

But what they never knew was that the Dark Knight was always two people.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Decision

Xuan Tie left, handing over the right to choose to Marna, without any concern that Marna would hinder his plans.

However, just as Xuan Tie Dawei said, even if the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, Marna would not offer such a great gift to the Business Alliance. The betrayal of Xuan Tie Dawei... is enough to give the Business Alliance a hard time.

Or are they just using a new method to try and expose his weakness?

Marna silently sheathed the rapier and hid it under her coat again.

Just as the Xuan Tie Grand Master had said, the gaze that had been watching him like a leech disappeared, and the Wuzhou Alliance members who had been monitoring him had been transferred elsewhere.

But Marner didn't show any abnormality. Just like when he worked late before, he cleaned up the traces left by the previous battle, went back to his workstation to tidy up his personal belongings, and then turned and left the company.

Although he couldn't detect the gaze watching him, what if it was Xuan Tie Dawei himself monitoring him? Walking on the streets in the early hours of the morning, Marna pondered his recent experience.

The high-ranking official in charge of the Xuan Tie said that Boer Pharmaceuticals was involved with foreign forces. If this is true, then the Securities and Futures Commission would have a powerful card to play.

Normally, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) finds it difficult to intervene in the normal business activities of commercial alliances. However, once the influence of other countries is involved, the nature of the matter changes. Many people still vividly remember the turmoil caused by traitors more than a decade ago, and they will never allow such a thing to happen again.

Pol Pharmaceuticals is one of the pillars of the business conglomerate. If they can be brought down, it would be like breaking a leg of the business conglomerate. The Securities and Futures Commission cannot let go of such a good opportunity.

However, the possibility that this is a trap cannot be ruled out.

Well then... let's take a gamble. Marna also needs to deal with the trouble Margaret caused, and his intuition tells him that Margaret might be related to the Paul Pharmaceuticals lab that was hacked the day before yesterday.

Not many people can do something like that, and his dear niece, along with her two new friends, are very likely among them.

With this in mind, Marner had already made a basic decision. He quickened his pace and headed towards a store he usually visited after get off work.

It was already late, and the shop owner was about to close up shop. However, when he saw Marna rushing over, he stopped the shutter door he was about to pull down and greeted Marna, "Hey, you're back so late today? You must be tired from working overtime."

"What should we buy this time? The same as before?"

“Yes, I’ve got new business, so I’ll be quite busy for a while,” Marna replied. “Same as always, give me two bottles of bar.”

"This is money."

Marna slipped a note between several Kazimierz coins and placed it in the shopkeeper's hand. The shopkeeper also felt the foreign object mixed in with the coins, but his expression remained unchanged.

He stuffed the note and coin into his pocket and said with a smile, "Okay, I'll go get the wine right away."

A moment later, the transaction was completed. Marna left the store with two bottles of wine, and the owner also pulled up the shutter to go back to rest. No one else noticed the small detail that happened in the middle of the transaction.

Sending that note meant that Marner had already made all the necessary arrangements and could now do whatever he wanted.

On the way back, Marna was also thinking about this question: where was the test site of Boer Pharmaceuticals that the Xuan Tie Dawei had mentioned?

Where is the dirtiest place in the Great Knights' Territory? Could it be the city's sewer system?

Although the sewers were literally 'dirty,' Marner felt things weren't that simple. Considering the business operations of Pol Pharmaceuticals, Marner quickly identified another location.

"I see, you mean the arena..."

The Knights' Arena is the dirtiest place in the Great Knights' Territory, and even in the entire Kazimierz.

Gambling and murder are just a small part of the knightly arena. Beneath that glamorous exterior lies a range of desires and sins that are hard for ordinary people to imagine. Just breathing in the air there would make Marna feel nauseous.

“It seems that fat pig did do a good thing.” Marna couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

Normally, given his status, it would be difficult for him to openly participate in the Knights' Tournament. The fat minister's exclusionary actions actually helped him a lot in this situation.

That blind young man from Agor... he's interesting.

……

Mr. Gekski:

Margaret may have returned to the Grand Knights around this time, and I need to deal with the trouble she's caused as soon as possible.

In addition, I received some unreliable information that claims that Pol Pharmaceuticals is colluding with foreign forces, and I will investigate this matter as well.