Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Day 14 of the graduation event.

The city of White Raven.

The city administration hosted many big and medium-sized screens across the city that projected the graduation event's broadcast. The screens focused on the city's founder, Eren Elijah Idril.

Eren's every battle would be played repeatedly from multiple angles on these screens, making the audience cheer for all his wins over the opponents. The city also hosted various small competitions across its districts, allowing rankers to showcase their talents along with Eren's onscreen battles.

The city administration created an event out of the graduation event. As such, the atmosphere was charged with excitement and competitiveness.

Agatha capitalized on the opportunity. Event-specific merchandise began to be sold in city markets. The half-blood manager had used Eren's growing fame in the city to fill the guild's coffers. And she knew Eren would appreciate her move.

Argo controlled the city's underworld. He had many underlings inside the city who looked after the White Raven Guild's shady dealings with cultists and rogue rankers. The Demon Prince created a stable organization to handle the city's underworld.

Argo named this organization The Order of the Fly.

The Order of the Fly was very effective in stopping the Midnight Moon from having its way into the city of White Raven. It also helped the city grow its roots by injecting laundering money into its economy.

Due to this, White Raven remained safe despite disputes with cultist organizations such as Midnight Moon. The ex-members of Healers' Nirvana who joined the White Raven Guild felt glad about their guild master's decision after feeling protected for so long.

The ex-members didn't want to speak ill of Jiana Jihang because she was still a respectable figure in their eyes. However, even the peace they experienced at this point couldn't have been brought by Jiana. They needed someone like Eren to give them peace of mind.

Grandmaster Amory was no different. He was also relieved that Jiana had dissolved Healers' Nirvana into the White Raven guild. The reason behind his relief could be seen on the large spectral screen in front of him.

The Ekulu rainforest scenes were being shown on the spectral screen. This was when Eren met up with quake-element Tank Jaman and his partner who Eren called Mr. Rogue.

Amory sat on a plush sofa inside a spacious lounge made for special members of the White Raven Guild. Rankers from the White Raven Guild like Ray Rinehart, Ketsu, and Silvera were also present in the lounge. Also, rankers from Levine's faction and House Derringer were invited to the same venue.

Amory had stabilized his breakthrough thanks to the White Raven Guild resources. After that, he completed a very critical mission for Edinburgh in the Badlands. This was his leisure time. And he spent it watching the graduation event's "live" feed.

"Hahaha."

The wise tortoise Amory laughed as he watched Eren convince Jaman and the rogue-class ranker to back out of their fight against their opponents. Low-ranked entities might not understand the nuances behind the scene. But a veteran ranker like Amory knew that Eren was not only doing this as a sophisticated way of kill-stealing. Amory saw a deeper meaning hidden inside Eren's seemingly random and selfish actions.

"This boy never ceases to impress me. He made two groups back out of the conflict with his mere presence alone. Either those two guys really know who Eren is or the brat has swindled them for lots of Karma points."

Amory knew at this point that Eren wouldn't have interfered with the conflict if he didn't have a way to come out on top at the end of it. He was also right in guessing that Jaman and the rogue-class ranker knew Eren personally.

The Grandmaster ranker could also faintly guess that Eren's opponents were about to use a battle formation on him. However, the butcher didn't give them the chance to do so. He started hacking through his opponents without a care in the world.

The other rankers in the lounge also chimed in and expressed their perspectives on the fight about to unfold. They cheered for Eren and felt pity for his opponents as they watched him fight.

"Hehe. It's a bit of both, Uncle Amory. Eren wouldn't let the opportunity to earn profits slip by just because someone he knows is in front of him."

Agatha appeared in the lounge and sat next to Amory. She looked at the giant screen in front of her, watching what Eren did next. Of course, she had finished most of her daily activities for the day, earning the right to unwind by watching Eren's performance.

By this point, even viewers understood that something was occurring behind the scenes inside Sansara World. That's because-- very now and then-- certain live feeds would get frozen before being replaced by a different POV without the user's consent.

The broadcasting tower started getting tons of queries from various authorities. However, they didn't receive a clear response from the contact.

The chaos and excitement around the graduation event kept growing each day. Both the kingdom of Edinburgh and the kingdom of Layos used the event as a platform to put their younger generation against each other.

Some mortals, who were not used to interacting with rankers before witnessing the event, found it strange that the event was still taking place despite the obvious intervention of the kingdom of Layos. It was as if the participants, organizers, infiltrators, and rankers serving as viewers of the event were all okay with this phenomenon.

Instead of running away from such conflicts, all the rankers involved in the conflict used them as whetstones to sharpen their skills against each other. The mortals, who silently protested Edinburgh's uncaring attitude, realized that rankers had different morals from the mortals.

The city of White Raven wasn't doing something unique.

Other prominent cities inside Edinburgh were also trying to profit from the graduation event in some way or another. There were many vested interests involved in the event from across the four Duchies of the kingdom.

It could be said that Edinburgh couldn't cancel the event at this point even if it wanted to.