Intelligence Gathering Failed

When Caleb returned to the lounge, he brought only good news to Lynn.

"Lynn, it just so happens that none of the other mages are in your opponent's area, or they just happened not to come. Anyway, tomorrow afternoon is your duel with that mage."

Lynn immediately put down his rapidly writing pen, walked up to Caleb, and expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you, Uncle..."

Caleb waved his hand and said:

"I didn't put in too much effort. When your opponent had achieved a fifteen-game winning streak, I just went up to try and arrange a duel for you. I didn't expect that even though I was five minutes late, I could still make it in time."

Then, Caleb's expression changed, and he said with a serious expression:

"Tomorrow will be her sixteenth match, but this isn't the sixteenth duel of her career, you know what I mean?"

"I know."

Lynn answered calmly, but one could still sense some excitement in his tone.

He knew, of course, that this could not possibly be his opponent's sixteenth duel; what his uncle was saying was that this was his opponent's sixteenth consecutive victory.

No novice mage who has just started Magic Duel could achieve this level of success, and the sixteenth consecutive victory has special significance for him.

His father holds the record for a sixteen-game winning streak in the Preliminaries, and now he may be the one to prevent his opponents from reaching his father's level. How can that not be exciting?

Furthermore, ending the opponent's fifteen-game winning streak would also be of great benefit to Lynn himself.

The mage who defeated his father and ended his sixteen-game winning streak received a lot of financial support afterward because of his fame. However, his dueling skills are not very impressive, and he is still hovering on the edge of whether he can enter the Main Tournament.

But this also illustrates what benefits ending such a high-profile winning streak can bring—even for a player like him, the expenses of many Main Tournament players are still less than what he has.

If Lynn were to end Fran's fifteen-game winning streak, he would also enjoy the same treatment as the mage who defeated his father years ago, receiving a large sum of money.

Who would complain about having too much money? Especially for mages who participate in Magic Duel, they usually have almost no way to earn money and can only live on their savings and the support of others.

However, the fame and fortune gained from such a winning streak only benefit the person who sets the record and the one who ends the streak.

Those mages who fell before their winning streaks ended, no one will remember their names, at least not his father.

"Lynn, don't be too nervous. Even if you only win one game, you'll gain tremendous fame. You don't need to defeat your opponent."

"Because the opponent has won fifteen consecutive matches today, and still ended the game 3-0, as long as you can turn the last 0 into 1, you will have succeeded."

Lynn's body stiffened. This unprecedented 3-0 winning streak instilled in him a feeling akin to fear.

That means his fifteen-game 3-0 winning streak is already much better than his father's sixteen-game winning streak.

His father's subsequent victories were almost all hard-fought 3-2 wins. At that time, many opponents were targeting his father's fighting style, making his victories even more difficult.

His subsequent opponents seemed completely unaffected by the targeted attacks, winning every match 3-0. It's even said that each duel ended roughly the same in time, with none lasting more than six minutes.

Lynn even had some doubts about whether he could get a single point from their opponents.

Just then, as if remembering something, Lynn asked Caleb:

"Uncle, did you gather any intelligence on this trip?"

This was something that puzzled him, because in the past, his uncle would always come back first to tell him the information. After all, those encouraging words were just empty promises, but understanding the opponent's fighting style and countering them was absolutely true.

After hearing Lynn's question, Caleb gave a look that suggested he didn't know what to say, but he still provided the information that sounded plausible.

"... That's it. I feel your opponent tomorrow is very clever."

"She's the most skilled at disrupting information transmission I've ever seen. She's been fighting for fifteen rounds, and yet not a single seemingly normal piece of information is circulating outside."

"Even after my duel today, I asked someone to inquire about the mage I fought against her today."

"Then the monk said some more things that sounded quite outrageous."

"They said they threw Greater Fireball at the start and then disappeared, and then their opponent suddenly reappeared from some unknown place and stabbed them in the neck..."

"My God, is he fighting a mage or a rogue? And his opponent is even from the Elemental School..."

After listening to this, Lynn also felt that her uncle was right; all the information outside was false.

Take the mage who said he had his neck slashed, for example. Even a mage from the Sword Chant School would find it difficult to do something like the scene he described.

Because of the powerful Mental Power of a Second Order Mage, they can easily see through various invisibility spells.

Even a second-tier Profession needs to prepare meticulously and wait until a Second Order Mage is weakened before they can slip away unnoticed.

Such a description is almost impossible to occur during a duel between two mages, so Lynn and Caleb both believed it was fake news.

"But, Uncle, how did she manage to bribe her opponent so quickly and get them to spread false information?"

Lynn expressed curiosity about this. In his opinion, achieving something like this couldn't be done by simply throwing money at it; perhaps some kind of magic or something else was involved...

If he could also obtain a method to prevent this information from being transmitted at all, he could increase his win rate by at least 20 points.

Caleb, knowing what Lynn was thinking, said with amusement:

"Lynn, stop guessing. There's no such thing as a convenient thing in the world."

"The main reason your opponent can turn things around like this, I think, is..."

Caleb paused for a moment, then recounted the information he had overheard from the thief.

"After the duel, she went straight into the Mage Tower, so no one dared to pry into her affairs."

"Mage Tower..."

Lynn's expression changed, and he turned to ask:

Did anyone see that monk actually go inside?

Caleb smiled and continued:

"Not only did some people see her go in, but many apprentices squatted at the door for an hour, but she didn't come out..."

As for why he stopped squatting after an hour, Lynn didn't ask, because he knew that for an apprentice to dare to squat at the Mage Tower for an hour was incredibly audacious.

That's a forbidden area of Floating City. Even Second Order Mage like them would be locked up for seven or eight days if they stayed there for just an hour without permission.

Moreover, there's even a possibility that they could face imprisonment for a minimum of three digits for crimes such as spying on secrets...

"Lynn, don't worry too much. Just follow your plan and prepare for tomorrow's duel."

"Remember, winning even one small game is a success for you."

"I understand, thank you, Uncle..."

Lynn originally looked down on winning only one game, but without any reliable information, Lynn had to lower his standards and start aiming for winning only one game.

"I know it's as simple as winning a small round, and the other mages should know that too, so why did everyone else fail?"

A new question arose in Lynn's mind, a question that he could not answer until he met Fran.

Fran briefly returned to the Mana Communication System project after the duel.

Of course, this was on the premise that she was sure there were no apprentices following her today.

Before this, she easily knew that a group of apprentices were following her, so she spent two days running through the Mage Tower after the duel.

The effect was excellent; from today onward, she had almost none of those annoying apprentices behind her.

When Fran finally arrived at the house she rented through the Mana Communication System, she felt it should be renamed.

Because the Mana Telecommunications System has far surpassed the Mana Communication System, which previously only provided the Academy with an additional storage method, in terms of both revenue and popularity.

The difference between the two is too great. The Mana Telecommunications System has already sold nearly two thousand copies, and even a quarter of the mages have chosen the membership beyond the free quota.

This is because the efficiency of those Magic Artisan can't keep up. Even though they can produce three a day, it's still far from meeting the current market demand for terminals.

Furthermore, because so many Mana Telecommunications System terminals have been sold, the project is constantly very busy.

Fran's coding system was not perfect from the start, and Asher and Philly did not necessarily follow Fran's ideas exactly when arranging the codes.

Furthermore, they themselves may make mistakes when arranging the code, causing some functions to be unusable or to cross-stream with other functions.

In the end, the task of making corrections and fixing errors naturally fell to Asher and Philly.

However, the workload is much lighter than before, so Philly's complexion has improved a lot recently.

When Fran found Philly, there were fewer documents on her desk than Fran had seen before, and Philly also had a half-finished juice on the desk, looking quite relaxed.

Seeing Philly so relaxed, Fran felt a strange sensation rising within her, a sensation that seemed to tell her that she couldn't stand Philly's carefree attitude.

It just so happened that she had something to discuss with Philly this time, so she tapped on the table to attract Philly's attention.