At present, the Star Spirit Network isn’t developed yet; messages are relayed entirely through written words.

Otherwise, this scene at the Mage League would have spread across the whole Starfall Continent by now.

Whether it’s individual matches or team matches, in all the games happening simultaneously, only a handful of arenas have people inside—most are totally empty.

Those waiting for their opponent are the lucky ones; some venues have only the referee present, both sides absent.

This ridiculous situation has left referees, judges, spectators, and even the commentators from the newspaper baffled.

On this, Rose commented: "Still too much of an amateur hour."

Hilia and the others were currently standing on stage, exchanging wide-eyed stares with the referee, awaiting the other team’s arrival.

The time for forfeiting by lateness passed quickly, but none of the referees made a decision.

One team not showing up and getting disqualified—that’s fine.

But if no one’s coming, what are you supposed to rule? Everyone loses?

The referees all looked toward the committee.

The committee was already in a complete mess.

"Where are the people we sent? Why isn’t there any news?"

"What? None of the people sent out have any news?"

"Hurry, get the chairman to investigate!"

"..."

All sorts of messages spread within the committee; countless people on site grew anxious, even frightened.

No news from those sent out—this sounded way too scary.

The league committee chairman, Adrian, was stone-faced as he walked through a hotel where contestants from one of the empires were staying.

Inside, a Tier Five Mage came up to him. "Well, if it isn’t Chairman Adrian. The Northern Alliance’s security really sucks. Everyone except me got drugged with something that puts you to sleep. Care to explain, Chairman?"

Adrian looked at him, voice grim: "Take me to see them. Thank you."

The Tier Five Mage shrugged and turned to head inside.

Adrian followed.

The Tier Five Mage pointed to a room’s doorway, where purple liquid was on the floor. "See that? Last night, some ’friend’ came by and delivered sweet dreams to everyone."

Adrian said in a deep voice, "I’ll get to the bottom of this. For now, please help me wake up the contestants."

The Tier Five Mage replied, "I haven’t found a good way to wake them up. The only thing that might work is collecting all the unknown potion here, keep it from continuing to affect them—maybe they’ll wake up then."

Adrian looked at him, debated whether or not to swear, then held it in.

He said flatly, "No other mages can get in. Please, help me collect all the potion and wake the contestants ASAP so they can return to the tournament. That’s what matters most to both of us."

The Tier Five Mage snorted coldly, saying nothing in rebuttal.

If you really looked into it, he was at fault too; he was supposed to watch these contestants, yet someone managed to pull this off right under his nose, and he only noticed the next day.

Thankfully, he attacked Adrian first—otherwise, he’d have no dignity left.

After collecting all the potion in the building, they soon noticed that the Tier Four mentors woke up first, then the contestants, one by one.

Adrian breathed a sigh of relief. "Leave it to you all now. I won’t hold you up—get back to the arena quickly. Given today’s special circumstances, the league committee will allow a slight delay for your matches."

The Tier Five Mage sneered sarcastically.

If you’ve got the guts, just disqualify us outright.

Of course, that was only said internally. He wasn’t happy with the league committee, but you still had to give them face. Otherwise, if they really did it, nothing you could do about it.

...

Adrian checked in on several areas,

Eventually, he arrived at the Ista Empire’s zone, and saw it deserted—he froze for a moment, but had no time to ponder, and hurried back to the tournament.

He returned and took his place at the center of the committee seating, projecting his voice across the venue: "We’ve run into some problems with the tournament; the cause has been determined—something went wrong yesterday when announcing the match timings, so many teams received incorrect time slots. We’ve expelled the temporary members responsible for this issue.

"Rest assured, this was purely accidental. We’re not so heartless as to disqualify everyone outright. You’ll be given time to return, and the tournament will be delayed by one hour. This is how the league shows warmth and friendship..."

No one’s getting disqualified now. That’s never happening.

Otherwise, chaos would break out.

Soon, crowds of people came rushing in from outside the arena—all contestants who’d gotten ’wrong match times’ per Adrian’s statement.

This whole thing seemed nothing more than a temp’s error. The officials issued explanations and investigation papers; then, nothing more came of it.

After nearly an hour’s delay, the tournament finally began.

But doubts lingered in Adrian’s mind.

What was that potion, anyway?

Who drugged them?

Why were only the Ista Empire’s contestants unaffected?

No matter how Adrian tried to piece things together, the trail always led back to Ista Empire.

But it was match time now; Adrian could only suppress his suspicions.

Whatever it was, he’d have to ask them in person after the matches.

All signs pointed to Ista Empire, but things going so smoothly made Adrian uneasy.

If Ista Empire really did it, why be so blatant?

Knocking out so many people for a ’lazy sleep’ doesn’t help Ista’s contestants—since the tournament just gets postponed.

So, odds are, it wasn’t anyone from Ista Empire. If they were after the trophy, they’d just secretly sabotage the main rival teams. That’d be the usual play.

This setup, though...

Two words popped into Adrian’s mind—

Sect.

"If someone’s messing with things so boldly, it’s got to be sects—only one explanation: Ista wants..."

Just thinking that possibility, even a Tier Five Mage like Adrian shuddered.

"They’re still worshipping those useless Gods, the Holy Court and Royal Family endlessly squabbling internally—how could they have the energy for war?"

Unless Ista Empire wanted to split even further into six empires, Adrian couldn’t think of another reason for their actions.

As for sects, sects don’t need a reason; if they want to do something, they just do it.

But pulling something so trivial—letting everyone sleep for an extra hour...

What kind of sect would bother with such nonsense?

While watching the matches, Adrian kept pondering this bizarre affair.

After much hesitation, he finally made up his mind: "Better let the Alliance handle it. The league committee isn’t here to worry about heretic business."

He shook his head, sent a message to the Alliance Center, and then stopped thinking about it.

"Maybe it was just some Legendary Mage’s prank."

He comforted himself.

What he didn’t know was, this was only the beginning.