"See? That's exactly why you don't just equip random loot without identifying it first," the Deputy Commander said, gesturing at the pile of artifacts. "Especially the gear that requires physical attunement. That's the easiest way to walk right into a trap."

He shot Orion a sideways glance, his expression a mix of smug satisfaction and "I-told-you-so" arrogance.

What a sanctimonious hypocrite, Orion thought, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. But damn if he isn't sharp.

"You're absolutely right," Orion said aloud, layering on the charm. "No matter how well that Virtue Knight hid his schemes, nothing gets past your radar, Deputy Commander. Seriously, that's why you're the backbone of the Champions Alliance. Your game knowledge, your mechanics, your raw power... your mental agility is just insane."

The first few compliments landed perfectly. Edward tried to maintain his stoic, elder-statesman facade, but the corners of his mouth betrayed him.

Deep down, the Deputy Commander was just like Arthas, Leonidas, and Alexander. For all their power, these "bros" were absolute suckers for hero worship. Orion had picked up this particular survival skill from watching Elara operate. Whenever the Deputy Commander taught her a new spell, she would bat her eyelashes and squeal, "Mentor, you're so OP!" It worked every time. The man would grin like an idiot, his ego inflated to the point of bursting.

Orion knew when to dial it back, though. He cut the flattery short as he saw the Deputy Commander's gaze shift from self-satisfaction to a sharp, analytical focus.

"This is a Relic Set. Extremely rare drop," the Deputy Commander explained, his tone shifting to that of a professional lecturer. "They run on a unified rule system, but each individual piece scales off a different Virtue parameter. Eight slots total. The Virtue Knight you fragged... he must have been specced as a Knight of the Eight Virtues."

Edward dropped a few more lore bombs, detailing mechanics Orion had never encountered in the wikis or his own experience.

"Deputy Commander," Orion asked, feigning ignorance to keep the info-dump flowing, "what exactly is a Knight of the Eight Virtues?"

The older man gave him another side-eye, this time with a hint of disdain for the newbie question.

"You have plenty of avatars," he grunted. "Stop hoarding them. Send one out to roam the word. Grind some XP, see the world. Scout for potential invasion points for the Champions Alliance while you're at it."

If the first sentence was advice, the second was a quest marker.

Orion actually had a roadmap for that kind of exploration, but not yet. He needed to hit the Demigod tier first. Right now, his build lacked the necessary sustain and—frankly—the safety buffer. He wasn't like Arthas or Leonidas; his progression curve was too steep, his schedule too packed.

"I'll do it," Orion said, "but I need a little cooldown period first."

He was already spread thin. Between holding down his territory in the Abyss and purging the mobs entrenched east of the Silverwood Realm, his hands were full. Once the gray fog of the Abyss receded, his Abyssal Dreadfin 'Avatar' still needed to link up with the Kraken to recon the Silverwood Realm's oceanic zones.

And then there was the Clown.

The Champions Alliance didn't play nice with griefers, and they certainly didn't tolerate traitors like the Cult of Four. The plan wasn't just to beat them; it was to spawn-camp them until they quit. The consensus among the bros was clear: wipe every avatar the clown possessed and permanently ban the Cult of Four from their reality.

Edward didn't press the issue. He had given the quest; whether Orion accepted it was his own business.

"A Virtue Knight," the Deputy Commander said, circling back to the original topic, "is fundamentally a class built on extremism, self-restriction, and profound selfishness."

Orion blinked. That was... a hot take. He'd expected a lecture on chivalry, not a roast. Even if some Virtue Knights were hypocrites, surely the class itself required some moral baseline?

"You disagree?" The Deputy Commander tore his eyes away from the relics, locking onto Orion with intense interest.

"Not entirely," Orion replied carefully. "The one I fought was exactly as you described—a Demon wearing a skin of righteousness. But statistically speaking? There have to be some who actually follow the code."

"Define 'principle.' Define 'virtue.'" The Deputy Commander's eyes lit up. He wasn't angry; he was excited. He looked like a veteran player about to deconstruct a noob's entire understanding of the game mechanics.

"You know," Orion shrugged, drawing on two lives' worth of experience. "Doing good deeds. Being a decent human being. Kindness, courage, honesty, mercy... the standard Hero build."

"Laughable," the Deputy Commander scoffed, his voice dripping with cynical amusement. "You just admitted that morality is a two-sided coin, yet you cling to the idea that 'being a good person' is a universal constant across all species?"

He stepped closer, ticking points off on his fingers.

"You exterminate an alien race to secure our borders. To them, you are the Demon. You overthrow a corrupt regime. To the loyalists, you're a traitor and a terrorist. You wipe out a bandit camp. Sure, the villagers are happy, but you just ended the bandits' lineage. You poison rats and swat mosquitoes. You're doing it to survive, right? Well, so were they."

He gestured vaguely at the horizon. "You clear land to build a farm. Great, now you have food. But what about the wildflowers and the weeds? You ripped them out by the roots. To the grass, you are the apocalypse."

His tone wasn't heated. It was terrifyingly calm. He was guiding Orion through a logic puzzle, dismantling his worldview piece by piece.

"Now, answer me this: Does 'True Virtue' actually exist?"

"No," the Deputy Commander answered his own question with a heavy sigh before Orion could speak.

It was the sigh of someone who had stared into the void for too long. He had clearly wrestled with these questions before—honor, rules, bottom lines—and realized they were just flavor text.

"What you call 'virtue' is just a label for actions that align with your specific values and interests," he said, his voice dropping to a melancholic register. "There is no objective Good or Evil. There are only factions. There are only conflicting interests taking a stand."

He looked tired, like a man who had seen the source code of the universe and found it buggy.

"Once you realize it's all fake," he continued, "you understand the true mechanic of the Virtue Knight. They aren't holy warriors. They are thieves. They use a specific cognitive framework to harvest the trust and belief of anyone who shares their delusion."

He paused, a dark smirk returning. "Of course, that includes themselves. They are usually the first victims of their own con."

It was a twisted philosophy, but Orion followed the logic train.

"So," the Deputy Commander said, shifting into a deeper, more esoteric register, "let's look at the meta. If Virtue Knights are just harvesting belief, why does that belief exist in the first place?"

"When intelligent beings reach a consensus," he whispered, "that consensus becomes Faith."

The look on Edward's face turned profound, almost reverent. He was done talking about ethics. He was talking about power. He was talking about the cultivation path that both he and Orion were walking.

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