I've Become the King of Villains in the Game

"Thank you for the reminder."

He reversed his long sword, holding the hilt before his chest as a gesture of respect.

Bales nodded and then refused the pleas of others to stay, pushing through the crowd and leaving alone.

The others simply thought he was defeated in the process of teaching swordsmanship, feeling that he had lost face and did not want to stay any longer.

But only Chen Lun knew that it was because the body the Black Knight was using now had nearly collapsed after the intense battle.

He chose to leave quickly to avoid crumbling in full view of everyone.

"Oh, my Sun! Mr. Jack, you were fantastic!"

Xibert hurried forward, speaking excitedly.

Then he leaned closer, whispering:

"I just knew it! You did block the bullet with the cane, didn't you!"

His tone was so confident that no matter how Chen Lun explained, he took it as fact.

Chen Lun simply stopped explaining and handed back the sword, chuckling lightly:

"Thank you for your long sword, Mr. Xibert."

"Oh! You're welcome; on the contrary, I should be thanking you for using it!"

Xibert flashed an exaggerated smile.

"Don't worry, when I go back, I'll definitely take good care of this long sword and keep it as a family heirloom... When I am old, I will tell my son, grandson, and great-grandson about it—once, a swordsmanship master used it to defeat another master!"

"You really are humorous."

Chen Lun was successfully amused by his words, then sincerely exclaimed.

The surrounding crowd was excited, with a few people approaching Chen Lun.

"Hey, sir, may I ask you…" Discover exclusive tales on empire

But they had just started speaking and hadn't finished their sentence when they saw the young man with black hair turn around, retrieve his silver cane and black hat from the wall.

Putting on the black hat and leaning on the Silver Staff, he left straight away.

Those who got close to him, without exception, were unable to succeed.

They always seemed to be a few steps away from him but just could not catch up. In the end, they could only watch helplessly as his figure disappeared at the doorway of the open-air training room.

Among them was a waitress, who looked worried and stood there biting her lip, unsure what to think.

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Time soon approached New Year's Eve.

After this night, it would be the Solar Calendar year of 4419.

According to the customs of the people of this era, New Year's Eve generally required praying to the deity they believed in, and then preparing the Holy Communion in advance according to the rituals of their church.

The standard Holy Communion generally consists of beef, turkey, and goose as the main dishes, accompanied by unleavened bread, sugar cakes, and fresh fruit.

Different churches have variations in the details.

For example, the Sun Church requires dew-brewed juniper liquor, the Moon Church adds more plums, the Red Apple Church always includes red apples and red wine, and the Hailing Group requires salted fish and seaweed soup, among others.

The "Holy Communion" at Jack's manor tonight had no special requirements since those present were not church believers.

Chen Lun sat at the dining table in the living room, eating steak strips specially prepared by Floey.

The other members were seated around the table, and each had prepared a gift.

The gifts from Golov and Barton were simple, two servings each of "Low Sequence Conspiracy Faction Mysterious Substance" for mystical accumulation.

As expected, when they opened the small gift boxes and saw the two gray pills inside, they showed surprised expressions.

"Thank you for the leader's generosity!"

The two stood up to salute, respectful in their demeanor.

Chen Lun waved his hand casually, indicating for them to sit down.

Maggie's gift was a bottle of beef-flavored extraordinary red wine, a bottle which had cost Chen Lun quite some effort.

After all, it took him a long time to acquire something resembling beef from the Silver Dragon Trade Association. Then, while brewing the "Bloody Fine Brew," he coincidentally managed to produce this beef-flavored red wine.

Maggie unwrapped the paper, sniffed the bottle's neck, and her face flushed with excitement.

She expressed that the happiest things recently were two events: one was receiving this bottle of "beef red wine," and the other was going out in a few days to fulfill the leader's "special commission"—to investigate the plague.

She was truly engaged in this task.

This made Chen Lun quite relieved.

Noah's gift, after much consideration because this "rich second generation" pretty much lacked for nothing,

Finally, Noah noticed his embarrassment and proposed that he sincerely wanted to paint a portrait for Mr. Leader. However, Noah hoped that Chen Lun could adjust his pose according to his suggestion.

Chen Lun very understandingly satisfied this small request as a New Year's Eve gift... Of course, he had very carefully and tactfully asked beforehand, ensuring it was not about posing nude.

This let Chen Lun breathe a sigh of relief.

So, inside the gift box for Noah, there was only a simple pack of candy. He remembered Noah liked sweet things a lot, and Miss Rosa also used to add a lot of sugar to Noah's tea.

Connie's gift was one Chen Lun found in a pile of "Mysterious Object scraps," known as the "most useless of the useless."

It was a finger-sized mini pendulum called "Hundred Ticks."

The effect was that swinging it a hundred times would allow the user to fall asleep immediately. The cost, however, was that upon awakening, it would start swinging by itself, and if the user didn't fully awake and leave the bed within a hundred swings, they would fall asleep again, repeating the process.