Within the Cloud Marsh Cup small group, after a brief silence, intense discussion immediately erupted.

The ninth-ranked breeder was asking what Ladybug Raiders was.

The seventh-ranked breeder from the Rain Marsh Swampland wizard land in the Three Marshes Land was asking how there could be wizards in the Cloud Marsh Cup hiring black wizards to plagiarize others' data.

Clearly, he knew what Ladybug Raiders was.

Among the Three Marshes Land, the Thunder Marsh Lowlands had developed the most prosperously, the Cloud Marsh Wetland was second, and the Rain Marsh Swampland, because its entire topography was swampland and internally only had some herbaceous magical plants and miniaturized magical creatures, led to natural resources always being at a disadvantage. So it was considered the slightly slower developing area among the Three Marshes Land wizard regions.

But all of the Three Marshes Land had geological-level natural large-scale mana convergence springs called Cloud Lakes.

The overall area of the Cloud Lakes could even equal the sum of several wizard land areas. Therefore, the natural magic tides of the Three Marshes Land were several orders of magnitude higher than other regions, so the Three Marshes Land itself was extremely prosperous.

Only below the Star Domain Sea.

Besides this, Wizard Alaric from the Twilight Border immediately tagged Yennefer, third place from the Spiral Basin. "Number Six said the person who hired the black wizard is from the Spiral Basin. Number Three, don't you have anything to say?"

Locke and Yennefer simultaneously spoke in the group, prohibiting him from using such outrageous titles as Number Six and Number Three.

And Yennefer also directly sent a segment of text in the group: 'I didn't hire them. The hirer has no need to reveal their true origin.'

Wizard Alaric immediately sent a segment of text: 'What you say seems quite reasonable on the surface, but you seem very familiar with the process of hiring Ladybug Raiders.'

Locke glanced at the text sent by Wizard Alaric and almost wanted to give him a thumbs up. This guy was truly a natural information-gathering expert. This had pretty good questioning techniques.

This actually saved him from having to probe the attitude of that contestant from the Spiral Basin toward himself.

Yennefer sent a message: 'I've also heard the great name of Ladybug Raiders. Many people's research data has been stolen by Ladybug Raiders before. They are their victims.'

'This is very normal. The wizard from the Rain Marsh Swampland clearly also knows.'

The seventh-ranked wizard from the Rain Marsh Swampland also joined the conversation in the group: 'Indeed, Ladybug Raiders has a notorious reputation. Many people are victims. However, there are big figures behind that organization, so while other similar organizations have been cleaned up more than once, this organization still exists.'

'I also heard about this from my mentors. I had a senior who had OCD in his early years. Whatever experiments he did, he needed flawless data and a complete chain of evidence. An experiment that others could complete in three years took him ten years to finish. Later, just three days after he finished, his data was stolen by Ladybug Raiders.'

'The paper was published ahead of time by several people. Ladybug Raiders sold his data to multiple people. My senior was so angry he almost jumped into the Cloud Lake to commit suicide. Later, my mentor persuaded him down from beside the Cloud Lake. My mentor used connections to give him a First Circle foundation, and only then did he give up self-destructive thoughts and was even forced to cure his OCD.'

Yennefer sent a line of messages: 'You see, knowing about Ladybug Raiders is normal, right? At the breeding academy of Nehel University where I am, there are also similar victims.'

'In any case, Wizard Augustine, I truly knew nothing about this matter.'

Locke sent a smiley face emoji in the small group without saying anything.

Nehel University?

Nehel University was that white wizard organization with large numbers of black wizards, right?

Locke later consulted materials in the Land of Six Towers library. The Spiral Basin and the Land of Six Towers were two extremes.

The Land of Six Towers had abundant environment but poor systems, thus leading to overall wizard land decline, while the Spiral Basin had insufficient environment but the wizard land's internal vitality was strong, constantly absorbing resources and talents from external wizard lands, step by step reaching its current position. There were even more than one Second Circle wizards there.

It was said that in the deepest part of the Spiral Basin, there had even been traces of a Third Circle wizard.

But the Spiral Basin had a problem in that white wizards and black wizards were mixed together unclearly. There was even the Spiral Basin characteristic of white wizards taking off white wizard robes to put on black wizard robes, or taking off the black wizard robes on their bodies to reveal white wizard robes underneath.

The wizards there, quite a few were simultaneously members of the White Wizard Association while also being members of the Black Wizard Alliance.

Not being particular about conventions and wanting any talent was also the Spiral Basin's unique characteristic.

The center of the Spiral Basin was also connected to a very troublesome plane in the void, the Corrupt Deep Sea plane, through a massive-scale plane gate to a plane with super-large community clusters.

The Corrupt Deep Sea plane was a special plane formed by the collapse and festering of a super-giant water elemental plane's ecology. It was filled with putrid water elements, so this plane was something that didn't have much use for wizard civilization but was like a pest.

And the wizards of the Spiral Basin long needed to resist the Plague Water Elemental Emperors from the Corrupt Deep Sea plane.

Therefore, that side had to bear resource scarcity while also bearing enormous war pressure. Under this pressure, the Spiral Basin had no distinction between black and white wizards and was extremely tolerant of ideological disputes.

Locke glanced at the small group. He knew from the beginning that asking questions in the group would be very difficult to yield any results, so he was just casually probing.

First, to indicate that the opponent's attempt to steal his data had failed.

Second, as a warning to the opponent.

Third, to see if he could lock onto a target. Currently, it seemed this Yennefer from the Spiral Basin was indeed suspicious and needed focused precautions afterward.

At the same time, the first-ranked Wizard Edgar David from the Sunshade Peninsula, surprisingly for the first time ever, sent a message in the group. As soon as he appeared, he tagged second place and said: 'I also encountered Ladybug Raiders here, but my laboratory has War Ancient Tree treant guards. War Ancient Tree treants possess war domains that can automatically lock onto hostility and use the opponent's hostility to form a war domain.'

'So that Ladybug Raider who infiltrated my laboratory wanting to steal my core data was discovered by me. I killed him on the spot.'

'Second place, did anything happen on your end?'

'Who exactly is it, actually so lacking in values, to actually hire Ladybug Raiders to steal data during the competition period? But you underestimate the Cloud Marsh Cup too much. In this kind of competition, wizards whose data can be stolen by you were destined to lose from the start.'

'The strong remain strong. True strong people fear no challenges!'

From the first few sentences the first place said for the first time, Locke immediately sensed the opponent was a domineering and bloodthirsty person. Ladybug Raiders should also have conducted transactions with him, but he directly chose to personally kill that black wizard rather than conduct transactions beneficial to him.

It could be seen that for him, satisfying his killing desire, or rather satisfying his inner will, was itself a kind of benefit.

Moreover, the opponent was also a score dog...

Good heavens, this Wizard Edgar David came up and immediately tagged second place, seemingly not even putting third place in his eyes.

Facing so many doubts, Yennefer as third place sent a message in the group: 'I'm going to do experiments.'

'Honestly, even if your projects could actually be completed, they wouldn't compare to a fraction of my Mushroom King. I have no reason whatsoever to hire Ladybug Raiders.'

Then Yennefer stopped replying to messages in the group.

And Alaric and the fourth-ranked Wizard Karel Knight from the Thunder Marsh Lowlands were intensely discussing there. The two were guessing who exactly hired Ladybug Raiders.

Wizard Karel Knight said, "Anyway, no matter who hired them, both the person who hired them and anyone whose data can be stolen are definitely incompetent people."

"How could truly competent people possibly have their data successfully stolen?"

At the same time, the second-ranked Witch Diana from the Cloud Marsh Wetland finally also appeared in the small group today for the first time ever: 'Um... I've been in my own laboratory the whole time, 24 hours. I sleep and eat in the laboratory, and my students and my partners are the same.'

'So I think Ladybug Raiders probably didn't have a chance to steal materials from my project.'

'However, I still thank everyone for the friendly reminders. I need to get busy. Today's experiments aren't finished yet. Sigh, all the wizards in my research group haven't slept once in three months.'

'Everyone, I need to get busy. No small talk.'

Locke's expression became strange.

The second place from the Cloud Marsh Wetland seemed to be a... workaholic. The entire research group hasn't slept once in three months?

This was really too exaggerated.

Ladybug Raiders definitely couldn't interfere with such a research group.

There was simply no opportunity to infiltrate at all.

'Previously when I saw second place never speaking, I thought she was lurking. Now it seems she should have been busy doing experiments all along,' Locke thought. "First place Wizard David doesn't deign to communicate with us. The only opponent in his eyes should be second place Witch Diana from the Cloud Marsh Wetland."

"Third place witch Yennefer, whether she's a black wizard or white wizard isn't certain. Suspected to be related to this large-scale incident of hiring Ladybug Raiders to steal data."

"Fourth place is from the Thunder Marsh Lowlands. Fifth place is the inquisitive Wizard Alaric. Sixth place is me. Seventh place is a wizard from the Rain Marsh Swampland. Eighth place, ninth place, and tenth place have now all spoken in the group."

"Alright, this Cloud Marsh Cup competition is indeed intense." After thinking for a moment, Locke decided to return to his special-grade laboratory at the White Dragon Tower to quickly conduct practical tests on the inspiration he gained during the battle with the black wizard.

But just at this moment, the gray stone tablet suddenly vibrated.

The fourth-ranked Wizard Karel Knight from the Thunder Marsh Lowlands, who had just been mocking in the group that people whose data could be stolen must definitely be incompetent, was continuously tagging everyone in the group:

"Where are the file materials I placed in my laboratory? Why are they gone?"

"That guy who hired the black wizard, listen up. That's material I made using my university's funds and First Circle foundation funds. It belongs to the White Wizard Association assets of our Thunder Marsh Lowlands!"

Wizard Karel Knight frantically elevated the status of his data: "You using black wizards to steal White Wizard Association assets seriously violates the law. I'm going to report you. I'm going to send you to black wizard prison."

"Quickly return my materials to me!"

The fifth place, Wizard Alaric from the Twilight Border, probably saw he was really too pitiful and consoled him, "You shouldn't be too angry either."

"You need to cut losses in time. Now fortunately it's only been a month since the competition started. Even if materials were stolen, how much could be stolen? You can fine-tune the direction, make some changes, and it can be used again."

Wizard Karel Knight angrily sent text: 'Cloud Marsh Cup competition entries require originality. If he uses my materials to have someone publish some papers, my work will no longer have originality. My competition will lose before it even starts.'

'Fine-tuning the direction now, how can that be easy! Just filing financial reports, rewriting project planning documents, and fund accounting books will take who knows how much effort. Using such petty tricks to scheme against people is really too unethical.'

'There must definitely be a black wizard among us. The meaning of competition is to have all contestants bring out their best things to win, not just winning. The process of competing is itself a learning process, but those black wizards can never understand this point.'

Alaric replied somewhat honestly in the group: 'But didn't you say that people whose data gets stolen are all incompetent people?'

'You should also accept reality a bit. After all, this is also a kind of inferior skill.'

Wizard Karel Knight directly tagged Alaric: 'I think you're the one who hired those black wizards.'

Wizard Alaric immediately got angry: 'Don't randomly bite people, okay? I'm a golden noble of the Golden Dynasty, enjoying enormous honor and privileges in the Twilight Border. How could I possibly do such things! I was just trying to console you. Didn't you see, I'm the only one in the group who paid attention to you?'

Next, the two started arguing.

Seeing this scene, Locke immediately closed the gray stone tablet.

He had no interest in watching others argue.

Just now looking at the information in the small group was just to observe the general personalities of his competitors.

However, this was all incidental.

Locke turned and left White Dragon Street, reporting this matter to the Plutarch family and letting the Plutarch family handle the follow-up matters of this affair and Locke returned to his own special-grade laboratory.

At the 20-kilometer mark of the White Dragon Tower, Witch Barbara came over and hurriedly told Locke that she had indeed discovered some confusion in the bills but had already gone to the finance office to readjust everything and returned the excess money.

Locke nodded slightly at her. "I know. This matter has already been resolved by me. Using this method to solve it, we'll have much less trouble in the future."

"By the way, I need to conduct experiments immediately. I have a new idea. Help me call Montgomery over."