Oliver had to give it to the Thunder Emperor. Contrary to everything he thought, the Thunder Emperor was a great schemer. While Oliver prioritises growth and eliminating his foes, Thunder Emperor was using the chance to pave the way for disrupting the current power structure.
'And he even schemed against me.'
'From today onwards, there is no real way to extricate myself from the influence of the Thunder Emperor. It doesn't matter what I feel about it anymore. Everyone will believe that I am his disciple.' Oliver thought.
'What is his angle here?'
Oliver was supposed to go to the Hero Academy and sniff out the demons within. By announcing him as the only disciple, the difficulty of completing the mission increased by a hundred times.
In fact, he became a living target that demons would shoot at.
*Sigh*
'I took a loss this time.'
From his perspective, the loss of being the disciple outweighed the gain.
It was a suboptimal, unpredictable outcome.
