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Since the main quest required them to have a reputation of fifty or above, and aside from Emilia, most of her team was still stuck at zero, they could only resort to completing more 'side quests' over the next few sessions.
Of course, Emilia had their 'live streams' temporarily suspended due to 'poor traffic', somehow convincing Danielle and the others that it would be much better to let the people's interest build up first before resuming it again. But aside from her, only Crystal knew the real reason behind her decision.
Discovering side quests was not an easy task, and while Emilia might be able to 'fool' the rest of her team with ease, the same couldn't be said for random people watching their stream. Even if they cut out certain parts of the broadcast, the smart ones might be able to piece it all together and still figure out that the crimson-haired elf knew a lot more than she should.
Moreover, Emilia had the feeling that the people watching her 'stream' didn't just include her admirers and random people interested in watching them play.
After all, with the 'secret' of Arcadia leaked, she'd already become the target of certain troublesome characters the moment she got ahead of everyone else. And Emilia knew that she had to be more cautious when doing certain things, lest she 'motivate' some of them to take drastic measures.
The crimson-haired elf couldn't help but sigh. 'Why is everyone so slow? If they could just level up faster and the first dungeon could come out, I wouldn't have to go through so much trouble, ahh!'
Cynthia giggled. "Good thing that only the first dungeon has this type of mechanic, right?"
Of course, while she was complaining about the 'unfair' system to her partner, the rest of Emilia's team was desperately pulling giant radishes out of the 'farm' for their side quest.
"Ahhh! Another dud!"
"Here too!"
"Damn…"
Contrary to how it might appear, their task wasn't to harvest radishes, but to find a ring. Apparently, the lady who managed the farm had lost it a few weeks ago while on a routine inspection, and had been looking for it ever since.
There hadn't been any clues mentioned in the quest, but Emilia knew that this particular quest's objective was hidden inside one of the radishes on the lady's farm, though its location was always 'random', and even she had no idea where exactly it could be.
In the first 'round' of this quest in the original timeline, the players had completely failed to find it, after all, and it was only after the radishes were harvested and the quest failed that they figured out its 'secret'.
Of course, once the lady happily lost her ring again and the quest was reissued, the 'smart' players were easily able to scour the farm and discover the ring.
Although this was a 'repeating' side quest, only one team of a maximum of ten players could complete it every forty or so in-game days, and its rewards were more than generous.
Not only would all of them get five reputation points each, but they would also receive a gold coin from the lady as a sign of her gratitude. And to top it all off, completing this side quest gave them a few 'hints' to higher-level side quests in the capital, saving Emilia a lot of trouble 'discovering' them.
Fortunately, it didn't take too long for one of her teammates to pull out the 'lucky' radish, and surprisingly enough, it was Sylvia who finally found it.
"AHH! You got it?!" Nico screamed.
Robin, the 'rogue' who had been the most confident in the team just moments before, could only sigh in disappointment. "What luck…"
It hadn't been that long since they started digging, after all, and less than ten percent of the entire field had been 'covered' before Sylvia found the 'jackpot'.
The dark-haired girl was a bit dumbfounded, considering that she'd never considered herself particularly lucky, but she soon came back to her senses, a little embarrassed. "A-Ahem, l-let's go."
Emilia couldn't help but giggle. 'To be honest, she looks so much better like this than when she's being all frowny and tough.'
Of course, she knew better than to say such a thing out loud. Even if Sylvia had opened up a lot and might even consider them 'friends', Emilia knew that the girl was still like a hedgehog, ready to roll into a prickly ball at any time.
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Those who had been tuning in to Emilia and her team's streams were naturally quite dissatisfied by their unexpected 'denial of service', but they soon figured out that there wasn't really much that they could do.
Aside from a few people 'refunding' their donations in a fit of rage, the rest could only leave messages expressing their 'interest', though many still cursed at the team's 'greed' for being dissatisfied with hundreds of viewers.
Of course, those who had only been watching the streams for the purpose of monitoring Emilia were even more dissatisfied, as most of their 'bosses' soon issued orders to follow her into the game to continue, giving them a massive headache.
Not only was playing games far from being their forte, but there was also no telling if their bosses would be patient enough to be able to wait until they'd caught up with Emilia. More than likely, they'd soon find someone 'more suited' for the job before relieving the unlucky ones from their position.
Instead of waiting for 'death', most of them quickly figured it out and started applying for other jobs in a hurry.
Meanwhile, Emilia and her team didn't pay the situation much mind. Even if certain unscrupulous people decided to show up at their office, Danielle had already hired some security personnel to take care of it for them.
But how could someone trusted by Darryl be so easy to block?
Not only was he able to break into the office of the 'Crimson Witches' undetected, but he was also able to follow Emilia back from there without ever being discovered.
Or so he thought.
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