━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Emilia obviously wasn't na?ve enough to believe that the hero would be impressed enough by her 'skills' to actually pull her into his team open-heartedly, nor did she think it would do her any good to join him.
After all, what she'd 'shown' so far only made her appear luckier than most, and exceptionally 'athletic', which was far from being 'enough' to join the team of the world's greatest genius.
Most likely, what Darryl really wanted to do by inviting her was just 'make sure' that her 'luck' so far was really just that, and that she wasn't actually privy to any secrets that were allowing her to get ahead.
If she were to reveal something like that… Emilia had no doubt that the hero would happily dig her heart out and eat it raw the moment he got the chance.
That was why his 'invitation' only included herself, and even warned her against letting her current team or anyone else know of his offer. He even 'graciously' allowed her to 'think about it' for a while even if she didn't want to quit the 'Crimson Witches' immediately.
Emilia couldn't help but giggle. 'Unfortunately, even the great genius Darryl couldn't possibly have guessed that bringing him down was my 'goal' from the start, and all he's doing is giving me a better chance.'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The next few days passed peacefully, with Emilia and her team alternating between taking missions to earn either gold and experience or reputation points.
Of course, digging deeper into the forest surrounding the Vermillion City would usually be suicidal for low-level players, and the 'Crimson Witches' only accepted the missions that could be completed without doing so, whether it be hunting the [Minor Tentacle Plant Demon] or something else.
But as more and more people started hitting level ten, their peaceful days finally came to an end. Even if most of them were scattered all over the map due to a lack of funds to use the teleportation function, a few of them still somehow managed to get it done.
While they were far from making Emilia regret 'streaming', dealing with them was still quite annoying.
"Hey! Hey you, stop!"
"Can't you hear us?!"
Obviously, even if they no longer streamed their activities live, and not many had been watching them in the last few days they did so, almost everyone 'knew' about 'Emilia's team' hunting monsters near the capital region.
The drill-haired 'leader' of their team finally called for them to stop as she turned around with a sigh. "… Yes? Do we know each other?"
The man leading the 'crowd' that was chasing after them grinned. "Danielle, right?"
Although she was the one he mentioned, Danielle wasn't blind enough to not notice how the man's greedy gaze kept swiveling in Emilia's direction constantly.
She couldn't help but sneer. 'Trying to poach my star player from right under my nose, huh? Shameless!'
Not knowing that his 'secret' plans had already been exposed, the man continued with a smile. "My name is Billot, from the [Ultimate Cavaliers] guild, and I—"
Unfortunately, his pitch was interrupted by someone's scoff. "Don't talk as if you're some big shot. Danielle girl, look, you girls need a good tanker, and I'm the best there is. Let's not beat around the bush and get together, shall we?"
Many in the crowd inwardly ridiculed the buff middle-aged man for being so overconfident, and Billot, who was still fuming from being interrupted, didn't shy away from directly laughing in the man's face. "Just one level ten warrior still thinks he can carry a team of level thirteen girls as their solo tank? Don't daydream with your eyes open, you senile old man!"
"The fuck did you just call me, punk?!"
Their fight inevitably attracted most of the crowd's attention, and only a few noticed the 'Crimson Witches' slip away, presumably running out of patience. Of course, they wouldn't alert their 'incompetent competitors', and only followed them secretly.
Unfortunately, they greatly underestimated the speed of their 'opponent', and before they realized it, they'd already lost track of Emilia's team.
"Shit, aren't they only three levels above us? How can they be so fast?!"
"Maybe it's some special movement-boosting skill or something? I saw a few items that had that effect in the market earlier."
"But weren't their prices, like, ridiculously high? How can level thirteen players afford that?!"
Even if hundreds of players were to pool all their resources at this stage of the game, they wouldn't be able to crowdfund the purchase of a single one of those 'treasures'. After all, the 'heavy discounts' mentioned by certain sales personnel were only for the 'cheaper' accessories.
Unfortunately, no matter how they wanted to grab and interrogate the members of Emilia's team, all they could do was squat outside the forest and wait.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Meanwhile, just when Danielle thought they could 'enjoy themselves' and complete their mission of the day, another 'annoyance' decided to ruin her mood, and this one didn't even try to mask his 'real' intentions.
"Miss Emilia, name's Colman, pleasure to make your acquaintance." The 'suave' young man bowed handsomely at a ninety-degree angle as he introduced himself with an overly-confident smirk. "I've been watching your stream, and… ahem, I've long since admired your skills. Would you mind adding me as a friend?"
Who else could it be but the hero's trusted 'spy'? Of course, Emilia wouldn't rashly expose his identity in front of her teammates, lest she expose her 'animosity' towards Darryl too early.
Aside from the crimson-haired girl who knew his real identity and purpose for approaching her, though, none of the others were amused by the man's 'shameless' behavior.
But before anyone could criticize him, Colman coughed as if just realizing how 'direct' he was being. "I hope you don't mind my rudeness, miss. Although I'm a fan, I won't bother you or do anything inappropriate, rest assured."
Obviously, since his intentions were more than obvious, Emilia could only show her initiative to mediate with a smile. "Sure, I'll add you as a friend. It's my first time meeting an actual 'fan' of mine!"
Sylvia and Danielle were immediately alarmed, and uncharacteristically had the same thought for once — Emilia was even more of an 'idiot' than expected!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m