Chapter 103 103 Proposal of friendship
[El's POV: ]
"H-ummm. E-El. I t-think I'm…"
"Oh. Sorry!"
I used too much strength in that simple hug. So much that she was almost suffocating, lol.
"Ahem. Ahem! You are stronger than you look El, ahem!"
"Hehe, no, it's nothing much. It's all thanks to the harsh training of my bastard brother."
He forced me to train like a madman. That fucking bastard didn't even show mercy and intentionally trained every single important muscle until it had reached the peak condition possible. That shithead was cruel when it came to this.
"Brother…? You have a brother? Is he here too?"
She was confused and surprised at the same time and, I knew for a fact that she tried imagining how my brother would look if I was this hot.
Naughty girlie Lux.
"Yup. He's here. And I have to go find him now so, how about we finish the business first and continue with the exam?"
"Oh… right."
She seemed to have forgotten about the exam for a moment and our deal as well thanks to my alluring charm but, now she had remembered it, and was back to her usual self.
"What can I do for you?"
She had a serious look and was asking with that straight face of a 'stuff' dealer.
She had seen my powers now, how I was able to cancel that huge pillar of fire midway, as well as how I was so strangely simple looking… or more like simple sounding.
It was definitely suspicious how I proposed that 'request' thing too. So, that look of caution and seriousness was very much valid.
But it wasn't like I was gonna request her to give us her system or the stuff from the player shop right from the beginning.
That process will be slow, so, to initiate that process, we first had to get close to her, make a space in her closed-off heart, make her a 'family member', and then extract all we can from her while helping her however we can.
It was better to have that kind of relationship with a helpful tool like her and it would be easier than threatening her with all the information we had about her.
'It could backfire in many ways, so it was better if she told us about herself willingly.'
And for that to happen…
"Oh, don't be like that~. I don't have any grand or complicated requests, lol. I just wanted you to be our friend~. But looks like you won't be able to accept just anyone with that attitude, so!
How about you consider being our friend if we get a higher score than you~? You are already behind us both so it's gonna be easy from our side~."
I had to frame it this way, or else there would be even more complications with other stuff.
She was strangely competitive for someone who wanted to keep a low profile, and she was also a strong opponent and someone with strong beliefs in her own ideals.
She followed the quests from the system and received rewards and penalties, but she still was a smart person who knew how to do stuff and get good results that were in her favor.
"Oh, sounds fun. I will have to be your slave friend if I lose and it won't matter if we never interfere with each other's matters if I win. Pretty good idea you got there… but, how will we know who got the higher points?"
"Hmmm? You don't know about the scoreboard?"
It wasn't mentioned in any messages but it was obvious in this kind of setting with the system points and a competition in place, there would obviously be a scoreboard.
'Did she not even think about it?'
Was I that pretty that she lost all her logical reasoning as soon as she saw me and came to hunt me or something?
'Or perhaps it was because of her own quest. Yes, that's more likely the case.'
Anyway, she knew now that I mentioned it. And though she was confused for a moment, she called out her status window and there was a unique icon with a unique symbol and, when one clicked it, a scoreboard opened up before them with their own name highlighted, their ranking on the left side and the points they have earned until now present on the right side.
"I didn't know about this. Thanks for telling."
"Hehe, no problem~. Oh, right~. The Lucifer guy you see there, that bastard on the 881st rank, that's my bastard. Ah, and it looks like Nes is doing fine as well. Hmmm-hmmm. Looks like I should go get started as well."
"Hmmm…"
She was surprised to have found out about the scoring system and from how the first place already had more than ten thousand points, it was obvious to her that during the six days, we were here, the numbers and rankings of all individuals were going to change dramatically.
"Hmmm, oh, wait. What's this? How can one with higher points be higher ranked than someone with less points than them?"
"Hmmm? That's because points and ranking are different things, obviously. I don't know the details but it looks like we can move up in rankings even without earning points.
Maybe all our actions are noted or as the screens at the start said, there are things all around in the cave that we can find?"
Even Lucy barely had three hundred points and most of it was from killing some monsters. And still, he was ranked high enough to be among the top thousand people with three thousand or more points… which was all thanks to his fucking good luck.
'And here I am, barely standing with a hundred points, with zero kills and zero treasures found.'
I should just go now.
"Anyway, Lux, it was fun… see you soon~."
Using [Quick Blink], I moved as far away as I could from her and looked at the area I was in thoroughly to grasp the point I was in.
[ "Oy, baby, looks like I'm around area Y." ]
Now this… was really fucked up.
[ "And I'm exiting area C. Looks like we will have to spend quite a while separately." ]
[ "Haaa… the one with more points will give the other a wish." ]
[ "No, why? My rank is higher already. Try reaching here before… no. Alright, I accept." ]
[ "Good. Your mind still works properly. Take care~." ]
[ "You too…" ]
'Of course dummy. I'm stronger, what can harm me here?'
He was worried about me more than he worried about anything else. That bastard. He should better worry about his virginity.
"Anyway, the deal's set. He knows I can spike my rank whenever I want so the point was a better method."
And since the things on Lux's side had ended…
"Is there something around here… oh! How lucky!"
There was a certain unique rock on my left side so I ran there quickly and took out the special lens from my temporary storage.
"Hehehe, let's start."
This was one of the fun parts I loved about the academy test and, especially this unique lens that we can only use inside the areas under the academy.
And, they were a ticket to some pretty and free good things so the two of us obviously loveeeeeeeeed them~.
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