Chapter 535 - Fiery Rose
This was the first time Emily had met this ‘young woman’. However, she was the most important piece of the puzzle for Rhode’s plans.
Emily Edward.
She was the daughter of the Edward Trade Association’s Chairman and also a young woman determined to become a merchant. If female players emerged in this Trade Association with a merchant’s identity, it would trigger a ‘Fiery Rose’ mission which requested players to assist Emily through a series of tests in becoming a merchant. It was extremely rare to find a female who wished to become a merchant in the original world of the Dragon Soul Continent. Emily didn’t want to be a ‘Merchant’ who stood by the shopfront all day selling merchandise. Instead, she hoped to roam around the continent as a ‘Travel Merchant’, which was viewed as a rebellious behavior by the aborigines. Although there were indeed female Travel Merchants in the history of the game, there were more female presidents and prime ministers. Emily had been working hard to achieve her goals, but the world cruelly refused to accept her ideal.
Therefore, once any female player merchants emerged, it would fulfill Emily’s ‘anticipations’ and she would seek assistance from the female player to teach her everything about being a Travel Merchant. Of course, the missions were trivial and began from the most basic product identification to training her so she could travel alone into dungeons to fight creatures and monsters. After completing the series of missions, the player would receive an [Unwavering Hope] achievement and generous rewards. Emily would then travel the continent and there would be certain chances for her to meet other players. She would randomly gift equipment and weapons and the players who completed her mission could purchase merchandise from her with a 20% discount. Although this young lady was barely level 30, the rare list of equipment on her menu was between level 50 to 60, occasional with legendary equipment in them. But no one knew where she laid her hands on that much top-grade pieces of equipment. Even though players had tried to rob her, they had little success as they couldn’t loot the equipment from her corpse. Not only that, the players’ reputation with various influential forces would fall drastically. After this consequence was made known, players seldom laid their hands on her anymore.
Rhode didn’t lure her out for the sake of mission rewards. Instead, it was due to her identity as the Chairman’s daughter and as one of the people qualified to enter the deep mine. Players knew that Chairman Edward had intentions of raising his daughter as his successor, but she ‘failed to live up to expectations’. She gave up the hopeful position as the future Trade Association Chairman and had chosen to become a Travel Merchant… Rhode had no interest in family affairs. But he had to admit that if he could get close to Emily with his disguise, he could penetrate deep into the mine without being suspected.
Rhode knew that his guesses were correct after gazing at Emily’s cordial and anticipative expression. As a male player, he naturally wasn’t able to trigger this event. However, he had read about the strategies on the forum and heard from Mini Bubble Gum and Canary when they flaunted their equipment purchased from Emily.
I guess the scene when they first arrived here should be similar to now.
Rhode said inwardly as he let loose of his handshake with a gentle smile.
Ding! At this moment, a system prompt flashed before his eyes.
“Oh?” The corner of Rhode’s mouth twitched and he turned around. “I’m surprised to hear these words from you, Celestina. Aren’t you Demons the best at double-crossing disguises?”
“I wouldn’t be shameless enough to do that.”
This remark of hers immediately offended 95% of the Demons in the seven floors of hell. She lifted her chin proudly and snorted. “That is why I can never understand, Master. You degrade yourself in this neither manly nor feminine appearance just for the sake of accomplishing a mission? Did that Angel chick really attract you that much that you needed to humiliate yourself just to win her favor? Although this is your freedom, I feel that this is really…”
“Big Sister,” Celia puckered her brows and interrupted. Celia was also curious as to why Rhode would take it this far, especially after the conversation they had after the Grosso massacre where she realized that Rhode had a strong desire in gaining victory. Although Celia couldn’t figure out why Rhode revealed such emotions, she felt that Celestina shouldn’t have ridiculed him. What if she infuriated him?
“Everything is for the sake of victory,” Rhode simply smiled in response. He sat down, shut his eyes, and crossed his arms together. At this moment, his voice returned to its initial deep and aloof tone. The calm, tender smile across his face faded like leaves that were swept away by the autumn wind, as though it were a total disguise.
In fact, that was a disguise.
“Perhaps you could never understand, Celestina. The thing that you regard as important has no value to me. I don’t need honor and dignity because I wasn’t born that way. Position, strength, and glory—the premise for these is obtaining victory. Without victory, there can be no pride. Losers will be mocked and I lack the qualifications to be a loser.”
“…”
Celestina’s fingers twitched slightly. She widened her eyes, exchanged looks with Celia, and each saw a similar doubt. They couldn’t understand what Rhode meant. It would be easier to understand if he said that he lacked the qualifications to be a victor. But what did he mean when he said that he lacked the qualifications to be a loser? Did one even need qualifications to become a loser?