"What’s wrong?" Li Wei sat down. "Is it that Tiffany Rockefeller again?"
"No," Anya said sullenly. "It’s Elizabeth llon."
"Oh!" Li Wei was taken aback and prudently kept his mouth shut.
...
「Half an hour earlier.」
"You know how stupid high school boys can be," Elizabeth said, choosing her words carefully. "So I wanted to ask you... um... if I could ask Li Wei to the prom?"
Anya was stunned for a mont. She had to agree that high school boys were pretty stupid. But she never expected Elizabeth to make such a strange request.
"Don’t you know any other guys?" Anya’s brow furrowed. "Why the sudden decision to invite him?"
"Because the social circle at Brielley Girls’ School is too small," Elizabeth said with a sigh of resignation. "And you know my situation. I can’t just casually take a boy from our social circles to the prom."
Anya nodded. That was true.
Sergey and llon Comrcial Bank had a fairly close working relationship, so Anya and Elizabeth, being the sa age, already knew each other. She was also sowhat familiar with the unpleasant quirks of these Old Qian Families.
If an heiress like Elizabeth llon, who already had a hand in family business, made a public appearance with a scion from another Old Qian Family, it would easily be interpreted as a signal by others. As a result, when it ca to their experience with the opposite sex, Elizabeth and Anya weren’t just in the sa boat—their situations were identical. They were about to graduate high school and had had virtually no contact with boys beyond a handshake.
"Just as a prom date?" Anya confird.
"Of course, just to make an appearance," Elizabeth said, blinking and putting on a pleading expression. "In exchange, how about I take care of Tiffany for you? Make it so she doesn’t dare bother you again?"
Anya thought it over. Elizabeth had just helped her thoroughly humiliate Tiffany Rockefeller. In her book, a favor like that was a debt that had to be paid back right away.
"Fine, go ahead and ask him," she said, clearly unhappy about it. "Consider your favor repaid."
’Once we graduate in June,’ she thought, ’I’m going to make sure we get a whole month to ourselves.’
Watching Anya’s expression, a faint smile touched Elizabeth llon’s lips.
She was betting on Anya not knowing the cultural difference between having a prom date in the United States of Arica versus in Russia.
Russia might not have a tradition of prom dates, but in the United States of Arica, it’s an unspoken rule that inviting soone to prom is a choice with strong romantic undertones.
This was her own little ulterior motive.
...
"...So that’s what happened," Anya said. "If you’re not busy, you should just go. Help pay back this favor. Dance with Elizabeth or whatever—she’s not that bad, after all."
Li Wei was about to say sothing when another quest popped up before his eyes:
[You have received the quest: The Princess and the Knight]
[It is a Knight’s honor to be the Princess’s partner at the ball. Prove to everyone that you are the one and only Knight.]
[Quest Reward: Free Attribute Points 0.1]
’System, are you trying to stir up trouble on purpose?’
System: How would I know? I thought I was in the Middle Ages.
"Alright, then," Li Wei said after a mont of thought. "I’ll head over directly from the practice facility when the ti cos."
"AHHHHHHHHHH," Anya cried, grabbing at her hair. "But I’m still so mad! I can’t wait for graduation so we can go on our trip, just the two of us."
As she spoke, she dug out a large spoonful of cream and chocolate shavings and stuffed it into Li Wei’s mouth. "Rember, you’re just going as a living mannequin."
Li Wei was about to say that wouldn’t happen, but he suddenly paused.
"Sigh," she then lanted to herself. "But now that I think about it, Elizabeth has to live such a guarded life."
"What do you an?" Li Wei asked. "You’d think she wouldn’t have a care in the world."
"No, no, no," Anya said, picking up a spoon and gesturing with it. "People aren’t gods. How could anyone have no worries at all?"
"Take Elizabeth, for example," she huffed, a smug look on her face. "Don’t be fooled by her illustrious surna and her grand entourage. She actually has very little power within the family."
"Oh?" Li Wei said. This was the first he was hearing of it.
"But she’s a guest of honor at the mayor’s events," he said, helping himself to a scoop of Anya’s ice cream. "And I’ve seen how respectfully those bigwigs treat her."
"You an that banquet that mashed Black History Month and the Lunar New Year together? The one I skipped?" Anya shot him a glare, protective of her food, as he took a huge scoop. "That was just an assignnt from her family. Because she has a good public image, her main role is to be the face of their charitable and artistic endeavors on the East Coast of the United States. You know? It’s that whole phony routine Aricans put on,"
She raised her hands to make air quotes. "So-called ’charity, philanthropy, and art,’" she remarked. "In a way, I think that b— that woman Tiffany is way happier than Elizabeth. At least she can show up and scowl at people if she wants to."
"I see," Li Wei said. He knew Anya and Elizabeth had known each other for a long ti. "I really had no idea about any of that."
"But you’re not allowed to feel sorry for her!" Anya warned, her canines showing. "You’re just going there to go through the motions!"
Li Wei just smiled without saying a word.
In the ti since he’d acquired the system, his life had been undergoing a fundantal transformation.
He had gone from being the poor international student who had just landed at Kennedy Airport, stunned by the prices after converting the currency, to the man he was now: sitting in Manhattan’s most expensive dessert shop, being fed by the beautiful daughter of a Russian oligarch, wearing a suit worth several thousand USD, accepting tributes of top-tier ingredients from a Chinatown gang lord, holding a two-year, 200 million USD contract, living in a 20,000 USD a month luxury apartnt, and driving a Porsche...
The first batch of his jerseys had sold out in less than a week. He was the hottest star in Arica’s most popular sport. The mayor of New York City treated him with deference...
This transformation wasn’t rely material; it was a complete reshaping of him, both psychologically and physically.
And he was keenly aware that this state would evolve even further as his physical attributes continued to improve.
Li Wei gazed out the window at the bustling crowds on Madison Avenue, at the passersby hurrying on their way. An ambition unlike anything he had ever felt before was brewing and swelling in his chest.
’Can soone beco strong enough to ignore the rules?’ he wondered, chewing the cream in his mouth. ’Or are my stats still just too low?’
If his stats were high enough, his power great enough, he could be the one to make the rules, not just adapt to them.
Think about how he entered the NFL as a high school student. Wasn’t it because he was so good that the Giants and the NFL Alliance itself couldn’t stand by and do nothing? They had personally broken a rule that had never been broken for anyone, allowing him to earn a top-tier salary and beco the first of his kind in NFL history.
When faced with harassnt from the paparazzi, he could drive his car right onto campus without anyone batting an eye. Wasn’t that because his na and influence had already surpassed that of an ordinary student?
And Coach Tony getting Anya into Yale University on his account—wasn’t that the exact sa thing?
This shift in mindset was subtle, perhaps even arrogant, but Li Wei didn’t mind it.
He could abide by the rules, or he could break them. The choice was his and his alone.
In that mont, it was as if there were lions in Li Wei’s eyes.
"What are you thinking about?" Seeing Li Wei lost in thought, Anya tapped his glass with her spoon in annoyance.
"Nothing," Li Wei said, snapping out of it. "I was just thinking about our graduation trip."
"I have it all planned out!" Anya beca cheerful again. "We’ll spend a month traveling, starting from New York, and then go hiking. I want to explore the wilderness of the Arican West, see the birthplace of the cowboys! The only thing I’m worried about is I heard there are a lot of cults out there... But it shouldn’t be a big deal. Auntie Kaja said she’ll give us a satellite phone, and a helicopter can be there within twenty minutes..."
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