Chapter 17: Fame Achieved

“Unbelievable!”

“He actually won!”

“That was a complete stomp!”

“You can’t judge a book by its cover, huh.”

“Master Xia’an is a Grand Magister at least! There’s no way he’d take on just any disciple!”

When Ai Ma walked out of the Duel Arena, dazed and unable to accept her loss, Yi Sen, his eyes wide with fury, strode up and slapped her.

The blow sent her spinning like a top in front of the crowd.

“My money! My money! That was my research budget for the next half year!”

Ai Ma crashed to the ground like a dead dog with its spine ripped out, her eyes vacant.

On the other side, Luo Ya stood in the restored Duel Arena, her mind in a daze.

So… it was over?

To be honest, Luo Ya had only talked tough to boost her own courage.

Deep down, she had been a bundle of nerves.

That supposedly super-powerful princess… had she really been defeated by me?

Luo Ya wasn’t trying to brag, but she really felt like the win had come a little too easily.

Having played high-stakes matches every day, Luo Ya finally realized just how strong she actually was.

At first, facing the overwhelming applause and cheers, Luo Ya was surprised, then panicked, and finally a warmth flowed from her heart.

‘I didn’t let you down, Lord Xia’an!’

Luo Ya clenched her small fists.

Since arriving at Deep Blue, this was the first time Luo Ya had smiled from the heart.

That smile was so bright and radiant.

In the study, Xia’an saw Luo Ya’s smile and gave a faint smile of his own.

He stroked his cold chest, feeling his heart beat only once every dozen or so seconds.

Xia’an didn’t know why, but he felt a warmth in his heart.

Even though it was just a simulation.

But seeing Luo Ya’s radiant smile made him genuinely happy.

His fingertips brushed across the Magic Crystal Card that had just received a deposit of five million gold coins.

Xia’an deliberately dressed fully covered before heading out, because he had a pretty good idea what Luo Ya would want to do next.

As she stepped out of the Duel Arena, Luo Ya immediately spotted Xia’an waiting for her.

“Lord Xia’an!”

Luo Ya waved from a distance and then sprinted toward Xia’an.

Xia’an adjusted his sleeves to make sure no skin was exposed.

“Lord Xia’an! Lord Xia’an!”

Luo Ya charged over in high spirits, completely out of breath.

Xia’an opened his arms.

“I did it!”

Luo Ya crashed directly into Xia’an’s embrace, hugging him tightly.

She rubbed her little head vigorously against his chest, her face full of satisfaction.

At that moment, Luo Ya finally felt she had earned the right to stand proudly by Xia’an’s side.

In the corner, Zhī Zǐ glanced at Luo Ya, pulled down her hood, turned, and disappeared into the crowd.

***

After that day, Luo Ya clearly sensed a sudden shift in how people around her viewed her.

After she had displayed unparalleled crushing power in the Duel Arena, all the doubts vanished instantly.

The malicious speculation about the relationship between Xia’an and Luo Ya disappeared overnight.

Some people even started making up stories on their own, imagining Luo Ya as a child from a fallen magical family to fill in the gaps.

Now, wherever Luo Ya went, she was surrounded like a star surrounded by the moon.

Xia’an’s comment on this was:

“Public opinion is like a *. It sides with whoever is strong. Today the wind blows this way, tomorrow it could blow the opposite. Don’t bother with it. Today they flatter you, but tomorrow someone new will come along and knock you off.”

Sure enough, Luo Ya’s status as a hot topic didn’t last two days.

Other trending topics on the Mana Net pushed her matter aside.

An apprentice from the Rune Department improvised a self-created Magic Rune during class and instantly became the new center of attention as a genius.

It was said that the apprentice had registered a patent for his self-developed rune with Deep Blue and was now collaborating with an alchemy workshop.

The project was expected to earn tens of millions of gold coins annually.

Luo Ya’s story was quickly forgotten.

Even though she had been mentally prepared, Luo Ya still felt a small pang of disappointment.

However, Luo Ya did gain something.

“Th-this-this-this…!”

Luo Ya was shocked by the string of zeros on her Magic Crystal Card.

Her eyes swirled like mosquito coils.

“One, two, three, four, five, six… Holy crap, so many zeros!”

Luo Ya’s hand trembled as she held the card.

“Five million gold coins. You won them all. Keep them,” Xia’an said.

Five million gold coins—what did that mean?

Based on the monetary system left by the Supreme One, one of the Three Ancient Kings and the first emperor of the ancient empire during the Age of Strife, the exchange rate between gold, silver, and copper was one to a hundred.

Luo Ya’s family shop barely made twenty gold coins a year.

Now Luo Ya had five million gold coins in one go!

Five million gold coins—a number so huge Luo Ya couldn’t even comprehend what it meant.

It was equivalent to a duchy’s annual tax revenue, equal to three months’ wages for a professional mercenary group of ten thousand people, and could buy an entire bankrupt city-state at a low price.

Luo Ya now had enough gold to launch a small war.

‘I’ve never held this much money before!’

Luo Ya held that Magic Crystal Card, agonized for a long time, and finally transferred just five thousand gold coins to her own card, returning the rest to Xia’an.

“Um, Lord Xia’an… could you hold on to it for me…?”

Luo Ya really didn’t dare accept that much money.

‘I’ll just take a little bit…’

“Fine. If you need anything, come to me. Buy whatever you want. You’re my only disciple; I won’t shortchange you.”

Xia’an put away the card.

Ever since arriving at Deep Blue, Xia’an had been cooking three meals a day for Luo Ya, varying the recipes so no two days were the same.

Even when he was tearing his hair out at his desk, he always made sure to cook for Luo Ya no matter how busy he was.

Now the problem was that after half a month straight, Xia’an’s cooking repertoire, honed from his days as a tenant worker, had hit rock bottom.

He was running out of ideas.

So it was time to let Luo Ya eat out once in a while.

Xia’an really hoped Luo Ya would make more friends.

In all her time at Deep Blue, Luo Ya had basically never eaten out.

Because the cost of living in Deep Blue was so high that Luo Ya simply couldn’t keep up.

Gold coins there were spent like copper coins.

A single meal could easily cost several gold coins.

Back in her small town, a meal cost only a dozen copper coins.

Even so, Deep Blue offered things that outside people couldn’t even dream of—Magic Fairies delivering food, rare ingredients from exotic beasts, magical contraptions, and so on.

These were things you’d never see outside, and money wasn’t even the issue.

It was hard to imagine that, while Deep Blue had already adopted electric energy, the Mana Net, and alchemical engines, the vast, desolate lands outside still relied on firewood and candles to survive the winter.

In Deep Blue, Luo Ya felt a vitality she had never known before.

New things emerged every moment, and every day brought new opportunities and trends.

Countless people had realized their dreams here, but that came with an unprecedented sense of disconnection.

Life here felt like floating above the clouds—no real grounding, always wondering when you might fall back down and be shattered to pieces.