"As long as I can do it in the comfort of my own home–"
"I want you to go to the Emerald Dance Ball as my date."
"Nooooooooo…"
Patty was willing to let her parade him as her boyfriend and trick others so that she wouldn't be pestered. He was willing to be the subject of scrutiny and ridicule because he was her 'boyfriend' because he didn't care. He didn't care because he didn't have to do anything. He didn't have to spend any energy helping her.
However, going to this 'dance ball' meant that he would have to walk around and talk to other people. He would have to be presentable and wear a tux or a suit. He would have to groom himself to look good. And most of all, he wouldn't be able to use his massage chair because he'd be forced to dance.
This little favor from Xandra was something that Patty could not help.
{Mission}
{Requirement}
Go to the Emerald Dance Ball
{Reward}
500 Yi Power
1000 Ether
The system knew that Patty was lacking Ether right now. With more Ether, he would be able to recruit more Thalls to his kingdom. This would directly increase the profit of high-quality Kores. He also needed more Yi Power because the Magical Carrot proved to be popular amongst those who experienced it.
But no matter how good those rewards were, it was not enough incentive for Patty to go and dance at the ball.
"Sorry. Can't do it." Patty made an 'x' sign with his hands.
{You have refused to do the mission}
{You have received 5 Discounted Patty's Do-Everything Coupons}
"Why not?!" Xandra stomped her feet on the ground.
"I told you, I'm too lazy to do all that. I can pretend to be your boyfriend and all that, but I can't do boyfriend things. That's too burdensome."
Xandra crossed her arms and pouted.
"Why do you even want me to go to your ball? I thought you wanted to skip the ball. Isn't that the whole reason why I pretended to be your boyfriend at that time?"
Xandra shook her head and shrugged. "It's not my fault that my family is a pain in the ass. They're forcing me to go to the ball, no matter what. Even the 'I have a boyfriend' ruse didn't work on them. They thought it was a trick."
"It is a trick."
"Urgh. Why can't they believe that I have a boyfriend?!"
"Because I'm not your boyfriend!"
It was then that Patty realized why Xandra did all of that lovey-dovey stuff in front of so many journalists. "Is that why you made such a dramatic entrance? You wanted to prove to your family that I'm your boyfriend?"
If hundreds of newspapers and news outlets reported that the ice princess Alexandra Von Cromich had a secret boyfriend, then her family would have to acknowledge the fact that it was true! The effect would be magnified by the picture of Xandra hugging Patty very closely. It would be the first-page news of every internet and newspaper article.
"Can't I just proclaim you as my boyfriend to the whole world like a loyal girlfriend would? But, yes. It's a side effect that would help me convince my family. I doubt they'll fall for it though."
"So, I need you to go to the Ball and show my mother and everyone in my family how good you are? All you have to do is show up, and they'll finally believe that I'm taken."
"I don't think it'll be that easy. I think it's going to be a lot of chaos if I show up to your ball."
"It doesn't matter. Pretty please?" Xandra put her hands on her chin and acted very cutely to try and convince Patty to do her bidding. However, Patty's lazy part of his brain overpowered the boy's puberty part of his brain. It didn't work on him.
"Nope."
"You're just going to let your girlfriend fend off the wolves all to herself?"
"Yup."
"How shameless. Even after I introduced you to Leonard, you're still ignoring me? I heard that the transaction between you two went well. He's been praising you since I introduced him to you."
"Yeah, it went well. And that was in our agreement."
As part of their deal, Xandra would introduce Leonard to Patty. In exchange, Patty would have to pretend to be her boyfriend for a day. It was a very fair agreement.
"Now that you mention him. Do you know what happened to him? I can't contact him for some reason."
When Patty was all alone in the classroom waiting for the Physicality Tests to be over, he tried to contact Leonard again. He had thousands of high-quality Kores in his Space Ring, and he wanted to deliver it again to Leonard so that he'd be able to earn more money.
However, no matter how much he tried, Leonard wouldn't pick up his phone. Patty was a little bit worried for him. Who knew? Maybe his laboratory exploded because of some freak accident. That would be bad. After all, he was currently the only buyer for Patty's high-quality Kores. He was the only one who knew the true value of the Virtual World Kores.
Patty would have visited him in his laboratory if he wasn't lazy.
"Oh, you know that guy. He's always in his laboratory doing all sorts of experiments. And, he's also busy with his presentation."
"Presentation?"
"Yeah. Don't you know? He's going to be presenting something in the Emerald Dance Ball. I heard it's about your Kores or something."
"Really?"
Xandra nodded. "He's going to show off the result of his experiment regarding the high-quality Kores he acquired. I'm guessing that he got it from you, right?"
"Yeah, he did." Patty thought for a second. It turned out that Leonard was busy doing well in his experiments.
This was good news! If he was able to show firsthand how amazing and efficient his Kores were compared to others, then there would be more buyers willing to purchase his stock! And according to Leonard, he was sure that some of the Kores could potentially be sold thrice or quadruple their original price!
"Who's going to be attending your ball?"
"It's a pretty private event. Only CEOs and leaders of most nation-level companies and their families. There's also some top idols and artists as well as Martial Masters that were invited."
It was really good news! There would be a lot of wealthy and filthy rich individuals attending Xandra's ball. They were the kind of buyers that Patty wanted! They were the ones willing to spend an exorbitant amount of money for his unique high-quality Kores.
Xandra saw the smile forming on Patty's face. She could see that Patty was starting to warm up to the idea of joining the dance ball.
She was a little bit sad that he wanted to go because of his Kore business, but at least he would be willing to go.
"So, you're coming, right?"
"Maybe."
That was the best response anyone would ever get when speaking to Patty.
Then, a black car suddenly came from the sky and hovered at the curb. When she saw that, Xandra's smile faded a little bit. "Here's my ride."
Patty noticed that this wasn't Xandra's hovercar. After all, this one was black and it had a human driver steering the wheel.
Xandra walked over to the car and got inside. Before she closed the door, she said to Patty, "I'll see you tomorrow!"
With that, Xandra entered the car, leaving Patty all alone on the side of the street.
The driver looked in the mirror and spoke to Xandra. "Miss, you're not supposed to go out. You're grounded, remember?"
Xandra looked at the window somberly and watched Patty's fading figure as the hovercar lifted into the air. "It's just a little detour."
"...if they found out that you broke your curfew to meet your…friend…"
"Good."
The driver sighed. She was the only one who didn't seem to care about the backlash that this would create from the family, especially if the Matriarch heard about it.
"They already received a blackmail notice from a newspaper company. If we don't pay them, then they'll release a front-page issue tomorrow about the Cromich princess having a scandalous meeting with her secret pauper boyfriend. They'll make sure to print out a really big picture of you hugging the boy."
"How much?"
"1 billion."
"Just that? Take it out of my budget and pay them."
"Don't worry, miss. The family already took care of the problem. That article will never see the light of day."
"No, I didn't mean that. Pay them a billion for that picture."
The driver was confused. "Do you want them to destroy the picture?"
Xandra looked offended by the driver's words. "No. I want them to send a print of that picture."
"...." The driver was speechless.
"You want to pay a billion Chains to get a picture?"
"A printed picture. I want to see how we look together."
A few minutes later, a picture materialized from the car printer. It was a full-sized picture of Xandra hugging Patty while he sat in his massage chair. Xandra's face was red and full of happiness, while Patty had an awkward expression on his face.
"Fufufufu…you're so cute! Why can't my family see how amazing you are?" Xandra hugged the picture. The driver couldn't take it anymore and closed the partition between the front car and the backseat.