Chapter 21: Am I ugly?

Yuyu glanced at the ID's.

Soon, two players entered one after another.

"Welcome."

China stood up to prepare for their service but was stopped by Yuyu's outstretched hand.

"It's alright, they came to see me."

Xuelang entered the room and his eyes lit up upon seeing the slender girl in a silver-haired maid outfit.

He stepped forward to complete the task. "I've brought one guy."

At this moment, Jay believed more than half of what Xuelang said.

There was no way he could be just a passerby NPC!

Look at the details of this NPC! bro even has a whole shop, who would waste so much time and effort describing an insignificant passerby?

"….."

However, just as he was determined to embrace the NPC's support, acquire rare cards, and complete hidden tasks, merciless words popped up above the NPC's head.

[Friendly Level -5]

Jay: "?"

'What did I do?'

'Why would meeting an NPC decrease their favorability?'

Jay was still confused, but Yuyu looked up at the ID above his head, pondered for a moment, and then lowered the range of the favorability level adjustment a bit.

Yuyu believed that this guy named Jay must have some issues, so he needed to keep his favorability towards him at a lower level to prevent any strange actions. Cause just look at the way he is staring at me, like a dog that's getting a treat! Nahhhhhhh this guy seems sketchy..

[Friendship Level -5]

"??"

"Could it be... am I ugly?"

Jay, filled with suspicion, opened his panel to check his charm value. It displayed 6.

It wasn't excessively high, but it shouldn't be so low as to cause disgust!

Could it be that this game's NPCs judged you based on your appearance?

China observed from behind the counter. Although she didn't voice her thoughts out of politeness, she couldn't help but feel that the customer wasn't attractive and didn't seem like someone with a bright personality.

Especially his gaze directed at Yuyu, as if expecting something, made China uncomfortable.

Jay couldn't escape immediately noticed that the lovely maid standing next to him also had a [friendship level -10] above her head.

Jay, struck by a sudden realization, began to doubt if he was truly that unattractive.

"Ahem," Yuyu coughed and said, "Young man, could you bring me a 'fusion' card?"

"Coming!"

He had already heard about this initial mission from Xuelang, so he was well-prepared.

Jay saw this as a great opportunity to improve his starting -10 favorability. Even without Yuyu's reminder, he immediately took action, exchanged the gift card coupon for a fusion card, and handed it directly to Yuyu.

Yuyu accepted the card, nodded slightly, and as a reward, increased his favorability towards Jay by 1 point.

Thus, his favorability improved from -10 to -9.

"You must all be new duelists in town, right?" Yuyu continued, "In the future, we'll all will be fellow duelists in this neighborhood. If you encounter any difficulties, feel free to seek help.

As you can see, I work in this shop. If you need cards, feel free to visit. Although we're a small store, we have a wide selection of good cards. Additionally, if you come across any tough problems, you can come to me. As long as I can assist, I'll do my best."

Yuyu believed that his intentions as an NPC were quite clear.

Firstly, he had many valuable items in his shop, so those with money should definitely come. Profiting the shop.

Secondly, if they stumbled upon an important storyline or hidden mission, they might ask him for help.

These were the messages he wanted to convey, but it depended on individual interpretation.

Both players were overjoyed and felt they had struck gold.

Wasn't this just like the "mysterious merchant" characters they encountered in many games?

With their extensive experience in online games, characters like the mysterious merchant offered rare and exclusive items that other players couldn't obtain easily.

Regarding the latter part of Yuyu's statement, it was obvious that they had made a valuable connection. In the future, if they faced challenging tasks they couldn't handle, they could seek his assistance.

Jay tugged Xuelang's sleeve, whispering, "Hey, I checked the official website. It seems that cards purchased with in-game currency in the card store are useless. Only cards from the system card pool and mission rewards can be used in actual combat."

[Ding! NPC Yuyu has opened a private shop function.]

Both players received the prompt simultaneously.

A private shop! It was a function not mentioned on the official website!

They hurriedly opened the private shop. Which was opened as a screen in front of them.

The store's items were categorized based on rarity and price, with a dazzling array of products. They ranged from N cards to UR-level rare cards, and the magnificent card faces left them momentarily mesmerized.

After all, Yuyu had been leveling up for many days, converting all the spar he acquired into the system card pool for card pack openings. However, as expected, only a few cards proved useful out of the thirty or fifty he opened, while most were worthless.

Those cards could be thrown into this private shop.

Their gaze moved upward, and they quickly noticed some eye-catching products.

"Damn, they have Elemental Heroes!"

"That means even if you didn't choose a hero deck in the initial deck, there's a chance to obtain a hero deck from this NPC?"

As mentioned before, a player's chances of opening specific cards from the system card pool depended on the cards they already possessed.

For instance, if a player had Elemental Heroes in their possession, they had the opportunity to open a plethora of Elemental Hero series cards. The same applied to possessing Dark Magician, which would grant chances of obtaining related cards.

Thus, the initial deck chosen by players directly influenced the types of cards they could open in the system card pool.

To acquire other themed series beyond the initial deck, players needed to explore and find opportunities within the game, triggering specific tasks to obtain new series of cards as rewards. This would expand their system card pool capacity.

In other words, once a player redeemed the Elemental Hero card from Yuyu, they unlocked Elemental Heroes in their card pool and gained opportunities to draw other Elemental Hero series cards in the future!

Xuelang became instantly excited, and the idea of making a purchase overtook him. However, just as he was about to buy, he noticed additional purchase restrictions on the Elemental Hero series.

"You need to have a favorability level of 40 or higher."

...A sudden feeling of disappointment washed over him.

Xuelang wasn't too bad off, but Jay truly despaired when he saw the restriction.

How on earth was he supposed to raise his favorability to 40 or more? He had lost 10 points right from the start and only gained 1 point after completing a task. At this rate, it would take ages.

Jay felt helplessness. At that moment, he even entertained the thought of deleting his account and creating a new one. Perhaps he could use a female account with maximum charm value to seduce this NPC, and maybe then his favorability would reach forty.

While he was lost in his wild thoughts, Xuelang interrupted him excitedly, exclaiming, "Look at the top of the UR product list!"

"What did you say... hiss~~"

Jay followed Xuelang's instructions. Suddenly, he couldn't help but gasp in astonishment.

Isn't that the...

...the legendary Pot of Desire (Forbidden) card!