Chapter 28: A Strange Light Gleamed in President Nova’s Eyes

When Li Rui met Guild Master Nova this evening, she was wearing tight-fitting leather clothing topped with a leather cuirass, looking like a warrior ready for battle at a moment's notice. Her sharp, imposing aura was enough to make any low-level adventurer flinch.

Now, perhaps because she was in the comfort of her own home, she seemed much more relaxed. The leather gear had been discarded in favor of a loose, blue-purple camisole dress. Under the bright light of the magic lamp, her signature high golden ponytail shimmered with a warm luster, her icy blue eyes sparkled, and her refined, beautiful features were framed by a charming smile.

"Are you also a transmigrator?"

Hearing Guild Master Nova reveal this about herself, Li Rui was quite surprised. He knew there must be many transmigrators in this world, but he hadn't expected them to be so numerous, to the point where even a remote town like Golden Wheat Town had them.

"Actually, there are quite a lot of transmigrators in this world. Or rather, there are very, very many."

Guild Master Nova shrugged. Her smooth, rounded, snow-white shoulders seemed to catch a soft halo under the white light, making Li Rui unsure of where to look.

"In our small place of Golden Wheat Town alone, including you and me, there are currently fifteen transmigrators."

Li Rui: "..."

Wasn't the density of transmigrators a bit too high?

At this point, Guild Master Nova sighed softly. She leaned forward, her slender waist bending, and rested her fair, lotus-root-like arms on the table. With her rosy-white face propped up on her hands, she looked surprisingly soft and plump.

"The 'Territorial Mutation' is truly a terrible thing. Mr. Li Rui, did you know? I was originally a commoner in another world. My parents worked their whole lives to send me to the Elemental Knight Academy, but just as I was about to graduate and be granted a surname by the royal family, the 'Territorial Mutation' sent me here..."

Perhaps it was the rare chance to encounter another transmigrator who shared her fate, but Guild Master Nova was in high spirits, her cherry-pink lips chattering away as she poured out her life story from before she crossed over.

However, Li Rui was somewhat distracted. The main reason was that Guild Master Nova’s current posture was… rather immodest, or perhaps, too dazzling.

*'They're so big... I wonder if they're natural? If not, the services provided by the Fisher Mage Tower to the south must be incredibly high-end...'*

Lost in his thoughts, Li Rui didn't notice when Guild Master Nova suddenly stopped talking and asked bluntly, "Is it nice to look at?"

"It's nice, uh, *ahem*..."

Caught in the act, Li Rui turned his head away, feeling embarrassed, and pretended to cough to ease the awkwardness.

Because he turned away, he missed the moment when Guild Master Nova’s icy blue eyes slowly widened, glowing with a strange, eerie light as if she had discovered a priceless treasure.

She reached out and tugged on a red cord hanging by the wall, which looked like a piece of decoration. In the kitchen on the first floor, the butler, who had been waiting, immediately signaled the cook to get to work.

When Li Rui turned back, Guild Master Nova had pulled up her straps, and her posture was once again upright.

She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin delicately. "I've finished sharing my past. Now it's your turn."

"Right, fair enough. Well, I was born on Earth, which is a spherical world..."

As he spoke, Li Rui’s attention drifted again. He had suddenly noticed two mysterious protrusions.

*'No, wait, is this... is this reasonable? Is this normal? Do people in this world dress like this at home?'*

"Knock, knock!"

At that moment, the door to the parlor was knocked.

"Come in," Guild Master Nova said.

"My lady, sir, I noticed you have been talking for quite a while. I thought you might be thirsty, so I took the liberty of preparing some snacks and brought over a chilled bottle of wine."

Nova nodded. "Yes, bring it over."

The butler moved nimbly to place the snacks and the ice bucket containing the wine on the table, then turned quickly to leave and close the door. Throughout the process, for some reason, he kept his head low, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor. Even when placing the items on the table, his gaze only reached the edge of the tabletop, and he set the things down by feel.

Watching this, Li Rui simply thought that the rules in Guild Master Nova's house were quite strict. Before he could dwell on it, he was urged by Nova to continue his story.

While recounting his past, he subtly steered the conversation toward the unknown dangers of this world, expressing his concerns at just the right moments, and finally... circled back to the investment that had failed to materialize earlier that evening.

After failing to secure investment at the Temple of Luck, he had spent his time after dinner and during his bath contemplating how to convince someone to invest in him.

His "cheat" wasn't exactly god-tier. If he pulled a powerful talent or skill, he could certainly rely on it, but until he had accumulated enough abilities, the gap between him and other professionals of his level wasn't large enough to be bridged by an adventurer party alone.

Therefore, he needed money to buy equipment, information to know where suitable enemies were, teammates to provide combat support, and more...

Most of these missing pieces could be bought with money.

If he were to join an adventurer party and start from scratch by grinding goblins, setting aside the danger, the pace would be agonizingly slow.

Take Paul's party, for example. The bounty for their reconnaissance mission to the Pure White City was 200 gold coins—enough to buy 20 tons of golden wheat in Golden Wheat Town.

But they didn't become adventurers just to choke down wheat every day; they wanted to eat well, drink well, and live well. Once they started spending, those 200 gold coins wouldn't even last them three to five days.

If Li Rui wanted to increase the efficiency of killing monsters for skills, teammates were indispensable. But no adventurer wanted to live a life of penny-pinching, and no one would want someone who lived that way in their group, as such a person would be an outcast. No adventurer would ever join his party.

So, Li Rui was desperate for money.

However, he didn't just need a few dozen or hundreds of gold coins for a one-off payment. He needed thousands of gold coins—enough to arm an entire adventurer party and provide ongoing support as he leveled up.

Once the funding was in place and he made it through the difficult early stages, he could use his cheat to snowball his progress, becoming a legend in a very short time—and a legendary spellcaster at that, capable of generating massive wealth.

By then, anyone who invested in him would certainly receive a generous return.

After finishing his "funding pitch," Li Rui looked at Guild Master Nova with anticipation.

But to his surprise, Guild Master Nova’s reaction was the exact opposite of what he had imagined.