Lohan was surprised that Lisa wanted to pay a 2.5:1 exchange rate for his Elysium coins, and considering that he had 6 silver coins and 12 copper coins in that world after purchasing the Mana Stones, if he sold everything to her at that rate, he would receive $1,530!
That money would be perfect for him to pay the loan interest and even pay off part of the debt, to lower the interest for the following month.
But Lohan didn’t want to accept that.
He didn’t want to build their friendship around taking advantage of Lisa’s financial benefits without being able to give anything in return.
Even though he had great potential at Elysium, he knew he still couldn’t provide for her as much as she was constantly providing for him.
And it’s not even a matter of pride, but simply of wanting an equal relationship.
"I’ll make my own money easily—why take advantage of my only friendship in this world to get something I could already get on my own?"
With that in mind, he refused her offer again.
[Hayes: I won’t accept anything other than a 1:1 exchange rate as payment, Lisa. If you don’t like it, I’ll sell my coins to the Elysium system, and our guild will be left without those coins. 😤]
Saying this, Lohan placed his phone on the table with the screen off and stopped looking at it, massaging his temple as he prepared to prolong this discussion.
Knowing Lisa, it was quite possible that she wouldn’t accept his refusal either, and he’d have a hard time convincing her otherwise.
As he’d imagined, her reply this time took nearly a minute to arrive.
[Lisa: Okay, fine, I’ll transfer you with a 1:1 conversion, but remember that if you run into even the slightest difficulty, you can let me know, okay? 😠]
Reading that, Lohan raised his eyebrows, unable to believe that that stubborn fox had accepted his proposal so easily?!
Laughing at the situation, Lohan decided to tease the girl, since being so far apart in this world—maybe even on different planets—she wouldn’t be able to fight back like she did in Elysium.
[Hayes: All right, thanks for the help. As a reward, I’ll give you a soothing massage while I hold you in Elysium, okay? 😘]
Knowing Lisa’s cold and distant personality, Lohan would have paid to be a tiny fly and see her reaction wherever she was at that moment, unaware that as soon as that message was sent, a deadly glare fixed itself on the side of his face, wishing it could shoot laser beams and pierce the head of that cheeky boy.
Isabella was already feeling good about being understanding with her virtual friend, ignoring the urge to help him more than he wanted, especially after learning his possible identity and knowing she could help even more.
But when she saw his reply, her face turned completely red with embarrassment, exactly the same shade as her hair, leaving only her bright golden eyes standing out on a face that was almost invisible beneath her hair.
Enraged, Lisa had to control herself fiercely not to stand up and punch the boy she was 99% sure was Halon, just as she used to do in Elysium when he spouted nonsense like this.
But considering where they were, and Halon’s fragile identity in this world, she controlled herself and merely glared at him angrily for a few seconds before looking away.
Seeing Isabella’s flushed face and the furious expression on her face, the students around them grew so tense that the sound of a pin dropping could be heard in that moment.
No one had the courage to ask why the Vance Group heiress was angry, or to try to calm her down... and realizing this, Halon’s carefree attitude stood out even more to her.
[Lisa: You better get ready, because when I’m itching to make a Slime barbecue when I find you... 😡]
Reading her reply, Lohan laughed even harder, finding it very cute, without realizing that his laughter made the girl’s already irritated face even redder and hotter!
Luckily for Lohan, the teacher arrived and he quickly put his phone away, not wanting to draw negative attention from those prejudiced teachers for using his phone in class.
Seeing him put his phone away and Halon not sending any more messages after that, Isabella practically confirmed that her friend was that boy!
For Isabella, this was one of the most interesting classes she’d ever had.
Unlike usual, where she’d be dying of boredom listening to the teachers’ boring and totally biased explanations on any subject, this time she had something interesting to watch.
Even though they weren’t close, she constantly looked for an interesting angle to observe Halon in class, seeing what he was doing, if he was paying attention to anything, if he disagreed with something the teacher said, and how he reacted to it...
With her background in personality analysis, now that she knew he was Halon, she analyzed the boy more closely and realized that his personality was practically the same as Halon’s when dealing with strangers!
They shared the same disinterest, the same arrogant attitude at times, the same focus and politeness toward important and interesting things... it was really funny for her to see how a real person could act exactly like the image of the Slime she had in her mind!
Having known that Slime for so long, the way that little being would act in various situations was already ingrained in her mind, and seeing how that human literally had the same attitudes as the Slime was very funny.
The more she watched, the worse she felt about only being able to watch...
She knew the attention her identity could bring to his life, and how that could negatively affect him, so she had to control herself and just be content to watch from afar.
’I wish I could interact with him...’
She thought, frustrated.
For her, their moments in Elysium were probably the most fun and interesting moments she’d had in the last decade of her life, and realizing she could have moments like that in the real world too was incredible—only to become disappointing when she realized that wasn’t really possible...