Chapter 43: You Can’t (Easily) Buy Friendship

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What Elisa showed to Elena with her phone was something incredible! Although her nails were covering most of the screen, that Elena could barely see what it was, the silhouette was easy for her to discern what the item was. This item was from the New Life Online Game, of course, it was a precious item prized by many players around the game.

"T-That's… An EXP Boost Elixir… That increases EXP by x5 for an hour… Where did you get that?" Elena asked as she completely took the bait.

Elisa had investigated using her "sources" and found out that she played this game with Anna, quickly deciding to bait her into becoming her friend by showing her off some precious prized items.

As a rich girl, she always believed that even friendship could be bought with money!

"Fufu, that's right! And I got ten of them! With that, leveling up will be a breeze, don't you think? How about you play with me, huh? We can become best friends in real life and in the game as well… I can share all these things, and even better ones with my bestie," said Elisa with a charming smile, her flawless face was quite charming, but Elena seemed expressionless after her surprise.

Because the game didn't have a wide variety of NPC selling items and most of the things had to be made by players, items became incredibly more precious, and transactions using real life money became something common nowadays. People who made money off acquiring rare, dropped items or crafting them was something that was quite normal in the game now… And there were also people with a lot of money willing to waste it for in-game products as well.

Elisa Goldberg was from a family of rich people called the Goldberg Family. They were an enterprise that owned several businesses around Canada, so she was loaded with money, and even the monthly allowance that her father gave to her was enough for her to even buy a whole province. And through the use of her financial skills, she invested the money on stocks and other things, and ended up earning even more, imitating her father's tactics of multiplying her wealth.

Buying items inside a game was nothing for Elisa! Even if it was the hottest game out there with the most population density of players and with items prized after thousands of dollars if not even millions! Everything was buyable for her, she had to just look for the items first, which was what delayed her a bit.

She had been interested in Elena since the moment she laid her eyes on her. From her flawless beauty to her calm and composed personality, her genius intelligence and just everything about her fascinated Elisa. As a rich girl who was also always perfect in everything, be it in her beauty, talent, intelligence, and wealth, she never found someone that could compare to her in any aspect. She mostly had bootlickers around her that only had pretty faces if anything… But Elena was different.

She wanted to have her, as a greedy rich girl, it was natural for her to desire other people for herself, and just as her father always taught her "Money can buy anything, dear. As long as you have the right price at the right moment, you can have anything you ever wanted"…

"W-What the…?! EXP Elixirs like those are so hard to make! Only God-Level Alchemists with dropped items from Chaos-Rank Bosses can even craft those! And don't these Elixirs take a whole week to be made in a Premium Golden Cauldron at that? They're super expensive, the last day I saw their price, they had gone up all the way to over six hundred thousand bucks!" Anna said in shock.

"Hehe, surprised, ginger?" Elisa asked with a laugh. She said it in a rather derogatory way since Anna had red hair. "Ohohoho! But this is all for me and Elena, you can stay away, I don't want a commoner like you close to me, you might end up sticking your scent to my clothes… I am surprised Elena still smells so nice even after being around you for so long…" Elisa smiled maliciously back at Anna, hurting her deeply.

"W-What did you say?!" Anna asked and turned to her friend. "E-Elena, tell her something!"

"Amazing… Alright, let's become friends." said Elena.

"EEEH?!" Anna screamed, feeling betrayed by her best friend.

"Ohohoho! See? Money can buy just anything in the world!" Elisa laughed.

"…Or that would be what I would have said if you didn't call my best friend like that." said Elena. "Sorry but if you're going to act like this with Anna, I cannot really become your friend, EXP Elixir or not."

"Eh…?"

Elisa suddenly felt as if she fell down from a hundredth-floor tower. CRASH! Her heart cracked into pieces. She was deep within an abyss of disappointment and frustration all combined with surprise. Even her lungs felt as if they had suddenly let out all the air they had, making her feel exhausted and even a bit constipated all with a few words from Elena.

"Elana~! I knew you would choose me before this blonde thot!" said Anna, hugging Elena and rubbing her face over Elena's head.

"S-Stop it already!" said Elena while furrowing her eyebrows a bit, feeling embarrassed over the fact that Anna got so clingy again.

"T-This… But… I-I… they cost a lot…" said Elisa, being ignored by Elena and Anna as the two girls interacted with one another. The rest of the class looked at the rich girl as she was ridiculed, her efforts didn't pay off and her cockiness was crushed.

"I never asked you to buy anything like this…" Sighed Elena.

"Elena… Y-You dare treat me like this?! To me?! A Goldberg?!" Roared Elisa. "Y-You should have accepted my friendship!"

"What? Are you going to abuse your power now and make our life some sort of hell?" Anna frowned.

"That would be awful, I will never forget you and I will hate you forever if you do that." said Elena.

"Eh? I-I would never! That only happens in anime anyways…" said Elisa. Thankfully, Elisa had some common sense and despite everything, she wasn't corrupted to the point of wanting to make somebody's life a living hell because they defied her.

However…

"If you wanted to become her friend why don't you just approach us? Also I am Elena's bestie so you gotta treat me well! Apologize and maybe I could let you through," said Anna.

"A-Apologize?! Me?!" asked Elisa.

"Apologize to my best friend," said Elena expressionlessly, her aura of ominous dread grew larger as even Elisa felt intimidated.

Elisa had never felt this humiliated before, but deep down she felt like this was the opportunity she had ever wanted. Much like the other girls in the class, she had known Elena since she came to this high school, but had been saving up the courage to ask her to become her friend for a long time. She had interacted with the two before a couple of times through the year, and they knew each other quite well even though they never became friends. Mostly every attempt was always blocked by Anna…

But now Anna seemed to pity her, and decided to let her into the secret Elena friend club which had only a single member for a while. Elena was angry at her, which only broke her heart more… Elisa sighed internally, thinking that it was the only way, she gritted her teeth and nodded.

"I-I am… I am sorry," she said.

*GASP*

The rest of the class gasped in surprise. They all gawked as the richest and most prideful and cocky girl in class apologized to the one that they all considered ugly, poor, and badly educated…Anna!

"That's good! And… Well you don't have to get so sad, Elisa…" Anna sighed. "Come on, I am not that bad despite my looks, so come sit with us."

Elisa's eyes sparkled with light, as she looked back at Elena, and Elena nodded silently. The broken heart of Elisa suddenly reconstructed itself and grew even larger, her fascination for Elena grew even more, and she felt motivated.

"Y-You don't have the right to order me around, ginger! But… If Elena wants to…" said Elisa. She quickly grabbed a seat and sat down at the side of Elena, looking at her with enamored eyes. Her sparkling, silky, and perfect long black hair, her sharp and beautiful eyes, and her slender and feminine figure, it was as if she was looking into a finely crafted statue made by Greek artisans of the past in her eyes!

"Don't call me ginger! You just apologized!" said Anna angrily.

"Call her by her name," said Elena.

"O-Okay… Sorry, Anna…" Muttered Elisa, averting her gaze from Anna.

Elisa was finally allowed to sit at the side of Elena, mostly because she never really approached her anyways. Most of the reasons why Elena didn't have many friends was because she didn't approach others and always let others approach her instead, mostly because she was quite shy.

"So you're still giving the EXP Elixirs right?" asked Anna with a greedy grin.

"T-Those are only for me and Elena!" said Elisa while pouting.

"Sharing is caring," said Elena.

"B-But… Ugh…" Elisa sighed. She wasn't expecting that to become Elena's friend, Anna would be included into the pack.

The life of these girls seemed simple, but as time went on, it would continue to change, and over time, it would branch out into several new possibilities. Elena still didn't know what to think of Elisa, but she was willing to know her better, although it wasn't as if they were best friends right away.

Such a thing was quite unrealistic. Friendship was often something that was forged over a long time.

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(Elayne's POV)

It was getting closer to 5 PM and I couldn't wait to get out of work and go back to my house. I really wanted to take a bath and relax! Uwah, I feel so tired right now… Fortunately, Mark was here and was giving me company so it's not so hard, although my entire body hurts, I think I overdid it today and worked way too much.

"SIGH…"

"Are you tired?" Mark asked, slowly walking back to me.

"Yeah… My shoulders hurt a lot…" I sighed. "I-I think I overdid it a bit, I was too enthusiastic."

"Your shoulders? Hm… If they still hurt tomorrow you could take the day off or come to work later." said Mark.

"Eh? Really?" I wondered.

"Yeah, you worked the amount you would have worked several days so it is okay." said Mark.

"O-Oh, thank you! But I wouldn't really want to abuse your goodwill like this, Mark, so I will take some pills for the pain and try to sleep well! That should do it." I said.

"Ah, well, it is up to you." said Mark. "Oh, look, it's going to be around 5 PM. I guess you can leave for now, Elayne, I am sure that I can handle things on my own from now on."

"You're sure?" I wondered. "There's still like over 40 minutes left…"

"Yeah, go ahead. I want you to relax for a bit." said Mark.

"Uwaah… Mark, you're such a nice man to me… I really don't deserve such a good boss," I said, as I hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hahaha… I-I was just… Taking care of my workers." said Mark. "I wouldn't want my best worker to get sick due to lack of stamina."

"Hehe, you're such a considerate person, thanks a lot. See you tomorrow!" I said, packing things up and walking outside.

"Yeah, see ya!" said Mark, waving his hand rather embarrassedly.

Now it's time to go back home, my girl should be on her way to our house as well. I quickly checked my phone and sent a message to Elena, asking her where she was.

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[Elayne: I am coming home, dear! Are you on the way back?]

[Elena is writing…]

[Elena: Yeah, Anna insisted on coming, is it okay for her to eat? Also, there's a new friend that stuck with me… Is it okay to invite the two?]

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Eh?! She's bringing a new friend?!

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