When the plot-skips players into the game world-Chapter 924 - 291 Christina’s Dilemma

Chapter 924: Chapter 291 Christina’s Dilemma

At eleven o’clock at night, Leipzig was still brightly lit.

In the city center of Leipzig, within a manor on Bronze Avenue, guests were continuously leaving the venue.

A middle-aged man, whose black hair was somewhat sparse but still neatly combed back and polished to almost a shining degree, was holding a glass of red wine and smiling as he nodded to bid farewell to his guests.

At that moment, a young girl dressed in a light gold-yellow skirt, seemingly only seventeen or eighteen years old with long, curly blonde hair, suddenly mustered the courage to step forward and greeted: “Earl!”

“Hmm?”

The middle-aged man replied with a gentle smile, his tone almost affectionate: “What is it, our star of the gathering? Did you enjoy the party, Christina?”

...

“I had a great time, Count Dorn! Thank you so much for inviting me to your banquet…”

The girl’s face beamed with a bright, innocent smile: “So I was thinking… about what you said earlier, does it still hold?”

“Which one?”

Count Dorn merely laughed: “I can’t quite remember.”

“The one—”

Christina seemed a bit anxious.

She paused for a moment, then lowered her voice and said, “You previously had high expectations of me and wanted to hire me as your secretary…”

“Ah, that’s unfortunate, Miss Webber.”

Count Dorn replied with a smile: “I have already found a secretary—she, like you, is from the University of Haisin. However, she is a Ph.D. You might have heard of her, Miss Zoe Ravens.”

“This, this is unexpected… She’s interested in this, too..?”

Christina Weber clearly recognized the name and her expression revealed a bit of fear and reluctance. Obviously, she wasn’t confident competing with this girl named Zoe.

…Could this be the last time I attend a gathering of such caliber?

Christina subconsciously bit her lip.

As an alchemist, if one cannot secure funding, there’s hardly any possibility for further progress.

Ironically, alchemy began as a study of turning stones into gold, which later easily brought fortune and status to grand alchemists. Yet, learning alchemy itself requires a significant amount of money…

Her parents were just ordinary company employees, and paying for her university studies was already difficult; even more than half of her tuition fees were loans. The price of extraordinary materials was beyond their means… But if she just graduated like this, she wouldn’t find any decent job to earn money!

—Her dress for the party tonight was even borrowed from a noble-born senior at her university!

Although there are scholarships at the university… for Christina, they seemed rather unattainable. Just barely managing not to fail her exams and keeping up with the academic process to become a transcendent had already been a tremendous struggle.

She was considered a prodigy in high school and had many admirers—but at the University of Haisin, her peers were either true geniuses or transcendent who had been exposed to alchemy from a very young age.

Among her classmates alone, there were several third-level alchemists, and in the neighboring class, there was even a transcendent who advanced to the fourth level, some had even established their own alchemy workshops; even a senior, who had founded his own company with many alchemy patents from his university days!

It was said that he now employs nearly a hundred people, and he himself had even joined the Third Alchemy Group—one of the alchemy groups directly controlled by Count Leipzig!

The topics these geniuses discussed were beyond Christina’s comprehension. Just maintaining a facade of a smile, feigning curiosity, and pretending to understand was painful enough.

—And now, one month left until her graduation.

The University of Haisin was a six-year program, automatically granting a master’s degree upon graduation.

If things continued this way, not to mention becoming a significant figure or making a fortune…

She couldn’t even pay back her student loans and might even struggle to graduate—graduating from the University of Haisin required at least a second ability level, yet her first advancement ceremony has already failed six times!

…She didn’t want to go to the White Dove Opera House, dress in those ridiculous outfits and perform to earn money.

After all, some of her admiring juniors are regular customers there. She couldn’t afford to lose that face.

If she couldn’t pay back the money, she might have to sell her family’s house and leave Leipzig disgraced. But currently, Star Antimony was financially strained everywhere, and Leipzig was still the most hopeful place…at least her parents could still find jobs there.

And she was already considered lucky—she had a junior from out of town who had recently enrolled, who spent too much at the White Dove Opera House… It was said that she went to the VIP hall for her birthday and pretended to be adept at playing cards with the other nobles there.

But she had never played cards before and naturally couldn’t compete with the regular patrons. She easily lost an amount of money she could never repay in this lifetime. She also refused to work at the White Dove Opera House to pay off her debts, especially since the university was quite close to the opera house, and many students would go there to play when there were no classes…

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

…So now, she had become a sort of unofficial “junior assistant” at the Spirit Summoning Tower, earning several times more than a formal teaching assistant.

Considering the generous salary and the great shortage of assistants at the Spirit Summoning Tower, it seems that their “assistants” are consumed quite quickly…

Luckily, Christina was born with good looks and had received a decent education when she was younger.

She was noticed by the Earl during her ballet performance at school.

Count Dorn claimed that his recent secretary had to return home for some matters and wanted to hire her as an intern secretary for a while, and he offered her an exceptionally generous salary—

Just one month’s work, not only could she pay off her student loans, but the remaining money could at least sustain her to advance to the third ability level!

Christina was no fool.

After all, the University of Haisin is the best university in Leipzig and ranks among the top three in Star Antimony. Being able to enroll on her own strength had already proved her capabilities.

This was clearly an invitation to be his mistress—or perhaps not even a mistress, at most just a fresh plaything.

This was a bit too intense for Christina, who was conservative and proud.

She was already twenty-four years old and had never even been in a relationship… After all, before university, her peers were too immature for her; while after entering university, she had always been desperately pursuing her studies and had no time for social activities.

Yet, she hesitated for a moment but still took the risk of angering Count Dorn and refused the Earl’s invitation.

But thankfully, the Earl had a good nature, and even though he was refused, he didn’t get angry. Instead, he invited her to a party at his home.

At the party, Christina met some of the great figures she had never seen in her lifetime.

Just the aristocrats above the rank of Viscount alone numbered over ten. They all crowded into the small Leipzig, complaining that Count Leipzig did not allocate them more land, while discussing Star Antimony’s future, widespread unemployment, the damned goblins, inflating prices, and hundreds of thousands of Gold Coins of investments with businessmen she had never heard of as if no one else was there.

She also saw her admired senior from her freshman year, now closely following a beautiful, sinister lady; several of her professors were also invited to the party and were surprised when they saw her, which made her quite pleased. Furthermore, several handsome men and beautiful women in proper attire invited her to dance, praising her beauty with different words.

However, no one, like the Earl, invited her to come and play with him.

Christina had even decided that if someone invited her, she would definitely accept, whether he was a noble, a businessman, an Alchemist, or even a foul-smelling Necromancer… she was willing to join.

…Perhaps it was from that moment that she began to regret her initial decision.

And now, Count Dorn’s words made her feel even more uncomfortable.

Senior Zoe, she naturally knew.

She was almost the dream lover of many male classmates back then, and now before she was thirty, she had already reached the Fourth Level and had been invited to become a director by the Royal Alchemy Association. If such a person turned into Count Dorn’s “secretary”… then what was her initial pride worth? Folly?

Just when Christina was about to bow and say goodbye to the Earl, Count Dorn changed the subject: “However—”

“—You say?”

Christina’s eyes brightened, eager to continue.