On the Time Continent, a very rare scene is happening – three sorcerers are gathering together.
Even though the activity area is much smaller than the Knowledge Sea, the Time Continent is still extremely vast. In addition, the number of sorcerers in the Second Wing is even rarer. The rain curtain of the Reverse Flow Golden Rain greatly obscures the line of sight. Therefore, the encounters between sorcerers in the Time Continent are not as frequent as in the Knowledge Sea. Everyone is like walking in a dark forest.
But starting from today, the scenery of the three sorcerers traveling together will probably become a daily occurrence in the Time Continent.
Feeling the wrist on his throat becoming tighter and tighter, Asho quickly said, “She is a witch, a new member who joined our team. I finally got her, and she will explore the Virtual Realm with us in the future…”
In the future?
Together?
I finally got her?
Unspeakable grievances and anger quickly swelled and boiled in his heart, but Sonia’s expression remained unchanged. Only her eyes became brighter and the light red pupils seemed to turn into vertical pupils.
Asho suddenly felt a chill, an endless sense of fear pressing on his whole body, as if he was being judged by the Blood Moon. He had a sudden inspiration and said in a suppressed voice, “Don’t worry, you are still the one I like the most!”
“Ah?”
Sonia blinked her eyes, let go of Asho, took two steps back, her eyes wandering, her small hands restlessly grabbing her clothes, and said with some embarrassment, “What are you suddenly saying…”
“Sword Girl, our bond is still the highest, so I will prioritize giving you the experience pearls I pick up and let you choose the better sorcery spirits. Other benefits will also depend on whether you want them or not, and then the rest will be divided between me and the witch.” Asho said seriously, “You don’t have to worry that the witch’s arrival will lower your position in my heart.”
“Who cares about your position in your heart!”
Sonia muttered in a low voice, glanced at Diya, who was curiously observing them, and leaned a little closer to Asho, saying in a suppressed voice, “Although I don’t care… but you must not deceive me!”
“I didn’t deceive you!” Asho said firmly, “Unless the witch’s bond with me becomes stronger, or she shows more potential than you, otherwise the resources will be prioritized towards you!”
The red-haired Sword Girl paused, “So you mean, if she is stronger than me…”
“After all, we are a team, and the fundamental goal of resource allocation is to make the team stronger.” Asho did not deny this point, “Although I believe in your talent, if you want to maintain your advantageous position in the team, you also need to work harder.”
In fact, before entering the Virtual Realm, Asho vaguely felt that Sword Girl would be angry, but he didn’t expect the reaction to be so intense.
But putting oneself in her shoes, Asho believed that Sword Girl had every reason to be angry – just like in a start-up company, how could you not be angry when your partner suddenly brings in someone without consulting you? How should the shares be calculated? How should the work be divided?
Although the theoretical efficiency of a three-person team is higher than that of two people, the gains in the Virtual Realm largely depend on fate. Sometimes, no matter how many knowledge creatures you kill, they just won’t drop experience pearls. Sometimes, when you kill sorcerer projections, they only drop garbage sorcery spirits. What can you do besides cursing your luck? When the benefits are not good, they have to be divided among three people, and it’s easy for someone to miss out. Will it lead to arguments?
Asho and Sword Girl also took some time to reach a tacit understanding and rarely had disputes over distributing loot. But now that there is one more person, the game relationship suddenly becomes more complex. For example, if two sorcery spirits drop now, both Sword Girl and the new witch can use them. Even if Sword Girl has the priority to choose one first, won’t the second one still be taken by the newcomer?
At first glance, this seems reasonable, and Sword Girl even benefits from it. But the problem is – if there was no witch, both sorcery spirits would belong to Sword Girl!
As a white-collar worker who has been in the workplace for many years and has witnessed office politics, Asho understands the subtleties of human nature. When a new person joins and shares the workload, improves department performance, and grows the cake together, this is undoubtedly a good thing. But the arrival of a new person also means that interests are being reshuffled, and her presence will inevitably encroach on the old person’s share of benefits and even affect the division of office factions.
Therefore, Asho brought the witch, and then Sword Girl opened her arms to welcome the new agent’s arrival?
How is that possible!
To give an inappropriate analogy, it’s like a wife seeing her husband bring a mistress home to sleep together under the same blanket. How could the wife be willing?
Sword Girl is not a true selfless paper person. On the contrary, she is a very sensitive opportunist. If she were in the company where Asho worked in his previous life, she might not be able to become an outstanding pioneer of internal competition, but she could at least become a rights fighter who the company dared not bully, always recording and saving evidence.
Sword Girl would definitely worry that the witch would encroach on her benefits and be afraid that the witch would replace her position. In addition, she doesn’t even have the dominant power in exploring the Virtual Realm. Naturally, she would feel uneasy and angry. It is only natural for her to be angry.
People rarely feel satisfied because they have gained more benefits, but they often feel unhappy because they have missed out on something.Asho wasn’t blaming Sword Girl for being ungrateful and overstepping her bounds. After all, greed is a part of human nature, and he himself was no saint. Who doesn’t work for more money? Blaming subordinates for being ungrateful is something that only struggling start-ups would do. Team management is a profound science.
Therefore, he couldn’t suppress Sword Girl with grand principles. Instead, he had to analyze the pros and cons of the witch joining from her perspective, and motivate her with a promising future. As long as she worked twice as hard, she would always be the brightest star in the team.
But that was all Asho could do.
Asho could comfort Sword Girl, but he wouldn’t indulge her.
No matter how good their relationship was, even if she was one of his emotional pillars, Asho wouldn’t back down.
Asho had a good relationship with his parents, but when they wanted him to become a civil servant in his hometown, he chose to struggle alone in the big city, only returning home during holidays.
Asho had a good relationship with his elder brother, but when his brother suddenly wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk about ‘meeting the right person at the wrong time’, Asho immediately informed his sister-in-law, nipping his brother’s infidelity in the bud.
Asho had a good relationship with his nephew, and had bought him countless gifts. But when he found his nephew being naughty at home, he wouldn’t hesitate to take off his belt and give the little rascal a good spanking.
Emotions aside, Asho had his own set of behavioral guidelines in his heart. He would never compromise himself for the sake of emotions. In a sense, Asho felt that he was quite like the people of the Blood Moon Kingdom – he was also a selfish criminal who valued his inner desires above all else.
“The Sorcerer’s Manual of Orola” was his most important trump card, he couldn’t not use it; the agents were his important combat power in exploring the Virtual Realm, he couldn’t give up the Black and White Witch.
If Sword Girl felt uneasy, angry, or wronged, he could understand and comfort her, but he would never apologize, let alone back down.
He needed Sword Girl to understand and support him.
Under Asho’s gaze, Sonia asked after a moment of silence, “Will there be more people in the future?”
“Maybe.” Asho himself wasn’t sure, “Perhaps our team will grow to more than a dozen—”
“More than a dozen?!”