“Are you planning to max out Grandma’s card?” Jaelynn joked.
“Feel free to use it. This old lady can afford this bit of pocket money,” Old Mrs. Hipps said with a kind smile. “Making money is for you kids to spend. I have no interest in spending it myself. Buy a few more nice clothes, okay?”
“Got it,” Sylvia replied, putting away the bank card and heading towards the garage with Jaelynn and the other two.
The extended Rolls-Royce drew a lot of attention as it cruised down the street.
They headed towards the largest mall in Aettosa’s capital.
Sylvia pulled out her phone to play a game while sitting in the car. She didn’t have much to talk about with these three sisters, as they were practically strangers. If not for a sliver of blood relation, she would never have been this close to them.
Seeing Sylvia start to play a game made the atmosphere a bit awkward.
Jaelynn broke the silence, “What game are you playing? Can we join?”
Sylvia was just about to form a team when she heard Jaelynn’s smiling voice. She raised her delicate eyebrows, “Honor of Kings, do you play?”
“Sure! I’m only at Gold level, not very good,” Jaelynn said, pulling out her phone to join the game.
“We’re all Gold level, what’s the big deal? Let’s rank up together!” Annika also took out her phone. Nowadays, socializing often means either ranking up in games or playing murder mystery games together.
Maritza didn’t play much, but seeing the other three, she said, “I’m only Silver. When did you two reach Gold?”
Sylvia blinked and looked at her rank before asking Evie for her account, “Can I borrow your account? I remember you’re Gold.”
Evie looked puzzled, “Why do you need my account? Aren’t you a pro?”
“Well, maybe I need to pretend to be a noob,” Sylvia said, logging out of her account and into Evie’s. She then told Jaelynn and the others, “Add me: EvieIsExplosive!”
Hearing Sylvia’s nickname made the three women freeze.
Given her cool and composed demeanor, they couldn’t imagine she’d choose such an edgy name.
Evie… Explosive!?
Sylvia didn’t notice their shock. Once in the game, she checked Evie’s runes and upgraded them before looking at the heroes Evie usually played and their skins.
Though Evie wasn’t good at the game, she loved it deeply and had all the skins and heroes-thanks to Jasper.
Sylvia smirked, “I’ll create a room.”
She created a room and invited the three women in.
The game started immediately.
“Ranked match?” Maritza, who wasn’t very good, hesitated. “I’m only Silver…”
“As long as there’s not more than two ranks difference, we can play together,” Sylvia said calmly. “Let’s start. Pick your heroes.”
Maritza chose support Zhuang Zhou, Jaelynn picked mid-lane Wang Zhaojun, and Annika selected ADC Hou Yi.
Sylvia chose jungle Li Bai.
Seeing Sylvia pick Li Bai made Annika pause, “Can you handle it? Jungling sets the pace; one mistake can ruin all three lanes.”
She had checked Sylvia’s recent matches and saw she had lost three games yesterday. Could she really manage?
Sylvia simply replied, “Oh.”
The game started quickly.
Then…
The three women watched as Li Bai dashed out stylishly. Before they even reached their respective lanes’ towers, the game announced a first blood.
“So fast? First blood? The enemy jungler is dead?” Annika exclaimed in shock.
“No way! Sylvia, did you kill him? How did you get there so quickly?” Jaelynn was focused on her lane and hadn’t noticed the other players’ movements.
Maritza was also stunned.
Then… the game announced:
“Double kill!”
“Triple kill!”
“Quadra kill!”
“Penta kill!”
“Team Ace!”
…
The three women and their top-lane teammate stared blankly at their screens.
A pentakill at the start? Team wipe?
Their laning phase was going to be a breeze!
Was this really Gold rank?
They witnessed a true miracle over the next six minutes as Sylvia scored three pentakills!
The enemy team surrendered at six minutes!
“Sylvia, that was amazing! If I weren’t sitting here with you, I’d think you were cheating,” Jaelynn said, her head spinning from the most incredible match she’d ever played.
Maritza was also stunned. “Should we keep playing?”
Sylvia raised an eyebrow, “We’ll reach the mall in about twenty minutes. Let’s keep playing.”
This was real power-leveling.
Annika felt her heart race with excitement. If Sylvia kept carrying them like this, reaching King rank seemed within reach!
She grew more excited, “Let’s go again.”
In subsequent matches, the enemy team surrendered at six minutes almost every time.
No one could handle a pentakill right at the start.
“I… ranked up. I’m Gold now,” Maritza said after three matches, having moved up from Silver.
“Not bad,” Sylvia said calmly as the car pulled into the mall’s underground parking lot.
She put away her phone and logged out of Evie’s account. “Let’s get out.”
Even after getting out of the car, the three women were still dazed. What just happened?
They had encountered an exceptional pro player!
Jaelynn finally mustered the courage to ask Sylvia, “How about we continue gaming after shopping?”
Sylvia gave her a cool glance, “I only play for an hour each day.”
“An hour is fine!” Jaelynn beamed. “We can play several matches in an hour.”
With enemies surrendering at six minutes each time, they could rank up quickly… it felt amazing!
Being carried by a pro was already thrilling; they couldn’t be picky about anything else.
“Yes! You get a pentakill every match; they surrender immediately. We can play several matches in an hour,” Annika added excitedly.
Sylvia seemed like a pro bullying noobs in a beginner’s village.
Even Maritza had to admit that Sylvia’s gaming skills were impressive despite her mixed feelings towards her.
She felt both jealous and admiring of Sylvia.
After all, encountering a pro as a noob was rare-especially someone close by!
In the world of noobs, finding another noob was common; this was reality.
The three women chattered about their recent game experiences as they entered the mall elevator and headed to the third floor.
The third floor was filled with brand-name women’s clothing. They couldn’t resist the beautiful clothes and kept asking Sylvia to swipe her card for them.
However, they didn’t realize that Sylvia wasn’t using Old Mrs. Hipps’ card.
Sylvia had plenty of money and didn’t want to spend Old Mrs. Hipps’ card.
“Oh look, aren’t those the three ladies from the Hipps family? Not even from the main branch, yet so cheerful?” A sarcastic voice suddenly interrupted.
Sylvia turned to see a richly dressed woman in her forties who was well-maintained-clearly someone wealthy or noble.
“Madam Virginia,” Jaelynn greeted politely but firmly upon seeing her.
This woman was none other than Madam Virginia from the Sweeney family, Tristan and Marcelo’s aunt.
Madam Virginia was known for causing trouble for the Sweeney family. However, given their vast wealth and influence, they could always handle her antics.
“Jaelynn, what are you doing here? Planning to buy clothes? With your measly allowance?” The young woman beside Madam Virginia sneered mockingly. “I heard the Hipps family isn’t doing well lately; your allowances must be pitiful!”
“Our allowance may not be as much as Miss Cassandra’s, but it’s enough for some clothes,” Maritza retorted coldly.
Cassandra was Madam Virginia’s daughter and Jocelyn’s younger sister. Though Jocelyn was the eldest daughter of the Sweeney family, Cassandra was much prettier, inheriting her mother’s beauty.
Her delicate features exuded an innate arrogance typical of noble ladies. She wore high heels that accentuated her slender figure.
“Really? Which one are you planning to buy?” Cassandra asked with a mocking smile full of disdain.
She looked down on the three Hipps sisters who lived off their family’s wealth like parasites.
This store was high-end even among elite circles-each piece costing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.
While they might occasionally wear clothes worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, spending millions on a single item was beyond them.
Maritza felt embarrassed after boasting earlier. She wasn’t sure if Sylvia would pay for such expensive clothes.
Her face darkened as she bit her lip and stayed silent.
Jaelynn and Annika also remained quiet. They didn’t know how much money was left on Grandma’s card after all their shopping…