Player’s Guide to Raising a BUG Angel-Chapter 40 : The Dragon King’s Wager! Testing the Wife?

Chapter 40: The Dragon King’s Wager! Testing the Wife?
“Wager?”
Mophis’s heart skipped a beat.
The thing she had feared the most still happened.
This dragoness was not playing by the rules!
According to the normal script, after being forced back by her “Holy Light Counter,” shouldn’t the other side have flown into a rage and launched straight into a fight?
Why did she suddenly want to make a wager?
How was she supposed to respond to that?
Agree? But bet on what? How to wager? If she lost, would she be eaten on the spot?
Refuse? Would that be taken as cowardice, and would she be slapped to death right then and there?
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Mophis’s mind, making her already not-so-reliable CPU once again verge on overheating.
Instinctively, she wanted to open her player panel and check what high-level insights that group of LSPs might have come up with.
But she restrained herself.
No, she was “in lane” right now. She couldn’t make any unnecessary moves, or the shrewd dragoness in front of her would definitely see through her weakness.
She could only hold on, forcing herself to maintain that calm and cold (though in truth terrified into a blank face) expression, using those beautiful silver eyes of hers to quietly look at Ignis, waiting for what she would say next.
Yet this “unhurried composure,” when seen through Ignis’s eyes, carried an entirely different meaning.
——“Oh? A wager? Interesting. Speak, let’s hear it.”
Ignis’s evaluation of this “collection piece” rose to another level.
Not only did she possess mysterious power, but she also had the mental fortitude to match it.
To be able to remain this calm before the Golden Dragon King’s wager.
Interesting. Far too interesting!
The possessiveness in her heart was nearly boiling over.
“My wager is simple.”
Ignis extended one slender finger wrapped in dragon-scale gauntlets, lightly tapping her full red lips. A sly gleam flickered in her golden eyes.
“I came here to hunt. The ‘knowledge energy’ seeping from that iron shell is the finest nourishment I could ask for after sleeping a thousand years.”
She paused, then shifted the direction of her words, her gaze blazing as it locked onto Mophis.
“But now, I have found something far more fascinating to me than ‘food.’”
“That is you.”
That declaration, filled with aggression and possessiveness, made Mophis’s heartbeat skip again.
Damn it, these lines… why did they sound so wrong?
She felt her cheeks grow hot.
Meanwhile, the player channel had completely exploded.
“Ahhhhh! She said it! She said it!”
“‘You’re more fascinating to me than food!’ What kind of wolfish, tiger-like words are those! She’s openly poaching in front of tens of thousands of our knights!”
“Tyrannical Dragon King fell for me! Tyrannical Dragon King fell for me! I’m locking in this CP! Swallowed the key already!”
“Bullshit! What CP! This is provocation! This is blatant wife-stealing! Brothers, grab your weapons! Fight her to the death!”
“Fight my ass! You think you can beat her? Didn’t you see how our wife just forced her back without lifting a finger? This is a high-tier match! All we need to do is shout 666 from the sidelines!”
“Exactly! This is a queen-versus-queen showdown! Greed against holiness! Incredible! Absolutely incredible!”
“NTR… slurp, I like this hehehehehe.”
“Huh? So you’re that bastard who likes being the useless husband forced into slumber but with sharp hearing?”
Ignis, of course, had no idea what strange stories those insects were making up in their minds.
She continued, voicing her wager.
“So, I’ll give you a chance—a chance to prove your ‘value.’”
“Prove to me that the value of this ‘treasure’ surpasses the total sum of all the ‘knowledge energy’ in that library.”
“If you succeed, not only will I spare this place, but I may even grant you the supreme honor of becoming a part of my collection.”
“But if you fail…”
The corners of Ignis’s lips curled once again into a cruel arc. She extended her rosy tongue, lightly licking her lips.
“Then I’ll devour you, along with your ‘serenity.’”
“Well then, Guardian? Do you dare wager?”
As her words fell, the entire Western Wasteland sank once again into silence.
All the players held their breath, waiting for Mophis’s reply.
This wager looked like a choice, but in truth, there was no choice at all.
It was an unequal game, one with life and homeland as the stakes.
Mophis felt the cold sweat soaking her back.
Prove her value?
How was she supposed to do that?
She, a librarian with no strength to bind a chicken, other than reading books and exploiting BUGs, what else could she do?
Was she supposed to say, “Look, I can see your HP bar overhead, and I can even find the BUGs in your skills”?
That wasn’t proving her worth—that was courting death.
Her mind was a complete mess.
She could even feel Ignis’s oppressive gaze, like a searchlight made solid, sweeping back and forth across her body, as though to strip her bare, inside and out.
She couldn’t stay silent any longer.
Another moment of silence, and the dragoness would take it as timidity and weakness.
“Whew…”
In her heart, Mophis let out a long breath.
At this point, she could only take one step at a time.
First agree, then turn the immediate dead end into a “problem to solve.”
As long as she bought time, there was hope of breaking the deadlock!
After all, behind her stood tens of thousands of… LSPs, with bizarre brain circuits but explosive action power.
Thinking of that, Mophis’s heart steadied a little.
She lifted her head, meeting Ignis’s golden eyes full of amusement and scrutiny.
With the effect of 【Goddess’s Compassion】, the blush rising from her nerves was perfectly transformed into the holy flush of excitement before a challenge.
Her lips, trembling slightly from fear, now appeared to curve with barely contained anticipation for the coming “duel.”
Her voice remained soft, but carried an indescribable trace of laughter, as though she could see through everything.
“Your wager is interesting.”
“But, Dragon King Ignis, it seems you’ve made a mistake.”
“Oh?” Ignis raised an eyebrow, not expecting that the other would dare counter her in such a situation.
Mophis slowly extended one slender, pale finger, pointing distantly toward Ignis.
The gesture stunned everyone.
Such courage! Such composure!
“I am not a ‘treasure.’”
Mophis looked into Ignis’s stunned expression, and enunciated clearly, word by word.
“And my worth is not for you to measure.”
“If you want a wager, fine.”
“But the stakes will be set by me.”