Among the four of them, Dawn SmokeTune looked the calmest as they floated there on the edge of BS's atmosphere.

Even though her private chat channel was on the verge of exploding.

Compared to Mistblade and Pine Bloom, she and Crab had received one more notification about their World Graveyard changing.

The deck of cards in MarmangCrab's hand and the royal banners in Dawn SmokeTune's hand had all turned into mahjong tiles that had never been lit before.

They had no idea how many of these Lania Kaia style mahjong World Graveyard slots had been lit in the past. They only knew that this time, they had basically picked them all up for free.

Fifteen cards and seven royal banners, all converted into new tiles.

Those were the World Graveyard quotas Marmang and Dawn had earned by invading other worlds in the past.

Dawn SmokeTune folded one arm across her chest, lazily spinning a mahjong tile between the fingers of her other hand as she studied it. Her unhurried, almost languid ease made her look completely out of sync with the other three.

Golden rain poured down. Rita arrived the moment she left the game, and as she swept her gaze over the four, her eyes could not help lingering on Dawn SmokeTune.

If moon foxes were beautiful in a sharp and forceful way, the Vineborne were beautiful in contradictions.

Every Vineborne carried a strange, conflicting quality that drew the eye even more than their perfect faces.

Silver hair and red eyes again. A single paintbrush pinned her hair into a loose bun at the back of her head, with stray strands sticking out everywhere. She looked effortlessly free and unrestrained. Yet in the instant their gazes met, Rita caught a wave of quiet compassion in her slightly lowered eyes.

She was not wearing a mage's robe or a close combat coat of leather or mail. Instead she wore a sharply cut black suit, jacket open over shirt and waistcoat. It took the softness of that compassion and tempered it with something harder and stronger.

It also made the whole scene faintly ridiculous. When Rita first rose into the sky, she almost thought she had flown into a runway show.

While Rita was looking at Dawn SmokeTune, Dawn SmokeTune was also looking back at her. Rita did not know if Dawn SmokeTune had heard that she had eaten Dawn-Cicada's Vine, but the gaze that landed on her now was warm, with an indescribable gentleness that melted the hard lines of the suit without effort.

Rita had seen all kinds of women, each impossible to ignore. When she put them on canvas, she could never bring herself to paint them in dull colors. Even the gentlest ones, like Apache and Ash Cinders, had an edge of their own.

Dawn SmokeTune, though, did not seem to.

Deceitful Bloom was like intoxicating perfume. When you let yourself sink into it, that invisible scent would eventually take shape as a constricting serpent, coiling around you, crushing the breath from your lungs. Even now, Rita still found herself reliving that moment when Deceitful Bloom stepped out of the shadow of the divine throne.

Dawn SmokeTune was like a clear, still lake. No hint of aggression. The slightest rainfall would set its surface rippling.

Her Vine was unique as well, a cord of crystalline spring water that flowed over her body, freezing in an instant whenever it stopped.

A thousand thoughts flashed through Rita's mind, but in reality only a heartbeat or two had passed. She drew back her gaze and turned to face the four players who were about to join BS, posture taut and formal.

The air felt heavy. Everyone was waiting to see what BS Rita would say.

In the moment they had transferred into the BS server, the fact was already settled.

Killing BS Rita and seizing control was unrealistic. They were all in the same camp now, and there were no real blood feuds between them. Only a lunatic would slaughter the most obviously promising person on their own side.

Shattering BS was even less realistic. To destroy BS, they would have to defeat or kill the current ruler. BS Rita clearly had no intention of surrendering, which brought them right back to the previous point.

Since they could not leave BS for the time being, the only sensible choice was to adjust to the change and rework their plans.

At least BS Rita had not crossed their bottom line. She had not used her authority to force them into becoming BS's co owners, living and dying with the world. According to Pine Bloom's The Mechanoids, an Adjudicator technically had that power. If she had used it, then BS Rita was better off dying here.

They were waiting for BS Rita to convince them, and by that measure they would decide what attitude to take once they truly descended to BS.

[You Are Being Watched]

[You Are Being Watched]

[You Are Being Watched]

System prompts exploded in their ears like a scrolling barrage.

The expressions of all five players froze for a fraction of a second.

Rita, long used to it, was the first to recover. This negotiation was as difficult as it was full of opportunity.

She took out a single item and sent it floating forward. It was a small bubble, and inside it a palm sized piece of land shifted shape over and over, sometimes desert, sometimes snowfield, sometimes glacier, sometimes ocean. The bubble drifted to a stop in front of Mistblade.

Mistblade's green eyes dropped to the bubble. She raised her right hand to catch it, then her eyes widened and, for a split second, her face went blank with shock. Her left hand, which had been resting behind her back, came up as well so she could cup the bubble with both palms.

For that brief moment, she looked almost foolish.

[The Homeland You Can Never Return To]: "Is this a dream? If it is, I hope I wake up late." When used at any point within a world, it can restore a portion of the homeland you lost when your world shattered. The item will condense into a piece of land no larger than twenty percent of the current world's area. When the world shatters, this land will vanish with it. Every dream has a waking.

She heard BS Rita's voice.

"As long as you are willing, BS can also be a Snowfield, even if it is only for a while.

"I will trade this for you becoming a BS leader. My only two additional conditions are these. First, half of the large scale artifacts or devices you use to train your people must be shared with humans. Second, if I die for good, you must leave my people a path to survive and a measure of dignity."

It was not a harsh bargain.

Mistblade carefully tucked [The Homeland You Can Never Return To] against her chest. Every time she opened the Honor Shop, she would look at this item, but she had never brought herself to buy it. It was one of the rare choices she could not make cleanly.

[The Homeland You Can Never Return To], seven million honor points.

Over the long years she had spent in the Divine Game, the honor points she had earned were far more than that. She could have afforded the price. She simply could not bear to pay it.

Seven million honor points were enough to buy countless items that could increase her people's strength. Spending them on a nostalgic piece of land with no direct effect was wasteful. A little longing did not deserve that much. Besides, she had never seen Lania Kaia as a place she would stay in for long.

Only now did she realize it was not that the item was unworthy. It was that responsibility outweighed personal desire. The future of the moon foxes mattered more than her yearning for Snowfield. So she had used every practical excuse to smother the longing in her heart.

The moon foxes and the owls had fought the fiercest in Lania Kaia, not because their relationship was the worst. It was precisely because owls always held back against moon foxes, never striking them to the true limit. Both sides refused to go for the kill, so the fighting dragged on endlessly.

It was different when owls faced other races. On the surface they were polite, but that was only because the real work happened in the dark, finding a chance to finish someone cleanly in one strike. No drama, no entanglements, nothing left to see.

All of it traced back to Four Seasons City, Polar Day City, and Eternal Night Fortress, the Forest Sea remnants she had saved through her own schemes. Even though those lands added up to no more than three main cities, they were enough to soften Maple Syrup, Pine Bloom, Peach Crown, and the entire owl race by a few degrees toward the moon foxes.

A prompt appeared before Mistblade.

An invitation to become a BS leader, with one line of additional terms attached. All large scale artifacts and devices she brought that could train the moon foxes would need to be shared, half to the humans.

She thought for a long moment, then looked at BS Rita.

"I want your promise too. If I fall, you will leave the moon foxes of BS a path to survive and a measure of dignity."

Rita added that line to the agreement without a single word of objection.

Mistblade accepted.

Even though the value of the tools and artifacts she would have to share with humans already far exceeded seven million honor points, the piece of homeland pressed against her heart was burning hot.

Mistblade said frankly, "You offered me a price I cannot refuse."

It was not only her. No moon fox would be able to refuse.

Then she stepped back, clearly removing herself from the next round of talks and standoffs.

Rita did not change expression, but the tight knot in her chest finally eased.

She could guess why someone who lived every moment to rebuild Snowfield had never bought that item. It was the same principle as not spending money to lavishly decorate a rented room.

She had watched worlds shatter before her eyes too many times. Lania Kaia would one day be the same.

Spending seven million honor points on a piece of Snowfield could never compare to pouring that honor into strengthening herself and her people.

So she would be the one to dump all that luxury straight into Mistblade's heart.

Just as she had said, as long as Mistblade was willing, BS could also be a Snowfield.

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