Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Rita stepped sideways and blocked Mistblade, who was about to leave. She asked, "You have a world skill? Then why would Dawn still dare to invade Lania Kaia?"

If world skills were truly that decisive, if they could determine victory or defeat, then Dawn Cicada should have been the one afraid. Dawn should never have acted so recklessly.

The moment that question landed, the calm on Mistblade's face cracked.

Her gaze drifted away as she explained, "Dawn Cicada is not an Overlord because every time she gains world fragments, she spends them on developing the Vineborne and Dawn itself. But Dawn has been at war for years. Its invasion speed is extremely high, and she has a large number of war skills."

Even the Moon Sovereign sounded a little uneasy as she added, "World skills and war skills can both affect a world, but world skills lean toward defense, while war skills focus on offense."

She had phrased it gently, but the meaning was clear. If Dawn Cicada really came knocking, she would not be able to hold the line.

Watching Mistblade leave, Rita turned to B80, who was sitting on the railing. "Is all of this true?"

B80 raised both thumbs. True.

Rita stared at it. "I will bet ten gold coins that if Pine Bloom ever finds out you are designed to only give likes instead of proactively explaining the deeper rules of the Divine Game, she will deeply regret abandoning Lidian for her Mechanoids."

B80 said nothing, simply raised its thumbs again. There had indeed been some vague rumors.

Amid Nivalis's shocked cry of "Wait, I have to go tell Lidian," Rita opened the ladder rankings and searched for Ash Cinders and Lightchaser.

[2589 Lightchaser Isolated Isle Tier 15 Abyss None]

[2590 Ash Cinders Isolated Isle Tier 15 Abyss None]

Two teachers this strong. Two powerhouses who had still held the upper hand against fully unlocked players in the final battle of Player Relic.

And yet, without war skills or world skills, they were only Abyss tier.

Wait. If they were the same Abyss tier as her, why did Lightchaser's world avatar only have three personality tags?

Lightchaser would not lie to her outright. At most, she would simply not answer.

So was she hiding two tags? Or had she concealed one of her avatars? Or was there some other restriction?

...

At eleven p.m., the Divine Game formation did not appear. This was the mandatory rest period.

Rooms unlocked, but the restaurants and shops on the war cruise ship remained open. Players could eat, shop to strengthen their worlds, or return to their rooms to rest.

With her head full of world skills, war skills, and what the hell BS was supposed to do next, Rita finally remembered the little seahorse that had returned to BS.

Or rather, she did not remember on her own. Pine Bloom's tightly restrained fury reminded her.

"What do you mean Four Seasons City sank?!"

Rita: ???

Catching the keywords, she immediately sprinted toward the public phone hall.

When she had explored the cruise ship earlier, she had noticed this area. The public phones were nothing like what she had imagined. She had expected private phone booths. Instead, there were massive video call screens.

It felt like they had been designed specifically to add entertainment value to this Divine Game. Each screen was about the size of a university lecture hall display and came with built in language translation.

There were plenty of terminals. Each table held a small cube shaped device. Fingerprint unlock, state the player you wanted to contact, and even if they were unavailable, the system would automatically connect you to another available player from the same world.

Rita immediately spotted Maple Syrup standing diagonally behind Pine Bloom, watching the chaos. Mistblade was there as well, along with Peach Crown, Fat Goose, and Wither. Even Nuclear Flash and NightFury had shown up.

On the screen in front of Pine Bloom was not someone else, but Shadow.Q.

Shadow.Q was flying above the sea, with a massive whirlpool below her. She smiled at the screen and said, "It is exactly what it sounds like. The mascot did it. Quite a few owlfolk said they had never been to the underwater world and felt regret, so…"

Pine Bloom's voice sounded like it came from the depths of hell. "So it sank Four Seasons City into the sea?!"

"It was a blessing," Shadow.Q corrected politely, an apologetic expression appearing right on cue. "It blessed the flightless Skycrab so they could see all four seasons on the seabed. It blessed the owlfolk so they could experience a life even Lania Kaia owlfolk would never dare imagine."

Peach Crown nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Something we would never dare imagine."

Maple Syrup added, "With our impoverished imagination, we really could not picture owlfolk living like this."

Peach Crown sighed. "I feel inferior."

Maple Syrup nodded. "Me too."

Pine Bloom fell silent.

After hearing the two owl sovereigns, Shadow.Q's gaze swept past Pine Bloom. Not seeing her own Adjudicator, she continued, "General Y1130 deployed a barrier in time to protect Four Seasons City."

"I want to be a general too," B80 said.

Rita covered B80's mouth. She could feel Pine Bloom on the verge of exploding.

Thankfully, Shadow.Q delivered some good news just in time, rescuing Pine Bloom, who looked close to suffocating. "Fortunately, this kind of blessing has a time limit. It should automatically end in about three natural days. We simply cannot return Four Seasons City to the sky any earlier."

Shadow.Q's method of first suppressing then uplifting the report was very effective. Rita had experienced it many times, and it clearly worked on Pine Bloom as well.

Pine Bloom closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. She barely regained her composure and asked, "Give me some good news. Has the little seahorse blessed the moon foxes, the humans, or BS SmokeTune?"

Mistblade straightened. Rita stepped forward two paces. In a corner of the hall, Dawn Cicada and Dawn Spring Guest sprinted over and skidded to a stop.

"Not yet," Shadow.Q said, now certain she had heard B80's voice, and decided to report everything in one go. "The mascot's blessings are limited. It can only take effect once per day. And just to make Four Seasons City sink… just to let Four Seasons City experience the underwater scenery, the little seahorse shouted at the sky more than seven hundred times."

It really did not get tired when doing bad things.

"Excellent." Pine Bloom clenched her teeth as she spoke, then hung up and strode off gripping her hammer, looking ready for war. She was probably going to find Crab, either to settle accounts or to force it to call the little seahorse back.

Rita's gaze shifted between Nivalis and B80 as she debated which one to send back to guard the home front.

In the end, she chose the power hungry B80. She said to the blocky little robot sitting on her shoulder, "If it comes to it, just poison the little seahorse until it cannot speak."

What a ruthless Adjudicator.

But it was honestly a good plan.

Mistblade, who had been about to return to her room, doubled back, found an empty seat, and started calling her hamster.

Seeing no more spectacle to watch, Rita headed toward the restaurant with Nivalis, each grabbing two boxes of food to take back to their room.

As they reached the dining area, she spotted Lightchaser, who stood out no matter where she was.

BS floated around her, with a black haired little figure running around it with a dark expression, just like Rita's own little Vineborne.

But that was not all.

There was another black haired little figure sitting on top of Lightchaser's head. She sat cross legged, hugging a carrot chip nearly as big as herself, munching away. Every now and then she kicked her legs, sending Lightchaser's gray white hair flying in all directions.

As a legendary assassin, Lightchaser noticed the moment anyone looked at her. Naturally, she saw exactly who was sneaking glances at her.

She pretended not to notice her apprentice's reluctance to approach, walked over with a cold expression, and sat down at the table. The tray hit the surface with a sharp clack.

Ash Cinders looked over. "?"

What was she sulking about now?

At that moment, a small elf identical to Lightchaser jumped onto the table. She crossed her arms and jerked her chin toward the little figure on Lightchaser's head. "Hey, your apprentice wants me to ask what personality tags your key player has."

Lightchaser stared in disbelief. "She dares to speak to me in that tone?"

Ash Cinders could not take it anymore. She raised a hand and half covered her eyes, asking helplessly, "That sentence was obviously processed by another you. Are you really going to argue with yourself here?"

Lightchaser fell silent.

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