It was a transparent glass house in the sky. Clouds drifted outside, and through the glass beneath her feet she could see the thousand-some cloud whales gliding by and the endless ocean beyond.

She stood at the edge of the room. Two meters ahead rose a vertical sheet of magic light shooting to the ceiling. Beyond that curtain lay four corridors carved out by blue filaments of magic, each about three meters wide. You could see only a sliver of each entrance; most of what lay within was swallowed by shadow.

Between Rita and the light wall sat a square magic mahjong table. Four neat racks of tiles stood at the edges, thirteen tiles per rack. In the center, mahjong tiles were stacked in careful walls, ready for someone to draw a fourteenth tile so the hand could begin.

The tranquil, tea-house stillness almost made Rita think she had stepped into the wrong place.

At the table's lower right corner, each player's name was inked next to a rack.

The World Graveyard tiles she had been carrying in her dagger space were gone; clearly Divine Game had moved them here.

Rita walked to her rack, her name marked beneath it. On her way around she shamelessly tried to glance at the others' tiles, only to see blank paper. Divine Game's anti-cheat, no doubt.

A God card with the rules lay in the middle of the table.

Before she finished reading, a shadow fell across her back. She was surrounded.

She turned and found three delinquents looming behind her, arms folded: green hair, red hair, and white hair. All three still bore scuffs from recent fighting. Was it really that dangerous in the houses below?

Rita felt like she'd run into a thug trio, each half a head taller than her.

Damn it, being two years behind in growth really hurt.

She lifted the rules card and shook it. "No fighting in here."

She had already tried to cast a shield right after entering. Nothing worked in the public zone. That was why she felt safe enough to look around at all.

The three delinquents' eyes slid, regretfully slow, from the top of BS-Rita's head to the words on the rules.

Rita: …

Public Zone: no attacking one another.

Once the game starts, players enter their Endless Slaughter Corridors.

Every five minutes, the corridor will spawn beasts and a weapon chest will appear at the starting point.

Each time a player clears all beasts in their corridor, they may draw a tile.

Each beast killed allows the player to unlock one skill of their choice.

If a player dies, they revive at the start, but each death costs one SSS skill. If a player dies more than three times, the death penalty upgrades to a God-given Talent Skill.

Any time a player calls a tile or declares a kong, a random event will trigger.

Whoever clears their corridor draws and discards. If you are strong enough, you could lock everyone else out, drawing from start to finish until you hand out.

But it was also a mode where a single mistake could trigger a spiral. The rules only mentioned spawning. What about beasts left over from the previous wave? Would they linger?

All four players fixed on two lines: the weapon chest and unlocking a skill for each kill. What did that mean?

If Divine Game was awarding weapons and skill unlocks, then…

A heartbeat later, the distant light curtain surged forward like a tidal wave. It hit them before any of them could dodge.

The light washed through their bodies. Their perspectives dropped. Bodies, bones, clothing, all shrinking.

They stared at one another in shock, realizing everyone had been brought back to ten years old, the year they had first entered Card Swap.

Maple Syrup's red curls were a wild tangle. Mistblade had reverted all the way to a single tail.

It was Rita's first time seeing Pine Bloom as a child. Pine Bloom felt the same. They stared for a second, then looked away at the same time.

It wasn't only appearances. Their God-given talents and the skills learned over the years were gone.

Their attribute panels remained, but the four core stats were each 10. Every movement was leaden, clumsy by orders of magnitude.

Seeing Maple Syrup's spear and Pine Bloom's war hammer vanish, Rita's hands shot to her tactical belt. As expected, her dagger was gone.

The two divine relics bound to the backs of her hands were sealed beyond perception.

They were expected to fight like this?

It had been a long time since Rita felt this powerless, as if she were just an ordinary person again.

She looked down at her short arms and little legs. Where is my hard-earned build?

At the starting line, the pale blue magic curtain brightened, lighting up the four corridors that had been little more than silhouettes a moment ago.

Four different vistas.

Grassland dotted with narrow trees. Beach with a lace of foam washing ashore. The canopy of the tree-sea. A snowfall drifting over ice fields.

No walls separated the corridors, only a transparent barrier between them. Seen from the outside, it was like standing before four windows on the seasons.

Forest Sea, BlueStar, Forest Sea, Snow Homeland.

They all found their home grounds.

Even the two Forest Sea players knew at a glance which lane was theirs. Outsiders thought Forest Sea was all trees, but owls knew the differences in terrain between the Clans were wider than the gaps between owl dialects. One corridor was Pine lineage territory, the other Maple.

Detected: a player is in tenpai. That player's corridor will receive 10 percent more beasts per wave.

As the notice chimed, Rita's rack began to flash on the table.

The pale blue curtain lifted like a stage drape. A countdown appeared above the corridors.

Four little brats took their positions.

Maple Syrup's lane was unusual. The ground was a dense tree-sea rising half a meter higher than the room's floor. She would either have to run and leap along the tips or fly the whole way, but for an owl that was basic movement.

At 10, a small golden chest appeared at each corridor's start.

Weapon chests, most likely. Rita sprinted over and flipped her lid open. A white flash, then a wooden stick lay inside.

Blue quality. Wouldn't fetch a single gold on BlueStar.

Rita: "…"

She looked left and right. Maple Syrup had drawn a whip from a chest dangling on a branch. Mistblade was examining a longsword with quiet satisfaction. Pine Bloom had the best luck: a hammer, her favored weapon type.

The countdown hit zero. Sound stirred behind them.

Rita pivoted, lowered her stance, and trained on the beasts surging into being.

At that same instant, a formal announcement pealed across the sky above the arena.

Please note, BS-Rita is in tenpai.

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