Winter Sea Frenzied Shark saw the curse magic symbols forming in front of BS Rita once again, and they showed no sign of dissipating. He immediately realized things weren't going well.
He hadn't expected that under his dual threats—both soft and hard—BS Rita would remain completely unyielding!
She didn't even wait for him to propose a deal. Words like "languages of all races," "SSS-class skills," and "rare equipment and items" had already left his ears as he overheard the contents of the curse.
Winter Sea Frenzied Shark closed his eyes. He didn't want to see BS Rita's smiling face or let her catch the loss of control in his own eyes!
But BS Rita wasn't letting up. He heard her speaking to him in Shark Forest language: "Actually, before you found me today, I hadn't considered using this method to prevent you from getting your god-given talent back. You reminded me of it.
"A star-sea year? That's not the point. The point is, you're trying to use this deal to pass something onto me, right?
"Well… no reaction is the best reaction. Looks like I guessed right.
"Then, thank you for the gift. I'll make sure to use it. Goodbye."
It wasn't until Rita, carrying a half-dozing Nivalis, turned a corner that she looked back. Winter Sea Frenzied Shark was still standing where he had been, and Hatred Thorns at his feet seemed to be looking up, as if speaking to him.
Nivalis, in a sleep-heavy voice, murmured, "They feel… strange."
Earlier, when Rita had collected dragon blood, she had warned Nivalis. If she felt something off, she was to use Master Thief Dragon. Nivalis had been quite nervous at that time.
However, as Nivalis got closer to Hatred Thorns, her sensitivity to emotions allowed her to feel the deep pain, grievance, and hatred inside it. But those feelings weren't aimed at her.
When Hatred Thorns gave her the dragon blood, it even seemed eager to be rid of the curse.
Rita glanced at the information floating above Hatred Thorns' head.
She had no idea about Hatred Thorns' original taboos and weaknesses, but now… she could see its taboo—pet contracts.
Having encountered one taboo after another, and combining her observations of Nivalis' own taboo, Rita had come to understand what taboos represented. They were typically something the subject despised deeply, or the thing that could make them lose their mind.
What was most interesting was that Hatred Thorns' taboo was a pet contract, but its weakness was Winter Sea Frenzied Shark.
It seemed that her earlier curse had left a deep crack between this master and pet duo.
From the way Winter Sea Frenzied Shark had reacted to the curse, it was clear he had chosen to prioritize protecting himself over anything else.
Rita couldn't help but smile, a villainous grin creeping onto her face. It felt really good to be the bad guy.
However, next time she crossed paths with Winter Sea Frenzied Shark outside a safe zone, she'd probably run for her life or leave the area immediately…
She gently patted the now soundly asleep Nivalis, whose gem was glowing softly, perhaps still processing the dragon blood she had just received. Nivalis didn't even have the energy to speak to her.
Rita put Nivalis back into her pet space. It seemed that this round of Divine Game wouldn't have Nivalis' assistance, which made her plans to transform into a precious mineral using Survive Until the End and then have a robot sell her off go out the window.
Without Nivalis there to keep watch with her Master Thief Dragon ability, Rita couldn't trust any creature with a decent level of intelligence to guard her. She was defenseless and could no longer use any offensive skills.
Rita began wandering from one shop to another, focusing on finding a robot whose personality fit the tone of the game.
Honest ones? No good… they weren't suited to making a lot of money.
Devious ones? Also no good… too likely to trick her.
Smart ones? They were neutral at best, but those were C-series robots, and according to the game's rules, she couldn't respond to C-series robots.
Rita didn't intend to stay long in this special market area, especially with Winter Sea Frenzied Shark around. She planned to finish the task and leave as soon as possible.
It wasn't until she'd passed through almost half of the market that she found one she liked.
L4327777: ??? Battery: 88% | Pure-hearted, Lacking Initiative Taboo: Poverty | Weakness: Battery Depletion
Hmm? Pure-hearted? Lacking initiative?
Wasn't this the perfect partner for her?!
Rita immediately ran over to the pink robot L4327777, grabbed its mechanical hand, and asked, "Are you lacking investment? I can invest in you!"
L4327777's eye-screen scanned Rita up and down several times. After some unreadable characters flashed on the screen, it spoke in English: "Hello, distinguished BS star customer."
Rita led L4327777 to the corner of the store. "If I invest in you, what do you plan to do?"
L4327777: "Use your diamonds to acquire precious minerals from other players, then head to the headquarters to acquire skills and equipment, sell them to players, and make a profit."
Rita pursed her lips and shook her head, sighing quietly, "L4327777, I'm disappointed in you. Do you know B80234615?"
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L4327777: "Yes, it's an outdated robot model soon to be phased out."
B80234615 knows how you newbies talk about it behind its back?
And it's being phased out?
Although they had only exchanged a few words, Rita could already tell that L4327777 was far less intelligent than B80234615. B80234615 not only joked around with her, it even observed her…
But she couldn't yet confirm whether this was due to personality or if… what she had seen from B80234615 was merely the personality it chose to show her.
Rita pushed those thoughts aside and continued, "Well, B80234615 was full of wisdom… it wasn't bound by rigid rules, and it excelled at finding every opportunity to make diamonds."
Since she couldn't lie and didn't enjoy relying on the Divine Punishment card unless necessary, Rita was careful with every word she said.
L4327777 didn't seem to understand Rita's indirect speech, so it replied straightforwardly, "Distinguished BS star customer, what would you like me to do?"
Rita pulled L4327777 outside the store. The robot didn't struggle, and once they were far from the other robots who might understand English, Rita spoke quietly:
"After I invest in you, you take the diamonds and precious minerals I give you to make deals. If I acquire diamonds from players through other means and hand them to you, can that count as you earning them?"
L4327777: "Do you have stealing skills?"
Robots were always so blunt. Rita nodded, "What about it?"
That was refreshingly direct. Rita, who had prepared a whole speech, was surprised. But after a moment's thought, she realized that to a robot, stealing and committing violent acts probably didn't differ much.
Their operating systems only had rules—no concepts of good, evil, nobility, or baseness.