[Your consigned Block "Lazy Slippers" (1/4) has been sold.]
[Your consigned Block "Penumbral Pendant" (1/3) has been sold.]
With all five consigned Blocks sold, Rita finally completed the potion bottle Block she'd been assembling!
She opened the hollow box-shaped Block that made up her upper torso and tossed in all the remaining weird mini Blocks. She wasn't letting go of these strange little pieces anymore — not after this.
Then she attached the regular Blocks gained from selling "Lazy Slippers" and "Penumbral Pendant" onto the back of her hands. These could be saved for entry fees on the next attraction.
Because the moment the potion bottle was completed, its information finally appeared:
[Don't Ask Me What a Potion Is · Incomplete] (?/7)
"I'll show you what unbridled imagination looks like."
Allows you to pour multiple potions into the bottle with a 10% chance of a reasonable mutation…
And that wasn't all — a system prompt rang in her mind.
[Congratulations, Player BS-Rita has become the third to discover a hidden Easter Egg.]
[Hidden Easter Egg: "I'll Force It If I Have To" — Intentionally reconstruct a broken game item. The item must consist of no fewer than 7 fragments.]
[Choose one reward from the following:]
She glanced at the descriptions:
Block Tracker: Locate other fragments of a specific item.
Forced Recall: Return a previously unlocked game item to its original world. That item will no longer appear in the current game.
Easter Egg Hint: Learn the location or condition for another hidden Easter Egg. No additional reward will be granted.
Three choices, each representing a different strategy: offense, defense, or strategic planning.
A 3-minute countdown appeared beside the selection window — no way to delay it. Rita went with her gut and picked Forced Recall.
She could afford to lose almost anything — except for [Wrathful Moon], the skill that continuously granted her Arcane Points.
Lately, she'd used all her monthly moonlight cuts on the World Battlefield moon. That version of [Wrathful Moon] didn't let her collect anything.
But that was only because her Arcane reserves were stable right now — and she had a stash of moon sand that could be converted at any time.
If she ever started running low again, [Wrathful Moon] would be irreplaceable.
If [I Just Want to Improve So Badly] was what let her play freely without fearing divine punishment, then [Wrathful Moon] was what let her fight at full strength.
As soon as she made her choice, a coin-like Block appeared in the air and dropped toward her. Rita caught it and placed it beside her pink free game ticket.
Only after handling the reward did she turn her attention back to the potion bottle.
It was incomplete, sure, but with seven pieces required, its base rarity was at least "Treasure" tier.
Even incomplete, [Don't Ask Me What a Potion Is] was priceless to any alchemy fan.
The key was in those two words — "reasonable mutation."
If it were just random mutation, she might not have cared. But the fact it was described as reasonable meant these were transformations even a real alchemist could pull off — not just chaotic results or pure chance.
And this was just with one fragment. The info screen even ended with an ellipsis... which Rita had never seen before. What would happen if she gathered more?
She ran a search for [Don't Ask Me What a Potion Is] at the vending machine — no other fragments on the market yet.
She casually closed the window. The game was still young. No need to rush.
After all, she might not even be able to keep this fragment. And who knows — maybe she'd find something even better later.
She and Nivalis set off in search of their next amusement park challenge.
As they passed the space pirate ship ride again, Rita paused and watched for a moment.
Just as she suspected, something felt off.
Only someone who had actually played the game would notice it.
There was no signature golden glow that marked the treasure chest players, and the system blurred all their stealth-based skills. In other words — only players knew when a chest disappeared. To the spectators, the treasure chests were still visible the whole time.
So it looked like the players were randomly switching targets mid-fight or sometimes freezing in place like confused chickens.
But in reality, those pauses happened when all three treasure chests had vanished.
A simple tweak in visibility, and spectators could no longer make sense of what was actually happening in the game.
After a short moment, Rita moved on. She explored another part of the amusement park they hadn't seen yet, wandering for about ten more minutes before stopping in front of an attraction — a claw machine.
Five Block-constructed claw machines stood in a row.
This attraction was a bit different. It didn't run in timed batches like most rides — sending in one group after another. Instead, it operated continuously.
The pattern seemed to be: whenever a Block player inside the machine was "clawed" out, the gingerbread NPC would let a new ticketed player enter to fill the spot.
Each claw machine held 49 players inside, and one on the control panel outside — for a total of 50 players per unit.
The interior of each transparent claw machine was huge — roughly the size of a football field for Block-sized players — plenty of room for them to run around.
Any Block player who got clawed out would temporarily switch places with the player at the control panel. If they successfully grabbed a prize, they'd be allowed to return to the machine.
From what Rita could tell, each player on the console got three attempts max. Fail all three, and they'd be dropped into the next claw machine as a regular Block.
But what determined who got clawed out was a mystery.
Some left missing chunks of Blocks, while others were fully loaded with loot.
Rita turned her thumb, spinning the ring made of miniature puzzle-cube Blocks. She wasn't sure if having B8017913 in this round would make things more complicated — or more interesting.
She stared at the claw machines, trying to figure them out, when Nivalis spoke up beside her.
"Why this one? What's special about it?"
She lowered her voice. "I saw the ticket price. Not cheap, but not crazy either. They charge per player."
Which meant… B8017913 also needed a ticket.
No obvious advantages. No clues about difficulty. So it made sense that Nivalis was confused.
Rita was quiet for a moment, then answered simply:
"Because it looks fun."
So simple it stunned Nivalis — even B8017913 froze and let out a mental "Huh?"
Rita laughed. It was the kind of laugh that came just before telling a joke — except she cracked herself up before she could even start.
"I just want to play this one."