Pine Bloom won her duel at top speed, and the moment she did, her body felt weightless—an invisible wind lifted her and flung her straight into the next cabin in a clockwise direction.
Inside, the air still shimmered with the remnants of ice flowers. Pine Bloom didn't hold back—she unleashed full power.
Against players whose cooldowns were already half-spent mid-game, new entrants like her had a huge advantage.
Even without counter-damage skills, she switched cabins three times in under two minutes.
Still no sign of BS-Rita in the new cabin. Pine Bloom frowned. "That fast?"
The players inside hadn't even recovered from the mental toll of facing counter-damage when they were hit again.
She jumped into the fight immediately, and halfway through the brawl, she heard another familiar shout from a cabin above:
"What the hell is this species?!"
And then came the unapologetic reply:
"Remember, I'm an Owlcrow!"
While slamming an opponent against the cabin window, Pine Bloom shouted back, "Don't you humans have any pride in your own race?!"
The same voice shouted down in Owlcrow tongue, "Don't be mad! You should be grateful we're even joining the Owlcrow lineup!!"
Mistblade, who had just entered another cabin, nearly got tail-whipped out of it by a frost python from laughing too hard.
While waiting in the queue, she'd already transformed herself into a tiny five-centimeter-tall Moon Fox. Not quite as small as BS-Rita, but definitely smaller than most players.
She figured Maple Syrup would show up for the next game too.
Whether it was to punish BS-Rita was no longer the point—Rita clearly had some item or method that let her know game rules ahead of time. Based on Rita's preparations and the reactions of other players, it was easy to extrapolate.
Just time: once they noticed Rita altered her body size, they had to decide whether to continue the game or switch out—depending on whether they had the skills to match.
Of course, Rita could also be baiting them.
Figuring out which moves were real intel and which were traps? That was on them.
At that moment, Rita was neck-deep in a chaotic melee. She was stuck in a cabin with three other players.
To move forward, she had to complete at least one full duel with each of them. Because all four were jammed into this cabin, some duels were happening multiple times, and only one player could move on every two minutes—based on the number of wins.
Rita had jumped in mid-fight, with her health bar full red—maxed out. The others were barely hanging on.
But collectively? Their remaining HP didn't even total 10.
Clearly, her enemies were going down first.
Rita charged right into their AoE circle, unbothered. While they ganged up on her, her Absurd Story counter-damage skill was punching all of them right back.
Very quickly, she won three fights back-to-back, her dangerously low HP filling up once again.
She snatched 9 Blocks without hesitation.
Punishment time ended.
Now all four players stood ready again at full HP.
The other three locked eyes on BS-Rita.
Disgusting counter-damage. Take her out first!
Seconds later, the player who landed the final hit on her grabbed Rita—while dodging the other two players' crossfire—and tried to rip three Blocks off her.
Even though the player had reduced their body size, they'd already spent half an hour in this game. They were packed with loot, making it very hard to peel off a Block the size of a dust mite.
Especially while dodging incoming skills at the same time.
In the end, she gave up and just yanked off Rita's entire head.
One head plus two eyeball Blocks—made three.
With her eyes gone, Rita's topmost Block now sprouted a pair of small, black, beady dots.
Rita: …Fine. Just another downside of this plan.
When she regained freedom and HP, the other three players were all below 7 HP.
Rita zipped between them, hovering just long enough to finish one off for a full heal.
During battle, she even detached her feet and reassembled them on top of her head—so if she lost, the opponent would take her feet first before anything more valuable.
She was becoming more spherical by the minute—still winged.
From pixelated Gru, she had evolved into a pixelated Golden Snitch.
That infamous shout—"What the hell is this species?!"—was from this very moment.
Seven-Star Thunder Blade turned into an electric whip, cracking through the tight cabin space!
In contrast, her opponents were slowing down—skills going cold, gaps appearing.
In this new round, all three other players entered punishment time, one by one. Two fell directly to her. The third had their last hit stolen by someone else.
Rita casually grabbed six more Blocks. Right as she finished, the first punished player revived.
Her duel records now stood at:
With two complete duels done, she only needed to finish the third to escape the cabin.
That's when Pine Bloom arrived.
The moment she entered the cabin, she joined the others in targeting BS-Rita.
—"We should be grateful to have an Owlcrow like you?!"
Rita: "…You've got time for trash talk at a time ?!"
She flung herself to the center of the cabin, releasing a massive shockwave that hit every player.
She laid down a web of electricity across all the cabin walls, forcing everyone to take flight.
Right after casting, a giant wooden paddle made of woven vines suddenly expanded before her eyes.
She was smacked straight toward the window.
Pine Bloom was trying to force her out of the cabin—wiping her duel progress entirely!
But she was a second too late.
Pine Bloom's attack was vicious and precise—Rita was ejected before she could complete her skill.
Before she could get clear, she bounced off a transparent barrier and was flung back into the cabin.
Her completed 2-out-of-3 duels were preserved. But the one she had just started? Progress reset to zero.