Rita understood immediately. The latter categories—like specialized knowledge and item usage—made sense. After all, carrying items relied heavily on systems like World of Graves, and most professional knowledge required materials to translate into combat power. Not always practical.
She switched over to the newly added trading hub. A number of items had already been listed, but when she asked B8017913 whether Shatterstars were considered rare, she also typed the term into the search bar.
"The world with the highest output of Shatterstars is Fury. They're key components in power cores. Based on the BS-Lania Kaia market system, they go for about 1,700–1,800 gold apiece. Other worlds charge double or more."
Right as B8017913 finished explaining, the search results came back: 0.
The trading system was still fresh. Most players were hesitant to sell yet. And even if they did, they'd probably sell full items—not raw materials.
Rita didn't wait around. She wasn't about to spend 1.7 million gold to buy 1,000 Shatterstars anyway.
She opened a [Resource Chest], and when prompted, told it exactly what she wanted: enough Shatterstars to upgrade Wrathful Moon.
She had mixed feelings. On one hand, she hoped she could pull the full 1,000 units in one go. On the other hand, she hoped not—getting exactly 999 would feel way more satisfying. Max value, but just enough room left for a personal win.
As the chest emitted a flurry of musical chimes and mechanical clinks, pieces of shining rock began tumbling out—each a uniquely shaped, glittering shard, like tiny fallen stars.
Without her even noticing, Wrathful Moon had drifted over, softly glowing and pulsing with excitement beside the chest.
When the sound finally stopped, Rita poured all the shards out and counted.
Rita curled up on the couch, clutching her head, silently kicking her feet in despair.
Aaaaargh! Wasted potential!
Only when Wrathful Moon buzzed against her stomach, practically demanding to evolve, did she stop sulking.
Worried that evolution might change the lantern too drastically, she removed half the Moon Sand from inside and stored it in her gacha capsule—just in case. The remaining sand, she converted into Essence Points.
She'd spent over 3,000 essence in the last Divine Game. She needed the refill.
After exchanging half the Moon Sand, her essence total hit 21,081—enough to last a while. She even set some aside for Nivalis and helped her exchange 3,000 points of her own.
Then she poured all 1,000 Shatterstars into Wrathful Moon. The glowing "Evolution in Progress" indicator appeared.
Like before, it would take time. But since the lantern was still floating and orbiting her normally, she didn't bother putting it back in the gacha capsule just yet.
She stored away the second [Resource Chest] and the two [Course Chests], then opened her two [Skill Chests].
[Wait Right There] (SSS)
Ignore all effects. Immediately exit combat and teleport randomly to a safe location.
Costs 5% of current MP. Cooldown: 24 hours.
[Let's Not Fight Anymore] (SSS)
Use during combat to temporarily erase your presence from the perspective of any enemies attacking you. They'll stop targeting you and forget their aggression.
Effect lasts 5 minutes. Costs 2% of current MP. Cooldown: 24 hours.
"Skills that best fit the player's combat style", huh?
Rita: …Are they throwing shade at me?
But then again, who would even dare shade her? Whatever. She let herself chuckle.
What could she say? She actually liked both skills.
Just wait—once she's stronger, she's coming back to collect debts.
As for the rest of the Event Packs and items, she wasn't in the mood to sort them. She was ready to crash for the night.
Shadow.Q would probably show up first thing tomorrow anyway…
On her way past Nivalis, she glanced over to see which game she'd installed.
Well, there go the Nintendo lawyers.
Wait, no. Zelda actually had some useful mechanics. Could be handy if they could extract skills from it.
With Rita finally finished handling all her gear, Nivalis saw her chance.
"Can I add another game?"
Rita had limited her earlier to just one game, not because she didn't want Nivalis to have fun—but because she wasn't sure if games could be deleted later.
She took the console back, tested it, and sure enough, a deletion option existed. She tapped it—but a message popped up:
[Game can only be deleted after 5,000 hours of playtime.]
Rita handed the console back.
"Just stick with this one for now. I need the extra slots for something."
Nivalis didn't push it. One game was enough for now, anyway.
Across the room, B8017913 stared longingly at the game console. In truth, it was more of a gamer than Nivalis.
Rita thought for a second, then pulled out an old item—Duplicator Bunny Fur.
A leftover from the last game. She had two.
She pressed one strand onto Nivalis's console.
In an instant, the device split in two—now two identical consoles sat in her hands.
Same stats, same functions. Even the Reality Bleeds Into Game playtime requirement was duplicated: 500 hours. The only difference? The copy didn't have any games installed.
Too bad the process wasn't visible—Rita would've loved to see what game was already loaded in someone else's console.
She handed a console to each of her two pets.
"There. One for each of you. Go nuts. But same rule—just one game per console, for now."
This console wasn't just for fun. It was going to be a key part of her collaboration with Eclipse Vanguard, generating a steady stream of value. Using one Duplicator Bunny Fur was absolutely worth it.
Besides, Divine Relics and gacha machines couldn't be duplicated anyway.
She stared at the error message, sighed, and put her last Duplicator Bunny Fur back into the capsule machine.
At the stairwell, she suddenly turned around to face the ever-floating Cat's Ideal behind her.
"Wanna go see the cats?"
The ship's wheel spun in delight and zipped in front of her, circling joyfully.
Rita immediately headed for the backyard.
The moment the door opened, Cat's Ideal darted out, and Wrathful Moon followed, floating up high to light up the entire yard.
The stray cats hanging around spotted the ship's wheel and jumped on curiously, batting at its little spokes. The wheel swayed gently in response, teasing and playing with the dusty little furballs.
For a moment, it felt like time itself slowed down.
The war, the game—it all faded.
Rita set up the Cat Hostel again, then went upstairs to shower. Afterward, she grabbed her sleeping bag and came back down.
Tonight, she was sleeping in the yard.
Meanwhile, in the group chat—
"I think Foolishness has some serious issues."
"Same. Like, why would he violate the rules and take a penalty just to give BS-Rita three Shatterstars?"
"Probably wanted her to suffer a little."
"Yeah but… she did look a little upset, but still, this move was so dumb."
"Maybe his brain got scrambled?"
"Honestly… this is just tragic. I mean Foolishness."
"Right? Like, he'd rather suffer himself just to make her uncomfortable. That's next-level masochism."
"I thought about it more and... yeah. Foolishness is in way too deep."
"Wait, Foolishness just left the group chat?!"
"Probably pissed off."
"Mental fortitude too low. Not like Deceitful Bloom."
"Oh, look—White Gloves just re-added him."