When it came to the future of humanity, Eclipse Vanguard worked fast.
The very next morning, Shadow.Q arrived at Rita's villa—again, bright and early—with their formal offer.
"300,000 entry slots.
Every time a player enters the game, Eclipse Vanguard will pay you five SSS-tier skills.
We'll renegotiate the terms every three months."
Each player could enter the console twice a month. Which meant Rita would receive ten SSS-level skills per month.
Considering she'd already tested [Reality Bleeds Into Game] the night before and confirmed that skills learned inside couldn't be brought back out, this offer was surprisingly fair—far better than she'd expected.
She had honestly doubted Eclipse Vanguard could offer her what she truly wanted.
Gold coins? Sure, they could throw millions at her—but to Rita, those meant almost nothing now. Her daily expenses were already fully covered by her monthly cut from The White Family.
Every time she came out of a Divine Game, her list of needs would change completely—half of them were materials Eclipse Vanguard had probably never even heard of.
This offer, however, carried real sincerity. The renegotiation clause wasn't a trick to lower the price later—it was a signal. A promise that as Eclipse Vanguard's capabilities grew, so too would their offer.
"Only five SSS skills per use?" Rita asked, half-curious.
"Didn't you have, like… seven total last time?"
"We don't have that many now. But we can make more.
We've got a player whose Divine Talent lets them fuse skills.
Five SS-level skills can be fused into one SSS.
We're going to sell off a portion of the 300,000 slots to gather the materials."
Ah, so they were already pushing their limits.
Rita nodded. "Fine. Have you picked a game yet?"
Shadow.Q: "We have. It's called The Player Is Very Busy."
Rita knew that one. A huge multiplayer RPG released two years before the Game Invasion.
It had 19 distinct classes, each with their own complexity in melee and magic. But what really defined the game were its 5,000 unique dungeon trials.
Each dungeon had different win conditions. Some tested combat. Others tested dodging, positioning, timing, puzzle-solving, or strategic planning.
Obviously, Eclipse Vanguard had chosen it for these very trials.
Rita said, "You'll need to upload it to the console first. I don't have that one."
Shadow.Q pulled out a laptop and flipped it open toward her.
The device was connected to portable Wi-Fi, and the game was already running.
"We've already tweaked the numbers to suit our training needs," she added.
They couldn't build a new game from scratch, but with the right Divine Talents, they could rework the stats and system to make it better for player development.
Both of Rita's game consoles were still in her pets' hands. She told them to hand one over.
Nivalis and B8017913 instantly started tugging at each other.
B8017913 won, of course.
Yesterday, they had each opened two Event Packs.
Nivalis only got regular apples.
B8017913 pulled two mutated fruits with unique traits.
Nivalis had lost all her confidence.
Once the blank slot appeared and The Player Is Very Busy's icon popped up, Rita looked to Nivalis.
"Go test it for me—see if this one lets you learn skills."
She booted up the game and activated [Reality Bleeds Into Game].
The screen transformed into a viewfinder. She aimed it at Nivalis and pressed the button.
Nivalis vanished from the living room.
On-screen, a little dragon appeared—Nivalis's avatar. She looked around, then very responsibly flew off to find an NPC and pick up a quest.
Turns out, letting players enter games was pretty low-effort for Rita.
The only real issue was security—what to do with the console once someone was inside?
Even if a console was bound and couldn't be stolen, she couldn't just leave it lying around.
"I assume you'll be entering the game yourself?" she asked Shadow.Q.
Shadow.Q nodded. "Of course."
She hadn't clawed her way this far just to miss out.
No way she was passing up a 1:1000 training opportunity.
Then it would be fine.
Rita would have Whitebone Black Jade watch over the machine.
And just to be safe, she'd use [Illegal Construction] to build a decoy shell—double protection.
"I'll have Whitebone Black Jade guard the console," she said.
Shadow.Q didn't take offense.
This console was a strategic-level artifact. Even if Rita hadn't guarded it, Eclipse Vanguard would've had to post their own forces to watch it.
They needed to prevent interference from rival nations—or non-human forces.
That Rita would add her own layer of defense?
That was a blessing, not an insult.
Still, Shadow.Q's gaze drifted toward the plushie on the couch—B8017913—with another console in its hand.
Trying to sound casual, she asked, "Is this console… hard to come by?"
Rita immediately saw through her. She passed the console over.
"Even if I could sell you one… you wouldn't be able to use it."
Started reading through the skill list.
And finally, when she read the line:
"The number of players this console can hold equals the HP of its owner."
Like she'd lost her soul.
That meant Rita's HP was over 300,000.
And this wasn't even her cap—Rita was definitely holding back.
Shadow.Q glanced at her own stat panel.
There was no way to hit that number by adding points normally.
She'd have to multiply all three of her main attributes together to even get close.
She muttered, dazed, "We'll… uh… we'll have players entering this afternoon.
Yeah. This afternoon. The first wave is all Eclipse Vanguard."
—"I've learned the skill."
Nivalis's voice echoed in Rita's mind.
Inside the screen, Nivalis was waving at her from the game world.
With a thought, she ejected her.
Nivalis reappeared in the living room a split second later.
Rita lost 1 HP from her total, but it immediately regenerated—no problem.
They'd already tested this: no matter how players left the game, the console's owner would lose 1 HP per player.
But it could regenerate naturally.
Rita asked, "Were you able to bring the skill out?"
Nivalis shook her head. "No."
Rita expected that. They'd tested this yesterday.
Shadow.Q, though, couldn't hide her disappointment.
Rita stretched. "You might as well stay for lunch."
She had to cook anyway—for herself, the pets, and the backyard cats. One more mouth didn't make much difference.
By the end of the meal, Shadow.Q had posted:
She even got approval from both Rita and Nivalis to discreetly include shots of Rita's blazing fire-wings and Nivalis's shining dragon scales.
"What's it like to visit BS-Rita's home?"
"I turned 30 this year… and finally tasted BS-Rita's cooking."
"Sorry, today's plans were a little high-class."
"Nivalis didn't lie—one bite and I was hooked."
She couldn't take it anymore.
Nivalis came up with all the titles.