"My antenna. Where is it? What did you do with it?"
Since they were now partners, Rita decided it was only fair to show so sincerity.
She reached into her gacha machine and took out the item [Reclusive Antenna Baby], lifting it high to keep it out of Y128’s reach.
"See? Your antenna is right here. Perfect condition. A flawless artifact. And to honor you, I even nad it after you."
Before Y128 could grab it, she let the chanoid tap the item so it could scan it.
Y128 froze. The na repeated over and over in its data stream. Then it asked, in utter confusion, "Reclusive Antenna Baby. Where exactly is my na in that?"
"Baby," Rita answered confidently. "That’s you."
Disgust. Pure disgust.
Y128 trembled with outrage. It turned its cube head toward B80 and then toward L175246, back and forth.
"You two actually like... this?"
B80 looked away.
L175246 hesitated two seconds, then covered its face and continued crying.
Rita blinked. "...What is that supposed to an?"
She turned toward Nivalis. "Why are you quiet?"
Nivalis scratched the back of its head. "Sotis it’s embarrassing to admit... publicly."
Rita: ?
She sat beside L175246, arguing with Y128 while pulling a pile of materials from her gacha machine.
A glowing grass that looked like a dog’s tail.
A twig-like alchemy reagent that changed color according to mood.
Gemstones, tals, and other parts—she laid everything out across the ground.
She looked at the two bald chanoids. "Pick sothing. I’ll use Refurbish to stick it onto your heads. Or if you have your own materials, that works too."
L175246 and Y128 hesitated less than a second before squatting down to choose.
They tested almost every item—liking one item for a mont, then imdiately abandoning it for another.
L175246 asked her for opinions every ti it switched.
Y128 stayed silent at first, then, for so reason, began asking as well. Rita patiently answered every question—she hadn’t been this patient even when choosing event dresses in the past.
Nivalis leaned against her leg nibbling on snacks from the gacha capsules, while B80 occasionally threw in obviously terrible suggestions just to stir things up.
Rita ended up spending the entire remaining duration of the mini-ga helping the two robots compare antenna options. Luckily, Refurbish lasted thirty minutes per use and didn’t consu extra resources.
When the ga in this zone ended, there were still twelve minutes before the third stage: the Battle Royale. Worried the next zone might have a weird opening ga, Rita simply gathered her trio and left Oasis Town to continue the antenna selection elsewhere.
They only finished picking with two minutes left.
Two little robots sat in the sand with flower-like gadgets blooming from their heads, grinning their tal faces off.
Rita rested her chin in her hand, watching the two idiots giggle. "So easy to please."
Y128’s legs, which had been swinging happily, froze at the comnt—but only briefly. A few seconds later, it resud swinging even faster, bumping shoulders with L175246, not looking at BS-Rita as it whispered, "Let’s work well together."
That made Rita laugh.
But just as she was about to respond, the world twisted.
Her pets vanished back into the pet space.
Her perspective shifted dramatically.
Everything around her grew enormous—because she had shrunk.
The reference point was obvious: the small sunflower-like bloom she had just installed onto Y128’s head.
Tick-Tock Bloom.
Seven to eight centiters tall.
Yet she now stood slightly shorter than it.
Y128, beside her, was the sa size.
Both of them were riding on the head of the original, half-ter-tall Y128 unit.
They stood on a vast grassland.
Around them, distant chanoids stood spaced far apart, each with a tiny player and a tiny chanoid perched on its cube head.
The ga announcent finally echoed.
[BATTLE ROYALE]
First round:
This match begins with 22 maps, each containing 4,726 players or chanoids. At the start, each map will spawn five Hunters. Hunters will chase the nearest target within their line of sight.
Second round:
One hour after the ga starts, the 22 maps will rge randomly into 11. Players, chanoids, and Hunters from two maps combine, but map size stays the sa. Each of the 11 maps will receive 10 additional Hunters.
Third round:
Two hours in, the map with the highest remaining population will be completely eliminated.
The remaining 10 maps rge into 3.
Remaining players, chanoids, and Hunters will be evenly redistributed.
Each map receives another 10 Hunters.
Fourth round:
Final stage, three hours in: all maps rge.
The ga continues until only one player or chanoid remains.
[Special Rules]:
Only Player Relics and items from random supply crates may be used.
Any equipnt brought from outside in any form will be nullified.
Every five minutes, supply crates will drop.
The number of crates equals current player count divided by 10.
Each map contains chanoid rapid-charge stations—free, indestructible, immovable, and cannot be hidden.
...
When the rules ended, the clouds overhead shifted and ford a massive 30-minute countdown.
At the sa ti, Rita felt herself float upward about thirty centiters above the larger Y128’s head.
Far away, a chanoid fell over dramatically and writhed like a dying fish.
Rita sensed sothing bad.
A mont later, her body tilted left—Y128 on the other side had moved.
Sensing the problem, Y128 imdiately froze.
As Rita shifted her weight to her left foot, the giant Y128 beneath them also shifted, imitating their movents—her posture on the left, Y128’s posture on the right.
Even the angle of its cube head matched Y128’s.
Rita shut her eyes in pain.
She recognized this kind of gaplay.
Two players controlling the sa character—one managing the left half, one managing the right half.
They were going to play Battle Royale like this?
She suspected the so-called "five minutes of personal descent into the Battle Royale" reward ant five minutes of full control.
And worst of all...
Hunters.
That na scread "gods and demons wearing a new skin."
How many of them had she offended again?
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