Whenever BS Rita began recording a civilization, both B80 and Calico felt that she seed very far away.
There was a kind of detached compassion and sorrow in her expression, as if she had stepped beyond ordinary emotions.
In truth, Rita was already doing her best to separate herself from personal feelings. At every mont, she reminded herself to record each world without bias or attachnt.
Whether it was Fireglint and Sharkfin, whose leaders bore grudges against her, or the Moonfox, Oak Owl, and Candlebeast who had once invaded BS, or even Fireglint and Skycrab, with whom there was no clear enmity yet, she treated them all the sa.
She was a recorder, not a judge.
And whether it was listening to sighs or writing down civilizations, she learned a great deal from it.
As she recorded one world after another, writing the stories of countless ordinary beings, she often saw BS reflected in them.
No longer as an abstract label called BS players, but as imagined individuals. Ordinary BS beings, facing monts like these, wondering what they would think.
After becoming Adjudicator, she had changed in many ways. But everything she did was simply to live up to that title.
She had been pushed to a height she had never imagined, and her pride and sense of responsibility would not allow her to perform poorly.
Of course, there were many reasons behind her change.
The responsibilities forced onto her, the guilt and emotion she felt during the BS war, the rights and anings represented by the title of BS Adjudicator.
There were simply too many reasons.
Even her original intention of finding a way out for the BS people was not as noble as it sounded.
She had started doing it with the thought that if they truly lost in the end, at least the defeat would not look so ugly.
Like solving a problem, she tried to make the answer as perfect as possible, hoping that when soone graded it later, they might go easier on her because of the neat handwriting.
That was why, when she saw Maple Syrup’s reflection and pain, it felt as if she had been struck by a heavy blow.
In that mont, she woke up from the beautiful dream she had woven for herself.
So she was still that far from being a true leader.
Every ti she set her pen down, she could not help but wonder.
If one day BS itself let out a sigh, what would be inside that sigh?
Would she dare to listen to it?
Would she hope that the sigh contained her, or hope that it did not?
After finishing a passage about why Skycrab lived in the water while fishfolk lived on land, Rita set down her pen and looked expectantly at her soul fla.
A star full of sharp facets fell and filled the final gap in the soul fla.
You have listened to the world’s sigh.
You have recorded the world’s regret.
Everything around her dimd and faded away. She found herself standing in darkness.
The next mont, a deep blue light ignited beneath her feet.
From that single point, the blue light branched forward like the limbs of a tree, splitting into three paths.
The light extended for several ters before stopping, gathering into three new points of light.
Above each point floated magical text, forming words and phrases.
From left to right, they read:
Warfire and Lant.
A Tragic Cody.
The Silent Traveler.
Was this asking her to choose a reward?
She thought of the talent choices that often appeared in gas, where every option represented a different direction.
Offense, defense, or balance.
Applied here, it seed to fit rather well.
The first two were easy enough to understand.
Warfire and Lant could an igniting wars of revenge or conquest, making worlds and beings cry out in suffering.
A Tragic Cody could an successfully defending a world against invasion, enduring pain along the way, but reaching a complete ending.
Only the last one was unclear.
No battle? Or the option to leave?
There was no countdown. Even the ti on her player interface seed to be frozen, giving Rita all the ti she needed to think.
She knew what she was doing now, and why she had left the war cruise ship in the first place.
She thought of war skills and world skills. According to Mistblade, war skills leaned toward offense, while world skills leaned toward defense.
That matched the first two paths almost perfectly.
And so her reasoning stalled at the third path.
After a long silence, Rita walked toward the third.
She did not want to invade other worlds.
She also did not want BS and BS players to live in constant fear of war and invasion.
She had left the war cruise ship to step into the unknown.
And now, she was stepping into another unknown once again.
What if there really was sothing ahead?
What if there truly was a beautiful dream waiting there, the dream she had been imagining these past days?
...
SmokeTune sat on the rooftop, watching the ice dragon about to fly overhead.
She had lost count of how many tis it had passed by. Ever since the dragon returned to BS, it had barely stopped except to eat.
BS Rita’s house, the ga machines, Shrine Quiz, the Ferris wheel. These were its daily checkpoints.
Sotis it would stop to interact with players, take photos, duel, or even eat with them.
A dragon was not that fragile. Flying for hundreds of days was not a problem.
But this was still excessive.
She called out, "Did BS Shadow Q not try to talk you out of this? You are being way too obvious. You are just making everyone uneasy."
Nivalis, who had already flown past, curved back in a wide arc and hovered above SmokeTune.
"Looks like you really stay indoors too much," she said. "Did Shadow Q not tell you how much I have earned these days?"
SmokeTune blinked. "What?"
Nivalis patiently began listing her current businesses.
"Interacting with requires tickets bought in advance. Photo tickets and handshake tickets are the cheapest, five gold each. Feeding is more complicated. You need to achieve specific results in activities like the ga machines or the Ferris wheel before you qualify to buy the Feed Nivalis Ticket."
"Then there are duel tickets. Those sell the best, especially to legion commanders and battle fanatics."
"And short haul endorsent tickets. I carry a specific item while flying."
As she counted, she started to lose track. These matters were handled by soone from Eclipse Vanguard, who helped manage all the miscellaneous tasks and took a five percent cut at the end.
Finally, she concluded, "People are indeed a bit restless. And since I cannot keep up, all tickets are limited."
SmokeTune paused. "...That sounds fine."
But the next day, Nivalis returned in a foul mood.
She went nowhere, sitting on the rooftop and sulking.
SmokeTune asked, "What happened?"
Nivalis said angrily, "Do you know the Wind Scythe race?"
"I happen to know a little," SmokeTune replied.
"A few Wind Scythe followed Pine Bloom to BS," Nivalis snapped. "I do not know how those siblings managed it, but they hoarded a huge number of my tickets and started reselling them at high prices. Are the Wind Scythe not already doing enough business in Lania Kaia? Their industries are everywhere there. Why do they still want to open up the BS market?"
SmokeTune grew interested. "The Skycrab have not reacted?"
Nivalis pointed furiously toward the sea. "The Skycrab said they do not like eating dust behind others, so they decided to push their own star. And they actually picked Sea Pony."
SmokeTune fell silent.
No sense of crisis at all. At a ti like this, no one was in a hurry.
Coincidentally, the managent teams left behind by Mistblade and Pine Bloom thought exactly the sa.
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