The fourth day of the ga, 5:30 in the afternoon, the sa day Rita reunited with Ash Cinders.
Two bears led a Quiet Mountain resident into a house in a furtive manner. This was the small house Ash Cinders had rented over the past few days.
They needed to test the Order Badge.
QM Rita deliberately telling Rita how to enter the Demon Ga was clearly ill intentioned. Rita was not about to walk straight into it like an idiot.
The Quiet Mountain resident had already been controlled by Ash Cinders’ skill and now sat quietly at the table, waiting for the next command.
Rita took out Mistblade’s diary again, trying to find the badge hidden inside.
If the Order Badge could not be bound, then this diary, as its container, likely carried so kind of special marker. Many years ago, SS Mistblade had been able to track Rita. There was no reason QM Mistblade could not do the sa.
Then why, after Rita had finished reading the diary and returned to QM Mistblade’s house, had Mistblade not noticed anything?
Was QM Mistblade simply bad at tracking scents, or was her ntal state such that maintaining various skills for long periods was impossible? Even passive skills were still a burden.
Rita and Ash Cinders planned to move fast. If they could extract the badge before six o’clock, great. If not, they would not force it. First, they would use a Quiet Mountain player to test whether the badge carried any hidden risks. For example, once you started, were you forced to keep playing? Would it check the player’s identity?
There were risks in doing this. The Order Badge might be lost by this resident. But this kind of test was necessary.
The Demon Ga’s attitude toward the copies was clearly one of cultivating humanoid weapons. Rationally, Rita knew that once she had it, she should destroy it imdiately.
But greed got in the way.
If you could endure the pain, you could beco QM Rita in just a few short years.
The temptation was overwhelming.
It was not just Rita who felt it. Every player in the battlefield chat who learned about this was tempted.
If the badge could be stolen, that ant it was not bound. Could other Divine Ga players use it too?
Not a single person stood up to argue rationally that it should be destroyed. Instead, so even worried that BS Rita was being too rational and urged her not to destroy it.
The Quiet Mountain ga was clearly Divine Ga showing them a fragnt of the future. It did not tell them directly. It forced them to uncover the truth themselves. The more they investigated, the more unsettling it beca.
Why cultivate copies like weapons through the Demon Ga?
If the gods in the temple were once players, then had Uncharted Star Sea also faced the pendulum in the past?
The answer had already ford in everyone’s mind. They simply could not confirm it. Or perhaps they did not dare to.
Was there so point in ti when a ga or contest determined where the pendulum would swing next, deciding whether the next era or cycle would be chaotic or tranquil?
And that point might be the very mont Divine Ga had hinted at before. Before the sixth toll of The Bell Tolls.
Yet right now, every copy they had seen was terrifyingly strong. Even Nuclear Flash NightFury would not dare claim he could capture BS Pine Bloom alive while she wielded Whale Fall in the Wind. But QM Rita could.
And according to BS Pine Bloom, it had been a direct frontal fight. QM Rita had not used any binding or restriction skills.
Worst of all, according to Ash Cinders’ intelligence, QM Rita was the first player to obtain a demon talent, not the only one.
With a gap like this, what hope did Uncharted Star Sea have?
Although the relationship between the Demon Ga and Quiet Mountain was special, and theoretically it likely could not be brought back, otherwise Divine Ga would not have asked them to destroy the Order Badge rather than obtain it, every player still wanted to try the Demon Ga.
Ash Cinders wanted to try as well.
But she could not find the badge hidden inside the diary either.
Rita was at a loss too. She started missing her Refurbish skill.
With only two minutes left before six o’clock, the two bears stopped wasting ti and shoved the diary into the Quiet Mountain resident’s hands.
Under Ash Cinders’ control, the resident raised the diary and murmured, "Please grant the laws of demons."
The mont the words left her mouth, the Quiet Mountain resident vanished.
The two bears waited quietly. Nivalis had already crouched on Rita’s shoulder, ready to activate Tail Tip at the first sign of trouble. The ship’s wheel floated before Rita, prepared for an imdiate escape.
Moonbear’s antlers glowed with blue light. She had clearly activated a skill as well, ready to run at any mont.
Ten minutes later, the Quiet Mountain resident returned. The diary that had vanished with her also ca back.
Tears poured down uncontrollably. A breakdown seed imminent. But in the next second, the pain on her face smoothed away, and the tear filled eyes turned hollow again. Ash Cinders had activated her control skill in ti.
Rita stepped forward and took the diary back. A slip of paper was tucked inside. On it were two lines of bold BS script, written with force:
"You are belittling my pain.
QM Rita"
Rita clenched the note, unable to refute it.
Was it because the diary’s description of pain was not deep enough for her to empathize?
Or had her attention been drawn too much to QM Rita’s rapidly growing strength, causing her to overlook the suffering hidden between the lines?
She did not want to admit it.
The diary had jolted her awake. Without realizing it, she had already gained so much happiness.
Only soone who had escaped pain and entered happiness would dare to be curious about her own nightmare.
She always said she did not want much. But in truth, no one was greedier than her.
Gaining Nivalis’ loyalty was not enough. Gaining Apache’s approval was not enough. Gaining that ambiguous affection from Deceitful Bloom was not enough. Gaining Lightchaser’s stubborn resolve to bring her back to Isolated Isle even at the cost of abandoning her soul fla was not enough. Even gaining Ash Cinders’ affection was not enough.
She greedily absorbed every bit of warmth, never caring whether the echoes of the snow country would wound those who gave it.
When she read the line, "She said she could see how happy the other version of herself was," her first reaction had not been doubt or confusion, but sudden understanding and guilt.
And those two lines, pressed deep into the paper, carried emotions she could hardly imagine.
By the ti Ash Cinders finished interrogating the Quiet Mountain resident, she had already taken control of her again.
Teacher and student did not exchange information imdiately. They both used movent skills to leave the house and reach another pre arranged safe point.
Only after clearing all traces with various skills did Ash Cinders speak.
"She entered the ga as a visitor. Only after completing ten Demon Gas can she obtain formal player status."
"So visitors are not forced to keep playing continuously, right?"
"Yes. And the rewards are very generous. You probably scanned it already. That player gained fifteen levels from just one ga. There may be other rewards too." Ash Cinders did not ntion how close the resident had been to collapse. "Do you want to try tomorrow? She will probably be waiting for you in the ga."
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