"That’s actually great. She’s only competing with herself."
QM Foolishness didn’t respond to Rita’s comnt. Her expression stayed calm as ever, but her tone clearly lifted, even her hair seeming to shine a little brighter. That ant Fireglint was in an extrely good mood.
Obviously, she liked that sentence a lot. Praising Starsea Foolishness was the sa as praising her.
Rita felt like she had just discovered sothing important...
QM Foolishness continued, "She believes not every Starsea player should exist just for combat. Since this world’s chaos and disorder arrived in the form of a ga, then so beings should be allowed to simply enjoy it.
"With that idea, she created one toy after another.
"They can be used for fun, but if the player is willing, they can also be used in battle when necessary."
"How do you tell the difference between a toy and a relic?" she went on. "The mont you get it, if your first reaction is that it’s fun rather than thinking about how it performs in combat, then it’s a toy.
"If you find yourself taking it out to play with when you’re bored, then it’s definitely a toy."
Rita couldn’t rember her exact thoughts when she first got Foolishness Ga or Plush Collar, but she was pretty sure her first reaction wasn’t about whether they were fun. It was about whether they were useful in battle.
She wisely chose to stay quiet.
Even as QM Foolishness drifted further off topic, talking about toys, relics, and the Foolishness of that era without getting to Foolishness Ga itself, Rita didn’t interrupt. She was genuinely interested anyway.
"I know the current rules," QM Foolishness said. "Each person can only equip six magical items, right? And if you switch, the removed item goes on cooldown."
She paused and looked straight at Rita, as if saying: your turn.
Rita’s earlier suspicion was instantly confird.
So talking to QM Foolishness required emotional feedback...
Starsea Foolishness never acted like this. Or maybe she just hid it better?
Either way, Rita imdiately cooperated.
"Yes! It’s so inconvenient!" she said, then quickly asked, "Was it different before?"
"Exactly! Foolishness made the Order Clock change the rules for her!"
"Wow!"
Rita didn’t stop there. She even ssaged B80 privately: say wow.
B80: "Wow."
QM Foolishness gave B80 a brief indifferent glance, then continued, looking back at Rita.
"In our era, rankings were calculated based on your attributes, talents, combat skills, and also your six most frequently used magical items.
"The system would evaluate everything together to produce the most stable ranking, so switching equipnt wouldn’t cause big fluctuations.
"And when it was ti to compete, you could only bring six items."
"And then?" Rita asked. "What did Foolishness do?"
"She brought a large amount of materials onto the stage. During the match, she would craft new items on the spot based on her opponent’s abilities, creating toys that specifically countered them."
This ti, Rita’s "wow" was completely genuine.
Honestly, never ss with soone who’s good at crafting.
Talking about that competition clearly stirred QM Foolishness’s emotions.
"How was I supposed to know you could do that?!" she said. "If I’d known, I would’ve brought a whole inventory of materials too! Who can’t craft on the spot?!"
After the initial shock faded, Rita’s mood turned heavy.
Deceitful Bloom was powerful. Foolishness was powerful.
And yet... Starsea still lost.
When QM Foolishness noticed her distraction and asked if she didn’t want to continue, Rita honestly explained what she had been thinking.
She wasn’t worried about offending her.
At this point, she understood why Starsea Foolishness had given her QM Foolishness’s burial location.
QM Foolishness was pure. Almost to the point of being naive.
She didn’t hate Starsea players. If anything, she seed to have been waiting for soone she could talk to.
Starsea Foolishness had introduced another version of herself to Rita in this way.
QM Foolishness said, "When I ntioned the final battle earlier, you didn’t seem surprised. I thought you already knew how it worked."
"I only know it starts with one-on-one fights," Rita replied. "But there might also be team battles? Otherwise Deceitful Bloom wouldn’t have taught combination techniques.
"I also know that the Order Badge is the qualification for Quiet Mountain players. But I don’t know what determines Starsea’s qualification."
She hadn’t expected her first discussion about the final battle system to be with a dead Quiet Mountain player.
"It is one-on-one," QM Foolishness confird. "And after that, there is a team battle. The team size is fixed.
"If players die during the individual matches, gods from previous eras will take their place."
Gods... replacing players?
Even those who had already beco gods could still participate?
At that mont, several vague inconsistencies in Rita’s mind suddenly resurfaced.
Like the description in Let It Die:
"Hearthsmoke and Foolishness always say eating my food feels like health preservation. I really don’t have the heart to tell them my secret is just swapping potion ingredients with random food... this was Deceitful Bloom’s idea."
If Dustfire and Foolishness were from the sa era, then why did Dustfire sound so familiar with Deceitful Bloom?
Familiar enough that it felt like all of them belonged to the sa ti.
Unless... they actually had spent ti together before Dustfire died.
And what about the eight special thrones in the temple? Did they represent so kind of qualification or contribution?
"How many people are in a team battle?" Rita asked.
"...Do you still want to hear about Foolishness?" QM Foolishness’s tone cooled slightly.
"...Yes!" Rita imdiately dropped the topic.
She straightened up, placed her right hand over her left shoulder like making an oath, and said solemnly,
"That’s not important. Right now I only care about Foolishness. I want to hear the story that made Divine Ga create a separate category just for you."
"...."
QM Foolishness’s lips curved slightly before flattening again. She looked Rita up and down, then frowned a little.
"Vineborne..." she muttered, clearly thinking of Deceitful Bloom, who could sweet-talk anyone into a fool.
"BS Rita, right? What’s your racial talent?"
"Honesty."
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