After BS Rita left By's Graveyard of Bones, Deceitful Bloom stayed behind in the tavern, quietly drinking.
She didn't leave.
The gathering didn't end.
If anything, the faint floral fragrance in the air only made the place livelier. Everyone present could tell—Deceitful Bloom was in a very good mood.
They were all veterans, people who had lived through countless apocalypses. No one could mourn Starsea day and night forever. Call it numbness, call it end-of-the-world indulgence—either way, spirits were high.
Each of them watched the players they were following, chatting idly about who they might encounter, which old acquaintances they might et again, waiting for the mont they would be summoned.
It had only been the second day, but Ashveil was already getting impatient.
"Do you think they've forgotten they can summon gods in this ga?"
"Maybe," Boiling Orange replied. "Or maybe so of them rember, but just refuse to use it. Asking for help probably feels worse than dying to them."
He didn't na anyone, but everyone knew exactly who he ant.
Foolishness's lips curved slightly as she was about to speak—
Then her brows knit together.
A sneak attack?
She tilted her head slightly to the left, elegantly dodging the incoming object. It didn't seem to carry much force, but just as it passed her, the black lump abruptly changed direction midair—
And smacked directly into the corner of her eye.
It bounced once and landed on the table.
The entire table fell silent.
Every gaze turned toward the object that had successfully ambushed Foolishness.
Even Deceitful Bloom, who had been quietly drinking, turned her head.
Her eyes lowered slowly, settling on the dirty lump on the table.
For a long mont, she didn't look away.
There was a strange stillness in her gaze.
For the first ti, those beautiful crimson eyes looked… slightly blank.
The atmosphere grew heavy. Almost suffocating.
Finally, Boiling Orange climbed onto his chair and reached out with a paw, nudging the object open. So dirt flaked off onto the table as he did so.
His paw trembled slightly as he unfolded it.
His mouth slowly ford an "O" shape.
"Sock… wa—"
He caught himself just in ti, rembering the last ti he got kicked out of the tavern, and smoothly changed his tone.
Deceitful Bloom pressed her lips together, her gaze shifting to Foolishness, who had completely frozen in place.
A smile tugged at her lips as she tried—unsuccessfully—to suppress her laughter.
"Whose sock is this?" she asked lightly. "Foolishness, why don't you sll it? Maybe you can find the culprit."
Hearthsmoke leaned over to take a look.
"Why so quiet? Foolishness, did getting a gift make you this happy?"
The amusent in Deceitful Bloom's voice was impossible to hide.
"Most likely BS Rita's. The real question is… has it been worn?"
At the ntion of a certain keyword, Foolishness finally seed to co back to life.
She spoke two words.
"Two idiots."
Her index finger twitched slightly around the glass in her hand—
And the sock shot across the table like a concealed weapon, straight toward Deceitful Bloom.
"…"
For a split second, Deceitful Bloom's pupils actually trembled.
She had never reacted this fast before.
She instantly activated her ability.
Vines erupted from the ground, blooming into a tree that blocked the incoming sock. At the sa ti, a branch shot forward, swatting the "weapon" back toward its sender.
The tavern instantly beca even more chaotic.
The noise level doubled.
…
anwhile, Rita spent five full days in QM Foolishness's Graveyard of Bones—and gained an enormous amount from it.
Just like Starsea Foolishness, as long as you could keep up, QM Foolishness was an incredible teacher.
The pace was intense.
One major breakthrough per day.
And the most impressive part—QM Foolishness could simulate all kinds of magical items for practice.
Starsea Foolishness's rune reconstruction thod was essentially a way to temporarily raise the upper limit of skills.
QM Foolishness's theory—temporarily enhancing the limits of items—shared a similar foundation.
By the third day, Rita had officially grasped the basics.
For the remaining two days, she focused entirely on experinting with the six magical items she had marked, running test after test inside QM Foolishness's simulations.
As for QM Foolishness—
While teaching, she constantly played with My Sigh's Truth or Dare, Truth function.
Every ti she rolled a ga that could cross space and distance, she would imdiately use it to harass Starsea Foolishness from afar.
At first, Rita was uneasy about it.
That sock…
The image of it flying into the sky replayed in her mind again and again.
What if her own future ended the sa way?
The more she thought about it, the worse it felt.
But after QM Foolishness rolled a ga called One Nightmare…
Rita completely gave up caring.
Over these days, QM Foolishness had triggered countless mini-gas—roughly one every half hour.
Rita initially kept an eye on them, but as the lessons grew more complex and demanding, she stopped paying attention entirely.
So when music suddenly started playing, she didn't even react.
She was completely imrsed in her assignnt.
She was so close—just one step away from pushing her divine relic's skill to SP level.
And once that upgrade was complete, stacking QM Foolishness's enhancent thod on top of it—
That would be absurd.
At that point, she could probably step on QM Rita and punch QM Mistblade.
B80, sitting nearby, glanced at her several tis, clearly wanting to say sothing.
Rita waved it off and told it to go play.
If it was bored, it could take out the handheld console from the Gacha Machine—just like Nivalis used to do back in High Tower.
Only when the music grew louder and more intense—
And only after Rita finally solved QM Foolishness's assignnt—
Did she turn around to see what was going on.
And froze.
QM Foolishness had transford into Starsea Foolishness…
And was dancing in front of the coin.
Apparently not very skilled at it, she had even dragged B80 to the front to lead the dance.
And considering B80 had spent so much ti around Nivalis—
The choreography was… questionable.
Rita sucked in a sharp breath.
What… is this?
She didn't dare make a sound.
Only after QM Foolishness finally finished did Rita cautiously approach.
"…What ga was that?"
QM Foolishness flicked her hair and returned to her original form.
"One Nightmare."
One Nightmare: after activating this ga, you can cross space and distance to enter a target's dream. You may either wait until the target falls asleep to trigger the effect, or pre-record a segnt, which will then be played in the target's dream once they sleep.
Rita imdiately started packing her things.
"I'm cutting ties with you."
QM Foolishness wagged a finger.
"Too late. The mont you entered my Graveyard of Bones, she saw you. Since you didn't leave, she already knows it's . And this isn't even my ability—otherwise I'd have been giving her nightmares every day."
She paused, then added reassuringly,
"Don't worry. We're very rational. Another definitely won't take it out on you."
Rita stared at her blankly.
"…Right. She won't get angry. That's too low-level for her."
"She'll just turn into a bullet. Na it 'Idiot.'"
QM Foolishness looked her up and down with genuine curiosity.
"You really understand us."
Rita: ......
At this point, there was no escaping it.
She might as well learn as much as possible—
So that the next ti she t Foolishness, she could survive at least a little longer.
Long enough to dump all responsibility onto QM Foolishness.
Still, she made one thing clear.
She reached out her hand.
"I'm taking My Sigh back."
QM Foolishness instantly pulled it behind her.
"No."
Then she added casually,
"I can teach you how to temporarily seal other players' items. Only three seconds—but in a fight, that's more than enough to change everything."
Rita's hand, halfway extended, slowly retracted.
She flipped her hair back with practiced elegance.
"Teacher," she said seriously,
"when do we begin?"
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