By turned her deep red eyes toward BS Rita.
The latter returned a fake smile.
[Talent Ability "Breaking Branches" has been recorded.]
The two had already completely fallen out during their previous parting, and neither wished to give the other a pleasant expression now.
To By, BS Rita was extrely unpleasant to look at.
Not only was this player disobedient, she had even dared fight back against Deceitful Bloom.
More importantly, her existence was special.
By understood Deceitful Bloom well.
That person had extraordinarily high standards and an endless amount of twisted amusent.
At first, Deceitful Bloom had probably only noticed BS Rita on a whim.
But as Rita grew increasingly exceptional, Deceitful Bloom changed her mind.
And after that, things spiraled completely out of control.
BS Rita was not only the sole player to drag worlds out of the invasion sequence, she had now even stopped the pendulum itself.
As the very first person to discover her, there was no way Deceitful Bloom's gaze could ever leave her again.
Most importantly, this person neither understood tact nor accepted control.
To Deceitful Bloom, BS Rita was like the perfect golden apple she had personally cultivated but could never pluck.
The best way to make Deceitful Bloom stop looking at that golden apple...
Was for the apple to rot.
Only then would Deceitful Bloom turn away without hesitation.
However...
That possibility was perhaps even lower than the chance of Deceitful Bloom forgiving her.
And in Rita's eyes, By was simply insane.
After leaving By's Graveyard of Bones, she had once asked Nivalis:
If By knew she would be pruned for lacking enough Brilliance, and Nivalis faced the exact sa choice, what would she do?
Nivalis had answered:
"Why don't you just ask directly who I'd save if both you and Holy Cup fell into the water?"
Rita pressed her fingers together against Nivalis' temple.
"If you don't answer honestly, I'll shoot you."
So Nivalis said:
"If suffering could make you Brilliance, if it could stop you from being pruned, then I'll just die instead.
"Don't worry. I'll drag B80 with so I won't be lonely."
There was no need to describe how violently B80's cube spun at the ti.
In any case, Rita had liked that answer very much.
She could not display even the slightest rejection or anger toward such devotion and obsession.
That would feel far too hypocritical.
Compared to By, her own little gremlin was much sunnier.
After recording By's talent ability, Rita imdiately let go of her and returned to the pendulum to continue farming Order Clock's wool.
While at it, she also dragged Lightchaser farther away from By.
By casually followed over anyway and crouched beside her, observing what she was doing.
After watching for several seconds, she suddenly whispered:
"Have you heard the notification saying you're being watched?"
"..."
Rita finally understood why By had co over to stick this close to her.
Using her as free wifi, huh?
Rita sneered.
"No. Give up."
[You are being watched]...
[You are being watched]...
Rita: "..."
Who was it this ti?
Why did everyone love watching drama so much?!
Expressionless, she stretched out a hand and pushed By farther away.
"Stay away from . I don't really like you."
But By's eyes instantly brightened.
The black Variational Quicksand happily scattered and reford around her.
She scooted back over and crouched down again, hugging her knees while staring fixedly at BS Rita, unwilling to miss even the slightest shift in expression.
Then she began muttering to herself:
"I'm not pretending to be stupid anymore. I transford my tiline into Beacon's appearance. You can co anyti to hear apologize.
"In the future, I'll reserve three minutes just for waiting.
"The remaining two minutes and six seconds aren't because I don't want to give them to you. I'm worried you won't co.
"I need to save a little ti to ask around about how you're doing.
"If you're willing to co on your own, then even better. I can spend the entire five minutes and six seconds waiting for you."
Although Rita disliked being used by By as a signal booster, she still did not stop her rambling.
If she wanted, she could simply establish a rule preventing the other party from speaking.
But Rita was not one of those overbearing Vineborne who loved making decisions for others.
She respected people very much, alright?
What if Deceitful Bloom actually wanted to hear this?
And if Deceitful Bloom truly did not want to listen, she could just hang up on her side herself.
By's mouth kept going nonstop.
Though her voice remained soft and gentle, her rapid speech gave it an oddly cheerful and lively feeling instead.
Resting her chin on one hand, Rita continued farming soul fire.
This feeling of endlessly dumping points into stats was absurdly addictive.
Moreover, she could sense that the soul fires flowing into her forehead contained enormous amounts of knowledge and rules she could not yet fully comprehend.
Those would require ti and effort to slowly understand.
"Are you even listening?"
By suddenly poked BS Rita with a finger.
Rita imdiately windmilled her arm several tis to shake the finger away.
"...How would I know? I'm warning you not to push your luck!"
"Ah..."
By perhaps guessed that Deceitful Bloom was unwilling to listen to even a single word from her, because she abruptly changed topics.
"Hey, BS Rita, why don't you just worship Deceitful Bloom?
"I bet if there's another opportunity, she'll still manipulate you again.
"Don't expect her to apologize or try to please you just because she sched against you. That's not who Deceitful Bloom is.
"But if you worship her, maybe she'll lose interest in you."
Before Rita could respond, BSCicada's furious voice rang out first.
"That is absolutely impossible. I'm living proof."
By and Rita slowly turned their heads to look at BSCicada.
The expressions on both their faces beca extrely subtle.
By's smile gradually faded into cold disdain.
Rita, anwhile, looked at BSCicada like she was an idiot.
"Did you forget how you cursed Deceitful Bloom out during the Player Relic ga...?"
BSCicada pressed her lips together tightly and eventually let out a small huff.
Thinking about it, By frowned deeply and fell into contemplation.
After a long while, she muttered:
"Could it be that she just likes rebellious ones? Maybe I'm still not rebellious enough?"
Rita: "...Please stop thinking."
If even By did not count as rebellious, then what possibly did?
And if By still wanted to improve, would Deceitful Bloom ever know peace again?
Thinking back to Nivalis' answer earlier, Rita asked:
"Did it never occur to you that maybe killing yourself in front of her could also achieve your goal?"
There were too many people present, so BS Rita spoke vaguely.
But By understood.
Her crimson eyes slowly widened as she stared blankly at BS Rita, as though hearing the most horrifying story imaginable.
Only then did Rita realize that By's eye shape was actually extrely sharp and cold by nature.
It naturally carried an edge.
But those eyes were always slightly curved with a faint smile, and combined with her soft voice and elegant deanor, people constantly mistook her for soone gentle.
In truth, this Vineborne's personality was exactly like her na.
Everything had to be decided by her.
Including Deceitful Bloom's fate and future.
Her gaze unfocused as she stared blankly at the small patch of red on Flower Crown Murder worn by BS Rita.
But did she regret it?
Rita looked directly into By's eyes and examined them carefully for a long ti.
Yet she could not find even the slightest trace of remorse.
This mad gambler had Wagered Everything for the ideal in her heart.
And now soone was telling her:
Perhaps you didn't need to Wager Everything.
Maybe betting yourself alone would have been enough to make her suffer enough...
enough to make her Brilliance enough that rules and order would hesitate to prune her...
This was a possibility Beacon By had never once imagined.
The hypothesis was too beautiful.
Far too beautiful.
But even if she could do it all again...
She would still bet everything.
Because she simply could not afford to lose.
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