Kayden's two seemingly disjointed sentences, combined with the three consecutive "very's," caused Rita's heart to race. Kayden hadn't ntioned any news or moves from Lania Kaia, but just the information she provided was enough for Rita to piece together a lot of potential consequences.
So *Divine Gifts* were scary but not insurmountable. After all, it's not realistic to use a *Divine Gift* on every single person you see. For example, Rita often thought about using her *Insight* on everyone who approached her, but doing so was exhausting and required significant effort.
It was like trying to check the profile of every person who comnted on a social dia post you ca across. Plus, so *Divine Gifts* had hundreds of words in their descriptions, and you couldn't stare at soone too long without arousing suspicion. That made things even more complicated and tiring.
But if this new deputy city lord had a thing for small animals, that changed everything.
People who loved animals could sotis be downright obsessive—so even found joy in watching animals relieve themselves, carefully observing every little detail.
The worst part? Unlike the player she saw in the crystal ball, who could disguise themselves as an alien and freely move through the city without always returning to a safe house, those who could only transform into animals would inevitably need to return to the safe house to rest and regroup.
Rita couldn't afford to waste any more ti. Her left hand grabbed a handful of gold coins from under the counter and handed them to Kayden. Her right hand quickly opened her chat window to send a ssage to Shadow.Q. Her fingers moved faster than they had the day Rick was trapped in the apartnt by Zoey's group.
Her urgency wasn't driven by noble or selfless intentions. It was a simple, straightforward, and sowhat selfish reason: the better Special Affairs Bureau perford, the more freedom she, as a lone wolf, would have. If the Bureau handled the heavy lifting, she could roam around without the burden of responsibility. Discover exclusive tales on empire
**Rita:** "The new deputy city lord in the Undercity has a talent that lets him review the last 30 days of a living creature's mories. Also, he *really, really, really* loves small animals. Have any players who can transform into animals been captured in the Undercity recently?"
**Shadow.Q:** "Got it. Reporting this imdiately. Will update."
Shadow.Q's response was terse, indicating her urgency. She didn't even have ti to type out full sentences.
This ability was terrifying.
Imagine a necromancer in love with cute animals, cuddling a tiny puppy, showering it with affection, and using his skill to see what adorable antics it had been up to. Only to discover the puppy had left the city, transford into a bald, muscular man in furry pants, and made a beeline for the Blue Star safe house.
*Yikes…*
Rita had no desire to stick around. She knew Kayden had already reached her limit with that piece of information. Rita pulled out another pouch of gold coins, stuffed 200 into it, and handed it to Kayden. "Thank you! I owe you for this. Do you have a way to erase this mory?
I'm worried you might be in danger."
Kayden accepted the pouch, her smile growing brighter as she saw the additional gold. She was a small fry. If not for Apache saving her, she would have long been crushed under the foot of so noble. For her, war was a distant concept—she wouldn't enjoy the spoils of victory. Without Apache's protection, she'd be one of the first to be sacrificed.
Even before the appearance of Blue Star, the Twelve Saint Tribes were constantly at war with each other. In fact, they still quietly jostled for power today. To Kayden, the Blue Star people weren't all that different from the other tribes.
Maybe one day, the Blue Star people would beco the Thirteenth Saint Tribe, and they'd all go back to fighting again until they found a new Fourteenth Race to battle.
The big players never cared about the small ones, so why should the small ones care about the big players' glory?
Kayden smiled. "Don't worry, with Apache around, I'll be fine."
Rita pulled out a mid-level mory-erasing potion and placed it in Kayden's hand. Her small, shriveled, green hand wrapped around Kayden's pale one, the four tiny hands layering together around the bottle. Rita looked Kayden in the eye and said firmly, "But what if?"
Kayden paused. "…Are *you* that 'what if' you're talking about?"
Rita let go of one hand and reached into her pocket, placing 10 more gold coins on the table. "For a refreshing drink."
"I *love* mory-erasing potions!" Kayden quickly wriggled free from Rita's grasp, grabbed the 10 coins with one hand, and skillfully popped the cork of the potion with her thumb.
Rita activated her *Phantom Cloak* and backed out of the shop. From the outside, she watched Kayden down the potion, which would erase the last hour of her mories. Only after confirming Kayden had consud it did Rita finally leave the alchemy shop.
---
Rita's warning set the Special Affairs Bureau into a frenzy.
Everyone was scrambling.
No one questioned Rita's credibility or suspected her of passing along false information. For one, she'd been in close contact with the Bureau, and she was a renowned player in the ga, having made it onto both the player level leaderboard and the pet leaderboard. Soone of her caliber wouldn't risk spreading false information just to ss with the Bureau.
If anything, the information was likely miscommunicated along the way, but it wouldn't be Rita's fault.
She was simply the ssenger—the responsible player who promptly reported important intel.
The Special Affairs Bureau had already implented nurous preventative asures in response to the growing knowledge of *Divine Gifts*. While Rita wasn't aware of the full extent of these asures—since she no longer traveled to Lania Kaia with the Bureau—the requirents for entering the alien cities had beco increasingly strict as more *Divine Gifts* were discovered.
One such precaution involved the players. Any player wishing to enter the alien cities had to leave the Blue Star safe house first and stay in an external safehouse for at least three days before entering a city. The current known *Divine Gifts* with mory-reading abilities only allowed access to the past 24 hours of mories.
Who would have expected an ability capable of reviewing mories up to 30 days back?
*What kind of VIP-level nonsense was this?*
The potential repercussions of this news were staggering. The Bureau even postponed verifying the information's accuracy to focus on more imdiate concerns.
The first order of business was to arrange the imdiate return of all players stationed near the 36 major cities to their respective safe houses, preparing for a potential full-scale evacuation.
Each Blue Star safe house had been equipped with three group teleportation stones specifically designed for ergencies like this. The priority now was to get as many players back to safety as possible. Those who couldn't make it in ti were advised to find their own hiding spots.
The goal was to ensure the majority of players could safely return to Blue Star, while a small team would later return to the cities to destroy any evidence and cover their tracks.
This was the most efficient plan, minimizing both risks and losses.
User Comments
0 comments from readers