The ga description, difficulty level, and newbie tips were displayed in Blue Star English, while the three rules were written in different languages. Rita could only understand the second rule, written in Graveyard Tongue. The other two rules were utterly incomprehensible to her.
It suddenly dawned on her why Mistblade had "easily" forgiven her for stealing a World Graveyard. These rules were impossible to guess without prior knowledge, and even in a "foolproof" difficulty setting, there were three rules. At Mistblade's level, there would undoubtedly be more—and the penalties for breaking them wouldn't be trivial.
The worst news was that revival skills were banned. No wonder her future self had taken the trouble to leave her a warning.
The good news? You could sacrifice a god-given skill to save your life. Since it was a voluntary sacrifice, she could choose which skill to give up.
She wasn't willing to part with One-Person Party, Immortal, or Food God, but she could definitely let go of Archer's god-given skill.
She glanced at the rooms to her left and right. The displays in those rooms were obscured, hiding the details of their occupants' gas. Rita shifted her focus back to her own information, quickly formulating a plan.
She instructed Nivalis to search for the painting while she investigated the so-called Leaderboard.
The ga interface was unresponsive, but she noticed a small cartoonish human icon on the inside of her right wrist. Curious, she touched it, and a translucent rectangular screen appeared, half her height, filled with dense rows of information.
This was the leaderboard, showing combat strength rankings, not ga-specific scores, since the ga hadn't officially started.
The interface was in English—her primary language. The topmost row displayed category headers:
Rank · Na┃World · Species┃Combat Power┃Title
The top five nas caught her attention imdiately:
NightFury┃Nuclear Flash · Fruitfolk┃19th Tier Overlord┃Breath is Harmful
Frenzied Shark┃Winter Sea · Shark Abyss┃19th Tier Overlord┃Calmly Embraces Death
Wither Monarch┃Lania Kaia · Undead┃16th Tier Demon Lord┃White Bones, Withering Glory
Mistblade┃Lania Kaia · Moonfox┃15th Tier Abyss┃Blade of Bloodmist
Syntax Monarch┃Lania Kaia · Undead┃15th Tier Abyss┃Prophecy Fulfilled
So ranks were skipped, perhaps indicating players who were offline or already dead.
Rita's fingers scrolled faster, skimming through nas. Familiar ones appeared more frequently than she expected. Eventually, she reached the very bottom of the list and found her own na near the last:
82679┃Rick┃BS · Human┃2nd Tier Fool┃None
Her rank and designation as a "2nd Tier Fool" seed to match the difficulty of her ga.
Combat power tiers were divided into brackets: 1–3rd Tier were "Fools," 4–6th Tier were "Casual Players," 7–9th Tier were "Agonizers," and so on.
Given her nearly 2000 agility and other stats around 150, her placent as 2nd Tier seed ridiculously low. Perhaps she really should consider swapping all her attributes with Scorpion Monunt to boost her rank.
At the leaderboard's bottom corners, two pieces of data were displayed:
Lower left corner: Online Players - 32,931 Lower right corner: Ti - Stellar Rift Year 6678, Month 16, Day 21, 21:19.
Tapping the ti display revealed details about the Stellar Rift calendar. A year had 16 months, each with 21 days, and a star-sea day matched Blue Star's 24-hour format. Seconds, minutes, and hours ticked by at the sa pace as Blue Star ti.
Every player's na was accompanied by a high-resolution full-body image, complete with a 360° rotation feature. If not for the absence of a face-editing option, it could've been mistaken for a character customization screen.
Even their pets were displayed alongside their masters. Clicking on the images revealed detailed information about each pet.
No privacy whatsoever.
Rita sighed, pulling the fabric she'd used as a face covering tighter. Then, with an exasperated shrug, she decided: Fine, let's do this with my real face!
The leaderboard also had two tabs:
Battlefield Chat Channel: Players were already chatting away. ssages were automatically translated into languages the viewer could understand. Mission Tab: Containing detailed objectives and current progress.
When Rita opened the mission tab, the glowing text floating in the room vanished. At the sa mont, a rolled-up painting floated down, caught deftly by Nivalis' tail.
Unrolling it, Rita found two pieces of canvas: one blank and the other displaying the painting Desert Captain. These were the only materials provided—no paints, no brushes.
The painting depicted a desert under a glaring white sun. In the foreground, eleven alien creatures navigated the sands.
On the right third of the painting, three creatures fought over a ship's helm. Their mutual wariness kept any of them from making a decisive move. In the center, four creatures had fallen off the ship. They chased after it while fighting each other, stabbing and slashing with weapons. On the left, four creatures lay motionless in the sand, their bodies wounded and blood pooling beneath them.
None of the aliens' faces were visible—only their distinctive features.
Nivalis frowned. "Are they asking you to kill these creatures? Or maybe capture them alive and trap them in the painting?"
Rita shook her head uncertainly. "It's hard to say…"
What if the objective was to kill or capture aliens from other players' gas? Worse, what if she appeared in soone else's painting—as a target? Her distinct features, especially her wings, would make her impossible to miss. Stay updated with My Virtual Library Empire
The tir now read 00:02:10.
A beeping sound filled her room. Her ability to enter the battlefield two minutes early had triggered a countdown:
5—4—3—2—1!
Rita plumted once more, landing in a desert under the blazing sun.
At her two o'clock, another figure descended—a giant. Clearly, she wasn't the only one with early access.
Without hesitation, Rita turned and launched herself into the air. As she flew, she glanced back to identify her opponent.
Despite the supposed language barriers, the information displayed on her Energy-Efficient Pocket Watch was in English:
Iron Furnace · Hamr Lord Desolate General, 5th Tier Casual Player HP | MP: 100% | 100%
Consuming mana, she probed deeper into his stats and discovered two unlocked god-given skills.
Unfortunately, before she could study them, the Hamr Lord began swinging his massive chain hamr and charging after her.
Rita thanked every deity she could think of for swapping her agility with Scorpion Monunt. Without it, she would've been caught instantly. She refrained from releasing Nivalis, fearing the dragon might be crushed into a dragon egg shape by this towering enemy.
As she increased their distance, she called out in Desolate General Tongue:
"Friend! I an no harm! Let's talk this out!"
The Hamr Lord's deep voice rumbled in reply:
"Sure, just give your items as a greeting gift. Then I'll consider you my best friend."
Rita: ???
What kind of shaless nonsense was this?!
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