6:00 PM
This ti, along with the usual ga fee deduction, every player heard a new system announcent.
[Nightti Month The Park is now open. Event gift packs have arrived.]
[Each gift pack cos with a Gacha Machine. Players may request a pull from the machine, and the gift pack cannot refuse.]
[Each gift pack has its own unique Gacha conditions. Once a request is made, the player must fulfill the requirent or pay a fine to the gift pack.]
[Loot from this event will drop in the form of plushies instead of Blocks. For every 10 plushies, players may purchase a gift box from the Exchange.]
As Rita checked what she'd just lost, she looked up at the maze sky to see whether her pet duck would drop into the ga.
She frowned, placing a cat paw on her chest.
Huh? The recently unlocked and deployed trinket [Squished Soda Can] was gone...
Ah! She actually kind of liked that item...
But not enough to pay a high price to buy it back from Verdant Whisper · Windrush.
—
On the other side of the maze…
Verdant Whisper · Windrush caught a soda can-looking Block fragnt, her brows furrowed.
Who?! Who's littering?!
Mistblade, mid-combat with her, launched another skill—Bloodmist Blade curved around toward Windrush. As she attacked, she asked with feigned concern, "Where'd the trash co from?"
Windrush dodged via teleportation and calmly answered, "...Transferred from BS-Rita."
It was obvious to anyone that this wasn't the kind of thing Abyss-tier players typically carried.
Clutching the—ugh—squished can, Windrush didn't even want to speak.
Mistblade stopped attacking to clap her hands. "Incredible, Windrush. You've pushed BS-Rita into a corner. She's gotta be regretting picking a fight with you. She's lost big ti."
Windrush: ......…
How did Mistblade manage to sound like a schoolteacher and still be so goddamn irritating?
—
The three-minute entry window ended. The maze sky chid with another notification.
[Player count in this maze has reached the critical threshold. Battle Royale mode initiated.]
[Kill 3 players to imdiately exit the maze.]
[Temporary team-up mode enabled. Players must make physical contact to form a team. Teams must kill 5× their mber count to have all mbers exit.]
[Killed players will return to the starting room and reset, losing 8% of their attributes as per March The Park rules. Lost attributes will be distributed among the Blocks they dropped.]
[In 3 minutes, all maze walls will vanish.]
[Every 5 minutes, the map will shrink by 10%.]
[The Battle Royale will end only when 3 players remain in the Spring Labyrinth. During this ti, the maze will not accept new entries.]
After hearing the announcent, Rita knew she was out of ti.
In just three minutes, the maze walls would vanish—deadly for soone like her who relied on evasive positioning. She wouldn't be able to jump or hide anymore.
Unless she fled the maze entirely…
But doing so might earn her the wrath of a dozen divine patrons.
Fortunately, she had a better plan than escape:
Team up.
And she already knew the perfect partner—
The little seahorse with the divine talent [Ignite Teammates, Warm the Baby Seahorse]!
If all incoming damage had to pass through the seahorse before reaching her, would it count as the sa source?
Even if it didn't work perfectly, her Mysterious Power was still active—she could tank quite a bit.
Plus, after transferring Phoenix Seat's cooldown with Owl Got Lost, she hadn't used Owl Got Lost again yet.
That ant she could chain this cycle:
Phoenix Seat → Mysterious Power → Owl Got Lost → Phoenix Seat → Mysterious Power
And every ti before activating Phoenix Seat, she could buffer with Unchanged Fate for five minutes.
If the seahorse still failed to rack up ten kills with that much help, she could just end the damage-transfer chanic using One-Person Party, breaking the team via technicality.
No matter what, she wouldn't back herself into a corner.
And if all else failed with the seahorse, she'd have no choice but to flee and put her hopes on Verdant Whisper · Windrush finishing the maze.
Rita canceled her disguise and opened the battle chat.
[BS-Rita]: Seahorse, you there? Want to team up? I'll tank, you deal damage.
She sent several ssages in a row.
No need to explain—if the seahorse didn't have a probe-blocking ability, then it was only natural that its divine talent was public knowledge.
And she wasn't the only one who knew.
So did Marmang·Crab, and likely any player who'd crossed paths with them.
On top of that, BS-Rita's now-famous mysterious skill?
Yeah, any combat-savvy player could see exactly what she was plotting.
[Marmang·Crab]: He's in.
[Verdant Whisper · Windrush]: I'm already nauseous.
[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: And this is why titles are useless. Who would've guessed BS-Rita's title was that?
[Red Orange · Juicy]: I had to go check it after reading your comnt.
[Lania Kaia · Pine Bloom]: Four little words. I don't even dare say them aloud.
[Lania Kaia · Goose Fat]: Wasn't it different before?
[Marmang·Crab]: It used to be "Struck by Lightning."
[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: That one actually fit her.
[BS-Rita]: Are you insulting the divine aesthetics of this ga?
[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: And you're actively testing the boundaries of divine aesthetics.
…So venomous! Rita minimized the battle chat—no point talking to Mistblade.
She began searching the maze for the seahorse.
The seahorse was searching for her too.
He knew exactly how busted BS-Rita's ability was. If they tead up and he could redirect all damage to her, the combat synergy would be insane.
He could barely imagine how godlike the experience would feel.
But the maze was huge. Finding each other in three minutes?
As the ti expired, all flower-covered walls disintegrated into petals and fell to the ground.
Rita imdiately flew into the air and shouted, "Seahorse!"
At the sa ti, she heard a hoarse voice scream, "BS-Rita!"
Across the battlefield, they locked eyes.
It was beautiful. Like Ash finally reuniting with Pidgeot.
Then ca the barrage of incoming skills hurtling toward Rita…
A deep blue helm appeared—her ship's helm.
In an instant, Rita teleported beside the seahorse.
As soon as her paw touched his head, a ladder-rank-style window popped up:
You and Marmang the Seahorse will form a temporary team. Accept?
Accept.
Almost imdiately, the two of them were buried in a cascade of skills.
Rita fixed her gaze on her HP bar, tense—
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