The most mild-tempered minotaur spoke matter-of-factly. "She’s figured out sothing none of us have."
Fat Goose straightened his back. "Knew it! I told you I couldn’t possibly be that dumb."
Mistblade and Maple Syrup both relaxed a little.
Right, it wasn’t that their brains couldn’t keep up.
The blood elf asked, "Aside from gathering intel on other apprentices, what’s she been doing these days?"
Fat Goose replied, "Drawing maps. Counting statues. That sort of thing."
"So... she was aiming for the championship from the start?"
Maple Syrup gave the blood elf a baffled look, as if she’d just asked sothing ridiculous. "Of course. Why else would she be here?"
The blood elf murmured, "I thought she was just... giving it a try."
The black cat suddenly spoke. "You know why she made you leave the team back then? It’s because you were always thinking, ’Let’s just try this run,’ instead of thinking, like she does, ’The championship will be mine.’"
The air around the blood elf and the black cat instantly grew still and heavy.
Mistblade and the others didn’t even dare breathe. Even the minotaur stayed quiet.
After a long mont, the blood elf pulled the corner of her mouth in a stiff smile, her voice dry. "That’s not how she thinks."
The cat, displeased by the rebuttal, pressed, "Then how does she think?"
The blood elf looked at the apprentice on the main screen, eyes steady and fearless, her very gaze gleaming like a drawn blade. For a mont, she overlapped perfectly with the mory of Lightchaser.
Almost in a whisper, she said, "She thinks, ’This is my era. I chase the sun, and the world chases .’"
This ti, the black cat didn’t argue.
...
Rita had never considered using Mistblade’s copy skill to take a shortcut.
It wasn’t that she disliked shortcuts by nature—it was that shortcuts risked breaking the final result.
She’d rather spend more ti gathering [Demon’s Pass] than lose her chance over a single mistake.
And she didn’t believe other players would instantly grasp the ga’s true playstyle just by watching what she did.
The statues’ placent mattered.
Every demon statue was set a certain distance apart—never too close, though they could be far.
The one real complication was that when residents died, their [Demon’s Pass] vanished with them. Only passes won in the fun match or team match dropped upon a contestant’s death.
That ant she could only hunt contestants carrying a [Demon’s Pass]. From what she knew, there were fewer than twenty such players.
Her plan was simple: kill as many as she could, stockpile the passes. If sothing went wrong—like a statue getting destroyed—she’d have spares to replace them. Plus, it would raise the difficulty for everyone else.
Following the alerts on her wristband, she moved toward the busiest areas. Players with [Demon’s Pass] didn’t have to worry about city guards, so they loved gathering where trouble was.
Maybe she wouldn’t find one the first or second ti, but by the fourth, fifth, sixth... she always ca across apprentices wearing a [Demon’s Pass].
Much faster than searching aimlessly.
With her deliberate hunting, the spectators soon understood what she was looking for.
But how did collecting [Demon’s Pass] tie into the solo match’s objective?
Seven... eight... now the ninth pass!
Finally, Rita stopped.
Three hours had passed. Starting from her sixth pass, she’d noticed other apprentices competing with her—whether because they’d cracked the ga’s mystery, sensed this was a clue, or just wanted the role for themselves, she couldn’t be sure.
Either way, it was ti to act.
But what was her key?
She returned to the ice cream shop. Boiling Orange was scooping with a scowl, but his eyes lit up when he saw her. "Perfect timing. Since I helped you figure out the ga, can you deliver so ice cream to the Old District for ? For that white bear."
"Sure," Rita said, "as long as you tell why your key is a burning orange."
"Oh, that’s nothing secret. Ever heard of a soul fla? Mine happens to be a burning orange."
Carrying a large box of ice cream out of the shop, Rita felt even more confused. She’d never seen her own soul fla—only Lightchaser had.
No matter how many tis she’d asked, Lightchaser never told her what it looked like.
The Old District was lively as ever. Those who’d followed Rita in hadn’t managed to get out.
Any apprentice who spotted her carrying that box assud it was sothing valuable.
But this was still the budget version of Rita—anyone who approached, she cut down. Even those with better stats could be worn down until they fell.
After so effort, she reached the white bear’s door and knocked. "Hi, Boiling Orange sent with so ice cream."
The door opened on its own. The white bear was tinkering with sothing that looked like a gacha machine, while the orchid mantis guest perched on a cloud table in the yard.
Rita set the ice cream beside the mantis, but didn’t leave.
Without looking up, the bear asked, "Sothing else?"
Rita asked respectfully, "Is there any way, besides using a skill, to see your own soul fla?"
The bear gave her a strange look. "Why ’besides a skill’?"
"My teacher said skills that can see soul flas are rare."
The bear’s eyes widened in surprise. "That’s just a basic little skill. Any halfway decent player’s got one."
Rita’s eyes widened too. "Really? But..."
But Lightchaser said it was rare. And she’d never seen it at Moonlight Marsh, or among Divine Ga contestants.
The bear sighed. "Players’ abilities vary. What you can see depends on your level. I get it."
Hiding at Qihua’s place to avoid apprentices, Foolishness: ...Can’t listen to this anymore.
Rita said stiffly, "My teacher’s strong."
The bear didn’t argue, just smiled easily. That calm made Rita feel like her defense of Lightchaser sounded like a child’s sulky retort.
Before she could think of how to set the record straight, the bear waved a paw. "Go on. The answer’s in the ga—anyone can find it."
The mantis suddenly spoke up. "You’re hinting her again!"
The bear blinked. He wasn’t!
Looking up, he saw little BS-Rita staring at her wristband, eyes shining.
He glanced at the mantis, silently protesting: I really didn’t an to this ti.
The next mont, Rita pulled a [Demon’s Pass] from her pocket and crushed it with all her strength.
With the sound of fire igniting, the broken token beca an image in midair.
A cot, flying upward. She’d heard cots were beautiful, but seeing one for herself, she realized the rumors hadn’t lied—it was more dazzling than sun, moon, or stars.
Its long tail, nearly twice her height, held countless stars of varying sizes.
It was as if the cot had drifted through a starlit sky.
The stars’ size didn’t change with distance from the cot’s core, but the one closest to it was the largest of all.
The cot’s pale-blue glow lit the stars, but unless you looked closely, you couldn’t see their colors—they were hidden by the cot’s brilliance.
"This... is my soul fla?"
"Mm."
The apprentice stayed silent for a long ti, until the bear asked, "Don’t like it?"
"Like it! Of course I like it... I know what they are. This is exactly how I imagined myself."
The stars in the tail were the most important presences in her life. They were a part of her, a part of her soul—but the one steering her path, deciding her final destination, was always herself.
She wanted the world to witness another Lightchaser Mont. She wanted to claim GodDraw77—for Lightchaser, and for the ambition Lightchaser had ignited in her.
Lightchaser had started an era. She could too.
They would both have their own Blue Mont.
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