"Did she trick you again?"

Undead Wildfire’s amused voice came from above her head.

Clearly, she understood Deceitful Bloom quite well too.

But suddenly, Rita remembered something from when she had been creating her Player Relic.

Back then, she had always felt unable to perfectly recreate it.

Whenever she reached a point where her brushwork could no longer match her imagination and emotions, it felt as though an invisible hand stretched out from the void, gently holding the hand that gripped her brush and guiding her to paint even better.

And then there was the reward after the [Divine Instruction] game ended:

Player Relic Upgrade.

At the time, there had been two choices.

Manual upgrade.

Or random upgrade.

"...The random upgrade will be performed by a certain god, who will redraw Echoes of the Snowbound Realm according to Their perception of you. This process contains great uncertainty, but after the god redraws it, the rank and abilities of the Player Relic will inevitably rise dramatically."

Could that "certain god" have been her?

But regardless of whether it had been Deceitful Bloom or not, the more Rita thought about it, the more irritated she became.

She kicked her legs furiously in the air several times.

Tricked again.

Tricked again.

Tricked again!!!

No wonder later on, every time Foolishness saw her teaching Deceitful Bloom how to paint, she would remove her glasses and slowly wipe the lenses while staring at Deceitful Bloom without blinking.

She had probably been waiting to see whether Deceitful Bloom would blush.

But Deceitful Bloom would never blush.

She even brought the painting homework Rita assigned her over to Foolishness for evaluation, asking whether she was learning well enough.

No wonder when Deceitful Bloom said she was both teacher and student, her Vine had swayed so happily.

She had not been happy because of the teacher and student thing at all.

She had been happy because she had tricked Rita again!

Damn it!!!

Watching the other version of herself suddenly lose her mind, Undead Wildfire felt her filter shatter completely.

A moment ago she had been so elegant and mysterious.

Why had she suddenly become mentally ill?

Rita yanked World Sigh off her face and sat upright to glare at Undead Wildfire.

Undead’s pale skin had flushed slightly red with anger.

"She clearly knows how to paint!"

"And she still made me become her teacher and teach her painting!"

Undead Wildfire: "...That sounds amazing though?"

Rita stared at her in disbelief.

Undead Wildfire immediately corrected herself.

"Ah, I mean... that’s way too much. So are you going to expose her?"

Rita pressed her lips together.

Then fell into an extremely suspicious silence...

Undead Wildfire: "..."

After watching Rita leave, Undead Wildfire sat atop Dawn’s tower with her chin propped in one hand, staring at the golden sunset in the distance.

"Did another you come by?"

Foolishness’s voice sounded behind her.

Although Undead Wildfire did not possess Cat’s Ideal, and Starsea and Quiet Mountain had not reconciled in her timeline, after Rita obtained authority she had removed many restrictions from Undead Wildfire’s world as well.

Over the past hundred years, Starsea gods frequently descended into various worlds.

Sometimes to teach players.

Sometimes simply to revisit their homelands.

"Mm."

Undead Wildfire nodded at her teacher.

"They’re returning to the First Epoch."

"Is that so?"

"I hope once everything is over, she’ll share the answers she finds."

"She will."

"Does she possess [Foolishness Game]?"

"She does."

Undead Wildfire suddenly became excited.

"But the Foolishness of her world didn’t guide it into her hands."

"She stole it from Teacher Foolishness herself."

"And they even fought."

"Then after gambling with a demon, Teacher Foolishness reclaimed [Foolishness Game]."

"And then she stopped wanting it."

"So Teacher Foolishness shoved it back into her hands instead."

"?"

"Oh right."

"She also made Teacher Foolishness fight Teacher Deceitful Bloom while one was holding fresh green onions and the other was holding carrots."

"???"

Foolishness lowered her head and glanced at her ring.

Truth?

"Yes, it’s true. I checked immediately back then."

"Oh, and she also pissed Teacher Foolishness off so badly she ran away from home several times."

"?!!"

"And also... teacher, look at this. Is this you?"

Undead Wildfire pulled out a polaroid photo.

An orchid mantis in the picture posed professionally toward the camera.

Her chin was tilted upward.

One hand rested behind her head.

The other pointed dramatically at the ground.

The image was so devastatingly delicious that Undead Wildfire only showed it to Foolishness for a single second before quickly snatching it back.

"...Absolutely not."

Foolishness maintained a calm expression.

"Spend less time with her. Don’t let her corrupt you."

"Yes teacher. I always listen to teacher."

"Give me the photo."

"No."

...

After returning to BS, Rita began packing up every world.

She summoned all Divine Game players back to Cat’s Ideal, which rested within Quiet Mountain.

Then she began storing every surviving Starsea world into World Sigh.

Each time a world was absorbed, the corresponding puzzle piece within the illustration titled "Game Invasion" lit up.

And every world stored inside the illustration immediately entered a state of frozen time.

The only danger was obvious.

If Rita’s authority shattered, those worlds would be destroyed alongside it.

QQM Lynx Duke and QM Deceitful Bloom stood behind her, staring at her without blinking.

Only after Rita raised Cat’s Ideal into the sky and stored the endless Quiet Mountain into the painting as well did the two of them finally relax.

Their reaction almost made Rita laugh.

She turned to look at them and asked:

"Wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t take Quiet Mountain?"

"Maybe once I leave with Starsea’s worlds, the Order Clock will stop moving."

"And besides, no one knows what’ll happen after this."

"Maybe Quiet Mountain really will end up buried alongside Starsea."

QQM Lynx Duke looked at BS Rita with dark eyes.

"That wouldn’t be such a bad ending either."

Then she turned and left.

Rita lightly brushed her fingers across the softly glowing illustration before firmly snapping the book shut.

Within the starry sky, Cat’s Ideal sailed toward the massive Order Clock.

Deceitful Bloom walked past holding a cup of coffee.

"Who else are we picking up?"

"You tell me."

Rita gave her a meaningful glance.

She resisted and resisted, but ultimately still did not expose the fact that Deceitful Bloom had tricked her.

Looking at it from another angle...

Deceitful Bloom believed she had successfully deceived Rita.

But in reality, Rita already knew the truth.

And now Rita could deceive her in return...

So who exactly was winning here?

Whether or not it counted as a mental victory, exposing her now would definitely mean Rita lost.

Deceitful Bloom silently lifted her cup and took a sip of coffee.

The rim covered most of her face and blocked Rita’s gaze.

Something felt wrong.

Had Rita discovered another one of her deceptions again?

The only question was which one this time...