While Rita was writing the World Sigh of Undead Wildfire’s timeline, Undead Wildfire entered [Divine Instruction] and awakened her divine talent word: [Light and Shadow].

After recording countless World Sighs, Rita immediately understood the deeper meaning hidden within that talent word.

Light and shadow.

A divine talent word was shaped directly by a person’s thoughts, desires, obsessions, and nature. So why light and shadow?

Was it because of herself?

It should not have been possible. A talent word should never be influenced so heavily by another person, even if that person was another version of yourself.

But moments later, Rita laughed softly.

Then again, maybe that assumption itself was wrong.

In Undead Wildfire’s heart, who represented the light and who represented the shadow was not necessarily obvious.

What surprised Rita even more was what Undead Wildfire did afterward.

After the game ended, Undead Wildfire returned to Dawn and inverted the entire world of Dawn itself, merging it into shadow.

After handling Dawn, she even began asking other worlds whether they wanted to attempt the same method. She offered to help them.

She was trying to save Starsea this way.

Rita could not help appearing directly in front of her.

"How did you do that?"

Undead Wildfire nearly jumped in fright before glaring furiously at her.

"Why are you always following me around?!"

Rita replied calmly, "Talk back again and I’ll freeze you in time."

"..."

Undead Wildfire took a deep breath, forcing out an irritated smile. Then she stared directly into BS Rita’s eyes and said pointedly,

"Light and shadow rotate endlessly. I can invert everything, including war techniques and the world skills I obtained in the Quiet Mountain game."

Knowing that BS Rita had abandoned her own timeline to wander here, and remembering the strange statement she once made about "giving her time," Undead Wildfire ended up saying more than she originally intended.

"Depending on the point in time, an inverted skill changes in unusual ways. Like shadows stretched long or compressed short by different angles of light."

"At a certain phase, my world skill can be inverted into a Starsea skill. Combined with my Light and Shadow talent word, it can directly affect worlds themselves."

Rita found it difficult to tell whether she felt more sorrow or more pride.

They had both begun from similarly terrible circumstances. Yet after all the twists and turns, both she and Undead Wildfire had eventually chosen the path of saving Starsea.

The difference was that Rita still had BS.

Undead Wildfire could only pour her guilt and regrets into protecting the remaining worlds of Starsea.

Rita glanced toward Maple Syrup, Mistblade, and Cicada, who were watching her vigilantly from nearby. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Her awareness extended farther outward into Starsea itself. She could also sense Deceitful Bloom and Foolishness quietly observing this place from afar.

In the end, she simply stepped forward and brushed the dust from Undead Wildfire’s shoulder with gentle movements before speaking softly.

"I’m honored."

Undead Wildfire frowned slightly.

"Honored by what?"

"Honored that you and I are the same person."

"Honored that we became each other’s light and shadow."

After saying that, Rita smiled and left the timeline.

When all existence had been paused, nothing felt more like a single-player game than this.

From time to time, she returned to Undead Wildfire’s timeline to observe it.

The moment Undead Wildfire completed [Graveyard of Bones], Rita pressed pause on that timeline once again.

Dressed like a wandering bard in loose, comfortable robes, Rita traveled endlessly with the platinum-white storybook in hand.

Nivalis once asked whether she was searching for something.

She was.

Rita wanted to know whether this game truly had a way to be broken.

She traveled through every corner of every timeline.

It became an unimaginably long journey.

At first, B80 reported the time once every day.

Later, once every month.

Eventually, once every year.

After being blessed by a dragon and transformed into a Vineborne, Rita had already become long-lived. On top of that, every time she wrote within the World Sigh, the worlds themselves blessed her in return.

By now, lifespan had become meaningless to her.

Her appearance remained that of a young woman in her twenties.

But the aura around her and the look within her eyes carried the unmistakable weight of time itself.

That was how Deputy Captain Calico described her.

Nivalis could not understand what "the scent of time" was supposed to mean.

To her, Rita now resembled an ancient artifact displayed inside the BS museum.

Even standing still, her hair, the direction of her gaze, and every flicker of emotion in her eyes felt like they were telling stories.

The platinum-white World Sigh grew brighter and brighter over time.

But after Rita had traveled through one hundred worlds, its radiance gradually dimmed again.

Only a few petals from Flower Crown Murder occasionally emerged from between the pages before fading into translucent shadows.

Rita loved visiting familiar people across different timelines.

Nivalis, B80, and the deputy captains preferred studying the different versions of Rita that existed in each world.

The differences were enormous, like parallel universes.

In some timelines, Rita had drawn an S-rank talent early and joined Eclipse almost immediately.

In another, she entered a dungeon by accident and met Nivalis ahead of schedule. Nivalis instantly took a liking to her, forcibly claimed her as "her human," and eventually dragged her back to Eclipse for a stable position.

There was even one timeline where she cooperated with Zoey.

That one shocked Rita the most.

In that timeline, she had used [Acting] to impersonate Rick. Eventually, she became one of BS’s leaders alongside Zoey, Avery, and Shadow.Q.

Nivalis and B80 loved researching these alternate histories.

Whether BS still existed or not, the first thing they did upon entering a new timeline was connect to a world network and gather information about that timeline’s BS Rita.

Meanwhile, Rita preferred revisiting places like Forest Sea, Snowland, Beacon, and Isolated Isle.

And after that, she always visited Graveyard of Bones to see You Are Me.

To see whether the Deceitful Bloom of that timeline had ever visited her.

Every time Rita finished visiting a timeline’s You Are Me, she collected a small pinch of Variational Quicksand from her and sealed it inside a fresh potion vial.

There were already more than a hundred such bottles.

Whenever she did this, the expression on her face became unusually cold.

Nivalis had asked her long ago what she planned to do with them.

Rita’s lips curved into a faint, delighted smile. Yet the coldness in her eyes made the expression strangely contradictory.

"I’m bringing them back to Beacon You Are Me."

"I’ll tell her to give up."

"I’ve visited every timeline."

"And in every single timeline, Deceitful Bloom never came to see her."

That would absolutely drive You Are Me insane...

Nivalis muttered helplessly,

"...Didn’t you say you no longer owed Deceitful Bloom anything? Then why are you helping her get revenge nonstop?"

Rita snorted softly.

"Adult matters. Stay out of them."

Nivalis could not understand Rita’s rare urge to meddle in someone else’s affairs.

Rita also enjoyed searching across timelines to see who possessed [Wrathful Moon], [Cat’s Ideal], and [Foolishness Game].

In short, she always had endless things to do.

At this moment, Rita sat atop a Mu tree in Forest Sea, gazing into the distance.

Forest Sea was beautiful.

In this timeline, Maple Syrup had succeeded.

She had rebuilt Forest Sea.

But it was still too late.

The bell was about to ring.

Maple Syrup did not possess a world skill.

What was she supposed to do now?

Rita’s gaze shifted slightly forward, landing on another Mu tree nearby.

An oak owl rested among the shadows of its branches.

A hand holding an empty wine glass hung limply downward.

The red-haired oak owl stared silently at the sky.

Forest Sea had been reborn through ashes and flame.

But what came next?

What was Forest Sea Maple Syrup supposed to do now?