After several games, she ran into familiar faces again in this house.

Nuclear Flash's NightFury, Tingo's Autumn Deer, Marmang's Crab, and… Pine Bloom, who seemed to be focused on nothing but playing.

The first three were clearly chasing Pine Bloom, especially NightFury and Crab, both former holders of [Whale Falls in the Wind].

Rather than chase a brand new relic, they wanted their own relic back.

Rita got it. Once you have held a divine relic, even for a day, it feels like it is yours forever.

Look at Maple Syrup. Even if a relic bullied her, she would never throw it away. She would turn it into trash and still use it to prop a table leg before letting anyone else have it.

But Rita's steps halted. There were too many divine relics in this room.

[Wrathful Moon], [Cat's Ideal], [Whale Falls in the Wind], [Delicious Funeral]…

Her gaze swept the other players and she realized this house was very unusual.

Not just because there was only one game table, but because there were very few players inside at all.

Counting the ones currently seated plus herself just coming in, the entire room had only ten players, and every one of them had a name recognized on the ladder.

Since the great shuffle in Chaotic Blocks, the ladder had changed drastically. Otherwise Rita would not have joked with Nivalis about overlords and demon kings driving in reverse to pick people up.

It was not only that there were no longer any level 19 players. The very front of the rankings had been transformed.

Where the top 100 had once been ninety five percent Nuclear Flash, Tingo, and Sakura, now, after Chaotic Blocks ended for good, seventy percent were Tiger Ear, Dawn, and Fury. The remaining thirty percent were Nuclear Flash, Tingo, and Sakura.

Sakura was being held up by a single ginger and white cat.

Right now, besides those familiar faces, two more top hundred players were at the table playing: Fury Prayer and Dawn Cicada.

The room felt premium.

There were not many top hundred players who had entered Card Swap, and this one room already had four.

She did not exactly regret showing up, but Rita picked up her pace. She had twenty five minutes of lucky time left.

The game here was called Who Hasn't Used a Divine Relic.

Player count was flexible too, minimum three.

After reading the rules, Rita understood why the game only set a minimum. There simply were not many players who could play this one. She half suspected this whale had drifted over specifically to pick her up.

The rules were simple. Before the game began, each player wrote on a divine card the name of a divine relic skill they had personally used.

Players then took turns questioning the others about that skill. The one being questioned could only nod or shake their head.

Players could not give a wrong answer. The Divine Game would correct it on the spot.

If your skill name was guessed, you were eliminated. Play continued until only one player remained.

Rita went to the waiting area. Pine Bloom stood right in front of her.

Pine Bloom did not turn around, but her upper body leaned back slightly. "What a coincidence. Maple Syrup and the others still haven't managed to kill you?"

Rita said, "Aba Aba." Sorry to disappoint.

Hearing that sound, NightFury and Autumn Deer both shot her a strange look. With matching sighs of how those rumors were true, Crab perked up and started machine gunning gossip.

Pine Bloom changed the subject. "I heard you are BlueStar's Arbiter."

Rita stared at the back of Pine Bloom's head for a long moment. Something clicked. She asked, "Aba?" You all know what an Arbiter is?

Pine Bloom said, "If you become a leader or a world lord, you get access."

The magic table announced the end of the current round. A glowing arrow invited them to approach.

They walked to the hexagonal magic table at the center. Pine Bloom's emerald owl feather swayed in Rita's face and Rita suddenly asked, "Aba?" You want to be an Arbiter.

It was phrased like a question, but her tone was so certain it sounded like stating a truth everyone accepted.

Of course. What was better than being an Arbiter?

What skill was more suited to the birth of an Arbiter than Pine Bloom's [Loyal Unto Death]?

Pine Bloom did not turn around and did not answer.

Nuclear Flash's NightFury, Tingo's Autumn Deer, Marmang's Crab, Lania Kaia's Pine Bloom, and BS-Rita.

Five players took their seats around the table as the six pointed star lit up across its surface.

The host at the head of the table was someone Rita had never seen.

Short hair of pale pink and white, a pretty face with no expression, but not cold either. It was simply impossible to read any emotion on her at all. Not even indifference.

Once the players were seated, she did nothing visible, yet a face up divine card and a pen appeared before each person.

"Write," she said.

Each card and pen was veiled in thick fog. You could not see what anyone else wrote or even infer it from the motion of the pen.

Rita picked up the pen, thought a moment, and tried writing the pre relic version of [Wrathful Moon] called Planet.

The words wiped themselves away. Apparently the system did not acknowledge that skill.

Fair. At the time [Wrathful Moon] had not carried the divine relic prefix.

Unfortunately, she had used many skills in Arisentna more than once, and use leaves traces.

[The Wind Doesn't Speak] would not work either. There were three people at the table who had used [Whale Falls in the Wind].

The Dustfire skill [Let It Die]? But the question phase would expose details by design. Plus Pine Bloom had just asked where she got it.

She went down the list. Maybe she was too deep in it, but every option felt too easy to guess.

Judging by the others' expressions, they felt the same way about their own.

The real tangle was the three who had all used [Whale Falls in the Wind]. None of them could be sure which skills the relic had in a previous owner's hands and which changes occurred in their own.

But they were already in the house. They could not just not play. Better to finish quickly than waste time. The game had no penalty anyway.

Thinking of Autumn Deer's reaction to her Aba earlier, and how normal he looked now without any active skills…

In the end, Rita wrote [Let It Die], the skill she had received through reassignment. Perhaps Autumn Deer had never lit it in [Delicious Funeral].

The instant she set down the pen, her divine card flipped over and melted into the tabletop, becoming a pattern that no ability could probe. That preserved fairness.

When everyone was ready, the pink and white short hair flicked a finger spinner. The tiny metal top spun to a stop in front of Rita.

She would be questioned first.

The host tilted her chin at Pine Bloom on Rita's left. Her flat voice never rose or fell. "You begin."

Rita flicked a glance at the host, unsettled by how familiar that half dead tone sounded.

Pine Bloom had already started. "Is the skill from a Divine Game reward?"

Right for the throat. Rita nodded.

Crab said, "Is it [The Wind Doesn't Speak]?"

Rita shook her head.

Autumn Deer said, "Is it a skill from [Delicious Funeral]?"

Rita shifted in her chair, suddenly tense. What was this, were they trying to end the game in one round…

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