CHAPTER 833: 835: DIVINE GAME – CARD SWAP 82

Lightchaser, when you read this letter, I’m either in the middle of killing a Chernor Worm or on my way to kill one.

I never imagined there could be so many types of Chernor Worms in the world.

Wail says you went through the same thing back in the day, except the Star Glacier didn’t belong to her yet. Every time, you’d sneak to the outskirts and hide, and she’d go steal a worm to bring back for you to fight.

God, I can already picture it. Sounds exactly like a mama bird going out to hunt and coming back to feed her chick.

By the way, did Wail ever tell you she’s been putting all the worms I kill on your bill?

At live worm prices, I suggest you look at the bill yourself. It’s terrifying. You’ll need to brace yourself mentally.

—Your loving apprentice, Rita

...

The morning after she sent the letter, Rita was still half-asleep when Lightchaser’s voice roared from downstairs.

"You said you were teaching her for free! What’s this bill?!"

"Of course I’m teaching her for free. But you’re covering the training materials. She’s your apprentice," Wail replied matter-of-factly.

"She’s yours now!"

"Too late. Years ago I told you to compensate me for one, but you kept her yourself."

Rita’s bare feet rubbed nervously against each other on the carpet.

Her biggest worry wasn’t being handed over to Wail—it was Lightchaser putting the bill in her name.

A second later, crouched at the railing, peeking down through the gaps, she locked eyes with those gray-blue irises.

"It’s on your tab," Lightchaser said flatly.

All admiration and sympathy for her teacher evaporated instantly. "No way! You didn’t warn me first!"

"...Fifty-fifty split," Lightchaser countered.

Still unhappy, Rita frowned. "Can’t we just... not pay?"

Silence.

Then a chill crept up the back of her head. She turned to find Wail’s kindly smiling face far too close.

...

At Moonlight Marsh, almost everyone knew there was one less third-year around, but no one thought she’d dropped out.

After all, the library’s Exchange listed her information for sale.

"Why’s my info only worth five credits, but hers goes for ten?" Maple Syrup grumbled.

"Seriously?!" Moto asked.

"Did you buy it?" Mistblade asked.

"...Yeah," Maple Syrup admitted.

Moto sighed.

"...," Maple Syrup muttered darkly.

Before she could blow up, Fat Goose shoved a chicken leg into Moto’s mouth.

Even if someone swapped your god-gift talent and you blurted it out on the spot, not everyone would connect it to Rita.

Only high-tier figures like Wrong Answer could instantly trace the event back to Pomango’s Crime Simulation, and from there deduce the source was almost certainly Rita.

If she could swap HP, if she could swap wealth—why not god-gift talents too?

Eventually, both Pomango and Rita confirmed the info.

Students like Mistblade and Maple Syrup, still too green, had to spend credits to find out why their classmate was considered dangerous. Or pay in gold for rumors they’d have to verify themselves.

Once Moto managed to swallow the chicken leg, he asked, "Is her teacher really that good? Taking half a year off won’t make her fall behind?"

"Her teacher is Lightchaser," Mistblade replied, "as in the Lightchaser Moment Lightchaser."

After the Divine Game ended, every young apprentice who’d heard Rita’s trash talk had looked up the Lightchaser Moment. Mistblade had learned then just how much weight the name carried.

Moto hesitated, then said what he was thinking anyway. "But we’ve got GodDraw77 as a teacher. Isn’t that better than Lightchaser?"

Mistblade opened her mouth and found she couldn’t argue.

She couldn’t say for sure whether opening GodDraw77 three years in a row was more impressive, or actually winning it once.

Fat Goose couldn’t decide either, so he settled on a fact. "Anyway, GodDraw77’s temper is definitely better."

"True," Moto nodded.

Maple Syrup added her own fact. "You didn’t say that yesterday when GodDraw77 had you pinned in the air for ten minutes."

"...Also true," Moto admitted.

Fat Goose stared, then shoved another chicken leg in his mouth.

"So," Maple Syrup asked, "has anyone heard from her lately? I’ve sent tons of messages, but no reply."

"Same here," Mistblade said.

"Me too," Fat Goose added.

Moto raised a hand. Same for him.

It wasn’t that Rita didn’t want to reply—she hadn’t yet developed Lightchaser’s bad habit of ignoring messages. She just genuinely didn’t have the time. She didn’t even have time to check them.

Seven days ago, right after she’d said, "Why can’t we just not pay?" Wail had taken her to a hibernating giant Chernor Worm.

"It has no weak points. It won’t fight back. Your assignment is to kill it. You can’t use your Reverse skill, and no freezing time to rest."

"This is one of the rarest creatures in Kasilanar. Killing it gives you a permanent buff, but almost everyone who’s tried has given up. Even Lightchaser refused to face it a second time.

"We won’t start the next lesson until you finish this one.

"If you succeed, I’ll teach you another Wail technique.

"If you quit halfway, I’ll send you straight back to Lightchaser. You’ll lose your chance to train with me and see our goal through."

Rita had thought it sounded easy. Her brain had snagged on the key point: Lightchaser had killed one? Then so could she.

She learned the truth fast enough.

Every attack skill she had could only deal one point of damage to the worm—nearly the size of a star dragon.

If she used a normal strike, she had to go all-out just to trigger damage at all... and still only one point.

And every three seconds, the giant worm regenerated one HP.

Which meant she couldn’t stop for long.

The real despair, though, was its total HP—five hundred thousand.

On the first day, she only managed to shave off just over ten thousand HP, and that was with Another Me summoned to double her strikes.

The worm’s regen ticked every three seconds, but she couldn’t even manage three full-strength hits in that time.

Still, she ended that day fired up, mind full of anticipation for the next Wail technique.

She didn’t dare rest even a few minutes through the night, afraid she’d oversleep past the timer.

With her current physique, skipping a night’s sleep wasn’t much of a problem.