In the stands, nearly half the spectators had already pulled small personal screens before their eyes and locked them to Moonlight Marsh’s Rita. Blood Elf was one of them. "The payout rate on these Scratch Cards actually doesn’t look bad." On her other side, the sea spirit chimed in. "Not bad at all. That Epic-tier harpoon was nice." Black Cat flicked her tail. "But why does she always read out the stats and bonus skills every time she scratches a weapon?" Blood Elf glanced at her. "What are you getting at?" Black Cat lowered her voice. "I mean, judging by her personality, she doesn’t seem like someone who would waste time on something so unnecessary." Blood Elf froze for a moment, then pressed two fingers to her forehead and intoned, "Sorry. Shop’s closed... hahahahaha!" She burst out laughing, unable to help herself. "I can’t think of any deeper meaning behind that habit. Sometimes she really is so much like Lightchaser." Black Cat craned her neck nervously and scanned the crowd. Blood Elf wiped the tears from her smile. "What are you looking for?" "Lightchaser, of course. Her apprentice is competing—there’s no way she wouldn’t come." Blood Elf’s smile froze. "Why’d you stop laughing?" Black Cat asked. Blood Elf stayed silent. Coins swept smoothly over row after row of golden circles, peeling away thin films to reveal crude outlines of weapons beneath—black sketches barely more than stick figures. Guns without triggers, swords without guards, the simplest possible shapes. Rita’s hands stayed steady. She already had four rods—one Epic-tier and three Legendary. They would all last through the end of the match. What she needed now was Ancient-tier, maybe even War-tier. Lightchaser had scratched thousands before seeing one. She could wait. It was just the noise that grated. "Ahhh, missed again..." "Stop scratching, I can’t bear to watch. Let me try." "Yeah, maybe I should do it, my luck’s ten." "Wait, hold on." The raccoon who had been watching leaned upright, bicycle-seat head swiveling toward four o’clock, ears twitching. Everyone went silent. Even Rita froze mid-scratch. The raccoon’s face grew more and more grave, the giddy mood evaporating. At last it squatted down again with a sigh. "Twilight Library’s Quex just landed a Keef Angel Fish..." Ranked fourth in rarity. Rita’s mind wandered, her thoughts scattering. But she snapped back quickly, reeled in each rod to check, rebaited two bare hooks, and went right back to scratching. Her best chance was still pulling a rod beyond anything sold in the shops. She did have a backup plan: use No Logic to twist perception so that her bait became the Blue-striped Bluru’s favorite food. But she had already used No Logic once in the team battle. Her Luck stat was down to nine. One more use and it would fall to six. And it only lasted five minutes. If she failed to hook the Bluru in that window... the rest of the match she would be fishing with Luck six. The skill was viable, but only as a last-minute gambit. If she could not catch with Luck nine, Luck six was hopeless. She breathed deep, steadied herself, and kept scratching. The other apprentices around her fell into subdued silence—disappointed, tense, thoughtful. Three cards passed in quiet. Then all eyes turned back to Rita, waiting to see what would emerge. Her hand jolted. Her heart kicked into a gallop. As the coin scraped along the first row of circles, it nicked the edge of a second-row circle, revealing the outline of a hook. Dark gold? What tier was that? The nearby apprentices abandoned their rods and crowded close, staring wide-eyed at the gleam. On white parchment, the dark-gold hook burned like molten metal. Under the sunlight, its surface shimmered with flowing radiance. They could even see fine magical runes etched into the curve. Rita clutched the coin, scraped away the rest of the film, and uncovered the rod’s full design. Golden ripples rippled outward across the parchment, and a hand reached through to draw forth the weapon. Rita whispered, "War-tier..." Falling Sun and Tsunami. Eighteen-hour duration—enough to last the whole game. Newest update provided by novèlfire.net Special Attributes: Fishing Technique +500%; Luck +17; Bait Flavor +5000; any creature that bites or is snared cannot escape; All Attributes +1000; Critical Damage +5000... Twenty-seven attributes in all. She could swing this rod as a staff and still crush opponents with it. And seven bonus skills: Never Empty-Handed, Fishing Till You Drop, From Ocean to Table... The others could not see the exact stats, but just the War-tier tag was enough to fill them with despair. Those who did not know what War-tier meant could still compare it to their own rods and imagine. Those who did know... no words were needed. Every single apprentice who laid eyes on it had the same thought: the Fun Match crown was hers. The pier emptied swiftly. Apprentices scattered to new fishing spots, not just to spread the news but because with a War-tier rod here, their chances of hooking anything rare plummeted. On the special platform, GodDraw77’s expression finally relaxed, her brow smoothing out. "Good fortune," she murmured. Wail leaned back in her chair, plucked a drink from GodDraw77’s bag, and began sipping. In the stands, the crowd buzzed with the kind of shared thrill that made them feel as if they had won themselves. Blood Elf said, "Done deal." Black Cat nodded. "Done deal." The sea spirit tilted its head. "Isn’t it a bit early to celebrate? It’s just a rod." Blood Elf shot him a look. "If it were only Ancient-tier, maybe. But War-tier? Have you ever seen one?" Black Cat jumped in. "Exactly! The best you can buy in shops is Epic. War-tier is on another level!" Blood Elf added, "She won’t even need bait. Rare fish will fight each other to get on her hook." Blood Elf sucked at her juice straw and muttered, "I thought a War-tier rod would be broken enough, but Quex and Tanuki’s skills... those are truly unfair." Black Cat whispered back, "Yeah..." On the screen, which now automatically sorted catches by rarity, Rita was only in third place. The top two? Quex from Twilight Library and Tanuki from Exiles’ Isle.