Now Rita was truly intrigued. Any skill with a suffix in its name was never ordinary. Lightchaser and Wail’s original creations were all SSS rank. Even if she’d just spotted two of these Preferred: Orpha in a row—as if they were on wholesale—there was no way such a skill was weak. Instead of gambling on random skills of unknown quality, why not satisfy her curiosity? Just how strong could a "top educator’s" personal teaching be? Rita overlapped her body with the bubble labeled Preferred: Orpha, then held still. She wanted it badly, yes, but not enough to risk an invisible hook. If Motor kept Protagonist Time running until the end of the feeding frenzy, she’d abandon it without hesitation. If it ended earlier... All around, fish suddenly jolted back to life. Time flowed normally again, and the whirlpool still churned. Rita summoned Wrathful Moon. The moment its lamp cast light across her body, she slipped into Shadow of the Moon and stepped out of the shadow world. Now she understood why Tanuki hadn’t obsessed over this skill. The restriction was enormous—without moonlight, it was useless. Even on moonlit nights, any closed space without direct beams made it dead weight. As soon as she returned to reality, the bait was already in her mouth. No invisible hook. She swallowed it—and instantly, the whirlpool and every bait within it vanished. Get full chapters from ⓝovelFire.net A flawless success. Yet Rita froze where she floated, unsettled. Preferred: Orpha (SSS): "Inferior things have no right to exist, and neither do inferior students." Dissolve one skill or piece of equipment below S rank, extract part of its magical traits, and convert it into permanent stat boosts. Usable once every seven days. Cooldown cannot be reduced by any means. "Inferior things have no right to exist, and neither do inferior students." The words made her skin crawl. A Keef Angel Fish drifted past and swatted her tail lazily across Rita’s side. "What are you staring at?" The distorted acoustics underwater could let her feign ignorance before—pretend not to know Maple Syrup’s voice, let Motor pretend not to recognize Fat Goose. But the flick, the tone, the familiarity—Rita would’ve known even without a word. She swam alongside her, questions heavy in her chest. But she couldn’t ask them here. Her screen was almost guaranteed to be broadcast; anything Rita blurted out, Mistblade couldn’t safely answer. At last, Rita only said, "Picked up something interesting. You?" Mistblade replied, "A little profit." They parted soon after. Barely separated, Rita triggered Temporal Stroll, returning to the feeding frenzy to help herself claim more bait. The moment her perspective rewound on-screen, the audience erupted. Even Lightchaser sat straighter in her seat. "It wasn’t a clone skill—it’s temporal!" "She has two time skills!" "Worth the ticket price." "Wonder how far it stretches? Could she rewrite the past?" "No. If she went back, she’d always have been there. Like earlier—the future her was already part of the past timeline." Rita shot straight for the two baits her past self hadn’t managed. One was Calm Down. The other, the nearly-stolen Bedtime Tale. And she understood herself now. That blank, broken look she’d worn when feeding her past self the bait, then acting cryptic just to watch her future self panic—it had been hilarious. Toying with herself like that was pure fun. She dropped the vague warning, then ended the jaunt. Back in the present, the memory of her dazed, disbelieving eyes made her snort-laugh. In the stands, GodDraw77, who had been deep in theory-crafting with Wail, muttered, "...I didn’t think you could use a time skill just to mess with your past self." Wail: "...Neither did I." The blood elf said to the black cat, "I’m certain she’s Lightchaser’s student now." The elf explained, "When she bullies people, she shows no mercy. Not even to herself." The cat sighed. "...Fine. But why do you have to give yourself a defensive buff just for talking?" The elf huffed. "Why not?" The cat gave a thumbs up. "Elegant." The dwarf rolled her eyes, ignoring them both. She focused on the task prompt only she could see, lips curling, then pressed Accept. On the piers, the anglers were already casting again. Rita hurried to reclaim more baits. By noon, nothing unusual had occurred. She hadn’t risked using Temporal Stroll again, but she still managed to recover a solid batch. Each rare skill she swallowed made her heart race. Absurd Story. The entire Summer Snowman set of five. But it wasn’t enough. Panic built with each haul. Where was Cat’s Ideal? Where was I Just Want to Improve So Badly, and the other Lightchaser techniques? She nearly broke the surface to demand answers from the anglers when a new prompt arrived. Gift from the Mysterious Anglers: Where Is My Teacher? This is a crossover event. Requests have been sent to all official mentors. Those who accept will join the game. In two minutes, an ice island will surface with 2,118 kapybaras. The Divine Game has temporarily replicated your mentors’ souls into these bodies. Jump onto the island to begin. You must identify your teacher within thirty minutes. All skills are invalid on kapybaras. If you succeed, you may claim any one bait belonging to you as a reward. Each student has one guess. You may exchange recovered baits with the anglers for extra guesses. Failure carries no penalty, but three wrong guesses will cause you to randomly lose one unlocked skill. Hint: To the kapybaras, you appear as kapybaras too. Mentors may lie. Mentors who evade discovery will earn a precious reward. What a vicious little game. But not playing meant missing out. And Lightchaser? Please. Rita could pick her out blindfolded. With a flick of her tail, she shot toward the ice island surfacing less than a hundred meters from the port, close enough that she could see the anglers on the bridge leaning in to watch the show.