Once her curiosity was satisfied, Rita stopped paying attention to Dawn Cicada and used the remaining time to browse the stalls until the start signal rang out.

As thick smoke rose around her, she realized she had been teleported to the other side of the Oasis Town. Her two pets and the golden rain curtain were gone, and she herself had turned into a small, round mochi ball—barely thirty centimeters in diameter—with short stubby arms. The capsule machine and her storage gear were all temporarily inaccessible.

Everyone else was the same. The entire game zone was packed with identical white mochi-like blobs, each with a pair of shiny black-dot eyes that blinked and swiveled to see the surroundings.

Behind the stalls, the Mechanoids watched with great interest, as if the whole thing was their entertainment show.

Rita began hopping around immediately, her little arms moving in a rhythmic pattern, mimicking the motion of drawing Mahjong tiles in midair.

Actually, the skill restriction wasn't that bad—it made it easier for her to blend in with the Lania Kaia players without giving herself away.

Nearby, other players caught on instantly and started mimicking random game actions too.

Within seconds, the square was full of hopping mochi balls waving invisible cards, spinning in circles, flicking their fingers, or pretending to draw and discard tiles—like a mob of possessed marshmallows.

Soon, Rita spotted another blob across from her who was also performing the "invisible Mahjong" routine.

The two stopped, their glossy eyes locking in mutual understanding.

Rita reached out both arms, motioned as if pushing away an invisible row of tiles, then pantomimed drawing one and placing it at the far right of the row.

Whoosh—!

The other blob's eyes lit up, sparkling with excitement. It mimicked her gesture, then added another move: pushing both hands forward dramatically.

Rita's inner voice screamed: Hu! That's it! Jackpot!

It's you! Definitely you!

Both blobs started bouncing excitedly toward each other, springing higher and higher until they met halfway, then stopped just short of colliding—less than half a meter apart.

Rita made another "play tile" gesture, hoping for one last confirmation.

The other blob rolled forward, picked up Rita's imaginary tile, placed it in its own invisible row, then tapped the air four times. Kong!

Rita grabbed its tiny hand. "It's you! No mistake!"

There was no time wasted on confirming identities. The two blobs simply turned and hopped off in sync, flinging their tiny arms in identical movements—draw, discard, draw, discard—their timing gradually becoming perfectly synchronized.

If someone recorded it and uploaded it to the BS network with the caption "Pacific Rim Pilot Neural Sync Training," people would probably believe it.

Just then, Maple Syrup—still searching for her own teammates—spotted them. "..."

Oh no. She really didn't want to acknowledge being in the same world as those two idiots.

But despite that thought, the moment she saw the two determined blobs hopping in rhythm, miming Mahjong in the middle of the street, she instinctively turned and bounced their way.

At the same time, another blob came barreling toward them.

Rita and her partner stopped, pressing close together as two more blobs blocked their path.

The four of them stared at one another. Then, without a word, they formed positions facing east, south, west, and north.

An invisible four-player Mahjong match began.

Thirty seconds later, all four blobs tearfully reached out and held hands.

The screen went black, then bright again—Rita found herself standing beside a stall, still in her mochi form.

[Connection Failed: You have linked with a Mechanoid disguised as a player.]

Great. A spy mission in the middle of a minigame.

Rita took a deep breath and hopped back into action.

Before long, she encountered another blob also making invisible Mahjong motions.

They watched each other cautiously, suspicion in their tiny black eyes.

After a few silent "draw" and "discard" pantomimes, the other blob pulled Rita into a corner and quickly drew two characters in the sand using Owl Script: "Lidian."

A good method for identity verification.

Even if the Mechanoids understood world-exclusive game mechanics and could imitate multiple languages, they couldn't possibly know personal details unique to specific players.

The problem was, in this round, Rita's randomly loaded language set of 1,000 included only Owl Script for Lania Kaia. Thanks to her memories from Arisentna's game, she knew a bit of Moonfox language, but since it wasn't loaded, she couldn't use it now.

If she wanted to disguise herself, her only option was to write in Owl Script—to impersonate Maple Syrup.

She wasn't worried about the handwriting; after years of studying together, she could imitate Maple Syrup's style perfectly. What worried her was—what if she ran into the real Maple Syrup next?

Or worse, what if this blob was Maple Syrup?

Thinking fast, Rita looked at the "Lidian" written on the ground, then glanced back up at the blob in front of her, feigning hesitation. Finally, as if rushing against time, she scribbled in the sand: "Rose Proof."

"Rose Proof" was a secret Lidian had once told her—a shared incident involving both Pine Bloom and Maple Syrup. Whether this blob was Pine Bloom or Maple Syrup, the answer would fit.

Sure enough, the blob's eyes softened instantly.

Both blobs locked eyes with renewed conviction and resumed their synchronized "pilot training."

Hop—wave—draw—thumb tap—pull back to chest.

All sense of dignity was gone. Under the delighted gaze of the Mechanoids, the two bouncing blobs hopped their way from the east side of the trade zone to the west, perfectly in sync.

With less than two minutes left on the countdown, they encountered two more blobs rushing toward them.

After another perfectly executed invisible Mahjong routine, Rita and her first partner pulled the two newcomers into a corner.

All four blobs began writing in turn.

Rita went first, tracing "Rose Proof."

Blob One wrote "Lidian." Blob Three used two words in Undead Script that Rita didn't recognize.

Blob Four, however, hesitated. Its tiny head turned back and forth between Rita and Blob One.

Instantly, three pairs of black-dot eyes locked on Blob Four.

And in that tense silence, Rita understood. Blob Four was either Pine Bloom—or Maple Syrup.

Rita was the first to act. She pointed to the countdown timer in the sky—barely a minute left.

Blob Four pointed at Rita and Blob One, then quickly wrote in the sand: "I'm Pine Bloom. One of you is BS-Rita."

The words echoed in Rita's head, automatically translated by the system: There's a Villager among you!

Blob Four—Pine Bloom—was staring suspiciously at Blob One. Their handwriting looked nearly identical, and she wasn't close enough to Maple Syrup to tell the difference by penmanship alone.

Naturally, between the blob that wrote "Rose Proof" (a shared secret) and the one that only wrote "Lidian," Pine Bloom trusted the former more.

Rita let her gaze sweep coldly between Blob One and Blob Four before settling on Blob One. Then she wrote fiercely: "BS-Rita, you've gone too far!"

Maple Syrup clutched her little round head in despair.

Ugh. Every time she met BS-Rita, her head just hurt.

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