I think it's just that, after all this time waiting, people were anticipating a little bit more time passing in the game. I know I was.
I don't particularly look forward to the idea of the 2nd HOT Scavenger Hunt week taking up the next 2 or 3 episodes, but if we get more short days like this, it might. Hopefully ep 6 will take us straight into Monday for the Cathy pic judgment, then moves through at least the next 3 days to get us to near the end of that week.
That way, ep 7 could be the end of the Scavenger Hunt, and maybe a party to celebrate, then gives us that whole weekend at the end of the MC's 3rd week, and makes it so that things have settled into something of a rhythm for the MC's life and other characters too such that the game can skip ahead a few months and pick up the story at a later date.
It isn't. I didn't do that and I got the scene with Riona.
Not in this episode, no.