This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita scrolled to the bottom of the game's leaderboard and noticed that some players had only traveled about twenty kilometers. Given that the game had been going on for quite some time, it seemed impossible that they were stuck in the battlefield. That meant these players were likely walking because their karts were broken or out of fuel.

She glanced around, signaled for Nivalis to park, and got out of the kart to walk a few steps. Immediately, she noticed something odd. Just like when she had tried to fly her kart earlier, walking on the track had a speed penalty. Her high speed of 1800 was reduced to less than half the kart's speed when walking, unless she used a skill to speed up.

Rita didn't waste any more time. After testing, she quickly got back into the kart and continued her journey.

However, Rita and Nivalis weren't wasting their blue fuel. They only used nitrogen boosters to accelerate when they encountered other karts. Nivalis was behind the wheel while Rita took the sniper's role, attacking all the karts and replenishing their fuel. Their coordination was flawless.

Rita's sharpshooter talent, specifically the passive skill "I'm Getting Serious" (3-second automatic aim), paired perfectly with her sniper rifle, making it ideal for road combat.

During the game, Rita had broken the rules eight times, losing 27 attribute points, 1% of her health, and 28% of her experience. It was a heavy loss. She couldn't understand how the other players managed to survive without suffering so much damage, especially since she had no idea what she had done wrong—everything she did seemed normal.

Despite all the losses, she did gain some items, such as those that increased attribute points, mana capacity, and casting speed. Still, her losses outweighed the gains.

The frequency of glowing boxes was irregular. Sometimes she encountered one in just a few minutes, but on this stretch of the road, she hadn't seen any glowing boxes for over ten minutes.

However, right after Nivalis complained, as they turned a corner, they saw something ahead: a row of karts parked in the middle of the road.

The karts were neatly lined up, and Rita almost thought she had reversed and returned to the starting point. Some players were sitting in their karts, pressing the brakes, while others had already abandoned their karts. Rita couldn't tell if the karts had broken down or just ran out of fuel, but it was clear that these players weren't friendly—and there were too many of them for Rita to handle alone.

Rita: "Get ready."

Nivalis: "Should we charge straight in?!"

Rita: "Full throttle! Let's burn some rubber!"

With those words, Rita felt a surge of energy, and Nivalis didn't ask any further questions. She revved the engine and slammed the pedal to the metal. Today, no one was going to stop them.

As they got closer, Rita could see the foreign players. Luckily, she recognized the language of about a third of them.

Rita shouted in one of the foreign languages, "What? Who dares to fight us? Let me steal their divine blessing! Don't you think the Ancient Curse of Frenzied Shark is enough to satisfy you? You greedy dragon!"

It wasn't enough to say it once. Like a broadcaster, she shouted the same line in several languages.

The players who were standing in the middle of the road, charging up their skills, froze in confusion. They quickly saw players near them rushing to the side of the road, seemingly scared. One of them ran up to another player who could understand him, asking, "What's going on?!"

The other player murmured something in response.

By the time Nivalis and Rita reached them, the players had cleared the way, and their white kart sped through unimpeded.

Nivalis: "What did you say to make them so scared?"

Rita explained.

The wind carried Nivalis's voice as she screamed, "This is what you call high-energy?!"

Rita wiped the cold sweat off her forehead: "I guess so."

In this game, most players could easily crush her. But since death could happen at any moment, she figured she might as well do whatever she wanted.

She tried to share this "toxic mindset" with Nivalis, but Nivalis refused to take a sip: "Forget it! No way!"

Finally, with only 14% fuel left, Rita and Nivalis reached the refueling station once again.

Nivalis parked the kart by a vending machine. The stock seemed sufficient, and there was more than one vending machine selling fuel.

A bottle of fuel was 25ml, and one kart coin would get them one can. It took 20 small bottles to fill up a fuel tank. They had enough kart coins for that.

However, the problem was the fuel types. There were over fifty different types, and Rita knew that number 36 was off-limits. She wasn't sure if there were other restrictions, though, like mixing certain types or meeting specific quantities.

With time running out (only 9 minutes remaining on the countdown), Rita couldn't waste any more time experimenting. The game stone's timer was ticking down, and she still needed to buy replacement parts for her kart. The rear wheel had worn down badly, and Nivalis said it was slippery when turning, plus the steering wheel was loose. They needed a part to fix it.
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Rita quickly picked two random fuel types, avoiding number 36, and bought one bottle of each, spending 2 kart coins. She pressed the kart coin icon on the steering wheel, which dispensed a coin each time. Rita tossed the coins into the machine, and the fuel bottles rolled out.

She took off her hoodie, turned the hat inside out, and used it as a makeshift pocket to store the fuel.

Afterward, Nivalis drove the kart over to the parts section. Here, in addition to various kart parts, there were also special glasses. These glasses cost 50 kart coins and allowed a player to see one of the game's rules, but they could only be used once. Comparing the prices, the parts didn't seem that expensive.

The steering wheel part to fix the loose wheel was 3 kart coins, and the tires, the cheapest ones, cost 8 kart coins. There were also better tires with extra traits.

No matter how carefully Rita calculated, she was down 13 kart coins in an instant.

Rita and Nivalis drove the kart into a corner. Nivalis changed the tires, while Rita tested the new fuel.

She poured in a bottle of 26-type fuel, but there was no reaction. Then she tried the 18-type fuel, and again, nothing happened.

She ran back and bought 8 more bottles of each type.

In total, she had 18 bottles (25ml each), enough to fill her fuel tank, leaving just one bottle of 20ml 18-type fuel, which Rita stashed in her hoodie.

By now, Rita only had 4 kart coins left. She used these to buy the car repair tools.

Nivalis had thought she could fix the kart without tools, but when she tried, she realized something was wrong. The kart wasn't budging without proper tools, so in the end, the last 4 kart coins were spent.

Nivalis grumbled, "We need to improve, or we won't have enough."

Rita silently nodded.

She had already seen what this safe zone game was about—The Game: Kart Bumper.