This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

The battle had begun.

Even while running for her life, Rita kept a safe distance behind the neck-snakes, ensuring they remained within the range of her [Repay] skill.

She needed more than just offensive skills; defensive and healing abilities were just as crucial.

Seven minutes into the sixth round, her shield had already dwindled down to 1181%.

Without [Bedtime Tale], BS-Rita was like a sitting duck.

She wasn't going after the Ginger Bear but instead trying to take down a Mango Pudding player.

The Mango Pudding players resembled walking jelly blobs, like dough that's been squished randomly, with no uniform shape. They were about the same size as the half-meter tall Ginger Bear.

For the most part, Mango Pudding was transparent, but when they used skills, they would temporarily take on color depending on the skill's properties.

On the field, there were six types of creatures: event gift packs, neck-snakes, Ginger Bears, snails, Mango Pudding, and Wigeon Sparrows.

Rita couldn't beat the event gift packs, neck-snakes, or Ginger Bears.

The Wigeon Sparrows fought in the air.

For the past seven minutes, Rita had been provoking the snails and Mango Pudding, baiting them into attacking her to see how much health she could lose.

From what she could tell, Mango Pudding players seemed to be the weakest of the bunch.

The snails and Ginger Bears were almost equally powerful—meaning, in a one-on-one fight, they could easily crush Rita without breaking a sweat.

But Mango Pudding was different. A few of them, annoyed by her harassment, had decided to teach this Ginger Bear a lesson, and Rita could actually go toe to toe with them.

Perhaps Mango Pudding was at Nightmare Mode level, or maybe even Painful Mode.

Rita equipped [Betrayal] on her claws and began pursuing Mango Pudding.

Most of the time, she would shoot from a distance, copying powerful attack skills from nearby neck-snakes every 3 minutes.

She was focused on Mango Pudding, but there was always a Ginger Bear eyeing her from the side.

Whenever the Ginger Bear tried to take her down, Rita ran.

At this point, several players had already completely left the game, but even though they were gone, they left behind new problems.

The players who had been eliminated turned into various new forms of stone statues, which couldn't move and had only 1 health point, meaning they would die from even the smallest scratch.

If a skill accidentally hit a stone statue and caused a splash, the statue would shatter, breaking the connection.

However, after 3 seconds, the statues would regenerate as if nothing had happened.

This mechanic limited the effectiveness of area-of-effect (AoE) skills, but didn't entirely block them. Players would have to clear all the statues before using AoE skills, but doing so might let other players steal the kill, making it difficult to finish off enemies in a second attempt.

Rita managed to trap a few Ginger Bears by using the stone statues to her advantage, but Mango Pudding had used the statues to interrupt some of her connections.

Finally, at the 17-minute mark, Rita made her first successful elimination.

[Congratulations player BS-Rita, elimination successful.]

[You have earned the death penalty of player Black Tea Fish Belly.]

[Player Fish Belly chose to exchange an SSS-level divine skill for their 10th revival opportunity. You will receive this skill as your loot.]

[Ding – Elimination reward: You gain +1100 Mana.]

[You have received Fish Belly's divine skill – "Yes, I'm Fish Belly, what about it?"]

"Yes, I'm Fish Belly, what about it?" (S):

"I admit I'm the weakest one."

Using this skill, you will become completely unthreatening and insignificant. You are a battlefield orphan, with no team and no one cares about you. All your skills will become silent and invisible, and even if a skill is on cooldown, it can still be forcibly used. After the effect ends, any forcibly used skill will be interrupted and continue to cooldown.

This skill lasts for 10 minutes. Each use consumes 30% of your mana. The cooldown time is 1 hour.

Rita examined this S-level divine skill for a long time and surprisingly liked it.

It just needed some modifications…

For example, why would forcibly used skills need to be interrupted? If it had to be interrupted, at least the duration could be extended a bit.

06:21

Her shield had completely shattered, and her health was down to 37%.

The [If you can kill me] skill, used in the previous round, had finished its cooldown. Rita immediately activated it.

06:23

Health: -47%

At this point, the number of stone statues in the field had significantly increased, and even the sky was filled with flying stone statues.

Rita used [Mango Pomelo Sago] to restore 50% of her health, but didn't immediately use [Mysterious Power].

She glanced at the sky, then used [Romantic Tourist] on a large flying stone statue in the corner.

It worked! Wasn't that stone statue technically considered a building?!

Rita immediately used [Romantic Tourist] to teleport to the flying stone statue. Here, standing and shooting would be much safer.

She then used the healing skill copied from the neck-snake to heal herself, bringing her health above 90% and letting out a sigh of relief.

During this, a Wigeon Sparrow spotted her standing on the flying stone statue, and intentionally destroyed the statue she was standing on. Rita quickly jumped to another statue, but unfortunately, the impact from her landing shattered that flying stone statue as well.

Rita had no choice but to use [Romantic Tourist] a second time.

She swapped to a flying stone statue that was a bit closer to the neck-snakes.

06:41

[Congratulations player BS-Rita, elimination successful.]

[You have earned the death penalty of player Blazing Fury Blind Python.]

[Player Blind Python chose to exchange an SSS-level divine skill for their 10th revival opportunity. You will receive this skill as your loot.]

[Ding – Elimination reward: You gain +12 Intelligence.]

[You have received Blind Python's divine skill – "Secrets in the Wind."]

Another S-level skill.

"Secrets in the Wind" (S):

"I'm blind, and even more nosy."

Using this skill, you can capture the secrets carried by the wind. Each use consumes 50% of your health and 50% of your mana. The cooldown is 7 natural days.

This skill was quite unique.

Rita wasn't sure how effective it would be until she tried it out, but based on how "secretive" the wind's secrets were, this divine skill could either be a treasure or a nuisance.

Although she hadn't gained any SSS-level divine skills in the last two eliminations, each of them was quite special.

Rita became more and more determined to fight.

However, the Mango Pudding players were becoming fewer. It wasn't just them; all the different types of creatures were dwindling, and the remaining players running around were fewer than the stone statues.

There were still 19 minutes left.

Rita didn't know if she would be able to complete a third elimination.

She also wasn't sure if the impressive elimination from the fifth round would count as one or two eliminations.