This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita, who had just been farted on by the Sea Pony: "..."

She couldn't decide which was worse—the Sea Pony's mouth or that fart.

The trash talk strategy for this competition didn't even require her to speak up; the Sea Pony was doing the job of three players all on its own.

What Rita didn't know was that in the Marmang underwater world, seahorses were gentle, peaceful creatures. 99% of their divine talents were related to healing. The inventor of the mechanical seahorse had created it in honor of seahorses, turning them into underwater mounts to commemorate these peaceful and adorable creatures.

In the Marmang world, most players adored seahorses.

However, Marmang-Crab's Sea Pony was a pure mutation.

Rita tightened her grip on the knife shaped like crab claws.

The chaos caused by Nivalis and the backyard cat didn't compare to this Sea Pony. This white Sea Pony didn't just have its tiny, lollipop-like hands; those hands were incredibly cheeky, not only slapping its own butt to provoke Rita but tossing fruits and vegetables around as well.

If Rita stayed silent, it was fine, but the moment she spoke up to stop it, the Sea Pony would act out even more...

—"Are you teaching me how to do things?! Do you know who my father is?! It's Marmang-Crab!"

Marmang-Crab: "...I already told you, I'm not."

The dramatic Sea Pony clutched its head and twirled wildly, exclaiming in distress: "I knew you wouldn't admit it! BS Rita, you should understand me, right? I heard you recognized a powerful mother too while you were wandering! We're both so smart!"

Rita didn't know how to refute it at first, but she needed to clarify, so she responded, "It was her who recognized me!!"

Sea Pony: "Look, I haven't even said her name, and you already know who I'm talking about! Ding ding ding! Look over there!"

As it spoke, the Sea Pony's tail suddenly stiffened, pointing in a specific direction.

Rita immediately tensed and looked in the direction the Sea Pony pointed, only for her expression to freeze.

On the conveyor belt across from her, Mistblade, who had just passed by and accidentally overheard the conversation, reflexively said, "I'm not."

Flowering Edge, the Moon Fox nearby, looked at Mistblade with a strange expression.

Mistblade immediately realized how silly her words were. With BS Rita having a pair of wings fluttering behind her and no tail to speak of, how could she possibly be related to the moon fox!

The Sea Pony hid its face and cried, "Oh! She doesn't recognize you, BS Rita! You're just another version of me!"

Rita didn't know why, but she somehow responded in a daze, "...She really isn't."

As the discs passed each other, Mistblade raised an eyebrow. "Then who really is?"

Rita slapped herself on the left cheek. Why did I engage in this conversation?!

She quickly shoved two leaves of lettuce into her ears and focused on separating TingoJE.

She still had to keep an eye on the chaotic Marmang-Crab and Sea Pony; some ingredients and magic potions were extremely fragile, requiring her intense concentration. She had to be ready to save them from the Sea Pony's hands at a moment's notice.

Octopus Bucket was in charge of guarding their disc. Everyone knew the arrangement in the competition was designed to make the players fight each other.

Though Marmang-Crab was also causing chaos, at least half of its focus was on keeping a watchful eye.

It also kept an eye on the battle chat channel, trying to figure out what was happening to those players who had been turned into ingredients by the cosmic creatures.

But the ingredients that had been discussed in the chat had all gone silent.

Marmang-Crab kept murmuring to Rita about the ingredients—it was also a form of chaos—but Rita wasn't particularly worried.

Since Octopus Bucket had been the one to kidnap her and Marmang-Crab even before the [Is this your restaurant? Who gave you the permission to open it?] event started, it was clear Octopus Bucket had something up its sleeve. It had chosen to turn the highly ranked TingoJE into an ingredient for a reason.

The conveyor belt discs kept moving. All around her were similar discs and players, with the starry sky above and a metal moon resembling a nail hanging in the sky.

Rita wasn't sure which moon it was, but she had already decided that, as the competition neared its end, she'd take a few souvenirs back.

The players were all cautious, none of them eager to make the first move—there was no point in attacking when the dishes hadn't even been finished.

But when a player finally completed their first dish, problems arose.

Suddenly, a mechanical arm reached out from the starry sky and grabbed that player's dish off the counter.

All the chefs: !!!

Players closer to the action could clearly see what happened. The player on the disc had tried to protect their dish, but their attacks on the mechanical arm had no effect.

The mechanical arm moved slowly, almost as if it were giving the player enough time to save the dish, but it was more like it was delivering the dish.

The players on the disc had varying power levels, the highest being 12th tier and the lowest 9th tier, yet their magical and physical attacks had no effect.

But there was a silver lining.

After the mechanical arm took the dish, a shining silver gem dropped from the sky onto the plate from which the dish had been taken.

Experienced players understood the basic rules of the game. Even in uncontrollable game modes, there was always an attempt to balance things out.

Now, this method of directly taking dishes from the conveyor belts was 100% under control, meaning the mechanical arm wasn't something the players couldn't deal with.

Each team was closely monitoring the situation, and the chefs stopped preparing their main dishes. Instead, they all casually made small side dishes to test the arm's reaction.

Soon, more and more mechanical arms appeared, taking dish after dish.

Some mechanical arms couldn't be broken, while others would release the dish if they were attacked.

In the latter case, a faint player silhouette appeared in the air—that was a player who had been turned into ingredients!

As the situation grew more complex, players began analyzing the differences and underlying tricks.

It became clear that attacking the mechanical arm did nothing unless the main ingredient—the player turned into the food—attacked the arm.

And, without exception, the ingredients put up a fierce fight, clearly benefiting from something that the other players didn't understand. Perhaps ingredients had their own gameplay mechanics or ways to escape.

But not all players turned others into ingredients like Octopus Bucket did. At least two-thirds of players selected their ingredients from the market.

The remaining third were the seasoned players of Divine Game.

Upon realizing some players had been turned into ingredients by the cosmic creatures, others immediately began mimicking this behavior, only figuring out the technique after several failed attempts.

But these two playstyles seemed to have their own pros and cons. If the main ingredient wasn't a player, the starry sky wouldn't drop a gem when their dish was taken. Only when the main ingredient was made from a market-bought ingredient would the mechanical arm drop a gem.

This could be compensation, or perhaps a balancing mechanism, but all the players knew that the gem would definitely influence the competition outcome.