This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Who the hell wants attribute points?!

Rita immediately checked her Magician's Wisdom Tooth—her second maze map fragment was still there.

But she was certain the missing console fragment had something to do with that damn leaf.

Could she use Stubborn Mule to cancel the pickup?

No. Sure, that might return the fragment, but the thief already knew the piece came from Maple Syrup's hands. That was a giveaway. And worse—she'd lost the chance to track them down.

—Master Thief Dragon!

Rita rewound to 190 seconds earlier, just as she was reaching for that leaf.

Fingers curled, her fingertip barely grazing it.

Inside her body, she felt the game console fragment return. Yep. It had been that leaf.

She immediately flew away from the scene, then looped back with Antenna Baby, landing once again on the tree where she'd first spotted the map.

There, she used Animagus to transform into a tiny Block spider, canceling Antenna Baby, and crawled along the branches for over a minute.

Soon, she saw a figure approaching at the maze's far end—one who scanned the area before hurrying over and tucking the map fragment back into the flower wall.

A familiar face—Marmang the Seahorse, Tier 13.

Probably another summoned pet like Nivalis, brought here by its owner, MarmangCrab. She didn't know how long the creature had been in the maze, but by the look of its swollen belly and collected Blocks, it was having a great time.

It definitely hadn't entered with her batch of players, yet it clearly hadn't been suffering in here—on the contrary, it was thriving.

Connecting the dots between her stolen console fragment and the weird "compensation" she got, Rita had her answer.

She immediately activated Chavez's Time to probe the seahorse's divine talents.

An S-rank gift. Only two skills were unlocked, but her attention was drawn straight to the fourth one.

Skill 4 – The Free Stuff Always Costs the Most (Passive):

If any player takes your items without a mutual agreement, this skill automatically activates, allowing you to view the last 10 items they've used over the past 10 galactic days. You can then select one item to receive as "compensation." The skill triggers without cost. If the value of the taken item and the compensation differ too much, the thief will pay the difference in seashells or attribute points. No cooldown.

So that was it.

The map fragment had been real—but also a trap. Marmang had used it to trigger that passive and steal her console piece.

Her mana was running low—Regular Savings had only 272% left.

After reading the skill description, Rita immediately retreated from the passage—but not far. Just enough to hide around the bend and deactivate Antenna Baby.

Her mind was still stuck on that skill.

First thought: That skill was her worst nightmare.

Second thought: That skill was made for her.

It wasn't Skill 1, 2, or 3. It was 4—her number!

One-Person Party and Midnight Exile were untouchable, her most vital gifts.

The only ones she might even consider swapping were Food God, Immortal, or Divine Archer.

If it had taken Skill 1–3, she might've hesitated. But Skill 4?

Easy choice.

Food God's Skill 4 was her least favorite:

"Hey, Friend, Look—There's a Pot":

Food God receives no bad reviews. Mark someone who trusts you; all negative sentiment from eaters is redirected to that person.

She loathed it—had never once used it—and after Rick's death, it became utterly useless.

Plus, even if the seahorse got the skill, she wasn't worried. She didn't trust any non-human species anyway.

Even if an ant crawled past her on the road, she'd assume it was a player or some skill in disguise. No way she'd "trust" one of them.

And the skill swap wouldn't be hard to reverse. The seahorse out-leveled her—if she let it hit her, she could use Reverse Moment to take the skill back.

Right now, this divine skill was more important than any of her current plans.

First, she needed to change disguises. Maple Syrup wasn't safe—she didn't know if Maple Syrup was even in the maze. Couldn't pin blame on someone with an airtight alibi.

She turned from the seahorse and used Yes, I'm Fish Belly, What About It? to forcibly activate Away from Home, Identity is Self-Assigned.

This time, she selected a green Block fragment she'd taken from Pine Bloom and used it as her transformation anchor.

In an instant, she became Pine Bloom herself.

Even if someone had obscure anti-illusion tools, she was no illusion—she was Pine Bloom now.

Though she couldn't see the full skillset, she finally got to read all of Pine Bloom's divine talents. Tch. That Skill 4, Behind the Scenes, was definitely the weakest of the bunch.

She closed the menu and toggled off her Absurd Tales passive using Personal Settings, ensuring her reflective damage and pain would stay hidden.

Then, using Antenna Baby, she tracked the seahorse's location. It was still bouncing in place, clearly in no rush to move.

Good.

She flew off toward the location where the real Pine Bloom had been fighting.

She needed to "borrow" one of her skills—just to nail down her Pine Bloom disguise.

Two minutes ago, Pine Bloom had been fighting three players. Now only two remained.

Rita had to move fast.

…

Marmang the Seahorse watched the map fragment expectantly. So many powerful players were nearby.

Lania Kaia Maple Syrup, Lania Kaia Pine Bloom, and that insane Orange Mangoberry were all circling the area!

He didn't understand why Maple Syrup hadn't picked up the fragment—maybe she foresaw a trap? Players had so many weird skills these days, who could say?

But he waited patiently. He'd been in the maze for over three hours already.

Sure, using the map to extract premium gear cost a lot of attributes, but it was worth it.

He now had 27 nine-piece set fragments. While none were complete, once sold, they'd more than make up the losses.

If all went well, he and Crab might even rank near the top in this Divine Game!

After all, they didn't lack ordinary gear or curios. What they wanted were rare, heavily customized nine-piece set items—usually found in the hands of well-known players.

It was hard to say whether legendary gear made the player, or the player made the gear.

He always believed the former. Crab insisted it was the latter.

Just then, a player passed by the flower wall again.

Pine Bloom.

Lania Kaia Pine Bloom.