This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

At the moment, the balance was tilted to the left. On the left-side pan lay a single map fragment shaped like a leaf. The right-side pan was empty. In front of the scale was a neatly arranged lineup of items—these must have been things Nivalis had used in the past ten days.

Even with Nivalis outside keeping watch, Rita didn't want to linger too long. You never knew when another player might enter the gondola.

She quickly flew over, crouched down, and began inspecting the items. She could only see their names—no detailed descriptions.

Most of them were Blocks. The only game-related item was a camera. Nivalis had definitely obtained more game items in the February Ferris Wheel, but she probably hadn't used them yet, which was why they didn't show up here.

Rita picked up the camera and realized she could only select a single Block from it.

In this special game, a Block counted as an entire item. She couldn't take the whole thing. Rita chose one camera Block from the fragmented item and placed it on the right side of the scale.

Immediately, the left-leaning scale sprang up, wobbled back and forth, then tilted toward the right.

Back in the real world, Rita opened her eyes to find a camera Block fragment had appeared in her hand.

She had paid 10,000 gold for it.

Even though it was just a single game item fragment, the full version belonged to the same tier as Soul Catcher and Lonely Antenna Baby—a five-piece perfect relic set.

How much would Soul Catcher or Lonely Antenna Baby go for at auction? 200,000? 500,000? 800,000?

She couldn't say. Her exposure to such high-tier relics was still limited. Before joining "Blocks and Me," she'd never even seen this many perfect artifacts.

But outside the game, if she had 500,000 gold, and both those items were listed for 250,000 each, she would absolutely spend the money to buy them.

Now, she had traded a single map fragment—something that refreshed hourly, required 30 in total to leave the maze, and became useless once the game ended—plus 10,000 gold, for one-fifth of a perfect relic set.

Roughly speaking, she had just spent 50,000 gold to get a perfect artifact.

This was basically a heist.

The Free Stuff Always Costs the Most and I Just Want to Improve So Badly were practically jailbreak partners from the same cellblock.

Though the two skills had slightly different methods.

I Just Want to Improve So Badly was the self-made entrepreneur.

The Free Stuff Always Costs the Most was the undercover cop running a sting operation.

Both were criminal. Deliciously, dangerously criminal.

Of course, not all perfect relics were equal. Even five-piece sets varied in value. A single game item fragment wasn't equal to a full item, and you couldn't just multiply the price by five.

If she wanted the full camera item, it would definitely cost more than 50,000. But the map fragment she'd traded was dirt cheap.

All in all, this strong-arm trade just proved the sheer value of that skill.

Rita had only spent 17 seconds inside that room. She looked at Nivalis and asked, "How long was I gone?"

Nivalis's voice responded in her mind, "From my perspective, you said 'start the timer,' then your camera showed up, and then you immediately asked how long it had been. Also, the moment the camera appeared in your hand, I got a notification saying I'd lost my camera for some unknown reason."

So time had stood still in that room.

Before Rita could say anything else, Nivalis continued, "I used the skill Tell My Mom, and the result said I lost something within the last five minutes because I took something without the owner's permission. But it didn't say who I took it from."

Tell My Mom was an SSS-level skill Nivalis had obtained from the Holy Grail. It didn't just identify who was targeting her—it could even notify her elders on Dragon Island. It was basically the ultimate tattletale ability.

Rita suspected it carried some of the Holy Grail's Stargazer powers.

And even that kind of top-tier skill could only determine a rough time and action—it still couldn't trace anything back to her directly.

Rita finally relaxed.

She hopped back down into the gondola, handed the camera back to Nivalis, took back her map fragment, and said, "Keep the gold. Consider it your pocket money for the year. I'm out. Have fun."

Nivalis took the camera but looked like she wanted to say something else.

Rita figured she wanted to talk rules and added, "No rush on the rules. Try a few more games first. I'll compare everything once I'm out of the maze."

"Oh." But that wasn't what Nivalis had in mind. She said, "That spotlight… and the music… where'd you get those? I want them too…"

Rita winced. Of course Nivalis would be into those.

Under Nivalis's expectant gaze, Rita briefly explained the two skills' effects and left it to her to figure out the rest. Then she summoned the deep-blue helm.

Nivalis's gaze immediately latched onto the helm. Rita asked, "Try touching it. See if you can."

Nivalis reached out, but her claw passed through the water like scooping moonlight from the sea. The helm didn't react at all.

Rita laughed. "Later! Have fun!"

With that, she grabbed the helm's lever, gave it a gentle push, and with the sound of crashing waves, returned to the maze.

Her One-Person Party disguise skill was still on cooldown, but Rita had a new option now.

She stowed away her weapon and Star Pirate Ship Blocks, then activated Cat's Ideal's first skill—There's a Cat Here!

There's a Cat Here!: Oh, so your name is Mew-Mew? Upon activation, transform into a random cat you've seen before. You cannot be detected or marked. This form doesn't affect your ability to use any skills or equipment. When you meow, all living beings who see you will stop what they're doing to respond, and you gain 8 seconds of invincibility. Each "meow" reduces the skill duration by 5 minutes. Duration: 1 hour. Mana cost: 5%. Cooldown: 2 hours.

If she couldn't be marked, then maybe—just maybe—she could avoid Emerald Crane Gale and Ghost · Sang Cup's spotlight and BGM skills.

…

The music cut out. The spotlight vanished.

At the entrance of the maze, a chubby orange-and-white cat made of Blocks trotted inside with a leaf in its mouth, its steps light and brisk.

Just like when she'd disguised herself as Pine Bloom to trade skills with the seahorse, Rita now toggled off her infamous reflect-damage skill Absurd Story in her personal settings.

She was scouting for areas of heavy combat. Since the game began, about 90% of the players had been constantly fighting. After Cat's Ideal was exposed, that number only went up.

Players who would've saved their ultimates for day two were now going all-in inside this maze.

B8017913: "You might want to know this. Right now, the queue to enter the maze is the longest in all of Month Theme Park."