This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita tried taking a capsule out of the gacha machine—good, now she could see what was inside and unlock the item.

She took out Cat's Ideal, unlocked it, and then placed it back in the gacha machine. Instantly, it vanished from her sense of connection.

The unlock had been severed, but her available unlock slot was free again.

That didn't necessarily mean she could keep using this trick once the game officially began. Right now, she hadn't stepped onto the grassy field yet and was still considered in the prep phase. There was no guarantee this would work mid-game, so she couldn't count on it as a reliable strategy.

But the bug wasn't the worst part.

The real issue was: if she wanted to use Cat's Ideal, she had to take it out of the gacha machine.

What if she activated a skill and then put it back in? Would the skill be canceled?

As soon as she pulled out Cat's Ideal, every player on the field turned to stare.

Rita scratched at her scalp, feeling the creeping itch, and turned around to face away from the others, essentially isolating herself from her "heirs."

Little Seahorse sighed. "Poor BS-Rita… while you still have it, talk to it as much as you can."

Rita chuckled. "Poor Little Seahorse… never even touched a Divine Relic, huh?"

Little Seahorse: "…"

With that dealt with, Rita returned to thinking about which two skills to unlock.

All skill cooldowns were now 3 seconds. She had a strong feeling that once the game started, it would be a visual warzone of special effects flying everywhere—just like Plants vs. Zombies.

The limitation was that only offensive skills were allowed. Broad as that category sounded, it wasn't as wide as she'd hoped. The most basic requirement was that the skill had to deal damage to players directly.

Her ideal picks were Phoenix Seat and Unchanged Fate, but neither qualified—they were buffs and defenses, not direct attacks.

Mysterious Power, Absurd Story, Repay—none of those worked either. They had indirect or conditional mechanics that didn't count as offensive. Even Midnight Exile wasn't recognized as a pure attack skill.

In truth, even without Lania Kaia Wither slapping her with that item, Mysterious Power wouldn't have been usable here. These veteran players likely couldn't pinpoint whether that bizarre skill came from a relic or an item, so they hit her with a blanket counter just in case.

In the end, she chose Moment Reversal and Cheers.

Moment Reversal allowed her to swap HP and mana with another player, which counted as an offensive ability. It was flexible enough to double as a recovery tool—if all three of her healing balloons failed, she could just steal someone's full health bar. It was both offensive and defensive.

Most importantly, she still didn't know what surprises the other players were holding back. If anyone targeted her after the game began, Moment Reversal could turn the tables and flip their weird game item effects.

As for Cheers, it was only an A-grade skill, but that was intentional.

Even if she picked an SSS-tier skill, without Midnight Exile, she had no real way to threaten these high-tier abyss players. Whether she did 1 or 2 points of damage made little difference.

So instead, she'd use this chance to practice a skill she actually wanted to level up.

The downside of Cheers was its mana drain, but with Moment Reversal refreshing every 3 seconds, she could top off her mana as needed.

Once her item and skills were confirmed, there were 22 seconds left on the countdown.

Rita, who hated leaving things to the last second, pulled out Cat's Ideal again, laid down in a comfortable position, and activated its second skill—Wasting Guide.

Time stopped.

Every player on the field froze as though someone had hit the universal pause button.

As long as Rita didn't interfere with or harm another player, the time stop could last up to 48 hours.

A glowing cat paw appeared on the back of her hand, with the number inside still sitting at zero. That must be her "Waste Index."

After trying to call B8017913 and Nivalis with no response, she confirmed that her pet was frozen too.

Divine Relics, unlike regular skills or items, served only their designated wielder.

She then placed Cat's Ideal back into the gacha machine. She waited a few seconds… time stop remained unaffected.

So using a Divine Relic's skill wouldn't be interrupted just by stashing it away. That gave her full peace of mind.

She could deploy Cat's Ideal, use it, and stash it—problem solved.

That alone gave her new hope for the game ahead.

…

Time stop required her to do nothing useful in order to increase her Waste Index—but Rita was the type who couldn't sit still until urgent matters were handled.

First, she headed to an empty spot and unlocked Illegal Construction.

Just like how players automatically shrank to fit the game field, this item had been miniaturized too. Even so, it was still over ten centimeters tall and long—who knew how massive it was in its original form?

The item functioned like an astronomical telescope—you had to "observe" the real item in order to create a substitute.

Since she couldn't puppet-shadow it or call on her pet, she made only two replicas: one for Cat's Ideal, and one for Wrathful Moon.

She glanced at the glowing cat paw—unsurprisingly, doing actual work didn't boost her Waste Index at all.

Now that essentials were done, she could finally waste time.

She ran and jumped around the grassy tiles, even wandered over toward the gacha machines on the opposite side. She didn't touch them though—better safe than sorry.

Eventually, she returned to the player area and began studying each of the other players, keeping an eye on the glowing number on her hand.

It ticked up slowly—1 point per minute.

After exploring every nook and cranny of the field, Rita decided to properly relax. She lay down, sunbathed, and did absolutely nothing of value.

The weather in this zone was perfect: warm sun, a gentle breeze…

Several seconds later, her eyes popped open.

Just like she once lamented how Mistblade and Pine Bloom couldn't stop analyzing things, she was now helpless against her own overactive brain.

She reached into the gacha machine and pinpointed the capsule that contained her Game Console.

A question she had just thought of kept echoing in her head—

Could this game console record and store games from within a Divine Game?