This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

The flowing fire of Rita's wings flickered above her Block-crafted structure, gently swaying like flames in the breeze. Hidden beneath the faux feathers was a skeleton built to mimic the iconic Flameflow Wings. The flames drifting above moved with a subtle grace, but the whole thing looked… a little off.

Her original Flameflow Wings had five pairs of glowing skeletal blades, resembling a scythe's arc, fanning out from her back in descending size. When they flapped, fire flowed across them like liquid. In full motion, they merged into a burning silhouette of a butterfly mid-flight.

But now, in this blocky disguise? Honestly, she looked more like a spider carrying a human torso, and the human had decided to walk around piggybacking on its spider legs.

Still, with both her gacha machine and the telltale Flameflow Wings hidden, and with no skills allowed in public zones, no player could easily recognize her.

Once she was inside the maze, she'd use a disguise skill to alter her identity completely.

Knowing she'd have to pay another game fee at 6:00 PM, she preemptively tucked the Magician's Wisdom Tooth into her gacha machine.

17:59

Rita rocketed toward the October Maze entrance and landed at the end of the queue. She didn't bother looking for B8017913, instead opening a private channel.

"I'm good now. You can do whatever you want. If you're tired of this theme park, just grab a teleport pass and go find Nivalis."

B8017913 replied, "I can't. Now that I have a body, I'm at least Tier 10 in combat power. I'll wait nearby."

Rita had never checked B8017913's combat stats before. After a pause, she messaged, "Then go wait for me back at March Theme Park."

But B8017913 didn't immediately agree. After a moment of silence, it messaged something strange:

"When you were a kid, the first time you hit your brother was because he knocked your piece back to start when you were about to win a game of Ludo."

Rita froze. That was something no one knew. Not even with full access to the internet could B8017913 have found that.

She had a strong suspicion now—this was a message from her future self, using B8017913 as the messenger.

B8017913 continued, "Five minutes after the game starts, don't go near the entrance at the 3 o'clock position. When you hear a conversation, drop something you believe is right."

Instructions from her future self. The details didn't make sense yet, but Rita nodded.

"Got it."

At that moment, the maze's gates slowly opened.

But before the queue could even start moving, a bell tolled from nowhere. A loud system announcement echoed above the entire Month Theme Park.

[Closing Ceremony Initiated]

[From this moment forward, public areas are fully unlocked—players may use all skills freely]

[In public areas, the player who deals the most damage during a kill will earn 1% of the victim's Blocks]

[Upon death in a public area, regardless of remaining Blocks or death thresholds, players will be revived in the initial room]

The moment she heard "public areas fully unlocked," Rita instantly activated a skill:

[Come At Me If You Think You Can Kill Me]

Her HP threshold plummeted to -500%.

Right as the skill took effect, multiple area-of-effect skills detonated around her.

Even with [Bedtime Tale] equipped, Rita's HP dropped to -20% instantly.

No need to trigger another skill to reduce it further. She immediately fired up [Mysterious Power] and dashed forward.

Sakura· Orange White had already entered the maze.

Chaos had broken out in the queue. Some players no longer bothered queuing; others, like Rita, dove into the game instead.

For players who preferred games with solid rules over raw PvP chaos, diving into structured game modes like this one was the safer bet.

She passed through the maze gate and heard the rules download into her mind.

[Winter Maze Game Rules]

Once the maze opens, collect 30 fragments of the current map to piece together a full map. Only players with a full map can leave.

Killing another player earns 5 Blocks, 1 map fragment, and +5 energy.

If killed, players are randomly teleported to one of 36 maze entrances and drop 5 Blocks and 1 map fragment. If they have no map fragments, 1 game-item Block will be taken instead.

All skills affecting the maze map are nullified.

Failing to kill a player within 5 minutes results in a random game-item fragment being lost.

Standing still for more than 30 seconds triggers a "marked" state with a 10-minute penalty.

Every hour on the hour, the maze opens for 3 minutes to admit new players. When it does, all old map fragments become void.

Running out of energy resets the player to the initial room with energy restored to 100.

Maze rules override Month Theme Park rules.

Much stricter than Spring Labyrinth had been.

The biggest problem for Rita? The "no kill in 5 minutes" rule leading to a loss of one item fragment.

Still, better than the chaos outside. Here, she could use her gacha machine to control what she'd lose.

Just stash away all her items in the last second, leaving behind only one she could afford to part with.

Meanwhile, back on the pirate ship orbiting the October Month Theme Park, a Fat Duck playing another game suddenly yanked out a handful of feathers and scattered them onto the game board.

Every player received three feathers, and the duck immediately gained eligibility to quit the game mid-session.

Once out, it teleported straight to the maze gate.

Ducking and weaving through the fallout of stray skills in the sky, it slipped into the end of the maze line and entered the game.

...

Rita spawned inside the maze at one of its 36 entrances. A few other players were nearby, but no sign of Sakura· Orange White.

Her first action was to message B8017913:

"Did you head back yet? Don't go to March—go to the 15th Month Theme Park."

B8017913: "Already in the initial room."

Rita: ...Actually, that works. Saves her the cost of a teleport pass.

B8017913: "October's mechanical race has received a mysterious mission. If you start playing an October park game, we're required to report it."

Rita: "...Don't you think choosing to contract with me was the best decision ever?"

B8017913: "It's 'followed,' not 'contracted.'"

Rita: "Huh?"

B8017913: "I followed the right person."

Rita: ...I should just block B8017913 and Nivalis at the same time.