This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

The ship's wheel was about the same size as the steering wheel in the car parked in her garage—mostly white, lined with elegant golden patterns. Each of its eight spokes was shaped like a tiny wooden cat, each curled up in a different sleeping pose.

As for Wrathful Moon, the dust seemed to have been wiped clean. Not only had its name updated to Divine Relics: Wrathful Moon, but the lantern itself had been glowing ever since it appeared—like she was carrying a piece of the moon around with her.

Staring at the two Divine Relics, a sweet, doting smile spread across Rita's face.

"Didn't want to stay in your Pokéball—uh, I mean, your gacha capsule, huh? Okay, fine, you can hang out. But when it's Divine Game time, you do have to stay inside. Deal?"

The two Divine Relics bobbed up and down in agreement.

Rita instantly slipped into preschool teacher mode and clapped her hands enthusiastically.

"Great job! As expected of Divine Relics!"

Nivalis: "..."

B8017913: "..."

Ignoring the odd looks from her two companions, Rita moved on from the most valuable items and started organizing the rest of her loot.

First, she picked up Capsule Machine No. 2 and tried to return it to Nivalis.

"Here, yours."

To her surprise, Nivalis shook her head and stopped her.

"I don't want it. It's uncomfortable to carry. I can't fly with it."

Rita didn't insist. If Nivalis ever needed it again, she'd just hand it over then. Capsule machines were incredibly useful—but that didn't mean every player liked or needed them.

She turned to look at B8017913.

Before they exited the Divine Game, she hadn't taken back any of the Blocks it had used. In fact, she gave it more Blocks so it could piece together a form it liked, to test if it could bring it out of the game.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. Now, B8017913 was just a cube floating shakily in midair, clearly running low on power. Nivalis was currently helping it haul three power banks out to the backyard for a sunbath.

Rita pulled out Plush Collar and placed it in front of B8017913 so it could transform into a plushie.

This game had made it clear—B8017913 actually liked being out and about.

Sure enough, before she even said anything, B8017913 dove into the Plush Collar and turned into its plushie form.

Without checking her buzzing inbox or phone notifications, Rita laid out everything she had brought back from the game.

[Blocks and Me: 13th Month Bumper Car],

[Blocks and Me: 3rd Month Dice],

[Blocks and Me: 16th Month Ferris Wheel],

[Blocks and Me: 7th Month Gacha],

[Blocks and Me: 15th Month Star Pirate Ship].

And the final reward of the game—[Blocks and Me: BS-Rita].

She planned to place the Ferris wheel in the backyard—as both a decoration and a play structure for the neighborhood cats. Who knew, maybe that would trigger some kind of magical effect.

The rest, she'd keep on her for practical use.

As for the equipment and items she'd gotten during the game, she'd handed most of them—boomerang included—to that Fat Duck No. 1 when she bought the first capsule machine. Even though she picked up some good stuff later, they were all fragments. For the sake of her final score, she didn't keep any of it.

The only items still in her possession were:

[Game Addict's Console],

[Illegal Construction],

[Dull Game],

and two incomplete copies of [Where's the Owl Already].

Since they were broken, they had mutated.

The one with the owl's upper half intact, but whose lower half was patched together from Blocks, had become [Cat Head?]. The item now only retained the owl's upper body.

[Cat Head?] (Ancient)

"Where did this cat head come from?"

Stat Bonuses:

Intelligence +1617

Agility +1521

Constitution +1015

Magic Bonuses:

+55% casting speed

+65% skill damage

+65% mana regen rate

Ancient Skills:

Skill 1: Where's the Owl Already

"I know you're in a hurry!"

All skill cooldowns reduced by 30% while equipped.

Skill 2: Owl Got Lost

"But seriously, calm down!"

Instantly ends cooldown of one random skill, or transfers the cooldown of a chosen skill to another skill of the same level. No cost to use. Cooldown: 30 minutes (not affected by any modifiers).

Skill 3: The Owl Is Flying Home

Instantly ends all skill cooldowns. Cooldown: 36 hours (not affected by any modifiers).

Equip Requirements:

Intelligence > 4285

Agility > 4737

Its item appearance had changed too. Now it was just the owl's head, repurposed into an earring.

The other incomplete version, which only had the owl's lower half intact, had turned into [Where's the Head?].

Stats and bonuses were about the same, but the three ancient skills were different.

[Where's the Head?] (Ancient)

Skills:

Owl Got Lost (same as above)

The Owl Is Flying Home (same as above)

The Owl Is Starving

Seal a skill and begin pre-consuming its cooldown time. The skill will be available as soon as the seal ends.

Requires one dish rated 95+ per skill to seal. Can seal up to three skills at once. Item must be equipped for this to work.

Both items preserved three skills each, though not the same three. Luckily, Rita's two most valued ones—Owl Got Lost and The Owl Is Flying Home—were present on both.

And The Owl Is Starving wasn't bad at all. Sealing up to three skills for pre-cooldown was powerful. But it did require high-quality dishes to work, and the item had to be worn.

Which meant [Where's the Head?] had to stay equipped.

The only problem? Those crazy equip requirements...

Rita took a deep breath and opened her stat panel.

She'd already felt the change. From the moment she returned to BS and sank into the couch, the world felt... different.

No—maybe the shift had started earlier, when she first built the mech in Divine Game.

She tried to ignore the golden glow tracing the edge of her stats panel.

[Rita] – Level 19 (Tier 11 – Nightmare)

HP: 342,875 / 342,875

MP: 402,075 / 402,075

Strength: 5249

Constitution: 5275

Intelligence: 5361

Agility: 7252

Luck: 10 (+55) (Three separate [1] buffs restoring in 31:27:35)

Charm: 10 (Max)

Unassigned Attribute Points: 2000