This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 651: Divine Game – Chaotic Blocks 42

Once the game began, both she and the plump duck had only 10 HP. Any skill that landed on the opponent, no matter the type—even healing—counted as an attack. Every hit took away 1 HP. There was no healing. When HP hit zero, you lost.

Rita had to brawl it out with a duck in a cramped ferris wheel cabin. If she lost, she'd be immobilized for three seconds, during which the duck could freely take up to three Blocks from her body.

After that, both sides would reset to 10 HP, and the fight would restart.

Three rounds total. Best of three. If she lost, she'd be forced to the next ferris wheel cabin.

The catch was that every cabin had a different timing. Which meant that when she arrived at the next one, the players inside might still be fighting.

That turned the match into a chaotic three-way brawl—or worse.

Anyone who hit 0 HP would be frozen for three seconds and looted.

And there was no way to control this.

She couldn't control when she'd enter the next cabin. And players in other cabins could finish their battles and suddenly show up in hers.

The worst was when she got gang-jumped by three ducks.

Every single cabin in the Game Simulation was filled with ducks of various shapes and sizes. It was hard not to think that the gods themselves had been playtesting…

After hearing all this, Nivalis asked, "Is this game even to your advantage? HP's kinda locked in, but it sounds like a serious skill test... Can your combat ability really match up to someone like Mistblade?"

Rita didn't take offense to the bluntness. "Of course not. But who said my strengths are locked out? I've got Absurd Story."

In the ferris wheel, whenever a duck used an attack-type skill and hit her, Absurd Story reflected the damage. She lost 1 HP, and the duck lost 1 HP.

However much HP she lost, the duck lost the same.

It drove the ducks mad with rage.

Of course, the reflected damage came slightly delayed. Which meant that if the fight dragged on, her HP would always hit zero first.

But! If she managed to land even a single attack during that exchange—just once—she could instantly flip the outcome.

Even better, she could still use I Just Want to Improve So Badly! Each use cost 1 HP, but being usable at all opened more tactical doors.

After hearing all this, Nivalis was hyped. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go! Feels like easy money!"

Rita: "Yeah but that strategy only works in 1v1s. If another player joins and it turns into a three-way or even four-way brawl, I lose my edge."

Nivalis: "Don't you have Teletubby?"

Rita sighed. That was the problem.

Teletubby's description said: "Undetectable, unseeable, untouchable, untraceable."

But the ferris wheel game's rules specifically banned stealth skills.

Not just stealth—it also blocked disguise-type skills. If a player's form changed mid-match, their Block pattern would glitch, and the looting would become randomized.

She had tried using Away from Home, Identity is Self-Assigned inside the simulation—shrinking herself without changing her appearance. Most players tended to attack the biggest target.

But even shrinking counted as a disguise.

Away from Home was, by nature, a disguise skill.

This was a no-nonsense, fast-paced brawler where the system didn't let you stall or cheese your way through.

Rita stared at the ferris wheel. Nivalis and B8017913 stared at her.

She put away Game Simulation, but her brows stayed furrowed.

"You two, come with me."

She walked into a dead-end alley and sat down, with Nivalis spreading her wings behind her to block any onlookers—especially the Six-Tailed Moon Fox, the extended-term Owlcrow, and the other lurking players.

Then Rita started rearranging her Blocks.

She was going to matryoshka herself.

Her upper body would be layered like a nesting doll, hiding Betrayal, Teletubby, Eggshell Hat, and even A Big World, A Small Me deep inside.

That way, even if she lost and got frozen for three seconds, players would only be able to loot the outermost layer.

As for her eyes—no problem. She'd tested it inside. If you lost an eye Block, the system would generate a pair of black bean-like placeholder eyes so the player could still see.

B8017913 caught on. "You've got a plan? But you said disguise skills don't work?"

Rita disassembled her glasses, keeping only the monocle of Nothing Surprises Me, and replied, "I want to try A Big World, A Small Me. It's not a disguise—it's a shrink. Should work in theory. If not, I'll use the Sneaky Milk Dragon to steal my stuff back. Has the River of Time been disturbed?"

B8017913: "Barely. Only 17 ripples."

That was shockingly low. Month Theme Park games were the kind where players should be using time tricks left and right. Why was the number lower than in Chaotic Restaurant?

Rita remembered the time turbulence during the last game caused by frequent time-skill usage. Maybe the players who spammed those skills had all been locked out—and still hadn't been released.

It was the only theory she had.

Nivalis looked confused. "If you've got this many countermeasures, why do you still look so serious?"

Rita: "Because there are still too many risks. This plan isn't foolproof. Size-altering skills that don't count as disguises aren't rare. If I can do it, others can too."

"Shrinking doesn't make me immune to AoE."

"If someone's combat intuition is sharp—and here in Month Theme Park, that's more likely than not—they might stop using offensive skills and switch to healing spells to hit me. That bypasses my reflect." ƒreewebɳovel.com

"And the scariest part of this game is, you can lose entire relics or artifacts in a single match. It only takes one round of combat to lose a whole item."

Nivalis clutched her heart. "Shouldn't you just pick a different game, then?"

Rita shook her head and reassured her, "It's not all bad. Skills have cooldowns. The pacing is fast. Not everyone's got a bunch of skills to spam."

And most importantly, Game Simulation only had three uses. She couldn't afford to keep switching.

How many games in this park could truly work in her favor, anyway?

It was nearly 7 o'clock. She'd been in March Theme Park for almost two hours and had only played one game.

She had already wasted too much time.

And the ferris wheel line still needed waiting.