This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

The prices weren't standardized at all. Even though all players could clearly see that the number of Blocks correlated with the quality of items or relics, letting players set their own prices meant total freedom. Some wanted to offload quickly, worried that as time passed the items would scatter further and further until no one would bother piecing them back together. Others were confident the item's original owners wouldn't be willing to let go—and priced them accordingly high.

Even the former didn't exactly price low.

Generally speaking, pieces from items with fewer total fragments were cheaper than those from items with more.

Rita spent 15 minutes wandering the amusement park and checked the map by the roadside. She realized she'd only covered about a third of the park. But time was running out.

She turned around and flew back a bit, stopping at the Pirate Ship ride to queue up.

This was the most cost-effective attraction: pets could join without paying an extra fee. Rita planned to use the tip of Nivalis's tail as the ticket. It weighed 8g—just right. Using her own Blocks would've meant removing at least two pieces.

Nivalis hugged her severed tail tip with a dramatic sigh. "So it's come to this. You're not even pretending anymore."

Rita scratched her ear and pretended not to hear it.

Players on the Pirate Ship were all attacking each other. Rita didn't bother waiting for her gear or accessories to be unlocked. Instead, she directly used her key skill, Reassign Effect, swapping the [1-Bamboo] tile for the effect of the [Green Dragon]—which allowed her to unlock a weapon or equipment piece.

She chose her ring weapon, Betrayal.

A ring appeared in the air in front of her, paused briefly, then dropped down. Rita reached out and caught it. At some point during its fall, the ring had already transformed into a Block. She pried it open and saw that it was made up of just two Block segments.

A legendary weapon, yet only two Blocks.

Betrayal was from the previous game, awarded via gift box and customized based on her stats at the time. Its equipping conditions were highly specific: Strength over 200, Agility over 2000. A niche weapon, no doubt.

She wasn't sure if that stat requirement influenced the number of Blocks.

Once equipped, she flexed her Block fingers. While not as nimble as her original form, Rita was confident in her aim. Her training from the Rabbit Tooth archery course had included shooting with injured or restricted hands. This was hardly worse than wearing overly thick gloves.

And shooting wasn't her only combat option—she could still copy skills.

The queue was long, but so were all the others. At the start of the game, there had been over 120,000 online players. By the time the game launched, that number had exceeded 150,000.

Assuming the amusement parks were divided by star-sea calendar months, there were likely 16 parks, each with roughly 10,000 players.

While observing the attractions, Rita also kept an eye on other Block players' features, looking for any identifiers like her own glowing wings—something that might help her recognize familiar players and gauge the strength of the group in this 15th Moon Amusement Park.

She also monitored the Block counts of others.

One of the game's rules was: "If a player/pet/temp Divine Game participant's Block count drops below 20% of their starting total, they'll be returned to the initial room to restart." Knowing Divine Game's style, high-powered players likely started with fewer Blocks to balance their advantage.

Rita had started with 42 Blocks. From what she observed, others had anywhere from 36 to 126 Blocks. That placed her on the higher end of the power spectrum. Those with over 100 Blocks were likely temporary Divine Game players.

Now, several minutes in, the numbers had already changed. Among those queued for the Pirate Ship, some had under 20 Blocks; others had over 150.

She hadn't specifically targeted queues with high-Block players, because every line had wildly mixed counts.

This led to another pitfall of the game—temporary Divine Game players brought in by official ones.

Maybe some were there for help, but given how massive the player count was, it was obvious most of these temps were brought in to get a taste of Divine Game or for training.

Rita had already warned Nivalis: once the game began, focus on players with either extremely low or absurdly high Block counts.

Each Pirate Ship ride allowed 80 players. Two ships alternated swings, so 160 players per round. Each round lasted 10 minutes. After two rounds, it was Rita's turn.

Both ships looked the same, made of black and white Blocks. Rita and Nivalis picked two adjacent seats. As soon as they sat down, a system prompt rang out in Rita's mind:

[Buzz—You have violated a game rule. A random divine penalty will be applied.]

[Penalty complete: -7 Constitution]

Before Rita could even figure out which rule she'd broken, another notification arrived:

[Star Pirate Ship Game Rules]:

Every 30 seconds, 3 players will be designated as treasure chests. Hitting the same chest 3 times allows you to steal one of their Blocks.

When a chest hits another crewmate, there is a 20% chance to steal one of their Blocks.

Every skill counts as one "hit." Hitting a shield also counts.

Crewmates hitting each other will not yield Blocks.

The Star Pirate Ship game has 20 rounds.

Health is locked during the game. Leaving the ship for more than 3 seconds results in instant teleportation back to the ship's center and a 5-second freeze.

If you hit the same Block on a chest three times in a row, the Block will be guaranteed to drop.

If a chest hits the same crewmate three times in a row, the third hit will have a 100% steal chance.

Game countdown: 5…

4…

The pace was blistering. Rita had just finished reading the rules when the countdown started—just five seconds to get ready.

She immediately detached B8017913 from her hand and set it horizontally under her foot, maintaining constant contact with the ground.

The two Star Pirate Ships began to sway—one forward, one backward—perfectly staggered.

"Every skill counts as one hit. Hitting a shield also counts." That was clearly a mechanic to prevent players from cheesing with AOE or guided abilities and to limit shield exploitation.

"Health is locked."