This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

"Why haven't we heard from Deceitful Bloom or Drummer? Didn't BS-Rita finish her lessons already?"

"Maybe they got too pissed off by how dumb she is?"

"No way. I saw Deceitful Bloom smiling when the class ended."

"Drummer smiled too."

[Deceitful Bloom]: Smiling out of rage.

[Drummer]: Smiling out of rage.

[Captain]: Too dumb to teach?

[Drummer]: She used time stop at least four times for every star-sea day.

[Captain]: Even with time stop, aren't you and Deceitful Bloom able to move normally?

[Drummer]: …It was funny, so we didn't.

Watching BS-Rita scrambling to study during time stop was hilarious. Using time stop to cram, carefully posing herself in the exact same position before it ended, looking at them with such hopeful eyes after every instant-answer… It was all too entertaining. Besides, their consciousness could leave anytime.

[Captain]: …Then you've only got yourselves to blame.

…

After getting her thoughts in order, Rita flew over to the vending machine and collected two game console fragments she'd successfully traded for earlier.

She checked the market for the remaining fragments and saw that the original seller's three pieces were still there. Apparently, the buyer of [Leave Early] had picked up two at regular prices.

Rita used two [Universal Fragments] to exchange for the last two missing console parts.

The game console was finally complete!

She reviewed the two remaining skills, then happily stuffed the console back into the capsule machine. Next, she began searching for owl fragments.

Two new ones had just been listed, but they were more expensive—920g each, and they only accepted Blocks from March Theme Park.

Rita wasn't short on Blocks, but she was lacking March-specific ones.

The ones she'd given B8017913 had already been used to buy one owl fragment, which now sat in her inventory.

[Where's the Owl Already] was now at 6/9 progress.

Across three rounds of Defend the Gacha, Rita had pulled 310 capsules. Including what she'd given to B8017913, she'd drawn over 2300g worth of Blocks—just from gacha, not counting the Blocks earned from kills.

Because her body size made movement inconvenient, she'd stuffed almost everything into the capsule machine. The machine was now so full the capsules couldn't even rattle. The most prominent among them was the oversized pale pink one sitting right at the top.

Rita planned to sort through her gacha haul before anything else, selling off what she didn't need.

310 pulls—even with only a 50% drop rate—had brought in a staggering yield.

77 event lootboxes

5 universal fragments

3 duplicate Blocks

2 half-price coupons

3100g attribute Blocks

5 [Teleport Vouchers]

2 [VIP Passes]

2 [Forced Repatriation]

3 [Single Simulations]

4 [Unbind Items]

5 [Leave Early (2 hrs)]

3 [Block Exchange (15 mins)]

1 [Forced Party Up]

1 [Through Thick and Thin]

1 [Designated Guarantor]

2 [Status Transfer]

2 [Buffet Tickets]

Rita didn't rush to open the event lootboxes.

First, she listed all five [Leave Early (2 hrs)] vouchers on the Exchange Hall, marked for July or October Theme Park Blocks only, with color-specific conditions for each.

Then, borrowing B8017913's five consignment slots, she listed the three [Block Exchange (15 mins)] vouchers as well—March Theme Park Blocks only.

While waiting, a few Fat Ducks waddled by, asking if she wanted to gacha.

Thinking back to what she'd scored from Fat Duck No.1, Rita didn't hesitate. "Quit that life."

To her surprise, [Leave Early (2 hrs)] sold even faster than expected. While she was still browsing nine-piece equipment fragments to pick her third collection target, all five were gone.

While waiting for things to sell, Rita began organizing the Blocks she had earned from July and 15th Month Theme Parks.

She pulled out all the game item fragments and tried piecing them together. Anything she didn't like went straight to B8017913 for listing.

The remaining attribute Blocks she grouped by color into 200-piece panels and stored them in the capsule machine.

She had previously used [Block Exchange] to trade away a massive number of Blocks out of necessity—being too large made movement difficult. But now, with the capsule machine acting as her personal vault, she had no reason to trade them anymore.

She was even starting to imagine its final form. She asked B8017913, "Can I build your combat mode?"

B8017913 hesitated for the first time: "I-I guess… sure! Will Nivalis be okay with that?"

Rita: "I already asked her. She said she's fine with it, as long as she gets the pilot seat."

B8017913: "Oh—yeah, sure! That's great! Do we have enough Blocks?"

Rita glanced at the little robot, now suddenly chatty, and smiled without calling out its flustered excitement. "Another day of gacha should do."

Maybe the capsule machine's popularity had already spread. Or maybe players had figured out there was no way to obtain Divine Relics in this round—at least not in March Theme Park. Either way, no one was dragging her into games by forced binding anymore.

Or maybe they still thought she was stuck in July.

Near 2 a.m., Rita looked up at the Block-shaped sun in the sky and gave up trying to make sense of time and weather in this place.

Lessons were done, Blocks sorted. Rita was ready to use another [Teleport Voucher] to visit a new Month Theme Park.

So far, she'd visited: February, March, July, October, 15th Month, and 16th Month Theme Parks.

Teleport vouchers only let her jump to parks equal or higher level than her original entry point. That left just January and 13th Month unvisited.

She headed to January and read the signage at the gate. Stricter than March, but not quite as tough as July. Probably home to 16th-level players.

As she stepped into January Theme Park, ready to buy and immediately refund a ticket to some random game, B8017913 messaged her:

"There's a player selling a high-tier capsule coin fragment."

Rita froze mid-step. "How much?"

"Thirty universal fragments per piece."

She lifted her foot, ready to sprint to the vending machine—she still had a 20% off coupon. No matter what, buying it would be a profit, even just to flip.

Then B8017913 added, as if reading her mind: "Seller notes: discount coupons not accepted."

Rita lowered her foot in disappointment.

Was that expensive? She wasn't sure.

Compared to the capsule machine crafting course, of course it seemed cheap. In her mind, those 30 star-sea years of divine instruction were priceless.

But one of the gacha options had been [45 universal fragments].

By that standard, this price was sky-high.

She opened the battlefield chat, and sure enough, a lot of players were asking what she'd pulled from the high-tier capsule.