This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

He burned through every spell he had: shields, heals, speed buffs. He surged upward with everything he could muster, breaking through the surface in a desperate sprint for the nearest ship.

But just as one boot cleared the water, his body snapped back down, yanked into the sea faster than he had risen.

Something unseen had dragged him.

There was something in the water.

The sapphire sea looked clear enough to glimpse schools of tiny fish, but the predator that had seized the boy was hidden, shrouded deep below.

Every student who saw it instinctively stepped back from the rails.

And those on other ships? They began hammering on their own hulls, trying to scuttle their vessels rather than risk being pulled under.

The fight on Rita's yacht wasn't over yet, but the clouds at the edge of the world stirred again. The black cudgel of storm rolled low across the sea, its tip pointing toward the eight-ball ship.

And its angle… aimed straight for them.

Rita cut faster, her blades flashing. She still hadn't managed to put down the coffee-brown bear cub named Loath. The reason was a maddening skill effect: \\[Click to Redirect].

It only targeted one enemy at a time, but once locked, any attack that struck Loath redirected its damage to a nearby target. If no other target was close, the damage bounced back on the attacker instead.

Silky smooth, utterly shameless—rivaling her own \\[Mystic Force].

And the duration was two full hours.

Loath wasn't fighting like a student. He was acting like a raid boss.

If she hadn't checked his god-gifted skill list and confirmed \\[Click to Redirect] wasn't there, Rita would have thought it belonged in his heritage tree.

Now that the cudgel was targeting her sector, the other students scattered. Nobody wanted to be flung from their own decks and cut off from their ships.

That left only Rita and Loath. Her blows had begun to rebound on her, while he tore at the yacht's planks with glowing runes.

She snared his limbs with a paralysis glyph and snarled, "Your skill is disgraceful. You fight without the slightest shred of warrior's honor!"

For a heartbeat, Loath's ursine face twisted in guilt, struggle, maybe even awakening.

Then Rita's hand closed on the skill cart.

She invoked \\[Gift of Nature]. With a single attribute point, she stripped \\[Click to Redirect] away.

Loath froze.

"?"

Her daggers blurred. Under \\[I'm Just That Bored], her combo counter had broken three hundred. Her attack speed was nearly 3.9 per second.

Ironically, his redirect had helped her get there. He hadn't even dodged, letting her farm combos while the redirected strikes slaughtered other students.

But now, with her momentum rolling, the bear never had a chance. A flurry of critical strikes shredded through his health bar before he could even channel another heal.

Rita stood over the corpse of the third-year cub and shook her head. "Listening to enemy speeches in the middle of battle? Little bear, you disappoint me."

Maple Syrup had just leapt back aboard, landing near the helm, and groaned. "…If you talked less trash in fights, you'd probably be even more popular."

Rita looked honestly baffled. "What's popularity worth? Does it make my snowmen sell for more?"

Motor scrambled up next, inspecting the cracked hull, muttering under her breath. "Why is it when she talks trash you let it slide, but when I politely reply you punch me?"

Mistblade dropped lightly onto the deck with a sack of spare parts, deadpan. "Because she'd rather hear trash talk than your useless drivel."

Rita ignored them, too busy hauling bodies and tossing them overboard.

"Brace!" Fat Goose bellowed. "Incoming strike!"

Everyone clutched railings or equipment. Motor lunged for the wheel, ready to spin the vessel the moment they were hurled, anything to shift them farther from the whirlpool's hungry pull.

Rita's eyes widened. Charging toward them was the eight-ball ship. And on its deck—Crab.

Her Crab.

The crab's bulging eyes locked on hers in horror. "It's her! She's right there! What if she steals my god-gift skill?!"

The orange-and-white cat clinging to the rudder rolled its eyes. "Then don't hit her."

"I already did!" Crab wailed. "What now?"

"Then make sure your health stays lower than hers," the cat shot back.

Rita's skills were the most dissected of the entire tournament. Every move she'd used in the last Divine Game had been cataloged, analyzed, updated in at least seven versions.

And \\[Moment of Reversal]? That intel was ironclad, leaked directly from Deep Sea Mine's Pomango, who had felt its effect firsthand.

Quex, standing nearby, muttered, "Honestly, Crab, you're fine. If she steals anything, it'll be from me first…"

But Rita's excitement—and their paranoia—came too soon.

Because the eight-ball ship missed.

It barreled straight past, clipping half a dozen slower vessels and sending them tumbling, but its angle was off. Not a scratch touched the seven-ball yacht.

Rita had been inches away, close enough to snatch Crab by the shell if not for the shimmering barrier between ships. She pressed her hand against it and felt it hold firm.

The opportunity slipped away.

Her face darkened. "Who was that? Who's driving? Do you even know how to hit a ball? Get someone competent up there!"

...

Drummer handed the cudgel to Boiling Orange with calm gravity. "If you knock BS-Rita into the pocket, I'll buy you a brand new gacha machine."

Boiling Orange's ears perked. "Seriously?!"

"Seriously."

He turned to Deceitful Bloom. "That's allowed, right?"

The deity's eyes narrowed. "Since when have I bent rules for a player?"

"…" Boiling Orange turned warily to Foolishness. "Um… would you reward me if I did?"

Foolishness: ?????

His face hardened into a mask of ice. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean… if I knock her in, do I get a bonus?"

"…"

Deceitful Bloom's voice cut in. "What were you thinking when you snapped at Boiling Orange?"

Drummer mused aloud. "That he was furious someone might suspect him of shielding BS-Rita?"

Captain added, "Or panicked his identity as her number-one supporter might be exposed?"

"…"

Barista: "He's speechless."

Cartoonist: "Looks like Bloom struck first."

White Glove: "But Foolishness was actually here all along."

Gourmet: "He even snuck off to dig through records."

Drummer: "Magnificent."

Captain: "Magnificent."

Deceitful Bloom: "Magnificent."

Foolishness: "…"