This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita let out a yelp as the rabbit's punch landed on her face, quickly burying her face in her two animal paws. "That damn rabbit really hit hard!" she muttered to herself, rubbing her aching face.

Before she could even think of retaliating, a prompt echoed across the arena.

[Prompt: Players who died in the first round will not face any penalties for dying in this round. Also, players can gain kill rewards for defeating others.]

Half of the players around her lit up with excitement. Most of them had died in the first round, and now they were fully aware of the opportunity this presented.

This meant that if two players of the same species joined forces and forcibly dragged a third player of the same species into their group, they could guarantee a kill!

The players in the black market weren't weak, and in a one-on-one fight, it might take seven to eight minutes to defeat one of them. But now, they just needed to hold hands, and victory was practically assured.

With this new realization, the peace in the area shattered instantly.

Rita glanced at the players on either side of her, realizing that as soon as the notification ended, they were already charging toward others!

Clearly, they had all died in the previous round and now were fearless in their approach.

At the same time, two Sandstorm Foxes charged toward her from different directions.

Panic set in as Rita turned and ran. Don't come near me! Please! she screamed internally.

To avoid the Sandstorm Foxes connecting with her in pursuit, she stuck to an S-shaped path, darting through the crowd of different beasts.

With the game's objective now clear, all kinds of attack strategies began to emerge.

Rita occasionally felt the impact of defensive skills pushing her away.

She quickly reacted by layering "I Just Want to Improve So Badly" and "Mango Pomelo Sago" to ensure her health stayed above 70%.

Meanwhile, she kept an eye on nearby escape skills; if she spotted a useful one, she'd copy it with "Repay".

Unfortunately, there were no buildings here, and she couldn't use her "Romantic Tourist" skill at all.

The chaos around her intensified as various animals scattered, clashing like bumper cars.

The flying creatures took to the skies, and the rabbits and smaller beasts jumped onto the backs of other players, running around in chaotic, random patterns.

The sounds of explosions—bang, bang, bang!—filled the air.

It wasn't just three explosions anymore, sometimes four or five went off at once.

Rita felt as if her head was full of non-stop audio feedback:

"Great! Amazing! Excellent! Crazy! Unbelievable!"

But despite the constant explosions, the number of players didn't seem to decrease at all.

She couldn't see what was happening on the ground, but she could spot the chaos in the sky.

Though some of the airborne creatures were eliminated, new ones kept rising back up, and overall, the number of creatures stayed the same.

This was different from the first round—the players who died in the second round could come back!

Rita had a sinking feeling that if death carried no penalty for players, she would be cornered eventually.

She was already five deaths in, and if she died five more times, she would lose her god-gifted skill to revive.

This realization made her panic. If she were trapped by a group of Sandstorm Foxes in a corner, she'd definitely be toast. This situation was unbelievable.

However, if there was no penalty for dying multiple times, that would make everything even more dangerous.

"Bedtime Tale" could only block skills, and this game's instant kills couldn't be countered. If even the rabbit-like beasts and Demon King-level players couldn't resist, how could she?

But she knew she had no choice. She couldn't keep dodging forever.

Even if she was lucky and the next round went smoothly, she'd still face another Match-3 event in a moment.

She cursed internally, realizing she had missed her chance at copying any disguise skills.

It was hard to tell who the players were in disguise, as they could easily blend in with the Match-3 beasts.

She couldn't even tell which ones were players' pets and which ones were actual players. The whole situation felt like a nightmare.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the chaos around her, with players using all sorts of skills—most of them on cooldown.

There were too many players and too many skills going off at once, making the scene even more intense.

02:17, the second round had 43 minutes left.

Should she gamble? Would there be no penalty if she died again?

No. That was too risky. Even if she succeeded, the rewards would be insignificant. It was better to try with "Survive Until the End".

However, surviving to the end with that skill had its own problems.

She needed the players who saw her transformed into an object to think: "Got her!" rather than questioning, destroying, or ignoring her.

If they didn't react in time, Rita would be easy prey.

As she stared at her two items in the backpack, she couldn't help but feel a heavy weight on her chest.

In the distance, she saw two rabbits chasing after another.

Suddenly, both stopped and locked their gaze on something on the ground.

A miniature white boat.

Rita's heart skipped a beat. That boat!

As the rabbits focused on the boat, more players began to notice it, too.

The curious players hesitated for a second and then rushed toward it.

Not everyone knew what the white boat represented, but the players who did recognize it were almost certainly not weak.

For those who recognized it, the next few seconds seemed to freeze.

When time resumed, the players who recognized the boat—or even those who didn't but had similar items—rushed toward the boat.

"Deceitful Bloom?"

"What did he say?"

"Deceitful Bloom said, 'I arrived first.'"

"I won't say something so foolish."

"I gave the petals as a course. BS-Rita couldn't confirm if my token is in this form, but the white boat is 100% a divine artifact. If I were you, I'd pretend it was the white boat too."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Ah, because you suddenly started talking so much. We wanted to give you the stage."

"..."