This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

[Congratulations to player BS-Rita for completing an elimination]

[You will receive the death penalty of player Pot Plant Pro.]

[Player Pot Plant Pro chooses to exchange a divine skill for their eleventh revival opportunity in this round. You will receive the divine skill as your prize.]

[Ding — You have received mana +1100 from the kill reward.]

[You have obtained Pot Plant Pro's divine skill — Skewered BBQ]

[Skewered BBQ] (SS): Use any ingredients to create a skewer. The skewer will randomly produce a permanent enhancement effect, with the quality of the enhancement determined by your cooking skills and the ingredients used. Each time you use this skill, it will consume 3 points of luck (this luck value will restore after 7 natural days).

Rita's first reaction after reading this skill was: no wonder Pot Plant Pro didn't want it.

Not only does it consume luck, but the recovery period is also quite long.

Her second reaction was: this is perfect for me!

Her luck value was maxed out at +9, and it was always her top priority to consume that luck in parentheses.

Before, only Refurbish used her luck, but she rarely used it, so some of her overflowed luck was wasted. Now, with this skill, it's a perfect match!

Although it was only SS level, Rita considered it far more useful than many SSS-level skills!

Rita still had about a third of the high-grade ingredients she had taken from Restaurants 1, 2, and 3, and she planned to use them all on this skill.

She had died eleven times, which meant Pot Plant Pro had already lost two divine skills.

Rita stood in the starting room, excitement and joy mixed with a cold chill.

This was the sanctuary where the strong rose, but also where geniuses perished.

Unlike what she had imagined before, she was now witnessing a 12th-tier player about to lose everything…

Rita lingered until the very last second of the revival time before leaving the starting room. After running for three minutes, she reached the start of the fifth round.

05:00 — Fifth Round

Rita noticed that she had turned into the form of a raccoon. Scanning the game field, she saw that the types of beasts that players could transform into were down to only six, including the rabbits.

[Prompt: The rules from the third and fourth rounds remain]

[New setting: The maximum distance between pets and their owners has increased to 3 meters.]

[New rule: Any successful elimination of the first target, followed by a successful hit on a second similar target within 5 seconds, counts as one successful elimination.]

The last round had already been troublesome. Pets and players counted as the same category, so by hitting both the player and the pet that followed them, players could complete an elimination.

But now, things were even worse. All players were free to unleash their full potential, rather than just those who had line-connect skills.

The game speed had increased, and the difficulty had risen.

Rita had it easier in the last round because she faced players like her—those without obvious pets. Naturally, players with pets around them were easier to target. Moreover, 80% of players didn't equip line-connect skills.

But now, these advantages had been weakened.

Rita looked to the 11 o'clock direction, where a wild little raccoon, holding a thunder gun and with a golden thunderbird on its shoulder, stood. Then she turned to the 2 o'clock direction, where an elegant raccoon with a white hammer and earrings stood.

Rita clutched her chest, feeling a sharp pang in her heart.

She decided to politely ask, "You wouldn't mind, right?"

B8017913: "Huh?"

Rita: "Guess you don't mind."

With that, Rita took off her earring and stuffed it in her mouth, thinking it would be safer this way. It was much more obvious than a Sandstorm Fox with thick ear fur.

She didn't want to be recognized by Pine Bloom. Just like she would notice Pine Bloom's earrings, someone with a mechanical race would likely notice another player's accessories. Normally, it would be fine; after all, earrings were common. But in a game where pets were mandatory, caution was better.

B8017913: "......"

B8017913: "I mind, did you hear me? I mind!"

Rita: "Then suck it up!"

After hiding her pet, Rita dashed off!

She didn't want to be carried around the battlefield like a dead fish on a thunder gun.

Nor did she want to be smacked like a golf or baseball with a hammer towards another raccoon.

It was terrifying! These two pests were in the same race—this race would be unstoppable.

As she ran, Rita quickly realized something: the number of beasts in the arena was uneven.

With only half the types of beasts left, it was hard to tell which beast had increased the most, but the one with the fewest was easy to spot.

Among the six beast types, including the rabbits, the rabbit population was the smallest. The next least was the massive neck-snaking beast.

The neck-snaking beast was huge, with a long neck that nearly reached the flying beasts and pets in the air—it was very easy to identify.

From the first round until now, these neck-snaking beasts hadn't changed much, much like the rabbits.

Considering how powerful the skill she had copied from the neck-snaking beast was, Rita speculated these neck-snaking beast players might be space wanderers or demon king-level players.

This round of Match-3 had split players into different zones based on their power and game performance.

The stronger players played with each other, the slightly stronger players and skilled players made up their own group, and the weak ones played in their little sandbox.

No, strictly speaking, the game had always been segmented from the very beginning. After every match, there was a new round of classification.

Rita stretched out her hand and copied an explosion skill from a neck-snaking beast and threw it at a nearby raccoon.

The raccoon had a giant pet the size of an adult elephant following it, and the pet was occasionally shielding the raccoon from incoming attacks.

At that moment, the raccoon was hurriedly dodging three skill beams that had already connected to the pet behind it. Rita, of course, couldn't miss the chance to join the fun.

The skill hit the raccoon and its giant pet, but it didn't eliminate them.

That wasn't its pet!

This was a frequent occurrence—was it something summoned by a skill, or some kind of item?

Rita quickly gave up on this target and followed a few neck-snaking beasts, waiting for the next round of copying.

But the game had been going for almost half an hour, and Rita hadn't succeeded once. Her success rate had sharply dropped.

The raccoon players were much stronger than the Sandstorm Fox players, and everyone had gained experience, becoming increasingly clever.

Some players had already started pairing up—two players from different beast types stayed close to each other, swapping pets to block attacks, confuse enemies, and break skill lines at the right moment.

As the game progressed, players realized that pets were becoming a distraction, lowering the success rate, so they decided to focus on players instead. Rita's pressure was mounting, and her health often dipped below 10%. [If You Can Kill Me] had to be used almost as soon as its cooldown ended.