This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita didn't really care whether she had made the wrong bet.

The moment she decided to enter the game even with a decent hand, she was already mentally prepared for everything.

She even quickly came up with a justification to console herself: if luck truly balances like a seesaw, then a tilt to the left just means another to the right.

Granted, her opening wasn't exactly ideal.

She hadn't expected the game would nullify all bindings. She brought top-tier items with her, only to find half of them rendered useless and the rest now vulnerable to theft.

She looked out the window. In the vastness of space, countless transparent glass rooms floated, each housing players in quirky block forms.

Some were hopping about testing their new bodies, while others were fussing with the items or relics they had brought along.

Unlike previous games, many rooms now held more than one player—likely because everyone assumed this game wouldn't be too difficult and had brought along teammates or juniors they wanted to train.

It wasn't even two minutes in, and the online player count had already surpassed 120,000.

Rita glanced out once, then returned her focus to the room. Together with Nivalis, she used the remaining time to adapt to their new block-shaped bodies.

Her stats remained intact—speed, defense, all there—but the physical flexibility was gone.

Simple things like bending backward or doing a split? Forget it.

Her body now moved like someone with a stiff neck and a thrown-out back—everything had to be done in straight lines.

Well, at least she still had a barely visible neck. Otherwise, even turning her head would've required rotating her entire upper body.

It wasn't all bad though.

Rita experimentally detached her limbs—and discovered she could disassemble herself freely, with no HP loss. She even tried popping off her own head. No problem.

She could reassemble herself at will.

No wonder they gave a full half-hour of prep time this round—everyone needed it to tinker with their forms.

She completely dismantled herself piece by piece, and even counted her block parts carefully:

Head: one large block

Neck: technically the connector below the head block

Eyes: two tiny round blocks

Arms: five blocks each

Upper torso: two rows of 8 blocks, totaling 16

Lower torso: one horizontal rectangular block (4cm x 2cm x 2cm)

Legs: five blocks each, plus a boot-like block for each foot

Altogether, she counted 42 blocks for her body.

Block sizes varied too—head blocks were 2.5cm x 2.5cm x 3cm, limbs and torso blocks were 2cm cubes, with special shapes for eyes and hands.

Her relics and items added up to another 16 blocks.

Both Soul Catcher and Lonely Antenna Baby were composed of five blocks each.

Plush Collar used three, while Magician's Wisdom Tooth consisted of three ultra-miniature blocks.

When she tried disassembling Soul Catcher, each part turned into [Soul Catcher (1/5)], and the relic became unusable if even one part was missing.

That realization made Rita both excited and nervous.

If played well, this game could be a goldmine—but if not… the losses would be massive.

At least she hadn't brought the temperamental moon with her. That thing getting stolen would've been financial ruin.

Compared to her own form, Nivalis had even more block components.

They even swapped a few blocks between each other—it didn't affect their function.

The connectors self-adjusted, as long as two blocks stayed in contact for over two seconds, creating the optimal interface.

Once Rita understood this mechanic, she laid Soul Catcher flat against her upper body and "attached" it there directly.

But she noticed that when she swapped blocks with Nivalis, her stats went down—and the more blocks she swapped, the more she lost.

Conversely, if she only added blocks to herself without removing her own, her stats increased.

She didn't go as far as to dismantle Nivalis and build her into her own body—but she was definitely planning to try that on someone else once the game began.

She also examined the ring-shaped B8017913, which was made of ten small blocks.

Her current MP was close to 40,000—all thanks to the block connection letting her benefit from B8017913's Intelligence stat.

She wondered whether these borrowed stats could be carried out of the game.

Logically, probably not.

Otherwise, wouldn't top-tier warlords just come here to "restock"?

That'd turn the whole system into a loot-based food chain—and the Divine Game likely wouldn't allow that.

She hopped to the window, bouncing and testing her new form while observing the other rooms.

That's when she noticed another problem—she couldn't recognize anyone.

Without her pocket watch and lacking the [Fishing Master] passive skill, and with everyone now looking like generic block people, she could at best guess their race. But their blocky faces and minimalist features made identifying individuals impossible.

...

The half-hour prep flew by.

Before she was even done playing around, the countdown started.

She and Nivalis—unable to be stored in her pet space in block form—dropped together, landing in front of a massive Block amusement park. freewēbnoveℓ.com

A thin mist separated the entrance from the inner grounds. Rita could vaguely make out the attractions beyond it.

Everything inside was built from blocks, but scaled to real-world proportions, much like the amusement parks in BS.

From what she could see, she recognized only half the rides. The rest were games and attractions she'd never seen before.

For now, only she and Nivalis were at this entrance. She hadn't used any World Graveyard card to gain early access, so the game had clearly distributed players randomly.

Above the park gates floated glowing magical characters:

"15th Moon Amusement Park"

At the gate, a sign displayed instructions:

Play Guidelines:

Outside of ride zones, no skills may be used on other targets. All skills are nullified in these areas.

Every ride requires a specific number of blocks as an entry fee and may only be used once per player.

Each player/pet/temp Divine Game participant must pay at least 10g blocks for 1 hour of amusement park access.

Divine Game players will unlock one of their bound relics or items every 2 hours. Once all are unlocked, the system will begin unlocking unbound S-rank+ items based on usage frequency.

If there are not enough qualifying items, the system will start unlocking stored treasures/holy relics/weapons/accessories/gear/currency (10%).

Temp Divine Game players will unlock one item every 4 hours, using the same priority rules. Unqualifying categories will only be unlocked once each, then looped again.

There is a trading post in the park where blocks can be consigned at player-set prices, with no transaction fees. Each Divine Game player may list up to 5 block parts at a time. (Any item may be used as currency.)

If a player/pet/temp participant's block count drops below 20% of their starting total, they will return to the starting room and restart the game.

On restart, players/pets/temps will lose 5% of all four main attributes. These points will be distributed among their attackers, proportionally to how many blocks were lost.

After the game ends, the trading post will be moved to the ladder rankings.