This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist
Chapter 750 - 750: 750: One More Game

—"Aren't you going to look for our Vice-Captains?"

Rita, whose schedule was packed to the brim, replied, "Next time, definitely. I'll find them as soon as I'm back."

Wrathful Moon began flashing happily.

This obvious mockery enraged the helm. It spun through the air toward the lantern, which didn't back down. They were both SS-rank relics now—what, was it supposed to be scared of getting one-shotted?

And so, the helm and the lantern chased each other around Rita, bumping into her repeatedly as their knobs and handles smacked against her.

Face dark, Rita asked, "Are you two doing this on purpose or what?"

Nivalis snorted. "This is what happens when you keep dragging things into the house! You said you could play outside, just don't bring your mess home. And now? Look at this place—it's chaos!"

Rita muttered, "...Did you switch from the entertainment section to the relationship column lately?"

Nivalis whistled and looked away, refusing to meet her gaze.

That evening at dinner, Nivalis asked, "You're really not gonna take a break?"

Two back-to-back Divine Games—both ridiculously difficult. One misstep could wipe out everything they'd built. Compared to Chaotic Restaurant and Blocks and Me, earlier games like Little Painter or Go-Kart Dash felt like mobile apps.

The ladder rankings had completely reshuffled.

No, not reshuffled—reversed.

The clearest sign? Only 17 players remained at Tier 19 Overlord.

Familiar names like Mistblade, Maple Syrup, and Pine Bloom had all dropped:

NightFury | Nuclear Flash | Tier 19 Overlord | Toxic Breath

Orange White | Sakura | Tier 19 Overlord | Miracle Saver

Quex | Tiger Ear | Tier 19 Overlord | Salty Fish

Autumn Deer | Tingo | Tier 18 Monarch | Lucky Bandit

Mistblade | Lania Kaia | Tier 16 Monarch | Been Waiting

Wither Monarch | Lania Kaia | Tier 16 Monarch | Whitebone Decay

Maple Syrup | Lania Kaia | Tier 15 Abyss | Liquid Courage

Pine Bloom | Lania Kaia | Tier 15 Abyss | Masquerade

Pay Raise | Potted Plant | Tier 12 Nightmare | Professional Slacker

Rita | BS | Tier 11 Nightmare | Pride Never Dies

According to Rita, these top-tier players were "reversing to pick up passengers."

Nivalis had asked, "Who exactly are they reversing for?"

Rita only said, "Not telling."

"Exactly because the last two were so hard," Rita explained, "I want to go again. There's no way the next one will be just as brutal, right? Trust me—one more game, then I'll rest..."

She choked on the words mid-sentence. Why did it feel like she'd just triggered some cosmic bad luck?

Looking up, she saw everyone at the dinner table—Nivalis and B8017913 on her left, the helm and lantern on her right—all staring at her in unison.

Rita sipped her iced cola to settle her nerves. "...It's fine. I'm fine."

After dinner, she hurried to her study and crammed through the last few combat classes.

As for the Course Chests, her first pick was naturally Gacha Machine Engineering—but that got rejected.

In the end, she chose Close-Combat and Ranged Combat.

Huge courses. Each one inside the Course Chest lasted for 20 starsea years, plenty of time for the instructor system to tailor training plans.

…

Morning of the 14th.

The sound of ocean waves echoed in the sky. Players guarding the game console—or those recently ejected after dying—looked up to see a Deep Blue Helm descending, trailed by fiery wings nearly four meters wide.

Everyone instantly recognized the figure: BS-Rita.

Whitebone Black Jade soared forward, its massive serpent-like head lowering toward its master.

Rita pulled the console from the hollow between its bones. Less than ten thousand players remained inside. She expelled them all, then vanished.

But in a private message, she told Shadow.Q to meet her at home—she had something to discuss with Eclipse Vanguard.

Shadow.Q arrived almost immediately, just seconds behind Rita.

She looked like she'd been dragged through a swamp—drenched from head to toe. Judging by the streaks of blood on her face, this was probably the side effect of using her "Drenched in Sweat Again" skill.

Despite her appearance, Shadow.Q was radiant with excitement. The first thing she said was, "This helped so much. Even though the stats didn't change, our combat effectiveness has easily tripled."

She cast a few cleansing spells on herself before entering Rita's home.

Rita hadn't tested it yet, but she planned to throw Nivalis into the machine soon. She asked, "How's it compare to the tower?"

Shadow.Q didn't hesitate. "It's better. The tower might last longer, but it has a ton of dead time. Inside the console, we can train as much as we want. Every single day."

Rita: "And no penalty for dying?"

Shadow.Q: "None."

With the next Divine Game scheduled for that evening, Rita cut to the chase: "I need to use the arena to travel to other worlds—as many as possible."

Shadow.Q didn't ask why. She already knew Rita had wiped out the alien armies beneath the sea.

At this point, if Rita asked for command of Eclipse Vanguard itself, they might've handed it over without question.

Shadow.Q simply asked, "When do you need it?"

Rita: "Three days from now."

Shadow.Q: "Got it. We'll have at least fifty worlds prepped."

She then handed Rita ten SSS-tier skills—emergency products from the past ten days of frantic internal crafting.

"Pick five. We'll have more ready for the next trade."

Eclipse Vanguard never stopped proving their sincerity.

Rita picked one AOE spell, two mana recovery skills, and two crowd control abilities.

After taking the unused five books back, Shadow.Q couldn't help but marvel at Rita's discipline and orderliness.

With the arena and skills settled, Rita followed her to Eclipse Vanguard's R&D department to summon the Old Blacksmith.

Apparently, he'd actually gotten a decent break this time. When he stepped out of the summoning circle and saw Rita and the usual faces, his expression wasn't nearly as sour as last time.

After handing him over to Shadow.Q, Rita moved on to her next task.

She sent all the deep-sea loot she didn't need—equipment and rare items—to Jameson to trade for gold and crafting mats.

She kept all 89 skill books for herself. Most were B-rank, with seven A-ranks and one S-rank, but even B-tier skills helped diversify her loadout.

As for the specialty blueprints, most were irrelevant or too niche to even broaden her knowledge. She told Jameson to handle them—whether by selling them at market price or having The White Family buy them internally didn't matter.

Rita preferred the latter. She'd get a cut anyway.

The White Family printed gold faster than goblins.

An 80,000-gold payout per month might be pocket change now, but how long had The White Family even been operating?

Her contract with Jameson was signed in November.

By January, she was only getting 3,000 gold.

Now? 80,000.

Even goblins would be jealous of their minting speed.

Digging those two founders up from the grave really had been worth it.