This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 624 - : Divine Game – Chaotic Blocks15

At the 15-minute mark of the game, a prompt rang out in Rita's mind:

[Playtime has reached 2 hours. A new item/curio has been unlocked.]

["Wrathful Moon" has been unlocked.]

["Wrathful Moon" has been deployed.]

As the notification ended, a Block lantern appeared out of thin air in front of her. Hovering above it was a gleaming golden number: "9".

Instantly, all the Dolls in the machine turned their gaze toward her. Rita couldn't even decide whether to feel thrilled or exasperated. She grabbed the lantern and bolted.

At that exact moment, the claw above her moved in, tracking her wherever she ran — clearly targeting her.

Even though she'd racked up 42 Blocks by stealing and killing as a Hot-Selling Doll, her current total didn't even crack the top five. She was barely top ten. Still, the Doll Buyer gave up on their previous target and chose her.

It made sense — if that lantern turned out to be one of the 9-piece item sets, it could sell for at least 500g Block.

Why gamble on random Dolls when this one might be a ticket to instant wealth?

Rita glanced up at the descending claw while her hands moved quickly, reaching into her hollow torso to grab the coin-shaped Block nestled by her waist.

The Doll Buyer started shaking the machine.

At the same time, a broadcast echoed through the speakers. She didn't understand the first version, but the moment the effect hit, she felt herself slowing down.

"Doll Usage Instruction: Dolls should own an item or curio composed of 9 fragments."

The Doll Buyer and the Overstocked Dolls — they were working together.

The claw dropped.

Just before it reached her, Rita canceled her disguise skill and slammed the [Forced Recall] reward onto Wrathful Moon.

The Block lantern vanished. A notification rang out:

[You are now an Overstocked Doll in Machine #3.]

The claw grabbed an Overstocked Doll.

Rita was thrown into the Doll chute, sliding along a steep curve before landing outside, on the control platform.

When she hit the ground, she looked up to see the Doll Buyer across from her clutching their head in frustration.

[The Doll Buyer made an invalid purchase. You have received 15 Blocks from their inventory.]

[You are now the new Doll Buyer.]

A claw reached out, grabbed the previous Doll Buyer, and dropped them into Machine #4.

A pile of Blocks was left behind.

Rita sprinted over, scooping them up while keeping her eyes fixed on the Dolls inside Machine #3.

But the longer she watched, the heavier her expression became.

As a Doll Buyer, her view of the Dolls was totally different. Their colors had faded — all of them now looked like translucent glass Dolls, their Block structures semi-transparent.

That wouldn't have been a problem on its own. The real issue was the sheer volume of attacks — spells, skills, and effects bursting off every single Doll. Bright flashes constantly lit up the arena.

Every time a new skill flared, the Dolls glowed in different hues, their Blocks lighting up like strobe lights.

The combat never stopped. To Rita, it felt like staring directly into the high beams of forty-nine cars all at once.

Under that constant barrage of light, the Block outlines blurred into each other. She couldn't tell who had more Blocks and who had less.

No wonder previous Doll Buyers looked so irritated when shaking the machine.

She stuffed the small Blocks into her stomach, stuck the bigger ones to her limbs, and turned her focus to the claw.

Inside the machine, the Dolls had already undergone several rounds of transformation.

It was the Overstocked Dolls causing the chaos — they'd changed their Usage Instructions again.

Back when Rita was still a Hot-Selling Doll, she'd been watching the top Block players carefully. Her goal had been both to steal their fragments and identify the real Overstocked Dolls — valuable intel now that she was the Buyer.

She recalled their races and skill types, trying to avoid them.

But those suspected Overstocked Dolls had a habit of diving straight into the chaos. One of them had shields and magic blasts running on loop, and to make it worse, they followed the claw's movements on purpose.

Rita moved the claw around for 21 seconds trying to avoid them — in the end, she slammed the control panel in frustration. That one was definitely a former Doll Buyer. No doubt about it.

She remembered from her earlier observations: every Doll Buyer pulled the claw three times.

Even after entering the game herself, she'd been keeping track — not a single Doll Buyer had failed to make three grabs.

She couldn't help but suspect some hidden mechanic.

Just like how she'd been questioning why Overstocked Dolls weren't punished for AFK behavior — maybe Doll Buyers weren't punished either. Worst case, they just got dropped into the next machine.

Even if they were caught again later, they'd still gather more Blocks — better than mis-grabbing an Overstocked Doll.

With that in mind, at 24 seconds, she sent the claw into an empty corner.

It grabbed nothing — but a message popped up:

[One Block will be randomly deducted from your inventory as a game token. If you would like to purchase three tokens at once, you will gain manual grab rights.]

[Purchase three tokens? Yes / No]

Rita: …

You never said it cost money! Had she known, she'd have committed to AFK mode!

She chose Yes.

A box appeared next to the joystick. She picked three medium-sized Blocks and dropped them in.

This entire action was clearly hidden from view — no wonder she never saw it as a spectator.

Wait… maybe she had seen it.

Those awkward, suddenly self-conscious movements the Doll Buyers made? The way they stared down at the console like they were hiding something?

Yeah. That must've been it.

Rita took a deep breath and prepared to continue the round.

This only deepened her suspicion — there had to be a hidden penalty for Overstocked Dolls slacking off. Probably the loss of five times the machine number in Blocks.

As for the Doll Buyer trap? Unless you'd been in the role twice, there was no way to avoid it.

Out of ten first-timers, nine would definitely fall into it.

After all, each Doll Buyer got one chance to shake the machine. It felt just like a free lottery pull — no one would skip it.

Once you were in that position, of course you'd shake the machine. It stopped the blinding effects, silenced the chaos for 10 seconds — a perfect window to grab something.

On the 31st second of her turn as Buyer, Rita shook the machine.

[Madness Level: 2]

[Note: Madness Level must reach 10 to calm the Dolls.]

Fine. You win.

She leapt to the far left of the console, grabbed the edge of the machine's window, and began shaking with everything she had. Occasionally, she'd launch herself outward and kick the side for extra force.

[Madness Level reached. Dolls have calmed.]

The blinding lights dimmed — finally — and Rita grinned.

Halfway through her smile, she heard clapping to her left.

She turned.

There stood Nivalis, missing a few parts of her body, clapping.

Worse — she was smiling and shaking her head.

"Oh, Rita…"

Rita: "…"

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