This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 629 - : Divine Game – Chaotic Blocks20

After being out of the spotlight for years, Rita had no idea someone had already made new Divine Game-themed merchandise based on her.

At the moment, she was focused on a newly appeared stat: Stamina.

It popped up while she was about two-thirds through her grilled fish — starting at 80. After finishing the rest, her stamina climbed to 95.

And it wasn't just her — Nivalis and B8017913 had it too.

The meaning was obvious, not just to Rita, but even to Nivalis and B8017913, who were both already deeply marinated in BS culture.

Once you entered the amusement park, you'd consume stamina — whether or not you were playing a game.

And the only way to replenish it? Spend Blocks.

Even without testing, Rita was sure that self-made magical food items wouldn't cut it.

Like a trial period ending or a newbie safety zone disappearing, the amusement park was finally showing its true teeth.

From here on out, doing nothing still came with a minimum charge — the fee to stay, and the fee to eat.

Rita didn't plan to find out what happened if stamina hit zero.

She took her two companions to the back of a food truck, where the three of them sat in a circle and began sorting through their collected Blocks. freēwēbnovel.com

All food purchases had been paid with Rita's Blocks. As long as she had the resources, she believed her companions' daily needs were her responsibility.

After subtracting the 74gBlock spent on food and the amusement fee paid after leaving the claw machine, she still had 256 Blocks on her.

She kept the small Blocks and rare oversized special Blocks — the ones she'd spent were the most common standard square ones.

She'd earned 100 Blocks from the claw machine game — more than from the space pirate ship — but whether the game had no leaderboard or she just hadn't made the cut, there had been no rankings and no rewards.

This time, she'd collected 8 game item fragments, and both Nivalis and B8017913 had gotten a few too.

After comparing the fragments, Rita took a lens, Nivalis chose a cloak, and B8017913 picked a dagger.

Interestingly, the lens had come from B8017913, the cloak from Rita, and the dagger from Nivalis — so they each ended up trading with one another before dumping their leftover fragments into the vending machine.

Both the dagger and cloak were 3-piece sets; the lens was a 5-piece. Naturally, prices varied — but none of them cared enough to do the math.

Rita didn't ask B8017913 to turn over the Blocks it had earned at the claw machine, nor did she make it revert into a ring. Instead, she told it to budget wisely and buy its own entry ticket for the next game.

B8017913 quietly pieced together its Blocks, glancing now and then at Rita.

It had always known — Rita may have signed a master-servant contract with it, and her trust in it couldn't compare to what she had with Nivalis, but in day-to-day life, she treated them both the same.

If ever forced to choose between life and death, she'd no doubt pick Nivalis without hesitation.

But in their daily lives, Rita never made that difference felt.

Like Nivalis, B8017913 could roam the house freely. It could use anything, leave things wherever it wanted. They were treated like residents — not guests, and not pets.

It could ask Rita for pocket money. Ask her to play. Joke with her, tease her, even request the occasional little favor.

Rita didn't enforce hierarchy. As long as they followed her orders in battle and didn't fool around at the wrong time, she never got mad. She never demanded blind obedience.

Even if they were useless in a fight, she never blamed them.

For Rita, help from others was always just a bonus — not a necessity.

And based on B8017913's careful analysis of her, it was almost certain:

No matter how many Blocks it or Nivalis earned, Rita would never ask for them after the game ended.

Of course, if B8017913 offered them on its own, Rita would probably open her pockets wide and make a show of turning away, saying something like:

"Don't do this~! What if Nivalis sees?!"

But if Nivalis tried to offer her Blocks?

Rita would absolutely refuse — she'd insist Nivalis keep them and use them to grow stronger.

Because to Rita, Nivalis was undoubtedly the most important and irreplaceable presence in the universe.

B8017913 stared, fascinated, at the strange new emotion that surfaced in its emotional pool the moment it made that comparison:

Jealousy.

It was the first time it had ever felt it.

They said jealousy was a sin.

But like light and shadow — that sin was always paired with another feeling:

Desire.

It wanted to be just as important as Nivalis.

It wanted that level of devastating importance — the kind where if both it and Nivalis were kidnapped by the villain and only one could live, Rita would fall to her knees in anguish, unable to choose.

As B8017913 sneaked another look at Rita, the one unknowingly sobbing on her knees inside a little robot's imagination finally had enough.

Rita: "What's with you? Why do you keep staring at me?"

B8017913 didn't even flinch. No shame. Just a straight-up question:

"If one day I earned your full trust, would you be willing to form an equal contract with me?"

Nivalis, busy assembling her tail, didn't even look up:

"Little sis, you're being so immature. You've barely been in the palace for half—"

Rita tackled her and held her in a headlock, then grabbed a ring-shaped Block and shoved it onto Nivalis's dragon snout like a muzzle.

After sealing her mouth, Rita sat back down and resumed working on her Blocks.

"Of course I would."

B8017913: Satisfied.

"Deal."

Rita had just finished assembling the glasses. One lens was from the fragment, while the other — since there wasn't a matching piece — had to be filled with a [Plush Collar].

The result was… weird.

One side had no frame, and the other had no lens.

But the item's effect didn't disappoint. It was the exact kind of scouting gear she'd been craving.

[Unfazed by the Strange · Incomplete] (?/5):

When worn, allows the user to view partial information about a target…

Rita put the glasses on, but nothing happened — she wasn't currently inside an amusement facility, so none of her skills or gear effects were active. Even passive ones were disabled.

Once the glasses were finished, Rita visited the vending machine again and picked up the Blocks she earned from selling two of her game items.

Then, out of curiosity, she sorted the items by total number of required fragments — from largest to smallest.

[Game Machine That Loves Games] (1/9) — Price: 480gBlock

[Game Machine That Loves Games] (1/9) — Price: 490gBlock

Rita's hand, hovering over the page-turn button, stopped mid-air.

This wasn't the first time she'd seen that item.