This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 745: Eight Vice-Captains

After lunch, Rita and Shadow.Q took a walk through the alchemy workshop. Once Eclipse Vanguard had finished teleporting all players to the designated location, Rita followed through Shadow.Q’s portal to arrive.

In terms of efficiency, the fastest way would have been for Rita to travel to each location and absorb the players into the console herself—but strangely, that thought hadn’t even occurred to Eclipse Vanguard’s higher-ups.

Stepping through the portal, Rita arrived at a vast plain. The sight of nearly 300,000 players standing together was a stunning spectacle—but Rita’s eyes immediately locked onto one person at the front.

She didn’t need to inspect or ask.

The sheer overwhelming presence, like the crimson tide of a rising sun, was enough to confirm her identity.

Avery.

She wore a black mage robe embroidered with intricate arcane patterns, her makeup flawless, paired with custom-crafted magical jewelry. Her black-gloved hand held a staff as tall as her own dark eyes.

These weren’t just battle preparations. This was who Avery was, down to her bones.

She might tolerate blood on her robes and face from battle, but she would never be seen leaving the house barefaced or dressed without care.

When she saw Rita appear in the sky, Avery lifted her chin slightly—a restrained gesture of greeting.

Whitebone Black Jade, who had arrived ahead of Rita, hovered loyally around her, careful not to collide with the platinum cat-shaped helm floating at Rita’s side.

Rita remained in the air, quietly observing Avery through the shifting gaps between Whitebone’s bones.

This was their first meeting.

One in the sky, one on the ground.

Even while looking up, Avery maintained absolute poise.

She respected Rita, deeply. But she also represented Eclipse Vanguard’s dignity. She couldn’t look at Rita with the awe and adoration that her subordinates did.

Not unless Eclipse Vanguard formally submitted to Rita. Not unless Rita herself took command.

Rita averted her gaze and began rising higher. She had no intention of coming down for small talk or polite words. This was just a transaction—no one owed anyone anything.

She pulled out the console and aimed it down at the players, who were already grouped into divisions. With so many of them, she had to click several times to load them all into the game.

Her last glance was at Shadow.Q, who was overseeing the formation of the surrounding security teams. Once everything was settled, Shadow.Q flew up to Rita and let herself be absorbed into the game as well.

Rita slotted the console into a hollow section of Whitebone Black Jade’s skeletal frame.

She would return to retrieve the console in ten days. Players who died in-game during that period would be automatically ejected and appear in this location.

She wasn’t going to reload anyone.

Before leaving, Rita cycled through every buffing skill she had, casting them all on Whitebone Black Jade.

Before this, she had not only bound the console using a [Binding Capsule], but had also used [Illegal Construction] to build a decoy. If anything went wrong, she could rely on [Absolute Freedom] to instantly return and prevent the worst.

...

With the console situation handled, Rita returned home to get back to work.

As soon as she stepped through the door, she saw Nivalis slumped on the couch with a gloomy dragon face, phone at her side.

Rita thought she was upset about the console being rented out, meaning no playtime. She was just about to coax her when—

"Why did the Wi-Fi password get changed? It used to be our birthdays!"

Rita gasped, "Wait, that’s so flirty-sounding!"

Nivalis nearly fainted in fury.

...Okay. This one was on her.

Rita turned toward B8017913, who was sitting on the other couch, clinging to the console. The plushy robot slowly turned around and showed its back to them both.

Rita started sweating. Smoothly, she shifted the blame.

"B, how could you! Seriously! Change it back, and make sure it includes mine and Nivalis’ birthdays too!"

B8017913 lifted its head and gave Rita a wounded look.

"You told me I wasn’t a fancy number, but I was special to you. That you wanted to use my ID as the password."

Rita: "..."

The tragedy of having too many ’children’. No more additions from now on.

She opened 129 Event Gift Boxes, which gave her a total of 31 courses—seven of which were engineering.

Nivalis had developed a full-on fear response to the word ’classes’. Eventually, Rita promised her three days of no lessons and handed the console over to B8017913 for exclusive use. Only then did the matter settle.

But even if she could skip class, the villa’s defense towers still had to be arranged. Once Nivalis had been coaxed, Rita packed her off to the engineering workshop to work.

Before the next Divine Game, they had to finish at least one warning tower.

With the domestic dispute resolved, Rita grabbed some food and locked herself in the study.

She stayed there for five full days.

Every two hours, she paused time and took notes—organizing everything she knew about the Gacha Machine.

Just the knowledge she couldn’t yet understand, and had memorized purely by rote, filled 23 books.

In total, she produced 95 volumes of notes.

Even gods like Deceitful Bloom and Drummer had libraries filled with scrolls containing their inspirations and insights. Rita decided she would start keeping such a collection herself.

On the sixth day, she finally paused—though not because she was done.

It was because [Cat’s Ideal] had downgraded...

[Divine Relic: Cat’s Ideal] (SS) (Upgradeable)

Mysterious feline. No being can divine your past or future.

Skill 1: There’s a Cat Here

Is it you who’s calling "meow meow"?

Transforms the user into any cat they’ve seen. Skill and equipment use is not affected.

When you meow, all living beings within sight will stop what they’re doing and respond.

Each meow grants 3 seconds of invincibility, but reduces skill duration by 5 minutes.

Duration: 30 minutes. Costs 15% MP. Cooldown: 3 hours.

Skill 2: Wasted Time Manual

Playing, napping, and sunbathing aren’t wastes of time. You just need to learn how.

Activates a time-stop in the current world and adds a temporary stat: "Wasted Index."

When time resumes, the index determines type, strength, and duration of received buffs.

Only 10 of these buffs may exist at once. Identical buffs cannot stack.

Max time-stop: 24 hours. If it impacts or harms other players, the effect ends immediately.

Costs 20% MP. Cooldown: 6 hours.

Skill 3: No Logic

Cats just are.

Temporarily distorts a single belief or perception in all living beings.

Duration: 5 minutes. Consumes 3 points of Luck, which regenerates in 7 Starsea days.

Cooldown: 2 hours.

Skill 4: Cat’s Ideal

Summons an indestructible Cat Ship to house Cat’s Ideal.

Can carry up to 5,000 living beings.

Skill 5: Absolute Freedom

Even with no wind, the Cat sails free. Turn your inner helm and go wherever you wish.

No skill, item, anomaly, or being (except gods) can prevent your departure.

In Divine Games or world-crossing, you can only travel to previously visited locations.

Cost: 5000 MP. Cooldown: 300 seconds.

Upgrade Condition: Find the eight Vice-Captains currently out adventuring, and fulfill their requests to send them to new worlds.

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