This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Ten minutes earlier, Mistblade had been lounging lazily on her throne, staring at two neatly arranged rows of World's Grave Forest tiles displayed across a table made of shifting mist. Her posture was uncharacteristically relaxed—one leg crossed over the other, one hand playing idly with a tile, the other elbow propped on the armrest, her cheek resting against her knuckles.

Such undignified posture didn't suit a monarch, yet something about these tiles made her slouch every time.

Top row:

[1-Dot], [2-Dot], [3-Dot], [4-Dot], [5-Dot], [6-Dot], [9-Dot], [9-Dot], [9-Dot], [7-Dot], [7-Dot], [8-Dot], [8-Dot]

The second row had a similar count but was a chaotic mix of Bamboo, Character, and Wind tiles. There were sequences and pairs, but Mistblade disliked disorder.

Over the years, she had scored a fair share of wins, but today she wanted to complete a Pure Suit.

Those two [8-Dot] tiles were new—she'd hunted them down deliberately. That extra [6-Dot] tile had been lingering forever; it was why she hadn't gone easy on BS-Rita when she found out Rita had snatched both the [6-Dot] and [8-Dot].

Though admittedly, after acquiring those two [8-Dot] tiles, the rage had subsided somewhat…

For now, at least, she was pleased with her hand. She tapped her fingers merrily on the mist-table, admiring the potential victory.

She finally opened the honor store and located World Graveyard, intending to purchase a final tile.

As the new tile began to coalesce before her, a system notification shattered the calm.

[Divine Game Announcement: Due to the efforts of a mysterious player, the Lania Kaia World's Grave Forest has been reshuffled.]

Mistblade's hand froze mid-air.

Her tiles collapsed, toppling one after another like corpses falling in line.

And then the newly formed tile in front of her—a shining [7-Dot]—also dropped.

At that moment, Mistblade's soul departed her body.

In the vast magical palace, silence fell like a tomb.

…

[Divine Game Announcement: Lania Kaia's Mistblade has used Divine Game reward "Who's Cheating?" to identify the reshuffler.]

[Divine Game Announcement: The reshuffler of Lania Kaia's World's Grave Forest — BS-Rita]

Rita: ¥#%@!#￥@%

Was privacy even a concept in this game anymore?!

Also, when exactly had she cheated?!

She inhaled sharply and opened the battlefield chat channel.

[Lania Kaia · Maple Syrup]: I've decided. Next time I see BS-Rita, I'm giving her a 1-minute head start before I stab her.

[Lania Kaia · Fat Goose]: Honk honk, same. My garbage hand got reshuffled into something great.

[Marmang · Crab]: What's the deal? Did Mistblade almost win, and someone reset the game?

[Lania Kaia · Tanuki Cub]: Pretty obvious, yeah.

[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: Wither Monarch, if you catch BS-Rita, leave me half her HP.

[Lania Kaia · Wither Monarch]: Sure thing.

[Lania Kaia · Wither Monarch]: LOL.

[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: ???

[Lania Kaia · Maple Syrup]: Mistblade, were you building a Pure Suit?

[Lania Kaia · Fat Goose]: Yep, she even traded a tile with me.

[Lania Kaia · Syntax]: And with me too.

[Lania Kaia · XX]: She asked me as well.

[Marmang · Crab]: What's a Pure Suit?

[Lania Kaia · Maple Syrup]: Hard to explain. The emotional equivalent is you standing at the restaurant door last game, about to kill Rita and get [Midnight Exile], and she vanishes.

[Marmang · Crab]: I don't get it, but... ouch.

[Lania Kaia · Pine Bloom]: Mistblade, you were doing missions last round and missed the plate-smashing event. Regret it now?

[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: Rare Achievement Unlocked: "Dear Gods, Remember My Name."

Pine Bloom rage quit.

[Lania Kaia · Maple Syrup]: Hah, Pine Bloom rage-quit again.

[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: Betrayal, sister-in-law, elopement, Maple Flare, BS-Rita, wedding altar.

Maple Syrup also rage quit.

Mistblade had become a razor-sharp meme machine—biting everyone in her path.

Thank the gods she hadn't realized she could actually see the battlefield chat.

Rita quietly closed the chat channel and made a vow: from now on, she would lurk only—never again post with her real account.

Still, the post-game battlefield chat had proven incredibly useful.

Players hid everything during a match—but after it ended, they dissected every detail.

Rita had gleaned a lot from those replays.

For instance, back during Chaotic Restaurant, after securing the chef's skill, she'd made a cautious retreat. In hindsight, had she been too cautious?

The chef hadn't attacked, sure, but couldn't they have?

Those tents would've been the perfect places for ambushes.

But the easier the opportunity, the more alert she became.

She was like a cat with twitchy nerves—every rustle made her fur stand on end.

And in this case, she'd been right to be cautious.

She'd overheard something in the battlefield chat a few days ago that confirmed her instincts.

Ghost·Sang Cup, while venting in chat, revealed he had wiped out eight players inside the restaurant—including staff and vendors—just to kill BS-Rita. In return, he only got three kill rewards and was severely punished.

The system had told him: "You have caused significant trouble for a restaurant. You are now blacklisted from the Dark Cuisine Street and cannot enter any food tents for the next three hours. If caught by patrolling inspectors, you will be killed."

B8017913 rolled across the tiles, snapping Rita back to reality.

[B8017913]: With a hand this good... so, are you going back into the Battlefield tonight?

"Not that good," Rita muttered.

She tried to find a new excuse. But the moment she realized she was actively looking for reasons not to go, she knew the truth: she wanted to.

Getting stronger was addictive.

After tasting the thrill and chaos of that kind of game, ordinary life felt unbearable.

There was no better way to grow than through combat.

A year of real-world training couldn't compare to a single combat course earned in the World Battlefield.

And with Apache no longer available, if she wanted more [Alchemy] classes, she had to get them from the game.

The only real reason to stay out was to collect more attribute points in Lania Kaia.

Rita found herself hesitating.

She reconsidered an idea she'd dismissed many times before: should she trade for attribute points with Eclipse Vanguard?

Not just a few hundred—thousands.

Ugh, maybe it'd be better to find a high-level solo player and use [Moment of Reversal] to swap stats.

Not another 300-for-2000 trade—just 300-for-400+ would be safer.

Then, a message arrived from Shadow.Q.

[Shadow.Q]: If we wanted you to bring one of our players into the Mahjong Tournament, what would it cost? Eclipse Vanguard wants to know—just to be prepared.

[Rita]: 8888 attribute points.

[Shadow.Q]: That's... the most polite rejection I've ever seen.

It wasn't even really a rejection.

Though she later walked it back mentally, in that split-second when she typed that answer, she had considered it.

Eclipse Vanguard had made their offer at the exact moment she craved attribute points most.

If they could genuinely give her 8888 points in one go, she would have taken them—and used her [1-Bamboo] to bring one of their players into the game.

In the past, she wouldn't have tolerated anyone else eating at her table.

But now, she had enough confidence to share it.

Divine Game could be a playground for the powerful—or a nightmare for the unprepared.