This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

The process was actually very brief, almost like a screen flicker. But because Rita saw her name at the first moment and kept her eyes on it, she didn't miss the almost imperceptible change that happened in those fractions of a second.

There were also a few other names that flickered at the same time, but they didn't immediately catch her attention.

Upon further reflection, Rita realized there had been similar occurrences in previous rounds. She made a mental note of it.

But no matter how quickly it flickered, three seconds later, the interface disappeared.

Fortunately, the four characters BS Rita were erased in the end.

Of course, Rita didn't receive any gift boxes.

As soon as the eighth round ended, Rita, who had been standing near the fridge, immediately collected the ingredients she had placed in there, and then found a corner to sit down.

She called out Nivalis, retrieved all her skill icons, and didn't let Nivalis rush back to the pet space.

Rita began opening her gift boxes.

She opened ten in a row: 3 boxes of clothing, 4 boxes of attributes, and 3 classes.

The clothing consisted of two jackets and a pair of loose shorts. Rita threw them in her bag along with her previous robe.

The 4 attribute boxes added up to 47 intelligence, 21 strength, and 19 agility. She could only say it helped make up for the weakening effects of divine punishment.

The three classes were Melee (Hammer), Melee (Unarmed), and Magic Principles.

Rita gave the Melee (Unarmed) class to Nivalis, her voice filled with affection as she said, "Here, take an interest class."

Nivalis looked at her with a sour expression, "What? Two star-sea years?! Can we...?"

Rita closed her expression, stared coldly, and said sternly, "Learn! If you don't, I'll die in front of you!"

Nivalis: "..." What kind of threat was that?

As Nivalis began her class, Rita herself entered the Melee (Hammer) class.

Before, she had always thought of hammers as clumsy and heavy, neither as agile as a bow nor as imposing as a spear, and certainly not as cool as firearms.

But after spending the whole morning smashing with a big bone, she had fallen in love with the feeling...

Who said this big bone... who said this hammer was bad? The feeling of using a hammer is just great!

After finishing Melee (Hammer), she moved on to Magic Principles.

After two classes, Rita felt she was at a critical point. She instructed B80234615 to call her when the time came, then she laid on Nivalis's belly for a 10-minute nap, giving her brain and thoughts a short rest.

Ten minutes later, Rita was woken up, ate a dish to restore her energy, and continued opening ten more gift boxes.

Three boxes contained five-star gourmet recipes, adding up to three hundred dishes.

One box was equipment: a legendary-level bow shaped like a ring. When worn, the bow appeared by lightly stroking the ring while pulling the string, with magic condensing each arrow.

The advantage was that it was easy to carry and didn't need arrows, but the downside was that it consumed mana; each arrow required 50 points of mana.

This bow was called Betrayal of Oaths, entirely black, beautiful but understated. It was perfect for sneak attacks.

Its attribute requirements were almost aligned with the data from her gift box opening.

The legendary skill was also good: Revenge, an area attack similar to her Rain of Hatred. It rained arrows from the sky, but the damage was tied to agility, making it significantly stronger.

There were also two SS-level healing skills, which were decent, similar to the SS-level skills Rita had gotten from other players when they discarded them.

The three classes were Cooking, Engineering, and Engineering.

Upon seeing Cooking, Rita's eyes lit up. She immediately handed the two Engineering classes to Nivalis, saying, "Learn! Don't fall behind at the starting line!"

Nivalis, clutching her head in despair, groaned, "You used to be all about happy learning…"

Rita, adjusting her posture to prepare for the best state for the cooking class, replied, "I'm still about happy learning now, but when you learn, it's happy learning for me."

Nivalis: "..."

Rita entered the Cooking class, and as soon as she saw that familiar figure of White Bear in the classroom, she happily ran over, shouting, "Teacher!"

...

"How does Deceitful Bloom manage to argue with the captain while giving a class to the chosen one?"

"We're done arguing... I didn't argue with them earlier."

"Ah, yes, you both were just secretly working behind the scenes, pulling in opposite directions."

"A little ambiguous."

"Did the captain admit their fault?"

"The gods' tasks are always poorly designed; we just follow along and play, why bother messing with the players Deceitful Bloom picks?"

Deceitful Bloom said frankly, "The captain didn't mean to mess with her; it's just to slow her down, make her walk a little slower, a little steadier."

"Ah, so you just pressed her down and now you're switching sides? You two are switching shifts."

"And this round of pressure is pointless, she's already hidden her best skills. When's this bug going to be fixed?"

"The captain wants to wait until she's thrown her best skills to her pet before fixing it."

"Uh, is she reporting this bug?"

Deceitful Bloom looked at the screen in his hand, the corners of his mouth curving upward slightly.

The captain was clearly getting frustrated.

...

After leaving the cooking class, Rita rubbed her temples and, after feeling a bit more relaxed, began speaking softly to the leaderboard.

"Gods above, I've found a bug."

"Before the last elimination, placing skill icons on pets can avoid losing important skills."

The reason she didn't immediately report this after the eighth round of elimination was because Rita had been thinking about the flashing name situation.

She thought that the players with flashing names were using the bug, which was why it was happening.

By the eighth round, if she hadn't been banned yet, it meant the gods had tacitly allowed it.

But, after considering that, she realized something was wrong. If the gods really approved, there wouldn't be flashes.

The name flashing in and out seemed like there was a debate about whether to add her name to the list or not.

She could only think of the gods' camp and the demons' camp.

To avoid another player reporting the bug first, Rita naturally reported it immediately.

This kind of bug could only be used once; using it too many times might anger the gods and even lead to her losing the benefits she gained from the bug—what if she was forced to redraw?

She now reasonably suspected that these lists were not 100% random and that the gods and demons might be secretly manipulating it.

After repeating her thoughts a few times, Rita finally received a response.

[Understood]

The voice was cold and emotionless, but Rita could still detect a hint of reluctance.

But that was fine, as long as she got a response.

Since it was so cold, Rita didn't press it any further. She went straight to the point and asked, "Is there a reward?"

[You avoided one round of elimination using the bug, which is your reward.]

"No, if I had drawn the 'random skill loss' blind box, I would have used the bug to avoid the risk. But I didn't draw it. I found the bug, didn't use it, resisted temptation, and reported it to the gods."

After speaking this long sentence, Rita didn't say anything more. She just sighed long and hard at the sky.

"You taste that? Whoever's on the other side of the line, you taste it!"