This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

It wasn't that players hadn't tried attacking—but just as Rita had feared, the problem wasn't killing, it was collecting the dropped Blocks in time afterward.

Most skill effects disappeared the moment they were cast, swallowed by the darkness blanketing the arena.

Only hard crowd control abilities like Top Chef could briefly light up the field—and even that might've only worked because Rita had used the Arcane version.

The skill that had plunged the arena into total darkness was a channeled ability—it could be paused, but not interrupted.

Rita: "How many cars have successfully lit our notes? And how many almost did?"

B8017913: "Two bumper cars successfully rear-ended us three times. Six more made at least one or two contact attempts and likely lit us up briefly. And… two cars haven't even realized we're part of their note set."

Rita was satisfied with that result.

But Nivalis seemed a little frustrated, muttering in the group chat about how if she'd taken a different path here or turned faster there, she might've avoided getting hit.

In the dark, Rita didn't bother wasting more Arcane Points to steal Blocks. The efficiency was too low.

She even turned off [Midnight Exile] to conserve resources.

What she really wanted was to finish lighting all their own notes. There might be rewards for it—just like in the Space Pirate game.

Rita: "I'll pop Top Chef again. Lock in on the location of the eighth car."

Once they were ready, she activated Arcane: [Top Chef? Top Chef!] again.

Under the now-familiar chorus of "What? You're a Top Chef?!", Nivalis approached the bumper car tied to their eighth note.

Each time the arena lit up, BS-Rita got a little closer.

From the perspective of the eighth car's player, the whole scene was terrifying.

With B8017913 guiding them, at 18:52, Nivalis landed the hit, rear-ending the target with a loud impact just as the player inside screamed.

Eight notes lit.

With the main objective nearly complete, Rita finally had time to relax.

She pulled together a box-shaped Block and used it to scoop up the remaining whole wheat buns in the car—62 in total.

After leaving the Chaotic Restaurant and returning to BS, Rita had tested every skill she obtained.

[Balanced Nutrition] included.

These buns lasted 24 hours, and though the healing value varied randomly like a loot box, they were still useful.

At minute 22, just as Rita's [Family Bucket] expired, the enemy team lifted the darkening skill that had swallowed all light.

Despite the overall urgency, not a single player complained about this artificial pause in gameplay.

They'd lost five minutes of note-lighting time.

But that was better than getting wiped out by BS-Rita over and over—and losing Blocks in humiliating fashion.

With the lights back on, the bumper car arena roared to life once more.

Nivalis: "913, list out which cars haven't rear-ended us yet. I'll reposition to let them hit us on purpose."

She wanted to make sure every car had triggered them as a note at least once—so they could claim dividends from eight different players after the game ended.

B8017913: "Got it."

Rita didn't care how Nivalis drove.

In fact, she wasn't counting on the post-game Block dividend at all.

Take their car, for example: Rita had 231 Blocks.

With Soul Catcher and other relics, her total rose to 247.

Nivalis had 92, and B8017913 had 26.

Combined, they held 366 Blocks.

Missing just one note would cost 1%, or about 3 Blocks.

Those would be split among the players who partially triggered but failed to fully light that note.

Even if a car lost 5%, that was only 15 Blocks—and the rewards would be shared across multiple players.

What would each person get? Probably not much.

For Rita, direct kills were still the best way to farm Blocks.

But since she'd handed off the main task of driving to Nivalis, she wasn't going to micromanage.

Nivalis just wanted to make it perfect—and Rita understood that.

So she just attacked whoever was in their way. It didn't interfere with Nivalis' plan or her own efficiency.

Sometimes she fired at the players chasing behind them, but most of the time, she had to let those Blocks go—she couldn't hop off the car mid-battle to grab them.

Even now, no one dared to focus-fire Nivalis. And if anyone did take a shot, Rita could block it instantly.

She saved her [Repay] skills for players who could successfully retrieve their teammates under pressure.

From that point on, Rita also began sharing her Block gains equally with her two companions:

One for her,

One for Nivalis,

One for 913.

Nivalis: "You keep them. Just lend me the game console later, that's enough."

Rita ignored her and slapped a Block onto her armor.

"You can use the console whenever you want."

B8017913 raised the Block Rita had just given her.

"You should keep this. Just let me borrow the console too."

Rita glanced at the little robot, then pushed the Block back into its hands.

"If I ever finish building the console, you'll be able to play it anytime. Keep the Block. This game's not ending anytime soon. And if you still don't need them after it's over, I won't say no then."

She'd given the clearest and kindest explanation—

Promised the same game access—

Yet B8017913 still picked up on the subtle difference. Something only complex emotional logic could sense.

Something not even code could cleanly parse.

Its internal system generated dozens of unreadable emotional packets.

B8017913: "…Okay."

Nivalis was now cruising side-by-side with another bumper car.

Timing it just right, she swerved ahead, forced a collision, and got rear-ended.

She repeated this "insurance scam" style of driving until every car that hadn't hit them yet had done so once.

With only 3 minutes left, they were ready.

Rita: "Anything else we need to do?"

Nivalis felt a satisfying sense of completion, like she'd just finished coloring a giant palette.

"Nope. It's all yours now. I'll follow your lead."

Rita glanced at her stamina—31 remaining.

This was the perfect game for farming kills.

"I'm switching to AoE. Just drive toward the Blocks. If it gets too risky, forget the loot."

Nivalis: "Got it!"

When the game ended and all the bumper cars rolled to a stop, Rita had amassed a total of 257 Blocks—including her relics and gear.

A familiar pop-up appeared above the steering wheel:

[Bumper Car Game Leaderboard]

1. BS-Rita / BS-Nivalis / BS-B8

Notes Lit: 10

2. Tiger Stripes / Oddity Cicada Dust / Oddity Cicada Jungle

Notes Lit: 7

3. Ghost Coin / Ghost Winter / Ghost Snowfield

Notes Lit: 7