This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Elsewhere, a few Fat Ducks had gathered together to watch the chaos unfold.

"How many more pulls do you need to finish your quest?"

"Still 83... but no one wants to play my gacha. Damn it!"

"If I had two capsule machines, I could scam these suckers too."

"She just says 'Draw a Divine Relic and graduate instantly'—and people fall for it hard."

"We're not missing capsule machines. We're missing Divine Relics."

"What if we went up and said, 'We don't want to draw from this one, we want the one she's hiding'?"

"She'll tell you that one costs a full Divine Relic per pull."

"...Almost forgot."

"You might not profit, but she never loses."

"Honestly, if I didn't know she had two capsule machines, I'd go take a few pulls myself…"

"No one knows her pet bought one too?"

"Nope. The player who helped BS-Rita's pet buy it barely chats in the battlefield channel. You know how it is—low-tier players never talk much, because no one listens to them…"

"BS-Rita's pretty good at it though. The moment she speaks in the channel, the world lights up."

"True. Every time she says anything, she gets roasted instantly."

...

Rita wasn't in a rush to end the capsule game. Nor was she in a hurry to check the destination of the eighth Dull Game fragment.

Instead, she stayed put, playing gacha with these Overlords and Warlords.

When new players failed to provide any god-contacting artifacts or interesting items, she announced a new rule:

"If you don't have anything that can contact a god, or nothing I'm interested in, you can still purchase extra gacha pulls using a full nine-piece game item set. One complete set gets you 30 pulls."

Sakura White Fox snapped, "That's daylight robbery!"

To which BS-Rita replied, "No, I'm giving you capsule pulls, aren't I?"

Sakura White Fox: …Fair point.

After announcing the new rule, she capped her recycled Block capsules at 500g each before tossing them into the machine.

Some players might break even or make a small gain, but Rita would never lose.

She wanted Dull Game, but she also wanted a top ranking in Blocks & Me.

On top of that, she was working a triple-layered scam—using the Divine Relics gacha game to pin the blame elsewhere.

After all, if this was a game that could drop Divine Relics, then who was to say Cat's Ideal hadn't already been drawn?

Even if it didn't fool everyone, fooling one or two was enough.

Whenever players hesitated, she'd start assembling items again.

Most of the players claimed their items could contact a god, but Rita knew better. She just played dumb, pretending to be swayed by the item's appearance and reluctantly accepting them.

Before each trade, she'd always check with B8017913—if no other fragments showed up in the marketplace, it likely meant a player was collecting them. That was reason enough to take the item.

In her downtime, she tossed more capsules into the machine—event packs, duck feathers, whatever she had on hand.

She made sure there were always at least 500 capsules in the machine.

Most players only drew after observing for a while. From her countless interactions in various languages, they knew BS-Rita's story and answers well.

She answered every question, no matter how often it had been asked, with patience and enthusiasm.

But at some point, the sharp-eyed players noticed something off.

BS-Rita had stopped shouting her iconic line:

"Play the capsule game! The one that might drop a Divine Relic!"

And when new players asked her directly whether the Divine Relic was still in the machine, her answer changed to:

"You can ask the others. They all know."

Black Spring–Yanshan was the first to catch it.

The player who received that vague reply also sensed something was wrong and backed away.

Black Spring–Yanshan stepped forward, holding his stack of attribute Blocks, and didn't hand them over right away. Instead, he asked, "Is there really a Divine Relic in your capsule machine?"

BS-Rita glanced at him without flinching, but her hand moved fast, reaching for his Blocks. "Ugh, how many times do I have to answer that? You guys keep asking!!"

Nope. Something was off.

Black Spring–Yanshan hadn't been the first to arrive, but he wasn't late either. He'd been here over forty minutes, watching everything.

Earlier, BS-Rita had been incredibly patient—and never dodged questions like this.

Not only that, but under her frustration now, he sensed irritation, guilt, and unwillingness.

He slapped her hand away, stepped closer, and stared into her eyes. "Was Cat's Ideal already drawn?"

BS-Rita snapped, "Says who?!"

Black Spring–Yanshan pressed, "Then answer this: is Cat's Ideal still in the machine?"

He activated a Blocks item—Honest Child—forcing her to tell the truth in response to one question.

Rita immediately sensed the item's power. She had to answer truthfully… but she could still manipulate the tone.

"There's no Cat's Ideal in this capsule machine," she said.

She shut her eyes in pain.

The Honest Child effect ended the moment she added the final word: "anymore."

Black Spring–Yanshan cursed aloud. So did several nearby players who understood what had just happened.

Rita didn't move. She didn't say another word.

She waited for the next wave of questioning.

She needed this scene to solidify one thing in everyone's mind: Cat's Ideal was no longer in her possession.

Sure enough, another Blocks skill targeted her.

This time the player used a language she didn't understand.

Rita: …Hilarious. She had no clue what he was asking.

She didn't even bother asking B8017913 to translate. What if the moment she understood, the skill took effect?

She just shrugged and replied in one of that world's major languages, "Don't understand."

Then added, "I was only able to talk with you earlier because I used an item."

A player to her right handed a tool to Black Spring–Yanshan, who activated it, enabling direct communication.

His next question: "Do you still hold the ownership of Cat's Ideal?"

That one was tricky… Rita's thoughts spun fast.

"Yes," she said finally. "The capsule containing Cat's Ideal hasn't been opened yet."

The crowd surrounding her either murmured as they mentally reviewed which players had drawn gacha here… or fell silent, staring at her with suspicion.

Rita sat down cross-legged, hugging the capsule machine to her chest, staring off into the distance.

It was as if her fate had been sealed.

As if grief and despair, held back for so long, had finally broken loose and stolen all her will to think.

Retired for years, Rita's old drama queen instincts kicked in full force.