This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1094 Divine Game My World 39 Among Antlers

Divine Game My World 39

Among Antlers

Day forty three of the game.

After contacting Nivalis, Rita silently counted the time in her mind. After adding a few jewelry recipes to the Brilliance world Chapter, she contacted Nivalis again.

Rita: How much time has passed in BS?

Nivalis: Four minutes and twenty two seconds.

Four minutes and twenty two seconds.

Five full minutes had passed on Rita’s side.

Was it an error? No. Rita had been checking time with Nivalis constantly these past days. She trusted her calculations.

Time flow had gone out of sync starting from day forty.

She connected with Cat’s Ideal. That seemingly endless map unfolded again in her mind. It now contained more than a hundred illuminated world docks.

At that moment, she felt as if she could see floating clocks above those dense world docks, each ticking at its own speed.

Just like a river of time. Chaotic. Disordered.

Could gods interfere with time?

They probably could.

Back when she was temporarily pulled back from Binast, the time flow had clearly changed. Just as the game notice said, it was an adjustment made to ensure fairness.

Before she returned to BS, BS time and Isolated Isle time ran at roughly one month to one Star Sea year. But during her temporary return, a single day in BS equaled one Star Sea year in Isolated Isle.

That change had to be related to her, but the scope and authority gods had to alter time was clearly limited.

Because through countless events, she had felt their powerlessness.

Among the gods were the Vineborne. That meant there had to be other races as well.

She had listened to so many World Sighs. Among those related to the game’s arrival, nearly ninety percent of leaders hated war and despised it.

The remaining ten percent did not truly like war either. Their original living conditions were simply too harsh. Rather than being grateful for war, they were grateful that the game existed and gave them power.

If gods still cared about their own kind, and war was not something they wished to see, then if they truly had the ability, why not reverse time?

And if gods were once players, then was the future of players becoming gods?

That Shrine Quiz had answered part of her doubts. But the more she encountered, the more questions emerged.

Recently, the question that troubled her most was this.

If the invasion sequence pushed worlds into war against each other, then who started it first?

Or rather, which worlds entered the game at the very beginning? How did the first Divine Game start, and how were the first players pushed into making the decision to wage war?

Rita felt she had found part of the answer in the apple she had just eaten.

The world called Among Antlers.

...

I never quite understood why our race of deer was called the Mountainbound.

Was it just because everywhere we looked, there were endless mountains? That seemed like a flimsy reason to name an entire race.

That was until the strongest Mountainbound in our tribe told me that our world was called Among Antlers.

Alright then. I had nothing to argue.

It was a bit vague, though.

I ran up the mountains and started mining with my antlers. That was our food. The more we ate, the more lush our antlers became. The more branches an antler had, the more beautiful it was, and the stronger we were, and the longer we lived.

A very peaceful life.

Compared to what came later, my childhood was truly calm.

Mining, eating ore, competing with other young Mountainbound to see whose antlers were more beautiful.

If I won, I would fall asleep happily, beautiful in every sense of the word.

If I lost badly and looked ugly, I would run up the mountain overnight and mine through my tears until dawn.

Day after day, without any disturbance. And yet, a life without disturbance was itself a kind of happiness.

Then one day, dozens of enormous deep blue portals suddenly appeared across the lands of the Mountainbound. At the same time, every Mountainbound awakened something called a god granted talent.

Through those blue portals, we saw the scenes on the other side.

I ran toward the nearest portal. Beyond it was a deep, endless blue. Squeezing into a corner near the gate, I met the gaze of a creature that looked very strange.

I tried using the information probing skill within my god granted talent.

JE

Wind Whale race

Level 1

Curious, I extended my antlers toward the light screen. An invisible barrier blocked them. Before I could pull back, that wind whale leaned closer and touched my antlers with its nose through the barrier.

We stared at each other with wide eyes, observing every difference between us, as if witnessing a miracle.

I often think back on that moment.

It was the first time I had ever seen another kind of life.

It was the first time I had seen such a young and clueless JE.

A young me and a young JE. A young Among Antlers and a young Tingo.

Before long, I learned that behind every portal lay a different world. Still, the being I saw through that first gate left the deepest impression on me.

The gods gave us talents, and the gods also gave us disaster.

We were about to play a game called Survival Crisis.

Survival Crisis

Your world has now been connected by twenty nine gates. Including the world beneath your feet, there are thirty worlds in total. After the game begins, fifteen worlds will be marked as Black Flag worlds. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Black Flag worlds will begin to be covered by black fog over the next twenty one days. Any life eroded by the black fog will die completely. After twenty one days, Black Flag worlds will be fully engulfed by black fog.

Once fully covered, this state will last for twenty one days. After that, the black fog will completely disperse.

When the number of surviving life forms in a world falls below twenty percent of its initial population, that world will disappear entirely. When only fifteen worlds remain in this game, the game ends.

Friendly Reminder

After the game begins, players may travel to other worlds through world gates.

I understood the rules of the game and, thanks to the friendly reminder, quickly found a way to survive.

If a world became a Black Flag world, then the only way for its inhabitants to live was to pass through the gates within twenty one days, reach a safe world, and survive there for another twenty one days.

At first, after hearing the game announcement, I only found it interesting. I could go play in other worlds.

But the older Mountainbound began to grow uneasy.

That unease spread to me as well. A countdown appeared in the sky. I leaned against my mother and asked in a low voice, "Is it that bad?"

My mother lowered her head and gently touched her antlers to mine. She hesitated, troubled, but quickly made up her mind.

Her voice was soft, yet firm.

"Autumn Deer, be prepared for separation and death at any time. This is not a game. This is war."

My mother accepted reality as quickly as possible and made her decision.

She had to teach her child to face cruelty head on, and stop holding illusions about the future.