This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1114: Race Talent (Vineborne) – Flower Crown Murder
The sudden game update and the mysterious appearance of the pendulum caused some initial panic among ordinary players, but they quickly calmed down. After all, the Adjudicator and the world leaders were there to shield them.
Divine Game players across different worlds were also scrambling to figure things out. Worlds with more resources, like Lania Kaia, concentrated the world fragments they had accumulated and crafted a world skill.
If one world couldn’t create a world skill, they would try to join forces with other connected worlds. However, this was difficult — the animosity from the war was hard to shake.
No one knew how long this third version would last. It felt like they had no future, yet at the same time, it felt like they had endless possibilities.
Soon enough, players came up with new ways to connect their worlds through the invasion sequence to those with world skills. It became easier if a world had an [Invasion Sequence], and as long as there was an empty spot in the sequence, things could work out.
The [Invasion Sequence] listings on the exchange were snapped up quickly.
Every few hours, game announcements rang out, letting players know which world had invaded another. But players soon discovered a limit: no world could connect to more than six worlds through an invasion sequence.
Rita had already prepared for Mistblade and Pine Bloom to come to her. After all, Mistblade’s departure meant Lania Kaia had lost its only world skill. If she could get Lania Kaia to invade BS again and link to its invasion sequence, they would share Mistblade’s world skill. Once the pendulum’s impact passed, Rita could once again use the previous method to bring BS back to the time river.
She had already privately prepared the paperwork, but she didn’t expect that Lania Kaia’s Wither had quickly gathered enough world fragments and activated their world skill.
The game had updated, and no one had anything if they didn’t possess the necessary skills. How could they ask BS Rita for help once, let alone a second or third time?
Even DawnCicada was continuing to buy world fragments at high prices.
Over the next few days, Rita didn’t leave home. She stayed busy recording the lost civilizations, collecting as many World Sighs as she could.
She asked the World Sighs if the arrival of the pendulum would completely destroy the broken world docks and the moon, but unfortunately, they didn’t know.
Rita was powerless. Her "BS" was still locked at the BS dock, unable to travel like before on the time river.
She could teleport to docks she had previously visited, but all the ruined docks she had been to were already cleared. Searching for new broken docks by flying herself was out of the question, since players couldn’t fly in the time river for long without a vehicle. The maximum time was only six minutes, after which their mana would be depleted and not recover. She didn’t want to risk finding out what would happen if she fell off the time river.
When she heard from Mistblade that Lania Kaia’s Wither had activated their world skill, Rita came up with an even better idea. If BS couldn’t hold up, could she shrink BS and tuck it into her pocket, moving it to Lania Kaia and protecting it like a Russian doll?
After speaking with Ash Cinders and Lightchaser, she decided to give it a try. It worked. The moment she entered Isolated Isle, BS reverted to its original size and almost pressed up against Isolated Isle. At the same time, the stardust fog surrounding BS dissipated, and for the first time, BS was bathed in sunlight again.
However, every hour she stayed, BS had to pay some honor points and energy to Isolated Isle.
It wasn’t ideal, but it was like a parking fee.
On the seventh day after the end of "My World," Rita’s Vine finally finished growing after sacrificing 5000 points of strength, constitution, intelligence, and agility.
Just as SmokeTune had said, there was no visible difference between the grown Vine and the juvenile Vine in terms of shape.
Countless white petals had gathered to form a Vine, with a faint red thread resembling the Vine’s "bone" structure. Without counting the branches, it stretched nearly a meter long.
Just like countless Vineborne before her, whenever Rita’s emotions shifted, even if she could control her expression, her Vine would "bloom."
She still vividly remembered the scene when Shadow.Q reported to her, saying, "Lidian disguised herself as you today and went to Four Seasons City to spy on Pine Bloom’s Owlbear King, but she was thrown out by Pine Bloom." At that moment, her Vine exploded into petals, falling alongside golden rain.
In that flower storm, she and Shadow.Q shared a quiet gaze. If a K-Drama soundtrack had played, the atmosphere would have turned ominous.
Rita fought to maintain her dignified expression and nodded slightly. "I understand."
Shadow.Q eyed the red and white petals that had reformed into Vine. With a new perspective, she looked at Rita. "Doesn’t the new effect seem a bit ambiguous?"
Rita replied, "...It’s power!"
Shadow.Q replied with a nod. "...Sure, strong."
Rita wasn’t just boasting. Even though she had lost 20,000 attribute points, the benefits from her Vine were immense.
First, she had gained a new talent. Vineborne’s racial talents weren’t uniform; they were tied to their Vines. Rita’s new Vineborne talent was related to Flower Crown Murder.
Racial Talent: Flower Crown Murder (Mutation)
1: When any of your petals touches another target, you can siphon that target’s health, mana, or energy for your own use. The siphoning speed depends on the intensity of the player’s emotions. Each petal can siphon at least 0.1% health/mana or 1 unit of energy per second.
2: Whenever you successfully strangle a target with your Vine, you can randomly strip 100 attribute points from that target.
How many petals does Rita have? 2000.
Vineborne Vines aren’t so easily destroyed. Every petal is part of the Vine and shares its defense. Even with huge differences in power or special abilities, the Vine can still be destroyed. However, as long as she doesn’t release all her petals, the Vine won’t be completely destroyed.
The lost attributes can be replenished. This powerful recovery skill was exactly what she needed, not to mention that this talent could quickly increase her attributes. Moreover, the siphoning wasn’t limited to just health and mana, but also energy, which meant infinite possibilities.
...
On the eleventh afternoon after the game ended, according to the Starsea days timeline, the pendulum officially entered the Uncharted Star Sea.
Rita left Isolated Isle with BS, returning to the BS dock. She used Thunder Chain to lock BS back at the world dock and stored Cat’s Ideal. She glanced up at the silver-gray star trail shining brightly on the time river.
At this moment, she realized that this was likely the pendulum. It had a heavy, oppressive feeling, as if it were within reach. She could see the glittering dust on the star trail.
She dared not stay for too long and quickly teleported back to BS. Mistblade, Pine Bloom, and Crab were all suspended above the sea, waiting for the impending, unknown pendulum impact.
All the players had been advised to prepare recovery potions and stay away from buildings.
At this point, Rita no longer cared about privacy and asked Mistblade, "Is your world skill powerful? What does it do? What should we watch out for?"
Pine Bloom and Crab both looked over.
"Never-Melting Winter." Mistblade didn’t hide anything. She explained in detail, "After using this skill, the entire world will start snowing. When the snowflakes fall on the beings of this world, their health will be linked to the world itself. The beings will share a single health bar with the world."
"In other words, BS’s health will become equal to the sum of all the beings’ health in the world."
