This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1134 Divine Game: Quiet Mountain 17

The fourth day of the game, 5:30 in the afternoon, the same day Rita reunited with Ash Cinders.

Two bears led a Quiet Mountain resident into a house in a furtive manner. This was the small house Ash Cinders had rented over the past few days.

They needed to test the Order Badge.

QM Rita deliberately telling Rita how to enter the Demon Game was clearly ill intentioned. Rita was not about to walk straight into it like an idiot.

The Quiet Mountain resident had already been controlled by Ash Cinders’ skill and now sat quietly at the table, waiting for the next command.

Rita took out Mistblade’s diary again, trying to find the badge hidden inside.

If the Order Badge could not be bound, then this diary, as its container, likely carried some kind of special marker. Many years ago, SS Mistblade had been able to track Rita. There was no reason QM Mistblade could not do the same.

Then why, after Rita had finished reading the diary and returned to QM Mistblade’s house, had Mistblade not noticed anything? 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Was QM Mistblade simply bad at tracking scents, or was her mental state such that maintaining various skills for long periods was impossible? Even passive skills were still a burden.

Rita and Ash Cinders planned to move fast. If they could extract the badge before six o’clock, great. If not, they would not force it. First, they would use a Quiet Mountain player to test whether the badge carried any hidden risks. For example, once you started, were you forced to keep playing? Would it check the player’s identity?

There were risks in doing this. The Order Badge might be lost by this resident. But this kind of test was necessary.

The Demon Game’s attitude toward the copies was clearly one of cultivating humanoid weapons. Rationally, Rita knew that once she had it, she should destroy it immediately.

But greed got in the way.

If you could endure the pain, you could become QM Rita in just a few short years.

The temptation was overwhelming.

It was not just Rita who felt it. Every player in the battlefield chat who learned about this was tempted.

If the badge could be stolen, that meant it was not bound. Could other Divine Game players use it too?

Not a single person stood up to argue rationally that it should be destroyed. Instead, some even worried that BS Rita was being too rational and urged her not to destroy it.

The Quiet Mountain game was clearly Divine Game showing them a fragment of the future. It did not tell them directly. It forced them to uncover the truth themselves. The more they investigated, the more unsettling it became.

Why cultivate copies like weapons through the Demon Game?

If the gods in the temple were once players, then had Uncharted Star Sea also faced the pendulum in the past?

The answer had already formed in everyone’s mind. They simply could not confirm it. Or perhaps they did not dare to.

Was there some point in time when a game or contest determined where the pendulum would swing next, deciding whether the next era or cycle would be chaotic or tranquil?

And that point might be the very moment Divine Game had hinted at before. Before the sixth toll of The Bell Tolls.

Yet right now, every copy they had seen was terrifyingly strong. Even Nuclear Flash NightFury would not dare claim he could capture BS Pine Bloom alive while she wielded Whale Fall in the Wind. But QM Rita could.

And according to BS Pine Bloom, it had been a direct frontal fight. QM Rita had not used any binding or restriction skills.

Worst of all, according to Ash Cinders’ intelligence, QM Rita was the first player to obtain a demon talent, not the only one.

With a gap like this, what hope did Uncharted Star Sea have?

Although the relationship between the Demon Game and Quiet Mountain was special, and theoretically it likely could not be brought back, otherwise Divine Game would not have asked them to destroy the Order Badge rather than obtain it, every player still wanted to try the Demon Game.

Ash Cinders wanted to try as well.

But she could not find the badge hidden inside the diary either.

Rita was at a loss too. She started missing her Refurbish skill.

With only two minutes left before six o’clock, the two bears stopped wasting time and shoved the diary into the Quiet Mountain resident’s hands.

Under Ash Cinders’ control, the resident raised the diary and murmured, "Please grant me the laws of demons."

The moment the words left her mouth, the Quiet Mountain resident vanished.

The two bears waited quietly. Nivalis had already crouched on Rita’s shoulder, ready to activate Tail Tip at the first sign of trouble. The ship’s wheel floated before Rita, prepared for an immediate escape.

Moonbear’s antlers glowed with blue light. She had clearly activated a skill as well, ready to run at any moment.

Ten minutes later, the Quiet Mountain resident returned. The diary that had vanished with her also came back.

Tears poured down uncontrollably. A breakdown seemed imminent. But in the next second, the pain on her face smoothed away, and the tear filled eyes turned hollow again. Ash Cinders had activated her control skill in time.

Rita stepped forward and took the diary back. A slip of paper was tucked inside. On it were two lines of bold BS script, written with force:

"You are belittling my pain.

QM Rita"

Rita clenched the note, unable to refute it.

Was it because the diary’s description of pain was not deep enough for her to empathize?

Or had her attention been drawn too much to QM Rita’s rapidly growing strength, causing her to overlook the suffering hidden between the lines?

She did not want to admit it.

The diary had jolted her awake. Without realizing it, she had already gained so much happiness.

Only someone who had escaped pain and entered happiness would dare to be curious about her own nightmare.

She always said she did not want much. But in truth, no one was greedier than her.

Gaining Nivalis’ loyalty was not enough. Gaining Apache’s approval was not enough. Gaining that ambiguous affection from Deceitful Bloom was not enough. Gaining Lightchaser’s stubborn resolve to bring her back to Isolated Isle even at the cost of abandoning her soul flame was not enough. Even gaining Ash Cinders’ affection was not enough.

She greedily absorbed every bit of warmth, never caring whether the echoes of the snow country would wound those who gave it.

When she read the line, "She said she could see how happy the other version of herself was," her first reaction had not been doubt or confusion, but sudden understanding and guilt.

And those two lines, pressed deep into the paper, carried emotions she could hardly imagine.

By the time Ash Cinders finished interrogating the Quiet Mountain resident, she had already taken control of her again.

Teacher and student did not exchange information immediately. They both used movement skills to leave the house and reach another pre arranged safe point.

Only after clearing all traces with various skills did Ash Cinders speak.

"She entered the game as a visitor. Only after completing ten Demon Games can she obtain formal player status."

"So visitors are not forced to keep playing continuously, right?"

"Yes. And the rewards are very generous. You probably scanned it already. That player gained fifteen levels from just one game. There may be other rewards too." Ash Cinders did not mention how close the resident had been to collapse. "Do you want to try tomorrow? She will probably be waiting for you in the game."