This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1136 Divine Game: Quiet Mountain 19
The apprentice pressed her lips tight while passionately flooding the battlefield chat. Ash Cinders did not say much. She knew this was a way of coping with pain, and it only made her more curious about the Demon Game.
Ash Cinders went out to continue gathering intel. Rita stayed alone in the room, trying to figure out how to extract the Order Badge from the diary.
She thought of a skill she had obtained but barely used.
Scan Appraisal. Using the game console to scan any item reveals detailed information at the cost of some life points and allows viewing its crafting process.
This skill came from the Game Console That Loves Playing Games.
Rita summoned Nivalis and lowered her head to work.
Nivalis tilted her head as she looked at Rita. Something felt off. Rita’s mood right now felt like a midnight ocean, pitch black and violently churning.
The last time she had felt such clear pain was the day Rita formed the Vow Without Regret with her.
So this time, she did not comfort Rita. Instead, she walked over, stepped on the diary, and asked,
"What’s wrong with you? Why do you feel like you owe me?"
Rita, holding the console with her head lowered, froze for a few seconds. Then she raised a hand and summoned B80. She lifted her gaze, calmly looking at Nivalis and B80, and said word by word,
"In the Demon Game, to keep my player status, I chose to permanently kill you."
She showed no expression. It was as if she did not know what expression to wear.
But Nivalis understood Rita.
She hated hypocrisy. Showing guilt while confessing wrongdoing was, in Rita’s mind, hypocrisy.
Either she said nothing, or once she decided to speak, she would armor herself completely and never bow her head in apology. That was the kind of person she was.
Rita had never regretted the things she did. She did not care whether she would be judged or despised.
Just like now. She laid out the truth, her choice, and then calmly waited for the verdict from Nivalis and B80.
She was clearly the defendant, yet she looked as if she were sitting in the judge’s seat.
Her calmness bordered on cruelty. She accepted any emotion or consequence Nivalis and B80 might have.
The room fell silent.
B80’s cube head began to rotate with clicking sounds. It had been a long time since it experienced such complex emotions. Logic told it that Rita’s choice aligned with her parameters, yet negative emotions still flooded its emotional pool.
A rational machine was struggling to process irrational feelings.
Nivalis, on the other hand, stared at Rita for a while, then suddenly asked,
"Then what would make you willing to give up your player status?"
"Nothing," Rita answered without hesitation.
If such a situation truly happened, how would she choose?
The answer would still be the same. No existence, no person, could make her give up her player status or the power she held.
After hearing this, Nivalis nodded seriously.
"Then I’ll just be sad for a little while, and that’s it."
After a pause, she added,
"You don’t need to feel pain. Because if you gave up your power for me or anyone else, I would look down on you."
The small dragon’s innocent, pure face carried a trace of cruelty. She said solemnly, word by word,
"If you were that weak, if you lost your power and became ordinary, I would no longer be able to admire you."
If BS Rita abandoned herself to preserve a bond, she would no longer be Nivalis’ BS Rita.
B80 also selected the emotion it agreed with most among countless possible outcomes.
"Do not become trash in the abandoned zone."
Truly, birds of a feather.
Rita let out a long breath, smiled, and collapsed onto the table, pulling the two little companions into the crook of her neck.
But she only held them for a few seconds before coldly pushing them away.
Even if her companions understood, she still could not escape that pain.
She would not beg for forgiveness, nor would she absolve herself just because someone forgave her.
Crash them. She was going to crash the other players too.
If Soul Catcher had merely forced her to confront her darker side through questions, then the Demon Game was outright forcing her to personally carry out her choices.
She even suspected that Foolishness had drawn inspiration from the Demon Game when creating Truth or Dare.
Through Scan Appraisal, Rita saw QM Mistblade writing the diary during countless sleepless nights. She also saw the moment when Mistblade placed the Order Badge inside it.
She flipped to a certain page and found the line, "At gatherings she often sits in a corner, dazed, quiet like a cold, gentle snowflake." Her finger traced the ornate moonfox script and stopped on the word snowflake.
She poured in all her mana and sacrificed an SSS tier skill. The word snowflake transformed into a black badge layered like mountain ranges.
Order Badge. Cannot be bound. Guaranteed to drop on death. Can be fused with any item, with a chance to cause mutation after fusion. It is the key to a mysterious game and also a qualification for a certain competition.
A competition. A competition between Uncharted Star Sea and Quiet Mountain?
If Divine Game wanted the players of Uncharted Star Sea to destroy the badges, did that mean the number of competitors had already been set? Destroying one badge would mean one fewer participant from Quiet Mountain.
How many slots would Uncharted Star Sea have? Also ten? And what would determine the final selection?
After experiencing the Demon Game, Rita found herself with zero complaints about Divine Game.
What was the difference between Divine Game and a baby game?
When the time came for them to know, Divine Game would tell them.
With that thought, Rita stored both the badge and QM Mistblade’s diary in the gacha machine.
There were still ten hours until the next Demon Game at six in the morning. Rita really could not sleep. The moment she quieted down, scenes of killing Lightchaser and Nivalis resurfaced in her mind.
So she took out Quiet Mountain Maple Syrup’s diary to pass the time.
After confirming with skills that it did not contain an Order Badge, Rita finally opened it.
After reading just a few pages, she felt as if she had opened a death note.
Quiet Mountain Year 6782, May 10
Fat Goose died.
...
Quiet Mountain Year 6783, August 2
Autumn Deer died.
...
Quiet Mountain Year 6784, February 14
Crab died.
...
Quiet Mountain Year 6784, Month 15, Day 21
Loath died.
...
Quiet Mountain Year 6785, June 11
Bright Whale died.
...
Quiet Mountain Year 6785, Month 16, Day 11
Rock Breath died too.
