This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1216: Divine Game, Divine Instruction 30

Rita shot to her feet and slammed the table in excitement. The table and Mahjong tiles crashed to the ground in a clatter.

"Isn’t that me?!"

When she finished shouting, she looked around. Her three Mahjong partners were staring at her expressionlessly. All of them still had their hands extended in mid shuffle, but the fingers that had been relaxed a moment ago were now clenched into fists.

Rita immediately crouched down to prop up the table and gather the tiles, muttering, "I mean, think about it. If Lightchaser told a fairy tale at the end of her life, she’d probably name it after herself, just like that Lynx Duke."

The others wordlessly crouched to help. Since they started playing Mahjong, this scene happened all the time. Sometimes it was BS Rita flipping the table, sometimes someone else.

To become an SS Regret, the story was usually enough to shake the heart.

After tidying up the three legged table, they dispersed and rushed off to other gods’ islands for their elective lessons.

Rita and Dawn Cicada sprinted through the corridors of the Toy Palace, each clutching their flower care manuals.

No one knew what Rita had just said, but the two burst into laughter at the same time. Dawn Cicada even smacked Rita lightly with the book in her hand. Yet before they had run a hundred meters, they were already arguing again.

Their Vines slipped out over their shoulders and began fencing with each other mid run.

On the eve of the thirtieth day, nearly fifty two players had found their direction by various means. Everyone in Foolishness’s class except BS Rita had once lit the faint glow at their brow.

While tending flowers, Dawn Cicada asked, "Aren’t you anxious? The competition starts at dawn."

"Why would I be?"

"I thought you liked being first."

"...I do."

Dawn Cicada glanced around, then suddenly dropped her tools and walked over. Her Vine poked Rita’s shoulder.

"Come with me. I’ll take you somewhere."

Rita did not know what she was planning, but she followed anyway, asking eagerly, "Is there something fun?"

They dashed past flower fields where Vines lashed out at Rita as usual and arrived at a sea of Flower of Deceit.

Under Starsea, every blossom glowed faintly. As a flower capable of uniting the aesthetics of countless races, Flower of Deceit was indeed the most beautiful bloom on Flower Island.

Dawn Cicada stepped gently into the field, searching for something.

"What are you looking for?"

"You read the Beacon World Sigh. Was there nothing about Flower of Deceit?"

Rita frowned, digging through her memory. Then she realized.

"You’re looking for Ask My Heart?"

The companion dew of Flower of Deceit, Ask My Heart.

Like poison and antidote growing side by side, Flower of Deceit loved deception and control, so idle it would even trick itself. Yet occasionally it condensed a droplet that revealed the true self of any being reflected within.

Flower of Deceit was already rare. Its companion dew was a hundred times rarer. Not only because it formed so seldom, but because Flower of Deceit would usually destroy it.

Rita hesitated only a moment before stepping into the field to search as well. She wanted to see her true self.

Dawn Cicada could never resist needling her.

"Didn’t you say you’d figure it out on your own?"

"If you were mute, you’d be the perfect Vineborne. And I just don’t like being judged by people who don’t understand me."

"Even if I were mute, the perfect Vineborne wouldn’t be me. It would be Deceitful Bloom." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"...When this game first started, you pretended not to hear when Foolishness said she’d transfer you."

They started bickering again.

A voice sounded at the edge of the field. "Sometimes I can’t tell if your relationship is good or bad."

Dawn Cicada turned. "Why are you here?"

Mistblade jerked her chin toward Rita, who was crouched in the flowers, digging around without dignity. "She called me."

Dawn Cicada glanced at Mistblade’s brow. It had never lit before.

"Oh. She was thinking of you."

After a brief explanation of Ask My Heart, there were now three people rummaging through the flowers.

Until dawn tinged the sky pale. Until Sea Pony and Nivalis came separately to tell them to report to their teachers.

Only then did they find, in a corner, a droplet nearly flicked away by its own flower.

All three rushed over and surrounded it.

Dawn Cicada gripped the petals of the Flower of Deceit. "Quick!"

Mistblade shoved Rita forward.

Rita did not hesitate at a time like this. She leaned in and looked at the dew.

The surface shimmer faded, revealing a tiny figure.

A small black haired character bounced around inside the image, wearing mismatched gear. A gun hung at her waist, a lantern in her hand, a ship’s helm floating behind her. She jittered left and right like a lagging sprite, then ran to a dragon and jumped onto its back.

Above the little figure’s head was a name.

BS Rita.

In the upper left corner was her portrait. To the right were two long bars, one red and one blue.

At the bottom were two rows of colorful skill slots, with various small icons flanking them.

Dawn Cicada looked at Rita curiously. "What did you see?"

Rita frowned tightly. "A player."

She took one last look at the game interface within the droplet, then stepped aside for Mistblade.

Dawn Cicada pressed, "You don’t agree with that word?"

Rita shook her head. "I’m no longer a player."

Maybe she once was. Even at the end of Player Relic she had accepted that answer. She treated everything as a game and wanted to give BS a perfect ending.

But after she began writing World Sigh, she stopped seeing herself as a player.

How could she still be just a player?

At that moment, light flared at Mistblade’s brow.

Rita noticed but resisted the urge to ask. Unless someone awakened mid conversation, they did not pry into each other’s divine talent words.

Even now, Rita did not know Dawn Cicada’s.

But Mistblade spoke on her own.

She stared into the droplet and whispered,

"Prisoner. A prisoner confined to her homeland."

Prisoner.

Rita disliked that word. It diminished Mistblade. How could the one who led Moon Fox and Snowfield to where they stood now be a prisoner?

Even if she was her own jailer, she should not be reduced to that.

But Mistblade accepted it.

So Rita said nothing.