This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1238 Divine Game: Divine Instruction 52

A huge shadow with clawed edges loomed over the orchid mantis that was currently wiping its face with its forelimbs.

The mantis kept washing its face while glancing up.

Oh. It was Mistblade.

The Moon Emperor’s face looked mostly calm. But her nine tails, which always betrayed her emotions around familiar people, were whipping wildly behind her. She looked seriously annoyed.

The orchid mantis waved a forelimb.

"So I’m officially released without charges, right?"

Mistblade froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. The next second she lifted her foot and stomped down toward the mantis.

The orchid mantis leaped sideways.

It landed and instantly returned to Rita’s original form.

"No manners," Rita complained.

Mistblade narrowed her eyes and glanced at the corner of Rita’s mouth. Then she looked away with disappointment.

Already wiped clean.

What a shame. She had not managed to see Rita drooling.

"For the sake of winning, you really will do anything," Mistblade said sharply before turning toward the stands. "When you created that skill you swore you would never use it."

Rita walked beside her and answered without shame.

"What’s wrong with that skill? It works great."

Even though it had only controlled Mistblade for less than two seconds before she broke free, success was still success.

The two argued all the way back to the stands.

Then they both fell silent.

Maple Syrup stood there radiating cold air, staring at Mistblade with fury and hatred in her eyes.

Rita had no interest in getting involved. She quietly walked over to Dawn Cicada and Queque, leaving Mistblade behind.

Maple Syrup also seemed unsure what to say. After a few seconds of eye contact, she and Mistblade both turned away and looked out toward the arena without speaking.

Most of the other players were the same as Rita. They were not particularly interested in whatever was going on between Mistblade and Maple Syrup.

What they cared about was Mistblade’s newly evolved divine talent ability.

The skill called Warden was terrifyingly strong.

It had forced BS Rita to resort to drooling just to win.

The moment Dawn Cicada finished saying that, Rita’s Vine shot upright and crawled onto her shoulder, reaching out as if it wanted to smack the Vineborne who had previously controlled it.

Compared to Prisoner, which merely imprisoned an opponent’s thoughts, Warden truly demonstrated the power of a divine talent word.

Prisoner could be resisted in advance. Maple Syrup had managed to activate a shield in the split second before her mind was sealed.

Warden, however, seemed far harder to counter.

Even though its weakness had already been exposed, Mistblade would definitely find a way to protect that flaw before her next match.

If Dawn Cicada’s Beacon evolved to the point where she could control multiple Vineborne flower abilities simultaneously, the result would be terrifying.

And if Cinders’ Wordless could reset not only skills but also player attributes back to their original state?

Every player on the stands who had awakened a divine talent word began imagining the future.

Queque stared at the silhouettes of Mistblade and Maple Syrup and sighed.

"I still don’t understand how they grabbed that opportunity. How did they even know to awaken their talents like that?"

Rita followed her gaze.

A faint glow appeared once again between Mistblade’s brows.

Whether that had anything to do with Rita’s "released without charges" comment, she had no idea.

But she might know how Mistblade and Maple Syrup had figured out the trick.

She spoke quietly.

"After Maple Syrup refused to execute the Autumn Deer, the soul flame between her brows lit up for a moment."

That was probably why both Maple Syrup and Mistblade had been able to activate their divine talent abilities one more time during their match.

Queque clicked her tongue.

"So one bear got eaten twice?"

First she turned the Autumn Deer into bear cookies.

Then when she generously spared them, she used them again to deepen her divine talent.

Rita stared at her.

"Can you stop making hell jokes like that?"

"Oh," Queque said with zero sincerity.

Beside them, Dawn Cicada frowned deeply.

"If that’s true, does that mean I need to light something up to evolve Beacon?"

Queque immediately replied, "Why don’t you raise some Candlebeasts in Dawn?"

Rita quietly stepped a little farther away from Queque. The "Que" in Queque might as well stand for "missing a brain."

But when she turned, she saw Dawn Cicada looking genuinely tempted.

...There was no saving these people.

On the arena floor, NightFury and Prayer had been fighting for less than two minutes before both activated their divine talent words. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Hollow.

Too Late.

One ability reduced other players to fragile targets with only ten health.

The other slowed opponents’ actions to a crawl.

Both effects were extremely short.

Both players were also top ten on the ladder.

Neither could easily overpower the other.

Once their divine talents expired, the battle turned into a long stalemate.

The players on the stands quickly lost interest.

Watching two evenly matched fighters grind each other down was far less entertaining than watching BS Rita get chased all over the arena earlier.

Queque nudged Rita.

"You still haven’t found your divine talent word?"

That question again.

Recently it came up constantly.

Sometimes it was Queque, Cicada, or Prayer asking.

Sometimes Foolishness asked when she ran into him in the Toy Palace.

Even Deceitful Bloom had asked her a few times when she got lost on Flower Island and ran into him watering plants.

"You still haven’t found your divine talent word?"

When Deceitful Bloom asked, it sounded more like genuine amazement than criticism.

As if he truly could not understand how she could fail to recognize herself.

Back then, in the sea of flowers where only the two of them stood, Rita had answered with another question.

"Why haven’t you taken revenge on me?"

"This is the Star Sea. You’re stronger than me. I can’t resist. And you know, even if you really did take revenge and reclaimed your racial trait, I wouldn’t actually take it out on the Vineborne."

"BS Rita, you’re really boring."

That phrase again.

"If a flower pricks you while you’re cultivating it, the solution is not to destroy it or take revenge. The solution is to keep taming it."

"Oh. Then you’re pretty annoying."

The next moment she was whipped off Flower Island by a flower vine for disrespect.

That day she returned to the Toy Palace covered in flower thorns.

They stuck stubbornly to her clothes. She had to pull them out one by one as she walked.

When she passed a workshop, a calm, flat voice stopped her.

"Why are you bringing so much trash back with you?"

"She hit me," Rita said. "Teacher, are you going to avenge me?"

Foolishness flipped a page in his book.

Behind his glasses, his clear blue eyes lifted slightly as he glanced at her.

"You weren’t this polite back at the amusement park."

"...Why are you bringing that up now?"

Rita forced a pleasant smile.

"I was young and ignorant back then."

"Really? You still are."

"How so?"

Sensing that Foolishness might be about to reveal something important, Rita immediately perked up.

"You don’t like hearing other people evaluate you, do you?"

"You and Deceitful Bloom are different."

"I thought he just whipped you."

"That was... basically a tickle."

Rita quickly dragged the conversation back on track.

"I’ve learned many skills. But the only ones that truly moved me were the ones I discovered while fighting you two."

That was why she ignored everyone else’s opinions.

But what Foolishness and Deceitful Bloom said was worth hearing.

At least as a reference.

"Do you know why Deceitful Bloom was angry with you at the beginning?"

"Huh? He was angry with me? When? Quiet Mountain?"

"No. Earlier than that. Card Swap."

Foolishness’s cold voice carried a trace of amusement now, like sunlight reflecting off a flawless gemstone.

"At that time, regardless of his true motives, in your eyes he was a god who recognized your potential early in your Divine Game career and personally guided you."

"His strength, status, identity, and even the help he gave you far surpassed that of the other teachers."

"But in your eyes, he was not much different from them."

"In fact, he ranked even below Lightchaser."

"And the most irritating part was this."

"To you, he and the others were nothing more than spectators in your life."