This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1256 Public Vote

On the game screen, a small figure stood at the center, fighting above the ruins of a manor. Opposite her was a black-haired figure with glowing red wings, the name Zoey floating above her head.

Above Rita’s character, dagger and bleeding icons kept popping up.

Above Zoey’s, there were handshakes and hearts.

Watching it, Rita found herself smiling without realizing it.

She remembered this scene.

Back then, she had been determined to kill Zoey and eliminate any future trouble. Meanwhile, Zoey had been trying to persuade her to go to Lania Kaia and find Maple Syrup together.

But many of the emotions she had felt at the time were now distant, almost unreal.

She knew she had never intended to show Zoey any mercy.

But when she watched Zoey be reborn in flames, what had she felt?

And later, when she sent Zoey that letter, what had driven her?

And after that, why had she stopped writing?

Was it because she no longer cared to maintain contact?

Or had she sensed something, and deliberately cut off her connection with BS One-Eye, choosing instead to treat Maple Mu of Lania Kaia as the only one who existed?

Time had passed.

Rick was dead.

She had reconciled with the Liang family.

She had gone farther than any other BS player, and the threats she saw now were on an entirely different level. Many conflicts that once felt serious now seemed like nothing more than childish squabbles.

She could not even be bothered to care.

And yet, she had never truly made peace with Zoey.

But that day, when she heard Zoey’s voice carried by the windpipe, what she felt was not hostility.

It was something closer to nostalgia.

On the screen, Zoey fell.

A wisp of her soul drifted free. It waved at Rita, then flew off happily.

The black-haired figure, always centered on the screen, remained where she was.

First came a few angry icons. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Then a string of blank, dazed expressions with a runny nose.

After a long while, the little figure placed her hands behind her back and walked away like an old lady, occasionally hopping as she went.

Ask My Heart.

Faced with this ending between herself and her old enemy, what did she truly feel?

Regret? Reluctance?

Or relief... even a quiet kind of happiness?

Her time was up.

Someone beside her nudged her aside, and it became someone else’s turn. They were working together, taking turns using Ask My Heart.

There were only thirty minutes left before the game ended.

Time was tight.

Rita continued searching through the flower fields, hoping to find a second Ask My Heart.

If she could, she would get to see it one more time.

When a pair of red wings entered her view, she spoke without thinking.

"Maple Mu... Maple Cang and Maple Burn... they are doing okay?"

Maple Syrup did not even look up.

"The army managed by BS One-Eye is slightly larger than the one Maple Cang leads. She is naturally suited to authority. As long as I am willing, level, attributes, and skills are the easiest things to solve."

Rita fell silent.

Why say it so directly?

She struggled for a moment, unsure how to respond.

This was not something she could brush off with a joke.

If a single Rose Token could only revive one daughter, then Maple Burn, who had lost her wings, and Maple Mu, who had lost her soul, together formed a complete oak owl.

The implication was impossible to ignore.

Rita let out a dry laugh. She did not dare ask why, out of so many revival methods, Maple Syrup had chosen something as dangerous as a Rose Token.

There had probably been many stories during the war against the undead.

After all, she herself possessed a skill stolen from the undead, one that allowed her to control the dead.

But Maple Syrup was not finished.

"She probably cannot tell whether she is Maple Mu or One-Eye anymore. Since it is impossible to distinguish, there is no need to."

Even after being sent back to BS, Rita kept thinking about that sentence.

Was Maple Syrup talking about herself?

Or about Zoey?

An oak owl who could not tolerate even the smallest imperfection had chosen, in the one matter where clarity mattered most, to close her eyes.

The moment Rita returned home, the first thing she heard was not the Divine Game settlement.

It was the voice of the Disorderly Starsea.

Unlike the mechanical tone of Divine Game, this voice felt distant and vast, like history itself echoing in her ears. There was a weight of sorrow and resignation in it that made it hard to breathe.

"The final battle between Starsea and Quiet Mountain will begin after the fifth bell tolls. The result will determine the end of the next era. Whether the Pendulum of Order strikes Starsea or Quiet Mountain."

"If Starsea wins, participating players may strike the pendulum toward Quiet Mountain before the sixth bell toll, replacing and completing the sixth toll."

"Otherwise, Starsea will face the sixth bell. 99.99 percent of soul fires will be extinguished to maintain the stability of Order."

"The side destroyed by the pendulum will become fragmented and chaotic in the next era. All life will be reborn in separate small worlds, inheriting remnants of past civilizations, slowly awakening, reigniting their soul fires, and eventually facing the pendulum once more."

"I have never understood why the creators designed such a system. But I will always follow their will."

"Whenever Starsea falls into disorder, before the third bell toll, I will place the choice in your hands."

"If the next era’s Starsea remains disorderly, should everything be left to chance, allowing all life and worlds to walk toward destruction in happiness and ignorance, with only a few surviving by luck?"

"Or should the invasion sequence begin again, forcing all life to fight through pain and war for the right to survive, in the hope that someone will emerge and find a new path for their world and race from the miracles left behind?"

"The Disorderly Starsea now initiates its first public vote."

"All current Divine Game players have the right to vote."

"Public Vote. In the next era, should Starsea initiate the invasion sequence?"

"Yes or No."

Rita’s first thought was simple.

Why not ask Divine Game?

Then she immediately understood.

Regardless of whether there was an invasion sequence, Divine Game would still be necessary to cultivate players capable of facing Quiet Mountain.

In that moment, countless possibilities flashed through her mind.

Would it not be better if each race sent a few outstanding players into Divine Game, while the rest lived in peace?

If the Disorderly Starsea could prioritize protecting higher-tier worlds, then could it not also decide which worlds would be destroyed when the pendulum struck?

Why not base it on rankings?

But the answer came to her almost instantly.

That would not be fair.

Starsea refused to become like Quiet Mountain, where a few bore everything and made every decision.

This was a war for all life.

And the world did not belong only to Divine Game players.