This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 623 - : Divine Game – Chaotic Blocks14

On the surface, playing as an Overstocked Doll seemed easy.

You could influence the outcome of Hot-Selling Dolls with a single line of instructions, didn't have to worry about being caught, and getting grabbed by the Doll Buyer was actually your goal.

But Rita knew something didn't sit right—it felt too unbalanced.

Hot-Selling Dolls and Doll Buyers could both lose a lot of Blocks. If a Hot-Selling Doll got caught, or if a Doll Buyer mistakenly grabbed an Overstocked Doll, they'd each lose at least five Blocks—fifteen total in this machine.

Only the Overstocked Dolls had no such risk.

As long as no other player overtook their Block count, all they had to do was run around for 30 minutes and walk away unscathed.

Too good to be true, right?

In any case, it never hurt to try and steal some of the Doll Buyer's Block rewards. The more Blocks she had, the lower her chance of losing any rare item fragments.

She circled the arena. The Doll Buyer still hadn't made a move, so Rita decided to change her current "Usage Instruction."

The loudspeakers inside the machine boomed with the updated announcement:

"Doll Usage Instruction: This is the second attraction Dolls have played in Chaotic Blocks."

Based on her own timeline:

She entered the amusement park at 00:45, after spending 15 minutes reading the rules and prepping at the gate. It had been less than two hours since then.

She had wandered around quite a bit collecting information, sure—but she refused to believe other players hadn't done the same. Who just sprints to an attraction immediately after entering?

She was confident in her time management.

And she was right. After the new instruction was broadcast, at least forty Dolls inside the machine instantly doubled in size.

Soon after, three of them shrank back down—a clear sign they'd used skills to change their body size.

Rita dove into the crowd and used the cover to activate [Away from Home, Identity is Self-Assigned], reshaping her Blocks for camouflage.

But the moment she finished, a notification popped up:

[You have lost your Overstocked Doll status. You are now a Hot-Selling Doll.]

Worse still, her enlarged body—created by her own Usage Instruction—shrunk back to normal.

So the rules were strict. No loopholes allowed.

…But wait.

What if she canceled the disguise right after getting grabbed? Would she reclaim her Overstocked status?

Then again… what if she couldn't use skills while being grabbed?

She'd seen from the outside: once a Doll was caught by the claw, no one escaped.

Except for the 10-second ban during the Doll Buyer's machine-shake, skills were always usable. Surely a Doll could still fight back.

But based on observation, no one had ever broken free once grabbed.

Her best bet was to cancel the disguise at the very last moment—right before being lifted. But that window would only come once. The cooldown on One-Person Party, her disguise skill, was four hours.

From what she'd seen up close, the claw arm's speed had to be on par with at least 900 Agility. And even after descending, it could still be steered via joystick.

In short, if your Agility was under 900, and you couldn't dodge before the claw got above your head, you were done.

Just as she finished the thought, the whole machine shook violently. Rita looked up: the Block player at the joystick was yanking the controls hard.

Ten seconds of no skills and no item use…

But crucially—any disguise activated before the shake wasn't canceled.

Rita bolted into action.

Ten seconds later, her skill window came back online.

Time to farm.

She opened up [Fourfold Spring], paired it with [Spring Scenery & Flowers], and activated [Midnight Exile]—burning through Arcane Points like candy.

While cutting down Hot-Selling Dolls, she also targeted the players with the highest Block counts, trying to steal from them with [I Just Want to Improve So Badly].

Rita adapted to her new role as a Hot-Selling Doll in no time. She'd rack up Blocks now—and return to being an Overstocked Doll later when the timing was right.

By the time she hit minute seven, she pulled off something big.

After stacking [Midnight Exile] damage up to 125x, she slammed down an empowered [Family Bucket].

It was like the machine exploded.

One hit. HP bars vanished.

Thirty-two Dolls were wiped out in one go.

And she scooped up all 32 Blocks from the kills.

The rest had either activated emergency saves or used rare item skills to survive.

If anyone in here was above Tier 12, they definitely weren't showing it.

Thirty-two new Dolls rained down from the top of Machine #3 like dumplings being tossed into boiling water.

The spectacle was massive—so much so that not only did all the spectators turn to look, but even the little gingerbread NPC outside the machine turned its head.

Nivalis: "What the hell's going on in your machine?!"

Rita: "Oh, nothing. Just a little combo kill. Took out 32 Hot-Selling Dolls in one sweep. Routine. You guys don't need to freak out. Just another day in the life of a powerhouse."

B8017913: "......"

Nivalis: "......"

Nivalis: "I think you're a third kind of Doll. Not Overstocked or Hot-Selling."

Rita: "I don't want to know."

B8017913: "She's a Fully-Upgraded Doll."

Rita: "…"

Two minutes later— fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

Rita: "Okay, then you two are Veggie Dolls."

B8017913: "I feel cold. Nivalis, are you using an ice spell?"

Nivalis: "No, it's not me. It's the one you 'signed with.'"

Rita considered just muting the group chat entirely.

…

Meanwhile, she kept a close eye on the top five Block holders.

She also had B8017913 helping her gather intel on current Overstocked Dolls.

This match was clearly unusual. All players had appeared at the amusement park gate at exactly 00:30, but because everyone spent different amounts of time reading instructions at the entrance, they entered the park at different times.

Rita had joined the claw machine around 2:30 AM.

Which meant the first round of forced item unlocks was beginning.

Whoever entered earlier would have their game items and curios unlock earlier too.

Over the next fifteen minutes, she saw one after another player suddenly have a rare item appear before them.

The Divine Game loved spectacle. Whenever a special item or curio was unlocked, it showed a glowing counter above it—broadcasting the number of fragments required.

A giant glowing sign to tell everyone, Hey, this is valuable!

And every time a new item appeared, Rita would stroll over and cast [I Just Want to Improve So Badly].

It worked once. She managed to steal a cloak fragment from a four-piece equipment set—not an item or curio, but still a win.

Rita, who'd gotten this far purely on stolen gains and opportunistic upgrades, had one major advantage:

She was unbothered. As long as she got something, she was happy.