This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 549 - : Divine Game: Chaotic Restaurant 69

This time, there were obviously more employees. The four major positions had over ten thousand employees each, with just a few short of being fully staffed.

The discrepancy wasn't due to employees refusing to join; it seemed more likely they were overlooked.

Rita looked at the list of players who had been hit by the surprise gift boxes. It was a long list, and although she hadn't paid much attention to it earlier, she wouldn't miss a single detail now while looking for Easter eggs.

But the list didn't stay up for long before it turned into a promotional-style gift box catalog.

The next round of the black-market game began, and Rita immediately activated Spring Scenery & Flowers.

Deaths here wouldn't refresh skill cooldowns, and since Fourfold Spring was still on cooldown, she couldn't use I Just Want to Improve So Badly. This round, she would need to rely on more kills to earn more skills.

As always, she moved from one spot to another, using her hammer and healing skills, cycling through them as needed.

Thanks to 100 different buffs, before the fourth round of eliminations started at 11:00, she had earned 7 SS-level skills and 3 SSS-level skills.

Although these weren't skill icons, they were still usable skills.

As time passed, the rewards for each kill became more advanced.

With more skills, her ability to kill other players became stronger, and her self-defense measures increased.

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The black-market players' invisibility was both a limitation and protection. But for Rita, who had Bedtime Tale, it was an absolute protection.

And although sound and vision were blocked, scents weren't. Rita had plenty of ingredients in her bag, and after each meal, she kept the takeout containers.

She tied the takeout containers to a piece of beast tendon around her ankle, swinging it like a fishing lure. Whenever she saw a takeout container being destroyed, she would immediately cast a skill below.

With this trick, she had tricked countless players. Though most didn't result in kills, she did manage to catch a few players who were low on health.

Choosing to be a black-market player was a choice that, as long as you survived, made you stronger the more you fought.

The food street was bustling and peaceful, with mechanical race players diligently playing various customer roles while other players warmly served them. But in the air and in unseen corners, the fighting never stopped. Blood rained down from the sky, visible only when passing through the red light columns.

Nivalis had died six times. She had gained several skills by following Rita, but she had also lost quite a few.

Six deaths meant losing 6 SS-level skills and 6 SSS-level skills. The next time, she would lose an SSS-level skill.

When Nivalis died for the fifth time, Rita asked, "Are you staying?"

Since black-market voices couldn't be heard, Rita didn't think too much about it, knowing B80234615 was curious.

Nivalis didn't hesitate, her voice crisp and clear: "Stay!"

When Nivalis died for the sixth time, Rita asked again, "Will you be mad at me for pushing you like this? Am I like Rabbit 3?"

Nivalis got anxious, as if Rita was insulting her: "How is it the same? Rabbit 3 was bullying you, but you're trying to keep me!"

She understood everything.

Rita was in a great mood, the best mood she'd ever been in—comparable to the moment she unlocked Phoenix Seat and Unchanged Fate.

Not only that, but she unexpectedly completed an achievement:

"Congratulations, player! You've discovered hidden Easter egg·8 (3/20)."

"Offer Wholesale: Guide one player through 10 employment channels in 3 seconds."

"Easter egg reward: Extend the time limit for being sent to the food street by 30 minutes."

This Easter egg was completed by Rita as she swung her big bone hammer at full force at the end of the food street.

At 11:00, the fourth round of eliminations began.

Lost in the hunt for Easter eggs, Rita didn't notice any problems, but the battle chat channel was buzzing.

A player said the game had rigged outcomes, claiming that they had been hit by the surprise gift box twice.

If it was rigged, then the gift box they got wouldn't be a gift box. Getting two gift boxes in a row was something only fate could decide. But if you got two punishments in a row, that was rigging.

The battle chat channel was discussing it, and Rita focused on attacking while asking B80234615 to monitor the chat and summarize key information for her.

B80234615: "They said they got it in the second round, and again this round. Each time they draw, they lose a skill icon."

That sounded a little off. Rita asked, "What's the player's name?"

B80234615: "Jiangqin Ruofan."

This wasn't an ordinary player. Not only was this name a bit of a personal jab to Rita, but it also belonged to a top 500 player on the ladder.

Rita couldn't claim to have memorized the ladder list, but she did look over it every time she entered the Divine Game to strengthen her memory. At the very least, she knew the information for the top 10,000 players.

B80234615 shared useful information from the chat group: "They were ranked 700+ in the second round and over 6,000 in the fourth round."

Rita also thought this player might be targeted...

But then she suddenly remembered the new employee rules. She asked, "Didn't they not participate in Divine Game more than 15 times last year?"

A few seconds later, B80234615 replied, "A player asked, and they confirmed it."

But even so, the probability of them being drawn so often was too high.

Thanks to the Easter egg reward from egg #8, Rita's latest time to enter the game was delayed until 12:29, even though she was black-market at 9:59.

At 12:00, before the fifth round of eliminations began, Rita had gained 2 SS-level skills and 3 SSS-level skills.

For the first time, the number of SSS-level skills exceeded the SS-level ones.

From 11:00 to 12:00, without the Spring Scenery & Flowers' 100 buffs, killing had become significantly harder.

But regardless, she had already earned back the penalties from her four previous deaths.

From the Cooking Adventure game until now, including the 4 stolen skill icons, she had gained 5 S-level skills, 15 SS-level skills, and 8 SSS-level skills.

8 SSS-level skills—something Rita could never have dreamed of before.

Back then, when she learned one SS-level skill from Maple Syrup, she was so moved she practically clung to their leg and yelled, "Mother! How could you have taken so long to arrive!"

Although players wouldn't discard top-tier SSS-level skills, they were still SSS-level, so how bad could they really be?

For Rita now, every single one was invaluable.

Among them were 1 healing, 1 support, 2 single-target attacks, 2 area attacks, and 2 defenses, greatly enriching her skill library.

Moreover, with every kill, she gained a kill reward that made up for the attributes lost due to her violations.