This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist
Chapter 1412 Adjudicator Game: Game Invasion 17
Seeing Adjudicator keep writing and sketching in that miraculous book, Nuclear Flash JinX could not help asking, "What are you doing?"
"Designing our game." Rita erased a rule she had just written. She was thinking about how to make the game loop sustain itself.
To invade this prison through a game, she needed to spend soul fire to create rules and gameplay. Using the cells themselves as a game venue would require even more soul fire.
Under those circumstances, it would be difficult for her to save every later Prisoner.
It would be great if soul fire could circulate on its own.
Could she use the prison’s own energy to run the Adjudicator Game?
Rita’s pen stopped on the page. She fell into thought.
Nuclear Flash JinX sat quietly beside her and waited.
After that first declaration, "I am Adjudicator’s Ragtag," she had not answered Nuclear Flash NightFury again. In the end, she even turned her back.
Was it because she was naturally cold? Was she too proud to respond?
No. A Ragtag who wanted to die in Nuclear Flash would not reject another unfamiliar Ragtag for no reason. Someone who called herself Adjudicator’s Ragtag because of Rita’s escape plan would not be so impossible to approach.
Since entering this prison, only Shadow.Q had managed to pry open a Prisoner’s mouth through equipment and patience.
After that, players had occasionally traded with the Prisoners here, but real conversation remained rare.
Rita suddenly asked, "Does something bad happen if you talk to other Prisoners?"
JinX answered every question Rita asked.
"Yes. A senior here told me it is best not to develop feelings for your own kind. The final result will definitely be getting matched against them in a Prisoner Game. Other races are better. We usually do not speak each other’s languages anyway."
That was why she refused to talk to that Ragtag.
Adjudicator had freed her from her Prisoner identity, but she did not want to take risks.
She was willing to risk becoming an experiment.
But before everything stabilized, she did not want to risk speaking to another Ragtag.
She turned her head slightly, giving Nuclear Flash NightFury only her profile, and said in an extremely cold tone, "Do not talk to me. I do not want to kill you."
Nuclear Flash NightFury: "..."
So it made Prisoners fight familiar members of their own race?
That was indeed a method to stimulate emotions.
If Order Clock needed blazing soul fire to maintain its operation, was this prison the same?
Thinking of this, Rita asked, "Since you came here, what game have you looked forward to the most, or feared the most?"
JinX answered without hesitation.
"The Cube Game. It is the game I look forward to the most, and the one I fear the most."
Rita and several players in nearby rooms who had been eavesdropping instantly perked up.
What kind of game was that?
JinX explained, "It begins when the prison reaches 100 percent occupancy.
"At that point, every cell gains its own color. We use our cells as units to challenge another cell with the same number of Prisoners. The challenger sets the game rules. If we win, we can dye the other cell in our color.
"If we lose, we must exchange skills or equipment according to the other side’s demands." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖
Even while explaining the penalty for defeat, this was the first time Rita saw such clear joy and anticipation in the Ragtag’s eyes.
"In the first stage of the Cube Game, killing is not required. Any game works. Marbles, cards, poker, ghost chess, mahjong... as long as you win, it counts."
The Ragtag’s happiness rose like an arc, reached its peak, then vanished in an instant.
"Once the entire cube has only two colors left, we begin killing. The Cube Game only ends when every living being in cells of the other color has been killed."
As the Ragtag spoke, Rita and the other players from the Tenth Epoch all straightened and looked toward the prison, toward those countless cells.
Every six hours, a batch of Prisoners would be exiled here to fill empty cells.
At the same time, Prisoners would be erased for failing games.
"Occupancy reaches 100 percent."
That condition was harsh, but not impossible.
It only required every Prisoner in the prison to win their game after one cube rotation.
This was a purge.
Like an automatic cleanup triggered when memory reached its limit.
Then what would happen if the cube was still fully occupied after the Cube Game ended?
Or, what if every Prisoner in this prison temporarily went offline like JinX, then all logged back in at the same moment?
Would the cube break apart?
Would the mysterious administrator of this prison possess enough authority to resist her?
Did it also not want that mysterious eye to open?
Was that why it kept covering up errors?
It had covered up its failure to reclaim Prisoner skills and equipment after the Prisoner Game.
It had covered up JinX’s escape from the Prisoner Game.
It had perhaps even covered up the original error, when a large number of strange Prisoners mysteriously descended into the prison.
As Rita considered these questions, she sent all the intelligence she had gathered into the group chat.
She wanted everyone to think of a solution together.
She also wanted them prepared.
She could start the Adjudicator Game and invade this prison at any time.
After hearing her explanation, quite a few players quickly made requests.
[Foolishness]: You can change my number first. I do not need this prison’s games.
[Deceitful Bloom, Starsea]: Same here.
[Hearthsmoke, Starsea]: I do not want to play either. This is a good chance to test whether you can remotely modify our information.
After they spoke, nearly every player participating in this game joined in, asking whether Rita could change their Prisoner numbers first.
It was not because of the Prisoner Game.
These players and gods, who had experienced countless wars, would not be so overwhelmed by sympathy that they could not kill a stranger of another race.
Even Rita would not feel guilty or hesitate over killing an unfamiliar alien.
Although no one said it outright, Rita could guess more or less what they were thinking.
The players of the Tenth Epoch did not want to work for this prison for free.
Even something created casually still belonged to them.
How could the prison simply take it away?
This request was already something Rita intended to do.
Otherwise, how would she distinguish her players from Prisoners?
World Sigh began turning its own pages in her palm.
One phantom after another appeared upon its pages.
They were all living beings who followed her order.
Unlike when they were on the bridge, each figure now wore a pair of cube shackles.
A chain stretched from the shackles into the void.
The pages stopped at "Brilliance."
Foolishness’s figure appeared on the white gold page.
A strand of lightning drifted out of the page and approached the shackles on Foolishness’s wrists.
This symbolized the player being under the prison’s control.
Rita could feel that if she changed a Prisoner number while that chain remained connected, the change would definitely be recorded.
She needed to pick the lock first, then change the number.
This was different from hiding a Prisoner inside World Sigh to help them escape.
During the Prisoner Game, the Prisoner’s shackles had been unlocked by the game itself. Changing JinX’s name had been easy.
But now, inside the cell, the players had been shackled again.
This time, she was practically picking the lock right under the warden’s nose.
She had to be careful.
She intended to damage the shackles bit by bit and stop the moment anything seemed wrong.
Rita was currently leaning against the wall.
On the other side of that wall, Maple Syrup had been sitting behind her and watching the show.
Seeing Rita’s cautious manner, she could not help saying, "Why not start with Captain?"
The words from Captain’s number one hater woke Rita up like a bucket of cold water.
Captain’s number two hater, BS Rita, decisively turned several pages until she reached "Tide."
"Good point."
Quiet Mountain Captain, who happened to be in the cell to their right: "..."
Was Starsea Captain’s popularity really this bad?