[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist":3,"chapter-this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-779":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1532636,1991,"Chapter 779: Divine Game: Card Swap 28","this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-779",779,"\u003Cp>Lightchaser leaned against the doorframe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What, bringing this to pay tribute to your master?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita blinked, then raised the glass even higher. Her eyes still sparkled with pure delight as she said, entirely naturally,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Sure, of course I am. This is the first glass ofWrong SeasonI ever brewed. It’s for you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She really was a walking contradiction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In daily life, she valued fair trade and equal exchange, but toward people she truly cared about—friends, mentors—she was incredibly generous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser’s steel-blue eyes locked onto the little owlet for a few silent seconds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then she took the drink and downed it in one gulp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a strange, nostalgic kind of drink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It brought back memories Lightchaser didn’t want to dwell on, didn’t want to face, and certainly didn’t want to admit to having.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She tossed the empty glass back to Rita.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Good drink. Get some sleep.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, she closed the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the cold reaction didn’t upset Rita at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She hadn’t shared it for praise or gratitude. She just wanted to share something good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She hugged the empty glass to her chest and dashed off, eager to split the remaining two drinks with Mistblade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She barely made it a few steps before the door behind her creaked open again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser’s voice called out,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Come back here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita obediently ran back, muttering under her breath,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What am I, a puppy?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser responded flatly,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There’s no dog on this planet that noisy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She tossed over a pin—no bigger than Rita’s pinky finger—a tiny arrow carved from pure white.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A gift for the start of school. In an emergency, break this arrow.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita clutched the little thing in her palm, eyes bright with anticipation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And then you’ll come flying down from the sky to rescue me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser said coolly,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If I’m not busy, sure.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita lit up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Can I get a few more of these? Seven or eight would be great. A hundred wouldn’t hurt either!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only reply was the sound of a door slamming shut.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From outside came the cub’s voice,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If someone bullies me, can I tell them I’m your apprentice?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was a pause, then a chuckle from within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You can try.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the first day of school, the happiest one in the house wasn’t the two cubs—it was Lightchaser.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She’d been smiling since breakfast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Actually smiling. Arealsmile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita swore it was the first time since meeting her that she’d seen that many teeth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She said so out loud—got smacked on the back of the head for it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mistblade, who was sitting on a stool putting on her boots, didn’t even blink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was used to it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thanks to the backpacks Moonlight Marsh had provided, the two girls had everything they needed—neatly packed and ready to go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of the supplies were actually from Lightchaser: food, clothes, potions, gear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, that meant their debt ledger had grown by another half meter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita had made peace with it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whatever. She wasn’t going to live that long anyway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this rate, her bill would outlast her life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And really, that meant Lightchaser would be the one panicking when Rita hit eighty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita loved that image. It made her feel zen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were far fewer people outside Moonlight Marsh today than during registration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every student was now wearing their school-issued uniform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The design was identical for everyone: robes, cloaks, boots—embroidered in golden thread with the school’s crest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A pair of interwoven magical symbols: Lightchaser said they stood forAmbitionandResilience. Together, they symbolizedExcellence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the colors differed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita’s uniform was mostly white with gold trim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mistblade’s was primarily red with white accents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And around them, there were more students in uniforms of other colors—some in blue and white, and a few in black and deep gray.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one knew if those ones were even students.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita and Mistblade both turned to Lightchaser, silently begging for answers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Moonlight Marsh uniforms are sorted by divine gift type,\" she explained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"They don’t indicate your main combat focus.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She pointed at Rita’s white-and-gold uniform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Support or Special Types.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then at Mistblade’s red-and-white.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Attack Types.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her finger tapped on the transport’s window, gesturing toward the blue-and-white.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Defense Types.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, she pointed toward the black and gray.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She locked eyes with Rita.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Evil.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that moment, Rita understood something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser was telling her thatsheused to wear that black and gray uniform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At 7 a.m., there was a knock at the treehouse door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita opened her eyes, rolled out of bed, pulled on her summer combat uniform, and tossed a handful of peanuts out the window to the squirrel who’d come to wake her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While brushing her teeth, she started prepping for today’s combat class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she passed the bar, she casually usedWrong Seasonthree times and brewed three new drinks for the day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a lucky roll.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She got two bottles ofWrong Seasontoday.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The skill didn’t have a fixed recipe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each drink was a random mutation. Most of the time, she only got oneWrong Seasonper day. Two was rare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She’d been enrolled for a month now, and on average, she was gaining about one free stat point a day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And even with that kind of cheat?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shestillhadn’t pulled ahead of her classmates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most S-tier divine gifts had their own ways of boosting stats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Mistblade had one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita corked the three drinks and tucked them into her backpack, planning to dilute them with juice before bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wrong Seasonwasn’t strong—more juice than booze—but for an eleven-year-old, even two in a row would mess up class focus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She tied up her now-longer hair into a small bun, looped her tiny white arrow pendant around her neck, strapped on her academy pack, and slid two daggers—one new, one old—into her belt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This enormous tree, nearly a kilometer tall, was filled with thousands of treehouses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were the Moonlight Marsh dorms—known to everyone as the Tree Towers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bridges stretched between them, connecting to shared public platforms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To Rita, they always looked like oversized cat towers—one giant trunk with little houses jutting out at intervals, and bridges between them for \"cats\" to roam.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was wake-up time. One by one, the dorms lit up as sleepy cubs stumbled out of their homes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita flew a semicircle around the hundred-meter-wide trunk and landed at another treehouse about three hundred meters off the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as she landed, the door opened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maple Syrup burst out wearing her black-and-gray uniform, still pulling on her boots with one hand while holding her bag in the other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once she was ready, they both began their descent from the high platform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When a treehouse’s resident left, the door auto-locked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only someone with the right magical signature could open it again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At fifty meters above the ground, the two owlets hovered in place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita shouted, \"You’ve got two minutes! Hurry up!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as she finished, the doors to two more treehouses popped open—one to the southeast, and one at the eleven o’clock position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Took you long enough!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You guys are always early!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fat Goose, dressed in a blue-and-white uniform, leapt downward from a knotted ridge on the tree trunk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mistblade, in red and white, scrambled down like a cat—four limbs gripping the bark, tail balancing behind her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the student dorms already shaped like a giant cat playground, the scene looked more accurate than ever.\u003C\u002Fp>",1217,"2026-06-06T06:15:17.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","d8052162e88d091cbf5097e14251097b1f8a5f725ab8718e838c27728879f740","this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-780","this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-778",1404,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthis-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-cover.jpg"]