[{"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-962":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},1532773,1991,"Chapter 962  GodDraw77: Why Does The Tab Keep Getting Longer","this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-962",962,"\u003Cp>She had not even counted to two when Rita heard frantic pounding against glass. She followed the sound to a transparent box near the ceiling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside stood a light coffee-colored sea squirrel, barely larger than the Lightchaser sprite, with a fluffy tail nearly twice its body. It was hammering the pane in panic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Aba Aba.\" I need to verify you really are Moonlight Marsh Rita.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Aba—!\" Tell me, how many gold coins do you still owe your teacher?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sea squirrel’s anxiety vanished, replaced by stern gravity. It lifted its right paw and made an emphatic zero.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What gold? When have I ever owed any? Absolutely not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita’s eyes lit up at once. Ignoring the Lightchaser sprite that had hopped onto her head to stomp on her skull, she pointed at the sea squirrel and told the curly-haired woman behind the bar, \"Aba Aba!\" That one is my Another Me!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bitter Chalice clicked their tongue. \"Tsk.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat finally laughed itself out, then glanced at Lightchaser. \"So... did you ever finish paying Wail back?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It trailed off, stunned. On Lightchaser’s face it saw something it almost never saw there: wistfulness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Catching the cat’s stare, Lightchaser smoothed her expression and asked, \"What did you say?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh... I said, did you ever finish paying Wail back?\" the cat repeated, carefully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She fell silent for a long time, gaze on the screen where her student stood, but clearly focused somewhere far away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the blood elf beside them turned to look.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black cat reached a tentative paw to prod Lightchaser’s arm. \"You okay?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mm...\" Lightchaser came back to herself, mouth tilting in a faint, self-mocking smile. \"I suddenly understand why my tab kept getting longer.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back when she was still a student at Moonlight Marsh, Wail had been broke enough to ring like a bell. Thieves earn a lot and burn through more, and Wail’s dream was to raise a dragon. Still, most of her coin went to Lightchaser.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The best violin. The sharpest dagger. Wolfskin boots. Premium restoratives. Every Winterveil she picked a capital and took her traveling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe Wail had seen the guilt and unease in her. To keep her from being shackled by it, they made a ledger. The tab hung in the living room, and they agreed she would pay it back slowly after graduation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after the last Divine Game that year, interest suddenly appeared on the ledger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the long years after, every time Lightchaser was close to clearing the debt, Wail would find a reason to add something. Sometimes interest. Sometimes a forgotten expense from some month of some year that just \"slipped her mind.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser had assumed the dwarf had gone money-mad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It did not matter. For someone like her, making money was something to pass the time. To someone at her level, gold was grass by the roadside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was even curious how many creative excuses Wail could come up with.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But just now, watching her student lift the tiny sprite and demand another her declare how much she still owed her teacher, one thought moved through Lightchaser’s mind:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the student regained her future memories and still remembered that ledger—and had the power to return and pay—wouldn’t that mean Lightchaser could see her often?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was that what Wail had been thinking? The dwarf had more coin than she could spend, and yet the ledger remained long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had both been waiting for the day they would let go. They believed that day would come. The belief carried them through day after day, year after year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what about the time before that day? Should they pretend not to know each other?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was Wail afraid that the moment the ledger was settled, she would have no excuse to see the student who secretly resented her?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And when the word \"before\" crossed Lightchaser’s mind, she realized something else: the moment they had waited forty years for had already slipped past without a sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had imagined it a thousand ways. Would it be in the roar when the student became GodDraw77? Or some other worthy scene? Surely it would be a day to drink to forever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, opening a window on a whim, she found the winter snow had already melted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her attributes had not budged on their own in ages. That \"Oblivion\" that had once buried her... when had it gone?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the startled eyes of the black cat and the blood elf, Lightchaser lowered her gaze and laughed, quietly and honestly. Joy, and relief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I need to figure out how to make Wail cancel the ledger,\" she said brightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To keep that line from falling flat, the black cat gamely asked, \"Will she... agree?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lightchaser’s smile froze. Slowly, her expression tightened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now she was not so sure. If the greedy dwarf realized she had truly let go, would she double the tab instead?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wail had gotten a taste for this over the years. Lightchaser had become the dwarf’s private bank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She straightened, serious again, eyes on the Divine Game. No. They had to talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And she needed to talk to her student too. That come-and-go-as-you-please skill... could it cross between worlds?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She did not have a Rita sprite. If things ended like this, it would be unfair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time Rita entered her sixth cloud house, the Lightchaser sprite had wandered off to who knew where—just like the skill description warned. If she got in a mood, she left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The discovery put Rita in an excellent mood. It made the little sprite feel real—so very Lightchaser.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even seeing a few familiar faces in this game house did not dampen her mood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She stood reading the rules when Pomango and Fat Goose flanked her, one on each side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pomango: \"I heard you got stupid?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fat Goose: \"I heard you and Mistblade have a child?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pomango: \"Seriously? The gossip today is insane. I missed that episode—when did this happen? Who has the kid now?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fat Goose: \"It’s real. Marmang Crab adopted the child. Name’s Little Seahorse.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pomango: \"... Every piece of gossip we’ve eaten just snapped together.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita: \"............\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She turned and studied Fat Goose for a long time, trying to see if he was joking. His face was terrifyingly earnest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after years at Moonlight Marsh with this guy, she knew when he was choking on laughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rita opened her mouth, then shut it again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forget it. Denying it seriously would only make everything stupider.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let Mistblade deal with it. With Fat Goose’s total disregard for self-preservation, he would absolutely go put his face right up to Mistblade and repeat it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ignoring them both, Rita returned to the rule board.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This one looked tricky—the game was called No-Logic Deduction.\u003C\u002Fp>",1120,"2026-06-06T06:15:19.549Z",1,"novelbin.me","78ba8264312810b1bbe8b50ba42876be4e30548b9df26578cdbf15ecd145d539","this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-963","this-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-chapter-961",1404,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthis-life-i-will-be-the-protagonist-cover.jpg"]