This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

By the time dinner was wrapping up, Zoey still hadn't mentioned that she was already a player. Instead, she promised that she would share any new information with them. She also requested that Rita notify her if she managed to get back into the game. Zoey was preoccupied with setting up the Lopez family's defense system, as she'd recently lost another attribute point.

Her brothers had reassured her that it was temporary and due to the game's instability, but Zoey wasn't so sure. If it was just a game glitch, why hadn't her brothers lost any attribute points?

After sending Zoey off, Rick returned to the private room, his expression cold.

Rita asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

Rick shook his head and whispered, "She's definitely a player. She's hiding it from us."

Samuel asked, "What makes you say that? Do you have proof?"

Rick pressed his lips together. "Her ear… the entire right ear is gone. On the 6th, it was still there, but by the 14th, when we met again, she had changed her hairstyle. She wasn't wearing any bandages, and there was no sign of recent treatment. She must have used something from the game to heal it. That healing potion—doesn't it heal wounds?"

Rita shrugged. "I only had that one bottle, and I gave it to you. I never tried it myself."

Rick sighed in frustration. "Why didn't you buy more?" He thought to himself that he really had started to see Rita as one of his own.

**Damn you! Did you hear that? Damn you! Do you want me to have someone cut off another half, leaving you with just 4.5 centimeters?**

Rita kept a smile on her face while angrily downing a glass of Coke.

After dealing with Zoey and Rick, Rita didn't rush back to the villa to study. Zoey's glasses had left her feeling deeply uneasy.

The Chávez mask no longer provided her with the sense of security it once did. Although, for now, no item below S-rank could penetrate the altered information on the mask, what if? What if someone out there was lucky enough to obtain an S-rank detection item in the first beta test?

Rationally, she knew it was unlikely. The best detection item she had seen in her previous life was only A-rank, similar to the Chávez glasses, but she couldn't bet on that. The thought of someone potentially uncovering her Divine Gift left her on edge.

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What happened to detection items and equipment being rare? How did Sanchez get an A-rank item in the first beta test, and now Zoey has another detection item of unknown rank in the second test?

She didn't even want to imagine the horror of someone using an S-rank detection item on her, with her personal panel lighting up above her head, revealing that her Divine Gifts nearly outnumbered her attributes.

Rita tossed and turned until midnight, unable to sleep at all. Finally, she got up and started packing.

She decided that tomorrow, she would go find the male lead's third woman. The Chávez mask was with the main wife, the glasses with the second wife—perhaps the final piece was with the youngest wife?

Of course, Rita knew the male lead's youngest wife. This third wife only lost out because she appeared later in the story, but her family's power was no less than that of the Lopez and White families. The Taylor family's influence was centered in B City.

During the second year of the game's invasion, the Taylor family was driven out of B City by a coalition of other families and retreated to Los Angeles, where they had already established a foothold.

She couldn't help but wonder, **Is Los Angeles a dumping ground? You say you're leaving, and suddenly you're here.**

But it was still early, and Rita hadn't made her daily gold coins yet. She transformed into a goblin, created three coins, and then, while invisible, went to Zoey's room. No one was there.

After searching around, she decided to try the Lopez brothers. If Zoey wasn't there, she might as well not leave empty-handed.

Lately, Rita had become quite bold. After discovering that the Lopez family was only using low-grade visibility potions, she began drinking advanced invisibility potions and wandering around the estate.

She headed to the brothers' quarters. She had considered stealing from them before, but they were hardly ever home—one was a CEO, the other an athlete. But tonight, she found the second brother, Theodore, at home for the first time since the second beta test.

In her past life, Theodore had been a top archer and became one of the Lopez family's strongest fighters within just a month of the game's invasion. As the male lead's life wouldn't be complete without someone to bully him, Theodore was the Lopez family's favorite person to stomp on Rick. Whenever possible, he would find an excuse to make Rick's life miserable.

In female-led stories, there's always an evil sister-in-law. In son-in-law stories, there's always an evil brother-in-law.

Before the wedding, he maintained basic manners, but after the wedding, everything Rick did annoyed him.

But with Zoey's protection, Theodore couldn't go too far, so he sometimes turned his attention to Rita.

**What a psycho,** Rita thought, **What's it got to do with me?!**

Rick would sometimes bring Rita along to the Lopez family's group activities, claiming it was to repay his sister. Now, Rita realized it was more like he was pushing her out to divert attention away from himself.

During monster fights, Theodore would send Rita ahead to lure the monsters and occasionally "miss" with his arrows. The shots would be slow and easy to dodge, but they forced her into the path of the monsters' attacks.

Rita wasn't one to take things lying down. In her past life, after every team battle, she would tell Rick not to invite her next time. Although the Lopez family distributed valuable materials or equipment based on contributions, she figured she could manage on her own, even if it took longer.

Every time, Rick would give her his share of the loot, apologize, and say he only wanted to help his sister because he longed for family. He would then complain about Theodore, sharing details about Theodore's skills and personality, urging her to avoid him…

Back then, Rita had felt a mix of emotions—touched, exasperated, but mostly angry. **You're suffering, so you want me to suffer too? Are you the one marrying in, or am I?**

But now, seeing through Rick's true nature, she couldn't help but wonder, **Was Rick trying to manipulate me into hating Theodore, hoping I'd take him down? And when he realized I wasn't falling for it, he stopped inviting me to Lopez family events.**

**Damn it! If that's the case, why didn't you just tell me directly?!**

**I may not go out of my way to harm others, but I'm hardly burdened by any moral code. If you'd asked and convinced me, I would have agreed!**

Staring at Theodore sleeping in his bed, Rita grew more and more furious.

The Olympics were over, and the next one wasn't until '80. It was so far off that Rita didn't feel any need to hold back. She used **Wheel of Fate** to lower Theodore's luck to 1 and then began using **I Want This, This, and This** repeatedly.

She had no plans to sleep tonight. After dealing with Theodore, she would visit Sanchez and then head straight to the airport.

After over an hour of stealing, she had taken 3 points of agility and 1 point of intelligence from Theodore. Satisfied, she stopped.

- **Intelligence**: 11+1

- **Agility**: 18+3

Just the agility attribute alone now rivaled that of a fully agile level 2 player.

Yet, she was still only level 0.