This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

By January 11th, Rita was exhausted, noticeably thinner from all the work. She felt like she had spoken more in the past few days than she had in her entire life, and she suspected that she could now hold basic conversations with goblins without needing a translator. But despite the physical toll, she was immensely satisfied.

Not only had she exchanged her 10,000 pounds of gold for 27,777 gold coins, but she had also pocketed an additional 22,222 gold coins in kickbacks. Coupled with the leftover coins after learning new recipes, her total wealth had finally surpassed 50,000 gold coins for the first time.

She felt like she could live comfortably for the rest of her life with this fortune.

After handing over 200,000 gold coins to Shadow.Q, she also received her 1% commission, totaling 2,000 gold coins.

Now, she had 52,073 gold coins and 87 silver, along with 778 pounds of gold still in reserve.

Rita couldn't help but feel a little bashful as she accepted the bag of coins. At that moment, even the dark circles under her eyes seemed to lighten. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Shadow.Q sighed in admiration, "You're now the wealthiest player among us."

Rita, her voice raspy from days of endless talking, replied, "Maybe. Now I can finally afford to buy some skills."

Shadow.Q pulled out a booklet. "Want to buy some? These are our internal skill stones."

Rita's eyes lit up, and just as she reached for the booklet, Shadow.Q pressed her hand down, smiling coyly. "You know, this is also a paid service... Getting access to this kind of information is worth the price. Many people want to buy but can't. It's confidential."

Rita deadpanned, "How much?"

Shadow.Q beamed, "One gold."

Rita scoffed, "Do I look like I'm begging to be scammed?"

Shadow.Q patted her hand. "What's with the attitude? This is a *friendly* price!"

Rita flashed a smile that could only be described as forced, like the infamous fake-smiling meme. "The last time you offered me a 'friendly price,' it was exactly the same as the market price."

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Shadow.Q, unbothered, replied, "Well, we'd only just met, didn't we? How could we have *real* friendship back then?"

Rita was speechless. "…50 silver. Take it or leave it."

Shadow.Q immediately reached out for the money with one hand and stuffed the booklet into Rita's other hand with the other.

Suspicious, Rita asked, "You're pocketing a commission again, aren't you?"

Shadow.Q blinked innocently. "Who doesn't these days? Don't you?"

Rita shut her mouth. She did! She took not one but two cuts herself.

As she opened the booklet, Rita was genuinely amazed. She had lived through three years in her past life, thinking she knew a lot about **Divine Gifts**, but the list in this booklet was only halfway through, and it was already packed with skills she'd never heard of.

However, each skill was only described briefly, with no cooldown times, **Divine Gift** levels, or sources. Most skills were priced below one gold, but a few were extremely rare or powerful, with prices skyrocketing. Some were even listed without a price—marked as "negotiable."

For example, on the very first page, she saw her own skill:

**[Another Happy Day]**: "Upon use, modifies the target's Luck stat for six hours. (Price: Negotiable)"

Such a simple description—no mention of cooldowns, **Divine Gift** rank, or origin. Rita couldn't help but marvel at the Bureau's ability to play these things close to the chest.

She ended up purchasing two divination-related skill stones:

**[Dear Spirit, Tell Me]**: "Upon use, it will divine the answer to a question of your choice. The clarity of the answer depends on the complexity of the question. (Price: 3 gold)"

**[Am I Going to Die?]**: "Upon use, it will divine the outcome of your next action. (Price: 1 gold)"

She didn't expect much, given that her own abilities could block divination, but she bought them anyway. The prices were a bit high, but for those in need, it was probably worth it.

After parting ways with Shadow.Q, Rita immediately used **[Dear Spirit, Tell Me]**.

Clutching the skill stone in her hands, she thought to herself, *Does Rick still have a chance of turning the tables?*

A fog swirled in her mind, and as she focused on the question, the stone slowly shattered. The fog cleared, revealing a scene.

In the vision, Rick stood at the center of a ritual circle in the Lopez family's basement. Not far away, another man lay in a separate ritual circle, bleeding profusely. The man had an eye patch and a tangled mess of hair partially obscuring his face. His lower face was covered in blood, and though Rita couldn't hear his voice, his lips were clearly hurling curses—presumably aimed at Rick.

The man looked familiar, but she couldn't immediately place him.

However, she recognized the place and the ritual—it was the same ritual used to strip someone of their **Divine Gift**, a ritual she had personally witnessed in her past life.

*Where the hell did Rick get his hands on such a sinister ritual?*

She had no way of knowing when this event would take place. The characters' clothing offered no clues, as the Lopez family estate was kept at a constant temperature year-round. But she could tell it wasn't happening anytime soon.

That ritual required the blood of a powerful monster, at least Level 15, and some rare gemstones produced by **Advanced Jewelry Crafting**. Rick wouldn't be able to gather these resources quickly, especially considering that the Taylor family hadn't even arrived in Los Angeles yet.

Far from dampening her mood, knowing Rick's next move made Rita feel better. There was nothing more satisfying than watching Rick's hopes crumble time and again. She couldn't wait to crush his dreams once more.

Returning downstairs, she found Shadow.Q eating with her sister. She bought two more **[Dear Spirit, Tell Me]** skill stones and then prepared to return to the real world. She was worried about Rick, concerned for the cats in her backyard, and, above all, sensed the brewing tension in the game world.

Shadow.Q had hinted that it might be wise to lay low for a while and avoid leaving the outposts.

Whatever it was, Rita wasn't particularly interested. But she had noticed an increase in people trying to find her, even as she traveled across Lania Kaiya. Levi's group wasn't the only one. If not for the Bureau's intervention and their announcement that her **Divine Gift** would only be sold through them, her situation would have gotten much worse.

However, with the imminent full-scale invasion of the real world by Lania Kaiya, Rita decided it was better to head back to keep an eye on her assets—especially those precious cats that might mutate during the chaos.

Before leaving, Rita made a trip to the Undercity auction house, buying 1,000 high-quality belts. Since they didn't stack due to their different styles, she stuffed them into a large chest to store in her game inventory.

She also stocked up on the ingredients necessary for making intermediate and advanced potions.

Advanced alchemy required not just basic herbs but a range of materials that could only be found through the auction house. Many of these materials came from other crafting professions once they reached the advanced level. Rita had long since used up the supplies she had hoarded before.

Mastering advanced alchemy was a slow grind of watching alchemy tutorials, spending money on materials for practice, and repeating the process over and over. It required patience and dedication, and Rita was prepared to spend years learning. Though her recent attempts at advanced recipes had been mostly failures, gaining only a point or two in skill, she was committed.

After all, she had the resources to see it through.