This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

**[Animagus]** (A+ Rank): Allows the user to transform into any animal they have petted within the past 7 days. Cannot be detected by skills or items below A Rank. The transformation is interrupted if the user takes any damage. While transformed, the user cannot use skills other than their divine gift. No cooldown. Each use consumes 50 mana points.

It had some limitations, but it was incredibly practical. The last restriction, *"cannot use skills other than divine gifts,"* was perfect for her. This skill was practically made for her!

3,000 gold—bought!

**[Shadow Control]** (A+ Rank): 2,500 gold! This skill allows the user to control their shadow freely. The shadow can use all of the user's skills, but with only 20% of the original attributes. A perfect skill for stealth attacks! Bought!

**[Fountain of Light]** (A+ Rank): Creates a well that lasts for 3 minutes, and the water it produces restores health. Each milliliter of water restores 1 health point. The skill has a 30-minute cooldown and consumes 1% of the user's mana per use.

A life-saving skill, and not just for herself. With this skill, she wouldn't be easily abandoned in team battles. Even the main characters wouldn't dare make a move against her lightly.

3,000 gold—bought!

**[Ice Flower Seal]** (C Rank): Creates a snowflake that flies toward the target, freezing them within 3 seconds of contact. The freeze effect is influenced by the user's intelligence. (2-second cast time, 30-second cooldown, consumes 50 mana points per use.)

An ice-based control skill that could be countered by fire spells, but that was to be expected. Most skills had countermeasures. For only 103 gold, it was worth it—bought!

**[Magic Missile]** (C Rank): Guides a magic missile toward the target. No cast time, no cooldown, consumes 10 mana points per second.

A quick-cast spell with no cooldown? 97 gold—bought!

**[Gourmet's Bib]** (B Rank): When wearing this item while eating, all beneficial effects from food are doubled.

A useful item that could be relied on for a lifetime. 700 gold—bought!

**[Persey's Cat Toy]** (F Rank): Has no special effects, but cats go crazy for it and will be attracted to it.

Perfect to pair with her **Meow Meow Inn**. Plus, it was cheap—only 17 gold—bought!

**[Compass]** (E Rank): Helps locate unclaimed treasures within 1 kilometer and guides the user to them.

The range was a bit short, but for 80 gold, it was worth it—bought!

**[Magician's Fake Tooth]** (B Rank): Contains 1 cubic meter of storage space and occupies one of your tooth sockets. It can hide all items you don't want others to know about. (Items stored inside cannot be detected by any skill or item, but they also cannot be used.)

A must-have for anyone with valuable items! Rita acknowledged that she had too many good things. 999 gold—bought!

**[Alchemy Set]** (E Rank): Increases your success rate in alchemy and has a 1% chance to upgrade the quality of your potions.

**[Alchemy Notes]**: Reading this gives you a chance to learn alchemy recipes you haven't studied before (up to 1 level higher than your current alchemy level). (This effect can only trigger once every 30 days.)

**[Engineering Notes]**: Reading this gives you a chance to learn engineering recipes you haven't studied before (up to 1 level higher than your current engineering level). (This effect can only trigger once every 30 days.)

The alchemy set was cheap, only 50 gold. The two books combined were 2,000 gold.

But 2,000 gold was a bargain. Her alchemy and engineering were both at the advanced level, so reading these notes could give her the chance to learn master-level recipes. This was like carrying a treasure trove with her. Even if she could only learn once a month, it was worth it!

She also found **[Cooking Notes]**, which were much cheaper at only 350 gold.

Bought them all.

Money only had value when converted into resources; otherwise, it was just waste paper.

Rita had 20,000 gold from the goblins, plus 3,116 gold leftover from earlier, giving her a total of 23,116 gold. After this shopping spree, she had only 220 gold left.

After the game's invasion, most of the skills found in dungeons were only C rank. Since she could buy them, she naturally went for the skills she couldn't obtain otherwise. She only bought two C-rank spells—one for control and one for offense. They were enough for now.

Her focus was on top-tier skills she hadn't encountered in her previous life and useful items.

Time flew by as she shopped.

After receiving her purchased items and learning all the skills, Rita reluctantly left the auction house.

**12:42 PM**

18 minutes left until the end of the beta test.

She went to the herb shop, filling over 30 bag slots with herbs before leaving.

**12:47 PM**

Rita stood a short distance from the Undead Palace, watching it. Ever since she had stolen the Undead Lord's divine gift, the guards outside the palace had multiplied by the hundreds. The undead soldiers practically encircled the palace, hand in hand.

But it didn't matter. Rita, still in her goblin disguise, walked to the teleportation array in the Undead City and used her last 5 gold coins to teleport to one of the elf capitals—Blood Moon City.

**12:57 PM**

Standing in front of the elven capital, Rita approached the captain of the elven guards, who was armed with an ornate bow, and claimed that her anchor point had malfunctioned and she needed to see the city lord. The guard captain immediately drew his bow and aimed it at her.

In that moment, Rita's mind went blank. Almost reflexively, as the guard's name turned red, she used **[The Thief God's Theft, Which Can Also Be Robbery]**.

*"In the name of the Thief God, you attempt to steal the divine gift of Blood Moon City's Guard Captain Elfala."*

*"Theft successful."*

*"You have died."*

The screen went black.

Moments later, it lit up again, showing a ghostly goblin standing in a graveyard.

In the upper right corner were two options: she could either search for her body to revive with a weakness debuff or wait for an automatic resurrection. The resurrection timer showed 47 hours, 57 minutes, and 36 seconds.

Rita didn't move, simply waiting until the time reached **1:06 PM**.

The phone turned into black smoke, leaving two bags on the ground.

She looked at her hands—good, she hadn't turned into a ghost. Even though she knew beta testers couldn't die permanently, seeing her in-game character become a ghost had given her a moment of panic.

After calming down, the first thing Rita did was modify her character's panel, hiding the new divine gift she had obtained. Then she tucked the bags into her inner coat pockets, drank an invisibility potion, and let the skills she had learned surface in her mind. Spells, gestures, and the techniques for channeling her magic were all etched into her memory.

She could sense a small area centered around herself, but most of it was shrouded in a fog, with only a portion clearly visible—like a crooked line on a running app showing the day's route.

If she wanted, she could instantly teleport to any location within that area. It was clear these were places she had visited before.