This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

On the way home, Rita considered waiting until Rick downloaded the game before knocking him out. That way, a year later, when he realized the significance of the game, he'd be devastated. But she quickly dismissed that idea—she couldn't afford to take that risk. What if she was two minutes too late and he managed to draw his talent? Then the one who'd be devastated would be her.

Rita decided to stay in Rick's room tonight.

2:22 AM.

As soon as the clock hit that time, Rita immediately searched for *Starsea: Rift of the Beasts* in the app store. Seeing the red moon icon on the app, she felt a rare sense of calm—this life would definitely be different.

Every second counted. She didn't know how many people would be playing the game tonight or how long those who soared to greatness in her past life had played during the beta. She only knew that every minute was precious now.

Skipping the opening animation, she went straight to the character creation screen. Whether it was due to the game's power or something else, the default character looked about 80% like her. That wouldn't do—she had things to accomplish in the game. She hit the randomize button until she landed on a face that didn't resemble hers much, then casually named the character *Idontcare*.

The game world had a Western fantasy setting, with various races and factions, all of whom, despite their differences, had formed alliances when they invaded Earth. Humans couldn't transform into other races, but Rita carefully selected her character's race because each race had unique abilities. She wanted to see if choosing a different race would allow her to steal its racial abilities.

In her previous life, she had killed many beings from different races, but the ones she dreaded the most were the *Undead*.

The Undead were one of the few races that had two racial abilities:

**Undead Will:** Having already died, the more dire your situation, the stronger your willpower. When your health drops below 5%, all your attributes double. When your health drops below 1%, your current attributes double again.

**Feast:** Consuming flesh can heal your wounds.

The first ability was practically a comeback miracle. If someone reduced her health to between 1% and 5%, she would double her attributes once. If they reduced her health below 1%, she would double her attributes again, compounding the effect.

So if you faced an Undead, unless you could quickly finish them off when their health dropped below 6%, you might end up facing an enemy with quadruple their original attributes.

As for *Feast*, it provided a way to restore health by eating flesh when all other healing skills and potions were on cooldown. In her previous life, Rita had often found herself in a weakened state, waiting for death. If eating flesh could heal her, how much harder would she have been to kill?

After choosing the *Undead* race, her character's face became noticeably paler and more gaunt.

A world with a fully developed combat system invading Earth—naturally, humanity would be given a chance to survive.

On the day of the invasion, every human would have the opportunity to draw a divine talent, just like every other being had from the moment they were born. This was the key to humanity's rapid rise and resistance against the invaders.

Now that Rita had created her character, she too had a chance to draw a divine talent.

At that moment, the screen transformed into a starry sky. Though it was just a mobile screen, Rita felt as though she was standing beneath a vast, starry expanse, tiny and insignificant before the countless stars above.

She randomly tapped on a star.

Stars shot towards her screen like meteors, and the screen emitted a cracking sound.

**[Impersonate] (Grade A):** You can impersonate anyone. Once you convince 10,000 people that you are that person, kill them and absorb everything they possess. They will become a character in your roster, and you can switch to their life at any time. No item or skill can see through this disguise, but after switching three times, that character's slot will disappear.

**Skill 1:** *Life is but a Stage:* You can store up to three alternate characters.

**Skill 2:** *The Actress Is Me:* You can mimic any skill you've seen, but its power will only be 20% of the original.

This was the divine talent she had in her previous life.

In her past life, this skill had led to her being hunted by the Lopez, Taylor, and White families, and despite being chased by these three major forces, it had allowed her to evade capture for so long.

It was just an A-grade skill, but if used well, its effects could rival those of an S-grade skill. For the powerful, it was incredibly valuable—imagine impersonating the head of a family or a city ruler. The implications were enormous.

But now that she had a chance to start over, she wanted something better.

Rita immediately deleted her character and recreated it.

This wasn't a reckless move. In an interview, one of the guys who dominated in the previous life admitted that when he participated in the beta test, he wasn't satisfied with his talent, so he deleted and recreated his character multiple times until he got something good, leaving him with little time to actually play the game.

Compared to game time, choosing the right talent was more important—it could decide her fate.

Rita kept creating and deleting characters, drawing talents, and deleting them again if they didn't meet her expectations.

Several talents tempted her:

**[Broker] (Grade A):** You can take a 5% commission by brokering transactions between buyers and sellers.

**Skill 1:** *The Best Things in Life Aren't Free:* If the transaction is bartering, you have a 5% chance to duplicate an item's skill and turn it into one of your character's skills.

**Skill 2:** *Let's Make a Deal:* If the two parties try to bypass you, you can use this skill to automatically receive the lower-value item from the transaction.

**[Ascension] (Grade A):** You can enhance an item by increasing its level, usable once every 30 natural days.

**[Light Fingers] (Grade A):** You can steal anything—items, attributes, even talents—but you can only attempt to steal from each person once, regardless of success or failure. The key to not getting caught is to avoid greed.

**Skill 1:** *This Looks Familiar:* You have a 10% chance to steal an item from your target; you have a 5% chance to steal 1 point from a random attribute.

**Skill 2:** *Defy Fate, and I'll Become the Thief God:* You have a 0.05% chance to steal your target's talent.

Rita lingered on *Light Fingers* for a long time... It was so tempting.

Her hesitation wasn't due to any moral reservations—after the game's invasion, she killed people almost daily, so what was theft compared to that?

This skill was undeniably attractive, despite the low probabilities. She knew of several items that could increase the chances of success.

After weighing the pros and cons, Rita ultimately decided against it. This skill was too dangerous, likely to attract other players' hostility. And besides, this divine talent wouldn't truly change her life.

After several more rounds of character deletion and recreation, she finally saw a moon shoot towards her in the starry sky for the first time!

A voice echoed directly in her mind: *Greedy, restrained, and adept at disguise—you are worthy to walk among mortals as the Thief God.*

**[Thief God] (Grade S):** You can steal anything in the world—items, attributes, talents, even life itself. Only a thief would refuse greed, but the Thief God loves stealing as much as life itself. If someone possesses something you must have, there's no reason to stop.

You can use this skill repeatedly on the same person, but from the second attempt onward, each theft will cost you 20% of your health.

**Skill 1:** *I Want This, This, and This:* You have a 20% chance to steal an item or money from your target, and a 10% chance to steal 1 point from their highest attribute. (You cannot steal from beings with a lower life level than yours. The Thief God never bullies the weak.)

**Skill 2:** *The Thief God's Theft, Which Can Also Be Robbery:* Sorry, I stole everything you owned. My apologies. Bet on the Thief God's name to steal your target's divine talent. This skill can only be used once in the Thief God's lifetime. (If the stolen divine talent is higher than S-grade, the theft may fail.)

**Skill 3:** *Disguise!:* Summon a new identity. You can temporarily alter your appearance, physique, and scent, and no item or skill can see through this disguise. Disguise lasts for one hour, with a cooldown of six hours.

**Skill 4:** *Huh, Where Did That Go? (Passive):* After a successful theft, the target will temporarily forget they ever owned the stolen item. They will only realize something is missing after one day.

At that moment, Rita chose the talent without hesitation.

*Five minutes ago: "Being a thief isn't so great, is it?"*

*Five minutes later: "I must have this!!!"*