This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita never stopped pushing herself, all for the sake of living a better life, for the day Rick would look up to her, always beneath her. She would crush him underfoot until the day she had vented enough and could finally kill him.

Even now, as she held back from confronting the male and female leads, it was only to better use them, to backstab them later, expending the least effort to topple the powerful Su, Liang, and Han families.

There are many ways to hide in the shadows. You can be a rat in the gutter or a strong figure they look up to and respect.

In her previous life, her stats and level were never extraordinary. She survived on sheer combat talent, and Rick would occasionally bring her along to fights, using her to deal with people who had bad feelings toward him. This time, though, such a strategy wouldn't work. While she could give Rick a few "benefits" to gain his trust, Rita had no patience for humiliation.

Her plan now was to become a powerful ally—someone Su, Han, and White families would turn to when facing tough bosses. That way, she could infiltrate their circles and wreak havoc from within.

There's a time to lie low and a time to assert dominance.

Besides, her strength was something she couldn't hide even if she wanted to!

Rita rubbed her forehead, shaking her head with a bitter smile.

She could disguise her attributes and level, but she couldn't hide the damage she dealt. One shot from her bow, and the difference in damage would be too obvious. Anyone paying attention could easily calculate how much stronger she was.

Using her **Chávez Watch** to avoid all the trees marked as "A Modified Magical Dwelling," she was surprised at how many of them there were.

She passed through the spider territory, then the areas with level 5 monsters. It wasn't until she reached the level 7 zone that the treehouses disappeared. Clearly, the official players using modern technology and teamwork had only made it this far. She wondered how strong they had become by now.

Rita continued deeper into the forest until she found her target: **The Living Dead**.

**[The Living Dead] (Level 8)**

**HP:** 890/890

They resembled zombies from the movies, creatures Rita had hunted for a long time in her previous life. They were neither fully alive nor fully dead, not even true undead—more like plants in a vegetative state. They were failed resurrection attempts, found only in undead zones. Various races were among their ranks.

Strictly speaking, the undead race itself was made up of different races: undead blood elves, undead trolls, undead goblins, undead tauren, and more. Anyone who died and was willing to give up their original faith to be revived by dark magic could join the undead.

The living dead before her had no trace of its original features. Its limbs were twisted, and bits of flesh hung from its mouth. Rita immediately drew her bow.

Because of the level suppression, despite her stats being equivalent to a level 6 player, her regular attacks only dealt 10 damage per hit—like scraping at the monster's health bar with a spoon.

But while the living dead hit hard, they were incredibly slow.

She used **Ice Flower Seal**, firing an ice-cold snowflake that took 3 seconds to activate. Once it hit, the living dead froze in place. Rita summoned her shadow, directing it to use her shadow bow for consistent damage. When the monster broke free from its frozen state, she had the shadow draw its attention while she kept firing at its weak points from a distance.

Under the onslaught of her various skills, it took nearly 50 arrows to bring the creature down.

Her experience bar jumped by 0.1%—ten times what she had gained from killing spiders!

Of course, the time it took was also ten times longer.

But it wasn't just about numbers. Killing spiders presented no real challenge, offering little to no training value. While she still used her skill-heavy tactics and shadow to kite and control the living dead, what would happen if there were two, or three of them?

In her previous life, she had spent most of her time running, rarely putting herself in situations where she could be surrounded. Her best record had been defeating three White family pursuers at once—men who had been ordered to bring back one of her arms as proof of their mission. She had been severely wounded in that battle, barely surviving after days spent hiding in a sewer.

But beyond training, level 8 monsters like the living dead dropped significantly better loot than spiders.

She bent down, picked up the four copper coins on the ground, and decided this would be her grinding spot for the foreseeable future.

...

At 11 a.m., Rita finished her hunt, eating one of her homemade mana-restoring fried steaks as she headed out of the forest. She had confirmed that she could handle up to three living dead at once without taking any damage. But that still wasn't enough.

She needed better gear and more arrows to train safely and efficiently.

Once at the forest's edge, Rita transformed into the black-and-white cat and made her way into the sewers beneath Undercity, where she transformed back into a goblin. She quickly made her daily batch of three gold coins, changed into her regular clothes, and hurried to the auction house.

With her **Translator Earpiece** on, a blue magical screen appeared in front of her, translating all the information on the auction house's items.

She didn't buy anything too high-end. Good gear would be hard to resell once it became obsolete.

Most players didn't have much money at this stage. Even if an item was worth the price, many simply couldn't afford it.

For now, level 5 green equipment was ideal—cost-effective, easy to sell later, and relatively cheap. A piece could be purchased for less than 1 gold.

Helmets, shoulder pads, chest armor, gloves, belts, pants, boots—excluding necklaces and rings, there were seven main equipment slots.

Rita spent 7 gold and 21 silver on a set of decent green gear, each piece providing at least +5 to Constitution.

In the early stages of the game, a solo player grinding all day would earn around 3 silver coins in pure currency, not counting drops. That meant about 1 gold per month. In her previous life, despite being lucky and hardworking, it had taken her three months to gather a full set of green gear.

Rick had then taken one of her best pieces, a fine-quality pair of boots, under the pretense of trading her for a piece of junk gear.

It turned out those boots were unique, with a hidden letter in the sole that tied into a questline involving the White family. They had been searching for the boots but kept the hunt low-profile to avoid drawing attention from other families. When Rick found out, he swapped the boots from Rita to curry favor with Sanchez.

If it had ended there, Rita wouldn't have hated him so much. After all, she didn't know the boots' true value, just like a person selling an antique without knowing its worth. If someone has the ability to exploit that, that's their skill.