This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

To be fair, if Rita knew that Rick had some seemingly insignificant treasure that could bring her great benefits, she might have found a way to take it herself. The only difference was that she would have compensated Rick afterward. But Rick wasn't like that—he didn't compensate, and he shifted the blame.

After Rick sold the boots to the White family, their strength in the dungeon increased significantly. Meanwhile, the Lopez and Taylor families held a grudge against her because of it. Rick positioned himself as a protector, making it seem like he shielded her by giving away various benefits to the Lopez and Taylor families to keep her safe.

When Rick explained that the Lopez and Taylor families were mad at her because the boots originally belonged to her, she was dumbfounded. She wanted to shout, *Those boots were Rick's after I traded them to him!* But the fact remained that both families were causing her trouble, and Rick "sacrificed" to protect her.

Rick even said that he had already explained the situation, but Zoey wouldn't let anything happen to him, and the Taylor family, out of respect for Lopez, wouldn't move against him either. Thus, all the trouble fell on her, but he promised to protect her. Rita had been deeply moved at the time.

Looking back now, she just wanted to curse. *If you hadn't told them the boots were mine, they wouldn't have come after me!*

Thinking about Rick and his manipulations soured her good mood.

With a blank expression, Rita went to the weapon shop and bought a special quiver. It didn't offer any special bonuses but could hold up to 999 arrows. After restocking her arrows, she left the city immediately.

Back in the territory of the living dead, Rita was now clad in a black outfit with a faint green glow.

Her gear included a headband that added +5 Constitution, finely crafted leather armor with +7 Constitution, beastskin pants with +7 Constitution, bone shoulder guards with +5 Constitution, a corrupted knight's belt with +3 Constitution, wolfskin gloves with +6 Constitution, and wolfskin boots with +5 Constitution.

This time, Rita was truly terrifyingly strong.

**[Character: Rita (Level 0, 1.583%)]**

- **HP:** 2150/2150

- **MP:** 350/350

- **Strength:** 10

- **Constitution:** 13 (+38)

- **Intelligence:** 15

- **Agility:** 21

- **Luck:** 10

- **Charisma:** 10

She was ready to wreak havoc. As long as the enemy wasn't a boss over level 10, they wouldn't be able to one-shot her. And if she couldn't be one-shot, she could escape.

Rita didn't summon her shadow. Instead, she armed herself with her crossbow and provoked five of the living dead, dodging their attacks while aiming for their weak points.

Within five minutes, Rita was drenched in sweat.

Though the living dead were slow individually, having five of them together posed a real challenge. While their reaction times were sluggish, they retained some of their combat instincts from life. Three of them attacked her head, throat, and heart, while the other two went for her legs. Dodging was possible, but it required quick reflexes—bending, twisting, lifting her legs to evade their strikes.

But dodging while also attacking?

Her crossbow bolt whizzed through the air—missing completely.

A monster swung downward, forcing Rita to block with one hand, brace herself with the other, and twist her body away from the strike.

For a brief moment, Rita wondered if someone passing by would shout, "Stop fighting! If you want to fight, go to the dance studio!"

Everyone was so busy, yet it was unclear what they were really achieving.

Rita could see the red weak spots on the monsters—forehead, throat, chest. Sometimes, as the monsters moved, the red spots would shift to their sides or other parts. But even though she could see the targets and react accordingly, she couldn't find the time to attack. Every time she aimed her crossbow, another attack would come, forcing her to dodge.

Within half an hour, Rita had been scratched more than 20 times.

She could have dodged flawlessly if she focused purely on evasion, but she refused. She pushed herself to remember the days when she was hunted like a dog, deceived and manipulated in her past life.

She wanted to force herself to stay vigilant, to maintain the sense of urgency and crisis that had clung to her since her rebirth—the feeling that a blade was constantly hanging over her head.

Taking the **God of the Culinary Arts** was just the beginning of her revenge, not the end.

---

A week later, an agile figure weaved effortlessly between seven monsters, dodging and evading their attacks. Rita suddenly dashed toward a tree, running up its trunk for a few steps before pushing off. She flipped over the monsters' heads, turning mid-air to shoot three arrows in quick succession, each bolt finding a critical hit—throat, chest, or eyes—triggering devastating critical damage.

Before she even landed, another three bolts were already on their way. She landed in a crouch, back against the tree trunk, and switched to her bow, loosing several more arrows that found their marks.

The monsters, having endured countless critical hits, collapsed almost simultaneously.

Rita glanced at her experience bar and confirmed that it had increased by 0.7%. Satisfied, she moved forward to loot the bodies. Coins littered the ground. She gathered them into a pile, fusing several copper coins into a single silver one. She picked up the silver and the remaining copper coins.

This marked her tenth day in the otherworld. Her experience had now reached 47.21%. At first, she could barely fight back. Then, little by little, she began to counterattack with her crossbow. Now, she was proficient with a bow.

Switching from crossbow to bow had taken her several frustrating days. During that time, she had met the short-haired woman from the treehouse base. The woman had noticed the scratches covering Rita's bow and sat down for a chat.

Though Rita had four major **Divine Gifts**, she never considered herself superior to others. When she realized how familiar the woman was with bows, she shared her struggles in combat. The woman simply asked, "Why are you trying to fully draw the bow every time?"

Rita had wanted to explain that she could easily draw it fully, but then she froze.

She bought the woman a drink.

From that day on, it felt like Rita had an epiphany. Not just with the bow, but in everything. She no longer tried to deal maximum damage with every shot, nor did she make big, exaggerated dodges just to avoid attacks. Yes, such movements were perfectly safe, but they also wasted a lot of energy.

She laughed at herself. With magic, she never chased maximum power, always prioritizing fast-casting spells. She believed that hitting the target was more important than unleashing a powerful attack. Yet, with a bow, she had forgotten that principle.

She had no intention of finding stronger monsters. Her current leveling speed and training conditions were perfect. Tomorrow, she planned to increase the number of monsters to eight.

Recently, Rita had fallen back into an extremely busy routine.

She trained and leveled up during the day, returning to the treehouse base before dark. After dinner, she would lie in her tent, watching alchemy tutorials.

There was also a small trading market among the players, tucked into a corner of the treehouse base. Most transactions were barters. The official base charged exorbitant prices for goods, but they didn't forbid players from trading among themselves.

Rita used a mid-tier engineering-made **Translator** to trade with a **Jewelry Maker** player for a pair of earrings with +3 Agility.

Though it was an early-stage jewelry crafting recipe, the materials were expensive. The cost of upgrading jewelry crafting was far higher than alchemy, as it required all kinds of gemstones.

The earrings had been priced low because the seller didn't want to undersell, but charging too much would make them impossible to sell—after all, few players had all seven of their equipment slots filled at this stage.