This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

After managing to bluff Rita and put her suspicions to rest, Rick relayed the incident to Zoey.

Zoey had mixed feelings—furious that the thief still lurked in the shadows, but also a bit smug that Rita had been targeted too. However, she didn't mind that Rita suspected her. Having been a victim herself, she completely understood how being stolen from could make you suspect everyone around you.

Recently, it seemed their stats had become so low that they hadn't lost any more attribute points—just equipment. Their precious items remained safe, as they had started using a clever trick: whenever they weren't using important items, they'd list them in the auction house at ridiculously high prices. It acted as a sort of insurance—too high to actually sell, but safe from theft.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The experience of being stolen from had taught them too much.

When Rick and Zoey learned that Rita had lost attribute points after just one dungeon run with them, they immediately invited her for more runs, hoping to work together to catch the culprit.

Rita: *I'll pass, thanks!*

No need to invite bad luck into her life again.

After dealing with Rick and Zoey, Rita went back to her own business—brewing potions, crafting engineering products to sell, attending classes on Rania Kaiya Star, and practicing her cooking. She had plenty to keep her busy.

Lately, her cooking had stabilized with a rating of around 83.

That progress wasn't slow, considering she had only gained the **God of the Culinary Arts** Divine Gift a little over six months ago and had only started learning to cook recently. Once her dish ratings stabilized at 95 or higher, she would have another way to increase her attribute points.

Coupled with the **Sacred Relic** and **Thief God** abilities, she was confident that she could overpower anyone. She even believed that once she fully grew into her power, she would be able to take on the Lopez, White, and Taylor families.

But for now, she wasn't there yet. No matter how powerful a boss you are, you can't defeat hundreds or thousands of players attacking you all at once.

Rita continued improving her strength steadily. She needed to level up quickly to intercept an important opportunity that was meant for Rick.

At the end of this year, the Lopez family would discover a juvenile dragon inside their level-15 instance. At that time, Rick would conveniently have a basic pet contract scroll.

The limitation of this scroll was that it could only tame beasts below level 15. Originally, Rick hadn't been in any rush, but when they first found the young dragon, it was level 14. Half a month later, it reached level 15, and Rick had to act quickly.

At that time, most regular players were only level 6, and even the top 100 on the leaderboard were only around level 10. To capture the dragon before it leveled up further, and to ensure it didn't get handed off to other Lopez family members, Rick and Zoey didn't hesitate.

Although their influence meant the Lopez family couldn't force them to give up the dragon, it still came down to whoever could successfully capture it.

Zoey and Rick gathered their team and recruited several top-ranking players for help.

Rita's plan was to intercept this dragon before they could. The dragon was unique—it harbored deep resentment toward Rick from the very beginning.

Whether it was due to its strong will or its innate pride, the dragon never took out its frustrations on anyone else but Rick. It despised him so much that it would never attack anyone else, not even to vent its anger. If it had, Rita might not have survived her third year in the game.

A dragon's fury was far beyond what a regular player like her could have endured.

Once, Rita had secretly asked the dragon why it didn't attack her. The dragon's reply was simple: it didn't bully the weak. However, whenever Rick spoke to her, the dragon would immediately attack him, despite the fact that hurting its master caused the dragon to suffer twice the damage due to the pet contract. The dragon never hesitated to strike Rick, refusing to submit.

This was because Rick hadn't tamed the dragon through his own power—he had done it through a group effort, and he hadn't even been the primary combatant. Despite his superior magic, Rick had been a coward, hiding in the back the entire time.

The dragon never recognized Rick as its master, so he could never use it as a combat asset. Yet every time Rita and Rick met, he would summon the dragon. At the time, she had thought Rick did it because he knew she liked the dragon and wanted her to see it more often.

Now, Rita understood Rick's true intention: he wanted the dragon to vent its frustration and calm down over time.

When Rita finally escaped from the Lopez family, Rick was still wrestling with the dragon's disobedience. Several months later, Rita discovered that the Lopez family had started selling dragon blood at high prices…

That dragon was most likely treated like a commodity. Though the pet contract couldn't force a dragon to fight for its master—the dragon had endured the contract's backlash rather than obey Rick's orders—the contract still gave Rick control over the dragon, allowing him to keep it in a constant state of sleep.

More importantly, when Rita fled the Lopez family, the dragon, for some unknown reason, had helped her. It used a random teleportation skill to transport her out of the Lopez family's encirclement—and yet, in her foolishness, she had mistaken it as Rick's command to help her.

What an idiot she had been!

This dragon was a must-have for Rita.

Of course, she wouldn't openly compete with Rick and his team for the dragon—that would burn bridges. It would also anger the dragon. To truly tame the dragon, it had to be a one-on-one battle. To avoid any delays, Rita didn't plan on waiting until she reached level 15. If she could contract the dragon earlier, she would.

And she planned to use this opportunity to mess with Rick again.

The most famous pets from her previous life were, of course, Rick's dragon, which ranked first, and a slightly lower-level flood dragon, which ranked second.

That flood dragon had been alive for who knew how long, possessing exceptional intelligence and an overwhelming presence.

Unlike the young dragon, whose violent temperament had developed over time due to resentment—being tamed by someone it despised, constantly rebelling against the contract—the flood dragon was born naturally savage.

Its situation had been similar to the young dragon's. It, too, had been discovered by a faction, and since Rick's dragon was already renowned by then—making headlines globally—everyone wanted a dragon. And a flood dragon? Well, it was close enough!

The faction leader gathered his forces to fight and tame the flood dragon, but the beast had a unique skill: **Reversal**. It played weak during the battle, but at the moment of the contract, it reversed the contract—turning the would-be tamer into *its* pet.

The humiliation that followed was immense, with countless jokes made at the leader's expense. But since a pet's death meant the master's death too, the leader couldn't kill the flood dragon.

Although that particular instance didn't belong to the Lopez family but to another faction, that wasn't a problem for Rita. She had plenty of ways to bait Rick into taking interest. Her goal was to ensure she could become Rick's ally when the time came. She didn't trust Rick's luck. What if the flood dragon's contract reversal failed with Rick, but succeeded with someone else?

She had to follow Rick and curse his luck with a **Luck 1** debuff. If even that didn't prevent the flood dragon from failing its reversal, Rita would step in.

Moreover, based on the current dynamics between Zoey and Rick, it wasn't even clear who would end up with the flood dragon.

This time, during the instance run with Zoey and Rick, Rita had noticed their relationship had changed. Zoey was clearly in charge, with Rick playing a secondary role. While this had been the case on the surface in the previous timeline, back then, the dynamic felt more like a playful power balance between equals.

Now, Zoey was truly the dominant one, and Rick wasn't even eating at the same table anymore, let alone mooching off her wealth with a smug grin.

As a good sister, it was only right for Rita to help Rick out.

Help him find a new master.