This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita spent about half a month in JL, occasionally returning to clear out a camp of monsters. One day, she'd wipe out an undead camp, the next, it would be a troll camp. Thanks to her ability to fight higher-level enemies and monopolize the experience, even if she didn't return daily, every time she did, she earned 5-6% of her XP bar.

This rapid progress pushed her to 90% of Level 1, landing her in the top 30 on the leaderboard. The top 29 players were all people whose names could be found on the Special Affairs Bureau's website.

Her leveling speed shocked Shadow.Q, who reached out to probe for more information.

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Would you sell your leveling strategy?"

**[Rita]:** "What kind of relationship do we have? Talking about money is so crass."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Go ahead, tell me."

**[Rita]:** "I think we don't need to talk about money. After all, I consider myself part of the nation, and this sort of talk hurts feelings. Constantly bringing up money is unnecessary."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Check your mail."

Rita opened her mail, casually tossed out a handful of silver coins from her pouch, and accepted the single silver coin Shadow.Q had sent—just enough to prevent Shadow.Q from noticing anything strange by tracking her wealth on the leaderboard.

**[Rita]:** "Spend some money at the auction and buy an AOE skill, then go solo some dungeons. You'd level up fast too."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Give me back my silver coin."

**[Rita]:** "I'm serious. Don't you guys have rocket launchers or something? Clearing out monsters should be quick."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "We tried, but the effect is about the same as a C-rank skill."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

**[Rita]:** "You guys should have better methods than I do for clearing dungeons. Short-term attribute-boosting alchemy potions, buff food, full sets of gear and weapons, landmines everywhere, and an AOE skill. Then just use terrain to your advantage—piece of cake."

She was confident that the Special Affairs Bureau had already experimented with all these methods. Though she relied on her boosted attributes to solo dungeons, the Bureau had access to powerful weapons. The issue wasn't whether they could solo a dungeon—it was that they couldn't concentrate all their resources on just one person.

Discover hidden content at empire

For instance, 90% of the top 100 players were from the Bureau. If they had each of them solo a dungeon, they would level up quickly, but this would also mean only those 90 people could benefit, leaving many dungeons underutilized. And that wasn't how the Special Affairs Bureau operated.

Even though there were estimated to be over a million dungeon portals, only a fraction were for Level 1-2 content, which, given the world's population, wasn't enough.

**[Rita]:** "You're trying to buy my dungeon slot, aren't you?"

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Yes."

**[Rita]:** "That's possible, but it's on my private property. I won't sell the slot, only rent it out, and I'll need to reserve six hours a day for myself. It's a Level 3 dungeon—if you're interested, we can talk terms."

Rita had already thought about renting her dungeon to the Bureau. After all, she'd been using them as a cover story, and since she wasn't in the dungeon 24/7, leaving it idle felt like a waste. The only issue was that she'd been away in J Province, and she didn't want anyone to know she could Phantom Shift. More importantly, she didn't want to approach Shadow.Q directly.

Trusting anyone too much was dangerous, and making herself seem too eager would make her appear cheap. The more active she was, the more demands people would make of her, and before long, they'd expect her to always be first in line with good stuff—otherwise, she'd be labeled unpatriotic.

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Alright! Name your price."

**[Rita]:** "It's a Level 3 dungeon, with 702 monsters in total. Clearing it gives about 2 gold, plus 2-3 pieces of gear. Of course, that's with me modifying my own luck. The dungeon is mine from 7 AM to 7 PM each day. The rest of the time, it's yours."

**[Rita]:** "I don't want gold; I want to select skill crystals from your Bureau. Ten skill crystals per month, tax-free."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Do you know how many years you get for robbery?"

**[Rita]:** "Oh, and by the way, you'll need to build your own access tunnel directly to the dungeon. I don't want strangers walking through my house."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "..."

**[Rita]:** "Alright, fine. I'll throw in one skill crystal as a 'commission' for you. Deal?"

She wondered what kind of image she had in Shadow.Q's mind.

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Three crystals, of my choice. Or, ten, as long as they're B-rank or below."

**[Rita]:** "I'll give you the dungeon from 7 AM to noon. Seven skill crystals, any rank I choose."

**[Shadow.Q]:** "Deal."

Both of them understood each other's negotiation rhythm. It was like a dance—one step forward, one step back, a flick of the wrist, and the deal was done with efficiency.

Rita told Shadow.Q to come by her place on the 18th to finalize the details.

Since she still had a couple of days before returning to Los Angeles, Rita decided to stir up some trouble. She planned to let the White family discover that their office building's dungeon had been farmed by the Lopez family for half a month. Of course, something like this had to be done carefully.

She made a trip to the underground market and found an informant—someone who sold information for a living. This person had been her escape buddy in her previous life, a weasel who was always running from people trying to kill him. Yet, due to his talent for sniffing out secrets, even big shots occasionally needed him, so no one had ever truly killed him off. Rita liked people without scruples.

She paid him 50 silver coins for a simple piece of information: "There's a dungeon at the top floor of such-and-such office building." Knowing how cunning he was, she was confident he'd sell that information to the building's owner and then resell it to others to milk it for as much as possible.

The more people knew, the better she could cover her tracks. Even if the White and Lopez families traced the tip to this informant, they wouldn't suspect any deliberate manipulation. Of course, nothing in life was absolute, but Rita was doing everything she could to make her tracks untraceable.

Information had an expiration date, and Rita was sure the informant wouldn't sit on it too long. Otherwise, if the White family found the dungeon on their own, the information would be worthless. She waited two days before driving back to Los Angeles. On the night of the 18th, she arrived at her villa, immediately flattened her rooftop safe house, and covered it with a wooden cabinet.

She carved a teleportation array to Lania Kaiya Star under her bed, then started sorting through her spoils from J Province in the living room.

She hadn't gone to JL just to avoid trouble—though she had wanted to stay clear of Lopez family drama involving the office building dungeon. Her primary goal had been to purchase an herb.

When the game world merged with reality, many people started panic-selling their businesses, thinking the world had fundamentally changed. One particular business was a health supplement company. When they discovered that none of their products had mutated, they slashed prices, with the boss intending to use the proceeds to buy gear and skills.

Rita was after one of the ingredients this company was dumping—wild **Changbai Mountain Red Ginseng**.

It hadn't mutated, but by boiling 100 grams of red ginseng with half a bottle of healing potion using her cooking skill, it could be transformed into a rare and powerful food item: **Ginseng Essence**.