This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita, restless like a hyperactive child, put away the **Wrathful Moon** and brought out the **Compass**, caressing it affectionately before kissing it. "You little angel!" she exclaimed.

How was this only an E-rank item? She almost felt indignant on its behalf.

Wanting to keep it close, Rita took the Compass and hung it from her pocket watch chain—she decided it was better to have it outside in case she had missed treasures before.

The Special Affairs Bureau had indeed picked a desolate spot; even though Rita expected that some creatures would adapt to this kind of harsh environment, she was surprised to find there were no significant beings nearby. Wanting to avoid attracting the attention of sea creatures, and thus alerting the other races that humans were in the area, she sought out a jellyfish, touching it to transform herself into a deep-sea creature, though she got stung in the process. Before she even had a chance to use her antidote potion, Nivalis threw an **Expert Medic** spell on her.

Afterward, she took on the form of a jellyfish, positioning herself atop Nivalis's head and allowing herself to be ferried around.

They roamed the vicinity several times, and any creature with enough strength or intelligence sensed the dragon's aura and fled. During these patrols, the Compass glowed a few more times, sending them both eagerly digging—though most of the results were disappointing.

Once they unearthed a level-three green boot, another time just a single coin, and eventually, a beast bone that Nivalis claimed was at most level ten.

Rita toyed with the **Compass**, realizing why it was rated as E-rank: the item, while morally admirable, lacked discernment. It didn't deserve any better rank.

Pulling out the **turtle jade**, she tossed a coin onto it and continued digging under the guidance of the **Compass**. This time, luck was indeed on her side. Occasionally, the Compass would flicker between two different directions, and she followed her instincts to choose which one to dig. The findings were noticeably better—beast bones capable of brewing high-level potions, a small bag of coins, broken blue gear, and even a corpse wearing a ring.

Digging further, to her surprise, she unearthed a "mahjong" tile—**Three Ten-Thousand**.

Unlike the last one, this was marked in Necromancer script, with each stroke resembling bleached bone. It had a jade-like texture, cold as ice to the touch. She placed the newly discovered **Three Ten-Thousand** next to the **Six Circle** that she had stolen from Mistblade, but nothing happened.

Though they had no obvious connection, their similar size and appearance made them feel like a set.

Rita put the new **Three Ten-Thousand** tile and the **Six Circle** tile into a small box and stored it away. If Mistblade carried this item around, even if she couldn't discern its significance, she wouldn't underestimate it.

Six hours later, **Disguise!** finished its cooldown, and she could head into Yaslan City. Rita hesitated briefly before putting the **Compass** back into her bag. If she kept it out and saw it light up—remembering how it once guided her to the **Wrathful Moon**—she knew she couldn't resist searching again.

Digging it up just to find junk would be frustrating, but not searching would make her even more anxious. After all, what if it led her to another A+ or even S-rank item—like, say, a "Melancholy Star" or "Silly Sun"?

In Blue Star, this wasn't an issue. With years of construction, underground treasures had mostly been excavated, and she hadn't seen the **Compass** glow before, which made her eventually ignore it.

But in Lania Kaia... the situation was different. Even without considering how many ownerless treasures were scattered across its lands, whenever she came to Lania Kaia, she already had pressing tasks to deal with. She couldn't afford to waste time seeking out treasure that might interrupt her plans.

It was better to put it away for now. Finding the **Wrathful Moon** alone was already plenty rewarding. In the future, she'd leave it to fate. Like today—luck would guide her when it mattered.

Or perhaps one day, when she had time, she'd boost her luck with the **turtle jade** and spend a whole day treasure hunting underwater.

Rita had always considered her greatest strength to be her restraint. After putting away the **Compass**, she and Nivalis continued toward Yaslan City.

Yaslan City, while the sea monsters' main city, had a third of its area without water, allowing other races to do business and interact. When Rita previously couldn't withstand the deep-sea pressure, she had found a goblin in the dry area to exchange her gold for coins.

Speaking of coins, Rita planned to travel to the remaining major cities over the next few days and trade whatever gold she could. After she dealt with Rick, she'd reveal the method of exchanging gold for coins to the Special Affairs Bureau.
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Her power had reached a point where she was no longer in the most vulnerable, dangerous phase. She didn't need to worry about the Bureau becoming strong enough to become uncontrollable just because they didn't lack coins. She also didn't need to fear that the Bureau would use their money to buy items or skills capable of discovering S-tier talents in the country. It wasn't just because she had the **S-tier pocket watch** for protection—she was confident that, even if the Bureau found out her talent was beyond B-tier or they turned against her for some reason, she could still escape unscathed.

Call her selfish or cold-hearted, but her core principle was always self-preservation before anything else. Her abilities meant she would become a target if discovered, and explaining herself—that most of her stats came from stealing from other races—wouldn't help.

Sometimes having something others lack is enough to make you a target.

Besides, she had indeed targeted Blue Star players like Rick, making her seem ruthless and unfeeling in the eyes of the uninformed.

Initially, she had agreed with the Bureau that she'd tell them the gold-to-coins method in December, a year after the game had invaded. Revealing it ahead of time would not only leave a good impression on the Bureau, but also give her a chance to set some conditions.

She was satisfied with the Bureau's attitude toward her, but this attitude had to be earned through her own calculated efforts—when to compromise, when to push back, when to be generous, and when to feign ignorance.

She hadn't rushed to collect her profits from **Another Happy Day** in part to subtly express her trust in the Bureau, though the main reason was not wanting to make frequent trips to the Bureau for face-to-face transactions—they were a bit too thorough about it.

It was different from her one-on-one dealings with **Shadow.Q**; when dealing with the Bureau, all transactions had to be counted and signed off in person, including signing again after receiving the coins to prove receipt.

The Bureau really did seem full of hidden pitfalls.