This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

"Rick had already been in City B for over two weeks, but he hadn't managed to resolve either Eleanor's situation or Scarlett's pregnancy. On top of that, he'd lost a significant amount of attribute points. Honestly, he wasn't sure what he was doing there—it felt busy, but ultimately pointless.

He'd gained levels through strenuous solo grinding, relying on equipment, skills, and modern weapons, but his attributes were dropping. While others were pretending to be weak to catch enemies off guard, he felt like a mere "vegetable salad"—all greens, nothing else.

The only gain he could think of was a small item he'd obtained from Henry—an eraser (B-rank).

The eraser wasn't especially useful for Henry, but it worked perfectly for Rick because he still had two items Zoey hadn't confiscated from him: a pencil and an electric pencil sharpener. These three items could form a stationery set—a powerful A-rank tool called "What Was I Thinking While Studying?"

With this combination of eraser and pencil, Rick could temporarily alter all the text on his character screen—no illusion, but genuine alteration. It could modify attribute numbers, skill descriptions in his Divine Gift, and even contracts.

Since it was only an A-rank item, the alterations were time-limited, with the duration (in days) equal to Rick's current level. Though it had no cooldown time, he could continue modifying once the time ran out, effectively making the changes continuous.
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Unfortunately, this item also had a usage limit. When the pencil or eraser ran out, the entire set would be useless—unless Rick could find replacements.

Rick hadn't dared use it yet, so he didn't know how quickly the pencil would wear down—whether it behaved like a regular pencil or if it would wear down depending on the amount of information being altered.

The set also had another crucial ability. By writing his name on someone with the pencil, Rick could make that person completely obedient to him for 10 minutes. This duration was affected by the target's intelligence and mental resistance.

It was a fantastic item…

But Rick barely had time to enjoy this A-rank tool before Zoey confiscated it. Every time he got a new item, he had to report it to Zoey. Unless she explicitly allowed him to keep it, he had to turn it in. The price for violating the contract was the deduction of one attribute point, which would be given to Zoey.

If he continued defying the contract after a warning, it would cost him 1% of his maximum health within 24 hours, given to Zoey. If he still didn't comply, another 1% would be deducted every day until he complied.

Of course, Rick could choose to endure the penalties and keep the item, but that would mean falling out with Zoey—and no A-rank item was worth that kind of consequence.

If this tool had allowed permanent modification, Rick might have risked losing attribute points to change his contract with Zoey and simply stay in City B indefinitely.

Aside from the item, Rick's only other gain was the improving relationship he had with the Taylor siblings.

He didn't know who was right or wrong in the Taylor and Wilson families' conflict, but from how the Taylors didn't even know who they'd offended, Rick figured it could only mean two things: either the Wilsons were so aggressive that no one dared mess with them, or the Taylors had done something to make enemies, yet no one cared enough to warn them.

Given the Special Affairs Bureau's reluctance to help the Taylors, Rick leaned towards the latter.

Rick wasn't interested in establishing connections with the Wilsons. When Grandpa was alive, Rick didn't benefit much from them, and now that Grandpa was gone, he definitely wouldn't. Besides, being out in public, Rick represented Zoey. If he dared put himself in a position to be stepped on, Zoey would surely kill him.

Since he didn't intend to deal with the Wilsons, Rick didn't hide things from the Taylor siblings.

He actually suspected the Wilsons were also frustrated, as he had asked Zoey, and apparently, the Wilsons hadn't told her to prevent the Taylors from knowing who was behind their troubles.

Imagine causing all this trouble, yet nobody told the Taylors anything! The Taylors were clueless and went around asking—wasn't it like punching someone and asking, "Do you know who I am?" only to have the other party respond, "I don't know," then start asking random bystanders, "Who is this guy?"

When the Taylor siblings learned from Rick that it was the Wilson family behind it, they weren't confused or upset—they seemed enlightened. That's when Rick realized they knew they had crossed the Wilsons, but never thought much of it.

Rick's kind gesture improved their attitude towards him, but not just because of his information. The key reasons were:

His grandmother was Eleanor.

His sister was Rita.

And his wife was the eldest daughter of the Lopez family from Los Angeles.

He truly was born to live off others.

In any case, Rick got along well with the Taylors privately, though their public interactions remained somewhat restrained.

However, in recent days, Rick noticed that Henry and Camila seemed increasingly irritable. They walked around with long faces, whispering in-game private messages, their expressions marked by disbelief, anger, and a nervous desire to scream—but no confidence to back it up. They kept tilting their heads in circles, seemingly doing neck exercises, but Rick could tell they were thoroughly examining every word on their game interface, as if searching for an in-game support button…or a complaint hotline.

Rick: …Well, it all looked a bit too familiar.

Zoey, Aaron, Ezra, and himself—all of them had gone through this exact phase… the exact process.

He didn't even need to ask. The two of them had clearly been stolen from, just like he had.

Rick silently pulled out his phone and booked a flight for the night of the 13th.

He had to leave. There was no point staying in a place like this.

Before leaving, perhaps out of guilt, or perhaps remembering Zoey's instructions to maintain good relations with the Taylors, Rick told them about the *Magic Spoon* that he couldn't afford. He hinted that if they wanted to earn favor with Eleanor, they could bid on it and give it as a gift.