This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita only slept for six hours. As soon as her disguise skill's cooldown ended, she was up, swiftly getting ready. She crawled under the bed, moving like a seasoned soldier as she expertly maneuvered herself forward.

Nivalis was still sound asleep, and Rita had no intention of pushing her to work harder. Dragons grew stronger simply by eating and sleeping, so why force her to do something she didn't want to? It would only risk damaging their bond and wasn't worth it. Besides, Nivalis enjoyed sparring games with Rita, which served Rita's training needs just fine.

Recently, during their sparring sessions, Nivalis had gotten much better at dodging. Following Rita's advice, she could now adjust her size to avoid attacks if flying away wasn't fast enough. Although lazy at times, Nivalis wasn't stupid. Rita couldn't always keep the upper hand like before, and she even had to use a few tactics to ensure her strikes landed.

The moment Rita used her teleportation skill, she transformed into a deep-sea fish she'd encountered in Lania Kaia's underwater regions.

In the next second, the small fish appeared in the volcanic fissure teleportation array at the Lania Kaia seabed. With a flick of her tail, Rita swam away, even passing by the Special Affairs Bureau's outpost in S City. She noticed that it was even more concealed than the last time she'd seen it.

If she hadn't been there during its construction, she might not have even noticed it. The outpost had only a faint light, with a large boulder placed strategically to hide it. The light came from a small underwater plant growing on the rock.

Rita swam closer and noticed the transparent dome that could alter the surroundings was just big enough to cover the boulder, allowing only a narrow half-meter space around it. Most likely, as with the previous treehouse outpost, the main area was inside the rock itself, and players could reach Yaslan City from there in their own ways. There were plenty of high-level monsters along the route, so Rita was curious about how the Bureau would manage to evade them.

Not wanting to linger, Rita moved on to trade gold for coins with the goblins.

There weren't many main cities left for her to visit, as she'd already exchanged coins on her past trips. Today, she was just tying up loose ends. After the Special Affairs Bureau entered the market, this channel would likely be much harder to access.

In less than half an hour, Rita finished her remaining trades. The mysterious goblin **"Kabi"** had disappeared from the goblin coin market for over six months, causing quite a stir among goblins who hadn't made exchanges and now felt they'd missed out. Now, with Kabi's return, the mere mention of exchanging gold for coins had the goblins swarming around her, even those who'd previously exchanged but regretted not trading more. Without much convincing, they were eager to trade again.

As she handed out gold, Rita declared, "I told you before—I wasn't lying. You've really made a fortune with this trade. I'm practically losing money just to make friends with you all!"

"Losing money? Really?"

"Isn't it true? Goblins don't trick goblins! Any goblin who tricks another goblin should be cursed to be chased by Mistblade… or Shadow Emperor!"

"Kabi, you're the most honest and brave goblin I've ever met!"

The goblins cheered, surrounding Rita, who was fully immersed in the joy of "harvesting." It hadn't been that long since her last visit, but these goblins had already amassed wealth again! She decided to make another round through the 36 main cities.

When her disguise skill's cooldown activated again, she simply used a **[Melted Time]** potion to reset it.

The goblins were so enthusiastic that by the end, Rita didn't even have to advertise. The ones who had previously traded with her eagerly helped spread the word.

Within six hours, Rita had finished her tour of all 36 main cities.

When she'd left that morning, she had 54,972 coins. Now, she had 79,215 coins.

Standing outside Polar Day City, **Kabi the Tycoon** felt a strange sense of emptiness. "How am I supposed to spend all this money? I can't even think of ways to spend it all!"

Checking her disguise timer, she saw she had 27 minutes left.

She didn't want to waste the time she'd bought with the potion, and she was only 800 coins away from breaking the 80,000 mark. It felt essential to hit that milestone!

A return trip to Yaslan City would only take her a few minutes, and by her calculations, she'd have around 20 minutes left to spend in Lania Kaia.

Rita decided to visit one of the small islands near Polar Day City, hoping to find more goblins. Once the Special Affairs Bureau fully entered Lania Kaia, it would be difficult to conduct this type of large-scale exchange.

Polar Day City, Polar Night City, and Four Seasons City were all sky islands, surrounded by thousands of smaller floating islands. To travel between islands, people used flight mounts bred by the Oak Owls, though the starting fare was one silver coin.

She couldn't shapeshift into another animal to get there, as that would cancel her disguise skill and put it back on cooldown.

In the past, this would have been an inconvenience, but with her **Orbit** skill, Rita no longer had such concerns.

She took out her **Wrathful Moon** lantern, glanced at her outfit, and tucked the lantern securely inside her loose robe, wrapping her necklace with her pocket watch around it for extra security. "I swear, I'm carrying so much around my neck, I'll end up with neck pain."

With her anchor set, Rita flew toward the nearest island to Polar Day Island.

Once she reached the island, she put away the lantern and headed straight for the goblin-style building.

Fifteen minutes later, Rita walked out of an engineering shop, thoroughly satisfied.

"81,688 coins—such a lucky number!"

As she passed a general store, she casually glanced inside and spotted a ragged-looking beastman selling something to the Oak Owl shopkeeper. To her surprise, it was a **bone tile**, and she could see the bone-like inscription on it—**Wan**!

Rita immediately ran over. The transaction was already at a critical stage.

She finally got a clear look at the tile's inscription—**4 Wan**!

She didn't know much about mahjong, but she did know poker. Mahjong wouldn't have odd and even numbers jumping around, right?

Maybe if she could collect a sequence, she'd figure out its purpose.

Rita decided to study mahjong rules a bit after returning. Continue reading on empire

The beastman pleaded with the shopkeeper, "Can't you offer a bit more? I need to buy some potions. I know this tile's origins are mysterious!"

The Oak Owl shopkeeper placed the tile back on the counter, looking indifferent. "I can't determine its origin. Five coins, no more."

Seeing the beastman's hesitation as he prepared to hand over the tile, Rita didn't bother reading the shopkeeper's **Divine Gift**. She raised her hand and shouted, "I'll pay 50 coins!"

With that shout, she made her 50-coin offer sound like a billion.