This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita laid out a large tablecloth and placed all the food and wine from her bag onto it. Smiling gently, she said to Nivalis, "Eat up~"

Nivalis, already famished, didn't hesitate. She grabbed a piece of meat with her claw and started eating. Seeing Nivalis happily devouring the food, Rita quickly stood up. First, she wiped away Nivalis's name that was written in the dirt. Then, she began collecting the dragon's blood that had been spilled during the battle.

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She carefully gathered the fresh blood from leaves into glass bottles. Dragon blood was an incredibly valuable alchemical material, practically impossible to find on Lania Kaia. Any blood that had soaked into the soil or solidified on the leaves, she scraped up along with the dirt and stored it in containers.

Though these might not be usable for alchemy, they could still be sold for a fortune or used to gain favor with the government.

As Rita continued her search behind Nivalis's lair, she stumbled upon a small mountain of dragon dung. Without hesitation, she pulled out her storage box and a shovel, eagerly collecting the dung. This stuff was a treasure!

Even if she couldn't sell it on Lania Kaia, she was sure Shadow.Q would buy it. Not only that, she could imagine Shadow.Q praising it with something like, "Ah, true dragon dung—smells great!"

Nivalis, watching all this, wasn't upset. Rita had earned this victory, and to Nivalis, these were just spoils of war. However, when she saw Rita shoveling dragon dung, Nivalis fell silent for a moment. It seemed this human really admired her… or had a strange fascination. Unable to hold back, Nivalis said, "If you like, I can give you all of it in the future. Fresh or dry, whatever you prefer."

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Rita paused mid-shovel and smiled back at Nivalis, "Thanks, dry will do."

Nivalis: "What about the shape? Do you prefer…"

Rita hurriedly interrupted, "Anything! Really, anything is fine! Just eat your meal. You must be starving!" *Please stop talking before I beg you!*

Nivalis: *She cares about me.*

As she shoveled dragon dung, Rita opened her chat panel and began browsing through the messages.

At that moment, the chat channels were moving faster than they had on February 22nd, the day of the game invasion. The global, national, and regional channels were all abuzz, talking about Rita and her dragon.

*A dragon!*

The world channel was filled with all kinds of languages, making her eyes hurt, so Rita switched to the national channel.

**[National]**

- "How did she manage to make a level 14 dragon her pet? She's only level 7, right?"

- "She's been inactive for a while, even dropped down to 87th place. Then last night her experience skyrocketed—she jumped back to the top three. Didn't anyone notice?"

- "Did she find a dragon lair? Can we all have a dragon too?!"

- "Look at the dragon's avatar! It's a light blue dragon, so beautiful, like a gemstone!"

- "Wait, how did she find a dragon? Can dragons even be contracted? If so, can I contract a blood elf? I want to be stepped on by a blood elf!"

- "Ahhh, I want a dragon too! I want to be a dragon rider!"

- "Sis! Do a meet-and-greet! One silver coin to shake the dragon's claw, two for a photo, and three for a signed autograph. I guarantee you'll be top three on the wealth leaderboard!"

- "Yeah, yeah, make the dragon a star! Right now! Immediately!"

- "What's a pet contract? Where do you get one?"

With her increased intelligence, agility, and reflexes, Rita's brain quickly processed all the scrolling messages. One particular message caught her attention. She immediately listed the basic pet contract scroll she had bought in Lania Kaia for 498 gold on the auction house, now priced at 588 gold, anonymously.

Given the impact her dragon was making, she was certain someone would buy it. Sure enough, within minutes, someone snapped it up at the full price, likely a faction eager to get their hands on it.

Rita sighed as she made a modest 90 gold profit.

- "Someone just listed a pet contract scroll on the auction house—it was gone in seconds..."

- "Rita! My beautiful ex-wife!"

- "It was gone in two minutes! I was still trying to gather funds!"

- "Maybe it's some sort of special encounter, like she found a dragon on the brink of death."

- "Wait, Rita got married? You're her husband?"

- "A level 14 dragon must be in a level 13+ dungeon, right? Who has access to high-level dungeons? Let's team up and explore!"

- "…She didn't get married... That's just fan talk because she used to be a celebrity. Then she retired, so fans call her their 'ex-wife.'"

- "What? Who's her husband?"

- "Does she have kids?"

- "Wait, she got married?!"

- "Is her husband in the industry? Do the kids live with her or him?"

- "Boy or girl? Whose last name did they take?"

Rita: "..."

She quickly switched over to the **Los Angeles** channel.

- "Wow, the light of LA!"

- "It would be great if she could share how she got a pet—think of how many people she could help."

- "Here we go again, trying to guilt people with morality. This doesn't work anymore—people tend to push back against it now."

- "Yeah, seriously, this is 2024. How many leaderboard players do you see helping out ordinary players?"

- "Just throw out the guilt and see if it sticks—who knows, maybe it'll work."

- "Might as well! Cast the net, maybe it'll catch something."

- "She's the only one on the pet list..."

- "Do you think she'd sell her dragon? Would a hundred billion be enough?"

- "I'll offer 150 billion. Can I buy one?"

- "I'll offer 200 billion."

- "If I divorce my wife and pursue her now, is there still time?"

- "She'll probably have her dragon beat the crap out of you."

Rita chuckled at the chaotic chat before finally opening her private messages.

She first checked Shadow.Q's message.

**[Shadow.Q]**: ∠(°ゝ°)! Sis, need a human pet?

**[Rita]**: Speak properly, I'm busy.

**[Shadow.Q]**: Selling the dungeon location? How much?

Shadow.Q knew better than to ask if Rita was selling the dragon itself. She was smart and went straight for the dungeon location, planning to send the government in after the next dungeon refresh to claim any future dragons.

In her past life, Lopez's family had heavily guarded this dungeon. Even after Rick contracted the dragon, Rita had never been there. She wasn't sure what appeared in the dungeon after the dragon was taken, but it definitely wasn't another dragon—otherwise, Zoey would have gotten one too.

Just to be sure, Rita turned to Nivalis, who was currently chugging wine straight from a bottle. "After I take you out of here, will a new dragon appear when the dungeon refreshes?"

Nivalis let out a loud roar in response. "No! There aren't many dragons left. The 12 Holy Races forced us to send one dragon to Blue Star for the war. We only gave up one because we had no choice. As long as I'm alive, no other dragon will come here."

Rita breathed a sigh of relief. She still planned to check the dungeon herself after leaving with Nivalis, but she had no intention of selling the location to Shadow.Q.

As she'd said before: she couldn't trust anyone. This was Lopez's dungeon, and if word leaked out, it could spell disaster.

**[Rita]**: Next time, maybe. Not this time.

**[Shadow.Q]**: Fair enough.

Rita appreciated Shadow.Q's straightforwardness. They could banter and tease all day, but when Rita gave a serious refusal, Shadow.Q never pushed.