This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

What terrified Samuel and Scarlett the most was the realization that if the Lopez family discovered Rick's illness, it could spell total disaster for the Wilson family. The once cherished Rick would be loathed by his parents, who might only refrain from hating him as long as they retained any semblance of parental love.

Samuel had already decided that they needed to have another child with Scarlett. Until then, Rita, as their only healthy offspring, was someone they couldn't afford to alienate. In fact, they were even discussing how perfect it would be if Josephine were into men—then they could hand Rick over, using him to help the Lopez family fight against the White family.

That way, Rick could at least redeem himself in some way.

All their plotting was relayed to Rita through the little spider she had left in the Wilson household.

She couldn't help but marvel at the power of the **God of the Culinary Arts** skill that allowed her to deflect all the malice aimed at her onto someone else so seamlessly. It was no wonder the people in her past life had gone insane—this skill transferred the blame so perfectly that no one suspected a thing.

She wasn't worried that Rick would catch on. First, the skill was truly worthy of an SS-rank Divine Gift, deflecting blame with such grace that it created a plausible logical chain, making the transfer of malice seem reasonable. Even if there were slight inconsistencies, the targets wouldn't overthink it.

Second, if Rick ever began to suspect that this was related to his missing skill or that it might involve Rita, his trust score would immediately plummet, and she'd know right away. That day would also mark Rick's end.

...

The statue theft had triggered a new wave of people searching for mutated items across Blue Star.

Indeed, many people found items, and while most tried to conceal identifiable features when posting on forums or social media, the images revealed more than they intended. Plenty of people posted their items one day and got visited the next.

Rita didn't bother joining in the commotion—she was too busy setting traps for the White family.

She considered herself fair. Revenge had to be served evenly. Zoey had lost an ear, Aaron, Ezra, and Julian were like stray dogs, and Rick was already a wreck, struggling with his illness and stats as low as a level-zero player.

But Sanchez had enjoyed a long stretch of good days, which was unfair to Zoey and Rick, wasn't it?

Recently, the White family had been focusing on an opportunity linked to one of their instances.

The instance was a projection of foreign history, but the foreign race inside changed with each reset—new beings would arrive instead of reviving those previously killed. The White family had a level-four instance located at their seaside villa, and among the first group of creatures was a young prince from a minotaur tribe.

At that stage, players wouldn't have recognized the prince, and to them, all foreign creatures were just monsters. In fact, learning it was a prince might have made them even more eager to kill him!

In the previous timeline, Sanchez had personally killed this minotaur prince. However, after the White family killed him, the matter didn't end there. The prince's soul was summoned by a shaman, who saw the prince's final moments through his memories, and then the minotaurs came seeking vengeance.

At that time, every minotaur descending on Blue Star issued a bounty within the instance: whoever brought them a living member of the White family could exchange them for a purple item.

This caused quite a bit of trouble for the White family, but it remained manageable—after all, not many were willing to face a top-10 ranked faction for a single purple item.

It wasn't until the beginning of the second year that a White family traitor revealed the truth. The White family hadn't just killed the prince; they had also taken a sacred relic from his tribe.

Suddenly, the White family was thrust into the spotlight. A purple item was one thing, but a tribe's sacred relic? That was another level entirely.

The White family tried to take the moral high ground, labeling anyone who attacked them as traitors to Blue Star, but no one cared. The whole situation became a joke: *What, if you dare to kill a White family member today, you'll betray Blue Star tomorrow?*

When the stakes were high enough, moral outrage became laughable. From what Rita knew about the Special Affairs Bureau, she suspected that even they had gotten involved back then—not by exchanging White family members for loot, of course, but certainly by showing interest in the relic. With Shadow.Q's nature, they would have been on it the moment they caught wind of it.

Rita had no intention of harming the young prince; she didn't want to reveal her true identity to someone who could summon souls—too risky.

Instead, she planned to infiltrate the instance, steal the relic from the prince, and then leak the news about the minotaur prince inside the White family's instance.

To players, a foreign prince meant rare loot and elite monsters. There was no way the White family would hand over the instance; they would gather all their forces to clear it first.

The level-four instance was just within the White family's reach. Though the White family hadn't rushed to Rania Kaiya Star like the Special Affairs Bureau to level up, they had still entered the game early. Their control over their Divine Gifts and their stockpile of weapons put them ahead of many others.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The White family certainly had the strength to clear a level-four instance, though it would cost them significant resources and carry some risk.

In the previous timeline, the minotaur bounty had appeared in August. This time, Rita planned to bring it forward by three months, waiting until later to reveal the sacred relic's existence.

...

First, Rita used **Phantom Shift** to quietly approach a nearby cattle ranch and find a calf to touch, adding it to her **Animagus** transformation forms. Since obtaining **Animagus**, Los Angeles' bird markets, farms, pet stores, and aquariums had practically become her second, third, and fourth homes.

As for her second and third homes? They were Zoey's and Sanchez's bed frames—too bad she hadn't visited in a while.

Once she confirmed she could transform into a calf, she flew to the White family's seaside villa.

The White family had guards stationed outside every instance, but this wasn't a problem for Rita. She transformed into a bird and flew through a second-story window, quickly locating the instance mirror on the second floor.

Upon passing through the mirror, she found herself in a tent. A gust of wind opened a small gap in the tent, through which she could see a vast grassland and blue skies beyond.

Rita transformed into a cat and sprinted across the grassland for over ten minutes before spotting a cluster of tents—the gathering place of the foreign race.

Just like the instance at the top of her own villa, players could choose not to fight immediately upon entering. They could converse with the foreign race and even accept tasks from their leaders. These tasks usually helped players understand the history of the foreign race, which was often tragic, heroic, or emotional, with the foreign races usually portrayed in a positive light.

But without any enticing rewards, Rita wasn't interested in doing any quests. As she neared the tented area, she ate a healing dish and transformed into a calf, slowly making her way forward.

To the minotaurs, calves were sacred and untouchable.

Each calf was considered an unblessed young minotaur. Rita brazenly walked through the towering three-meter minotaurs, making her way toward the largest tent in the center. There, she finally spotted the most distinct calf—a small minotaur prince standing outside the tent.