This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita didn't yet know about Rick's latest moves, but even without that knowledge, she would never underestimate him.

She truly intended to help the Jones family as she promised. After all, why not make some money? It was just a middleman job, after all.

After gouging out Aaron's eyes, their past grudges were settled. Rita had no habit of exterminating entire families—her main enemies were always Rick, Zoey, Sanchez, Camila Taylor, Henry Taylor, and the Lopez, White, and Taylor families, as well as anyone who had wronged her.

Thinking about it, she realized her list of enemies was getting pretty long, almost like reciting a menu.

But she didn't plan on harming the Jones family further. Her philosophy was simple: return grievance for grievance, revenge for revenge. While she wouldn't let Rick and the others die easily, she'd only make the lives of those who didn't deserve death miserable.

Rita touched her forehead, half expecting a Buddha-like red mark to appear there. "I'm too kind," she mused.

She stood in her backyard, gazing at the silver-white full moon in the sky. She had thought she would be excited or thrilled when this day arrived, but now that it had, her heart was as calm as still water.

The full moon slowly began to show intricate red markings, which quickly spread across its surface.

She glanced at her phone to check the time: 2:21. A moment later, the "1" flickered and became a "2."

Rita silently counted down in her mind, reaching 22 seconds.

At that precise moment, a mechanical voice echoed in her mind:

**[Ding—]**

**[The game "Star Ocean: Rift of the Beasts" is officially live.]**

**[Server "Earth" has connected successfully.]**

**[Server "Lania Kaia" has connected successfully.]**

**[Welcome, players, to "Star Ocean: Rift of the Beasts." Each player will draw their unique Divine Gift.]**

**[Detected: Player already possesses Divine Gifts: ＜Thief God＞ ＜Immortal＞ ＜God of the Culinary Arts＞ ＜Master

**[Character panel function is now fully enabled.]**

**[Chat channels are now enabled.]**

**[Auction House is now enabled.]**

**[Achievements are now enabled.]**

**[Map function is now enabled.]**

**[Team function is now enabled.]**

**[Dungeon function is now enabled.]**

**[Mail function is now enabled.]**

**[Detected: Player has leveled up, leaderboard is now enabled.]**

**[Ding— Player Rita has entered the top 10 of the wealth leaderboard. Would you like to conceal your information?]**

**[Yes/No]**

Rita swiftly navigated through the long list of prompts and selected **Yes**.

Once the system came online, everyone's **ID** was their real-world name, according to the registry. If someone didn't have an ID card, the game would default to the name they were most commonly called.

She opened her character panel again. Now that it was fully activated, she saw not only her primary attributes—Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Agility—but also the grayed-out advanced magical attributes, such as Crit Rate, Crit Damage, Movement Speed, Accuracy, Evasion, Cooldown Reduction, and Health Regeneration, among many others.

These stats couldn't be leveled up directly but could be enhanced through magical equipment bonuses.

The light blue panel had a new menu in the bottom right corner. Clicking on it revealed options such as **Team**, **Chat Channel**, **Auction House**, **Leaderboard**, and **Achievements**.

She opened the **Chat Channel**, shrinking her character panel. The chat screen expanded.

In the bottom left, she could toggle between different channels. She switched to **World Channel**, where messages in various languages filled the screen, but they were so numerous and fast that they distorted, almost like some kind of visual noise.

She switched to **China**, but it was equally chaotic, with messages flashing too quickly to read.

She then switched to **Los Angeles**, where the speed was the same. The sheer number of players from China was overwhelming.

Finally, she switched to **Nearby**.

**[Happy Scarlett]: Hi? Is anyone there? Is everyone asleep?**

Rita: "..."

Experience more on empire

She closed the chat, deciding not to bother with it for now.

Rita checked on her teleportation setup to Lania Kaia and confirmed it was still functioning, easing her mind. Then she picked up the cat bed on the ground, smiling before she even touched it. She could already see the faint red glow coming from the bed, the same color as the magical patterns on the moon.

**[Meow Meow Hostel] (S-rank): Place at your doorstep, and it has a chance to attract stray animals. If you sincerely host them, they will leave behind a treasured item as a token of gratitude.**

She placed the cat bed deeper inside the cat mansion. While it could be bound with a **Binding Stone**, doing so would make it unusable by anyone but her. Since the bed only worked when cats used it, Rita had to leave it in place for now, using it only when she was home. When she left, she'd take it with her, ensuring the hostel would always be open for business.

Rita walked up to the second-floor glass room, where various items were scattered on the floor—guns, antiques, iron pots, durian shells, and even the toppled-over statue she had recently acquired. She wasn't sure what triggered the mutation process, but she had laid everything out to ensure they were exposed to the magical energy released during the invasion.

Just looking at the **Meow Meow Hostel** was proof enough that transformation could happen in an instant. Either it happened, or it didn't.

To be thorough, she activated **Insight** and began sorting through the items, putting those that displayed magical properties into her in-game inventory. The ordinary weapons that didn't mutate were tossed into a nearby storage box.

With that done, she opened her safe room door. In the corner stood an oval-shaped light screen, about two meters tall. The light was a pale purple, indicating the dungeon's level was below 10.

"Good, there's a dungeon now."

Satisfied that everything was in order, Rita hummed a little tune as she headed downstairs. Samuel and Scarlett were probably on their way.

While waiting, she decided to check on the item she was most excited about: the Desert Eagle pistols from the meteorite desert.

**[Embers] (Legendary)**

*"Every bullet fired from this weapon gleams like a falling meteor."*

**[Stat Bonuses]:** Agility +67┃Constitution +21┃Strength +14

**[Magic Properties]:** +18% Crit Damage┃+15% Skill Damage

**[Legendary Skill] Unrelenting Fury:** For 1 minute, all bullets will be infused with burning rage, adding +55% fire damage. Cooldown: 3 minutes.

**[Requirements]:** Agility >85┃Strength >37

The other Desert Eagle was nearly identical, except the second magical property was +15% Movement Speed instead of Skill Damage.

What Rita liked most wasn't the stats but the **requirements**: pure attribute-based requirements with no level restriction!

For her, that was the most valuable aspect of these guns. It meant she could use them as long as her attributes were high enough.

Given that the average starting attribute for most players was 7, these guns effectively had an implicit level requirement of around 21. But with the right gear, she could lower that requirement even further.

And Rita had no shortage of ways to meet those attribute requirements.

Without hesitation, she bound the guns to herself using a **Binding Stone** and stored them in her **Magician's Fake Tooth** for safekeeping.

These would be her most precious gear in the near future, and she estimated she could equip them well before reaching level 10.

A legendary item of this caliber with such low requirements would fetch thousands of gold in the Auction House, but why bother? Instead of buying expensive gear, she'd rather save her money for skills or professional formulas. Besides, finding such treasures in the real world was like hitting the jackpot.