This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 599 - : What She’s Always Wanted Was Never Much

After sensing the danger, Rita didn't immediately retreat. Instead, she stubbornly moved closer to the alchemy shop, seeking one answer.

Now, she had gotten the answer she wanted.

Even if she couldn't see Apache for a while, and even if she noticed moments of regret flickering in Apache's emotions from time to time, Rita felt a sense of joy.

She didn't dwell on whether that regret was for teaching her or for not leaving a way for them to communicate at any time.

She didn't analyze it because worry and sadness had never disappeared.

When the clock in the alchemy shop struck the hour, the Minotaur clock on the wall rang, and once again, it began telling its usual bad jokes.

It was a gift from Kayden after he fixed it, and Apache hadn't objected.

The jokes were awful, but Rita still found herself chuckling.

That was enough. That was all she needed.

What she wanted had never been much.

Only when her Regular Savings mana had dropped below half did Rita return to the teleportation array, intending to catch a ride with the other players leaving the area.

But when she entered, the number on the array was 5. Now, as she prepared to leave, it had changed to 9.

Rita wasn't someone to charge ahead recklessly, so she immediately pulled out the New Year's Joy cat head and found that it was unusable.

She switched direction, flying to the city walls of Gloom City, noticing the floating "10" over the city gates. She used [Romantic Tourist] towards a distant tree.

Again, there was a deviation, and this time she ended up in a different room. Inside, a group of Lania Kaia 12 alien players stood around, with undead, moon foxes, oak owls, Candle beasts, sea monsters, and elves.

After several attempts with [Romantic Tourist], she finally arrived at her intended destination.

Once she left Gloom City, she quickly used the cat head again, and this time it was available.

She teleported back to BS—to Yas City—then used the teleportation array to head toward Ton Ton Mountain.

She packed the 7 new potions she'd created recently into a small box, all of which were potions she intended to show off to Apache.

She also packed 18 dishes, each at least 2-star delicacies, and the best one was a 4-star dish, which she wanted to share with Apache and Kayden.

In addition, she included a few bottles of Ice Snow Wind Bell wine, which, although brewed over only 300 days and lacking in richness, was made with the formula she had learned in her Brewing class, rated at 99.

Similar to the Ice Snow Wind Bell, it was quite an interesting drink that Apache would surely enjoy.

She packed the potions, dishes, and wines, along with fifty bags of rice she got from rice rack, and slipped in a letter written in oak owl language:

"I've gotten into some trouble outside, so I won't be coming to find you—Ravenclaw."

She packed everything and shipped it off to Apache through the Wind Scythe Quick Run Service.

Then, she immediately left her base, drank a Time Melt potion, changed her disguise, and put Nivalis—now in her small sea horse form—into her pocket. As they walked along Ton Ton Mountain, she and Nivalis used [I Just Want to Improve So Badly] on passing alien players.

Rita also pulled out the top-tier Red Ginseng Liquid she had made a few years ago. She and Nivalis each drank a bottle before starting their work.

Although the skill success rate was still the same—only succeeding about three to four times out of ten attempts, with most of the loot being equipment, items, or money—the efficiency had clearly increased after modifying the skill.

Now, every time she stole attributes, she got 2 points in one go. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

When her bag was full, Rita simply mailed all the equipment she didn't need to Shadow.Q in exchange for gold coins, of course, at the BS market price.

After touring Ton Ton Mountain and exchanging a few main cities, including Minotaurs, Blood Elves, Sea Monsters, and Oak Owls, Rita had no fixed pattern.

At each main city, she used [Romantic Tourist] to mark a house as a sightseeing point, just in case she encountered another situation like in Gloom City.

She realized that [Minesweeper] only triggered when she was near the royal palaces or city lord's palaces. Otherwise, there was no reaction from the skill when she moved about.

Even when she visited shops or auction houses where 100-level alien players were stationed, [Minesweeper] didn't activate.

It was unclear whether this was because the players didn't pose a threat or because there were no traps set for her.

By the end of the day, including the gold she had saved up before, the alchemy gold from Eclipse Vanguard, and some of the gold she had stolen from Black Jade, Rita now had a total of 300,000 gold coins.

She visited the auction house, stocked up on more potions and high-end ingredients, and bought a legendary set of cookware.

It cost 88,000 gold, but the 37-piece set included all the tools she currently needed for cooking.

She also bought a legendary crucible.

Nivalis spent several tens of thousands of gold on engineering materials, using both her previous savings and the gold she had stolen from Black Jade. Initially, she had planned to return the gold to Rita, but Rita told her to keep it for buying engineering materials, which she had now put to use.

Rita asked B8017913 if there was anything it wanted.

B8017913 scanned the auction house's offerings and then politely declined, "There's nothing here that I can use."

Rita didn't press the issue.

After buying what they needed, the sky had already darkened. Nivalis used the cat head to return to Dragon Island, and then Rita was reverse-summoned.

They paid a visit to Holy Cup's North Year and Snow Pile, then went to find Lidian.

Rita was looking to make a profit from Lidian, and Nivalis was there just for the spectacle.

The Ballroom Formalwear had expired when leaving the world battlefield and turned into a Feather. Along with the Feather Pine Bloom had thrown at her earlier, she was now left with two feathers she hadn't dared to take out until now.

But on Dragon Island, it was finally safe to take them out.

Selling them to Lidian not only gave her a small profit but also resolved an invisible problem.

Lidian was at the same old spot on Dragon Island, staring out at the sea of clouds. Upon seeing Rita, she seemed oddly distant, not wanting to acknowledge her but also not wanting to be seen ignoring her.

Rita guessed that Pine Bloom's fanbase might have learned about Rita's kill of Pine Bloom through the battlefield chat. She raised both feathers high and asked, "Want to buy them? Souvenirs."

Lidian's eyes, which had been cold a moment ago, immediately lit up, and she looked at the familiar feathers with a burning gaze, her voice dropping, "How much?"

Rita pulled back her hands, gently stroking the feathers and sighing, "Well, that depends on how much Pine Bloom is worth to you."

Nivalis: "That's so shameless."

B8017913: "That's so shameless."

Rita: "I'm just speaking the truth."

Lidian, though she couldn't hear their group chat, let out a yell identical to theirs, "You've gone too far! You killed Pine Bloom! Now you're extorting her precious things!"

Rita had already prepared over a hundred sales pitches, but they were all shut down by Lidian's words. She stood there, stunned for a moment, her face flashing a rare look of confusion and uncertainty about how to respond.

Nivalis reacted similarly, "sitting" mid-air, awkwardly scratching her tail, and quietly asking Rita, "Precious things? Who's that?"