This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Ever since the Pet Leaderboard was introduced, Blue Planet had been swept up in a frenzy of searching for dragons and acquiring pet contract scrolls. In the past few days, the auction house had seen a surge in these items.

An entry-level pet contract scroll now cost 888 gold, mid-level doubled at 1,688 gold, and high-level ones were going for 2,888 gold. As for the top-tier special pet contract scrolls, they were priced at around 2,500 gold—a price more outrageous with each level.

Rita couldn't say for sure about the basic scrolls, but as for the mid-level, high-level, and special scrolls—those were definitely being monopolized by the Special Affairs Bureau. They were clearly targeting the wealthy players and organizations.

There was no way current players could loot that many scrolls from dungeons. And as for lone wolves cooperating with the Special Affairs Bureau to travel to Lania Kaia, they simply didn't have enough gold.

Rita hadn't even made it home yet when Rick messaged her, asking if she could get her hands on any pet contract scrolls. Recently, whenever Rick and Zoey wanted to buy any rare items, their first instinct was to ask Rita. Only if she couldn't get them would they turn to other contacts or, as a last resort, approach Shadow.Q.

Why turn down a chance to earn money from her enemies?

Rita replied: **[Rita]: How many do you need? What level?**

Rick: **[Rick]: What's the difference between a basic, mid-level, or high-level pet contract scroll, besides the type of pets they can contract?**

Rita: **[Rita]: As far as I know, no other difference.**

Rick: **[Rick]: How much for basic? I'll take two.**

Rita: **[Rita]: Give me a sec.**

Rita took her time driving home. She wasn't in a rush. Besides, this was her brother—there was no harm in overcharging him a little. After all, if you couldn't profit from your own brother, what were you doing?

She couldn't charge the auction house prices, though. That might scare him off. She still needed to be subtle.

Rita replied: **[Rita]: I can get them for about 799 gold each. Since you're my brother, I'll give you a discount. Let's say 1,595 gold for two.**

Three whole gold coins off. That's what family's worth, right?

Somewhere along the line, Rick had gotten used to Rita asking for commissions, labor fees, and service charges. He chuckled, shaking his head, and passed the price on to Zoey.

Zoey was actually pretty satisfied with the price. She knew Rita wouldn't try to rip them off too much, and this offer was more than fair.

After all, Lopez's estate was currently sending almost all their employees out to grind dungeons for gold. Only the core staff necessary to keep the estate running remained.

Since the game's invasion, many jobs had been streamlined. For instance, transport now required just one person with a large enough in-game inventory instead of multiple workers and machinery. Deliveries could be made instantly through the in-game mail system. Cleaning jobs that once took dozens of workers could now be handled by one person with a cleaning-related Divine Gift.

For most people, C, D, and E-ranked Divine Gifts were the norm. Their daily lives were focused on their jobs and survival. But those with stronger Gifts were doing everything they could to stay ahead of the curve.

Lopez's estate had been hiring people to grind dungeons since the invasion began. These workers were allowed to level up in Lopez's dungeons as long as they turned over 80% of their loot. They were responsible for their own lives, of course. Despite the steep cut, over 10,000 people had signed up.

With round-the-clock dungeon farming, Lopez's estate was pulling in about 35 gold a day in profits, though their expenses were equally high. They had to maintain their elite teams, invest in training skilled professionals, and keep their other businesses afloat despite falling revenues.

Currently, Lopez's treasury had only around 1,300 gold readily available.

Zoey emptied it. She and Rick scraped together the rest to make up for the two scrolls.

Why did Zoey bother to buy a scroll for Rick as well? Simple. With the way things were going, she already considered Rick her subordinate. His Divine Gift was as good as useless, and all the gear and skills they looted from dungeons went to her first.

With Rick having a pet, Zoey would benefit too. Plus, if she didn't spend the money now, it would only go to Theodore Mateo anyway. Might as well use it before he did.

Back home, Rita was in the middle of rummaging through her cats' den when Rick transferred the 1,595 gold.

But instead of accepting it right away, Rita first pulled out two little treasures from the cat den.

**[Wish Pond's Turtle Jade] (Curio): Throw a gold coin onto its shell, and for the next 10 hours, your financial luck will double. Cooldown: 7 days. (Note: Gold coin will disappear upon hitting the shell.)**

**[A Bottle of 50-Year-Old Daughter Red (1,000 ml)] (96 points): This immortal brew restores 2% of HP and mana per second for 5 minutes when drunk. A minimum of 3 ml is required for the effect to take place. Drinking more than 10 ml puts the player in a tipsy state, reducing all stats by 10%.

Drinking more than 50 ml puts the player in a drunken frenzy, increasing all stats by 500% for 5 minutes before forcing the player into unconsciousness for 8 hours.**

Both were valuable. The Daughter Red, especially, was the perfect item for high-risk fights. The only downside was that since Rita hadn't brewed it herself, the effects wouldn't be tripled.

As for the Turtle Jade…

Rita took out a gold coin and threw it hard at the turtle's shell. The instant the coin made contact, it dissolved into the jade, and a golden money bag icon appeared next to her luck stat on her status screen.

Double the financial luck, huh?

Rita was looking forward to this. She put both the Turtle Jade and Daughter Red into her magician's false teeth and continued with her tasks.

After patting all her cats in the backyard, she got to work making a large batch of food.

Nivalis, after fighting for eight hours straight and playing for an entire day and night, was finally tired. After filling up an entire storage crate with dragon dung, she went to sleep.

Once Rita stored all the food in the fridge and backyard, she returned to her room, closed the curtains, turned off the lights, and disguised herself as a goblin. After making her usual three gold coins for the day, she headed back to Lania Kaia.

Her first stop was the auction house, where she sold off all the loot she'd gathered from Nivalis's dungeon. She also put up 500 pounds of dragon dung to see if there'd be any takers.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Then, she searched for basic pet contract scrolls.

Even here, these things were scarce—wait, what? How did the Special Affairs Bureau manage to corner this market too?! Why had the prices gone up?

They used to be 498 gold; now they were 588! Some even listed for 599 gold…

Where was her financial luck? Where?!

Rita yanked out the turtle jade and squeezed it tightly: **"Give me a refund!"**