This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita had never heard such a sarcastic "sigh" before, and it made her bristle. "…Come on! You caught me off guard! If you'd waved a tissue in front of me, I would've looked too, alright?"

Nivalis hesitated for a moment, considering that this human had defeated her in a fair fight. She bowed her head and continued gnawing on her chicken wing. But she couldn't help herself—she took another bite and let out her own "sigh."

"…Fine. You two win." Rita gritted her teeth. "I don't need that little bit of money."

Alright, that was the truth.

With that, the conversation about Nivalis becoming a "celebrity dragon" naturally faded away. The Special Affairs Bureau was always careful in how they approached powerful independents like Rita. Whether it was negotiations or business transactions, they paid close attention to the other party's preferences.

For example, they knew Rita didn't like being tied to factions or involved in internal power struggles, so they let Shadow.Q handle all her dealings, while Asher was assigned to deal with others.

Rita wasn't mad at these subtle maneuvers by the Special Affairs Bureau. If they weren't capable of such tactics, if they were just an overly righteous, naive organization, that would've been far more concerning.

Plus, everything was done in the open. No one had ever tried to force her into anything.

After two hours of dining, Nivalis and the three cats were full to the brim. Before they left, Rita managed to sell Shadow.Q 100 pounds of dragon dung.

Shadow.Q didn't even blink as she paid 5 silver coins per pound, completing the full payment for 100 pounds of dragon dung at the age of 28.

Patting the box full of dragon dung, Shadow.Q proudly declared, "This dragon dung smells incredible!"

Rita: "…" I knew it.

As Rita, Nivalis, and the three cats drove away, Shadow.Q sent a report to her work group, noting that the negotiation had failed.

"Did you get a read on the dragon's Divine Gift?"

"Ice Throne, SS-rank, but I couldn't get a detailed list of skills. When I tried to analyze it with a tool, my A-rank item broke."

She removed the chain-shaped earring from her ear and gently rubbed the broken piece between her fingers. Frost clung to the chain, slowly melting.

Hopefully, the Bureau's repair specialist was back.

"Did they refuse because they weren't satisfied with the offer?"

"No, they were worried about potential public pressure and moral expectations."

"Smart kid… Do you think the dragon listens to her?"

"They seem to have a good relationship—mutual respect and equality. With Rita's methods and her attitude toward the dragon, I think Nivalis will definitely be a huge asset for her in the future."

"Alright, keep monitoring. Increase Rita's clearance level. Let her feel our sincerity, but don't push her into anything she doesn't want to do."

"Understood."

Rita pushed Shadow.Q to the back of her mind as she drove home. After unloading Nivalis' new games and restocking the snack area, she set out on her next task: finding the flood dragon.

She didn't know exactly which dungeon the dragon resided in, only that it belonged to a certain faction.

She'd have to find it step by step…

But just as she was leaving, she received an email with an attachment. Initially, she thought it was a deposit from a customer. If she had the item in stock, she could ship it out immediately, but if not, she'd have to rush back and make it later.

To her surprise, the sender was none other than her "old friend"—Julian.

The attachment was 1 gold coin.

"Rita! Can you help us out? Aaron and Ezra's people are chasing us down, and we can't reach Rick. Can you ask him to step in? As brothers, he should help us out and negotiate with them. We really didn't expect things to escalate this far.

We'll leave Los Angeles and never come back if he helps us."

Rita: Six out of ten.

Rita accepted the coin and immediately forwarded the email to Rick.

For the sake of that gold coin, that's all she could do.

Funny thing is, Rick would never help Julian. If anything, he might even send Lopez's people to assist Aaron and Ezra in chasing Julian down before he could escape Los Angeles.

…

In her past life, the person who was tricked by the flood dragon was the leader of a guild called "Nameless." The guild was made up of uncles and aunties in their fifties, and they had a good reputation.

The uncles weren't sleazy, they didn't hit on or harass young women, and the aunties were kind, often looking out for younger players during dungeon runs. They might have brought up annoying topics like marriage and kids, but they never bullied anyone. If you were wronged in one of their dungeons, you could complain to them, and they would handle it fairly, regardless of age, gender, or rank.

These people had been friends for decades, and even when the guild leader became enslaved by the flood dragon, only about 10% of the members left.

The rest stayed behind, standing by their leader's side.

They managed to appease the dragon with their meticulous care, though it wasn't because the dragon was easy to handle. Quite the opposite—the flood dragon, who had lived for an unknown number of years, was extremely cunning.

Even before it made a contract with the human, the dragon could leave the dungeon and enter Earth whenever it wanted. It had simply been waiting—waiting for a human with status, power, and influence, someone no one would dare touch, to seek it out.

After leaving the dungeon, the dragon didn't immediately start eating people. Whether it was members of "Nameless" or other players who came to bother the dragon, it injured but didn't kill them.

Under these circumstances, even though the dragon was volatile and often vented its frustrations by tormenting the guild members, they tolerated it. They were willing to sacrifice their dignity as long as they weren't labeled criminals for bringing a dangerous dragon into the world.

The government didn't intervene either. The dragon was living in the city center, refusing to move. Any attempt to eliminate it would result in heavy casualties. Since the dragon hadn't killed anyone and there was no guarantee they could quickly take it down, the authorities stayed out of it.

Plus, the dragon's life was tied to the leader of a major guild. Although most player-created guilds were still small at that time, "Nameless" was already well-known. This group of wealthy middle-aged players owned over 90 dungeon portals, often renting them out to other players.

If the guild didn't ask for help, the government couldn't risk getting involved and looking bad in the eyes of the public.

It was said that the dragon would even help the guild clear dungeons when it was in a good mood.

But in reality, the flood dragon was observing everything about Earth. It helped with dungeon raids just to level up. Most of the experience points were taken by the dragon.

Once the dragon hit level 16, it began secretly eating the guild members, targeting those with strong Divine Gifts—valuable power sources for it. It continued feasting for nearly half a year before anyone caught on.

When it was discovered, the dragon went on a rampage, devouring nearly 80% of the guild before fleeing into a level 20 dungeon and disappearing.

How could Rita not leave this "treasure" for Rick and Lopez's family to deal with? It would be a bonus to save all those nice uncles and aunties.

She briefly considered whether to give it to the Lopez family, the White family, or the Taylor family.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Too many enemies, not enough dirty tricks—it's a struggle.

In the end, though, such a powerful creature had to go to Rick. The best things should always be left for the most hated people.

After all, she was a dedicated sibling—always looking out for her brother, no matter how much she despised him.