This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita was also feeling a headache. She hadn't expected Eclipse Vanguard to be unable to provide any S-level skills...

Her baseline was at least 7 bottles for one S-level skill. That was already a huge discount for Eclipse Vanguard, which equated to a potion worth 1,400 gold in exchange for an S-level skill.

Even if Eclipse Vanguard spent a little time at Lania Kaia's auction house, sniping the S-level skills priced at 10,000 gold each, they'd make a net profit. Though S-level skills weren't always available, it was hard to believe that Eclipse Vanguard couldn't gather the resources for it. Wasn't this bullying?

Shadow.Q seriously conveyed Eclipse Vanguard's message:

"We really can't offer more S-level skills. Gold is also running short. Although Eclipse Vanguard gets a lot of gold daily, we also need it for buying materials, skills, and equipment to arm our players."

Rita stayed silent for a long while. Her expression shifted from confusion and dissatisfaction to calm, and finally, with certainty, she said, "No, you're testing my bottom line."

She stared intensely at Shadow.Q, as if looking past her to the higher-ups of Eclipse Vanguard, like Avery:

"You're testing whether I'll make concessions for the greater good, whether I'll sacrifice for BS, and how much I value the special Mahjong. How much I'm willing to give for it!"

Shadow.Q didn't respond immediately, calmly sipping her coffee, as though she wasn't taking the words to heart.

Rita continued, "You can't provide S-level skills, nor can you spend the gold to acquire them. You could have offered just 50 bottles or even 10 bottles, but you insist on asking for 100, and then you throw in the… special Mahjong."

She sighed heavily, unable to express whether she was more disappointed or frustrated with Eclipse Vanguard.

Logically speaking, as the current number one power, the more cunning Eclipse Vanguard became, the more stable BS would be. She no longer feared that BS would fall into internal strife and collapse, like in her past life.

She viewed Eclipse Vanguard as an ally—an ally with more schemes than lotus roots was better than one who was naive and easily deceived. Naive allies were sometimes akin to "deadweight."

But emotionally, she felt disappointed... She, the great heroine, was trying to make a deal with you, and yet you're playing tricks!

Rita slammed the table: "I'm not selling anymore!!"

Shadow.Q immediately softened her tone, quickly saying, "Let me stay a little longer, just a bit more... maybe have lunch here... Nivalis, Nivalis, can you get me something to eat?"

Rita, still fuming, took out some dishes and a large bowl of rice from her bag. She hadn't eaten yet, though she turned off the Food God's buff effect.

Nivalis placed the dishes and utensils on the table, grabbing a couple of bottles of iced cola and shaking her head with a few "tsk tsk" sounds: "Looks like this deal's going south."

Shadow.Q wasn't embarrassed at all: "I already voted against it."

Rita smirked: "Is your leadership that free?"

Shadow.Q: "Not at all. We spend most of our time either raiding dungeons or having meetings."

Rita silently gave her a thumbs-up: "Looks like your workload isn't quite saturated."

Shadow.Q, who hadn't had a proper day off recently: "…"

Despite the tension, when Shadow.Q left, Rita still sold 52 bottles of [This Skill I Don't Like I] to Eclipse Vanguard, earning 20,000 gold—an easy 200 gold profit on the side. She was already sitting at the top of the wealth rankings, so a little extra didn't matter.

She casually stowed the gold in her bag, her smile shining with wealth.

When Shadow.Q handed over the payment and waited, Rita made no move to complete the deal. Shadow.Q had to ask after a while: "Where's the goods?"

Rita nonchalantly responded, "Still not ready."

She hadn't even had the chance to buy materials yet—after meeting her wild wallet, she had returned home. The sample potions were still at Apache's alchemy shop.

Shadow.Q: "Are you blushing?"

Rita touched her slightly warm cheek: "I think I might have caught a cold."

Nivalis reached out and checked: "Ah, you're a little hot... Let's go get some medicine."

One person, one dragon, left Shadow.Q behind and walked off.

Shadow.Q had no choice but to shout after them: "...Send the goods to my inbox when you're done!"

From behind the Thunder Net, Rita's voice came back: "Got it."

Half a month after the transaction, Rita had been busy. She managed to ship all the potions owed to Eclipse Vanguard by the last day of March.

Then it was the usual—activating her wings, practicing [Cheers], studying potions and gemstones.

Between March 15th and May 15th, 61 days passed. Coincidentally, the game time for [Kart Racing] was only 12 hours, and she went there and back on the same day.

In other words, unless she wanted to lose her qualification, she had to participate in the Divine Game on May 1st. She planned to head to another world on April 25th, leaving nearly six days to collect data or steal attributes, which wasn't a waste of time.

Rita was busy, and so was Nivalis, who was enjoying her time racing cars. With various strange divine talents, the racecourse near their villa was built in just three days. Nivalis's three cars were delivered, along with five small karts from Eclipse Vanguard.

Though Eclipse Vanguard had schemes, they weren't exactly stingy.

After receiving 52 bottles of [This Skill I Don't Like I], Eclipse Vanguard sent over 10,000 gold to buy 5 bottles of [This Skill I Don't Like II]. Seeing the extra value from the karts and potions, Rita didn't push the issue too much. Money was money.

However, she took the opportunity to discuss another matter with Eclipse Vanguard.

On the 28th, she wanted to use the arena to explore other worlds. She needed Eclipse Vanguard's team to assist.

She couldn't just sit idly by and let the Beast BOSS arrive in BS.

Shadow.Q: "Can you come back?"

Rita: "I can."

Shadow.Q: "Are there level requirements for the dungeon?"

Rita: "None."

Shadow.Q: "Okay, Eclipse Vanguard's friend, rest assured. We'll handle this small matter for you!"

Rita: "What if I can't come back? Or if I need to open a level 15 dungeon?"

Shadow.Q: "Then I'll pretend I didn't hear anything."

Rita: "…"

On the night of April 24th, Rita looked at her skill panel, seeing the A-grade [Cheers] skill. Her mood lifted, and the pain from her Orange-Red Light Wings faded.

She could already condense and trigger a single Thunder Cup, and it was A-grade.

What level would Maple Syrup's full version of [Cheers] be?

She glanced at her wings, which now spanned 4.2 meters. The light feathers, ignited by thunder, seemed to come alive—like the feathers of a golden crow or the surface of the sun.

But the most dazzling part was the bone structure of her wings. She no longer needed lights at home when she walked around…

In the last years in the Forest Sea, they had to sew two long slits in the back of their clothes, just to accommodate the wings.