This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Since the pickaxe had durability, it implied that if they didn't use it, they either wouldn't be able to mine at all or the efficiency would be extremely low. But just digging and scraping... surely they wouldn't only be scraping a few times, right?

And they still didn't know what form the safe zones would take or how easy it would be to find them.

With no clear answers, Rita and Nivalis decided to calm down for now and adjust their state. Nivalis continued watching the battlefield chat channel, trying to extract useful information or gossip from the endless bickering and sarcastic remarks.

She noticed that the player who loved to be sarcastic the most was Maple Syrup, and no matter who it was, they wouldn't hesitate to throw some insults around. Even top-tier players like Mistblade and Lania Kaia would get a snarky remark from her.

[Nuclear Flash ·pear]: "Yo, where's Frenzied Shark? I can't find him anywhere."

[Sakura · Lizi]: "Dropped to the trash tier."

[Tingo · JE]: "Hahahaha, totally trash now."

[Lania Kaia · Maple Syrup]: "I really admire you trash-talking geniuses."

[Sakura · Lizi]: "?"

[Tingo · JE]: "?"

[Lania Kaia · Mistblade]: "Maple Syrup is great, no need for more words."

[Marmang · Crab]: "Great."

[Ridge Tea · Eight Steps]: "Great."

[Winter Sea · Whale Full]: "Great."

[Tingo · JE]: "Heh, it's you again, Lania Kaia Sugar. See you in the battle zone."

[Sakura · Lizi]: "Looks like you didn't learn your lesson last time. See you in the battle zone."

[Lania Kaia · Maple Syrup]: "Oh my, Lania Kaia Maple Syrup is starting to get scared."

Nivalis & Rita: "..."

Rita always felt that Maple Syrup's title, "Liquor Passion," was probably a high EQ way of saying "got drunk again."

Not only were Rita and Nivalis speechless, the entire battlefield chat channel fell into silence for a few seconds before it exploded with activity again.

However, no one came forward to cut ties with Maple Syrup, nor did they try to please the top-tier players. Those who usually stayed quiet in the chat continued to remain silent, while the ones who liked to chat would follow Maple Syrup's lead and join in the mockery. It was a subtle way of aligning with her.

Even Black Spring Autumn Bear Tribe, the ones who hated Maple Syrup the most, didn't jump in to oppose her. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire

Nobody wanted to be called trash, especially when even those ranked 16th were called trash. What did that make players below rank 16?

Rita also noticed an undercurrent in the rankings. Nearly 95% of the top 100 players came from three worlds: Nuclear Flash, Tingo, and Sakura. Only five players came from other worlds, and Winter Sea Frenzied Shark, who was previously ranked, was now gone.

She even had the strange feeling that the players from the other mid-tier worlds were subtly banding together to counteract the dominance of these three worlds.

But this wasn't something BS needed to worry about right now.

Rita told Nivalis to keep an eye on the chat, while she opened the leaderboard and started scanning through the players online for this game. She made a mental note of their appearance, strength, and titles so she could plan her escape in case she encountered players whose power was too overwhelming.

With only 1 minute left on the countdown, Rita and Nivalis, who had already shrunk their sizes, entered the battlefield early.

The two of them fell downward, landing in mere seconds. Rita surveyed her surroundings and found that they had appeared in a tunnel inside a mine.

The tunnel was narrow, only about the width of three of Rita's body lengths. However, the height was spacious. This kind of environment clearly favored smaller and more compact species. The only source of light came from a type of diamond embedded in the stone walls, which gave off a light even dimmer than a phone screen.

Fortunately, Rita's Orange-Red Light Wings could serve as a light source, so they didn't need to rely on the dim diamonds.

She stared at the diamond light for a few seconds before reluctantly turning away. She stowed the pickaxe and tried using a skill to strike the stone wall. To her surprise, it was very easy to break through, but the holes created by the strikes healed at a visible rate.

After checking the surrounding area, Rita started testing her skills, such as using Dandelion Wind in this seemingly windless area.

Unfortunately, there was indeed wind here, but it was so weak that using this skill for travel or escaping would probably be difficult.

As her battle instincts sharpened over time, and as she fought more and more skilled players in the World Battlefield, she had started to notice a critical flaw with Dandelion Wind:

Whether it relied on natural wind or she used her wings to create the wind herself, as long as an enemy had seen her use this skill once, they could predict her landing position by the direction of the wind next time.

However, unlike before, when she passively accepted every skill's weaknesses, Rita had begun to learn how to actively adjust and counter these flaws after fighting with many powerful players from various species.

For example, after using Dragon Dance, she could transform into a dandelion and merge into the tornado created by the skill. This not only allowed her to avoid enemy skills and share damage but also let her move quickly and unpredictably, making it difficult for enemies to predict her next move.

After gathering the necessary information, Rita took out her pickaxe and started experimenting. With no instructions on how to use it, she struck the stone wall.

The pickaxe hit the surface of the wall and didn't cause any damage. But soon, the point where the pickaxe made contact lit up with a faint blue glow, and from that point, the glow quickly shot out as though the pickaxe was following an invisible target.

Rita and Nivalis quickly followed. After traveling several meters, the light suddenly stopped. Rita's mind raced, and she immediately used a skill to blow up the spot where the light had stopped.

Sure enough, the light was leading them deeper into the mine.

Rita quickly used magical threads to create a Temporary Pocket on herself, stowing both hers and Nivalis's pickaxes, as well as her sniper rifle inside. She then told Nivalis, "You use your dragon claws to clear the path. It'll be faster."

No one knew how long the light from the pickaxe would last.

After speaking, she transformed into a small sparrow using Animagus and flew to Nivalis's head.

Nivalis understood her intent. Once Rita settled in, she began using her dragon claws to dig through the stone wall. Her claws were sharp enough to rival purple-tier weapons, and the digging speed was no slower than using a skill bomb.

Since Rita had shrunk, they only needed to dig a small path wide enough for them to fly through, which was much faster than blowing up a whole tunnel.

After digging for about several dozen meters, the light stopped at a deep blue treasure vein the size of a basketball.

Nivalis and Rita didn't have time to marvel at the beautiful gem because the surrounding stone walls began healing again. Nivalis quickly blew up enough space for Rita to land.

Once Rita returned to her original form, she rapidly mined the gem. Due to the time pressure, she didn't go for precision; instead, she mined the stone surrounding the gem and placed everything into her Temporary Pocket.

Then, she and Nivalis began retracing their steps, heading back to the original route.

Fortunately, the light from the pickaxe was straight and unerring, which ensured they wouldn't get lost inside the mine and end up trapped without an escape route when their magic ran out.