This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

For the next half hour or so, Rita and Nivalis struck the mine pick nine more times, violating the rules 27 times in the process.

The worst part about violating the rules wasn't when they were doing something; it was when they were doing nothing at all. The former could be understood through reasoning and experimentation, but the latter had far too many unknowns.

However, Rita did manage to figure out one thing: they couldn't touch the glowing diamonds on the tunnel walls...

Rita awkwardly retracted her hand. "Haha, I really can't touch them, huh? I just guessed and tried, didn't expect it to actually not work."

After receiving a violation notice and losing 9 points of intelligence, Nivalis said with a blank expression, "You were already planning to touch them when you first saw the diamond lights in the cave. Don't think I didn't notice."

Rita: "You didn't stop me, so you're an accomplice."

One person and one dragon continued to argue quietly while mining.

During the process, they also violated the rules once more for touching a gemstone, but the second time they tried touching it, there was no issue.

Rita felt like she was being driven mad by these absurd rules. It was like walking in the dark of night—every bump and bruise filled her with fear and unease, but when she turned on the lights, everything turned out to be simple and ordinary.

During the mining, they encountered several other players, and Rita and Nivalis had to stop to fight. With the help of skills like Midnight Exile and Absurd Story, and the confidence from their kart racing game experiences, Rita was more than willing to face off as long as the opponent's strength was no higher than level 10.

Three times, the opponents were above level 12, and once they even met a 15-level Abyss rank player. Rita and Nivalis immediately retreated, letting the other player follow the guiding light Rita had created.

In the past, Rita wouldn't have understood this strategy, but after obtaining the Golden Tree Withered Leaf, she realized that the rankings in Divine Game and an S-level skill for a low-level player weren't comparable. The rankings didn't matter much in the face of actual gameplay.

When there were no game clues to follow, killing lower-level players might be a distraction. But when a valuable gemstone was right there, it was clear that the gem was far more important than a level 6 player.

During the fourth encounter, Rita fought a player of level 9, and following their strategy, Rita handled the combat while Nivalis mined. But Rita realized she couldn't keep up with the other player and was forced to retreat. The player wasn't foolish either. After Rita dealt 70% damage in her second strike, the opponent immediately used an escape skill.

The same thing happened in the fifth encounter. Rita realized she was missing a sealing skill. Thunder Cage didn't work well—it was too slow. The ideal sealing skill would be something like the one Maple and Miyaas used against her. It was silent, but it could block teleportation and movement in a wide area.

Unknowingly, Rita had shifted from a defensive to an offensive role. She used to collect escape skills, but now she needed both escape and sealing skills.

Rita didn't pursue the player but instead went to find Nivalis. When she arrived, Nivalis had just uncovered a black diamond the size of a ping-pong ball.

"Is this safe to touch?" Nivalis asked.

"No problem," Rita answered.

After exhausting the durability of their two regular picks, they had collected 10 gemstones, and the picks disintegrated into dust.

Nivalis crouched on Rita's shoulder, scanning the surroundings. "There are only tunnels here. There's no sign of a safe zone."

Rita flew to the top of the tunnel, inspecting the surroundings, then stepped on the ground. "Either we go up or down. Those are the only options left."

With that, she launched an attack on the ground beneath her, using Air Slash to cut through the surface. A crack instantly appeared, and suddenly, the noise, laughter, and shouting from a lively market burst through the opening.

Rita and Nivalis peered through the crack and saw a bustling mining market below. Find adventures on My Virtual Library Empire

The market had everything you'd expect: shabby shops with unique styles (but no connection to architectural art), various exotic races passing by, and stalls selling food and trinkets. The entire place was brightly lit by the glow of countless glowing diamonds hanging from the roofs of the shops, illuminating the market like daylight.

Some of the creatures spoke in different languages, while others used hand gestures to communicate. Even with the language barrier, the atmosphere was lively.

Rita listened closely, trying to pick out the familiar phrases, and realized they were all just the usual bargaining.

Oddly enough, the players in the market seemed completely uninterested in the crack overhead, not even bothering to look up.

Each player had an ID above their head, and many of them looked familiar to Rita. She'd seen them in the kart game before. But there were also players she didn't recognize—players not listed in the leaderboard.

Nivalis didn't dare to speak. She sent a message to Rita in her mind: "Is this the safe zone? Should we go in?"

Rita replied, "Of course."

The crack was starting to close, so she had Nivalis return to her pet space. Rita then transformed into a small spider and crawled through the shrinking gap.

As soon as she passed through, she heard a system notification.

—[Welcome player to the Safe Zone. PvP is prohibited within the Safe Zone.]

She crawled along the ceiling of the underground market, deactivated her disguise, and released Nivalis. Together, they flew in the air, searching for the game monument in the area.

After flying for a while, they finally found the game monument in a corner of the market.

Game: The Deceptive Game

This Safe Zone is a special trading area that will not turn into a battle zone, but you cannot leave this Safe Zone until the game is completed. Game Completion Condition: You must complete at least 5 unfair trades. Penalty: Each time you lose too much in a trade, one item or artifact in your inventory will be randomly lost. Reward: Each time you gain an unfair advantage in a trade, you will randomly learn a new language of the races you currently haven't learned. Highest Rule of the Market: Anything can be traded. Note: The more unfair trades you make, the more precious the blessings you receive when you leave the market. Diamonds are not the only currency here. Warning: Watch out for pickpockets. Current player count in this Safe Zone: 1824

After reading all the game rules, Rita's brows furrowed deeply.

Not only was the penalty for trade losses terrifying, but it was also the eighth rule of the game—when negotiating with mineral merchants, lying was prohibited.

Wait a minute...

Rita's eyes widened slightly. It wasn't forbidden to lie to other players, just the mineral merchants!