This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

On the morning of the 14th, after transforming into Han Shi and completing the act of listening to Zoey's Hopeful Song, Rita went back to Lania Kaia to check the auction house once more. She wanted to ensure that Rick wouldn't get anything valuable that could aid him in subjugating the Flood Dragon.

After obtaining the Wrathful Moon, Rita became increasingly aware of how unpredictable full-luck stats could be. If she, with the help of an E-rank tool, managed to dig up an A+ rank item, what could Rick achieve?

It was possible that fate, even if it wanted to give Rick something powerful to fight Zoey with, might only do so after Zoey managed to contract the Flood Dragon. Perhaps fate would let Rick long for the Flood Dragon but miss the opportunity just because his fortune aligned that way.

Rita already regretted not trying harder to steal Rick's luck. Although the main tormentors of her past were the women from the Lopez, White, and Taylor families and Rick's friends, none of them compared to Rick in how much she hated him.

She hated the knife, but she hated the one holding it even more.

The Flood Dragon, a creature capable of both physical and mental torture, was something she absolutely intended to give to Rick as a "gift." But she began to worry because her visions showed her something unsettling—a scene where Rick, in the Lopez family basement, was taking Aaron's Divine Gift.

If Rick truly became the dragon's slave and toy, the Lopez family would surely discard him at the first opportunity. Under what circumstances would the Lopez family still accept him and even allow him access to their core treasury?

Whatever happened with the dragon, it wouldn't go as smoothly as Rita imagined. Many possibilities existed: maybe the contract didn't reverse successfully; maybe the dragon succeeded in reversing the contract but Rick turned the tables; or maybe the dragon contracted with Zoey, and by currying favor with the dragon, Rick and Zoey together took control of the Lopez family…

There were too many possibilities.

It was even possible that every move she made was pushing fate towards that vision. Perhaps if she hadn't used the prophecy skill stone, fate would have unfolded differently.

But Rita didn't regret her past actions; each decision was made to maximize her happiness in the moment—and that was still true now. She didn't waste time feeling frustrated or throwing tantrums because it was pointless. The road had to be walked one step at a time, and the game had to be played move by move.

What's the worst outcome? At worst, she would flip the board. If Rick finally acquired Aaron's ability, she'd just find a way to kill both the dragon and Rick, thereby reducing the satisfaction she'd get from her revenge.

Rita wasted no time traveling to Dark City where she was familiar with everything; upon arriving in Yaslan City, she went straight to the auction house.

This was the longest she'd spent in the auction house. Usually, she just checked for S-rank skills and left or searched with specific keywords, but today Rita spent over forty minutes browsing the pet-related section.

Finally, she picked two items she thought could be useful.

- Rocktail Intermediate Pet Incense: Light the left wick of this incense candle and place an item infused with your magical aura in the fire until it turns to ashes. Extinguish the flame and set the incense near your desired beast (within 100 meters), lighting the center wick. After the time it takes for ten tail flicks, the incense will be consumed, and for the next 7 natural days, you will appear incredibly attractive to the beast.

(Note 1: If the pet is uncontracted, it increases the success rate of contracting; if already contracted, it boosts intimacy and favorability.)

(Note 2: During the ten tail flicks, all beasts that smell the fragrance will be affected by this incense.)

- Anti-Theft Seal - Pet Edition (3/3): Using your own blood as ink, stamp this seal on an uncontracted beast, and for the next 30 natural days, only you can contract with this beast.

The former cost 88 gold, while the latter was pricier at 166 gold.

The beauty of these items was that they both worked on the Flood Dragon, but without directly impacting Rick. Thus, they bypassed his luck. Rita ordered them without hesitation.

She had a few things stolen from Rick, but she didn't dare use them just in case they didn't carry Rick's magic aura, which would backfire. The safest option was to use Rick's blood!

Rick's current location was unknown, but after browsing some forums, the latest sighting was at the airport in City B the previous night. Had he returned to Los Angeles? It would be much harder to reach him at the Lopez estate.

Even if Rick hadn't returned, trying to reach him in City B now would be rushed. However, Rita had a better idea.

On September 1st, after fighting the Flood Dragon and watching Zoey's masked concert, she sent Rick to the airport. Could she not use Wrathful Moon to go back to that moment?

Given the skill's limitations, Rita could return up to 27 days. Today was the 14th, so she could return to the 1st. Going to L.A. airport would take less than a minute.

After returning to Blue Star and waiting for Disguise!'s cooldown to end, Rita left Nivalis to guard her home and went to her bedroom alone. She used Hunter's Eye to scan her surroundings, ensuring there was nothing abnormal, then pulled out the lantern.

Upon using Walk Through Time and Space, a prompt appeared in her mind: `[Year] [Month] [Day] [Hour]:[Minute]:[Second]`. Rita entered the desired time, and the moonstone inside the lantern lit up, its glow enveloping and consuming her.

When the glow faded, Rita found herself still standing in the same spot by her bed, still holding the lantern, though now the moon inside was no longer glowing.

She checked the game interface—the displayed date was still September 14th, 4:27 PM, but the sky outside was dark. She had returned to the night of September 1st at 9:00 PM.

Wasting no time, Rita placed the Wrathful Moon into a small pouch strapped to her front, used Disguise! to change her appearance, and combined invisibility and Phantom Shift to head for the airport.

She only had 8 minutes; every second counted.

From afar, she spotted herself seeing Rick off as he walked towards the boarding gate. Both wore baseball caps, sunglasses, and masks, but she'd recognize herself and Rick anywhere.

Even though Nivalis was invisible, Rita could sense the small dragon perched on her other self's shoulder.

Suddenly, she heard Nivalis' voice in her mind, "Huh?!"

Ah, now she knew what the cryptic dragon meant back then with that "huh."

"Shh, don't tell me! This is our secret," Rita replied silently.

Nivalis' laughter echoed in her mind, "Okay."

Rita used Phantom Shift to instantly move to a corner of the boarding area, then canceled her Phantom Cloak and walked out. She brushed shoulders with Rick as he approached.

Another Happy Day—change Rick's luck to 1.
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She half-turned, and as Rick looked at her in shock and vigilance, she pulled him into an embrace while casting Ice Flower Seal on him.

The spell effect would freeze the target for 3 seconds, depending on the caster's intelligence and the target's attributes. With Rita's current intelligence and Rick's attributes, the freeze happened almost instantly upon contact.