This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Even after maxing out her stats, Rita still wasn't satisfied. She made a trip to Lania Kaia and spent nearly five hundred gold coins on a beginner-level pet contract scroll. Then, she scoured the auction house for hours before finally finding a piece of equipment requiring dual attributes, around level 25.

It was a shoulder guard, priced at 1170 gold. She gritted her teeth and bought it. Equipment with dual attribute requirements was naturally much more expensive than gear with just level requirements. Plus, this one was rare quality, so although the price was steep, it wasn't unreasonable.

This was why Rita wasn't particularly enthusiastic about buying herself equipment. She had no shortage of low-level gear from running dungeons. But if she wanted to equip items worthy of her current stats, it meant purchasing dual-attribute gear, and that was a huge expense.

Her stash of gold was reserved for any S-tier skill books that might pop up in the auction house. Spending it on equipment felt wasteful. If she came across a skill book she wanted but didn't have enough gold for it, it would break her heart.

But for the young dragon, this expense was justified. She needed to boost her stats enough to equip those two Meteor Desert Eagles.

The level 22 rare weapons provided substantial bonuses, with every attribute in the double digits:

**[Horn of Mist] (Rare)**

- **Bonus Attributes**: Agility +41┃Strength +19

- **Magical Attributes**: +11% Crit Damage┃+12% Fire Skill Damage

- **Equipping Requirements**: Agility > 37┃Strength > 27

After equipping this, Rita's agility skyrocketed to 91, and her strength to 47.

This meant she could now wield the two legendary guns, *Ember* and *Meteor*.

Although her other gear was still level 7 standard, the dual-attribute requirements of her costume and shoulder guard, combined with the bonuses from her two legendary weapons, now made her stats comparable to a mini-boss.

In her previous life, she didn't have the qualifications to join the hundred-player dragon raid, but it was a big event at the time, with the forums full of discussions about it.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Reportedly, a third of the leaderboard players were recruited, and along with Rick's own team, these people—trained under the main characters' S-tier abilities—even though they weren't yet level 10, had stats that rivaled level 10 players.

All in all, it was equivalent to a hundred level 10 players going up against a level 15 young dragon. Even with top-tier equipment, food, and potions, a quarter of them still died before they managed to take down the dragon.

Without the two guns, Rita could already solo level 10 dungeons. Now that she had the legendary weapons, she was confident she could at least stand a chance against the young dragon. And even if she couldn't win, her *Immortal* talent and *Fire Spirit Ring* gave her enough margin for error to try.

Just to be safe, Rita prepared for three more days, making sure she was in peak condition. She readied her best food and healing items, and also brought along a rare item she had found in her cat's nest—a small, grape-like red fruit.

**[Blood Bodhi]**: After consumption, your HP will lock at a fixed value for 5 seconds.

It was essentially five seconds of invincibility, perfect for when the young dragon unleashed a deadly attack. Unfortunately, she only had one.

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The location of the young dragon's dungeon was a bit tricky—it was near the Lopez family's villa.

Rita had to spend some time tracking down the exact position of the dungeon's entrance. After all, in her previous life, she had never been there herself; she had only followed the event through forums.

Whether it was Rick and Zoey hiring high-priced mercenaries or netizens analyzing the power dynamics within the Lopez family, or discussions about how difficult the dungeon was to conquer...

As Rick's sister, she knew less than the forum posters.

So, while she had a general idea of where it was, she had to search for it herself.

The dungeon technically belonged to the Lopez family, but it was a level 15 dungeon. Level 15 dungeons were far beyond the capabilities of most people on Earth right now, so there was no need for anyone to guard it. Anyone entering would be seeking death.

Thus, the Lopez family hadn't wasted manpower guarding it. They had simply built a basic wooden structure around the entrance and installed some cameras. This was the standard procedure for any dungeons they weren't currently using.

Rita estimated she'd be in the dungeon for several days, so she packed extra clothes and stocked her rooftop vending machines with items to sell. She programmed them to open one per day, filled her cat's food bowl to the brim, and asked both Apache and her trainers for a few days off.

Once all the preparations were made, she picked a quiet midnight hour to enter the dungeon.

She found herself in a small village, bustling with activity. Creatures of all kinds roamed the streets, and even sentient beasts were selling liquor on the roadside.

This was a large-scale dungeon that could accommodate up to a hundred players, so the map wasn't small. After checking, she estimated the map was about the size of an entire city.

Rita's first move was to find a lone villager, follow him to a secluded spot, and eliminate him to lock the dungeon, ensuring that no one else could enter. Only then did she start interacting with the village inhabitants.

After talking to about seven or eight villagers, she was sure this was one of those undead-themed dungeons.

According to the villagers, a terrible dragon lived atop the distant volcano. From time to time, it would descend to raid their crops and steal the nobles' jewels. The lord of the land, an undead being, had issued a bounty and was gathering warriors to slay the dragon.

Rita decided to join this quest. While she intended to fight the young dragon one-on-one, that didn't mean she had to charge in recklessly.

She could first join the dragon-slaying party, learn the dragon's attack patterns, and most importantly, unlock the map. That way, when the time came to fight, she could use *Phantom Shift* to evade the dragon's attacks.

As for whether this group of warriors might kill the dragon before her? That was the least of her concerns.

Whether on Earth or Lania Kaia, these species were often at war with each other. But when it came to facing Earth's players, their goals were aligned. At any moment, the warriors could turn on her and help the dragon instead.

They might even attempt to recruit her as a pawn for the undead, trying to sign her into a contract when she was near death.

Rita headed to the lord's castle to sign up for the quest.

Without even meeting the undead lord, she received her first task from the butler: The dragon-slaying party needed more information on the dragon's habits. She was tasked with finding a book in the castle's library that detailed the dragon's behavior and weaknesses.

The reward was decent: three medium-level healing potions.

The butler led Rita to the lord's library, where she quickly realized that this was not going to be a simple task.