This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

What a find!!

Lately, Rita had been stressing over what to bring Apachi as tuition gifts. The cigarettes and cocktails would last for a while, but what about later? Apachi loved variety, and she would eventually get bored of the same gifts.

Rita stashed the amber away, planning to brew a large batch of spiked liquor with it today. As for the cat bed, well... it seemed she would need to continue investing in it.

Holding the amber, Rita smiled but then froze. Looking out at the backyard full of cats, sleek and shiny, basking in the sun with their bellies exposed, she felt a sense of resignation. One cat, lying on its back, rolled to its side as if making room for her to pass.

Had she just been sweet-talked into this?

Her smile faltered, and she fell into deep thought...

---

Meanwhile, back at the Lopez family, the team following Rita had trailed her to an office building. Trying not to get too close, they observed her entering the building and used invisibility potions to follow. Though they quickly lost sight of her, they were determined. Believing that there was a dungeon within, they soon found the glowing portal hidden behind the water tower on the rooftop.

This information was immediately reported to Zoey.

As Rita predicted, Zoey\'s first reaction wasn\'t to inform the White family. Instead, she had her people investigate the dungeon quietly. After learning that the monsters inside were only level 1-2, Zoey quickly decided to keep the discovery to herself.

Why involve the White family? Their alliance with White was only based on a shared enemy, not any true partnership.

As for Rita, Zoey hesitated for just a moment—not because she feared facing Rita, but because she was concerned about the Special Affairs Bureau. However, upon considering the Bureau\'s usual hands-off approach to private domains, she felt reassured. The Bureau only intervened in public domain portals, and as long as no one was killed, they wouldn\'t care.

Zoey assumed Rita had been farming the dungeon quietly with the Bureau. If she took control of the portal, neither Rita nor the Bureau would cause a fuss. Since none of them actually owned the portal, it was fair game for whoever took it.

With that in mind, Zoey sent her team to seize the dungeon.

Taking over the dungeon was easy: they just needed to clear the monsters and leave someone inside, preventing others from entering. When they wanted to farm the dungeon themselves, they could have that person exit, allowing it to reset and refresh the monsters. They didn\'t even need to station many people there.

---

The next day, when Rita noticed no one following her, she was a bit surprised. Realizing that the Lopez family had likely discovered the portal in the White family\'s office building, she went to the rooftop to check.

Although no one was visibly around, Hunter\'s Eye revealed five hidden red dots nearby. She tried entering the portal but couldn\'t. Time to act. She frowned slightly, feigning frustration and irritation. Then she took out a spray bottle filled with revealing potion and spritzed it around the portal, carefully avoiding the red dots—no need to embarrass anyone by revealing them.

Once satisfied, she pretended to send a private message, as if communicating with someone about the situation, and then left. Before leaving, she placed a small undead spider nearby to monitor the area. When the White family and Lopez family inevitably clashed, she wanted a front-row seat.

Back home, Rita didn\'t bother going out again. Instead, she set about using her engineering skills to craft an automatic feeder that could store up to 10 kilograms of food while keeping it fresh. She had been lazy about it before, since the cat bed didn\'t seem to be yielding any returns. But now that she\'d gotten something out of it, she was motivated.

Your adventure continues at empire

Though the feeder\'s preservation time wasn\'t permanent, it could keep the food fresh for seven days. This would allow her to leave behind her own cooked meals for the backyard cats if she needed to travel.

Whether it was alchemy or engineering, Rita found herself calming down, getting absorbed in her tasks. As she carefully polished the metal components, her thoughts drifted to the heart surgery she would perform on Aaron tonight.

---

At 2 a.m., it was time for Rita to make her move.

Disguised, she arrived at Aaron\'s apartment, used **Hunter\'s Eye** to ensure no ambushes were lying in wait, and went straight to Aaron\'s room. A **Sleep Spell** knocked him out cold, and after feeding him an invisibility potion, she carried him out to the rooftop stairwell.

There, she securely bound him, forced down a bottle of **Silencing Potion**, and made her first incision into his chest with a knife.

The intense pain jerked Aaron awake.

It was happening again! The same nightmare! Last time, they took his eyes—now they were going for his heart!

Though he couldn\'t see anything, the darkness intensified his pain. He could feel his flesh being sliced open, and then something was forced into his mouth—a potion.

A moment later, he heard a voice, neither distinctly male nor female, say, "Relax, you won\'t die. I\'m just doing a job. Someone paid me to take your eyes, but my Divine Gift doesn\'t allow me to owe debts. This **Heart of the Undying** cost me a fortune to acquire."

"It\'ll weaken your Divine Gift, but it\'ll grant you immortality. Your HP will never drop below 1. You get it, right? That\'s a protagonist\'s perk."

"Restoring your eyesight is simple. An engineer can make mechanical eyes for just a few dozen gold coins. But this heart I\'m giving you is worth over a thousand gold."

"This is my way of compensating you for taking that magic eye. After this, we\'re even."

A cold, hard object pressed against Aaron\'s heart, and an icy chill surged through his body.

**[Ding—]**

**[You are about to curse your Divine Gift, sacrificing part of the power bestowed upon you in exchange for immortality. Would you like to use the Heart of the Undying?]**

Should he use it?

Aaron could feel his blood slowly draining, the mysterious figure not bothering to give him any healing potions.

But even if his life weren\'t slipping away...

Aaron was still willing.

Since the game\'s official descent, he had yet to fully understand his Divine Gift. Compared to the unknown, **Immortality** was priceless. Who wouldn\'t want that? Everyone feared death.

As long as he couldn\'t die, there was hope for everything else.