This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Kayden's two seemingly disjointed sentences, combined with the three consecutive "very's," caused Rita's heart to race. Kayden hadn't mentioned any news or moves from Lania Kaia, but just the information she provided was enough for Rita to piece together a lot of potential consequences.

Some *Divine Gifts* were scary but not insurmountable. After all, it's not realistic to use a *Divine Gift* on every single person you see. For example, Rita often thought about using her *Insight* on everyone who approached her, but doing so was exhausting and required significant effort.

It was like trying to check the profile of every person who commented on a social media post you came across. Plus, some *Divine Gifts* had hundreds of words in their descriptions, and you couldn't stare at someone too long without arousing suspicion. That made things even more complicated and tiring.

But if this new deputy city lord had a thing for small animals, that changed everything.

People who loved animals could sometimes be downright obsessive—some even found joy in watching animals relieve themselves, carefully observing every little detail.

The worst part? Unlike the player she saw in the crystal ball, who could disguise themselves as an alien and freely move through the city without always returning to a safe house, those who could only transform into animals would inevitably need to return to the safe house to rest and regroup.

Rita couldn't afford to waste any more time. Her left hand grabbed a handful of gold coins from under the counter and handed them to Kayden. Her right hand quickly opened her chat window to send a message to Shadow.Q. Her fingers moved faster than they had the day Rick was trapped in the apartment by Zoey's group.

Her urgency wasn't driven by noble or selfless intentions. It was a simple, straightforward, and somewhat selfish reason: the better Special Affairs Bureau performed, the more freedom she, as a lone wolf, would have. If the Bureau handled the heavy lifting, she could roam around without the burden of responsibility. Discover exclusive tales on empire

**Rita:** "The new deputy city lord in the Undercity has a talent that lets him review the last 30 days of a living creature's memories. Also, he *really, really, really* loves small animals. Have any players who can transform into animals been captured in the Undercity recently?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

**Shadow.Q:** "Got it. Reporting this immediately. Will update."

Shadow.Q's response was terse, indicating her urgency. She didn't even have time to type out full sentences.

This ability was terrifying.

Imagine a necromancer in love with cute animals, cuddling a tiny puppy, showering it with affection, and using his skill to see what adorable antics it had been up to. Only to discover the puppy had left the city, transformed into a bald, muscular man in furry pants, and made a beeline for the Blue Star safe house.

*Yikes…*

Rita had no desire to stick around. She knew Kayden had already reached her limit with that piece of information. Rita pulled out another pouch of gold coins, stuffed 200 into it, and handed it to Kayden. "Thank you! I owe you for this. Do you have a way to erase this memory?

I'm worried you might be in danger."

Kayden accepted the pouch, her smile growing brighter as she saw the additional gold. She was a small fry. If not for Apache saving her, she would have long been crushed under the foot of some noble. For her, war was a distant concept—she wouldn't enjoy the spoils of victory. Without Apache's protection, she'd be one of the first to be sacrificed.

Even before the appearance of Blue Star, the Twelve Saint Tribes were constantly at war with each other. In fact, they still quietly jostled for power today. To Kayden, the Blue Star people weren't all that different from the other tribes.

Maybe one day, the Blue Star people would become the Thirteenth Saint Tribe, and they'd all go back to fighting again until they found a new Fourteenth Race to battle.

The big players never cared about the small ones, so why should the small ones care about the big players' glory?

Kayden smiled. "Don't worry, with Apache around, I'll be fine."

Rita pulled out a mid-level memory-erasing potion and placed it in Kayden's hand. Her small, shriveled, green hand wrapped around Kayden's pale one, the four tiny hands layering together around the bottle. Rita looked Kayden in the eye and said firmly, "But what if?"

Kayden paused. "…Are *you* that 'what if' you're talking about?"

Rita let go of one hand and reached into her pocket, placing 10 more gold coins on the table. "For a refreshing drink."

"I *love* memory-erasing potions!" Kayden quickly wriggled free from Rita's grasp, grabbed the 10 coins with one hand, and skillfully popped the cork of the potion with her thumb.

Rita activated her *Phantom Cloak* and backed out of the shop. From the outside, she watched Kayden down the potion, which would erase the last hour of her memories. Only after confirming Kayden had consumed it did Rita finally leave the alchemy shop.

---

Rita's warning set the Special Affairs Bureau into a frenzy.

Everyone was scrambling.

No one questioned Rita's credibility or suspected her of passing along false information. For one, she'd been in close contact with the Bureau, and she was a renowned player in the game, having made it onto both the player level leaderboard and the pet leaderboard. Someone of her caliber wouldn't risk spreading false information just to mess with the Bureau.

If anything, the information was likely miscommunicated along the way, but it wouldn't be Rita's fault.

She was simply the messenger—the responsible player who promptly reported important intel.

The Special Affairs Bureau had already implemented numerous preventative measures in response to the growing knowledge of *Divine Gifts*. While Rita wasn't aware of the full extent of these measures—since she no longer traveled to Lania Kaia with the Bureau—the requirements for entering the alien cities had become increasingly strict as more *Divine Gifts* were discovered.

One such precaution involved the players. Any player wishing to enter the alien cities had to leave the Blue Star safe house first and stay in an external safehouse for at least three days before entering a city. The current known *Divine Gifts* with memory-reading abilities only allowed access to the past 24 hours of memories.

Who would have expected an ability capable of reviewing memories up to 30 days back?

*What kind of VIP-level nonsense was this?*

The potential repercussions of this news were staggering. The Bureau even postponed verifying the information's accuracy to focus on more immediate concerns.

The first order of business was to arrange the immediate return of all players stationed near the 36 major cities to their respective safe houses, preparing for a potential full-scale evacuation.

Each Blue Star safe house had been equipped with three group teleportation stones specifically designed for emergencies like this. The priority now was to get as many players back to safety as possible. Those who couldn't make it in time were advised to find their own hiding spots.

The goal was to ensure the majority of players could safely return to Blue Star, while a small team would later return to the cities to destroy any evidence and cover their tracks.

This was the most efficient plan, minimizing both risks and losses.