This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita had spent over fifty minutes stealthily stealing from Rick and his team. As they surrounded the last group of monsters, she quickly made her exit, transforming into a bird and flying out of the dungeon. When Rick's team returned and re-entered the dungeon, she repeated the process, slipping in after them.

This was way more fun than grinding dungeons.

From 1 PM to 9 PM, as they finished their runs and went for dinner, Rita had stolen a whopping **16 attribute points**. Specifically, Rick contributed **4 Intelligence points**, Zoey gave her **4 Intelligence**, Lincoln unknowingly handed over **5 Constitution**, and Aaron added **3 Intelligence**.

Besides the attributes, she also acquired **3 jewelry crafting blueprints**, **two skill books**, **four green-tier items**, and **27 gold**.

Rita checked her own stats:

- **Health**: 618/618

- **Mana**: 1170/1170

- **Strength**: 17

- **Constitution**: 15+5

- **Intelligence**: 21+11

- **Agility**: 25

- **Available Attribute Points**: 15

She smirked. Maybe stealing from Lincoln wasn't the best idea—her Constitution had increased, raising her health, which in turn made her bleed more when using her stealing skill... But hey, it was a bit of a luxury problem. She enjoyed the irony.

Satisfied, she returned to her villa and sorted through her other gains.

She listed the four green-tier items on the auction house for **80 silver** each, slightly below the market rate, and they were snatched up almost instantly.

The two skill books were both **F-rank**—one for **Water Ball** and the other for **Ice Arrow**. Rita learned both immediately. She hadn't bothered with fire skills since their damage wasn't substantial, and she didn't need a fancy way to light things on fire. But **Water Ball** could come in handy when cooking, and **Ice Arrow** was perfect for chilling drinks and cooling down in the summer.

Very practical.

As for the **jewelry crafting blueprints**, she learned them as well. One of the perks humans had over the people of **Rania Kaya** was their ability to instantly learn blueprints without needing to master a profession beforehand. Even though she hadn't studied jewelry crafting, having the blueprints allowed her to make those items anyway.

It had been an incredibly successful day—16 attribute points, two new skills, three blueprints, four pieces of gear sold, and a total of 30 gold in her pocket.

Rita couldn't help but smile as she imagined the confused expressions on Rick and Zoey's faces when they discovered their missing attributes, gear, and blueprints. They would undoubtedly be dumbfounded, but there was no way they'd suspect her. Even if they racked their brains for a hundred years, they'd never think she was behind it.

She figured they might attribute it to some Divine Gift-related phenomenon.

The next day, Rita went back at it again. Same routine, same result: she first reduced Rick's luck, then focused on him, eventually netting herself another **3 Intelligence points** and a **sewing blueprint**. Your next chapter is on empire

During their lunch break, as the four sat down to rest and eat, Zoey suddenly asked why Lincoln's health had been so low that day. Her question brought them all to a halt. How had they not noticed something so obvious?

They all quickly checked their stat sheets and, to their horror, realized that a significant number of attribute points had mysteriously vanished.

Their faces twisted with disbelief, and they instinctively patted their pockets.

"What the hell...?"

"Where did my attribute points go?!"

Unable to hold back their frustration, they felt like they were trapped in some kind of nightmare.

As if that wasn't bad enough, they suddenly remembered all the gear and blueprints they had picked up yesterday. A quick inventory check revealed that those were gone too.

Zoey and Rick exchanged a glance, recalling that something similar had happened to them a while ago. Zoey, in particular, had experienced such losses earlier than Rick. Her luck had once been maxed out, after all…Nôv(el)B\\jnn

But no matter how many times they had tried to investigate the missing points or gear, they hadn't been able to identify a pattern.

Rick furrowed his brow. "Did anyone else notice how yesterday, we didn't get any drops? No gear, no items, nothing."

Aaron thought back, equally puzzled. "But it can't just be bad luck across the board, right? There's no way all four of us could have been that unlucky." While they usually gave Rick the last hit on elite monsters or bosses to maximize drop chances, Aaron had also taken down a few on his own. Yet, he hadn't gotten anything either.

Both Lincoln and Zoey nodded, finding it hard to believe.

Zoey frowned. "You're describing something that sounds a lot like that skill my sister has—the one that can reduce luck."

But even though Zoey mentioned it, no one seriously considered Rita as the culprit. First, the dungeon entrance had guards, and Rita didn't know about this location. Second, Rick hadn't noticed any changes to his luck, although he hadn't exactly been paying attention. Third, even if Rita could reduce their luck, it wouldn't explain how they were losing attribute points.

Zoey pulled up her interface. "I'll check if there are any Divine Gifts related to stealing. Back when I first started losing attributes and gear, there wasn't much information available since players were still few and far between. But now, there might be something."

As they pondered their situation, Rita continued her operation undeterred. The **Thief God's passive ability** caused people to briefly forget they had ever owned the items they lost, which meant that while the team was now focused on yesterday's missing loot, they wouldn't remember the new losses until later.

It was like an endless loop of forgetfulness:

Day 1: "Hey, where'd my stuff from yesterday go?"

Day 2: "Wait, I'm missing stuff from yesterday too!"

Day 3: "Damn it, what happened to yesterday's gear?!"

They were like goldfish, perpetually rediscovering their misfortune.

Rita stopped stealing around 2 PM. She had to attend a class at **Rania Kaya** later, and besides, today's haul was more than satisfactory.

- **5 pieces of green-tier gear**

- **3 Intelligence points** from Rick

- And the jackpot: a **Rare Item—Fate Coin**.

- **Fate Coin (Rare Item):** When faced with a difficult decision, flip the coin. The number on the coin will change. The closer the number is to 10, the more likely your subconscious desires will succeed. The coin doesn't know what you're thinking.

From Zoey, she had gained only 1 Intelligence point, but surprisingly, she had also stolen another **Rare Item—Rice Cross**.

- **Rice Cross (Rare Item):** Place it in a jar, and it will retrieve a small amount of high-quality rice from a distant palace. The daily limit is 1 pound.

As for Aaron and Lincoln, they hadn't yielded much since Rita hadn't spent much of her health pool on them.

Her Intelligence stat had now reached an impressive **36**.

Thanks to her increased Intelligence, her **Phantom Shift** skill could now cover a maximum distance of 36 kilometers, allowing her to zip around Los Angeles in seconds.