This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Rita's heart tightened immediately, realizing that just like how Apache could detect a person disguising as a Blue Planet person through magical fluctuations, this kind of "wealthy aura" was also a flaw—one that even her Disguise skill couldn't cover up. The anonymity on the wealth leaderboard only hid her ID, not her wealth in the real world.

And with the huge disparity between her wealth and others, it would be hard to meet anyone else at her level. If someone were to recognize her in person, wouldn't she be exposed in minutes?

Is this Brooks' Divine Gift skill or a special tool? Does it have limits?

Without hesitation, Rita switched off the energy-saving mode on her Chávez Watch and began to Insight Brooks' detailed information. Before, when she was dealing with Brooks, things had been rushed, and she had never really looked into it.

**[Character]**: MightySocks (Level 3, 2.783%)n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

**[Race]**: Human (?)

**[Racial Talent]**: Undead Will | Feeding

**[Health]**: 100/100

**[Mana]**: 150/150

**[Strength]**: 8

**[Constitution]**: 10

**[Intelligence]**: 11

**[Agility]**: 17

**[Luck]**: 7

**[Charisma]**: 7

**[Divine Gift]**: Know-It-All (B-grade)

**[Skill 1]**: Truth or Fake?! - You can discern the truth of any information, whether text, image, story, or prophecy. Upon using this skill, you will know if it is true or false (this skill may fail when encountering S-level or higher information). Each use consumes 20% of your mana, with a cooldown of one natural day.

**[Skill 2]**: I Swear on My Life - After using this skill, you can designate one false message, and for the next seven days, everyone will believe this false message to be true. Each use consumes 100% of your mana, with a cooldown of 15 natural days.

While walking with Brooks toward a corner of the restaurant, Rita read through Brooks' information. Upon seeing her race and talent, she realized Brooks had participated in the closed beta and was indeed undead. She wondered if they had ever crossed paths in the city.

Up until now, Rita had been making small talk with Brooks, commenting on the weather or how she'd heard of this place through a "friend." It wasn't until she read Brooks' first skill that she began to feel a bit uneasy—this was more powerful than she had known in her previous life.

What if someone wrote "The wealth leaderboard top spot is Rita" on paper? Could Brooks use her truth-detecting skill to find out her identity? Could her watch block this skill?

As she read the details of the second skill, she realized the situation was much worse. As soon as she finished reading it, a layer of fog appeared over the skill description, which then dissipated under the watch's insight ability, revealing the true information underneath.

**[Skill 2]**: We're Not Close, But That's Okay - After using this skill on a target, you can hear their inner thoughts. The farther you can hear their voice, the greater the skill's casting distance. You can also influence their thoughts. Each minute of use consumes 1% of your mana.

"Ahhhhhh!"

Both Rita's mind and soul screamed out simultaneously.

Worse still, as she finished reading this, she noticed that MightySocks' mana bar had dropped to 97%, and Brooks was slowly turning her head with a look of horror, staring right at her.

Brooks was shocked too. The inner voice of this old lady, though stuttered and fragmented, was getting clearer. And the more she listened, the more familiar it sounded. Why did it seem like the old lady was reciting her Divine Gift skills?

Both of them pointed at each other at the same time and shouted simultaneously.

Rita: "No way, is it you?!"

Brooks: "No way, is it you?!" Discover hidden tales at empire

They stared at each other in silence. For a moment, time seemed to freeze.

It was hard to tell which one of them had more reason to be scared right now. It felt like catching a thief red-handed as he peeked through a crack in the door, only to lock eyes with the homeowner.

They both wanted to scream.

The next moment, the old lady sprang into action!

The elderly woman, who had just seemed frail enough to be blown over by a breeze, suddenly straightened up with tight core muscles. With a swift move, she grabbed Brooks by the back of the neck, forcing her head back. With her other hand, she pulled out a bottle of intermediate memory-erasing potion, popped the cork open single-handedly, and poured it into Brooks' mouth.

The entire series of actions took less than two seconds, and the potion was down Brooks' throat.

The whole restaurant fell into an eerie silence. Everyone stared, mouths agape. A customer walking by with a tray of hot wings quickly shielded their food and backed away cautiously.

Shocking! Why did an 80-year-old granny suddenly do this?

Once Rita was sure the potion had been swallowed, she pocketed the bottle and took off running. Her snow-white hair flapped in the wind as she dashed out of the restaurant at lightning speed, disappearing before anyone could react.

Meanwhile, Brooks was still hunched over, coughing in the middle of the restaurant.

A few seconds later, she straightened up and looked around in confusion, noticing that everyone was staring at her. "What happened?"

The customer holding the tray took a long moment before attempting to summarize: "Well, uh… there was this old lady, and she was walking with you, then you two just… started staring at each other? Then you both said something like, 'No way!' And then she… jumped on you and made you drink a potion?"

MightySocks: "Huh?"

Rita, now invisible, bolted from the restaurant. She started mentally reviewing every interaction she'd had with Brooks, wondering if she'd ever thought anything incriminating during their previous deals. Probably not. At most, it was something like, "This way, they won't trace it back to me." After all, who consciously thinks their own name while pondering things?

She had let her guard down. From now on, she needed to make it a habit to check everyone's Divine Gift the moment she met them!

Last time, she had warned herself to keep a constant eye on players' talents, but with so many people around daily, it was easy to get complacent.

Rita mentally noted this lesson.

She'd have to postpone her plans to get the intel for now. First, she needed to find a way to shield her thoughts, and more urgently, a way to hide how much wealth she possessed. Especially the latter—this was a weakness she had never anticipated.

Why couldn't the Chávez Watch's Concealment ability also block mind-reading?

Good heavens, how much had MightySocks heard in their past interactions?

Despicable! This skill is too despicable!

One day, she would get it for herself!

Back home, Rita deactivated her Disguise and finally managed to wrestle the money box from Nivalis' grip. The little dragon, just like Apache, had a fatal flaw—she was a sucker for good looks. According to Nivalis herself, part of why she agreed to follow Rita was that Rita was strong, and the other part was because she was pretty.

When Rita took the money box away, Nivalis whined, wanting to keep it a bit longer.

Nivalis rolled around on the bed, whining, "Other owners always let their pets guard their treasure~."

Rita wasn't having it: "Acting cute won't work. We're equals, remember? You're not a pet."

Nivalis rolled over and lay on her side, using her wingtip to prop up her head as she sulked. "You've changed. You used to say you needed me to protect you. You said I was your only friend. You used to lift me up high and call me your Chihuahua. Now I just want to play with some coins, and you get mad at me.

When you took that box of gold earlier, your thoughts were all, 'Not a single copper coin is missing,' and 'Did my Nivalis baby feel lonely today?'"

Rita: "..."