This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

In her past life, the market eventually stabilized quickly. Players who had learned alchemy during the beta tests began selling their beginner healing potions, and the official game developers also started mass-producing potions to help players get through the initial stages. At the same time, modern medicine stepped up, creating treatment options in the form of injections, pills, and capsules.

There were plenty of ways to heal.

However, with a market of over ten billion players, even the fastest methods took time. Healing items, unlike belts, were consumables. A belt might only be bought once, but healing potions were used up instantly, ensuring that anything put on the market was snapped up immediately. The market for beginner healing potions alone would stay hot for at least two weeks.

Rita decided to find more ways to sell potions to Zoey over the next few days. She doubted that the Lopez family was truly desperate. After all, this was a family that had prepared since the first beta test. Even if they ran out of alchemical potions, they still had bandages, or they could rely on cooked meals to heal—there were always alternatives.

This situation was perfect for Rita: she made money, resolved Rick's issues with The Jones Family, and earned both Rick and Zoey's gratitude. At the same time, she left them with the impression that she had valuable connections. More importantly, she constantly seemed to be thinking of their best interests.

Where could they find a better relative than her?

Just the thought of how much she had subtly scammed them—and how grateful they were in return—filled Rita with a sense of satisfaction. She could feel the hatred and pain she had buried deep within her heart slowly being healed.

Rita didn't feel the need to explicitly tell Rick that she had smoothed things over with The Jones Family. He would figure it out on his own. No need to "ask for credit" by bringing it up. After having breakfast and packing the cat bed into her in-game inventory, she drove out, ditched a few people tailing her, and parked near the black market entrance.

After finding a secluded spot, she used her **Disguise** skill to travel to Lania Kaia. Even though she wasn't lacking potions, she needed to make it seem like they were hard to come by. She attended a 50-minute lesson with the undead alchemist and then divided the 2,000 potions into two storage boxes before returning to Earth.

Finally, "after much hardship," she delivered the 2,000 potions to the Lopez family, earning herself 600 pounds of gold in the process.

Although she could have used the game's mail function to send everything to Zoey, she preferred to hand them over in person—partly to observe any new equipment the Lopez family had acquired. Experience tales at empire

As she entered, Rita habitually used **Insight** on Rick's **Divine Gift**.

What she saw left her momentarily speechless.

Rick's current skills—**Skill 4** and **Skill 5**—were so pure and innocent, they looked as if they were designed to benefit both others and himself.

But there was something off about them. After using **Insight**, the descriptions of these skills appeared translucent. A thin black line quickly slashed through the explanations, and below, a line of solid, tiny text revealed the true nature of his **Divine Gift**.

Rita pretended not to notice. This disguise wasn't meant for someone like her, who only saw Rick every now and then. It was likely aimed at the Lopez family. Uncovering it now would be premature.

That wasn't the real issue, though. What truly caught her attention was the red blood drop symbol next to both Rick and Zoey's names.

Rick's blood drop was faint, while Zoey's was more solid.

Rita focused on the blood drop, letting her mind trigger the **Insight**.

**[Unknown Curse Lv.1]: All healing effects reduced by 5%. Health does not auto-recover. Contagious.**

AIDS! It's AIDS!

Rita had to stifle her laughter. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Rick and Zoey, she politely declined their invitation to stay for lunch, using the excuse of needing to finalize some payments. She left the Lopez residence quickly, afraid that if she stayed any longer, she might burst out laughing.

So they've got AIDS! Level 1—who knows if it'll worsen? Rita pondered the "contagious" part and made a mental note to be cautious around them. Who knows what Zoey and Rick might do once they discovered their "curse"? They might just start infecting everyone they could out of spite.

She wondered if they had noticed the curse yet. If they had… things were about to get very interesting.

But given that Rick's blood drop was semi-transparent—just like his **God of the Culinary Arts** skills—Rita suspected he had already noticed something was off and taken steps to hide it.

She stored the information in the back of her mind and decided to closely monitor the couple's next moves. After that, she drove away from the Lopez family, made a quick detour to the black market for a 10-minute stroll, and finally headed home.

Once she arrived, she set up the cat bed in the backyard, washed up, and forced herself to get some sleep. After staying up the night before for the game's launch and another night digging out that magic eye, she realized she had now gone two days and two nights without rest.

Even though her body was now gamified, with statistics tied to health, fatigue could still have negative effects. Otherwise, why would Rick and Zoey have gotten sick? And why had she fallen into a weakened state after overusing **Phantom Shift**?

She had to rest.

But just as she was finally about to fall asleep, the image of that **curse description** flashed through her mind, causing her to wake up with a laugh.

---

Rick had indeed noticed something was wrong. When the game officially launched, the first thing he did was check his **Divine Gift** to see if any miracles had occurred. No miracle—just a mysterious curse.

He had no idea what this "Unknown Curse" was, but the "contagious" part was enough to make him wary. Zoey, eager to join her family in planning their next moves, had rushed out of the room to meet Mateo. The moment she left, Rick used the **Chameleon Teapot's Shedding** to hide the curse from view.

By dawn, Zoey was still leading her subordinates through dungeon runs, while Rick, distracted, practiced his cooking skills in the kitchen.

He wanted to go get checked out, but after The Jones Family incident, Zoey was undoubtedly keeping a close eye on him. He couldn't go to the hospital himself, and he didn't trust his so-called brothers enough to ask them for help. What if the results became leverage against him?

After much thought, he concluded that Samuel was his safest bet. When Rita had visited earlier, he had wanted to ask her to bring back a blood sample for Samuel to test, but she had been in such a rush that he didn't have a chance to speak with her.

The more Rick thought about it, the more restless he became. Was this curse unique to him? Unfortunately, he didn't have any **Insight**-type items or skills…

That's when it hit him—he could check through the game. He sent a private message to Samuel.

**[Rick]: Dad, what are you up to?**

**[Samuel]: Looking for a dungeon.**

**[Rick]: Can you come to the Lopez house?**

**[Samuel]: What's wrong? Did something happen?**

Before Rick could respond, Zoey entered the room with a guest, introducing him as a friend she wanted Rick to meet.

Rick, of course, knew better. This "friend" was just someone Zoey had brought in to **Insight** his **Divine Gift**. The whole "friend" thing was just a friendly cover to keep things from getting awkward.

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