This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

Chapter 51: Level Grinding Part 2

After placing the 2 silver coins on the table, Rita chose to set up her own tent for the night. With her vast experience camping in the wild (or, more accurately, in dangerous situations), she had a backpack filled with all kinds of well-equipped outdoor gear. She set up a small stove, lit the coals, and prepared a pot of stamina-replenishing steak noodles to refresh herself and banish her fatigue.

The air around the other tents was also filled with the aroma of food. Smart players all made an effort to learn some cooking skills. Not only did this help sustain them during monster hunts, but it also provided a profitable side job for those who didn't know how to cook.

Not every beta tester had enough money to learn how to cook, and in the future, those who could cook would have a lucrative market selling food to players who couldn't.

After making her steak noodles, Rita set aside a portion and carried two bowls to the front desk, where she saw a group of people gathered around the bespectacled man. His desk was piled high with food offerings. When the group saw her approach with her food, someone enthusiastically waved her over. "Come on, we're all here sharing info. Join us."

Rita smiled and took a seat, placing her bowl of steak noodles in the middle of the table alongside the other dishes. "Do you charge for this?" she asked.

A young woman sitting nearby looked at Rita's face in awe. She recognized Rita from her acting career and had been the one to invite her over. She answered, "He wants to, but we're all just chatting here."

The bespectacled man, Minglang, helplessly replied, "I can't really say much, you know. We have rules. Besides, most of the money we make goes to helping regular folks."

A young man beside him stuffed a piece of chicken into Minglang's mouth to shut him up. "Yeah, yeah, we know."

Sure, people could be selfish, but they weren't heartless. Even Rita wasn't being stingy. If she had no moral compass, she could have easily used her stealth abilities to follow Shadow.Q, eventually tracking down one of the players working with them.

She could have snuck into their operation and discovered a way to use the portal without permission—by turning invisible, disguising herself as an animal, or sneaking into someone's bag. Where there's a will, there's a way.

The group continued chatting and sharing information until midnight. Rita picked up quite a bit of useful intel, especially about places where "high-level monsters" roamed and should be avoided.

At some point, another group of cockroaches arrived, led once again by the short-haired woman and the thick-browed, sharp-eyed man in the military uniform. Seeing that everyone was socializing, the short-haired woman even grabbed a cup of wine and joined in.

However friendly and welcoming the atmosphere seemed, Rita didn't touch any of the shared food. She only ate the meal she had brought herself.

...

To avoid running into other players, Rita woke up at 6 AM the next morning and headed out to hunt monsters.

Yesterday, she had gained 1.473% experience after a full day of grinding. That was a decent pace, but today, she wanted to find monsters in the deeper forest, those between levels 4 and 6.

Switching to her bow, she prepared for a different style of combat. While the bow took longer to draw and fire than her hand crossbow, it dealt more damage. Her gear was still fairly basic—aside from her cooldown-reducing necklace, she only had a +1 Constitution bracer, a +1 Constitution belt, +1 Intelligence cloth boots, and a +1 Agility cloth vest.

**[Character] Rita (Level 0, 1.473%)**

**HP:** 350/350

**MP:** 400/400

**Strength:** 10

**Constitution:** 13 (+2)

**Intelligence:** 15 (+1)

**Agility:** 21 (+1)

During last night's meal, Rita had used her **Insight** ability to scan all the players present. Everyone else was still level 0, with single attribute values ranging between 5 and 10. Their combined stats were in the 25 to 31 range. By comparison, Rita's combined stats totaled 59—roughly the equivalent of a level 6 character.

It was pointless for her to keep bullying low-level monsters.

Yesterday had been a training day, a warm-up focused on hitting moving targets. Today, she wanted to train her ability to land critical shots on enemy weak points.

As a **Master Archer**, one of her passive skills, **You're Too Weak**, allowed her to instantly identify enemies' weak spots during combat. Every time she entered battle, she would see 1 to 4 red dots appear on the monsters, indicating their weak points. But even though she could see them, landing a shot in those fast-moving combat scenarios was another challenge entirely.

Soon, she found traces of spider silk. Following the web, she spotted a venomous spider nestled between the branches of a tree.

Rita aimed and fired. The arrow sliced through the air, striking the spider's abdomen. A moment later, the spider's name and health bar appeared above its head.

**[Venomous Spider] (Level 4)**

**HP:** 270/334

The spider's fangs oozed green venom, and as its abdomen tensed to spit, Rita quickly sidestepped, dodging the attack. Simultaneously, she spread her fingers, unleashing **Magic Missile**, a homing spell that didn't require aiming and automatically locked onto the target.

As soon as she stopped moving, she began drawing her bow again for another shot.

Rita maintained a relentless pace—this was a skill she had honed in her previous life. Even if she had to roll to avoid an attack, fell face-first into the dirt, or turned to run, she would always be casting or firing, determined to take a chunk out of her opponent before retreating.

Unlike the flashy elite players who loved big, showy abilities, Rita preferred short-cast, short-cooldown, mobile-friendly skills. No matter how powerful a big spell was, it was useless if it didn't hit the target. Most big spells had long casting times, making them easy to interrupt. Worse, if they missed, it was like burning mana just to set off a firework.

**Magic Missile** didn't deal much damage—only 5 HP per hit, compared to her arrows that took off 60+ HP with each shot. But **Magic Missile** fired quickly, launching 2 to 3 magical projectiles per second. Best of all, it didn't require chanting and could be fired while moving, making it perfect for dodging and firing on the run.

In her previous life, many of her pursuers hadn't been killed by a grand, flashy skill but by the relentless barrage of **Magic Missiles** that wore them down.

After two more arrows, the spider lunged at her. Rita used **Push Shot** to knock it back, followed up with two more arrows and a few **Magic Missiles**, and watched as the level 4 spider's health dropped to zero.

Keeping her bow drawn, she cautiously approached the fallen spider and nudged it with her foot, revealing a pair of green-glowing boots beneath its body.

No surprise there—it was her, after all. Loot just seemed to find her.

She picked up the boots.

**[Spider Silk Cloth Boots] (Fine)**

**Attributes:** Intelligence +3

**Magic Properties:** +6% Movement Speed

Not bad—two bonuses.

Finding a safe spot, she immediately swapped her old boots for the new ones.

Checking her experience bar, she noticed that thanks to the bonus for killing a higher-level monster, her experience had increased by 0.01%. That meant killing 100 of these spiders would raise her experience by 1%—much faster than killing skeletal wolves.

But it still wasn't enough. She wanted to hunt even stronger monsters.

Even though **Thief God**'s skill **I Want This, This, and This** had a rule preventing her from stealing from those weaker than herself, meaning she couldn't rob lower-level players of their items or attributes, she had no intention of holding herself back just to maintain an advantage in stealing.