This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 741: Only Those Who Survive Will Be Humanity’s Elite

6:00 AM, the next day.

Shadow.Q stood outside Rita’s villa, bright and early, holding a massive metal case packed with stat-boosting resources from Eclipse Vanguard.

Originally, Eclipse Vanguard hadn’t prepared this much—but after yesterday’s announcement, just the fact that Divine Talents were upgrading by a full tier had the entire organization scrambling. They swept the country clean of stat-boost items, finally pulling together 500 points. Even a few big-name international organizations chipped in, each delivering another 200.

Now, the case in her hands held a total of 2000 stat points.

And thanks to Rita’s evolution, everyone had contributed willingly.

Shadow.Q had assumed she’d be waiting a while. She had no clue what kind of place that "mysterious world" was, but judging from the rewards alone, it clearly wasn’t anything easy.

To her surprise, she only waited two minutes.

A crack split the lightning-weave perimeter, and the villa’s front gate slowly opened. Rita appeared behind it.

Last time they’d met was when Rita summoned the Old Blacksmith—not long ago. But Rita had changed again.

She was wearing a platinum-colored magical robe, with a small cat-head pendant pinned to the chest. The cute little charm added a soft, childish contrast to the otherwise holy aura of the robe. A palm-wide golden belt draped loosely across her waist, the opposite of Avery’s tight, military style—casual, relaxed, effortless.

Her mid-length, still-damp hair hung behind her shoulders, revealing refined, delicate features. She’d clearly just washed it, her fingers still having combed it back naturally.

The whole look gave off a casual, everyday vibe—like a friend opening the door to welcome you in.

But Shadow.Q felt pressure.

The kind of pressure a small creature feels when it senses a predator at the top of the food chain.

She knew Rita bore her no hostility. No killing intent. But her very presence alone invoked awe and unease.

Rita had gotten stronger.

Strong enough that the world of BS no longer referred to her as just "Player Rita"—but as BS-Rita.

The world itself wanted everyone to know: Rita belonged to BS.

Before Shadow.Q could say anything, she saw a holy glow flare behind Rita’s head, from which sprouted eight little wooden cats—each one different, floating and spinning in orbit around her skull like a divine halo.

Rita waved them away. "Stop floating behind my head. You look like a light wheel."

The strange object tumbled cheerfully to the side. Shadow.Q now saw it clearly—it was a platinum ship’s wheel, radiating joy.

Next, a soft white glow bloomed as a vintage silver lantern floated beside Rita—its warm light cutting through the dim morning like moonlight reborn.

Shadow.Q instinctively looked up at the still-hanging moon in the sky, somehow feeling the same energy.

But the lantern didn’t linger. After hovering for a moment—as if just checking who had come by—it drifted away, disinterested.

Rita leaned against the doorframe.

"How long are you gonna stare, Xiao Zhao?"

The familiar tone and nickname shattered the distance Shadow.Q had felt building. She smiled, walking up.

"You’ve gotten stronger again."

She was carrying Eclipse Vanguard’s best S-rank scanning artifact. Not to pry or scheme—just to see how far the gap had grown between them and Rita. To see if they were even qualified to step into that mysterious place.

But she saw nothing.

Not even fake numbers to verify. Just a wall of question marks.

Rita turned and led her into the house. That’s when Shadow.Q noticed the stuffed duck-egg backpack Rita was carrying.

Shadow.Q: ...She didn’t get it, but she was pretty sure it was expensive.

In the living room, Nivalis and B8017913 were still deep in their games.

They had different tastes. B8017913 preferred farming sims and management games—it was currently developing its own digital farm.

As they stepped in, Shadow.Q’s gaze was caught by three balloons floating beside Nivalis.

Item Info: [Nivalis’s Pathetic Balloons]

What the hell was that?

Shadow.Q: "..."

Noticing the look, Nivalis glanced at her balloons... hesitated for a second... and decided, with a heavy heart, to take the blame for Rita without protest.

"What do you want to drink? Coffee, soda, or water?" Rita asked casually—then peeked into the fridge and corrected herself.

"Actually... just water. Nivalis drank all the other stuff."

Snapping back to reality, Shadow.Q said quickly, "I’ll have someone send more. Hang on."

Within moments, she received a reply. She stepped into the kitchen and placed down ten massive storage boxes.

"These contain every drink currently on the market—ten of each. Just let me know what you like, and we’ll set up regular deliveries. Three boxes are from Eclipse Vanguard’s R&D department—brand new formulas."

Rita: ...BS, are you... inside Shadow.Q right now?

The world really had changed.

While sorting through the boxes and picking out drinks for them both, Rita asked, "So, what did you come here to talk about?"

Shadow.Q gestured to the large metal case.

"That’s a temporary spatial storage unit. It contains 2000 stat-boost items.

500 came from Eclipse Vanguard, the rest are thank-you gifts from international organizations."

Even for someone like Rita—whose stats had skyrocketed—that kind of gift made her genuinely happy.

She smiled naturally and thanked Shadow.Q sincerely.

She remembered how B8017913 had yearned for soulfire. She remembered how the gods reacted, how their emotions spilled out. So when she didn’t have to plan or manipulate anything, Rita never hid her feelings.

She carried a tray of drinks back to the living room, set down bottles for Nivalis and B8, then turned to the now-open metal box.

Inside, 2000 items were neatly sorted, separated by colored metal frames. Each section had a card noting which legion or organization had sent that batch.

Rita pushed the box aside and nodded with appreciation.

She liked goodwill. And she was willing to reciprocate it.

She explained the Reality Bleeds Into Game skill in full:

"You guys can go back and study which games it pairs best with. I’ll give you 300,000 slots.

On the 2nd and 16th of every month, players can enter the game. On the 14th and 30th, I’ll forcibly eject them."

"These 300,000 slots—whether Eclipse Vanguard keeps them internal or trades them with foreign organizations—I don’t care.

I’ll judge you only by the final price you offer.

But if you do trade with foreign orgs, I’ll only accept ones who contributed to this box."

As soon as Rita finished explaining the skill’s full effects, Shadow.Q sat up straighter.

And when she realized Rita was offering the slots for trade, she couldn’t sit still.

A 1:1000 time ratio.

One day outside was 1000 days in the game!

That was insane!

Load in Elden Ring, Sekiro, or any other brutally hard game, and within ten days of real time, anyone who survived would come out transformed.

Not just gamers—they’d be the elite of humanity.

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