This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 602 - : The Name Eclipse Vanguard & the Abyssal Chest

"And if there's a task like an invading alien army or a boss from the Multirace Arena breaking loose, let me know. I'll send Bone Black Jade to help."

Of course, Shadow.Q agreed. After all, this used to be Black Jade's original job.

Still, she had one question. "Can Bone Black Jade be healed? Or, in its current state, can it even die a second time?"

Rita explained, "It's just bones. If it gets completely shattered, it'll lose mobility. But as long as I'm alive, I can reassemble it. So whoever teams with it will need to collect its bones if it goes down."

What she didn't say was that ever since she embedded the Dragonling Horn Shard from the Sleeping Dragon Shell into Bone Black Jade, she could sense its actions constantly. She could even feel every single bone it had.

Sure, if someone tossed its bones into a backpack, the connection would cut off—but if someone tried to hide and take them away, they'd eventually use them, and when they did, she'd feel it.

Even more, as long as the lost bones didn't exceed 20%, she could relight its soulflame. And even the missing bones could be substituted with other materials.

The only catch was, if the replacements exceeded 50%, it wouldn't be Bone Black Jade anymore.

She learned all that from a magical theory class—none of it tested yet. But the point was: she had contingencies. Otherwise, she wouldn't risk letting others tag along with it.

As for why she didn't just send Bone Black Jade to grind in the dungeon inside her study…

First, having a mana-replenishing teammate would reduce her own drain.

Second, once Bone Black Jade showed growth potential, she changed her whole plan. It was no longer a disposable asset—it would be her stand-in across BS.

Word had already spread that she killed Black Jade and turned him into Bone Black Jade. Videos of the skeletal dragon patrolling her territory had gone viral online.

Some of Black Jade's fans made a bit of noise, but with Rita's name tied to recent player evolutions, nobody dared push it too far.

Now, everyone knew Bone Black Jade belonged to BS-Rita. Every move it made represented her presence. Its appearance was synonymous with her arrival.

She didn't want to be overly tied to Eclipse Vanguard—didn't want them speaking or acting on her behalf, even if they had done everything well.

They hadn't monopolized high-tier dungeon access. They let ordinary players queue for runs. Even for the lowest-tier F-rank divine talents, if you wanted to level, you could queue.

Society hadn't collapsed. Older players weren't discarded. Eclipse Vanguard offered classes for non-combatant and non-combat-loving players.

Back when hospitals struggled, they pushed affordable healing injections and potions. Now, they offered rental gear services for players.

You could borrow a full set of gear just by paying 10% of your dungeon earnings.

It gave hope to players with bad luck but real talent—saving them from grinding low-level dungeons for gear money.

There were many more examples.

Even if Eclipse Vanguard was ruthless in its strategic decisions, for 90% of the player base, it lived up to its name.

When the game descended, Eclipse Vanguard saw war—not a chance to rule BS.

So, while she cooperated, clashed, and calculated with them, until they truly made a move to hurt her, she couldn't label them her enemy.

Someone had to do the things she wouldn't.

But she still wanted a clear line between herself and Eclipse Vanguard.

She was her own entity. Eclipse Vanguard was its own.

She needed Bone Black Jade to keep amplifying her presence.

...

After Shadow.Q took Bone Black Jade, Rita strolled through the Engineering Workshop and felt like she'd walked into a sci-fi movie set in a scientist's lab.

The workshop was a marvel of mechanical design—cool, industrial gray tones, with a 30 cm miniature dragon statue carved into the rooftop.

Everything was crafted with precision, no wasted aesthetics—just rigorous, calculated utility. Storage rooms, display rooms, studios, and labs were all clearly separated.

Inside the studio was a toolkit, sized perfectly for Nivalis' most commonly used dragon forms. Even the tiniest details screamed this was made for a dragon.

It wasn't finished yet, but it already looked like a work of art. Rita was actually looking forward to her own Alchemy Workshop now.

Back at the villa, she wrapped up her final crossbow lesson and finally opened the Abyssal Chest she'd been holding back on.

B8017913: "Why'd you wait so long?"

Rita ran her fingers along the chest's edge—her highest-tier chest yet. "Luck's limited per day. Even if it's 10, that's still a cap."

Just like how, using I Just Want to Improve So Badly, the more successful steals she had in a day, the worse the odds and loot became.

She would love to max her attributes before the next Divine Game.

But it just wasn't realistic.

Without One-Person Party, the chances of stealing gear or money were already higher than stealing attributes. After a hundred successful thefts in a day, success rates dropped. After another hundred, the failure rate shot up to 90%.

She took a deep breath and opened the chest.

A black collar.

Furry—like a small animal's fluffy tail curled into a circle. Or maybe a scrunchie?

A piece of jewelry?

Hopefully not. She only had one accessory slot, and she was already swapping between her Flame Spirit Ring and the cooldown-reducing necklace.

Maybe it was a weapon or an artifact?

She picked it up.

[Plush Hoop] (Toy): When used on any creature or item for more than three seconds, it transforms the target into a 10 cm tall plush doll. The creature retains full consciousness and skill use, but is not bound to obey you. The target can end the transformation at will. If used on an object, it must be ringed again to return to normal. No cooldown.

A toy, huh?

This wasn't Rita's first encounter with toy-type items. The robot she bought shopping with Nivalis and the minotaur wall clock she gave Apache were both toys.

She ran her fingers over the soft black ring, reading the item description over and over.

Then...

She slipped the ring around her own wrist.

Three seconds later, the ring fell to the ground.

Standing inside it... was a 10 cm tall plush doll with beady eyes.