This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 274: I Have No Malicious Intent!

Jameson had been in a Half Dream for 73 years, trading almost 45 minutes of waking time. However, when he used his Half Wake skill to rewind time just moments ago, it had nearly exhausted all the remaining time.

But now, Jameson realized that his Half Wake skill was disabled, with a cooldown of a staggering 960 days.

If the cooldown really lasted 960 days, there was no way he could secure an advantage in negotiations next time he met someone Miyaas specifically wanted. Not with just his mouth. This guy was too slippery!

Frustrated, Jameson repeated his previous statements, trying once again to convince Rita with a mix of soft and hard tactics.

With time running out, Rita cut him off decisively, "Fine. I can agree to your terms. As long as The White Family doesn’t target me, I won’t go after them either."

She then gave him her conditions: "But you must swear that you won’t reveal our deal, and you must solidify the current condition of Sanchez’s injury. You’ll also tell me the location of Miyaas’s remains and how to use them to evolve my Divine Gift. When I bring you the remains, you must give me the Dragon Ancestor’s reverse scale. No tricks. If either of us breaks the oath, I’ll die on the spot, and all your skills will be permanently disabled. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" Jameson quickly replied, clearly relieved. "You’ll find a sea monster’s milk tooth at 6 o’clock."

"I have the oath stone," Rita responded, holding it up.

"Good, good, let’s move quickly!" Jameson was in a rush. No traps, just formalizing the deal with an oath stone was perfect.

The two quickly completed their agreement.

Rita took out the oath stone she had purchased from Shadow.Q, placed one on the crystal coffin, and let Jameson inspect it, while she held the other one.

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Jameson sang a short tune and said, "I’ve already cursed my descendants with a bloodline curse, which you can verify."

Though she suspected something, Rita couldn’t help but feel alarmed by the term "bloodline curse." Her mouth ran ahead of her mind, and the first question she blurted out was, "Aren’t you going to ask her?"

Jameson replied, "What’s the point of asking when you’re already doing something wicked? No, no, little friend, I’m not targeting you. I just… I’m just saying… I… I mean, I, the old slave, have no ill intentions at all!"

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Rita paused for a moment, then used her oath stone and declared, "Fine. From now on, as long as The White Family doesn’t provoke me, I won’t take the lives of any of their people." She left everything else open-ended.

Jameson either didn’t notice the loophole or chose to ignore it. He quickly rattled off a list of materials and coordinates. "Go to this place, find Miyaas’s remains, consume these materials, hold the remains, and sing a little tune. That will evolve your Divine Gift. The tune is inscribed on the side of the crystal coffin. Once you’re done with Miyaas’s remains, bring them back to me and I’ll give you the Dragon Ancestor’s reverse scale."

As soon as he finished speaking, the countdown hit zero again, and Jameson fell silent, locked into his crystal coffin.

Nivalis was curious. "Are you really going to spare Sanchez?"

Rita, walking toward a corner, casually pocketed the sea monster’s milk tooth and responded, "Hmm, the price he’s offering is high enough."

Considering Sanchez’s current sacrifice and the potential risks she had left for The White Family—combined with her previous dealings with them—Rita decided to let it go, at least for now.

But the most important factor was that this situation still had room for maneuver. With Sanchez’s personality, a little provocation could set her off. Rita had plenty of ways to bait her into a trap.

Rita stood by the crystal coffin and glanced at the tune inscribed on the side.

Nivalis, still skeptical, asked, "I feel like something’s off. Are you really going to do it?"

Rita walked around the coffin, appraising the stone figure inside. She smiled and said, "He wants me to find Miyaas’s remains so badly. Of course, I have to go take a look."

Nivalis suddenly spoke, "But are you actually going to bring Miyaas’s remains to him? He doesn’t care about the remains, does he? What he really wants is for you to go and find them, to complete the Divine Gift evolution."

Rita turned to look at Nivalis, surprised, as if seeing the mischievous young dragon in a new light. "You figured it out?"

Nivalis explained, "Yeah. Snow Pile spent a whole year teaching me about contract traps and contract linguistics. If you strip away all the fancy words, what Jameson wants most urgently is for you to reconcile with The White Family and go find Miyaas’s remains to complete the Divine Gift evolution. Everything else is secondary."

She paused before adding, "And there’s a trap too—he talks about upgrading your Divine Gift, but he never specifies whose Divine Gift he’s talking about."

"Exactly," Rita nodded. "The flaw of an oath stone is that it can only bind you to a promise, but it can’t force someone else to do something."

She patted Nivalis’s head, offering praise. "I’ve underestimated you. You’re really smart."

"I admit it, my intelligence is my trump card. Just like you, I like to keep one card hidden." Nivalis said solemnly before a mischievous smile spread across his face. "But now, aren’t we going to miss out on the Dragon Scale?"

Rita smiled wryly and patted the crystal coffin. "At this point, I might be more eager to resurrect him than he is."

How else could she kill him if he didn’t come back to life?

Even though Rita and Nivalis had been pretending throughout this deal, from the very beginning, it had been full of calculation. It was clear Jameson had been scheming for years. If he didn’t die, she wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully.

And if the Divine Gift evolution truly allowed it to devour others, this could very well be Miyaas’s plan to target her Divine Gift. She couldn’t let such a threat live.

Nivalis asked, "So what are we going to do now?"

Rita, heading toward the exit, said, "Have you ever seen The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?"

Nivalis blinked, confused. "No. What’s it about?"

"It’s a martial arts story. There’s a chess game in it called the Zhenlong Chessboard. A genius set it up for years to find a clever disciple. The game was so tricky that no one could win it for years. He said whoever solves the chessboard can become his disciple. But no one managed to win."

"Why was it so hard?"

"It’s designed that way. The game puts the players in a position where they can’t move forward or retreat. Some people don’t want to give up their pieces because they’re too kind. Others can’t let go of their advantages because they’re too greedy. There was only one main character, someone who didn’t know how to play chess, who just made random moves. He sacrificed a lot of pieces, and by doing that, he solved the game and got the treasure."

"So?"

"That’s how we’ll handle this. We’ll avoid the trap, give up the seemingly most valuable treasure, and go straight to the conclusion."

With Miyaas’s chessboard bypassed, the transaction was reduced to a simple trade: "I won’t take action against The White Family, and I’ll deliver Miyaas’s remains to Jameson" in exchange for the Dragon Ancestor’s reverse scale.

In game terms, this was like turning an S-level quest into a B-level one, cutting the task chain in half.

Nivalis looked regretful. "You really won’t evolve your Divine Gift?"

Rita shook her head. "Let nature take its course. If Jameson resurrects Miyaas’s remains and destroys them, then fine. If not…"