Little Rick, snap. Half gone.
But it was fine. Short was cute too.
Rita raised her voice slightly. "How could a family like ours offend someone with a gun?"
That sentence jolted both of them awake. Even the groggy Rick frowned, as if he was about to wake from a dream.
Scarlett froze for a moment. Then realization struck. Her eyes widened as she looked at Samuel and lowered her voice.
"Was it the Lopez family?"
Samuel shook his head and finally took a drag from his cigarette. "Hard to say."
Seeing that Rick was already awake, Rita said, "Let's talk outside. We shouldn't wake Rick."
Samuel and Scarlett got up and followed Rita out of the ward. When the door closed, Rita clearly saw Rick's hand clench into a fist.
Standing outside the ward, Rita asked, "Does the Wilson family have enemies?"
Samuel frowned. "Why do you ask?"
Rita said, "It just feels like this kind of attack was aimed at our whole family. Like someone wanted the Wilson family line to end. Of course, it hasn't ended. As long as it's still there, there's still hope, right? What did the doctor say?"
"He can still have children." Samuel took another drag, his voice weary. "I'll look into this. Protect yourself. You'd better move back home for now."
It sounded like a loving father worrying about his daughter.
Rita suspected he just wanted another body around in case someone came looking for revenge.
She did not agree. "Rick still has to marry into the Lopez family, right?"
The old fox had sent Rick to a black clinic immediately. Clearly, he wanted to keep this quiet.
"If I move back now, it'll look too unusual. It might make Zoey suspicious."
It was a solid excuse. Samuel took the opening and stopped trying to persuade her.
Rita stayed a little longer, then said she was going home to make soup and left.
She knew Rick was awake, but she really did not want to act anymore. She was afraid she would laugh halfway through her lines, so she got out fast.
Samuel and Rick were indeed alike. When something happened, their first instinct was to hide it, not to think about the terrifying consequences if the Lopez family discovered it after Rick married in.
After Rick woke, Samuel sent Scarlett away. Only then did the father and son begin to talk.
Rita, who had returned after drinking an Invisibility Potion, was not surprised at all.
In truth, the reason she had never doubted that Samuel was her biological father was because...
Fine. After her rebirth, she had found time to do a paternity test. She really was his biological daughter.
Samuel and Rick both refused to treat women as people they could trust. No matter how gentle they seemed, deep down, they looked down on women.
Scarlett's position might be a little higher than Rita's, but only a little. Most of the time, she was just a weapon Samuel used.
Samuel looked at Rick. "Any thoughts?"
Rick stared at the ceiling with dead eyes. "Could it be one of Rita's enemies? Maybe she caused trouble outside."
Samuel sighed. "How many times have I taught you? Stay calm when trouble comes. Don't vent your anger. Venting is what women do. If she caused trouble, why wouldn't they go after her?"
Rick began suspecting the other woman in the family. "Could Mom's temper have offended someone?"
Samuel shook his head. "I know everything she does."
Rick closed his eyes. His chest rose and fell violently. After a long time, he continued in a hoarse voice, "Does someone in the Lopez family disagree with me marrying in?"
"Hard to say. But they didn't need to use such underhanded methods. If they had rejected us directly, we wouldn't have dared to pester them."
After a pause, Samuel said softly, "Have you offended any women? You know a lot of messy people through work."
Rick thought carefully. He was sure he had not offended anyone. He kept a friendly but distant attitude with everyone. He had only grown closer to Zoey after confirming her family background.
He shook his head.
Samuel patted Rick's hand comfortingly. "That vase has been sold. Before the engagement, I'll get the villa settled for you."
Rick asked again, "Is Rita really out of money?"
Samuel said, "Most likely. I looked into it. There was a murder at her company, and her manager got dragged into it. You know how much she trusted that woman. She probably isn't in the mood right now. When she feels better, I'll find a way to get her earning money again. Focus on healing. Don't worry about this."
Rick said without much hope, "With me like this..."
Samuel said, "The doctor said it won't affect having children. Shorter doesn't matter. What matters in this kind of thing is technique."
Rita nearly laughed out loud.
Seeing that she could not hear anything useful, Rita left the ward with regret.
After learning Rick was missing a section, she felt completely refreshed.
Yes.
This was the path of revenge.
She wanted Rick to live every second in pain and fear.
Marry into the Lopez family?
He was not even a whole man anymore, yet he still dared marry Zoey. Haha.
She wanted to see what Rick could do now.
She was not worried about making enemies with the Lopez family at all.
She had reduced the male lead's Luck to 1. He was still an ordinary person, yet he had made a top-ten underworld assassin miss seven shots at Little Rick. In the end, the assassin only succeeded after retreating to cutting half.
The Lopez family dared harm the male lead?
They could wait to go bankrupt.
Wait.
Had she been even more impressive in her previous life?
With Luck at 1, she had been hunted by so many people for seven days before being caught.
Could she be the real female lead?
Rita hummed as she returned to her villa.
It was not that the game had no spells to heal severed limbs. Zoey had known one in her previous life, but that was already the third year after the invasion. At that time, humanity's highest level had reached 25.
Zoey became famous because of that spell.
On all of Blue Star, she was the only one who knew it.
No matter.
Rita had plenty of ways to make sure Zoey never even came into contact with it in this life.
As for Rick, he had two full years of suffering ahead.
Would he buy a fake one to fool Zoey?
Hahaha.
After dealing with Little Rick, Rita began preparing for the second beta.
Now that she had a backpack, she wanted to test whether real-world items could be brought into the game and sold for gold.
Even if something worth ten thousand in reality could only sell for one gold in the game, she still profited.
Within half a year after the invasion, real-world money would become waste paper. Even if she exchanged it for gold, that was still better than paper.
Although real gold and game gold coins were fundamentally different. Gold coins contained a trace of mana and could not be faked.
Still, some alien merchants moved between both sides for profit and had no racial loyalty. They accepted real gold.
Especially goblins.
To goblins, only money mattered. They did not care who lived or died. They did every kind of business. They even exchanged real gold for game gold coins.
A gold coin weighed less than one hundred grams. But with goblin merchants, three hundred grams of real gold could only be exchanged for one gold coin.
According to them, doing business on Blue Star was expensive.
Then they listed all kinds of extra fees, including battlefield subsidies, travel expenses for business trips to Blue Star, possible funeral costs, the price goblins paid to mint gold coins, and so on.
By the time goblin merchants appeared, real-world currency had already collapsed. Everyone traded with game currency.
Forget exchanging money for gold. Ever since goblins started accepting gold for coins, gold itself became nearly impossible to buy.
But that was all after the invasion.
For now, Rita would naturally prepare in advance and exchange the money she had for gold.