Rita had never asked the Wilson family where Rick was staying.
She got all the information through her little sparrow.
Before Rick entered the hotel, the sparrow had slipped into the hood of his sweatshirt and followed him all the way into the room. Right now, it was hidden inside a bonsai plant.
To avoid the smell of decay spreading from the bird, Rita replaced it with a fresh sparrow every day.
After drinking a Phasing Potion, Rita smoothly entered Rick's hotel room.
Even while multitasking, she still needed to personally confirm that Rick never entered the game.
Only then would she feel at ease.
Inside the hotel room, Rick lay on the bed with a frown, occasionally turning over. It was impossible to tell whether he was asleep.
A phone lay in the corner of the room.
Judging from the dent in the wall, it had probably been thrown there.
Rita walked over for a look. She could not tell the brand. Zoey probably bought it for him. Some high-end model, apparently, since the screen had not even cracked.
Once Rick married into the Lopez family, he would probably get premium phones and special private services too.
No more spam messages.
She stared at Rick.
When he rolled over again and conveniently turned his back to this side, Rita hooked the phone up with the tip of her foot and stored it in her backpack.
Then she used a Phasing Potion to enter the neighboring room.
She had booked this room in advance using the identity of some guy from W City.
Rita took out the phone.
Since she was still invisible, she was not worried about any advanced technology recording her appearance.
She turned the phone over several times and found a shallow dent in the upper left corner. That was probably where it had hit the wall earlier.
She aimed that corner at the wall again and smashed it down hard.
Crack.
Half the screen shattered.
The display lit up automatically, showing the date, but half the screen had already become a mess of green and purple static.
Rita put the damaged phone away and returned to Rick's room.
Rick still had his back toward the door.
Rita walked to where the phone had originally fallen and carefully placed the broken device back exactly where it had been.
Then she quietly left.
Before coming here, she had imagined dozens, even hundreds, of possible situations.
She never expected things would go this smoothly.
She had even considered the nightmare scenario where Rick, instead of breaking down from the harassment messages, got excited and started "practicing technique." Then, right before six o'clock, he suddenly decided to find a game to play.
She had even prepared herself to knock him unconscious if necessary.
At exactly six o'clock, Rita returned to Rick's room once more.
The broken phone still lay on the floor.
Rick had his head buried under the blanket. She could not tell if he was asleep.
Rita cast [Wheel of Fate] on him, setting his Luck to 1.
Only then did she return to the neighboring room to prepare for the second beta test.
...
6:06 a.m.
The moment she found [Starsea: Rift of the Beasts], Rita clicked download.
After entering the character selection screen, she saw the familiar undead character.
However, beside the ID [Idontcare], there was now an extra line of information.
[Wanted]
Rita touched the hidden pocket inside her clothes.
The two bags she had hidden there in reality were gone.
But on the screen, the undead character still carried the two familiar bags at its waist.
She immediately tried using the Thief God skill [Disguise!] to transform herself into a short goblin.
Soon, the real Rita changed.
Her body shrank, her skin turned green, and her ears became larger.
At the same time, the undead character on the screen changed as well.
Rita immediately entered the game.
No matter where she spawned, she only had one hour before Disguise expired.
Within that hour, she needed to understand her current situation.
The screen lit up.
The little goblin stood in a graveyard. Adjusting the camera angle, Rita saw the undead city not far away.
She immediately controlled her character and ran toward it. Whenever low-level monsters appeared along the way, she sprinted past them.
Less than five minutes later, she stood at the city gate.
At the entrance hung a portrait of her original undead character.
Thankfully, when she first created the character, she had felt uncomfortable because the undead looked eighty percent like her real self. Ever since then, she always clicked randomize during character creation.
Although the Thief God's Disguise skill had a short duration, no item or skill could see through it.
Rita entered the city effortlessly.
She rushed straight to the goblin district and found a goblin shopkeeper.
Then she asked whether he accepted gold.
The goblin replied, "Time is money. If you have gold, why not mint coins yourself? Didn't your old mentor teach you that?"
Rita's breathing quickened.
She typed into the dialogue box:
"May I ask if you would be willing to teach me the skill? I am willing to pay for your valuable time."
The goblin immediately opened a trade window demanding 100 gold.
This opportunity was too valuable.
Rita did not even dare haggle.
She directly handed over the 100 gold she had extorted from the undead city lord.
[The goblin Robert L has taught you "Gold Forging" (Beginner)]
She immediately opened the skill description.
[Gold Forging] (A Rank) (Goblin Exclusive)
Infuse gold with magic to create a unique gold coin.
Proficiency: 0/10000
Trait 1:
Each forged coin automatically deducts 20g of gold and transmits it through the void to the Goblin Merchant Guild as tax.
Trait 2:
Money can buy anything, but to maintain market stability, each goblin may only produce up to 3 gold coins per day for personal use.
Rita immediately took out a 500g gold bar from her inventory.
After clicking it, the interface showed (4/4) available crafts.
She selected craft all.
Golden light glowed between the character's hands. The progress bar completed one cycle per second.
Soon, three gold coins appeared in her inventory.
The 500g gold bar had been reduced to 140g.
Her proficiency also increased by 3 points.
Which meant...
In the future, Rita could mint her own gold coins?
And after forging enough coins, as long as she acquired blueprints or found a goblin willing to teach her, she could learn Intermediate Gold Forging.
Although the limit was only three coins per day, the number was still terrifying.
Sure, after arriving here she could casually steal dozens of gold coins or fleece the undead city lord for a hundred gold.
But back in reality, when she ran dungeons in her past life, even by the end of the second year, after risking her life all day in high-level dungeons, her direct coin income was still less than one gold coin.
Rita did not waste any more time.
Suppressing her chaotic thoughts, she pulled several large storage boxes from her backpack and asked whether the goblin wanted them.
The goblin circled the boxes several times.
He dismissed the appliances and toys inside as garbage worth at most two silver coins per box.
However, the two crates of vodka and red wine were valued at twelve gold coins.
Rita sold all fifty-five crates of alcohol for 330 gold.
She sold the junk too, earning less than one gold total.
Then she pulled out ten pounds of gold and asked how many gold coins she could exchange for it.
At the moment, she only had the few gold coins she had stolen from Zoey. It was nowhere near enough for skill training.
The goblin offered a rate of one gold coin for every 200g of gold.
Rita spent five minutes bargaining and only managed to push it to 180g for one gold coin.
She knew the rate could still go lower.
But her Disguise only had thirty minutes left.
Without hesitation, she took out all her gold.
The 3,216 pounds of gold from W City, plus the gold from the Wilson family.
Altogether, 3,240 pounds.
She exchanged it for 6,000 gold coins.
That was practically the total reserve of a medium-sized guild in her previous life.
Then Rita sprinted to the goblin Engineering Master nearby.
She upgraded Engineering to Advanced and learned every single one of the hundred-plus new blueprints.
After that, she rushed to the alchemy shop and repeated the process.
Advanced Alchemy unlocked.
Over a hundred new recipes.
Every. Single. One. Learned.
Back in school, she had trembled in fear during course registration.
But in games?
Her thirst for knowledge came out swinging.