After memorizing the ingredients for the Advanced Invisibility Potion, Rita immediately headed next door to the herb shop and bought six full inventory slots worth of materials.
It was not that she did not want to buy more.
The problem was that the game's inventory system was too rigid. She could not save space by stuffing different items into storage boxes and stacking them together.
She also needed to leave several slots free for the auction house.
Rita was racing against the clock.
She only had twenty three minutes of Disguise time remaining.
She rushed toward the auction house.
On the way, she ducked into a restaurant and upgraded [Cooking] to Intermediate, learning over a hundred new recipes.
At this point, she still had 4,286 gold left.
Standing in front of the auction house, she entered the keyword:
Chávez.
Nothing.
Rita did not even have time to complain.
She immediately changed the keyword to:
Bag.
Then she spent 800 gold buying two thirty six slot backpacks.
Those were already the largest bags she could find.
The moment she paid, the in game mailbox notified her of a new delivery.
She claimed the items and two new thirty six slot bags appeared in her inventory.
While frantically transferring items from her old bags into the new ones, she continued shopping at top speed.
The Thief God talent meant she could pursue any class direction she wanted.
Strength, agility, magic, anything worked.
But she had no time to carefully choose.
Naturally, she focused on skills she already knew well.
Then she suddenly saw a skill that completely captured her attention.
[Phantom Shift] (SS Rank)
After use, you may instantly travel to any location you have previously visited. Maximum range depends on the caster's Intelligence.
No cooldown.
Cast time: 0.1 seconds.
Consumes 1% mana per use.
10,000 gold.
And there was only one copy in the entire auction house.
This skill book...
This skill book hit Rita right in the soul.
No cooldown.
Near instant cast time.
That basically meant the skill could not be interrupted.
As long as she had mana, she could use it endlessly.
The obsession that "no one in this world will ever catch me again" was practically carved into Rita's bones.
She immediately abandoned every previous stockpiling plan.
She had to get this skill.
In her past life, she had never even heard of it.
Rick's group had always gotten whatever they wanted, yet even they still had to use transportation when traveling to dungeons.
But Rita's Disguise only had sixteen minutes left.
She spent 200 gold on a blue rarity necklace.
It only had one effect:
Reduce cooldowns by 15%.
The effect applied to all items, potions, and equipment.
In her previous life, 200 gold could have bought a top tier level 10 blue item with three stat lines.
Rita felt like she had become way too extravagant.
Then she searched for another skill:
[Phantom Cloak]
[Phantom Cloak] (C Rank)
Conceals your presence.
You cannot be seen with the naked eye.
No cooldown.
Consumes 10 mana per minute while active.
Cannot be seen with the naked eye meant it could still be detected through skills or items.
But for now, that was enough.
Invisibility Potions were amazing, but their cooldowns were too long.
Alternating between Beginner and Intermediate Invisibility Potions was no longer sufficient.
Phantom Cloak was only ranked C because the skill became almost useless after level ten.
At that point, everyone had some kind of detection method.
But in the current real world, it was incredibly useful.
She bought the skill book for only 120 gold.
Finally, she spent another 50 gold on:
[Sleep Spell] (C Rank)
A spell capable of briefly putting someone to sleep.
And one bottle of sleeping potion that could knock someone out for six hours.
After buying all four items, Rita immediately ran toward the city outskirts.
She barely made it out of Dark City before Disguise expired, returning to the graveyard where she had originally spawned.
Rita claimed the items from her mailbox.
She learned the skill books and equipped the necklace.
Then she logged out.
This time, her phone did not turn into black smoke.
Instead, when she exited the game, two bags appeared on the ground beside her, one black and one white.
Her new thirty six slot backpacks.
At the same time, a cold necklace slowly materialized around her neck.
Two new spells also appeared in her mind instinctively.
Rita cast Phantom Cloak on herself.
A wave of icy cold swept across her body, like a layer of freezing water sliding over her skin.
Then her body vanished from sight.
Time was precious.
After drinking a Phasing Potion, she returned to Rick's hotel room.
To her surprise, Rick was awake.
He was crouched on the floor, repeatedly trying to turn on the phone he had smashed.
Seeing the irritated look on his face, Rita actually felt a little shaken.
Was this the power of a protagonist?
Half his dick was gone, his phone was constantly getting flooded with explicit spam, and he still somehow found the motivation to play with electronics?
Then she noticed Rick walking over to his suitcase and searching for something.
Rita's sharp eyes immediately spotted a tablet and laptop inside.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
She had overlooked the tablet.
Fine.
So this was how he wanted to play.
Without hesitation, Rita cast [Sleep Spell] directly on him.
She had specifically bought the spell for Rick.
Soon, she would be away from the hotel for a long time and unable to monitor him personally.
Rick collapsed onto the floor.
Rita walked over and force fed the sleeping potion down his throat, making sure he swallowed every drop before leaving the hotel.
Phantom Cloak consumed 10 mana per minute.
But Rita constantly chewed beef jerky while maintaining the skill.
The food restored 5 mana per minute.
That meant her actual mana drain was only 5 per minute.
Even if all her mana ran out after twenty minutes, she could simply drink a Beginner Mana Potion and instantly recover 60 points.
Combined with Invisibility Potions, she could now remain hidden for long periods without needing to hide during cooldown windows.
Rita immediately sprinted toward the Lopez family estate.
Where could she find massive amounts of gold?
Aside from banks, there was only one answer:
The Lopez family treasury.
Every secret that could not be exposed and every valuable asset worth protecting was stored there.
Rita knew because, in her previous life, the evil ritual capable of stealing Divine Gifts had been hidden inside that treasury.
It was now 7:13 a.m.
With the cooldown reduction necklace equipped, the cooldown on [Disguise] had dropped to five hours and six minutes.
At exactly 12:12 p.m., she would be able to use Disguise again and re enter the game.
The second beta test would end at 1:06 p.m.
That gave her only four hours.
At 12:12, whether or not she successfully stole gold from the Lopez family, she would absolutely find a safe location and log back into the game.
She was willing to adjust her original plans for Phantom Shift.
But she would never stubbornly tunnel vision herself into disaster.
Originally, she had planned to finish stockpiling supplies and then head into the wilderness to grind monsters and level up.
Now, she was simply replacing monster grinding time with farming the Lopez family dungeon.
Running all the way to the Lopez estate was impossible.
Their estate was a two hour drive from downtown.
Last time, running from the White family estate to the city had nearly killed her.
She called the "Gun King," the assassin who had somehow failed to shoot Rick's dick off even after firing seven shots.
She asked him to find a driver willing to make some quick cash.
The job was simple:
Deliver a "double door refrigerator" sitting beside a hotel alley to the suburban villa district.
If they made the trip within ninety minutes, she would pay 50,000.
For every minute faster, she would add another 10,000.
Sure, the Gun King charged fifty pounds of gold for a hit.
But he also knew plenty of people with "principles."
Guys willing to break the law but unwilling to kill.
After Rita repeatedly assured him there was no dismembered corpse hidden inside the refrigerator, he immediately accepted the job.
Ten minutes later, a black pickup truck stopped outside the alley.
Two men got out and looked around.
Soon, they found the "refrigerator" their client had mentioned.
The two of them loaded it onto the truck together and started speeding toward the destination.
At 8:45 a.m., the refrigerator was dropped off in a forest outside the villa district.
Rita, who had hitchhiked inside the "refrigerator," stored it back into her inventory.
Same routine as always.
Swimming cap on so no hairs would fall.
Mask on.
Gloves on.
She activated Phantom Cloak again and ran toward the Lopez family estate.