Rita slipped smoothly into the Lopez estate.
Using Phasing Potions, she followed her memories from her past life and found the treasury entrance in the study of the manor's main building. Then she headed down.
Along the way, advanced security systems covered every stretch.
She was even prepared to charge in, grab what she could, and run if the heat sensors detected her.
Luckily, magic was unsolvable.
Only magic could defeat magic.
She felt like she had gone several meters underground. She passed through three doors. Just as she reached the final door, alarms suddenly blared all around her.
She glanced down at the tiles under her feet and clicked her tongue.
There was probably a pressure sensor under the floor.
She did not hesitate. She drank a Phasing Potion, passed through the old, beautifully carved door, and entered the treasury.
The treasury was no smaller than the manor above.
It was divided into sections: books, jewelry, antiques, and gold.
Rita ran through them quickly and was soon dazzled by gold.
Inside a small glass room, gold bricks were stacked in neat rows. Each gold brick was slightly smaller than a phone, but half a finger thick.
After handling so much gold recently, she estimated at a glance that each brick weighed about ten pounds.
Who said wealthy families had limited liquid assets?
Sure, they had limited cash flow.
Because they stored everything in gold.
She rushed in and began stuffing gold bricks into her space inventory.
Thank goodness she had bought new bags. Out of 72 inventory slots, 44 were currently empty.
In other words, if she filled them all, she could carry 44 times 99 gold bricks.
A total of 4,356 bricks.
If she slowed down and packed the gold into storage boxes first, then stored the boxes, she could carry even more.
But there was no time.
Soon, noise came from outside.
Doors opening, guns being loaded, footsteps growing closer.
Rita practically threw herself onto the gold pile and kept shoving bricks into her backpack.
The moment a large group stormed in from outside, Rita stopped.
Even though 20 slots were still empty, she decisively withdrew, left the gold room, drank a Phasing Potion, and sprinted outward.
Rita was greedy.
But she understood restraint and trade-offs even better.
As expected, the moment she reached the main door, the row of bodyguards holding guns opened fire on the gold room under the Lopez family head's order.
It did not matter if the gold and decorations inside were damaged.
Outside the door, faint electric currents flowed across the floor.
Rita slammed to a stop.
She pulled out ten packs of explosives she had made, lit several, and threw them all into the corridor ahead.
Then she hid behind the door.
Five seconds later, several explosions rang out in succession.
When she looked again, the floor was blackened.
Nothing remained.
She continued rushing outward.
Although each Phasing Potion lasted only fifteen seconds, its cooldown was short, only thirty seconds.
Fortunately, compared to bodyguards, the Lopez family clearly trusted technology more.
The group that had rushed into the basement earlier was probably the Lopez family's core security force. Not many more people entered afterward.
Rita did not run out of the estate.
Instead, she headed to Zoey's room.
The moment she entered, she saw Mateo, Theodore, and Zoey sitting in the bedroom, playing the game.
Even with the huge commotion below, none of them moved.
Either they trusted the Lopez family head's ability, or they simply could not bear to abandon the game that would change their lives.
Rita did not hesitate.
She raised her hand and cast three Sleep Spells.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
All three collapsed one after another.
At the same moment they fell, Rita thought about checking their phones. But the screens had gone black too.
So the game was connected to the player's mind.
That made sense. Otherwise, how could the skills she learned in the game synchronize into reality?
Then two bags appeared in front of Zoey.
Ha.
An unexpected surprise.
Rita stepped forward and stuffed both bags into her arms.
Although the waist only had two bag slots, it worked like equipment. It was not that a person could not carry more. Only two could take effect.
Just like a person could wear a dozen vests if they wanted, but since the upper body only had one equipment slot, only one vest could actually activate.
She could carry Zoey's bags on her body. She just could not sense their contents.
She had originally planned to hide here for a while.
But now that Zoey's bags were in her hands, Rita did not dare gamble.
She had never imagined bags could drop this way.
Even with the Thief God talent, she could only steal a single piece of equipment or item from someone's bag. She could even steal a bag stored inside another person's bag.
But she could not steal the bags currently equipped on their body.
You could knock someone unconscious and forcibly strip off their gear.
But to obtain the bags worn on someone's body, you had to kill them. Otherwise, touching them was like touching empty air.
Rita pulled an axe from her bag and weighed it in her hand.
Then she walked up to the three of them.
Sanchez had given her an arm as interest.
What should these three give?
An ear.
Since Zoey believed whatever Rick said, taking one ear was not excessive, right?
Rita pulled out the butcher knife she had bought and crouched beside Zoey.
The moment she lifted Zoey's hair, she saw the blue diamond stud on her right ear.
Ha.
Rita's eyes lit up.
She quickly lifted that ear and sliced it off.
The intense pain interrupted the drowsy effect of Sleep Spell.
Zoey woke in agony, clutching her ear and screaming.
But no matter how she looked around, she saw no one.
Rita had already drunk an Invisibility Potion and a Phasing Potion.
She fled with the ear and the blue diamond stud.
On the way, she stripped off the bloodstained gloves and stored them, along with the ear and earring, in her bag.
Then she sprinted all the way to the nearby Taylor family estate and slipped into a maid's room in one of the side buildings.
No one was inside.
Of course. It was already 11:35, the busiest time for household staff.
Unable to confirm whether the maid's room had cameras, Rita familiarly crawled under the bed and lay flat.
This place felt reassuring.
It was even a sunroom.
Much more comfortable.
12:12 p.m.
Rita, still under the bed, opened the game right on time.
After disguising herself as a goblin, she ran to find her goblin teacher.
Twenty two inventory slots were filled with gold bricks.
Another slot held fifteen bricks.
That made 2,193 gold bricks in total, or 21,930 pounds.
When she found her goblin teacher and proposed exchanging all of them for gold coins, even the goblin fell silent for a few seconds.
A dialogue box appeared.
"I don't have that many gold coins, my friend."
Rita was genuinely angry.
She had worked herself half to death making money, and now he was telling her he could not even produce 60,000 gold?
Idontcare: "You don't even have 60,000 gold?!"
Goblin: "...Do you?"
Rita: Are you mocking me?
Idontcare: "Then how much do you have, my friend?"
Goblin: "20,000."
Idontcare: "Don't you have friends?"
The goblin fell silent again.
Say something, husband!
After a long while, the goblin said, "I'm not exchanging anymore."
Idontcare: "I am your most loyal friend!"
Goblin: "How disgusting."
Idontcare: "Then let's exchange 20,000 gold first."
Goblin: "Fine, my disgusting friend."
Rita endured it.
She then went to the goblin engineer and asked to exchange gold coins.
The engineer ignored her.
Idontcare: "Teacher?"
The goblin focused on tapping and adjusting a copper pipe.
Idontcare moved closer. "Teacher?"
When she called him teacher for the third time in the dialogue box, she finally got a reply.
On the screen, the tiny goblin flew into a rage.
"No money! I have no money! Ask, ask, ask. Couldn't you see I was ignoring you? All my money went into research. If you really see me as your teacher, pay more tuition! If you have none, go find Bill!"
Rita: "...Sorry to bother you."
Ten minutes after entering the game, Rita cursed under her breath and ran to the auction house with 20,000 gold.
The first thing she did was spend 10,000 gold to buy the double SS rank skill, Phantom Shift.
Then she started shopping like crazy.