During the meal, Rita barely needed to say anything before Samuel and Scarlett started urging Rick to ask Zoey about the game.
Rita added cautiously, "But don't make it too obvious. If she's already a player and you suddenly start probing her, she might think you're suspicious of her or testing her. That could damage the relationship."
Rick nodded repeatedly.
Samuel continued questioning Rita about the game.
She told them everything she safely could.
Money inside the game was hard to earn.
She had only played for two hours and managed to earn just two silver coins and a shabby little pouch.
The healing potion had been something she bought before planning to leave the city and hunt monsters.
But right after buying it, before she even had the chance to purchase a weapon, the game disappeared.
Rick said quietly, "That game is definitely going to appear again. We just don't know the pattern yet."
Rita shook her head.
"You can't even find it online. That day I randomly searched for World of Warcraft because we used to play it back in high school. Then I saw a game with a similar name and downloaded it on impulse. There weren't any ads for it, and nobody online was discussing it either."
Samuel commented calmly, "That's normal. If something like this existed, who would openly talk about it? At most they'd tell family."
Scarlett frowned.
"Should our family start stockpiling supplies or something? I have a bad feeling things are going to get chaotic."
The family discussed things for a long time before finally parting ways.
And maybe it was just psychological, but Rita genuinely felt that Samuel and Rick treated her differently now.
Before, they had always acted affectionate.
But after regaining clarity through rebirth, she had always felt something calculated lurking underneath.
Now there was finally a trace of genuine familiarity.
Like she actually belonged.
A few days later, the family gathered again at Rick's hotel.
This time, Rick brought news.
Zoey's ear had been cut off.
Before Rita could even react, Scarlett blurted out,
"Then what happened to you... could it have been done by the Lopez family's enemies? Maybe they couldn't get to her before, so they took it out on you instead!"
Rick's expression clearly showed he thought the same thing.
But he kept his lips tightly pressed together, unwilling to become the person openly accusing others.
Rita gently added,
"Whether it was them or not, you're practically family with the Lopezes now. You'll be safer staying with them than outside."
Whether it was them or not...
It probably was.
But let's all pretend otherwise.
Rick felt deeply uncomfortable.
He was convinced the Lopez family's enemies had dragged him into their mess.
But another thought bothered him even more.
Did Zoey know what happened to him?
Suddenly he remembered blacking out on the morning of the sixth.
At the time, he assumed it was from his unstable sleep schedule and low blood sugar.
But what if it was actually the Lopez family's enemies trying to stop him from playing that game?
No...
That did not make sense either.
At the time, he had not even known the game existed.
He had only wanted to watch short videos to kill time.
Rick sank back into the sofa helplessly.
Just like Rita said...
Whether it was them or not...
What else could he even do?
...
Even though things had been progressing smoothly, Rita still had problems of her own.
The Coin Forging skill explicitly stated it was Goblin exclusive.
Even after learning it, the skill icon turned gray the moment she left the game world.
Only when using Disguise to transform into a goblin would the skill activate again.
Disguise was unbelievably useful, but its cooldown was painfully long.
At most, she could only use it four times a day.
To avoid interfering with normal use, Rita developed a routine.
Every night before sleeping, she transformed into a little green goblin, sat on the edge of her bed, forged three coins, then went to sleep.
By morning, the cooldown would have ended.
While transformed into a goblin, she also took the opportunity to turn invisible and Phantom Shift into Zoey's and Sanchez's bedrooms.
She only stole once from each.
Nothing excessive.
Then she returned home with sixty percent HP remaining and slept.
But after only two days, she discovered that Zoey's bedroom, no, almost the entire Lopez estate, had installed mist spraying systems.
The garden had them.
The mansion interior had them.
Every room had them.
The instant Rita noticed the fine mist in the air, she immediately Phantom Shifted out of the estate.
And the moment she got home, she realized her invisibility potion had failed.
She could see her own body again.
What a ridiculous expense.
How much revealing potion were they burning through every day?
And seriously...
Were these people not worried about mold?
No matter how fine the mist was, even luxury furniture would not survive being sprayed twenty four hours a day.
Still, it did not matter.
Rita drank another invisibility potion and returned to the Lopez estate.
This time she shifted directly beneath Zoey's bed.
Even if she became visible there, it would not matter.
Steal once and leave.
Peeking out from beneath the bed, Rita observed the room carefully.
The Lopez family did not seem alarmed.
Good.
Apparently she had not been discovered earlier.
Though she still could not tell whether Zoey's bedroom had surveillance cameras.
Not that it mattered much.
Rita was absurdly cautious.
Every single time, she first used Disguise, then drank invisibility potions.
She even wore a swim cap and face mask before activating Disguise.
Ever since needing goblin form to forge coins, she had started visiting both the Lopez and White families exclusively while disguised as a goblin.
Because of the Lopez family's countermeasures, she also shifted directly beneath Sanchez's bed when visiting the White family...
Only to discover she had appeared beside the bed instead.
Looking down, she realized the bed frame had been replaced.
The underside was completely sealed off.
Fortunately, the White family had not yet started using revealing mist.
After stealing from Sanchez, Rita casually walked through the bedroom's walk in closet to establish a teleportation point.
Next time, she could shift directly there.
Rita persisted with her daily check ins at both families.
After an entire month, she finally succeeded twice.
From Zoey, she stole 1 point of Intelligence.
From Sanchez, she stole 1 point of Strength.
Her current stats were now:
[Strength]: 7 + 1
[Constitution]: 7
[Intelligence]: 10 + 1
[Agility]: 18
[Luck]: 10 "MAX"
[Charm]: 10 "MAX"
But her biggest headache remained her profession skills.
She knew countless items and equipment that would mutate after the game invasion.
But priorities mattered.
Those items were not going anywhere.
Right now, the most important thing was leveling Alchemy and Engineering.
So Rita practically locked herself inside her villa.
Her schedule became terrifyingly disciplined.
Mornings were for grinding Alchemy experience.
Afternoons for Engineering.
Every meal doubled as Cooking skill training.
And each day she deliberately prepared a meat dish for the cat bed outside.
Ever since placing the cat toy there, stray cats had started sleeping in the little shelter almost every night.
At night, she practiced archery on the second floor.
Before bed, she read Alchemy Notes or Engineering Notes.
On weekends, she visited the lakeside within the villa district to level Fishing.
After the game invasion, many fish species mutated.
Without sufficient Fishing skill, high quality catches would be impossible.
Unfortunately, her Alchemy progress soon hit a wall.
Advanced Alchemy: 77/100000.
The herbs required at this level simply had no substitutes in reality.
She could only rely on materials purchased from the game.
And now...
She had completely run out.