Rita had no intention of killing Theodore.
After all, in the future, Theodore would die at the hands of the male lead anyway.
Why?
Because he liked Sanchez.
And in stories like this, that basically guaranteed death.
Not only that, before he died, Theodore caused endless trouble for the protagonist.
Framing him.
Exploiting him.
Mocking him constantly.
Stealing his rewards.
He was basically the toxic sister in law archetype from every melodramatic romance novel, just gender swapped.
After stealing four attribute points, Rita immediately started checking Theodore for equipment.
And she actually found something.
A White Dragon cloth belt.
Equipping it increased Constitution by +1.
It was not that Rita looked down on the bonus.
The real issue was...
The belt was filthy.
Like some butcher had worn it while slaughtering pigs for ten years straight until the grease soaked completely through the fabric, then left it to dry in the sun.
This was a cloth belt.
Yet when she pulled it out, it hung stiff like leather.
Forget it.
No getting cocky.
Rita tossed it into her backpack anyway.
At minimum, it could still sell for a few dozen silver coins.
After leaving the Lopez estate, she rushed straight to Sanchez's walk in closet.
Recently, the White family had also installed revealing mist systems.
Just like the Lopez family, they only used Beginner Revealing Potions.
Which made sense.
Blanketing an entire estate with potion mist every single day consumed ridiculous amounts.
Who had enough resources for intermediate grade potions?
Lately, Sanchez had been having a miserable time.
Modern medicine could not restore her arm.
And she refused to use a prosthetic.
So she had gone completely obsessive about finding players.
At the same time, she also forced many of the White family's trusted subordinates into the game.
Meanwhile, she suspected Daniel White might somehow be connected.
Otherwise, why had he died on the exact same day she lost her arm?
Thanks to the Chávez Glasses, she already knew Daniel had been a player too.
She had simply never exposed it.
But after investigating every single person Daniel had interacted with recently, the White family found nothing.
No progress.
No leads.
Then during the second beta, Sanchez discovered her in game character was also missing an arm.
Ever since then, her mental state had become terrifying.
Other than family, almost nobody dared approach her anymore.
After over an hour of stealing, Sanchez finally dropped something useful too.
Constitution +1.
Rita immediately returned to her villa.
She downed a huge cup of coffee, cooked three massive bowls of meat dishes, placed them beside the cat house, patted the three little cat heads inside, then left the villa and personally drove to the airport.
Technically, she could have just used Phantom Shift to teleport there.
But unless she was actively committing crimes, Rita deliberately pretended she did not possess that ability.
Anyone investigating her movements had to be able to find a normal trail.
At the airport, she messaged Samuel and the others.
She told them she was heading to Beijing because she had found suspicious information about possible players on an online forum.
They believed her completely.
While waiting to board, she closed her eyes and replayed the undead alchemy instructor's beginner potion tutorial inside her mind.
Then a cautious voice spoke beside her.
It belonged to a young woman.
"Um... are you Rita?"
Rita froze slightly.
Instinctively, countless faces flashed through her mind.
Enemies from her previous life.
Fellow fugitives.
None matched.
Her silence stretched too long.
The girl immediately became nervous, thinking she had upset Rita.
"I'm sorry. Did I bother you? I really didn't mean to. I just... I couldn't help it. It's been so long since anyone heard anything about you."
Ah.
A fan.
How distant that felt now.
Such pure and awkward affection.
Rita lowered her mask and chatted with the girl for a while.
She even bought her a coffee.
But after witnessing all kinds of bizarre Divine Gifts, she firmly refused to give an autograph.
Even after boarding the plane, Rita still found herself thinking about it.
Those entertainment industry problems from before...
They felt like something from centuries ago.
Even Amelia setting her up to be delivered to a dead man's bed now seemed childish in comparison.
She had nearly ended up trafficked into an alien's bed later anyway because of Camila and Henry.
Compared to that, Amelia barely ranked.
Zoey was cruel too.
But most of her methods relied on power and influence.
She did not really play dirty.
She would simply pressure others through status.
Have people steal Rita's resources.
Buy out every material Rita urgently needed before she could get them.
Seize rare quest items outright.
That sort of thing.
Sanchez, on the other hand, was vicious.
If she hated someone, she preferred direct violence over schemes.
No complicated manipulation.
No mind games.
To her, hurting someone physically was far more effective than psychological torture.
Her life philosophy was simple.
Mental suffering was nothing compared to bodily suffering.
Then there were the Taylor sisters.
Those two were both sinister and poisonous.
They acted affectionate on the surface while using disgustingly underhanded methods behind the scenes.
At one point, they had even tried to enslave Rita through a contract.
Every single one of them was insane.
Rick was the live in son in law of three families.
Meanwhile she was apparently the tragic female lead of all three.
What Rita never understood was this:
Why did those women spend so much energy tormenting her instead of fighting each other?
And it was not just them.
Even the male lead's male friends targeted her too.
She strongly suspected Rick had manipulated things behind the scenes.
But she had no proof.
The novel she glimpsed before death had become blurry in her memory already.
And even if she remembered every detail, those stories were sanitized versions anyway.
The book did not matter.
Her own experiences mattered.
Which meant the Taylor sisters definitely deserved special attention.
...
Standing in B City, Rita called the Gun King and asked if he knew how to access the local underground market.
Gun King replied immediately.
"Go to XX Bank first. Then head north for a few kilometers. There's a McDonald's there. Walk in and ask for the Wednesday Madness combo. If they say they don't have it, then ask for a two dollar ice cream cone. Tell them you don't want the cone, you want the ice cream served in a cup instead. Then they'll take you inside."
Rita: "..."
"Why was the underground scene in Los Angeles just walking through the back door of the right bar?"
Gun King answered casually.
"Because that place wasn't actually the real underground market."
Rita grabbed her head in disbelief.
"No way. Absolutely no way."
She had literally hired someone there to shoot off half a dick.
And that still was not the real black market?!
Gun King continued calmly.
"Meeting me there was just coincidence. I happened to be upstairs buying coffee. If you want the real Los Angeles underground route, you go to XX Café and ask for a two liter black coffee. They'll say they don't serve cups that large. Then you say you brought your own beans. They'll ask to see them. You hand over one one gram gold bean, and they'll take you inside."
Rita went silent for a long time.
Then sighed sincerely.
"You really are the honest one."
"Yeah," Gun King replied. "Call me again sometime."
Then he hung up.
Why did that sound weirdly flirtatious?
Rita sneered.
As if she would ever call him again.
...
Several minutes later, Rita squatted beside the curb while calling Gun King back.
At this point she genuinely wanted a drink.
Gun King picked up.
"What happened? Couldn't get in?"
Rita stared at the McDonald's across the street.
"Yeah. The guy led me to a door and then just stared at me. But I'm socially aware, okay? Obviously I understood what that meant. So I immediately pulled out a stack of cash. But he refused it and kicked me out."
Gun King paused.
"They don't take cash either. Only gold. Costs two grams."
Rita stared blankly.
"Why didn't you say that earlier?"
"So you could appreciate how sincere I am."
Rita: "......"