Rita was so touched her eyes almost watered.
Actually, she was just holding back a yawn. She was exhausted.
"Let's go home," she said. "I found someone who might be a player, but I never made direct contact. You might actually know him."
During the drive, she casually shared the "information" she had gathered.
"You can't openly ask about this kind of thing. Everyone's hiding it. I never actually met that player face to face either. We were both wary of each other. So later I changed tactics and started asking around about strange incidents instead."
"Do you know the streamer called WinterSnow?"
Rick's eyes lit up instantly.
"Yeah. We're good friends. We've known each other for years. Our gaming group was just talking about him recently. It's like he suddenly became insanely good overnight."
Rita nodded.
"Yeah. That player I talked to also mentioned Julian. Said he suspected Julian had some kind of voice-related skill."
"I watched some of his stream recordings. Every time he shouts things like 'Get up!' or 'Hold on, I believe in you!' his entire team suddenly starts performing way better."
Rick blinked.
"What kind of thing is that?"
Rita explained patiently, "I told you before about Divine Gifts, right? They can be all kinds of weird. I can temporarily manipulate someone's luck, so it's not impossible for another player to affect people through their voice."
After dumping the Julian issue onto Rick, Rita stopped caring about it.
Right now, Rick was still an ordinary person.
This time, the "ordinary person" in Julian's eyes had changed from her to Rick.
Whether Rick could still turn Julian from a friend into a loyal brother would depend entirely on his own ability.
Rita refused to let Rick drive her back to the villa.
She disliked outsiders stepping into her territory.
Actually, she planned to sell the villa eventually and buy a smaller apartment that would later become a dungeon entrance location.
Whether she traded access to the government or farmed the dungeon herself, it would be useful either way.
After eating dinner at the Wilson family home, she rejected Rick's offer to drive her back and returned home alone.
Then she completely shut herself away to study.
Apparently, the reason she had never been a genius before was simply because she had chosen the wrong field.
For the next stretch of time, Rita devoted herself almost religiously to studying every beginner and intermediate alchemy formula.
Each recipe came with a brewing video.
She tried to memorize every movement made by the undead female instructor.
After finishing all four hundred beginner and intermediate formulas, she started watching them again from the beginning.
That was when she noticed something new.
Occasionally, the undead instructor would actually explain things.
Rita: Teacher, you're literally aiding the enemy.
But perhaps, to a true scholar, Blue Star humans were no different from undead or any other race.
Just like goblins cared only about money and business, not war or honor, those who reached Legendary tier in professional skills cared only about preserving knowledge.
Rita did not dwell on it.
She simply treasured everything she was learning.
Whenever she hit a mental block, she would cook for the cats outside.
The Meow Meow Inn truly lived up to its name.
Cats came and went constantly, but none stayed long.
At most, a single cat would remain for three days before disappearing.
There were permanent strays in the villa district, but even they only stopped by for food instead of settling down.
Rita loved cats, but she had no intention of owning one.
She was too busy.
She disappeared constantly to cause trouble.
How could she properly care for a pet that required daily attention?
This arrangement suited her perfectly.
All she had to do was cook extra meat with low salt and minimal seasoning while practicing her cooking skill and leave it outside.
Different cats came by for petting and cuddles.
No responsibility attached.
An open relationship with cats.
Even though the ingredients were just ordinary meat from the real world, the dishes still granted buffs after consumption.
Some temporarily increased strength.
Others boosted movement speed.
And all of them tasted incredible.
Both the cats and Rita loved them.
Learning skills from another world through direct memory projection was very different from simply watching a video and copying it yourself.
The knowledge bypassed normal processing entirely and embedded itself directly into the brain while constantly reinforcing memory.
In less than half a year, Rita went from someone who barely cooked to a master chef familiar with hundreds of recipes.
One skill led naturally into another.
Now she could throw random ingredients together without following a recipe, and the results still tasted great.
They just lacked buff effects.
She had not ordered takeout in ages.
Her own cooking was simply better.
Several dishes also came with a special effect:
"No matter what you do, your concentration greatly increases."
Even though the effect lasted only a few minutes, Rita discovered that her learning efficiency skyrocketed during that time.
She could easily notice details in the alchemy videos that she had overlooked before.
So she spent half a day baking over a thousand focus-enhancing cookies.
Then she studied while eating them.
In August, Rita finally found time to return to the company and formally terminate her contract.
Afterward, she publicly announced her retirement from the entertainment industry.
Given her current situation, staying away from public attention was safer.
What she had told Rick earlier about Julian acting strangely was not exactly false.
Even Rick's gaming group had been discussing how much Julian had changed lately.
Ordinary people might only gossip about something like that.
But players would quickly connect it to the game.
Rita even suspected that Julian moving to Los Angeles in her previous life might have happened because people had started noticing him.
So he came to seek safety among familiar allies.
Rita's retirement announcement caused a stir online for several days.
People dug up the recent murder tied to her agency and the fact that her manager had become involved.
Some speculated that she might have been harmed somehow.
Rita answered whatever questions she could.
She might not care about fame anymore, but that did not mean she wanted people spreading disgusting rumors about her.
"I'm fine. Nobody hurt me. I'm just tired and wanted a break so I could live the life I actually want."
"No, I didn't suddenly become rich, and I'm not marrying into wealth. I just checked my savings and realized I already have enough."
"Yeah, that really was me selling those bags in the photos. I never cared much about luxury goods to begin with. They were just part of being a celebrity. Now that I've retired, I can sell things I no longer need."
"If I were truly too broke to survive, I wouldn't be retiring. Thank you for the concern."
"My company treated me well. We parted on good terms."
"No rich boyfriend. No plans to date or get married. I'm not interested in spending someone else's money. My own money is only enough for me."
Rita said all of this with complete confidence.
As if she had not robbed the Lopez family's gold vault not long ago.