The screen lit up again.
A blood elf in Ghost Soul form appeared inside the graveyard.
Only a few steps away lay her mangled corpse.
Rita walked over.
[Weak Resurrection]
She clicked confirm.
Her character solidified once more.
Originally, the status beside her name had read:
(Weakened)
Now it read:
(Severely Weakened)
A countdown timer followed behind it.
(47:59:59)
All her attributes had dropped to only forty percent of their original values.
Rita entered Silvermoon City again.
Through her shadow, she saw Rick accepting quests.
And the very first one turned out to be a high-tier chain quest.
A few minutes later, using the buildings visible through the shadow as reference points, Rita found Rick once more.
[In the name of the Thief God, you attempt to steal the Divine Gift of the elf player Rick.]
[Theft successful.]
[Target Divine Gift rank too high detected.]
[Theft interrupted.]
Rita checked the time.
10:57.
No time left.
And in her current severely weakened state, if she died again, she had no idea what would happen.
She refused to gamble.
She was not going to die because of her greed.
Even though the game character's condition had not fully reflected onto her real body yet, hundreds of Phantom Shifts had already pushed both her body and mind to the edge of collapse.
Rita guided her character toward the goblin district.
Finding rich goblins was surprisingly difficult.
She had to trade with more than a dozen of them, exchanging little by little.
The process wasted time, but she eventually scraped together ten thousand gold.
At this point, her Disguise duration had less than five minutes remaining.
Rita immediately ran for the nearest city gate.
But considering her current weakened state, she did not dare go too far.
She stopped near the outer wall between two gates.
Then she logged out.
The moment she closed her eyes, the feeling of severe weakness nearly drowned her.
But she ignored it completely.
She did not even glance at the bags, pocket watch, or fake tooth lying on the ground.
Instead, she immediately opened her character panel.
[Character] Rita (Level 0 0.001%) (Severely Weakened) (47:45:39)
[Divine Gift] Thief God (S Rank)
[Divine Gift] Immortal (SS Rank) (Incomplete)
[Divine Gift] God of the Culinary Arts (SS Rank) (Incomplete)
[Divine Gift] Master Archer (A Rank)
[Race] Human
[Racial Talent] Undead Will┃Feast
[HP]: 60/150
[MP]: 80/200
[Strength]: 8 → 3.2
[Constitution]: 11 → 4.4
[Intelligence]: 14 → 5.6
[Agility]: 21 → 8.4
[Luck]: 10 "MAX"
[Charm]: 10 "MAX"
Her hands trembled as she opened [God of the Culinary Arts].
[God of the Culinary Arts] (SS Rank)
Even gods are merely ingredients in your hands.
[Skill 1] What Do You Mean, Culinary God?:
Whenever a dish you create scores above 80 points, it gains a 20% chance to trigger a Critical Success. Every additional point above 80 increases the chance by 1%. A Critical Success doubles the dish's effects after consumption.
If the recipe is your own original creation and scores above 80, the effects will always be doubled for anyone who eats it.
As the creator of the dish, all food you personally cook grants triple effects when consumed by yourself.
[Skill 2] Who Is Hannibal?:
Prepare thirty-eight different gourmet dishes using a single target as ingredients. If every dish scores above 90 points, then after consuming all thirty-eight dishes alone, you will randomly inherit one of the target's abilities from when they were alive.
This effect can only trigger once per target.
[Skill 3] Yes, I Am the Top Chef:
Food you cook is true delicacy. If a dish is made entirely by you and scores above 95 points, consuming it has a 20% chance to randomly increase one attribute point.
Each target may only trigger this effect once per day.
[Skill 4] Hey Friend, Look, There's a Pot Here:
The God of the Culinary Arts never receives bad reviews.
Mark someone who trusts you. All negative emotions diners feel toward you will instead transfer onto the marked target.
[Skill 5] You Want to Eat for Free? (Passive):
No one enjoys the God of the Culinary Arts' cooking for free.
If you do not explicitly state that the meal is your treat, and someone consumes your food without paying before or afterward, then their fortune will temporarily become yours until they finally pay their damned bill.
Five skills.
Just like the Undead City Lord's [Immortal].
All five slots existed.
Skills 1 through 4 were illuminated.
Only Skill 5 remained dark gray.
At that moment, Rita finally felt alive again.
Like she had been trapped underwater, unable to breathe or move.
And now, at last, she had burst through the surface.
And finally...
She understood.
Understood why Rick treated her the way he had in her previous life.
Why he worked so hard to gain her trust.
Why his women and his friends hated her so much.
So that was it.
So that was it.
Good.
Very good, Rick.
But understanding did not mean forgiveness.
Yes, Rick redirected everyone's negative emotions onto her.
But they were still the ones who chose to humiliate her.
To torment her.
To act on that hatred.
She would never forgive anyone who hurt her in her previous life.
Everyone else could betray her.
But she would never betray herself.
Never betray the suffering she endured.
Rita's trembling hands uncorked a healing potion.
But her HP remained stuck at forty percent.
Apparently, until the countdown ended, her maximum HP would stay reduced.
Yet despite everything, she felt refreshed.
Better than ever before.
She genuinely felt amazing.
After equipping the cooldown reduction necklace, Rita crawled beneath the bed to rest.
She was exhausted.
But she did not dare fall asleep.
Instead, she simply closed her eyes and rested while continuing to monitor Rick through the shadow.
Earlier, she had seen Rick's original Luck stat.
Just like hers.
A perfect ten.
Although he initially failed to notice the theft because of Thief God's influence, he still remembered Skill 5:
[You Want to Eat for Free?]
So he used his remaining money to buy large quantities of ingredients and began cooking.
Only beginner recipes.
Since he had just learned cooking, he was not worried about instantly becoming a Food God.
Most of the dishes he produced barely passed failing grades.
He simply placed the food directly on the street and let passing NPCs and players eat freely if they wanted.
At first, his luck remained ordinary.
But the more people ate his food, the more absurd things became.
It was like he had activated cheats.
In less than two hours of questing, he earned three gold and a green-grade equipment piece.
He learned Cooking.
Soon after, he found a money pouch in the city sewers containing over three hundred gold.
Using that money, he learned [Jewelcrafting] and [Alchemy].
And Rita silently watched as Rick devoured the fortune of everyone around him, gradually canceling out the bad luck she had inflicted on him.