16:16.
Cooldown complete.
Rita immediately logged back into the game.
There were only fifty-four minutes left before the third beta ended.
The moment she entered, she disguised herself as a goblin and returned to the city.
At the restaurant in Silvermoon, she learned every local specialty dish available.
Then she teleported to Bloodmoon City, the place she had visited before.
After finding a wealthy goblin and bargaining for ages, she finally exchanged enough gold for ten thousand coins.
She checked the time.
Still enough.
So she spent a little more time squeezing another eight hundred gold out of several poorer goblins.
At this point, she possessed:
20,800 gold exchanged from the two elf cities.
Plus the 378 gold she had accumulated by crafting three coins every day from June 7 to October 10.
After deducting teleportation fees and recipe costs, she still had 21,108 gold remaining.
As for the gold bricks stolen from the Lopez family...
She still had 1,084 left.
After spending more money learning Bloodmoon City's unique cooking recipes, Rita returned to the undead city where she first studied alchemy.
Inside the alchemy shop, the undead mentor was still busy among bubbling cauldrons and glass tubes.
Rita walked over and typed a single word into the dialogue box:
"Teacher."
The undead mentor never stopped moving.
But suddenly, a quest appeared.
[Alchemy Master Apache requests that you craft ten beginner potions and ten intermediate potions.]
She never specified whether the potions had to be identical.
But Rita understood immediately.
This was a test.
The problem was...
In-game crafting just used progress bars.
How was she supposed to demonstrate anything through that?
After thinking for a moment, Rita submitted the twenty potions she personally felt were her best recent creations.
All different types.
"Teacher, these are my latest results."
On-screen, the undead mentor finally stopped shaking a test tube and accepted the potions.
A few minutes later, the quest completed.
The reward:
[Apache's Alchemy Notes]
[Apache's Alchemy Notes] (A Rank):
The personal notes of Alchemy Master Apache, recording her thoughts and experiences while advancing from Advanced Alchemist to Master Alchemist.
You cannot learn recipes directly from these notes, but perhaps you may gain something even more valuable.
"Those fools innovate alchemy for glory. Me? I just wanted more money to buy alcohol. That's why my potions are special. Potions with my name on them always sell best. After all this time, they still don't understand that passion projects don't pay the bills."
Apache
After silently reading the item description, Rita pulled out two thousand gold and handed it over.
"I probably won't be able to come back again."
Before she even finished typing, Apache had already accepted the money.
Rita: "........."
The next second, Apache tossed over a dark green cloth pouch.
[Apache's Potion Pouch (0/8)] (S Rank):
Apache always had too many potion orders to fulfill. This little pouch was used to store completed commissions.
Maximum stack size: 999.
The best part was not the stack size.
It was that the pouch counted as an item rather than inventory equipment.
It occupied no bag slots.
Then another prompt appeared:
[Bind this item?]
Rita nearly exploded with joy.
She immediately selected Yes.
This time she had learned her lesson.
First she typed:
"Teacher, this is just for buying drinks. You don't need to give me anything else. I really love alchemy."
Only after sending the message did she generously hand over another thousand gold.
Seeing that Apache clearly had no intention of giving her anything else, Rita smiled and turned to leave.
She still needed to visit the auction house.
In a few days, Zoey and Rick's wedding would take place.
Family members were different from ordinary guests.
At the engagement party, giving cash had been acceptable.
But weddings required actual presents.
Especially considering Zoey casually gave her twenty million last time.
Rita could not afford to look stingy.
And honestly, she did not feel bitter about any of this anymore.
After all, she had already stolen countless attribute points from Zoey.
An A-rank item.
One entire ear.
And Zoey still had no idea who the culprit was.
She even kept giving Rita money to spend.
Then there was Rick.
Eighty percent of his Divine Gift was basically crippled now.
Compared to that, Rita felt fantastic.
Giving Zoey real-world luxury goods would never impress her.
But Rita also hated the idea of gifting genuinely valuable in-game treasures.
Then she found the perfect item.
[The Witch of Pleasure's Bed] (C Rank):
Increases intimacy between lovers and married couples.
Anyone sleeping on this bed experiences ultimate pleasure.
No one is allowed to say "I can't."
What an amazing item.
Completely useless.
But still a C-rank item.
And incredibly cheap.
Only twenty gold.
Bought.
Let the world have more AIDS!!!
Then Rita found something else.
[Binding Stone] (A Rank):
Use to bind one piece of equipment or item to your soul.
Cannot be lost.
Cannot be stolen.
Not even the Thief God can take it.
When your soul disappears, the item will crumble into ash and return to the Void.
Rita stared at it.
"So this thing exists specifically to target me, huh?"
But other people needed it.
And so did she.
One hundred gold each.
Rita bought fifty of them without blinking.
Five thousand gold gone instantly.
Then she started buying cooking recipes.
Anything in the auction house she had not learned yet, she purchased immediately.
To avoid duplicates, she learned each recipe on the spot after buying it.
Everything revolved around preparing for the God of the Culinary Arts.
Even low-level recipes had value.
The more she learned, the easier it would become to create original dishes later.
After finishing her culinary purchases, she moved on to preparing for Master Archer.
[Explosive Arrow] (B Rank):
Fires an explosive arrow.
On impact, creates an explosion dealing damage to the target and all enemies within two meters.
Consumes 100 MP per use.
No cooldown.
[Push Shot] (C Rank):
Weapons you fire generate a shockwave that knocks enemies backward.
Consumes 30 MP per use.
Cooldown: 3 minutes.
[Soul Resistance] (Passive) (S Rank):
Permanently grants soul-level protection.
Immune to mental control abilities.
Reduces mental-type damage by 30%.
One AoE skill.
One knockback.
One anti-mind-control passive.
Originally, after buying crowd control and utility skills, Rita planned to purchase another offensive ability.
Then she saw Soul Resistance.
Even with a staggering price tag of twelve thousand gold, more expensive than Phantom Shift itself, Rita bought it instantly.
What she wanted were top-tier skills.
Explosive Arrow cost 450 gold.
Push Shot cost 130.
Three thousand had gone to Mentor Apache.
Five thousand on Binding Stones.
Twenty on the bed.
Another 485 on recipe purchases and learning costs.
She now had exactly twenty-three gold left.
Rita felt deeply satisfied.
This was how money should be spent.
As she passed the herb shop, she spent her final twenty-three gold buying ingredients for advanced revealing potions.
Then she left the undead city.
Afterward, she logged out.
At the same time, she dismissed the shadow she had left inside the Wilson family secret room.
The time was only 17:03.