After congratulating the couple on their marriage, Rita said she was leaving.
Not only did Zoey personally walk her to the entrance, she even had a Lopez family driver take Rita home.
Clearly, she was extremely satisfied with the wedding gift.
And equally satisfied with Rita's tact.
The next day, Rita was unexpectedly invited by Zoey to a newly finished villa inside the Lopez family estate.
This was the marital home prepared for Zoey and Rick.
Rita had originally assumed the villa belonged to another branch of the Lopez family.
The moment she stepped inside, faint blue light flashed beneath her feet.
At the same time, she caught the smell of revealing potion.
But there was no visible mist anywhere.
Looks like they had upgraded the entire system with modern tech.
Zoey explained casually, "Don't mind it. Pressure sensors. Harmless."
Rita understood immediately.
She had spent most of September in W City collecting weapons and had not visited the Lopez estate in a long time.
The main house was probably already fully equipped with these systems.
The White family had likely developed their own countermeasures too.
Rita instantly decided that for the foreseeable future, she would stop visiting both the Lopez and White family estates.
After all, once detection systems existed, capture mechanisms naturally followed.
After touring the new house, Rita was even kept for dinner before leaving.
Now she truly understood just how much Zoey loved that gift.
Before she left, Rita smiled and told her:
"When you come pick up the groom on the wedding day, I'll use my ability to raise your luck to the maximum. Don't worry."
For a split second, Zoey's expression stiffened.
Her Luck stat used to be maxed at 10 too.
Then somehow, mysteriously, it had dropped to 8.
Back then, she had suspected everyone.
She had even gone to the Wilson family to test Rita, wondering if she was secretly a player with some kind of curse-related Divine Gift.
But Zoey quickly composed herself.
With a wave of her hand, she ordered the Lopez family driver to take Rita home.
Another car followed behind them too.
Filled entirely with gifts for Rita.
That evening, during dinner at the Wilson family villa, Rita praised Zoey nonstop.
If this had happened before, Rick absolutely would have interrupted and asked Rita to use her luck ability on him instead.
Whether doing so would put Rita in an awkward position after already promising Zoey would never have mattered to him.
But now...
Rick still had not recovered from the psychological devastation of watching his Divine Gift go from SS-rank to complete trash.
The fact that he could even force himself to attend wedding rehearsals already proved how mentally resilient he was.
Samuel quietly ate bite after bite, completely absent-minded.
He looked like a man whose soul had already died.
Scarlett knew the family possessed treasures, but Samuel had only shown them to her once before.
She never knew their actual value.
So while she felt heartbroken, the emotional blow was nowhere near as severe for her.
She was an extremely simple woman.
As long as her husband, son, and daughter were doing well, she considered life happy.
For a while, only the two women at the table spoke.
The two men simply sat there mechanically stuffing food into their mouths.
On the wedding day, October 18th, Rick sat inside the master bedroom of his villa waiting for Zoey to arrive and "pick up the groom."
Rita joined Samuel and a group of Wilson family relatives specially invited to create some atmosphere while blocking the Lopez family's entrance procession.
They made a token effort causing trouble before eventually letting everyone inside.
When using Wheel of Fate, Rita could choose whether or not the target saw their modified luck value.
Usually she hid it while doing bad things.
But if she was increasing someone's luck, of course she wanted them to see it.
Besides, she had no intention of causing trouble on a day like this.
Zoey and Rick were the story's male and female leads.
Even if their Luck dropped to 1, they still would not become truly unlucky.
Take Rick, for example.
Even with Luck reduced to 1, the Gun King had fired seven shots and still failed to hit Little Rick.
In the end, he only managed to cut off half.
That was how absurd protagonist logic worked.
Today's wedding banquet had far more guests than the engagement banquet.
Rita even spotted Sanchez.
Her right arm was covered by a long black glove extending halfway up her upper arm.
There was probably a prosthetic underneath. Otherwise, there would be no reason to hide it so carefully.
Sanchez stared at Zoey with cold scrutiny.
Game-related methods and abilities were becoming more varied by the day.
Back then, Sanchez had nearly been blinded by rage.
And after seeing those eyes, she had quickly associated them with the youngest daughter of the Lopez family's third branch.
But major families did not rush blindly into action.
After discussing things with the White family, everyone gradually realized something felt wrong.
Putting aside the fact that the Lopez and White families had no deep feud beyond minor business friction...
There was no reason to create this level of blood feud.
Even assuming Zoey had somehow offended Sanchez and wanted revenge...
Why would Zoey personally handle it herself?
And even if she had suddenly lost her mind and decided to do it personally...
Why only cut off Sanchez's arm?
Why spare her life?
And why lock eyes with her afterward?
Seriously.
If she had just drunk two fewer glasses before leaving the house, she never would have done something that stupid.
But rational analysis was one thing.
Sanchez still could not forget those eyes.
The White family attended the wedding today not only to maintain appearances.
The White family patriarch, Sanchez's uncle, had already decided that if they still failed to identify the culprit after further investigation...
They would eventually sit down with the Lopez family leadership and have a very serious conversation.
Rita's gaze merely brushed casually over Sanchez, as though she were only curiously observing the guests.
She focused on eating.
Smiling when appropriate.
Applauding when expected.
Just another ordinary relative of the groom.
Even though her maxed-out Charm caused people to steal glances at her constantly, she remained quiet and low-key the entire time.
And meanwhile...
That completely ordinary relative of the groom used the pocket watch's Insight ability to rob all thirty-seven players present at the banquet.
Every single one was an old "acquaintance" from her previous life.
The more she stole from them, the angrier she became.
Almost every one of them had clashed with her before.
She used to wonder whether she naturally attracted hostility from others.
But now she understood.
Rick had basically used her as the party tank.
The person standing in front absorbing all the aggro.
By the end of the banquet, Rita had stolen:
+2 Constitution
+2 Strength
+1 Intelligence
Once the reception ended, Rita tactfully took Samuel and Scarlett home with her.
She did not stay to join the wedding chamber pranks.
If Lopez family members did it, that was just family intimacy.
If the Wilson family joined in, it would simply be overstepping.
Better not to push their luck.
Still, since they were now in-laws, the Lopez family arranged drivers to take them home.
During the ride, Samuel, who had been forcing smiles all day, finally relaxed enough to become himself again.
He leaned against the backseat, staring gloomily out the window like a man drowning in depression.
Rita asked a few questions, but Samuel refused to answer.
So she thoughtfully stopped asking.
Back at her villa, Rita added several extra dishes to the Meow Meow Inn in the backyard.
Ever since obtaining the God of the Culinary Arts Divine Gift, she had developed a bizarre obsessive tendency while cooking.
If the vegetables were cut poorly, she felt irritated.
If the heat control was off, she became annoyed.
If the dish received a low score...
She genuinely felt like a failure.