Whether It’s True or Not, It Probably Is

During dinner, before Rita even needed to speak, Samuel and Scarlett were already urging Rick to approach Zoey and try to gather information. 

Rita cautioned, "But be careful not to alarm her. If she's already a player, asking her outright might make her think you're suspicious or testing her, and that could damage your relationship."

Rick nodded repeatedly, showing he understood.

Samuel then asked more about the game, and Rita shared what she could. She explained that money was hard to earn in the game. Despite playing for two hours, she had only managed to earn 2 silver coins and a shabby little pouch. The healing potion she had given Rick was something she bought just before planning to venture outside the city to fight monsters, but the game had ended before she could even buy a weapon.

Rick said in a serious tone, "This game is likely to reappear. We just don't know the pattern yet."

Rita shook her head, "There's nothing about it online. I only stumbled upon it because I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to search for our old high school game, World of Warcraft. This game had a similar name, so I decided to try it out. But there were no ads, and no one online is talking about it."

Samuel commented, "That's how it should be. Who wouldn't keep something like this under wraps, only telling close family at most?"

Scarlett added, "Should we stock up on anything? I feel like things might get chaotic soon."

The family discussed it for a long time before finally dispersing. Rita noticed that Samuel and Rick seemed to be treating her better, more genuinely. In the past, while they were affectionate, she always felt it was a bit forced. But now, this affection felt more like they were truly seeing her as one of their own.

A few days later, the family gathered at the hotel again, this time with news from Rick: Zoey's ear had been cut off.

Before Rita could even speak, Scarlett said, "Then that incident, could it have been done by an enemy of the Lopez family? Maybe they couldn't get to her and took their anger out on you instead!"

Rick's expression showed that he was thinking the same thing, but he didn't want to be the one to voice such an accusation.

Rita advised, "Whether it's true or not, it's better for you to stay with the Lopez family. It's safer there than out on your own."

Whether or not the Lopez family was to blame, you should just assume they weren't, right? she thought. But deep down, Rick was uncomfortable. He felt certain that it was the Lopez family's trouble that had spilled over onto him, but he also worried—if it really was the Lopez family's enemy, did Zoey know what had happened to him?

He suddenly recalled how he had mysteriously fainted on the morning of the 6th. He had initially thought it was due to an irregular sleep schedule and low blood sugar, but what if the Lopez family's enemies had somehow prevented him from playing the game…?

No, that didn't make sense. He hadn't even known about the game at the time—he was just in the mood to watch some short videos to pass the time.

Rick leaned back on the sofa, feeling defeated. Just like Rita said, whether it was true or not...

What could he do?

---

Although things were going smoothly, Rita wasn't without her troubles. The **Goldsmithing** skill was clearly marked as a goblin-exclusive ability. Even though she had learned it, it turned gray when she left the game. She could only use it after using her disguise skill to transform into a goblin, at which point the skill would become active.

The disguise skill was incredibly useful, but it had a long cooldown period—she could only use it up to four times a day. To avoid affecting her daily activities, Rita had adopted a routine: every night, she transformed into a green-skinned goblin ten minutes before bed, sat by the edge of her bed, and crafted three gold coins before going to sleep. By the time she woke up, the skill's cooldown would have ended.

After transforming into a goblin, she not only performed her daily gold crafting but also used **Phantom Shift** to sneak into Zoey and Sanchez's bedrooms, stealing just one item each before returning home to rest with 60% of her health remaining.

But after only two days, she discovered that Zoey's bedroom—and nearly the entire Lopez estate—was equipped with a misting system that sprayed some kind of vapor. It wasn't just the garden or the interior of the mansion; every room had this device. The moment Rita noticed the mist in the room, she immediately used **Phantom Shift** to leave the Lopez estate. When she got home, she found that her invisibility potion had worn off—her body was fully visible again.

What a bold move. How much revealing potion were they using every day? 

And didn't they worry about their furniture getting moldy? No matter how fine the mist or how high-quality the furniture, continuous spraying like that would ruin it eventually.

But it didn't matter. Rita drank another invisibility potion and returned to the Lopez estate, this time hiding under Zoey's bed. Even if she became visible, it wouldn't matter—she would steal and then leave immediately.

Peeking out from under the bed, Rita relaxed when she saw that the Lopez estate hadn't descended into chaos. It seemed she hadn't been discovered earlier. She wasn't sure if there were cameras in Zoey's room, but it didn't matter. She was always cautious, wearing a disguise before drinking the invisibility potion. Since she had started turning into a goblin to craft gold, she had been visiting the Lopez and White estates daily in goblin form.

Due to her experience at the Lopez estate, she used **Phantom Shift** to materialize directly under Sanchez's bed during her visit there... only to find herself beside the bed instead. Looking down, she saw that Sanchez had changed beds—the old one had been sealed off.

Luckily, the White estate hadn't yet adopted the revealing mist. After stealing from Sanchez, she took a quick tour of Sanchez's closet, mapping it out so she could **Phantom Shift** directly there next time.

Rita persisted in her daily visits to the Lopez and White estates. After a month, she finally succeeded twice, stealing 1 point of intelligence from Zoey and 1 point of strength from Sanchez.

Rita's current stats were:

- **Strength**: 7 + 1

- **Constitution**: 7

- **Intelligence**: 10 + 1

- **Agility**: 18

- **Luck**: 10 (Maxed)

- **Charm**: 10 (Maxed)

However, her biggest concern was her professional skills. 

She knew about many items and equipment that had mutated after the game's invasion, but priorities had to be set. Those items weren't going anywhere. Her most pressing task now was to focus on her **Alchemy** and **Engineering** skills.

These days, Rita stayed holed up in her villa, following an extremely regular schedule. In the morning, she worked on alchemy, in the afternoon on engineering, and used meal times to level up her cooking skills. She also made a point to prepare some meat for the cats near the **Meow Meow Hostel**. Since she started using the cat toy, nearly every night, a cat would spend the night in the cat hostel outside her villa.

At night, she practiced archery on the second floor of her villa, reading **Alchemy Notes** or **Engineering Notes** before bed. On weekends, she went to the lake in her villa community to practice fishing. After the game's invasion, many fish species had mutated, and only those with high enough fishing levels could catch the better-quality fish.

Unfortunately, her alchemy skill soon hit a bottleneck at Advanced (77/100,000). After reaching Advanced level, the required herbs were impossible to find in the real world. She had used up all the materials she had brought from the game.