Taking a Gamble

By the end of August, Rita had watched the alchemy videos for beginners and intermediates seven times. One day, she noticed something strange: after several hours of merely watching the videos without doing anything else, her alchemy experience increased by 1 point. It was a small gain, but it meant progress.

Rita decided to try making basic potions again. This time, everything felt different. Rather than rigidly following the instructions step by step, she felt much freer, as though she could improvise. While the resulting potions didn't differ much from their original recipes, Rita had a sense that she had finally stepped through the true gateway of alchemy.

Later that night, after turning into a goblin to craft her daily three gold coins, Rita went to sleep. Lately, she had stopped visiting Zoey and Sanchez's homes to steal attribute points. After a month of fruitless attempts, likely due to diminishing returns, she decided it wasn't worth wasting valuable potions. In the early stages of the game, even basic healing potions were incredibly valuable.

Instead, she focused on resting and recharging her energy, using the next day for more efficient study.

But Rita's good mood didn't last long into September. 

Rick had moved into the same villa community—just two kilometers away from her own villa.

Samuel and Scarlett even invited her over for a housewarming dinner at Rick's new place. The villa's security post was significantly larger than hers, and while the house was bare—no appliances, no furniture—the food had been delivered from a local restaurant.

Wearing a look of sincere happiness for her "dear brother," Rita spoke up before anyone else could: "I'll cover the appliances!"

It wasn't much to offer, really. If they wanted her to hand over in-game items—well, not even Theodore's plain white belt would be willingly gifted—but a few hundred thousand dollars? Next year, that wouldn't even be enough to buy a decent low-level blue item. She would definitely make it all back, with interest, from Rick.

As she observed Rick, there were no noticeable changes in him. She still couldn't be sure whether he had contracted HIV from the blood injections. She had looked it up and knew the disease could have a symptom-free period of years, but she couldn't help but feel anxious. What if the three tubes of infected blood hadn't been enough to infect him?

At the same time, it was better if Rick remained unaware. If he didn't realize he was infected, it would make it easier for him to pass it on to Zoey.

They had already completed their pre-marriage health screenings by the time Rita injected the virus into Rick, so he wouldn't suspect anything was wrong.

She didn't make a fuss about avoiding dishes Rick had touched. After all, the virus wasn't spread through saliva. While she would avoid contact when she could, there was no point raising suspicion over something as minor as sharing food.

Eventually, when Rick discovered he was infected, he would probably be just as paranoid as Zoey had been when she realized her Chávez mask and attributes were gone.

Within a week, Rita had arranged for a professional team to take measurements for Rick's new appliances. She didn't bother showing up in person, knowing that if she did, Scarlett and Samuel would work together to coax her into buying the best and most expensive models. Well, the best appliances weren't going to Rick's villa!

Instead, she upgraded the appliances in her own villa and sent the older, still-functioning ones to the small apartment. Anything that didn't fit was sold off.

Rita had spent most of her U.S. dollars by now, leaving herself with just under a million—enough to last until the game fully invaded. Meanwhile, her account in Hong Kong still had 800 million in it.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Samuel was this rich, yet he had fooled her with just 500,000!

Realizing she wouldn't be able to fully level up her advanced alchemy skills before the third closed beta, Rita decided to ease up on herself. There was no point in driving herself crazy.

She figured it was time to spend that 800 million. She didn't need to worry about clothes, food, or housing. Nor did she need more dungeon-portal apartments for now; she already had two, and that was the most she could handle.

Dungeons could refresh anytime, but their difficulty and the rules for releasing otherworldly creatures varied. In smaller, lower-level dungeons, creatures could enter Earth after just 24 hours of survival. In more complex dungeons, the creatures needed to survive for longer—three days, seven days, a month, or even years—to cross over. The stronger the creature, the stricter the rules.

Many dungeon portals were only discovered after creatures had already crossed over into Earth.

What about gold? She still had 1,473 gold bricks, over 10,000 pounds. She could only wait for the next closed beta to trade in the Bloodmoon City goblin market again. If that didn't work, she'd have to wait for goblin merchants to appear.

Apparently, having too much money was its own headache.

Stockpiling potions or raw materials for special items wouldn't yield much profit either. She had no interest in profiting from a war that would affect the entire planet. While she wasn't going to be a selfless hero, she also couldn't bring herself to do something so despicable as hoarding resources for personal gain.

Since hoarding and price-gouging were out of the question, it seemed pointless to make any more money. It would be better to travel to a few more cities and sell off her gold bricks.

After some thought, Rita decided to make another trip to Vancouver. She wanted to buy some weapons—bows, crossbows, or the best guns on the market. If the game invaded and any of these weapons mutated, she would profit immensely.

Eight hundred million Canadian dollars wouldn't even buy 3,000 pounds of gold. At 180 grams per gold coin, that was just over 8,000 gold coins—enough to buy a handful of legendary bows and guns.

In her past life, a legendary weapon had come from a collector. After the game's invasion, a sword he polished every day mutated into a top-tier weapon with three attributes. It had no level requirement, only stat requirements, making it extremely valuable. Even a guild had offered him 3,000 gold for it, but he refused to sell. That price was astronomical, even for a level 20 legendary weapon.

The Lopez family had tried to buy it as well but had been turned down. Yet a little while later, Rita saw that same sword in Mateo's hands.

After telling the Wilson family she was heading to Vancouver to "investigate players"—her go-to excuse—Rita flew out that night. She met with a broker, asking him to keep an eye out for famous bows, crossbows, and high-end firearms.

She even used her **Chávez watch** to **Insight** him, confirming he was just an ordinary broker without a Divine Gift.

Spending 800 million on herbs, fabrics, or furs would require buying a warehouse to store everything. But when it came to weapons tied to history or legacy, spending 800 million felt like spending 8,000.

She bought three famous bows and five crossbows, spending a billion dollars in the process.

As word spread that a wealthy collector was in town buying up top-tier weapons, Rita stayed for another week, collecting 15 more bows and 21 crossbows.

In total, she spent five billion Canadian dollars on 21 bows and 27 crossbows.

Perhaps it was her maxed-out luck stat, but she also managed to buy two meteorite-handled pistols. They were the weapons she was most excited about. Though she hadn't heard of any pistols mutating into top-tier weapons in her past life, she couldn't know everything. And smart people often kept their best things hidden.

Many weapons had level requirements after mutation, so even if they had transformed into top-tier items, they might not have been immediately usable. That could explain why she hadn't heard of them.