hit a stalemate

The investigation into Amelia and Robinson's case hit a stalemate. Although it was determined that Robinson's cause of death wasn't due to the stab wound or the fall, many people had seen Robinson escape from Amelia's grasp, and the blood on her hands, along with her fingerprints on the knife, were undeniable evidence.

Amelia wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, especially since Robinson's wife was adamant about sending her to prison. The situation had escalated quickly, and in just a few days, it was already making waves online.

With her agent gone and no one to manage her, Rita was free to do as she pleased. The two most troublesome people in the company were out of the picture—one dead, the other under investigation. In her previous life, those two had conspired to create all the negative press about her. Other higher-ups in the company had been willing to give her a hand, but Amelia had insisted on terminating her contract, intending to switch agencies. So, they had remained silent and allowed Amelia and Robinson to act.

Rita planned to coast for the next six months until her contract expired and then quit the industry altogether.

She had been incredibly busy lately. Yesterday, she spent the entire day thinking about how to gain Rick's trust while still keeping him under control.

The first thing she ruled out was altering memories. Even if she changed Rick's or even Samuel and Scarlett's memories of the 22nd, the security footage wouldn't lie. Rick was inherently suspicious and cautious to the bone. If he became suspicious, he would definitely check the footage. If the false memories conflicted with the surveillance, not only would Rita fail to gain Rick's trust, but she would also provide him with solid evidence that she was trying to manipulate him.

In her previous life, the Lopez, Taylor, and White families all sent people to hunt her down. Surprisingly, the most troublesome wasn't the Lopez family, even though they had sent the most people. The most difficult to deal with was the person sent by the White family—not just because of Sanchez's vicious nature, but because someone in the White family had an incredibly annoying divine talent!

Even now, thinking about that person made Rita's head spin, cold sweat breaking out as if she had been doing advanced calculus all day.

**[Wheel of Fate] (B-Class)**

**[Skill 1: Another Happy Day]:** Select a target and use the skill to spin their wheel of fate, altering the target's luck for the day. The modification lasts for six hours, with a cooldown of six hours. (You may choose whether to hide the modified luck value from the target.)

**[Skill 2: Your Outfit Doesn't Suit You, I Don't Like It]:** Select a target and use the skill to spin their wheel of fate, swapping their highest and lowest attribute values. The swap lasts for one hour, with a cooldown of six hours.

It was only a B-Class talent, but it was incredibly frustrating!

Or rather, in the absence of any offensive skills, being rated as B-Class wasn't without reason.

For days, whenever that person spotted her, Rita would have six hours of terrible luck.

The worst part was that this alteration to her luck didn't show up on her data panel. She could see her luck value was still 8.

And then, suddenly, her luck would turn sour.

She'd run into dead ends, her disguises would fail at the worst moments, she'd choke on blood potions, her spells would miss their targets, her gun would jam, and even her auto-targeting magic missiles would fail to crit. And she had a 77% crit rate at the time! Yet, after firing 60 magic missiles, not a single one had crit.

Was this a divine talent? Or was it a curse from the gods?

She had evaded capture for an entire year, but after that person arrived, it took less than seven days for her to be caught—all because of that divine talent.

But here was the question: was that person a beta tester?

There were three beta tests. The first had reportedly only a few hundred participants. By the second test, word had spread—despite the sudden timing, thousands of people logged in, eager to try the game. By the third test, tens of thousands of people were creating characters.

Regardless, Rita planned to find that person within the next few days. If they had participated in the beta tests, she would kill them immediately!

Then she would test if that skill could affect non-players. If it could, she would use it on Rick.

If Rick managed to draw an SS-Class talent even with terrible luck, she would steal it on the spot and kill him, even if it meant spending the rest of her life in bitter regret. If he ended up with a trash divine talent, that would be even better.

That person wouldn't be hard to find—he was the White family's driver. Rita knew where the White family's old mansion was, located in one of the best spots in the villa district. After all, without enough power and wealth, how could you be the female lead in a male-dominated story?

She didn't rush to the White family's mansion, though. Instead, she stayed home and continued brewing potions.

She crafted 20 basic ethereal potions and over 50 mid-level invisibility potions. Unlike the basic invisibility potions, which only lasted five minutes, these mid-level potions provided 15 minutes of invisibility, though their cooldown was longer—20 minutes.

She also found a recipe for beef skewers under **[Cooking] (Basic)** and made 297 portions to store in her backpack. Each skewer could be eaten in one minute, gradually restoring 5 health points. It served as both a food reserve and a way to level up her cooking skill.

Her 24-slot inventory was now filled with various miscellaneous items, clothes, and weapons. The six old bags held her essential food and potions: **[Basic Healing Potion] x99**, **[Basic Mana Potion] x99**, **[Mid-Level Invisibility Potion] x57**, **[Beef Skewer] x99**, **[Beef Skewer] x99**, **[Beef Skewer] x99**.

How could the female lead not be a beta player?

The world didn't revolve around Rita, but it certainly revolved around the main characters.

Not only were the male and female leads beta players, but so were the male lead's brothers. How else could they be worthy of being his sworn brothers?!

Fantastic, she thought, she's the only one who isn't the protagonist's sister.

Are they trying to isolate her?

Rita's visit to the White family's mansion wasn't just about the Wheel of Fate; she was also after the male lead's second girlfriend—Sanchez.

The male lead's three love interests all had S-Class talents. His lawful wife, Zoey, reportedly had a divine talent related to healing, later becoming the strongest support character by collecting and learning various buffs. The second girlfriend, Sanchez, also had an S-Class divine talent, one of the only two S-Class talents publicly revealed in the top 100 rankings.

**[Water God] (S-Class)**

**[Skill 1: Wherever There's Water, There's Me]:** Transform into water droplets and merge into a water source.

**[Skill 2: You're So Watery]:** Increase the effectiveness of all water-related items and skills by 50%.

**[Skill 3: Vampire]:** Use this skill to have a 20% chance of draining 1% of the target's health.

**[Skill 4: I, Water God, Heal (Passive)]:** When transformed into water droplets or submerged in water, your injuries will gradually heal.

Rita coveted this talent, but she didn't plan to steal it. If Rick managed to draw an SS-Class talent with only 1 Luck, she would decisively use **[The Thief God's Theft, Which Can Also Be Robbery]** to steal his SS talent and kill him. If Rick received an ordinary talent, she would save the skill, preventing him from turning the tables.

And since dying in the game would reset **[The Thief God's Theft, Which Can Also Be Robbery]**'s cooldown, she could use it twice more in the game as long as she hadn't used it in real life. She wasn't about to waste it in the real world.

She planned to try stealing items from Sanchez. She didn't believe the female lead wouldn't have anything good on her.

Her 50-million-yuan villa was in the same area as the White family's mansion, not far away. In her previous life, Rick had used the dungeon in that villa to connect with the White family.