The case with Amelia and Robinson had reached a deadlock. Although Robinson's death had been ruled unrelated to the stab wound or the fall, too many people had witnessed him escaping from Amelia's hands. Her fingerprints on the knife handle and the blood on her hands didn't lie.
Amelia couldn't leave easily. Robinson's wife openly demanded jail time, and the incident had already attracted attention online after only a few days.
With her manager out of the picture, Rita enjoyed the freedom. The company's two most incompetent staff—one dead, one under investigation—had caused most of her previous scandal. Other executives wanted to help, but her contract still had six months left. When Amelia said she planned to switch agencies, everyone stayed silent, letting the two wreak havoc.
Rita decided to coast for half a year, waiting for her contract to expire so she could retire quietly.
She'd been busy lately. Yesterday, she considered what could help her gain Rick's trust while also suppressing him.
First, she ruled out memory manipulation. Even if she altered Rick, Samuel, or Scarlett's memories of the 22nd, the surveillance footage couldn't lie. Rick's suspicious nature meant he would check the footage, and any discrepancy with false memories would mark her as deliberately scheming against him. That would destroy trust entirely.
In her past life, the Lopez, Taylor, and White families had all hunted her. Surprisingly, the most troublesome wasn't the Lopez family. While the Lopez sent many people, avoiding them was simple. The hardest was the White family. Not only was Sanchez ruthless, but someone in the White family had a disgustingly overpowered Divine Gift.
Just thinking about that person made Rita dizzy and break out in cold sweat, as if she'd spent the whole day on advanced calculus.
[Wheel of Fate] (B-tier)
Skill 1: Another Happy Day – Select a target and spin their Wheel of Fate. Changes the target's Luck for six hours. Cooldown six hours. You may choose to hide the modified value from the target.
Skill 2: Your Outfit Doesn't Suit You, I Don't Like It – Select a target and spin their Wheel of Fate. Swap their highest and lowest attributes for one hour. Cooldown six hours.
Though only B-tier, it was a nightmare for anyone affected. Without direct attack skills, this was still B-tier for good reason. Anyone seen by this player would experience six full hours of misfortune.
The most insidious part: the target's panel didn't display the changes. Rita's own Luck remained 8, but suddenly she would be plagued by mishaps.
Escapes led to dead ends, Disguise would fail at the worst moment, potions would choke halfway down, spells would misfire, guns would jam. Even Magic Missile, which automatically tracks targets, failed to crit once in sixty shots—despite her critical rate being 77%.
A Divine Gift? More like a god-sent curse.
She had evaded capture for a year, but within seven days of encountering this player, she was caught.
The question: was this person a beta tester?
The three beta tests had varied scale. The first had only a few hundred players. The second expanded rapidly as news spread, reaching tens of thousands. The third beta had hundreds of thousands of accounts.
No matter the numbers, Rita planned to find this person soon. If they had joined the beta, she would deal with them immediately. She also wanted to test if this skill could affect non-players. If so, Rick would be her next target.
If Rick, at the lowest possible Luck, still drew an SS-tier Divine Gift, she would immediately steal it and kill him. Even if it meant a lifetime of regret in her next life, she would give him a bitter lesson. If he ended up with a useless Divine Gift, all the better.
The target was easy to locate: the White family's driver. She knew the White family's mansion was in the prime section of the villa district—the only part capable of hosting a female protagonist in a male-oriented story.
Rita didn't rush there. Instead, she brewed potions at home.
In addition to twenty Beginner Fade Potions, she had over fifty Intermediate Invisibility Potions. Compared to the five-minute duration of beginner invisibility, these lasted fifteen minutes, with a twenty-minute cooldown.
She used her Beginner Cooking skill to prepare 297 beef skewers. Each skewer took a minute to eat and gradually restored five HP, storing food and practicing cooking at the same time.
Her 24-slot bag was packed with miscellaneous items, clothes, and weapons. Six small pouches held consumables for quick access:
Beginner Healing Potion x99
Beginner Mana Potion x99
Intermediate Invisibility Potion x57
Beef Skewer x99 x3
Anyone dating the male lead had to be a beta player. The world didn't revolve around Rita, but it certainly revolved around the main couple. Not only were they beta players, so were the male lead's brothers—otherwise, they wouldn't act like loyal brothers.
Perfect. Rita was the only one left out. Isolate her, huh?
Rita's purpose for visiting the White family was twofold: the Wheel of Fate skill and the male lead's second girlfriend, Sanchez.
All three of the male lead's women had S-tier Divine Gifts. The legal wife, Zoey, had a healing-related gift and had later collected various buffs, making her the ultimate support. Sanchez, the second girlfriend, also had an S-tier gift, one of only two S-tier Divine Gifts revealed on the top 100 list.
[Water God] (S-tier)
Skill 1: Wherever There's Water, There's Me – Transform into a water droplet and merge with water.
Skill 2: You're So Watery – All water-related items and skills gain 50% bonus.
Skill 3: Vampire – 20% chance to absorb 1% of target's HP.
Skill 4: I, Water God, Heal (Passive) – While transformed or immersed in water, your wounds gradually heal.
Rita coveted this Divine Gift, but she had no intention of stealing it. If Rick drew an SS-tier Divine Gift with minimal Luck, she would immediately use [The Thief God's Theft, Which Can Also Be Robbery] to steal it and kill him.
If Rick only obtained a mediocre Divine Gift, she would still keep the skill ready to prevent any comeback.
In the game world, death resets the cooldown of [The Thief God's Theft, Which Can Also Be Robbery]. As long as the skill remained unused, she could still use it twice more. It would not be wasted in the real world.
She planned to try stealing Sanchez's items first. She didn't believe the heroine would carry nothing valuable.
Her fifty-million villa was near the White family estate. Last life, Rick had leveraged that villa's dungeon to make connections with the White family.