Rita took the time to run to the Wilson family villa, dropping off the latex mattress she bought for Scarlett in the living room. She then declined Scarlett's invitation to stay for dinner and headed straight to the gold shop.
When Rick wasn't a player, Rita had no problem dining with the Wilson family. But now that Rick had about... five percent of the **God of the Culinary Arts** talent, she didn't want to touch even a grain of rice from the Wilson household.
From that day on, whenever someone came to her to use the **Wheel of Fate**, she only accepted gold. The market rate at that time was about 3.8 pounds of gold for the price of 1 million USD. However, Rita didn't bother with precise numbers and rounded it up—requesting 4 pounds of gold instead.
**Zoey**: "..." It was the first time she heard someone round up , and now just the thought of gold was making her feel nauseous.
Still, rich people didn't mind overpaying by a little.
After modifying their luck, many people were initially worried—was this borrowing future luck in advance? Would they be lucky now but suffer misfortune later? Most were observing cautiously, but as time went on, they realized there were no negative effects. Even though their luck improved, it only helped things along within a certain range—it wasn't like they could achieve things effortlessly.
It was like when someone is trying their hardest to climb to the heavens, and the wind suddenly shifts from against them to behind them.
Take the short-haired guy who won the lottery, for instance. The first time he scratched and won a million, he immediately bought ten more tickets but didn't win again.
Rita's divine talent wasn't just sustaining interest—it was attracting even more buyers. People didn't need it every day, but when something big came up, they wanted to ensure smooth sailing. It was more useful than those fortune plants and feng shui trinkets!
During this time, Rick, Samuel, and Scarlett also wanted to sneak in and get a taste of **Another Happy Day** for themselves, experiencing the joy of having a lucky score of 10.
Rita readily agreed to such a trivial request.
The day only had 24 hours, and the skill took 6 hours to cool down after each use. Most powerful people—except those giving birth at midnight—tended to request her services during the day. Even though some important business might happen over dinner, it rarely extended into the night.
Rita usually handled two jobs per day—one in the morning, one in the afternoon. This way, she earned her gold without it interfering with her training schedule. The clients arranged transportation, and after casting **Wheel of Fate**, they'd drive her straight to her class.
As for late-night sessions, that eerie timeslot was reserved for the Wilson family.
Rick couldn't make it to her place at night, and as a brother who adored his sister, he couldn't possibly ask her to go to his place at midnight just to cast a skill on him. That would be absurd.
But Samuel and Scarlett, who lived in the same villa complex, could.
For the first two weeks of December, these two made a habit of taking a walk every evening, conveniently ending up at Rita's villa so she could cast the skill on one of them.
It was just a wave of her hand, and Rita wasn't too worried that a few hours of luck would allow them to defy fate itself.
Scarlett even complained that Rita was distancing herself from them, pointing out that she hadn't even programmed their fingerprints into her villa's security system.
Rita explained that since she was retired from the spotlight now, she might want to date, and she didn't want any awkward situations when bringing a guy home.
Scarlett gave her a knowing smile and didn't press the issue, elbowing Samuel: "Maybe we should stay at the house on Zijing Road for a while? You're always saying you don't want to disturb the kids."
**Rita**: *Am I really supposed to hear that excuse?*
Rita forced a smile, escorting them out of the yard while pretending not to notice the bitter expression on Samuel's face.
The young one was useless. The old ones weren't much better.
With her day-to-day training, Rita not only learned how to exert force more efficiently, but she also corrected many bad habits in close combat with the help of her coach.
Her strength attribute was now at 10. In the past, even when giving her all, she could only use about 60 to 70 percent of that strength. But now, after learning proper techniques, she could unleash at least 90 percent of her power.
Although she specialized in ranged combat, close combat was still crucial. After all, she couldn't be completely defenseless once someone got within melee range. She'd learned quite a few moves—horizontal elbow strikes, jumping elbows, elbow lifts, reverse elbow strikes, butterfly elbows...
Rita felt terrifyingly strong now!
The knowledge was there—what remained was long-term practice. So she switched to another instructor and began learning how to use daggers.
Similarly, she'd already mastered all the theory behind archery. Now it was just a matter of practice and insight. Rita had also begun learning the shooting techniques for crossbows and firearms. The incident in Sawatika had brought her back down to earth.
She had already hoarded a lot of weapons, so instead of gambling on the faint chance—less than one in ten thousand—that they'd mutate, she might as well focus on studying.
But then again, everyone has a gambler's mindset.
After class each day, Rita would swing by the antique market, buying up all the junk she could find. Once, when Scarlett came over to help clean up, she saw a pile of things Rita hadn't even bothered putting into her game inventory and remarked that Rita would definitely fall for health product scams when she got old.
The male protagonist was falling apart, and the third female lead was poisonous. Yet, here she was gambling.
Everyone had a bright future ahead of them.
But there was one person who seemed to be on the verge of breaking.
One day, Rita received a call from Rick, asking if she was free that evening to help one of his friends modify their luck. He offered to pay her—5 pounds of gold per session.
Why wouldn't she agree? It was a no-risk transaction, especially since she'd be taking money from Rick.
However, anticipating that Rick might invite her to dinner, she preemptively suggested, "Business is business, but tonight, dinner's on me. I'll even pop open a good bottle of wine."
At a restaurant that charged over ten thousand per person, plus a bottle of wine worth around twenty thousand, the total only came to about one pound of gold.
Rita looked in the rearview mirror, smoothed her hair, and nodded at her reflection: *You're so generous!*
Then she swerved the car towards the Wilson family villa, picking up Samuel and Scarlett. She didn't know who Rick's friend was, but she could guess it was probably one of his rich and handsome brothers, and she didn't want to dine with them alone.
This silly brother of hers always acted like he was introducing a girlfriend to the family. Whenever he made new friends, he'd bring them home for dinner, proudly pointing to Samuel and Scarlett, saying, "I'd like you to meet my family."
In reality, Rick brought home at least two different "brothers" every semester, all of whom were tall, rich, and handsome.
Rita used to think he was either brain-damaged or hiding something.
Later, she realized it was actually pretty smart!
Those friends were all so moved by the gesture that they shed tears of gratitude and helped Rick in many ways.
Rita felt it was hard to truly understand Rick. Maybe his success wasn't just about luck after all.