Rita asked, "How much does it cost to stay here for the night?"
"It's just 2 silver coins. But if you pay with skill crystals, it's even more cost-effective," said the bespectacled man, pulling out a roster. "May I ask your name? You can tell me quietly."
They were clearly targeting specific individuals—a sort of personalized "big data" exploitation.
Rita understood instantly.
She needed to find a way to turn the tables; she couldn't remain passive !
How irritating! These cunning rabbits had already turned this into a full-fledged industry, and they were doing it so openly, with such justification, that no one could even be mad about it!
Considering it was already late, Rita decided to stay the night. As for the players who had joined the official faction, they left with the military man, presumably to another location.
After paying 2 silver coins, Rita settled into a tent. Inside, there was nothing but a sleeping bag. Rita dragged the questionable, probably-used-by-others sleeping bag to one side, took out her own toiletries and sleeping gear, and after a quick wash, spent her first night in this alien world. She even set an alarm to wake up during the night to make a **Wheel of Fate** skill crystal.
The next morning, she used her loan contract to collect the return teleportation stone from the bespectacled man. The stone was labeled: **Teleportation Stone (One-time Use): Break to teleport to the teleportation array at Los Angeles, XX Street, XX Alley 51. (Activation time: 1 second) (Creator: Noah).**
Such a grandiose item, with such an ambitious-sounding name for the teleportation array.
Rita asked for more details. "When activated, does the stone teleport me immediately, or does a portal open, and I have to step into it?"
The bespectacled man explained, "After the 1-second activation time, the array will directly teleport you."
He then pulled out a water-balloon-like object and added, "If you get lost or can't find a contact point, you can break this water orb. Someone will come to escort you to the nearest outpost, but each time you use this, there will be a fee. For you… let me check. It will cost 3 skill crystals per escort."
Rita felt like she had fallen into a den of robbers.
She accepted the water orb with a polite, slightly forced smile, thanked him, pulled up her hood, masked her face, and left the treehouse, holding her crossbow.
She wasn't planning to rely on the teleportation stone for escape since she had **Phantom Shift**, which could be cast in just 0.1 seconds. She could quickly relocate to a safe place. But if casting magic was ever restricted, the teleportation stone would become necessary.
Her next step was to return to the Dark City. This would help her decide whether she should focus on hunting monsters in the wild or stay in the city to train, study various professions, and do some buying and selling.
After taking down a few unavoidable wild wolves, Rita found herself near a cemetery outside Dark City. She transformed back into the cow-patterned cat and ran toward the city.
With the possibility of players tracking her, transforming into a harmless cat was one of the safest options.
In the game, it always felt like you only had to run for a few moments to reach the city. But here, in the real world, she ran for over half an hour before finally arriving at the city gates. Looking up, she saw her wanted poster still hanging on the city walls. The guards didn't stop a harmless little cat, allowing Rita to slip into Dark City without issue.
A small cat was insignificant in such a massive, alien city. Rita stuck close to the walls, circling the area over and over. During the last internal test, she had rushed through everything, only spending a few hours as a street urchin to gather some initial funds. She hadn't truly explored.
At the end of the last internal test, she had spent all her gold. Now, all she had left was what she had crafted herself. From October 11th until yesterday, December 16th, she'd been making her own gold coins, sometimes skipping class, but consistently spending time crafting coins as a goblin.
After deducting the cost of last night's stay, she had 200 gold and 70 silver left.
It was enough to get by, but not rich by any means.
The official base's extortionate prices were terrifying—it felt like being in a tourist trap.
Then again, wasn't it basically a tourist trap? Ordinary players without wealth or power wouldn't dare spend money to come here.
As she passed an alchemy shop, she glanced at the undead mentor, Apache, who was still in the same spot brewing potions. Rita then made her way to the goblin district, only to realize she couldn't understand a word of the alien languages being spoken around her.
In the game, translations automatically appeared at the bottom of the screen. In her past life, players had used a piece of engineering gear—a translator—to talk to aliens. It wasn't expensive; you just clipped it to your clothes, and it worked. Over time, she'd forgotten about the language barrier and the need for the translator.
Slipping into a sewer entrance, Rita sprinkled some revealing potion around and waited a minute before using **Disguise** to transform into a goblin. She donned a long robe that matched the alien world's aesthetics and first crafted 3 gold coins for the day.
Then, she pulled out the official price list and turned to the last page, confirming that, as she expected, they sold translators for 2 gold apiece.
How absurd! Players barely earned anything in a day, yet they dared to charge 2 gold for this?
Grumbling, Rita crawled out of the sewer and headed for the goblin district.
Once she got there, she could understand the strange languages. But when she tried speaking softly, she still spoke in Chinese. Rita didn't care much about that. She went to the goblin engineer's shop, pulled out the necessary materials, and crafted herself a translator.
The translator was a mid-level engineering recipe, and the materials weren't expensive. The total cost came to just 27 silver coins.
Now that she had the device, she could communicate with the goblins. Unfortunately, the goblins had been drained dry—none of them were willing to exchange gold bars with her. While she could still make a profit from the exchange, she was running out of money, and even Old Bill, the wealthiest goblin, couldn't afford to buy drinks these days.
Rita hadn't yet used up her stash of herbs. Thinking she wouldn't be able to access the game again, she had shifted her focus to combat training. Finally, she stopped by the auction house and spent 5 gold on the skill book **Clean Sweep (E-rank)** and 18 gold on **Water Creation (D-rank)**, solving her long-standing regret of not having bought cleaning and water creation skills earlier.
After finishing her shopping, she returned to the sewer, transformed back into the cow cat, and left the city.
It was time to level up.
Rita was certain the official players were already ahead of her. While she wouldn't lose in terms of attributes, if she wanted to participate in major official events, she needed to reach the minimum threshold.
Back in the cemetery, Rita reverted to human form. Her three years of experience from her past life meant she didn't need to mentally prepare herself to kill monsters. However, it had been a while since she engaged in high-intensity combat, so she figured she'd start with a warm-up.
She walked for over ten minutes, heading away from both the treehouse base and the Dark City, before finally encountering a monster.
**[Skeletal Wolf] (Level 2) HP: 200/200**.