This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 586 - : Skewers & Long Time No See, Brother
One task after another awaited Rita, and she didn't stop since returning from The Old Blacksmith.
First, she spent 6 points of luck to use the Skewer skill and made two skewers. One skewer was made using ingredients from Restaurant #1, and during the process, she called Nivalis back to spray some ice and fire to finish the roasting. The other was made using the finest ingredients BS could buy.
She ended up with two skewers labeled Mysterious Skewers, both having the same name, but with different ratings. The first one was a two-star delicacy, and the second one was rated 91, with no effects listed.
Rita ate the skewer made with Restaurant #1's ingredients and got a prompt: "Movement speed +0.5%". The second skewer reduced her skill cooldown by 0.05%.
The effects were vastly different, but even the plain skewer wasn't bad. Although it couldn't compare to the rare fruits she had once eaten on Dragon Island, the key point was that these skewers could provide a repeatable buff effect, and Rita only needed to spend some of her luck, which didn't really affect her.
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Currently, her luck was 10 (+9), and every 7 days, she could make 3 skewers with random buffs! Over time, even the most basic skewer could provide significant benefits.
She made another skewer using Restaurant #1's ingredients and, after eating it, found that her skill cooldown was reduced by 0.3%. Combined with the fruits she had eaten on Dragon Island, her skill cooldown had been reduced by 8.3%.
She didn't plan to reserve 3 points for Refurbish. If she really needed it, she could just use a little of her original luck to make it work. With the Skewer skill, she didn't want to let any extra luck go to waste.
After making the skewers, Rita didn't do anything else. Instead, she used her invisibility spell and went to The Lopez Family Manor.
Tomorrow, she would get Black Jade, and she needed to fully obtain Moment of Reversal. She hadn't forgotten about Black Jade's contract with Rick.
In the past, she had worried about the visions she saw through divination, concerned that her actions might cause things to spiral out of control. But now… as she became stronger, her mindset had changed.
What she wanted, she would get immediately. Even if this made things uncontrollable, she had the ability to handle it. If the divination's vision was inevitable, then no matter what she did, it wouldn't change, right?
Invisible, Rita flew around The Lopez Family Manor but didn't see Black Jade. Instead, she quickly found the person she was looking for: Rick, Samuel, and Scarlett.
Long time no see, brother, father, and mother.
The three were doing the same thing—they were sitting on the lawn of the manor, soaking up the sun.
The table was full of fruits and snacks. Though their clothes weren't armor, they were neat and presentable.
Yes, although Eclipse Vanguard had figured out her feelings toward her family and kept them locked here, they didn't seem to be mistreated.
After all, no matter what, they were related to Rita by blood. She could deal with them, but Eclipse Vanguard couldn't go too far in mistreating them, lest Rita regret it later and turn her anger on them.
The clothes and food weren't expensive—just a few gold coins—nothing to upset anyone, leaving enough room for both sides to either come or go. That was Eclipse Vanguard's style.
Also, since Black Jade was here, they could eat the food Black Jade provided.
However, the three of them were in completely different states.
Scarlett was enjoying herself, laughing at something on her phone. She looked like a typical middle-aged person enjoying her retirement life, just a step away from getting a dog or a cat.
Samuel seemed a little worse off. The furrow between his brows suggested frustration and sorrow. He had a bottle of wine by his side, a cigarette dangling from his fingers, staring off into the distance. He resembled an older man who had lost everything in the stock market, unable to believe his reality, constantly replaying what went wrong, too apathetic to live but too afraid to die.
As for Rick...
At first, Rita almost confused Samuel and Rick. He was only a few years younger than her, but now his hair was half-white. He lay there in the sun, his pale skin gleaming slightly like snake scales, giving off a deathly stillness as if he had already stopped breathing.
For someone with ambition, the worst punishment was this.
While all the players were growing stronger, discussing equipment, skills, boasting about the number of enemies they'd slain, and sharing dungeon strategies on the forums, Rick had been overtaken by those C-grade gifted players he once looked down upon.
Even the BS announcements now frequently mentioned a name so similar to his own.
For a time, he hated that similarity, but as time passed, the resemblance faded. When people now heard the name Rita, they no longer remembered Rick.
He started with SS-grade divine gifts, but now, all he could do was stay here, stuck.
There were no dungeons, no gear, no space for his ambitions to thrive.
He forgot the exact day—his memory of dates was getting fuzzier by the day—when he overheard a player talking about how envious they were of his family, who could eat and drink without worry. They didn't have to worry about danger.
He had asked them, "What if we switched places?"
The player stopped talking, looking at him with a mixture of surprise and anger, as though he had said something cruel.
He had become an ordinary person with no future.
Even if he leveled up, he would lose 5 points of attributes.
It was a number that wasn't enough to push him into despair, but it severed any remaining hope of rising.
When he asked if he could level up with Black Jade, every player's reaction was, "What are you even trying to do?"
"Your experience gain is just free experience. What's the point of leveling up?"
Black Jade even pulled him back into the house: "I'm busy with serious business! Stop causing trouble."
Yes, even Black Jade had serious work to do now. He was working for Eclipse Vanguard, earning gold and making potions, getting stronger every day.
As for Rick, every day he woke up, he could only watch himself become more pathetic.
The curse made him feel lost, even robbing him of the last shred of purpose to live.
His thoughts were consumed by one question: Why am I still alive?
The second most frequent thought was: Who cursed me—Rita or Zoey?
The third was... Why does Rita hate me so much?
