NOVEL WEB Chapter 191: This Life Is Unbearable
After sending dragon manure to Eleanor, Rita left her house. She left Nivalis behind to make it seem like someone was still at home, then used **Disguise**, **Invisibility**, and **Phantom Shift** to sneak into the airport. She turned into a small cat, hiding in a corner of the pet oxygen cabin on a free flight to Beijing.
The whole process was so smooth, it reminded her of the days when she used to crawl under beds for stealth.
Nowadays, it was rare for players to sneak onto planes without a ticket. After all, invisibility potions were more expensive than tickets, and those with invisibility skills weren't usually desperate enough to resort to fare evasion. Only skilled yet sneaky players with a taste for mischief would bother with such elaborate schemes.
Since the game's invasion, airports had noticed players occasionally sneaking aboard, but they didn't take any major precautions. The cost was too high, the payoff too small, and it might lead to unnecessary trouble. After all, if someone with this kind of power was only quietly sneaking around and not causing harm, what more could you ask for?
Rita slept through the flight and arrived in Beijing. After turning invisible, she used **Phantom Shift** to travel to a street near Eleanor's house, turning into a cat as she approached. This area was close to Eleanor's home, and Rita had visited it before for meals during her filming days.
It was 4 PM, and aside from the crowds gathered around dungeon portals, the streets were relatively empty. The portals had become the new commercial centers or subway stations, with all the hustle and bustle drawn toward them. In just half a year, many cities had changed drastically.
Rita leaped onto rooftops, running over a few before spotting the large tree near Eleanor's house. And there, under the tree, she saw Rick chatting with... Camila and Henry?
Her first reaction wasn't curiosity about how the three knew each other but excitement at the thought of dealing with all three at once. *I love it when enemies gather—it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet.*
Since using **Animagus** prevented her from accessing any skills outside of **Divine Gifts**, Rita snuck into a corner, drank an invisibility potion, and used **Disguise!** to change her appearance. She then looped around to the trio and used **Insight** on them.
Perfect. All three were level 8, not lower than her.
Rita's excitement grew as she eyed them, thinking of all the attribute points she could steal. The only thing that annoyed her was that Camila and Henry's character states didn't show anything special. She had once wanted to poison them, but policies didn't allow it—something that still irked her.
No matter. She could bide her time. Rita ducked into a corner and transformed back into a cat.
After running around for about ten minutes, Rita, having already consumed some top-grade **Ginseng Essence**, returned to the tree with two cats and a dog in tow. The three animals stood a short distance from the elderly folks and the trio of young people, their eyes wide and endearing.
Henry immediately stood up, offering to go buy food for the animals. It was a perfect opportunity to score some good-guy points. An elderly lady also got up to fetch some fish for them.
Rita, now leading her newly-recruited animal gang, sat down near the tree, watching as the other cats and dog busied themselves with playing cute. She sat elegantly, refusing to let anyone pet her.
As usual, the first step was to reduce Rick's luck to 1—otherwise, it would be impossible to steal anything. Once that was done, she began using her skills on Rick, Camila, and Henry.
The **Ginseng Essence** she had brewed restored 1% of her health every second for 15 minutes, but since she made it herself, the effects were tripled, restoring 3% per second for 45 minutes.
Normally, she only drank standard **Ginseng Essence**, and she had never sold or used her top-grade ones before. The market for quality ginseng was cornered by Special Affairs Bureau and other powerful factions. But today's opportunity was too good to pass up, and since she didn't want to leave halfway, she used the top-grade stuff.
The top-grade **Ginseng Essence** maxed out her energy for stealing.
On average, she could steal once every 6.6 seconds. Factoring in the time spent pretending to be a cute cat—licking her paws, wagging her tail, and occasionally responding to the elderly with "meows"—she managed to steal every 10 seconds or so.
She didn't play favorites, alternating between Rick, Henry, and Camila. When she got tired, she hopped onto the table and nibbled on some fried fish an elderly lady had brought.
By the time Eleanor returned home and Rick and the others stood up to greet her, Rita Meow's loot bag was filled with 79 gold coins, 1 **Curio**, 1 item, 9 pieces of equipment, and a skill book.
As for attribute points, Rick had contributed 14 points after his luck was reduced to 1, while Henry and Camila had provided 23 and 26 points, respectively.
Rita's base stats, without equipment, now looked like this:
- **[Character]**: Rita (Level 8, 79%)
- **[Health]**: 2795/2795
- **[Mana]**: 3825/3825
- **[Strength]**: 31 + 23
- **[Constitution]**: 29 + 24
- **[Intelligence]**: 47 + 13
- **[Agility]**: 71 + 3
- **Unassigned Attribute Points**: 15
The 15 unassigned points came from the 6 she had earned when leveling from 7 to 8, the 8 from eating Eleanor's food, and 1 from listening to Zoey's **Hope Song** disguised as Han Shi.
The only downside was that none of them were agility-focused. Camila was a tank, Henry was melee, and Rick—strangely—had started investing in constitution rather than intelligence, so agility was the least common stat she gained during her 30-minute stealing spree. Find more to read at empire
Rita happily chewed on her fish, admiring her attribute panel.
*At this rate, I'll have almost half of Nivalis' power.*
The **Curio**, items, and equipment she acquired weren't particularly interesting, but the attribute boost was fantastic. She'd save the gear for future disguises or for causing chaos in Lania Kaia.
The skill book, however, was intriguing.
**[This Life is Unbearable]** (B-grade): Use this skill on any dish, and it will begin to speak, complaining about the mistakes made during its preparation.
She had stolen this from Camila. It might not be useful to her, but for a chef, it was a godsend. Though it was only B-grade, its value to Rita was on par with an A-grade item.
It was like having a personal teacher who could point out mistakes anytime—without any risk.
Rita actually owned a similar item: the **[God of the Culinary Arts' Magic Spoon]**, which she had stolen from Rick a long time ago.