NOVEL NEXT Chapter 85: Fate
Alchemy has its perks—there's a potion for everything. Rita pulled out a poison crafted with intermediate alchemy skills, one that drained 10 HP per minute for 10 minutes. She coated her dagger with the poison, drank an invisibility potion, and **Phantom Shifted** to **Amelia's** house. At that moment, Amelia was on the phone, discussing the purchase of basic healing potions.
Rita silently moved behind her and lightly slashed the back of Amelia's neck with the poisoned dagger before retreating a few steps.
The dagger was razor-sharp, and though the cut was shallow and Rita was quick, Amelia felt a brief sting. When she touched the wound, her fingers came away with blood—now turning a dark purple. Opening her character panel in terror, Amelia saw a new status effect:
**[Poisoned]: Lose 10 HP per minute. Duration: 10 minutes.**
Amelia had only just become a player a few days ago, and her total health was 100 HP. Panicked, she fumbled with her phone, desperately begging to buy basic healing potions while simultaneously grabbing a kitchen knife and waving it wildly.
Rita watched silently, savoring her moment of revenge.
Over the course of ten minutes, she observed Amelia's emotions shift from fear to pleading, then to rage, and finally to despair when she couldn't buy any potions. She frantically slashed at every corner of the house, trying to find the hidden assailant. Eventually, when Amelia noticed her health slowly regenerating—albeit only 5 HP per minute—she clung to the hope that she could survive.
The ten minutes passed, and the poison wore off. Amelia collapsed to the floor, drenched in sweat and tears, laughing hysterically—she had made it. But in the very next moment, another cut appeared on her arm, and the blood once again turned dark purple.
A scream tore from her throat.
Rita suppressed the urge to reveal herself. She finally understood why, in her past life, Rick had chosen to step out in the end. There's something irresistibly satisfying about watching your victim flounder in confusion, completely unaware of who is tormenting them. It's almost unbearable not to step out and reveal the truth.
But she held back. What if Amelia had also been reincarnated?
Rita never revealed herself, even after Amelia died. She stuffed the corpse into a box, tossed it into her game inventory, and made her way to the beach, where a dungeon lay. She noticed a group of people approaching but paid them no mind. She entered the dungeon, walked for a few minutes, then casually threw the box containing the body into a mob of level 8 monsters before leaving.
On her way back, she decided to stop by **Rick's studio**.
There, she saw **Julian** holding a broken action figure and crying.
Rita used **Insight** on the broken, armless figure.
**[Otaku's God] (Contract Item) (Damaged): Born from the love and faith of its owner, it will fight for its master.**
- **Owner**: Julian
- **Level**: 0
- **Strength**: 1
- **Constitution**: 6
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- **Intelligence**: 8
- **Agility**: 9
Rita nearly burst out laughing. This used to be Julian's trusty companion, a formidable partner that, combined with Julian's unique shout-based abilities, was as powerful as an S-rank Divine Gift. But now? Hahaha.
She moved into the bedroom, where she found **Aaron** lying on the bed, his eyes covered with bandages. The bandages pressed into the sockets where his eyes used to be. She wondered if he could still see his Divine Gift now that he was blind.
- **[Breath of Winter] (S-rank)**
- **Skill 1**: *You Are Winter* (Passive) – All your skills deal frost damage, with a 10% chance of freezing the enemy.
- **Skill 2**: *Winter's Drink* (Passive) – Consuming S-rank frost dishes has a 4% chance of unlocking frost-based skills. This passive only activates the first time you consume an S-rank frost dish each day.
- **Skill 3**: *Breath of Winter* – Unleashes a breath of frost, freezing all targets you wish to freeze within a 10-meter radius. Cast time: 2 seconds. Mana cost: 10%. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
- **Skill 4**: *Winter's End, Spring's Arrival* – Absorbs frost energy to restore health. For every 10% of HP restored, 1% of mana is consumed.
This wasn't Rita's first time seeing Aaron's Divine Gift. In her past life, his abilities had been revealed to the world, and she had been frozen by his **Breath of Winter** before. Aaron had explained that he was always thinking about her, which caused the ability to malfunction and hit her.
As she looked at Aaron, she felt a pang of envy. While the freeze duration depended on the target's attributes, level, and resistance—with stronger enemies only freezing for a second—the skill's strength lay in its ability to ignore these factors. At a critical moment, one second could determine life or death.
These S-rank Divine Gifts were no less powerful than her **[Thief God]**, and some even had better-sounding names…
Rita hesitated for a moment. Unlike arms or ears, eyes could be replaced to restore sight. While it was difficult to find an A-rank magic eye that granted both sight and valuable skills, mechanical eyes were easy to come by. Intermediate engineering could make them, meaning Aaron could regain his sight anytime. And once he did, his S-rank abilities would ensure his rapid rise.
Maybe she should just kill him.
But then, her thoughts came to a sudden halt. She stared at Aaron, taking a step back and observing him from a distance—the angle, the bandaged eyes…
Suddenly, she recalled the vision she had seen through the **Divination Stone**! The person lying in the ritual circle, whose Divine Gift was being stripped away by Rick, was none other than Aaron!
For a moment, she felt the absurdity of being manipulated by fate. If she hadn't taken Aaron's eyes, with his Divine Gift and combat prowess, he never would've ended up in that situation. She had unwittingly set the stage for that future.
So what would happen if she killed Aaron now?
Would Rick find someone else to steal a Divine Gift from?
After pondering for a while, Rita decided against killing Aaron. It was better to let fate play out and see how things unfolded. She could always investigate how Rick planned to steal Divine Gifts and find a way to sabotage him.
If that didn't work, she could always come back and kill both Aaron and Rick later.
Still, as she left the room, the feeling of being toyed with by fate gnawed at her.
For a brief moment, she was tempted to turn around and kill Aaron just to defy fate.
But no… **Voldemort** had died that way, hadn't he? Better not be so reckless.
Rita **Insighted** the other three people in the apartment. Their Divine Gifts were ordinary, and Rita knew Rick would soon discard them. She hadn't seen them in her past life.