bookpower Chapter 96 Vending Machine
Chapter 96 Vending Machine
After listening to Shadow.Q explain how to use the skill crystal, Rita immediately activated it. Soon, she could clearly sense her entire villa and an area within a 2-meter radius around it, all covered by a light blue water curtain. She could adjust the size and shape of the curtain at will.
She set the water curtain to cover only the first and second floors and the backyard. This made the barrier look like a rectangular prism with a quarter-circle attached to it.
Once the range was defined, she injected 10% of her mana into the barrier. Almost immediately, she heard a light rain, but when she opened her eyes, she saw that although it seemed to be raining outside, the drops vanished upon hitting the ground without leaving it wet. The sound wasn't annoying either; it felt like white noise, calming her mind.
The Special Affairs Bureau worked quickly. Even though they hadn't started using the dungeon yet, they let Rita choose her first month's rent in the form of skill crystals.
Originally, Rita wanted to choose skills related to divination or disguise, but as soon as she saw a skill crystal named **"Hello, I'm a Student"**, she didn't hesitate to pick five of those!
**[Hello, I'm a Student]:** Wherever you are and whatever currency you use, you'll receive a 10% discount on all transactions.
Given how much money Rita handled—sometimes in amounts exceeding tens of thousands—this skill was exactly what she needed!
She also picked two **[Why Am I Overweight Again]** crystals, which expanded the inventory slots in her game backpack. Each backpack could only use the crystal once, and her current ones had 36 slots—the largest available in Lania Kaiya Star, made by master tailors. Only skill crystals could extend backpack space beyond that.
After finishing the dungeon rental agreement, Rita treated Shadow.Q and Asher to a meal before sending them off. Then, she got to work crafting a vending machine using intermediate engineering. Even though the materials cost her 21 gold coins, the dungeon would likely be popular for at least six months, ensuring she would recoup her investment.
She planned to sell not only her dishes but also some green-tier gear and niche alchemy potions and engineering creations.
Silent potions, berserk potions, invisibility potions, revealing potions, agility potions, mechanical eyeballs, pathfinding robots—anything she had on hand.
Like any craftsman, Rita couldn't resist the urge to showcase her work. She had studied two major disciplines in this life and was eager to display her creations.
These items weren't valuable enough to provoke theft, but they were useful enough to sell.
She also set up a rest area with tables, chairs, a coffee machine, a water dispenser, and disposable cups.
Once everything was in place, Rita headed to Lania Kaiya Star to buy a batch of beginner healing potions and then began making **Ginseng Essence**.
Unlike alchemy potions, which required precision, **Ginseng Essence** was easier to make. Once she had the correct ratio, she could cook up a large batch at once and bottle it.
After Brooks left, Sanchez asked his uncle why they hadn't tried to recruit her.
"There's no need," Josephine White replied. "People like that tend to make enemies. If we hire her, she'll eventually get us into trouble. Better to just buy information from her when we need it."
Sanchez nodded. "What about Lopez?"
Experience more on empire
"Send someone to verify the information. If we can block them off, even better," Josephine said.
Soon enough, the White family caught the Lopez family red-handed, blocking them at the dungeon entrance.
Negotiations followed. The White family couldn't let this slide without losing face.
Before the game's invasion, the Lopez family had been much stronger than the White family. But now, things were different. The Lopez family hadn't advanced much faster than the Whites.
Rita, who had been eagerly waiting for this moment, perked up the instant her undead spider relayed the news. She had been preparing for this for a long time.
This was still a minor dispute, so neither family's leaders would get involved. The Lopez family sent Zoey to handle the situation since her status was on par with Sanchez's in the White family. After all, it was just a Level 1 dungeon—no need to make a big fuss.
Zoey was still on her way when Sanchez sat down outside the dungeon entrance to wait.
This was Rita's chance.
Instead of using **Phantom Cloak**, which could be detected by certain skills, she **Phantom Shifted** near the office building. Fully geared up, she used her **Thief God**'s **Disguise** skill and then teleported to a blind spot on the 26th floor. She transformed into a gecko and crawled up the exterior wall to the roof.
After finding a safe spot to hide, she didn't have to wait long—Zoey soon arrived.
To Rita's relief, Zoey didn't try to pin the blame on her. After all, Rick was her brother, and with Rita's connections to the Special Affairs Bureau, there was no need to create an enemy out of her.
The Lopez family was willing to acknowledge their mistake but wasn't about to pay the 200 gold compensation the Whites were demanding.