Rita cranked up the music at ho, practically turning her kitchen into a party zone as she brewed **Ginseng Essence** with the sa intensity as stir-frying spicy intestines. The thought of cutting off Rick's money-making venture made her so giddy that she considered installing a disco ball on her roof to celebrate while she brewed.
Everything was falling into place, and her nagging feeling that sothing had been amiss finally dissipated. While taking the Lopez family's gold had been satisfying, it hadn't truly hurt Zoey. But now—this violent strike, maiming Zoey's hearing and stirring up a bitter feud between the Lopez and White families—it finally quenched the malice brewing in her heart.
Not to ntion, Zoey would surely take her rage out on Rick. A double win!
Sure enough, Zoey was fuming, her fury uncontainable. Not even Matthew, Mateo, or Theodore could calm her down, and all three were promptly thrown out of her room. The Lopez family trio cast knowing glances at Rick.
Rick: "..."
He nearly pointed to himself in disbelief, silently asking, *?*
Damn it, the Lopez family really were heartless, but he couldn't say anything out loud. After all, recently, they had been diverting valuable resources to his jewelry crafting and taking him to grind dungeons for five hours every day.
With a sigh, Rick politely escorted the three n out, took a deep breath, and entered Zoey's room to face the music.
Zoey wasn't just furious—she was utterly desperate. Ever since losing her ear, she'd had her subordinates comb the world for any way to regain it. But nothing turned up! The only remotely related device was a piece of **advanced engineering** tech designed for alien toddlers to help them learn words.
It worked by displaying a speech-to-text overlay whenever soone spoke, intended to help young non-humanoids learn language. Its secondary use, of course, was for soone like Zoey—a deaf person.
Sitting beside her, Rick knew sweet words wouldn't help. Instead, he grabbed his phone and typed out a ssage: *"I'll ask Rita if she can contact soone in the Special Affairs Bureau. You know they've been planning ahead for things like this, so they must be nurturing people with advanced skills. For now, we can use this device to get by until we find advanced healing magic to restore your ear."*
Zoey said nothing, staring down in silence.
Rick called Rita without even putting it on speaker. Turning on the speakerphone in front of soone who couldn't hear would only rub salt in the wound.
By now, Rita was well accustod to Rick's thods. As soon as she heard two distinct breaths on the line, she understood what was going on. When Rick asked if she knew anyone who could craft the **learning device**, she responded, "Let check… Oh, it's an advanced engineering thing, huh?"
She hadn't realized it before, but after rifling through her extensive collection of engineering recipes, she found the device listed. Advanced engineering, of course. It figures that sothing like this could help Zoey return to a semblance of normal life. Tch.
"I can't make it," she said. "But I'll ask soone in the Special Affairs Bureau for you. Hold on."
Without hanging up, Rita ssaged Shadow.Q. Once she got the details, she relayed everything to Rick: "They can do it, but it's a niche item and requires so rare materials. This is beyond just throwing gold at the problem. I'll give you a number, and you can talk to them directly."
She rattled off Shadow.Q's phone number.
Rick figured this was going to be expensive—otherwise, Rita wouldn't have passed the buck so cleanly. But he had no other choice. He dialed Shadow.Q.
Shadow.Q was shrewd as always, and knowing Rick's relationship with Zoey and the Lopez family, she went for the jugular: "Two Level 5 dungeon portals."
Rick: "…That's a bit steep for a single piece of advanced engineering equipnt, isn't it?"
Shadow.Q: "It's not the materials—it's the skill. Once you're at advanced level, you're in a whole new league. It's not just about having the recipe."
Rick typed out Shadow.Q's words into his phone's notes app and handed it to Zoey. Explore more stories at empire
Zoey nodded. For her, any price was worth paying to regain a sense of normalcy. She couldn't bear another day of living in silence!
Not being able to hear was driving her mad. She was naturally suspicious and controlling, and the inability to hear what others were saying, or laughing about, was worse than death. Every laugh felt like it was directed at her, every word that started with "l" sounded like soone calling her a "loser" or worse—*a deaf person*.
The price of two dungeon portals? She'd get them back from the White family eventually.
…
After hanging up, Rita went back to brewing **Ginseng Essence** in full gear. Morning dungeons, afternoon brewing. The workload was too much for her alone, so eventually, she outsourced part of the job.
Her chosen contractor was none other than the little undead, **Kayden**, from the alchemy shop. For just 1 gold, Kayden would help bottle 5,000 potions at top speed. Even Apache turned a blind eye to the arrangent.
This outsourcing drastically reduced Rita's workload, freeing her to spend more ti on more important pursuits—like learning alchemy from Apache or mastering cooking with the dark elf chef.
What was originally supposed to take a month—brewing 350,000 bottles of **Ginseng Essence**—was done in less than two weeks. The rest was left to Kayden for bottling.
In the anti, Los Angeles had beco a battleground for spectators, as the feud between the Lopez and White families heated up.
Initially, the White family had been in the wrong and wanted to avoid escalating the conflict. They were willing to settle the matter with compensation. But when the Lopez family opened negotiations with a demand for 20 dungeon portals, the Whites had had enough.
*I was willing to give you an ear, and you're asking for my heart?*
Josephine White scoffed. "*Screw that.*"
They'd rather invest those 20 portals in training their own people than hand them over to the Lopez family, only to face a stronger enemy in the future.
Rick, anwhile, was quite content watching the drama unfold. Every day, the Lopez family dragged him to dungeons, and when they weren't, he'd team up with his workshop buddies, Julian and Aaron. Though his **Divine Gift** wasn't powerful in itself, his **Luck** stat of 10 made him incredibly valuable.
When Rick joined a dungeon raid, they always got better loot. One run with him was worth three normal runs for the others. Even though his companions were annoyed that they had to let him land the final blow on monsters to get full experience, Rick's drop rates more than made up for it. With him around, dungeons consistently dropped two pieces of gear.
The team learned to tolerate his presence, and Rick reaped the rewards—gaining 5% experience daily.
Zoey, on the other hand, had plenty of people clamoring to team up with her thanks to her powerful **Divine Gift**. But she had grown much more silent and sullen, her entire deanor dark and brooding. Even when standing next to Rick, the two of them looked more like a matched pair than ever.
Though Rick's mouth curved upwards and Zoey's downwards, with one's smile mirroring the other's frown, their combined aura gave off a similar vibe to outsiders.
Zoey had also stopped experinting with her hairstyle. When she had more hair on one side, her earlessness was less obvious. But now, any hairstyle would struggle to conceal her bald patches. Anyone who saw her would inevitably notice sothing was off.
Thankfully, the **learning device** took the form of an ear-covering headset. Whenever Zoey went out now, she always wore it, which hid the gaping hole where her ear used to be. To those unaware of her situation, it just looked like a fashion statent.
She clung to Rick even more than before. Rick had initially planned to play along with her, letting her bla him for everything. After all, guilt worked both ways. Zoey wanted Rick to believe he had infected her with the curse, and that guilt would give her leverage over him. But as the only one who knew the truth, Rick thought he could use her growing guilt to his advantage.
However, now that Zoey had beco this twisted, his plan might not work...
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