Cannot reassign variable inside observer viewmodel

Question

So I created MVVM app in kotlin to fetch movies from TMDB api, using injections and coroutines. My problem is that I cannot copy the list of returned movies into a new list I created or reassign any variables inside the livedata observer from the MainActivity the values of variables stays the same as they were after exit the scope.

MainActivity class:

@AndroidEntryPoint
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
private lateinit var binding:ActivityMainBinding
private val viewModel:MoviesViewModel by lazy {
    ViewModelProvider(this)[MoviesViewModel::class.java]
}
private lateinit var list: MutableList<Movies>
private var number:Int=1
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
binding=ActivityMainBinding.inflate(layoutInflater)
setContentView(binding.root)
getData()
list
number
}
private fun getData(){
list= mutableListOf()
viewModel.getData(page = "1").observe(this@MainActivity,Observer{ item ->
item?.let { res ->
when (res.status) {
Status.SUCCESS -> {
var tmpList = item.data?.body()?.results
list= tmpList!!.toMutableList()
number+=1
}
Status.ERROR -> {
res.message?.let { Log.e("Error", it) }
}}}
})}}

ViewModel class:

class MoviesViewModel @ViewModelInject constructor(var repository: MoviesRepository): ViewModel() {

 fun getData(page:String)= liveData(Dispatchers.IO){
emit(Resource.loading(data = null))
try {
emit(Resource.success(data=repository.getMovies(api_key = Constants.API_KEY,
start_year=Constants.START_YEAR, end_year = Constants.END_YEAR,page = page)))
}catch (e:Exception){
emit(e.message?.let { Resource.error(message = it, data = null) })
}
}
}

As you can see I tried to change the value of number and load the list into my new list but outside the scope the values returned to be what they were before. Very thankful for anyone who can assist.

Update:

So I tried to initialized all the items inside the success case and it worked I guess there is no other way to change the values outside the scope.