Chapter 18: She Must Acquire This Skill
After memorizing the ingredients for the advanced invisibility potion, Yu Xunge headed straight to the neighboring herb shop to buy six inventory slots’ worth of herbs. She wanted to buy more, but the game’s controls were rigid—she couldn’t save backpack space by stuffing different items into a storage box and stacking them. Besides, she needed to leave some slots free for visiting the auction house.
Yu Xunge was racing against time.
Only 23 minutes of disguise remained.
She rushed to the auction house. Passing by a restaurant, she even went in to upgrade her cooking skill to intermediate, learning over a hundred new recipes.
At that moment, she still had 4,286 gold.
Standing before the auction house, she typed in the keyword—Soros.
Nothing.
There was no time to complain. She quickly switched the search term to “bag.”
Then she spent 800 gold to buy two 36-slot backpacks—the largest capacity packs she could find.
The moment she paid, a game mailbox notification popped up: she had new packages. She clicked to receive them, adding two 36-slot bags to her inventory. As she transferred items from her original backpack into the new ones, she continued shopping swiftly.
The Thief’s talent destined her to excel in any career path—strength, agility, or magic. But with no time to experiment, she naturally bought only the skills she was familiar with.
Soon, she spotted a skill that captured all her attention—Phantom Shift!
Phantom Shift (SS Rank): Upon use, you can instantly reach any location you have previously visited. The distance you can shift depends on the caster’s intelligence. (No cooldown, casting time 0.1 seconds, consumes 1% mana per use.)
10,000 gold! And there was only one such skill book in the entire auction house...
This skill book pierced straight to Yu Xunge’s core.
No cooldown and an extremely short casting time.
This meant the skill was virtually uninterruptible, and as long as she had mana, she could use it unlimited times.
Her obsession with the idea that “no one in the world can catch me” was etched into her very bones.
Almost immediately, she abandoned all other stocking plans. She had to have this skill!
In her previous life, she had never even heard of this skill. Yu Xunhuan and his group had everything handed to them on a silver platter; when they entered dungeons, they had to obediently take transportation.
But now, Yu Xunge’s disguise had only 16 minutes left.
She spent 200 gold buying a blue necklace whose sole function was to reduce cooldown time by 15%.
This effect applied to all items, potions, and equipment.
In her past life, 200 gold could buy a top-tier level 10 blue item with three attributes. Yu Xunge felt like she was floating on air.
Then she searched for the skill Phantom Body Charm.
Phantom Body Charm (C Rank): Upon use, your presence becomes invisible to the naked eye. (No cooldown; consumes 10 mana per minute when active.)
Invisible to the naked eye meant she could still be detected by skills or items, but for now, it was enough!
Invisibility potions were useful but had long cooldowns. Alternating between basic and intermediate invisibility potions was no longer sufficient.
Phantom Body Charm was only C rank because it was a somewhat lame skill; beyond level 10, various detection methods existed.
However, in the current real world, it had its uses. She acquired the skill book for only 120 gold.
Finally, she spent 50 gold on a C-rank skill, Knockout, capable of briefly putting people to sleep, and bought a vial of sedative potion that induced six hours of slumber.
After purchasing these four items, Yu Xunge immediately ran outside the city.
Almost at the moment her disguise was about to expire, she left the Shadow City and returned to the graveyard where she had logged in.
She collected the items from her mail into her bag, studied the skill books, equipped the necklace, then logged out.
This time, her phone did not turn into black smoke. As she logged out, two backpacks—a black one and a white one—appeared on the ground. They were her new 36-slot bags. A cool necklace slowly materialized around her neck, and her mind absorbed two new spell usages.
She used the Phantom Body Charm on herself and felt a chill as if a layer of ice water slid over her body. Then she could no longer see her own form.
Time was precious. After drinking the ethereal potion, she returned to Yu Xunhuan’s room.
Surprisingly, Yu Xunhuan was awake, crouching on the floor, repeatedly trying to turn on the phone he had shattered.
Seeing his frustrated expression, Yu Xunge felt a twinge of fear. Was this the male lead? Even after losing half his phone, with yellow notifications constantly popping up, he still whimsically fiddled with the device?
Just then, she noticed Yu Xunhuan moving toward his suitcase, rummaging through it.
Her sharp eyes caught sight of a tablet and a laptop inside.
Damn! She had been careless! There was a tablet too!
Fine, fine, so this is how he plays, huh?
Without hesitation, Yu Xunge cast Knockout on Yu Xunhuan. This skill was originally prepared for him. Since she would be away from the hotel for a long time and couldn’t keep an eye on him, this was necessary.
After Yu Xunhuan collapsed, she approached and forced the sedative potion into his mouth, ensuring he swallowed it all before leaving the hotel. Phantom Body Charm consumed 10 mana per minute, but as she continuously chewed on dried meat, mana consumption was effectively halved to 5 points per minute.
Her entire mana would last 20 minutes, and at such times, drinking a basic mana potion restored 60 points.
With invisibility potions added, she could stay hidden for a long time without needing to find shelter during potion cooldowns.
Yu Xunge sprinted straight toward the Su family estate.
Where could she find massive amounts of gold? Besides the bank, the Su family’s treasure vault!
All secrets that must remain unknown and wealth requiring protection were kept there.
Yu Xunge knew this because the evil formation capable of stripping divine talents was inside that treasure vault.
The time was now 7:13.
Wearing the cooldown-reducing necklace, the cooldown for her “Armor Arrival” skill shortened to five hours and six minutes; she could use the disguise skill again at 12:12.
The second closed beta would end at 13:06.
She had only four hours.
At 12:12, whether or not she managed to secure gold from the Su family, she would find a safe place to log back in and reuse the disguise skill to enter the city. Although she was willing to alter her original plan for Phantom Shift, she wouldn’t stubbornly insist on it.
Originally, she planned to stock up and then level up by hunting monsters in the wild. Now, she would simply replace that with farming the Su family dungeon.
Running to the Su family estate was impossible—it was two hours by car from the city center. Last time, she barely survived running all the way from the Liang family to the city.
She called the sharpshooter who had fired seven shots at Yu Xunhuan without hitting him, asking for help finding a driver willing to earn some extra cash. The plan was to deliver a double-door refrigerator, stored in an alley beside the XX hotel, to a suburban villa area. If the driver could reach the destination within an hour and a half, she would pay 50,000 gold, adding 10,000 gold for every minute saved.
Although the sharpshooter usually earned 50 jin of gold per job, he knew some principled brothers who were willing to bend the law but refused to spill blood. After Yu Xunge repeatedly assured that no dismembered bodies were inside the fridge, he immediately accepted the task.
Ten minutes later, a black pickup truck stopped at the alley entrance. Two men got out, glanced around, quickly found the fridge, loaded it onto the truck, and sped off.
At 8:45, the fridge was placed in the woods outside the villa district.
Yu Xunge, having hitched a ride with the fridge, reclaimed it into her pack. Following her usual routine, she donned a swim cap to keep her hair from falling out, wore a mask and gloves, reactivated Phantom Body Charm, and set off running toward the Su family estate.