Chapter 4: The Theft of the God of Thieves Can Also Be the Theft of a Bandit

Yu Xunge once again wandered through the undead capital, accepting tasks whenever they appeared, sneaking up on every NPC she saw, and never sparing the patrolling guards. Her maximum theft range was one meter—if she could get close enough, she could steal. Even the beggars huddled in corners weren’t safe from her game character’s pilfering.

What if one of them was a hidden master?!

She wandered from six to seven o’clock. With over two hours left before the server shutdown, Yu Xunge finally called it quits. Aside from one point of constitution, she had acquired a level 40 purple bow.

She had stolen it from the innkeeper.

Without hesitation, Yu Xunge headed straight to the weapon shop and sold it at a low price.

The weapon shop owner clearly recognized the bow. In the dialogue box that popped up, he kept emphasizing how much risk he would bear by buying it. Yu Xunge held firm, refusing to budge. The small figure above the shopkeeper’s head kept flashing dialogue boxes, but Yu Xunge was no novice; she knew that even a common level 20 purple weapon cost 500 gold, and this was a level 40 purple item—something she had never even seen before.

She started bargaining from 3,000 gold down to 1,000. No matter how many times the trade window popped up, she stubbornly entered 1,000 gold.

That was her bottom line. She knew that anyone who bought such an item would be dealing with a hot potato. If someone bought it at all, that was already lucky.

After five minutes, just as Yu Xunge was about to give up, the trade went through.

She immediately controlled her character back to the alchemy instructor, spent 100 gold to upgrade alchemy to intermediate level, and learned all available recipes, spending over 200 gold in total.

Then she ran across almost half the city to the goblin residential area, found a goblin engineer no taller than her knee, and learned Engineering.

This was a carefully considered decision. Whether it was jewelry, leatherwork, or tailoring, these were all crafting professions that could produce equipment given the right materials. But time was precious to her, and the gear made at the beginner level was of extremely limited use—useless before the game invasion and soon outdated afterward.

However, Engineering held great promise for her current situation. Even the beginner level allowed the making of firearms, bullets, and explosives.

More importantly, she knew where to find the blueprint for Repair Robot, but learning it required Engineering to reach advanced level.

She quickly paid to unlock Engineering, learned all available blueprints, and bought ten sets of firearm materials, five hundred sets of bullet materials, and one hundred sets of explosives materials.

Using the goblin crafting station on site, she produced ten guns, five thousand bullets, and one hundred packs of low-quality explosives, pushing Engineering to intermediate level.

After upgrading, she again learned all available blueprints.

Finally, with just over three hundred gold left, she returned to the herbal shop and exchanged it all for herbs, filling every remaining slot in her inventory.

It was already 8:45.

Not far away, Yu Xunhuan still lay snoring on the floor. Outside, Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo’s voices drifted in. Yu Xunge went into Yu Xunhuan’s bathroom, turned on the faucet to create the illusion of him showering, then returned quietly to the bedside and sat down.

She then controlled her character to the center of the undead city—the location of the city lord’s palace.

Unlike in peaceful times, the alien races had long waged war and plundered each other, ruled solely by strength. Though she didn’t know exactly how many cities the aliens had or how their hierarchy was structured, she was certain that becoming a city lord was based entirely on power. There would be no incompetent nobility rising to rule, as in novels.

Even in her own world, after the game invasion reshuffled everything, all city lords were among the top hundred on the leaderboard. The powerful elites might have had greater advantages to concentrate resources on cultivating strong players, but ultimately, it was the strongest who spoke. City lords might listen to these forces, but power always rested in the hands of the strongest.

At 8:52, Yu Xunge’s game character was stopped by soldiers outside the lavish palace.

A dialogue box popped up. Yu Xunge typed: “Anchor point malfunction.”

When selling the purple weapon earlier, she had noticed that the game automatically translated her language and that of the undead.

The soldiers persisted, but the commotion soon attracted attention from higher-ranking undead soldiers. After she typed the phrase again, she was finally allowed inside the palace.

The undead city lord, clad in black armor, sat atop the throne at the highest point in the palace.

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At 9:13, a dialogue box appeared: “You say the anchor point malfunctioned?”

Yu Xunge typed: “Yes, I’m willing to stake my life that the information I have is absolutely accurate. But I require a reward.”

“Impertinent!”

Yu Xunge remained silent, waiting patiently. To those in power, she must have appeared as good as dead—dead men were often shown leniency. Soon, the captain of the guards approached and handed her an item.

She opened it—a hundred gold coins.

Tsk! Yu Xunge wanted equipment, but this was merely a fortunate windfall; she didn’t complain.

At 9:17, she typed: “This is confidential. I will only speak it to the city lord.”

She tried to control her character closer to the city lord. To the level 99 lord, her level 1 character was like an ant, and for a moment no one stopped her.

At 9:20, her character stood beside the undead city lord.

At 9:21, she clicked to use [Theft of the Thief God, also known as the Robber’s Theft].

[In the name of the Thief God, you attempt to steal the flesh-and-blood talent of Orlov D., the ghostly city lord of the undead.]

[Stealing succeeded—detected target’s divine talent level too high—stealing interrupted!]

[You are dead.]

Immediately, her phone screen went completely unresponsive, as if it had run out of power and shut off.

She looked up at the clock on the wall—9:22, the second hand just passed twelve.

A full seven hours.

Then her phone emitted cracking sounds—first the screen, then the internal components—and finally caught fire. She hastily threw it to the ground. Within seconds, it turned into a wisp of black smoke that drifted away as if it had never existed.

At once, on the ground appeared a backpack, a tattered cloth bag, and a money pouch stamped with a gold coin symbol.

In her mind, the character panel she was intimately familiar with surfaced.

[Character] Ge Wu’en (Level 0, 0.001%)

[Divine Talent] Thief God (S rank)

[Divine Talent] Immortal (SS rank) (Incomplete)

[Race] Human (?)

[Race Talent] Undead Will | Consumption

[Health]: 100/100

[Mana]: 100/100

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[Strength]: 5

[Constitution]: 7

[Intelligence]: 10

[Agility]: 12

[Luck]: 8

[Charisma]: 9

[Available Attribute Points]: 0

The glaring SS rank made Yu Xunge’s eyes quickly well up. Despite its incomplete state, she could already see that three of the five skills under that talent were glowing, only two were dark gray. An SS rank talent! Even if she had only stolen one skill, it was more than worth it. Referring to the S-rank Thief God talent, none of its skills were useless.

She looked toward Yu Xunhuan, still sound asleep nearby, and felt an urge to laugh aloud.

She stuffed the two bags into the inner layer of her clothes. The money pouch occupied one slot, and when focused, she could sense how many gold coins were inside.

She picked up Yu Xunhuan’s phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint, confirmed the game was truly not on it, then moved him back to bed, covering him with a blanket just as she used to do for herself, before leaving the room.

Downstairs, Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo were preparing breakfast. Yu Xunge quietly listened by the staircase for a while—nothing more than Yi Qiuguo scolding Yu Qingshan for agreeing to let Yu Xunhuan buy a villa for Yu Xunge, placing it under her name, followed by Yu Qingshan’s gentle analysis.

Looking farther ahead, Yu Xunge could earn plenty of money. A villa cost only thirty million, and over the years Yu Xunge had brought home at least seventy million…

Yu Xunge listened quietly until they changed the subject, then expressionless, returned to her room.

Only then did she examine her talents.

Before she could scrutinize the new divine talent [Immortal], she sensed something was wrong.

[Skill 2] Theft of the Thief God, also known as the Robber’s Theft: “Sorry, I stole your house. I apologize.” In the name of the Thief God, you attempt to steal the opponent’s talent. This skill may only be used once in a lifetime.

The second skill under [Thief God] was still glowing.

In her previous life, she had used various skills or items with cooldowns. During cooldown, they would appear gray and be unusable. If a one-time-use item was used, it would turn light gray, effectively trash.

But why was this skill still glowing?

“One lifetime only, once?”

Could it be that her game character’s death marked the end of a lifetime?!

So?

So!

So this meant she could still use this outrageously powerful and unscrupulous talent one more time?!!!

Yu Xunge closed her eyes and took deep breaths, but she couldn’t calm down. Never before had she been so grateful for the decision she made back then!

Truly befitting the S-rank Thief God talent!

She grabbed a bottle of ice water from the bedside fridge, downed it in one gulp, and finally calmed herself enough to open the new divine talent [Immortal].