Chapter 57: Explosive Attribute Growth

A burly man asked, "How did it go?"

The tall and thin member of the five-person squad shook his head. "He refused."

The burly man chuckled and said, "I figured he wouldn't. Su Zhi insisted on going to talk first. What's the point of that?"

Su Zhi, the leader of the five-person squad, replied, "We always have to give people a chance."

The burly man let out a harsh laugh. "You're just so hypocritical. You're clearly the most ruthless one of us all, yet you always insist on talking to people first, acting as if that somehow makes you a truly good person."

The other players were clearly used to the bickering between the two and went about their own business.

Su Zhi said, "Fine, let's get to work. She'll be back before dark. Is everything prepared?"

The burly man nodded. "Yeah, don't worry. We'll make sure she doesn't die, but what if the officials find out?"

Su Zhi smiled with a refined air. "So what if they find out? Would they really execute a dozen of our players' lives for the sake of a useless cripple?"

The burly man grinned craftily. "Can we save her legs for later? Let me have some fun with her before you cut them off. I've never played with a female celebrity before."

Su Zhi answered, "Sure."

"Boss, boss! I want a turn too!"

"Me too!"

Su Zhi agreed with a good-natured tone, "Alright, all of you can. Cut them off after you're done playing."

Yu Xun'ge pressed flat against the wall with a calm expression, having already deduced what these people intended to do. It was nothing more than severing her legs and then healing her, forcing her to follow them around like a dog, serving as a mere mascot.

No, they might not even leave her with her hands, since having hands meant she could cast skills.

Staying completely composed, Yu Xun'ge first scurried out of the cave at high speed and stripped off all the equipment she was wearing, which dropped her maximum health points down to 250. Then, she consumed a high-tier dish that tripled its critical effect and regenerated 600 health points per minute. Transforming back into a spider, she scuttled rapidly back into the cave and climbed up onto the rock wall directly above them. Fortunately, the cave ceiling wasn't very high, and the moment these people stood up, they entered the range of her skill.

—[I Want This, This, and That!]

Yu Xun'ge felt like a caffeine addict finally getting their coffee; this skill was simply the most satisfying one to use!

Even though repeating the theft consumed 20% of her health, that was only a mere 50 points of health. With a recovery rate of 10 health points per second, Yu Xun'ge could fully restore her health in just 25 seconds.

While chatting, this group of people was preparing the item they intended to use against Yu Xun'ge—a large iron cage.

"Do you guys think her luck is just that good? What is her Luck stat anyway? Could it be 10?"

"Maybe it's a divine gift talent?"

"Can't you find anything out? Those people's lips are way too tight."

"It's fine, it's better if they keep quiet. If her divine gift talent can't be pried out, doesn't that also mean people won't talk about our divine gift talents?"

"That's true. But if we get discovered, will they really not punish us severely?"

"Then we'll just lock her up right here from now on."

"What a pity. It would've been nice to play with her longer."

"Hahaha, you can still play with her even without legs."

"Hahahaha, true!"

Not everyone was as diligent as Yu Xun'ge. Although the game was fun, once it became reality—where getting injured brought genuine pain and being killed meant true death—even though they were no longer ordinary mortals, they still felt fear. Furthermore, players currently had few offensive options and could only rely on their divine gift talents.

Yu Xun'ge had been stealing for a full hour, and this group still hadn't left. This had been an hour of exceptionally high efficiency. Although she hadn't stopped continuously stealing from Su Yitong and Liang Yuchuan earlier either—constantly drinking healing potions to replenish her health—potions had a cooldown. Even with her reckless expenditure of resources, gulping down potions while simultaneously eating meat to recover blood, the actual frequency with which she could use her skills wasn't all that high.

But today, she possessed the God of Cookery talent, and her cooking skill was advanced...

She could increase her health by 10 points per second, but using her skill once cost 50 points of health. So, if one faucet was draining water while another was filling it, how long would it take for this pool to...

Yu Xun'ge even began zoning out as the theft went on, only stopping when these people split into several teams and departed from the cave.

When she finished, her backpack contained 5 additional items, and her attribute points had increased by a staggering 17 points. Although the probability of stealing an item was twice that of stealing an attribute point, it couldn't help the fact that current players simply didn't have much of value on them.

Yu Xun'ge's current attributes:
[Health Points]: 350/350
[Mana Points]: 650/650
[Strength]: 10 + 7
[Constitution]: 13 + 2
[Intelligence]: 15 + 6
[Agility]: 21 + 4
[Luck]: 10
[Charisma]: 10

With another 17 attribute points added, her stats were now comparable to a Level 9 player. These weren't bad guys; this was a flock of fattened sheep.

However, things were far from over. Yu Xun'ge had no intention of considering her revenge complete just because she had stolen their attribute points.

Although those men's words hadn't stirred a single ripple of emotion in her heart, that didn't mean she wasn't angry, and she had no doubt that these people would put those words into action.

Transforming into a small bird, Yu Xun'ge flew in the direction the final team had taken, and she quickly tracked them down by the commotion ahead. A few of them were surrounding and attacking a venomous spider using suppressed firearms.

Once transformed via Animagus, one could not use any skills other than their divine gift talent, but Yu Xun'ge wasn't in a hurry to change back; this gave her a perfect opportunity to experiment.

Using the Soros Pocket Watch, she scouted the data of the man holding a shield at the very front.

[Strength]: 7
[Constitution]: 4
[Intelligence]: 5
[Agility]: 5
[Luck]: 5
[Charisma]: 3

Timing her moment precisely as the spider coiled its strength to slam into the shield, Yu Xun'ge cast Skill 2 of the [Wheel of Destiny]—which she hadn't used yet since acquiring it: [Your Pairing is Wrong, I Don't Like It]—which spun the target's wheel of destiny, swapping their highest attribute with their lowest attribute. The swap lasted for 1 hour, with a 6-hour cooldown.

Yu Xun'ge felt as though the [Strength] and [Agility] values in her field of vision flickered like a loose electrical contact, and the very next second, Strength became 4, and Agility became 7.

She felt a slight pang of disappointment. It seemed that un-addable attributes like Charisma could not be swapped.

On second thought, however, if Charisma could be swapped, the Wheel of Destiny wouldn't be rated Grade B; it would easily be worth a Grade A.

In the later stages of the game, everyone would allocate their attribute points. Even players who preferred extreme builds would still invest a little into other attributes due to the prerequisite requirements of various equipment. Once their levels increased, most of their attributes would break into double digits, leaving only Luck and Charisma capped at a maximum of 10.

Because of the sudden plummet in his Strength, the shield-bearing man failed to defend properly and was sent flying straight back from the impact.

He let out a panicked, foul-mouthed curse. He had no idea what was wrong with today; from the very beginning, he had felt slightly incapable of defending properly, and now he had actually been sent flying.

Once their formation shattered, the rest of the group descended into chaos.