Stealing Entries

At the thought, Zhou Meng was instantly filled with the delight of someone about to play a prank.

He walked out of his ward and came to the door of the ward next door.

The door was covered in intricate patterns, and a large black circle was drawn on its nameplate.

This was the room of Nyx, the goddess of night.

Zhou Meng tried the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge.

Tch, a mere door thinks it can stop me? With a thought, Zhou Meng decided to steal the whole door.

"Ow!"

The next second, the door he had just stolen slammed him flat on the floor.

For fuck's sake, why did the door appear in midair when I stole it?! It nearly knocked the blood out of me! Looks like I'll have to get used to using this ability.

He climbed to his feet, brushed the dust off his clothes, and walked straight into ward number one.

Unlike his own ward, this one was empty and bare. Aside from a figure sitting in a chair at the very center of the room and a few ornaments, there was nothing in it.

The woman had a cool, aloof elegance, and her features were utterly flawless. Her black hair cascaded down her back, and she wore a star-sand dress as deep and dark as the night. She blended into the surrounding darkness until the two were indistinguishable.

Zhou Meng knew that this was Nyx, the famous Evernight Goddess of Greek mythology. In Roman mythology, she was also called Nox.

She was one of the primordial gods of Greek mythology, the daughter of Chaos, the god of chaos. Thanatos, the god of death, was one of her many children.

The loud crash of Zhou Meng being flattened by the door had just roused the goddess Nyx, who looked like a statue, from her sleep.

"My child, my child! I've finally found you!" She turned her gaze to Zhou Meng, who had just entered the room.

Nyx suffered from severe delusions. Everyone and everything she set eyes on was her child.

Of course, she did have many children. She had three with her brother Erebus and gave birth to eighteen more on her own.

Clearly, Zhou Meng realized, he was about to become one of her army of children, along with the vases behind him.

No! Big sis! I don't want to be your son!

Just after she had taken a few steps forward, Zhou Meng willed it and stole the thought of "wanting to claim the man in front of her as her son" from Nyx's mind.

But that didn't stop Nyx from embracing the vases behind him and repeatedly murmuring the names of Thanatos and Hypnos.

Ah, you're seriously ill, sis.

Nyx's children had all been killed by those blackhearted gods on Greece's Mount Olympus. That was also why she was now in this mental hospital: excessive grief had led to severe delusions.

Zhou Meng almost couldn't bear to test his ability on her anymore. But in fact, he had already tested it by stealing one of Nyx's thoughts. Since that was the case, he might as well take the opportunity to try something else.

Trying to steal her clothes would be far too tasteless. It wasn't his style.

Zhou Meng wanted to see if he could use his power of theft to cure Nyx's mental illness directly.

He raised his right hand toward Nyx and willed it, trying to steal the severe delusions she suffered from!

But nothing happened. The theft had failed.

Zhou Meng tried a few more times, but the result was the same. The Evernight Goddess's mental illness wasn't so easy to cure.

He actually had a reason for trying that. If he could cure the Evernight Goddess's illness this way, it would be the same as her recovering and being discharged. Even without Lin Qiye, she would still be cured, and perhaps she could take him out when the time came.

As for stealing the mental hospital's front gate, he couldn't even be bothered to try. If it were really that easy, these gods wouldn't be locked up here.

Looks like that won't work either. Do I really have to wait for Lin Qiye to cure my illnesses one by one? But the problem is, I'm not sick! How's he supposed to treat me when I'm not sick?

As Zhou Meng pondered, he suddenly noticed what seemed to be crimson-gold, orange, purple, blue, and green lights appearing above the Evernight Goddess's head.

He focused his gaze and looked closely. They seemed to be words.

[Evernight Origin] [Evernight Law] [Eclipse of Darkness] [Starry Night Dancer] [Night Sky Descends] [Eye of the Dark Night] [Fallen Thousand Stars] [Star-Splitting Art] [Dark Night Flash] [Evernight Kin] [Extraordinary Fertility] [Creator God Status] [Maternal Kindness and Filial Piety] [Peerless Beauty]—and so on and so forth.

These all seemed to be attributes and innate traits of Nyx, the Evernight Goddess. And in this form, they looked like individual entries!

Can I steal these things too?

He first reached for [Evernight Origin], which glowed crimson-gold. This was the foundation from which the goddess had conceived all her abilities. Even the Evernight Law she controlled had been born from this origin.

Under Zhou Meng's control, the crimson entry for Evernight Origin moved! But it had only flown halfway toward him when Zhou Meng felt as though a hand had gripped the entry tightly and pulled it back.

What's going on? I can't steal it? Is it because this thing is too important to the Evernight Goddess? Or is my status as a god of theft too low? I can't steal her things?

Zhou Meng refused to give up. He reached for the orange-glowing entry, [Fallen Thousand Stars].

The orange entry wobbled toward him, flying a little farther, but it was still pulled back by an inexplicable force.

As expected, I can't steal orange entries either.

That makes sense. How could it be so easy to steal from a creator god of Greek mythology?

He tried a few more times. For a god of Nyx's level, he couldn't steal crimson-gold entries, and orange entries were also beyond him for now. But he could currently steal one purple entry, two blue ones, or four green ones.

These entries were also mutually exclusive. Stealing one purple entry would fill his capacity, but if he stole one blue entry, he could still steal two green ones.

It was just that green entries weren't all that useful. Of the two entries [Peerless Beauty] and [Maternal Kindness and Filial Piety], one could give him peerless beauty, while the other would make him regard everything he encountered as his own child.

The entry [Extraordinary Fertility] didn't seem very meaningful, yet it was actually a purple entry!

Zhou Meng was happy for a while, but the excitement soon passed.

He roughly understood that although he was the god of theft, the divine statuses of the patients around him were all higher than his. Thus, his power wasn't sufficient to steal the more powerful entries.

There ought to be some way to upgrade his [Petty Theft] entry.

Besides, what use was stealing the gods' entries? Even if he really used some power to blow this place up, he still wouldn't be able to get out! His goal was to leave this mental hospital, not steal all the other patients' abilities.

As he turned his back and thought, he suddenly felt himself being held in a tight embrace, while two extremely full mounds pressed against his back.

"Erebus, my husband, I've finally found you! Look, Hypnos and Thanatos are right here too!" Nyx's gentle voice came from behind him.

"Ah, great. The thought of treating me as your son was stolen, so now you can only treat me as your husband, huh?" Zhou Meng turned his head helplessly, just about to say a few words of comfort to his fellow patient from next door and then go see the patients in the other rooms.

But then he suddenly heard an extremely violent knocking at the distant entrance to the mental hospital!

It was the sound of a door knocker striking the door!

At the same time, a violent peal of bells rang out from the clock tower inside the mental hospital!