Chocolate

"Chubby, what's your name?" Mel Carlo looked at the chubby kid on his back.

Although their first meeting wasn't pleasant, in that situation, scrambling for food due to hunger wasn't a major offense.

Now that they'd spent more time together, they'd naturally become more familiar, but he had never asked the chubby kid his name, and the chubby kid never offered it, nor had he heard anyone else call him by name.

Now that things had settled down, Mel Carlo naturally prepared to ask.

"I don't know. Everyone calls me Fatty or Wild Boar. I don't know my own name."

"Is that so?" Mel Carlo was momentarily speechless. Not having a name, he had considered such a possibility, but it was truly miserable. "Then do you want to give yourself a name? A name you choose yourself."

"Yes! I want to be called Chocolate!"

Lily and Akai, who were nearby, turned their heads in confusion upon hearing this. "Why? Isn't that food?"

"Yes, I saw it before. Chocolate fell out of a noble's carriage. After tasting it, I felt there was nothing in the world more delicious than chocolate," the chubby kid continued, his expression not faked; he genuinely liked the name.

Chocolate, indeed, was chocolate. But it was better than being called Wild Boar, which sounded more like a nickname.

Mel Carlo didn't say much more, instead accepting the name. Regardless, it was the chubby kid's own choice.

As they were about to reach the gang's courtyard, Mel Carlo spoke, "Alright, Chocolate, put me down. I'll walk in myself."

"Okay." The chubby kid put Mel Carlo down, and they all walked into the courtyard.

Anke, who had been captured earlier, had now returned. He had officially taken over this area and was now the boss of this gang-ridden street.

Mel Carlo's worries eased considerably. If this scarred man truly had no other intentions toward him, then his escape wouldn't need to be so urgent.

He understood what an Apostle was, of course. There was no need for a small figure like Anke to fabricate a lie to deceive him.

"Alright, after paying, go wash up," Anke said, looking at the four people entering the courtyard, his gaze lingering more on Mel Carlo.

"Wash up?" Mel Carlo's eyes showed a slight hesitation.

Although he knew Anke showed him preferential treatment, it was still a bit strange compared to the previous boss.

"Yes, I can tell you're a clean person." Anke had never stopped observing Mel. The more he observed, the more convinced he became of his own suspicions.

Because unlike others, he had actually witnessed the birth of an Apostle. That sense of sudden strangeness, as if another person had taken residence within someone's body, yet that person remained the same. Otherwise, his face would be more than just a scar.

But after so many years, even when some believed a Sub-dragon species monster had attacked the village, no one believed his words. And he himself had done his utmost to investigate the Apostles, but his status limited the information he could access.

How could a minor gang leader investigate a legendary powerful being?

After taking a hot bath, Mel Carlo lay down on the dry straw to rest. Since Anke could now openly show favoritism, it meant he had gained the authority to manage this area.

In a gang, there were many minor bosses like him. Each minor boss managed a specific area, which also served as a source of income for the gang.

"Lily, can I try something?" Mel Carlo suddenly asked.

"What is it?"

"I want to steal from you. Can you hide that hairpin on yourself?"

"Steal?" Lily was slightly bewildered. Steal from herself? But if he was going to steal, why tell her about it?

The time since she obtained this skill was too short to fully test if the skill was similar to the game, especially regarding randomness, distance, and the success rate of theft.

"Yes, I need your help. You can put some other small items on yourself."

Lily secured the hairpin, then picked up some pebbles and licorice from the ground. She originally had some copper Oren on her. She looked at Mel again. "Is it okay now!"

"Yes, thank you." Mel Carlo activated the skill [Theft].

Skill judgment successful: [Obtained 1 Oren through Theft], [Proficiency +1, Theft Proficiency 2/10000], [Effort +1].

Looking at the copper coin in his hand, the randomness was indeed too strong. He had clearly intended to steal the hairpin just now, but what he ended up with was a copper coin.

At this pace, after 10,000 [Thefts], this skill could be leveled to max. Using the skill consumed MP. With his current MP, he could only use the theft skill about 5 times within a certain period before needing to wait for his magic power to recover slowly.

The game's menu interface still had no numerical values, and the System had not issued any quests. This System seemed like a half-finished product. The only visible numbers were the bare Level and the red and blue bars.

The Lottery page seemed to have changed. [Effort: 2]. A single draw required 10 Effort points, and a 10-pull required 100 points, and it wasn't even certain what the prize would be.

Such a lottery without a guaranteed prize would be classified as gambling. If a game company dared to implement something like this, they would likely be flooded with complaints.

"Mel, how did you take it?" Lily stared at Mel with wide eyes.

"It's a skill, but you have to keep it a secret, okay?"

"Oh." Lily nodded. She had heard of such things, but currently, they had no place to learn skills, nor was anyone willing to teach them.

So, she could only have learned it secretly when others weren't aware.

Mel Carlo returned the 1 Oren he had stolen to Lily and continued to try. Lily was also happy to help him.

In the next four attempts at theft, Mel Carlo only succeeded once in obtaining the item he wanted, but the skill itself never failed. With the same Level, it seemed failure wasn't that easy.

The remaining MP was just enough for a sixth skill use, but fatigue was already setting in. After his magic power was depleted, it was more mental fatigue. He could feel that if he used the skill one more time, he might faint.

Having come this far, Mel Carlo decided not to push himself further. The current usable distance was 1 meter. After reaching full proficiency, it might extend to 10 meters.

Also, each skill use required a 10-second interval. This cooldown was also a setting in games, but in this world, it felt more like physical discomfort caused by magic power consumption. If this could be overcome, or if the skill proficiency reached 10,000, this cooldown time might reset to zero.

These were considered good news. A skill with zero cooldown was something even he wouldn't dare to imagine in a game, because skill proficiency in games relied on skill points. Every level up granted 5 skill points, but maxing out a single skill required 30 skill points. For balance, games would unlikely allow zero cooldown.

And in this world, anything became possible.

Including the time it took for magic power to recover, I could use skills five times in the morning, then wait for my magic power to replenish, use them five more times in the afternoon, and then sleep to rest.

I could practice about ten times a day, but it would take 1,000 days to max out a skill, and that was without any unexpected circumstances. It would take almost three years.

It seemed I needed to try learning other skills for now, as not all skills consumed so much MP.

If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you can find it next time.