The Thief God's Steal, or the Steal of a Bandit

Yu Xunge started wandering around the Undead Main City again. She picked up any quests she found and would sneak up to NPCs to try and steal from them, not even sparing the patrolling guards. Her maximum steal range was 1 meter, meaning she could steal from almost anyone she could get close to. She even had her game character sneak up to a beggar in the corner to try and steal from him.

What if he's a hidden master!

She wandered from 6 to 7 o'clock.

With over two hours left until server shutdown, Yu Xunge finally stopped. Besides gaining 1 point in Constitution, she now had a level 40 purple bow in her inventory.

She had stolen it from the innkeeper.

Yu Xunge didn't hesitate and walked straight to the weapon shop, selling it for a pittance.

The weapon shop owner clearly recognized the bow. In the pop-up dialogue box, he kept emphasizing the risks he would be taking by buying it. Yu Xunge, however, refused to budge. Dialogue boxes kept popping up above her character's head. Yu Xunge wasn't a newbie; even a common level 20 purple weapon cost 500 gold. This was level 40 purple gear, something she'd never even seen before.

She started at 3000 gold and went down to 1000. After that, no matter how many times the trade window popped up, her input price was always 1000 gold.

This was truly her bottom line. She knew whoever bought this item would have a hard time dealing with it. It was good enough that someone was willing to buy it.

After 5 minutes, just as Yu Xunge was thinking her time was precious and she should compromise, the trade was successful.

Yu Xunge immediately had her character return to the Alchemy mentor. She spent 100 gold to upgrade her Alchemy to Intermediate and then clicked to learn all the available recipes, which cost her another two hundred-plus gold.

Afterward, Yu Xunge ran across nearly half the city to the Goblin residential area. She found a Goblin engineer, only knee-high to her character, and learned Engineering.

This was the result of Yu Xunge's careful consideration. Whether it was Jewelry, Leatherworking, or Tailoring, these were all professions for crafting equipment. As long as she had materials, she could craft gear. But her time was precious. The equipment produced in the early stages of these professions had extremely limited practical use. She wouldn't need it before the game invasion, and after the invasion, it would be quickly phased out.

However, Engineering held great potential for her right now. Intermediate Engineering could already craft firearms, bullets, and explosives.

More importantly, she knew where to get the blueprint for the Repair Robot. But the prerequisite for learning that blueprint was reaching Advanced Engineering.

She quickly paid to unlock Engineering and then learned all the available blueprints. She also bought 10 sets of materials for crafting firearms, 500 sets of materials for crafting bullets, and 100 sets of materials for crafting explosives.

Using the Goblin's crafting station on the spot, she produced 10 guns, 5,000 bullets, and 100 packs of crude explosives, pushing her Engineering skill to Intermediate.

After clicking to upgrade, Yu Xunge again learned all the blueprints she could.

Finally, with the remaining three hundred-plus gold, she returned to the herb shop and exchanged it all for herbs, filling every remaining slot in her inventory.

It was now 8:45.

Yu Xunhuan was still lying on the ground snoring not far away. The voices of Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo could be heard from outside the door. Yu Xunge walked into the bathroom in Yu Xunhuan's room, turned on the faucet, creating the illusion that he was showering, and then returned to sit by the bed.

She controlled her character to walk to the center of the Undead City, to the Lord's location.

Unlike in peacetime, the alien races had a history of constant warfare and plunder, where strength was paramount. Although she didn't know how many cities the alien races had or how their ranks were divided, she knew that becoming a city lord was definitely a result of strength. There wouldn't be any plots of incompetent nobles rising to power like in novels.

Even in her world, after the game invasion, everything was reshuffled. But those who became city lords were all among the top hundred players. Even if the powerful elite had greater advantages in concentrating resources to train strong individuals, ultimately, the strongest spoke. City lords might have to listen to the voices of these factions, but power always remained in the hands of the strongest.

8:52

Yu Xunge's game character was stopped by soldiers outside a luxurious palace.

A dialogue box popped up, and Yu Xunge typed: "There's a problem with the anchor point."

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

The soldiers didn't relent, but the commotion quickly attracted the attention of higher-ranking undead soldiers. After she typed the same sentence again, she was led into the palace.

The Undead City Lord, clad in black armor, sat on the throne at the highest point of the palace.

A dialogue box popped up: "You say there's a problem with the anchor point?"

9:13

Yu Xunge typed in the dialogue box: "Yes, I'm willing to stake my life that the information I received is absolutely accurate, but I require a reward."

"Insolence!"

Yu Xunge fell silent. She waited quietly. Perhaps to those in power, she was already a dead person. The dead were always granted leniency. Soon, the captain of the guards walked over and gave her something.

Opening it, she saw 100 gold.

Tsk! Yu Xunge wanted equipment, but this was just a casual bit of profit-skimming. She wasn't picky.

9:17

She typed in the dialogue box: "This is classified information. I am only willing to tell the City Lord alone."

She tried to control her character to approach the City Lord. To the level 99 City Lord, her level 1 character was like an ant. For a moment, no one stopped her.

9:20

Her character stopped beside the Undead City Lord.

9:21

She used [The Thief God's Steal, or the Steal of a Bandit].

[Pledging the name of the Thief God, you attempt to steal the flesh and blood talent of Orlov D, Lord of the Undead Ghost City.]

[Stealing successful—Detected that the target's God-Bestowed Talent level is too high—Stealing interrupted!]

[You have died.]

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

She looked up at the clock on the wall. 9:22. The second hand had just passed the 12.

A full 7 hours.

The phone emitted a cracking sound, first the screen, then the internal components, and finally it spontaneously combusted. She quickly threw it to the ground. In just a few seconds, the phone turned into a wisp of black smoke and dispersed into the air, as if it had never existed.

Immediately after, a backpack, a worn cloth bag, and a money pouch printed with gold coins appeared on the ground.

And in Yu Xunge's mind, her incredibly familiar character panel appeared.

[Character]Gē Wū Ēn (Level 0, 0.001%)

[God-Bestowed Talent]God of Thieves (S-rank)

[God-Bestowed Talent]Immortality (SS-rank) (Incomplete)

[Race]Human (?)

[Racial Talent]Undead Will | Consume

[HP]: 100/100

[MP]: 100/100

[Strength]: 5

[Constitution]: 7

[Intelligence]: 10

[Agility]: 12

[Luck]: 8

[Charisma]: 9

[Available Stat Points]: 0

The dazzling SS-rank made Yu Xunge's eyes water instantly. Even though it was incomplete, she saw that three of the five skills under that talent were glowing, while only two were a dark gray. An SS-rank talent! Even if she only stole one thing, it was worth it. Based on the S-rank God of Thieves talent, none of the skills were useless.

She looked at Yu Xunhuan, who was still sound asleep not far away, and wanted to burst out laughing.

She tucked the two backpacks inside her clothes, with the money pouch occupying one slot. When she concentrated, she could sense how many gold coins were in the pouch.

She picked up Yu Xunhuan's phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and confirmed that he really didn't have that game on his phone. She then moved him to the bed, imitated her past self, and covered him with the blanket before leaving the room.

Downstairs, Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo were making breakfast. Yu Xunge stood by the stairs and listened quietly for a moment. Yi Qiuguo was blaming Yu Qingshan for agreeing to let Yu Xunhuan buy Yu Xunge a villa, and even putting the villa under Yu Xunge's name. Then Yu Qingshan softly analyzed the situation.

He told her to think long-term. Yu Xunge could earn a lot of money, and a villa was only thirty million. Over the years, Yu Xunge had brought home at least seventy million...

Yu Xunge listened quietly until they changed the topic. Only then did she return to her room expressionlessly.

Then she checked her own talents.

However, before she could examine the new God-Bestowed Talent [Immortality] in detail, she sensed something was wrong.

[Skill 2]The Thief God's Steal, or the Steal of a Bandit: I'm sorry, I stole your entire home. I apologize. On the name of the God of Thieves, steal the opponent's talent. This skill can only be used once in the God of Thieves' lifetime.

The second skill under [God of Thieves] was still lit.

It wasn't that she hadn't possessed various skills or items with cooldowns in her previous life. Any skill or item in cooldown would appear gray and unusable. If a one-time item couldn't be used again after use, it would turn light gray, meaning it had become trash.

But why was this Skill 3 still lit?

"Only usable once in a lifetime"?

Did her game character dying count as a lifetime?!

So?

So!

This meant she could still use such a heaven-defying and wicked talent once more?!!!

Yu Xunge closed her eyes and took deep breaths, but she couldn't calm down at all. She had never been so grateful for her decision back then!

As expected of the S-rank talent, God of Thieves!

She walked to the mini-fridge by the bed, took out a bottle of ice water, and chugged it down. After completely calming herself, she clicked on the new God-Bestowed Talent [Immortality].