Unlucky Heka

Humans were creatures prone to compromise.

When someone forced a person to steal against his conscience, he would probably refuse because of things like conscience and morality.

However, after being shown those same kind whose legs had been broken and who were thrown on the street to beg.

There was a high probability that the other party would utter some nonsense about how a wise man submits to circumstances and choose to pick pockets.

The good news was that Heka was not the example whose legs had been broken.

The bad news was that Heka was the person who chose to compromise.

It had been a full three months since he came to this world, and Heka now immensely missed that crude dormitory which, although damp, at least had four walls and a roof.

This was not his world; he only had to look at the sky to know. The sky back in his hometown was not this blue.

At this moment, he was not a newly hired engineer, but a petty pickpocket controlled by a gang within Seapeak Port of the Valin Kingdom.

[Name] Heka

[Race] Lightfoot Halfling/Human Hybrid

[Attributes]

Strength: 0.256

Constitution: 0.217

Agility: 1.278

Speed: 0.871

Intelligence: 1.178

[Skills]

Theft (6789/10000)

Slashing (187/10000)

Sleight of Hand (218/10000)

[Inventory] (10 slots)

Inferior basin filled with smelly well water × 1, Inferior wooden bucket filled with smelly well water × 9, Box filled with food × 1, Crude dagger × 1, Copper coins × 761, Box filled with sundries × 1

[Challenges]

None for now

This was the thing that came here with him, which could perhaps be called a panel. At the very beginning, Heka even tried talking to it, but did not receive any response.

He had already explored all the other functions within the panel, except for the challenge column, which he still knew nothing about so far.

There was currently no opportunity to increase attribute points or expand the inventory either; the panel seemed to be just a panel.

The boy, curled up in a corner favored by shadows, stood up, his gaze moving rapidly among the bustling crowd in front of him.

Although he did not much like his current job, constrained by the gang's threat of clubs, he had no plans to change careers anytime soon.

He first ruled out those adventurers carrying weapons; most of these guys were psycho.

A few days ago, a little guy was instigated by others to challenge himself, and was subsequently kicked flying by that adventurer.

That poor guy's head smashed against the steps behind, instantly turning into a pool of red and white broken eggs.

Heka, who witnessed this scene, could only return alone to that pigpen-like dormitory, and then tearfully loot the body, accepting the deceased's tattered quilt in the dorm.

Then he had to rule out those glamorous fellows; most of these people had connections.

Although true big shots would not appear on the street, they would travel by carriage.

Yet even a pawnshop owner was enough to get the gang that managed small pickpockets like them to retrieve their stolen goods.

At that time, a brutal beating would be inevitable.

Then he ruled out those hardworking laborers; they had nothing on them, and the most valuable thing was the clothes on their backs.

Heka looked at his own thin arms and legs; they were thieves, not robbers, and besides, he felt he couldn't beat the other party in a fight.

Got it...

The boy's gaze finally locked onto a hurried youth with tense cheeks.

He could vaguely see the bulging money pouch at the other's waist. It looked like someone going out on business, so it had to be him.

Heka jumped down from the box, then patted his accomplice who was squatting on the ground playing with a stick.

This one was considered his roommate, a kid whose hair had all fallen out, leaving only a tuft of hair.

It was also because he saw this kid's appearance that Heka preferred to spend a little money to fetch water from the well instead of directly drinking the natural bounty of the river outside the city.

"That guy, cover for me."

Thanks to the panel, Heka's rate of progress was very fast, and in a few days he had become a backbone member of this property-transfer organization.

Of course, he thereby also earned the qualification to be arrested by the sheriff and hanged from the city gate tower.

Pulling down his already tattered hat to cover his eyes, Heka squeezed into the crowd.

Perhaps because he had been eating rather well these past few days, this body, which originally wasn't much better than a goblin's, was actually starting to put on flesh, and his physique had even increased by 0.001.

Heka guessed that the standard for a normal human should be 1, but unfortunately, apart from his intelligence and agility, all his other stats were below the standard value.

His target was heading toward the intersection at that moment, and Heka glanced to the side, and after making sure Tuft of Hair was already in position, he slowly followed the man.

The instant he got close, Heka's nose twitched sharply.

There was a smell of blood on the other person, but Tuft of Hair had already entangled the target by now, so with the arrow on the string, he had no choice but to fire.

Even within the small circles of pickpockets and beggars, a child like Tuft of Hair—with a face full of festering sores, completely bald, and with a black tumor growing on his head—wasn't very well-liked.

However, Heka didn't care about that; the other person's terrifying appearance happened to be useful for drawing the victim's attention.

And pickpocketing was just like magic, both being the art of misdirection.

Moving in close, cutting the fabric with a small knife, and then gently flicking with the tip of the blade, a purse that wasn't exactly bulging, but wasn't shriveled either, thus landed in Heka's hand.

Proficiency +1

Seeing that he had succeeded, the boy immediately turned and left the scene toward the side.

Tuft of Hair's gaze, glancing from behind, caught sight of Heka already leaving, and immediately abandoned his harassment of the person in front of him.

That person visibly breathed a sigh of relief, then walked away from the intersection at a brisk pace.

Heka looked up and glanced at the gang thugs not far away, who had been keeping an eye on little pickpockets like him all along; after all, they were like otters raised by fishermen, serving as an important tool of labor.

Fishermen could tie the otters' feet with ropes, but these little pickpockets of theirs weren't going into the water to catch fish, after all, but working out on the streets, so obviously they couldn't be crudely tied by the ankles with ropes.

Therefore, the best method was to send a few people to watch, because if they ran off, the gang would lose this business that brought in a thousand gold a day.

Heka paused slightly at the street corner, and after dodging the line of sight of the thugs on both sides, he immediately thrust his fingers into the purse inside his bosom.

Upon feeling the sticky sensation on top of those coins, Heka's movements also paused for a fraction; that seemed to be...

Fresh blood...

This was stolen money, but it didn't matter; for the sake of getting a full meal, Heka didn't mind this little episode—it was just truly bad luck, and there would likely be trouble afterward.

Heka hooked up some coins with his fingertips, but when he prepared to store them into his inventory, he failed, which was a rare occurrence.

When he tried placing them into another empty slot instead of putting them together with the copper coins, the coins inside the purse were successfully stored away.

Heka took a moment to glance at his inventory, where a new item had been added.

Blood-stained Huika Gold Coin × 16

Heka's heart gave a violent thump; trouble, and colossal trouble at that—he was done for now.

Heka looked up toward the street; those were the thugs specifically sent by the gang to keep an eye on him.

He was considered the one who had progressed the fastest among this batch of pickpockets, which was why he had earned this privilege.

Heka was very certain that the other party had seen the target he selected, since his task was to watch over him.

Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but at this moment, it was going to cost him his life.

There were quite a few factions on the continent that issued their own currencies.

And the currency commonly seen in Seapeak Port was the official currency issued by Valin, with the official exchange rate being based on a thousand—meaning one thousand copper coins exchanged for one silver coin, and one thousand silver coins exchanging for one gold coin.

Although he didn't know how the exchange rate between Huika Gold Coin and Valin Gold Coin worked.

Yet Heka had just weighed the heft of this purse; even if it were melted down into gold, it was not a small sum of money.

Things like gold coins would never appear in normal transactions; they were mostly used for bulk transactions, and this truly was big trouble now.