Part 7. The Righteous Thief (3)
Theft was an incredibly complex and delicate skill.
A skill riddled with variables, like a rugby ball thrown onto a gravel road.
‘What factors affect the success rate?’
As always, to check the specific numerical values of the skill, he opened the
However, seeing the window that appeared, Ted shook his head.
‘This won’t help at all.’
Because too many conditions were organically intertwined.
‘I get the gist, but…’
Theft was largely influenced by four factors.
1. Weight.
The heavier the item, the harder it was to steal.
2. Value.
The higher the general value, the harder it was to steal. In other words, gold was harder to steal than silver.
3. The opponent’s level.
High-level NPCs or users were difficult to approach in the first place, and even if one did approach, the chance of stealing was extremely low. If the opponent had the
4. Location of possession.
When Ted had asked Tisai about his skills, Tisai had boasted that he had even stolen the underwear the princess was wearing.
Items in concealed locations had that much lower probability!
On the other hand, Ted, who had a low theft score, couldn’t even see things in an opponent’s pocket in the
In addition, environment, mental state, concealment level, and so on had minor effects.
‘I was so fascinated by the theft itself earlier that I didn’t check, but a separate window pops up when you succeed.’
When attempting theft, crown shapes appeared in the status window.
If there was 1 crown, the opponent would notice and the theft would fail.
If there were 2 crowns, the theft succeeded, but the opponent noticed.
If there were 3 crowns, the theft succeeded and the opponent didn’t notice at all.
Naturally, the goal of theft was 3 crowns, and three crowns granted a great deal of additional experience.
‘It’s too complicated to estimate with numbers.’
Ted thought.
Dividing theft into formulas was far too complex.
Theft was like catching a ball flying through the air.
To catch a ball arcing through the air, calculating where it will fall is complicated. But if you understood it through intuition, it wasn’t so difficult.
That kind of intuition, like, *Huh? Huh? It’ll fall around here?*
Approaching
“
When Ted used the skill, his body became transparent.
Thief’s Stealth was nothing special, a C-rank skill.
Thus, it didn’t grant perfect invisibility. However, unless someone was consciously focusing on Ted, they would not see him at all.
Ted wandered the streets in that state and approached users or NPCs. Then he brought his hand to the places faintly glowing on their bodies.
‘Heavy and valuable items have much lower odds. By comparison, light and worthless things are easy to steal.’
Ted reached into the pocket of a passing user. He decided to steal the bean from the status window.
A soft light was coming from the user’s pocket, and when Ted touched it, something was sucked in with a swift motion.
Fortunately, three crowns appeared.
Ted decided not to be greedy.
If he were caught even once, things would become troublesome. Not only would his stealth break, but the guards who detected the crime would deploy automatically without needing a report.
Ted’s crime score was 6,100. The moment he was caught, it was over.
‘From now, two weeks. I have to raise my theft proficiency as much as possible within that time.’
Ted was drawing a picture.
A picture that would untangle his twisted misfortune while simultaneously bringing him great profit.
“So what is it we need to do?”
Over the past few days, Tisai’s aggression had mellowed considerably.
In the meantime, Ted had taken on and resolved a simple quest.
*To think a real thief is a pure-hearted romantic… NPCs sure are something.*
It had been delivering Tisai’s love letter to a female NPC named Leona.
It was a fluke, but Tisai no longer treated Ted as hostile.
“For your information, I can’t help with things like asking for money or stealing something on your behalf.”
It was the expected response.
Noble thieves didn’t steal for others.
“That’s not what I need.”
“Then what?”
“I need the conditions to perform a lot of thefts. Safely, that is.”
“Well, if that’s all, it’s like lying down and eating sweet candy. Got it.”
From that day on, after finishing his personal training at the Academy for 12 hours, Ted headed to the Thieves’ Guild.
And he began stealing with the help of Tisai and other thieves.
The timing was good. The territory was packed with NPCs and users because of the preparations for the siege.
“This target is that woman over there.”
“Okay.”
Receiving instruction from Tisai, who had been stealing for twenty years according to the game’s setting, Ted was able to raise his theft proficiency stably and quickly.
“Those guys are no good. Look closely, see the unique pattern on their earrings? They’re plainclothes guards.”
“That woman with the long ears is also no good. Her senses are sharp.”
Tisai astutely identified easy marks and informed Ted.
“Hey! Thief!”
“Eek…”
Even if he were spotted, he could escape using
The reason Ted had been raising his
It was because the solution to the quest he had obtained while tracking the building owner, Gat Juntae, over the past few days was
* * *
A few days ago.
Ted recalled the item supplier he had seen in the underground mall, striking the back of the undead merchant’s head.
The sameness of that subtle hand motion from when he had struck the back of Ronnaro’s head at the Academy.
Ted had found the hint to solving this case from there.
*I need to check.*
From then on, Ted used
Finding Gat Juntae wasn’t difficult.
“Ah, dammit, it’s still not ready? How much longer do I have to wait!”
Because the bastard often came to the Academy on his own two feet.
Gat Juntae’s level was a whopping 450. However, Ted, maintaining a suitable distance while hidden, was not discovered.
Not only was its duration shorter than other skills, but while stealthed, no skills other than
Attacking was impossible, and using consumables like drinking potions was also impossible. Moreover, even a light collision would break the stealth state.
However, if it had one advantage, it was that it was a 3rd-tier stealth, two tiers higher than ordinary
Therefore, it allowed for far more covert movement compared to normal stealth.
Ted tailed Gat Juntae like that and investigated his movements, and before long, captured the scene of him tearing an
*As I thought.*
Gat Juntae.
He was the
It was the moment his intuition was proven.
Furthermore, through additional tailing, Ted was able to discover one very important fact.
*Would you look at this?*
Gat Juntae was writing a transaction ledger inside the secret mall!
Through several days of tailing, Ted had learned that Gat Juntae was a man who could never trust others.
The fact that he personally went around collecting rent was evidence of that, and he was writing a ledger because he couldn’t even properly trust the undead merchant, who was clearly an NPC.
His actions weren’t wrong.
Because all NPCs were variables.
The moment he confirmed this fact, Ted came up with a new idea.
A new idea that could drastically resolve this tangled misfortune.
Even after logging out from a 19-hour gaming session, Cheon Gyeong-u did not rest.
He began gathering information on Gat Juntae from the County of Sauron on the internet.
It was essential for the picture he was drawing to be perfect.
What kind of person he was, and what he was doing.
Searching through the boards of various communities, Cheon Gyeong-u immediately understood.
*This bastard was complete trash from the start?*
Online, Cheon Gyeong-u was able to obtain some additional information.
Gat Juntae was a man who owned quite a few buildings within the County of Sauron.
He seemed to make a profit by renting out buildings, and raising the monthly rent when tenants did good business.
There was also content saying that if he couldn’t collect rent, he indiscriminately stripped items from the businesses.
Normally, if seizure followed formal procedures, the property had to be put up for auction. But if that happened, it would take time and incur fees.
So he carried out a sort of unlicensed forced seizure.
Because Gat Juntae maintained deep ties with the security force, no one raised an issue.
He was the very embodiment of a trash landlord!
*Hmm… So he was selling those items in the underground mall.*
It was the moment he understood why Gat Juntae sold goods in the underground mall while concealing his identity.
Items forcibly seized without being dropped through trade or death penalties were tagged as
Such items could not be sold in ordinary markets.
One had to either launder the item or let enough time pass for the
*With this, the puzzle pieces are in place.*
From then on, Ted raised his
“Can’t you take it easy? Theft requires a relaxed mind.”
“I’m plenty relaxed right now.”
“Sigh…”
To the point that the great thief Tisai clicked his tongue!
In that manner, within a week Ted’s
Of course, he had obtained almost no useful items during that time.
Because he had only repeatedly stolen light and worthless items for the sake of proficiency.
The only income during this week was the skill’s proficiency.
But Ted didn’t care.
*It’s only the beginning.*
And today, exactly five days before the siege began.
Ted had been able to raise his Steal proficiency to 50%.
And. It was now the beginning.
The moment he had been preparing for over the past two weeks was today.
“….”
Having confirmed that Gat Juntae was approaching the underground mall, Ted entered the underground mall first. Then he approached the undead merchant.
Soon after, he glanced sideways to confirm Gat Juntae entering to supply goods.
“Give me a discount on this.”
“…Impossible….”
“I’m just asking you to cut 1 coin.”
“…Outsider… Are you asking me… to cut 1 coin… from a 1-coin item…?”
Ted haggled with the undead merchant over something while simultaneously keeping an eye on Gat Juntae.
The moment Gat Juntae handed over items to the undead merchant, collected Sauron coins, and wrote in the ledger.
Ted, who had been pretending to head outside, used
Ted carefully approached the bastard from behind.
*If I’m caught before stealing, it’s over.*
Ted was tense.
His current crime score was 6,100.
As he had confirmed, the building owner Gat Juntae maintained an extremely close relationship with the security force.
If he were caught at all, Ted would find himself in an extremely difficult situation.
*The first steal absolutely has to succeed for me to be safe. Here I go,
Soon, a white light emanated from Gat Juntae’s rear.
Somehow feeling uneasy, Ted stretched out his hand.
…
Ted smirked as he checked the Theft Status Window that appeared like that.
Having reached a steal score of 150, Ted could steal fairly good items. Moreover, the range of things he could steal had increased greatly.
However, given all that, the theft probabilities for the items were abnormally high.
For a magic item like the
The reason was precisely the
*I’ve been waiting for this exact moment!*
The reason Ted had been robbed by the thieves without even knowing it the moment he entered the Thieves’ Guild.
It was precisely that those who used an
Now Ted was using that system against Gat Juntae.
Because as a building owner, Gat Juntae used a short-duration
*Here it is.*
Because Gat Juntae was still holding it in his hand, even with the probability increased tenfold, the theft probability was only 3%.
But soon, Gat Juntae put the ledger into his inventory.
A ledger made of paper had extremely low general value.
At the same time, it was very light.
Finally, the inventory was not within the user’s sight or senses.
With the tenfold value applied in that state, the management ledger’s theft probability rose to 100%.
*Now’s the time.
Ted extended his hand. Soon, something from the empty air was sucked in with a swift motion and passed into Ted’s hand.
*That’s it!*
Though he realized it anew, Ted was currently engaged in an extremely dangerous gamble.
This wasn’t a scripted con like when he had robbed Tisai.
A situation where getting caught could mean the end!
In such a situation, he had perfectly emptied out a high-level user’s belongings, more than 200 levels above him. While obtaining three crowns.
Accordingly, Ted confirmed that his experience had risen by over 20% at once.
*At this rate, I might level up several times.*
Ted smiled and checked the remaining duration of
There were 6 minutes and 20 seconds left.
*
But when Ted attempted to steal one more time, his eyes went wide.
An unexpected item had popped up in the status window.