This Text Adventure Game is definitely poisonous
Chapter 1373 - 601: Making Money, No Shame_2

Chapter 1373: Chapter 601: Making Money, No Shame_2

[Straight ahead in the hall, a tall Crow Man was seated on a stone throne, with the bandit who brought you standing respectfully behind the throne’s occupant.]

[The Crow Man on the throne sized you up and laughed: "Heh, I thought it was which of my underlings was being so unruly, turns out it’s a wild boy from out of town."]

["You, an outsider bandit, broke all the rules of our turf on your very first day, causing us to be warned several times by the local Crow People. We couldn’t ’hunt’ all day and lost at least ten thousand Divinity... So, tell me, how do you plan to compensate for this?"]

[The Crow Man on the throne looked at you threateningly, and at the same time, a large number of Crow People suddenly surged out from both sides of the hall, each holding knives, axes, and clubs with unfriendly faces, surrounding you, each one with a murderous intent...]

As expected, these Crow People were all likely bandits, and there were much more of them than he had anticipated, at least seventy to eighty people. Right off the bat, they showed their intimidation, meaning to force him to pay up for his life.

However, Mu You was indifferent; paying was out of the question, as at worst he would just die once, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t be resurrected.

It was a good opportunity to make a mental note of these Crow People’s appearances and strengths for future reference.

With that thought, Mu You kept retracing his steps while controlling his character to scan everyone present.

He found that these bandits were quite powerful, most of them being 5-Star creatures, with a few 4-Star, and a handful of 6-Star. The bandit king on the throne was even a 7-Star creature, the only one at the scene.

[Faced with the murderous intent of everyone present, you acted neither servile nor overbearing, and your composed demeanor surprised many.]

["Boss, this newbie is no ordinary guy..." At this moment, the bandit who brought you whispered a few words to the leader on the throne.]

[Using your enhanced hearing, you vaguely caught their conversation: "...I saw it with my own eyes when it made its move. Even when those merchants were already on guard, it succeeded in one stroke every time, without any mistakes..."]

["Oh?" The bandit leader was somewhat moved after listening, and looked you up and down again.]

[After pondering for a moment, the bandit leader suddenly gestured to someone: "Bring out the boxes."]

[A few bandits nearby immediately carried out seven boxes of various sizes, lining them up on the ground according to size.]

[You looked at these boxes and realized they seemed to be living things, with tongues and sharp teeth faintly visible at the openings.]

[Without waiting for you to ask, the bandit leader had already offered an explanation: "These boxes are called ’Greedy Boxes,’ used within the bandits to test thieving abilities. Each box is equivalent to a living being of a different Star Level, from 3-Star all the way to 9-Star. The higher the level, the more difficult it is to steal from."]

["So you think you’re capable, huh? Then let me see just how capable you really are?"]

["You need to hold over five thousand Divinity to participate, and you only have one chance for each box. If you manage to steal what’s inside, whatever you get is yours, but be careful! If you fail, your Divinity will be stolen by these boxes instead, and the larger the box, the more Divinity it will take from you. Accept the consequences of your gamble!"]

["What do you say? If you’re willing to take this test and steal from each box once, I’ll overlook today’s incident and even help you clear the case you are currently involved in."]

"Greedy Box..." Mu You touched his chin, his knowledge expanded. Normal boxes were meant for storing things; he hadn’t expected there to be boxes that could actively steal.

[The bandit leader threw the game’s invitation with a sinister smile, and the other bandits around also looked at you with sneering anticipation, seemingly waiting to see you cleaned out by the Greedy Box.]

[Clearly, this was a game with enormous risk — one false move could result in losing everything you have. Only those with divine thieving skills and great courage would dare to try. Do you accept the invitation?]

"Yes."

Mu You agreed without much hesitation. It wasn’t that he was extremely skilled or courageous, but he had the Pocket Watch as a fallback; he had never lost such a face-off at gambling before.

[Under the watchful eyes of the bandits, you approached the first box.]

[The box with sharp fangs and teeth sensed your approach, its tongue licking its ’lips’ as it revealed the empty interior, like a starving hound eager to ’feed’ on you.]

[You extended your hand towards the box and initiated a theft...]

[The theft failed! You have been robbed of 540 points of Divinity...]

The first box could randomly take a few hundred points from him, and Mu You had no doubt that the boxes behind could completely wipe out his savings in one go.

No wonder these bandits all had faces of people watching for fun; this game was a trap where, even if the initial boxes were successfully stolen from, a single failure later could result in losing everything.

Mu You shook his head, pressed the Pocket Watch to rewind time, and tried again.

[Theft successful! You stole 6 points of Divinity from the box!]

"emmm..."

Mu You guessed that the first box might not contain much, but 6 points, that was a bit too stingy.

Mu You then retraced his steps and tried several more times, but the amount of Divinity he stole always hovered in the single digits, with the highest being just 10 points.

Mu You decisively withdrew and headed to the next Treasure Chest.

[Everyone saw that you successfully stole from the first Treasure Chest without surprise, as the first chest is the simplest test, and almost any bandit novice can succeed on the first try.]

[You approach the second, larger Treasure Chest and attempt to steal from it...]

[Theft failed! You have been stolen of 1022 points of Divinity...]

"Retrace..."

[Theft failed...]

"Retrace..."

...

[Theft successful! You have stolen 115 points of Divinity from the chest!]

The second chest clearly contained much more Divinity, but compared to the cost of failure, it was still disproportionate.

Mu You looked back and tried a few more times, finding that the amount of stolen Divinity lingered between one hundred and two hundred points, so he stopped fussing; such small fry wasn’t worth his exertion, as the big prize was obviously yet to come.

Next, Mu You followed the same method, stealing from small chests to large chests all along the way.

[Theft successful! You have stolen 777 points of Divinity from the third chest!]

...

[Theft successful! You have stolen 2912 points of Divinity from the fourth chest!]

...

[Theft successful! You have stolen 21560 points of Divinity from the fifth chest!]

Starting from the fourth chest, the difficulty suddenly escalated significantly; Mu You tried hundreds of times on the fourth chest before succeeding once, not to mention the fifth chest, where the success rate had dropped to below one-thousandth.

But at the same time, the rewards began to increase substantially. The Divinity in the fourth chest was around 3000 points, and the fifth chest soared to over 20,000 points!

Mu You was somewhat surprised as the game designed by these bandits, although extremely risky, indeed did not skimp on the rewards; winning could truly make one overnight rich!

Just by opening these few chests, Mu You’s Divinity assets had already increased by four to five times, easily breaking through thirty thousand!

And yet, the chests were not all opened...

The rewards in these chests kept increasing with each one; the fifth chest reached twenty thousand Divinity points, what about the last two?

[...Having witnessed you effortlessly steal from five Treasure Chests, the hall fell silent for a moment, and all the bandits watched you with incredulous eyes.]

[Amidst the anticipatory and nervous stares, you walked up to the sixth Treasure Chest and reached out your hand...]

[Theft successful! From the sixth Treasure Chest, you have stolen a Divine Arts stone...]

"Hmm?"

Mu You was taken aback; the difficulty of the sixth chest indeed escalated once more, succeeding for the first time after thousands of attempts.

Mu You was initially expecting to see a string of super-large figures for Divinity but instead, what the heck is a Divine Arts stone? Could items also be stolen?

Mu You clicked to inspect.

[Divine Arts Stone - Golden Left Hand: A Divine Arts stone passed down from the ancient Crow Man race, which, after comprehension, greatly increases the theft success rate when using the left hand. Only the Crow Man can use it.]

"Uh..."

Mu You’s face was odd. A Divine Arts that boosts theft probability is indeed valuable, especially crucial for the Crow Man, making it reasonable to set as the reward for the sixth chest.

But for someone with a Pocket Watch like him, it seemed superfluous; after all, his theft success rate was already one hundred percent—the Divinity was much more tangible than a stone.