The bread sat heavy in my stomach like a rock, but for the first time since waking up in this wretched city, I wasn't thinking about gnawing hunger. Instead, I was thinking about survival. About coins. About the unfair little system window that kept reminding me how useless I was.
I leaned back against the cold stone of the alley wall, licking the last crumbs off my fingers. "So this is life now," I muttered. "From the thing that I can not remember to alley rat. Fantastic promotion."
The system didn't reply. It never did, unless it was to mock me. But the thought lingered: I couldn't live off stolen bread crumbs forever.
Copper coins. That was the answer. Three of them jingled faintly in my pocket, barely enough to buy a half-rotten onion if I was lucky. Wait a minute, do onions exist in this world... never mind, I had more things to wonder. I needed more. A lot more.
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU UNLOCKED ROBBERY SKILL]
[Lv.1(500/1000]
[Lv.2 Beggar(300/1000]
[PITY: 6
Charisma: -30
DIGNITY:-55]
[SKILL CHART-
UNIVERSAL HEARING
LANGUAGE TRANSLATION
BEGGING
SHAMELESSNESS
ROBBERY]
[NOTIFICATION]
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU RECEIVED YOUR FIRST QUEST]
[YOU CAN ACHIEVE CLASS ROBBER
REQUIREMENT
ROB 20 COOPER COINS IN 24 HOURS]
[WOULD YOU ACCEPT THE QUEST?]
Fuck, the pain is still coming with this annoying voice. The glowing words hung before my eyes, dressed up as an opportunity. Twenty copper coins in one day. Robbed, not earned.
I let out a dry laugh that sounded more like a cough. "Oh, sure. Just casually mug twenty people. No big deal. Totally realistic for a guy who nearly fainted stealing bread."
I shrug it off as I go back to my sleep, but the system's little window kept pulsing, waiting for me to choose. Robbery class, huh, but how would I do it? I don't know how to rob for coins.
I stared at the glowing letters until my eyes burned.
Rob twenty copper coins in twenty-four hours as I repeat it many times.
The words made my stomach twist worse than the stale bread had. A thief. That's what the system wanted me to be. A lowly, gutter-crawling thief.
Part of me wanted to scream "No!" To spit at the air and throw the window away. Back in… whatever life I had before this, I couldn't remember the details, but I knew I wasn't this kind of man....
Even though I don't know who I was, I hope no no no I wish I was a good person, as tears come through my eyes, why am I now thinking about such things after all my dignity what is it I glanced to the stats... -55, yes -55 is my fucking dignity. As I crawled up the alley wall quietly, crying and accepting the new life with each tear.
As another part of me grew, the louder part, the hungrier part.....
I dug my nails into my palm, breathing hard. "If I steal… I'm no better than the ones who spit on me in the street," I whispered. The thought hurt. It made my chest feel heavy, like I was strangling on the words.
I pressed my forehead to the cold wall, shaking. "I don't want this. I don't want to be a thief. I don't want to be—"
The system chimed again, impatient, the window glowing brighter.
[Would you accept the quest?]
ACCEPT OR DECLINE
As if declining was an option.
"Decline? What then? Go back to starving? Let my ribs start playing the xylophone again? Yeah, no thanks."
I dragged myself up, brushing crumbs off my ragged shirt, and sighed. "Fine. You win, you sadistic piece of glowing text. I'll play your stupid little game."
[QUEST ACCEPTED]
I stood up on the street. Of course, reality hit like a hammer the moment I stepped out of the alley.
The streets of Ironvale were alive and restless. Merchants shouted prices, children darted between carts, and armored guards strolled like wolves with sharp eyes. Every pouch I saw suddenly seemed impossibly distant, guarded by eyes sharper than hawks.
I walk along the streets, my eyes seeing every person, from a rich, fat man to even crippling grandma, as I sighted my first target, an old woman, who was walking with a cane, and my target was her loosely gripped bag.
The bag dangled. My pulse raced. "This is it. My rise to glory… "
I lunged, snatched—bag in hand!
THWACK!
Pain bloomed across my face as the cane connected with my temple. I stumbled back, clutching it. Not a single word came from my mouth, as for a few seconds I could not even speak.
Then another swing right between my legs.
I fall on the ground, as another swing comes across right at my head, but thankfully, I miss. I used the opportunity to crawl away into the dense crowd.
After a while sitting under a street, I looked up to the sky, it was a ceiling of smoke. The black mighty cloud rose from factories, coughing out the sunitself, which was nothing more than a pale coin struggling. Even at midday, the streets lay in half-shadow, lit more by flickering lamps and the glow of molten furnaces than by daylight. Which type of crazy people would live in a hellhole place like this?
As I again stand up and start roaming from my next target, after a while, my eyes fell upon a round, fat man with a loose coin pouch tied sloppily to his belt. Easy pickings, right? I wondered to myself.
I started to follow him in the dense crowd, as my eyes never left the pouch.
I brushed past him casually, fingers itching closer—WHUMP!!
A person bumped me at the final time, as I then held a really smooth and round surface, and I squeezed it.
Then I look like it, I had just slapped the man in his butt.
Silence.
Then the man's head swiveled toward me, then smiled.
I do not know what to do, so I run with all my might.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SMILING FOR?!!
I gasped for breath at a corner, as I again started to look around for a target, then I found one, a boy aged around 8-9 was selling his trash to a scrap dealer. From the looks of it, he could be blown away by the wind, and then my eyes land on the 6 copper coins the scrap dealer gave him.
As I knew it was my perfect target, as a boy walked into an alley, I grabbed his shoulder.
SWISH!!1
I force as a dagger right misses me by a hair.
"What do you want?" the boy asked as he pressed his facial expression on my neck.
"Did you know where I can buy what is called blue snake?"
Suddenly, the boy turned into a cheerful smile and pointed to a nearby shop that sells.
I farewell the kid and sat down. I am a useless rock. I've done 3 attempts and utterly failed in all of them. My legs have given up from all the days walking, as I remove my shoes and look at my foot, they had blisters, leading to fluid-filled sacs or pockets, whatever you call them, and other fuck up things were showing up too, now walking was painful too.
After hours of just sitting, I heard some commotion. I went towards it, 2 guys beating each other up. Soon, my eyes fell upon one of the guys with a long beard who was missing an eye and, more importantly, his leather pouch, as every punch he threw, the sound of metal came from it.
I focused everything, and mark my position and fump my whole body with a great speed towards it, and snatched the pouch with a force, the bearded man show me and grabbed my shirt, but then the other guy punched him and making him lose the grip, I used this as a leverage and flee the scene and quickly hide in the crowd, after a while I go into an alley, and pull out the coins.
12 bronze coins, 30 copper coins. Also, a paper with a symbol of a bull, so I snatched it. From a member of a hollow crew, huh fuck yeah.
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU UNLOCKED ROBBER CLASS]
WITH THIS, YOU GET SKILLS LIKE QUICK HANDS AND STEALTH AS SKILLS.
ALSO YOU ARE 5 PERCENT FASTER
[Lv.0 --> Lv.1 Robber]↑
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU LEVELED UP ROBBER CLASS TO LEVEL 2]
[Lv.1 --> Lv.2 Robber]↑
YOU ARE 5 PERCENT FASTER
[Lv.1(1000/1000]↑
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU LEVELED UP TO 2]
EFFECTS, YOU HAVE 5 STAR POINTS
[Lv.2(300/2000]
[Lv.2 Beggar(300/1000]
[Lv.2 Robber(500/2000]
[PITY: 6
Charisma: -30
DIGNITY:-100]
[SKILL CHART-
UNIVERSAL HEARING
LANGUAGE TRANSLATION
Lv.2 BEGGING
Lv.3 SHAMELESSNESS
Lv.1 ROBBERY
Lv.1 QUICK HANDS
Lv.1 STEALTH ]
My fucking ears stop it, stop it, my ears are bleeding, what the fuck, please stop!STOOOOP! Oh man, this noise, this fucking noise
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU CAN USE YOUR STAR POINTS
STAR CHART
Strength (11)
Speed (13)
Dexterity (8)
Constitution (10)
Intelligence (30)
Wisdom (3)
Charisma (-20)
YOU CAN UNLOCK MORE SUCH THINGS ABOVE THROUGH YOUR EXPERIENCE
My head was going numb, as I could not even lift my fingers, and I started to puke on the ground, and I lay there on the ground. After a while, I stood up when my mind was clear. I looked at the star chart. I am a thief, and SO BASICALLY I NEED SPEED, BUT TO KEEP SAFE.
SYSTEM 4 POINTS TO SPEED AND 1 TO STRENGTH
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE 40 PERCENT FASTER AND 10 PERCENT STRONGER
STAR CHART
Strength (12.1)
Speed (18.2)
Dexterity (8)
Constitution (10)
Intelligence (30)
Wisdom (3)
Charisma (-20)
After the system closed, I could feel the speed and lightness of my body, HELL YEAH. First thing I did was hide the pouch deep into my clothes, buy some bread and eat it, and go to sleep in some random alleyway.
Before my eyes closed at last.
FUCK YOU IRONVALE