Should I Become a Villain? - 99 Item Thief
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 Radmilo finally took Lefter to his apartment because he could not find another safe place. Also, he could immediately rest after he and Lefter were done. Now they sat across from each other in the living room.
“My question is still the same,” Radmilo was the first to open the conversation. “Do you know anything about my power usage limits? I also found something strange with my system. You must know something about that.”
“Yes, I know,” Lefter replied.
“So, what happened to my system? Does it related to the limits on my power usage?”
“Yes, it’s related.”
Radmilo gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he tried not to pull out the sword. If Lefter was not someone important, then that boy would be his target.
However, because Lefter was a Prime Mover, Radmilo had to muster up his patience. To calm his irritation, he assumed Lefter had trouble explaining since the boy was from another world.
“I can’t tell you even if I want to,” Lefter suddenly spoke to Radmilo. “Prime Movers make contracts before starting the game. There’s one clause I can’t explain to you.”
Radmilo listened seriously. “I understand. Magic contracts can’t be broken just like that.”
“I’m glad you can understand. That contract clause leaves me helpless about the oddities in your system. But I can talk about something else that you may not know.”
“Then, continue your speech.”
“The system was set up by a prime mover but she and the other prime movers can’t just mess with the system. No one can change the system no matter how strong the prime mover is. The system only changes under certain conditions. Can you guess that?”
Radmilo did not want to guess anything since he was listening to something interesting. But still, he spontaneously answered because he had a guess.
“I think the system can change because of human power. When I went back in time, I found something odd in my system that I wasn’t aware of before.”
Hearing the answer he wanted, Lefter immediately snapped his fingers and smiled. “That’s it! Humans’ power can affect the system, depending on their strength. Actually, there is one more condition for the system change. I can’t tell you because it’s a secret, haha.”
Talking about the system was indeed interesting, but Radmilo caught something that was no less interesting. He noticed Lefter snap his fingers. It was his trigger for activating the <Pause> skill.
However, Lefter did not seem to need any triggers to activate his power. Radmilo spoke while remembering that he had experienced difficulties several times because of the trigger.
“Who makes triggers for awakeners? It’s troublesome, you know.”
Lefter unexpectedly also showed an irritated face. “That trigger was a suggestion from one of the Prime Movers. He thought it would be too easy for humans if we didn’t give them triggers. As a result, we rolled the dice to determine triggers for our contractors.”
“Ah, I see. I hate my triggers because people always target my hand when they find out.”
“You should be grateful. Your triggers are among the easiest. Some awakeners have strange triggers, such as drinking blood or injuring themselves.”
“Whatever. I wonder if the quest rewards are also rolled like dice or determined by the Prime Movers.”
Lefter fell silent. He seemed hesitant to speak.
“If it’s a secret, then you don’t have to say anything,” Radmilo told Lefter as he intended to change the topic if the discussion of quest rewards was a secret.
“It’s not a secret,” Lefter said, stopping Radmilo from changing the topic. “I’m considering whether I should tell because it’s going to be very long.”
“You can summarize it if you’re too lazy to talk. I’ll listen carefully, so I can understand everything.”
Lefter agreed to summarize the explanation. He stretched his hand into the air, and a moment later a small golden sphere appeared. “Prime Movers use this to store their belongings. All quest rewards are given by them from this.”
“Did the drop items also come from the sphere?” Radmilo examined the golden sphere and found nothing special about it, other than the fact it could hold a lot of stuff.
“Item drops are not the responsibility of the Prime Mover. It’s set automatically by the system maker. Then, the Prime Mover agrees to equalize the quest rewards given. But the system will offer special items automatically under some conditions.”
The last sentence made Radmilo’s memory go to the item book <Mystery of the Magic Warding Stone>. He could tell that the item was not something that belonged to Prime Movers. The conflict would occur when one of them had the item.
“I just got an amazing item. You must know what it is because Clem once said you can see my inventory,” Radmilo deliberately formed a box with his fingers as a clue. “Is it a special item from the system?”
Without hesitation, Lefter immediately gave a nod. “Exactly. It’s a special item since you already meet the criteria to obtain it.”
“What are the criteria for obtaining a special item?”
“You completed all the quests without missing a beat in your life.”
Radmilo blinked, slightly confused by the answer. “Wait. What do you mean I got a special item because I died before? I have never missed a quest in my previous life.”
“Yes, you can get a special item in that condition. The item can appear automatically or through a quest like what happened to you. If the item appears automatically, it means the recipient of the item has died.”
Lefter stared at Radmilo like a teacher expecting an answer from the smartest student in the class. Meanwhile, it took Radmilo some time to come up with something surprising.
“The item still appears automatically, even though the awakener has died,” Radmilo muttered and was silent for a while when he realized something. He stared straight at Lefter. “Did it happen because someone has the power to steal someone else’s item?”
“I don’t think I need to answer that.”
Radmilo fell silent again after receiving confirmation from Lefter. As he grew stronger and was noticed by the IRO, he became close to Renate, the secretary. He once helped her to collect data about the awakeners.
The IRO created a database to store force lists. Not all the powers on the list were proven to exist. It was just an assumption because the IRO always anticipated new emerging powers.
One of the powers in the list was ‘Stealing’. Several awakeners were confirmed to have stealing powers. However, neither of them had been confirmed to have the power to steal items from other people’s inventories.
Since it was not confirmed, Radmilo had two conclusions. First, the IRO was hiding the person as a secret weapon. Second, that person lived as an ordinary person because everyone would go through a power test when they register as a hunter.
“Who are the ‘Supporters’ who went to see the awakeners?” Radmilo decided to stop talking about special rewards because he already understood. He just needed to investigate further about the <Item Thief>.
Meanwhile, Lefter counted on his fingers before answering. “I don’t know. But there are ten more Prime Movers that going to earth.”
“Why don’t all the Prime Movers go to their contractors? It would be advantageous if they shared information like you are doing now.”
“Prime Mover has criteria for meeting their contractors. We will not go to meet lazy humans who only rely on raid outcomes. After becoming hunters, contractors usually don’t care about the training or quests we give them because they get a base salary.”
Radmilo could understand the Prime Mover’s reasoning. As Lefter asked before, many awakeners become lazy after becoming hunters. They were satisfied with their C rank because they could still raid with that rank.
Official guilds had guaranteed payments for hunters who carried out raids, while official guilds also set fees for their hunters. The hunters could get additional income from the items they get after raids.
As a result, some hunters did not have the enthusiasm to increase their rank. Moreover, the current situation was still quite safe because monsters would not come out of dungeons and there was Maido, who could predict the future.
The only threat was the dungeons that could move around. However, it was not a phenomenon that occurred every day, so humans could carry out their activities in peace.
The hunters also felt the same peace. Because of that, they felt that they had no reason to be strong. Radmilo was not one of them. He was motivated to be strong because he felt a threat everywhere.
The IRO was a place where strong people gathered.
Radmilo would not survive if he could only reach C rank. He must be stronger than those who had the privilege. Thus, he still had a chance to live.
Unfortunately, it did not last forever. Other people at the IRO were also growing. They continued to be strong enough to eliminate Radmilo.
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