Chapter 294: The Righteous Thief! I"m… In!
Just by looking at the name on top, Su Mo could already imagine how ridiculously exaggerated the attributes might be—which he would soon be viewing.
As expected, when he sat up fully and focused his mind to check on the pot"s attributes…
"Gasp…"
Even though Su Mo was mentally prepared for this, still, he could not help a sharp inhalation of breath.
[The Great Black Pot (1% Wasteland Modification Authority)]
[Description]: In the wasteland, there are explorers who will exhaust their strength to transmigrate through the mists. There are also ambitious achievers who wish to harness the power of all nations and sacrifice millions of living beings to fuel their ascension. Similarly, in countless battles, there are "righteous thieves" who refuse to live under oppression and would rather stand and fight, instead of dying on their knees. "Authority" is a sweet, delicious wine that will give you a taste of power; it will also trap you in a honey pot and keep you wanting more of its saccharine fantasy. However, at the same time, authority is also a black pot. If you decide to keep it and bear the burden of its power, you will be permanently branded a "righteous thief", and will be shunned by those who legitimately possess authority.
[Current Authority]: 1%
[Authority Interpretation]: Food
[Authority Power]: If you choose to take on this authority, you have the chance to modify food attributes once every 15 natural days in the wasteland. You are allowed to randomly modify the grade and attribute of the foods. (The effect is not stackable and will reset after usage. As authority increases, the cooldown period will decrease)
[Penalty 1]: By wielding this authority, you will be labeled a "righteous thief" and will be completely blocked by the game. You will be unable to use any functions in the game panel (Unless your authority reaches 51% and above)
[Penalty 2]: By using the level modification ability that comes with this authority, you will attract the game"s attention. Not only that, the more it is used, the higher the chance that you will be found
[Penalty 3]: Once you are found, your authority will be taken away, and you will be marked by the game. The number of disasters in the area within 500,000 kilometers around you will be increased 500,000 times and set to default
[Penalty 4]: If you possess the black pot but choose not to inherit the t.i.tle of righteous thief, your luck will be rolled at every first second of a natural day, where rolling 6 means a certain gain, and rolling 1 means a certain life-threatening calamity.
[Comment]: Justice is not inclined to power or privilege. Even if one were offered an entire nation, their stance would not waver. Even if one had to sacrifice their life to uphold justice, they would not falter. This is the valor of a virtuous individual!
"1% authority, and permission to modify the attributes of food in the wasteland…
"Does that mean that if I want to modify it to epic-quality, it will become epic-quality, or if I want to make it legendary, then it"ll become legendary-quality?
"What will happen if I directly add in an attribute that allows one to fly after eating that food?"
Su Mo was not like ordinary individuals, who would display panic and fear when encountering such an item,
He was immensely bold!
In fact, he was as immensely bold as the literal meaning of those words!
He was so bold that, despite knowing he would embark on a path of no return once he used that authority, he was not afraid at all, even though the penalties were so clearly stated.
Fear came from the unknown.
The more a person knew, the less he would be afraid of.
Moreover, when profits reached 10%, someone would be ready to stir up trouble. When profits reached 50%, someone would dare to take a risk.
When profits got to 100%, people would dare to trample over any doctrines or laws…
When the profit reached 300%, even if it meant going to the gallows, they would not be afraid of it!
As for the black pot…
"No one likes to take the blame, but I"m different. It"s not that I want this authority, it"s just that…
"Righteous thief is such a cool t.i.tle, right?"
After his body had gone through the toughest phase of recovery, moving normally right now was no longer a problem.
Su Mo looked at the jade pot lying far away on the ground. He took two steps forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed it up without hesitation.
"There"s a good old saying we Huaxians have.
"There"s only a thousand days of thievery, not a thousand days of guarding against thievery!
"If I don"t want to guard against thievery, then there"s only one road left for me!"
It was not by chance that Zeus Shelter had come to the low-lying lands!
Every day, once the dice had rolled its points, the person who possessed the black pot would be restricted by this mysterious power, entering into default bad luck mode and falling prey to a life-threatening calamity.
The black pot was like a baton. No one would turn down an epic-quality cooking "divine item" that could support development, but no one could turn down the bad luck it brought either.
If one were unlucky and by chance, the dice rolled 1 point, there would be only one outcome to the life-threatening calamity….
The black pot would pa.s.s on.
When explorers died, they left behind "legacies" all through the wasteland that could aid later generations in continuing to explore even more mysterious places.
When ambitious achievers died, they left behind legacies of discontent that could help later generations rapidly increase their abilities, so they could find an alternate way to continue surviving.
However, for the righteous thieves… the addition of the word "righteous" in front of the word "thieves" was fitting.
What they wanted was pure and simple. In a sense, their desires were even more "simple" than the previous two!
They only wished to pa.s.s down their ideals, and find like-minded people to complete their "heroic undertakings"!
"It doesn"t matter if a person dies. As long as the black pot still exists, as long as there are living beings who are continuously transported into the wasteland, and as long as there are still individuals who covet epic-quality equipment…
"People who have insufficient abilities won"t sense what the black pot really is. Possession of it will only lead to a slow death if they continue carrying it with them, and it will pa.s.s down to someone else.
"People who have sufficient abilities will be able to sense what this black pot actually stands for—but how many of them can resist a temptation like this that"s already within reach!"
Su Mo had seen how the previous two batches of people in the wasteland had functioned. He had also seen how miraculously the third batch of people had conducted themselves under the same environment and conditions.
Comparing the righteous thieves—most of whom had probably been killed by the disasters that the wasteland had increased 50,000 times—with the first two batches of refugees, Su Mo was even more aware that during natural disasters…
Human beings could be utterly insane!
"I thought what I could do in a month was already considered the most outrageous thing of all among all the human beings in the wasteland.
"Now though, from the looks of things, mankind is never short of madmen!
"Since you"re all willing to behave in such a crazy manner, then why would I not dare to join in!"
Compared to the achievers" curiosity about the unknown world, and their desire to soar to illusory heights, there was no doubt that the mindset of the righteous thieves was more compatible with Su Mo"s "frequency".
"Soaring? Going to an unknown world to continue fighting? No, no, no, that"s too dangerous. This isn"t something a rational person should do at all!
"What"s that famous Chinese philosophy of revolution again, the one by Chairman Mao—using the rural areas… to encircle the cities…
"Even though a righteous thief has only 1% authority, still, I have the system! As long as I can get 51% authority, I"ll hold the controlling interest in the wasteland!
"Perhaps the disasters in this world will also listen to my commands when the time comes. As my owners.h.i.+p rights increase, this place will fully become my base!"
The more Su Mo thought about the idea of the righteous thief and what cosmic humans practiced, the more he agreed with it and the more excited he became.
If one went from the wasteland to another illusory world without any change in the power they wielded, what was the point of talking about crossing dimensions?
As long as one had truly grasped the secrets of this dimension, when the time came to traverse dimensional restrictions, it would only require a mere thought to do so.
The jade pot in Su Mo"s hands seemed to be able to sense his thoughts and his excitement. Displaying its intelligence, it no longer struggled.
Furthermore, after rocking slightly for a while, the red light surrounding the jade pot radiated outward, turning Su Mo"s arms red as well.
At the same time, a notification sound drifted through the air, accompanied by a prompt panel that floated up in front of Su Mo.
[Record]: Current 1% authority is requesting to be transferred to employee "Su Mo""s account!
[Record]: Once it is transferred, you will lose all rights as an employee of the wasteland company. Will you accept the transfer of authority?
"Oh?"
"Interesting! It"s treating the wasteland like a company—are all the players employees of the company, with the authority being treated as shares?
"However… who says one must lose my rights as an employee after obtaining the shares?
"Only kids make choices. I, Su Mo… want all of them!"
Su Mo smiled faintly and looked at the prompt panel that popped up. He did not choose to agree immediately, nor did he choose to reject it.
Once he had gathered his thoughts, he moved the check box to the very bottom of his field of view. As his mind focused, his storage s.p.a.ce opened naturally.
Suspended in the air was a card he had never used ever since he had gotten it; he had never even taken it out. The card flew out slowly and continually drifted to and fro in the air
.
"I choose to use… the Stealing the Day, Changing the Light card!
Who would have thought that the small storage room built by the inhabitants of Hope Village would have already witnessed the unveiling of so many rare items on the first day of its use.
From the one and only Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card to obtaining 1% authority of the wasteland, and now the glimmering light of this legendary card…
The storage room was indeed blessed by Lady Luck!
This was also Su Mo"s good luck.
Without skipping a beat, once Su Mo had spoken, the golden light that indicated legendary items burst forth in its entirety!
At the same time, under the stimulus of the golden light, Su Mo had already been transported to another expanse of s.p.a.ce by the time he opened his eyes.
It was the same as when he used the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll, but this time what appeared in front of Su Mo was not the terrain of the wasteland"s s.h.i.+fting Skies and Still Earth Model.
It was a clay sculpture as tall as Su Mo. Not only that, it looked exactly like him.
If one did not take into consideration the sculpture"s material and looked only at its appearance, it would be impossible to pick out any differences between Su Mo and the sculpture.
"Hey, hey, my appearance is perfect as expected, but there are a few places that need a little work."
There was a table in front of the clay with many "face customization" tools on it.
In this s.p.a.ce within the card, no matter how much time had pa.s.sed, it was only a second in the outside world.
Therefore, Su Mo was in no hurry. He focused his mind to create a stool, then sat in front of the clay, and began modifying it carefully.
There was no need to change anything on the face; he merely strived to make it look real.
The parts he focused on changing were the scars on his body from when he was much younger and more mischievous, and several pigmented moles.
As for the shape of the feet—unfortunately, he was 185 centimeters tall, but his shoe size was only 42, and he had slightly flat feet. Su Mo took drastic action and began modifying the sculpture based on the perfect template.
Time flew by. After about an hour when Su Mo stood up again, although there were no changes in the appearance of the clay sculpture in front of him, its charisma and some "detailed" parts had changed drastically.
Even when both of them stood together, without looking at their faces, it would be difficult to think that they were both the same person, unless it was someone on very close terms with Su Mo.
"Good, good, after changing all the inherent defects, sure enough, humans can have such aesthetically pleasing lines.
"Alright, this will do—let"s make it!"
The wasteland was not a place for playing dumb to take advantage of people. Su Mo had not changed the face structure and other attributes such as voice and gender; this was to prevent unnecessary problems when switching into this form.
However, for the sculpture"s name, after thinking about it and channeling his sister Su Chan"s wicked sense of humor, Su Mo used his finger as a pen and wrote down two words on the name column:
Yang Jian!
Now that there was a model as well as a name, once Su Mo agreed to the rest of the process, the light burst forth again.
He covered his eyes. When he opened them after the light had subsided, he was back in the storage room once more.
He was experiencing the sensation of being in a completely different body. Before Su Mo could even move around, one by one the game"s notifications could gradually be heard…
[Welcome to the Doomsday Survival Game. As you can see, you have come to a strange place]
[Survival is your only goal. To survive, be sure to keep the following key points in mind: ]
[1. Disasters will refresh periodically, and all survivors will receive a warning seven days before the refresh happens]
[2. Don"t place your Safe House at random. Finding the right site to place it will increase your chances of survival by a notch]
[11… Happy gaming]
[Record]: It has been detected that player Yang Jian belongs to the third batch of players transported to the wasteland. Will automatically receive special late placement reward, two draws are allowed.
[Record]: Special reward is being drawn…
[Record]: Error, error!
[Record]: Due to unspecified reasons, your bonus reward has been irrefutably changed to: Anomaly binding (once)
[Record]: We deeply apologize for your bad gaming experience, you will receive a game item lucky draw chance x1
[Record]: Lucky draw has ended. Congratulations, player "Yang Jian" received Material Subst.i.tution Card (Rare) x1
[Record]: Reward has been automatically issued, please check. Together with the wasteland world and the game, you will experience a good life
"Experience a good life together? Excuse me, you b*stard!
"You"ve been spending years living as a blood-sucking capitalist. On this day of universal celebration, I"m going to let you experience…
"What it"s like to have your blood sucked instead!"
Su Mo switched off all the notifications and looked at the turtle armor and the Material Subst.i.tution Card that appeared beside him. Without any reluctance, he grabbed the jade pot, and initiated the authority binding!