Chapter 22

Chapter 22: One of the Skills.

As long as they were players, it was impossible for them to know nothing about Moonlight, whose recent popularity was overwhelming.

The supernova who parachuted straight into ninth place on the newcomer rankings.

A person with limitless future potential.

The object of admiration for countless players, and someone many wanted to follow.

Personally, Gu Yu did not want Moonlight to be Zhou Yujing's girlfriend. After all, the seeds of conflict had already been planted between them. Even if some things had not been his intention, it would probably be hard to ease relations in the short term. But reason also told him that this was not impossible.

He was not sure. He needed to observe more.

Since entering the game until now, Zhou Yujing's girlfriend had not used any skill yet. He knew nothing about her strength.

Maybe he was overthinking it?

After all, there were countless newcomers in One Thousand and One Nightmares who had only cleared one game. Surely he could not be that unlucky—or lucky—to just happen to run into the ultra-popular player Moonlight, right? What kind of odds would that be?

Impossible, impossible.

In the brief moment the two sides faced each other, Zhou Yujing had already walked behind Ning Rong. Ever since learning Chen Chu's skill, Ning Rong had roughly guessed that Chen Chu might use his skill on her. She had deliberately told Zhou Yujing to keep a little distance from her, giving Chen Chu room to make a move.

But a guess was only a guess. She had not expected it to really come true.

What kind of creature attacks someone on the players' side?

Teacher Dan stepped forward with a face full of shame and took the initiative to apologize.

“I'm sorry. I'll call him back right now and make him return everything exactly as it was.”

Ning Rong said nothing.

There had been no game coins in the black bag that was stolen. But through this opportunity, she could conveniently test one of the sub-skills under her main skill. After all, standing there and taking a beating was not her style.

Hearing Teacher Dan's suggestion, she said briefly, “Zhou Yujing and I will go.”

As she and Zhou Yujing walked in the direction Chen Chu had fled, Teacher Dan and Gu Yu exchanged a glance and followed as well. Juanjuan still walked unhurriedly behind them, several meters away, staying detached from the group.

The hotel had eighteen floors. Normally guests used the elevator to go up and down, but besides the elevator, there were emergency exits and stairs.

Floors below fifteen could be reached by stairs or elevator, but floors sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen could only be accessed by swiping a room card and taking the elevator.

Chen Chu did not have a room card for the upper floors, so he could only wander between floors one through fifteen.

His starting skill was Theft, and he was naturally agile. Therefore, without a skill that specifically countered him, catching him would not be easy.

【How is the little newcomer planning to do this?】

【Chen Chu's behavior is disgusting, but in the game, there really are quite a few people like him.】

【The death rate in the game is too high. To survive, some less capable players can only resort to any means necessary.】

【When life and death are on the line, you really can't overestimate human nature. If people can live, who wants to die?】

Ning Rong looked once more at her sub-skill.

【Your things are very good. Now, they are mine.】

Among them, the words “things” and “they” were crossed with lines, meaning those two terms could be replaced.

From the skill description, Ning Rong did not see any activation restrictions. Theoretically, as long as they were in the same game, she should be able to ignore distance.

Of course, that was only her guess. Whether it would actually work depended on the results of her experiment.

Seeing that Chen Chu had already run off who knew where, Teacher Dan said, “How about we split up to search?”

Ning Rong gave a slight nod.

“Sure.”

No matter whether Teacher Dan was sincere or pretending at the moment, she would agree.

“Zhou Yujing and I will stay on the first floor the whole time.”

According to her guess, Chen Chu stole her bag mainly to stay in the luxury suite. Then as long as they guarded the front desk, sooner or later they would catch Chen Chu.

Surely he could not avoid the first-floor lobby forever.

After getting her approval, Teacher Dan led the other teammates to search the other floors for Chen Chu. Juanjuan still looked detached from everything, following at a distance and not joining any conversation.

After all the unrelated people had left, Ning Rong took out three game coins from her Personal Space.

Perhaps because her total assets were too large, she was able to use Personal Space inside the game.

But Zhou Yujing could not.

Since Zhou Yujing could not either, then the other players probably could not as well, right?

【Good, good, good—she's about to use a skill, right?】

【Wait, Chen Chu isn't even in front of her. She can still use a skill?】

【I think there really are player skills that can activate from afar, they're just rare. Usually used to screw people over secretly.】

【Damn, the little newcomer's skill has no weaknesses at all. Not only is it versatile, it can also sabotage people?】

Whether it could sabotage people or not, Ning Rong herself was not sure.

Right now, she was only preparing to do a small experiment. Even if it failed, it would not matter.

She held the game coins between her fingertips and tried this sub-skill with heavy side effects for the first time.

“Chen Chu, your items and game coins are very good. Now, they are mine.”

【???】

【What kind of skill is this? I've never even heard of it!】

【Brothers and sisters, she didn't use this skill in the previous Countdown game, right?】

【Definitely not.】

【Then here's the question—how many skills does she actually have?!】

【Counting this one now, probably three?】

【Three? That's terrifying...】

【Seriously terrifying...】

【Terrifying +1】

【I have a question.】

【The person above, say it.】

【Three skills... will that be her limit?】

After seeing this question, the viewers in the livestream chat fell into silence with perfect tacit understanding.

They could not think about it. The more they thought about it, the more thrilling it became.

The second Ning Rong activated the skill, bright red blood flowed down her hand.

The blood trailed downward like thorny flowers blooming.

And at her feet, two low-level items appeared, along with a little over two hundred game coins.

“Rongrong?! What happened to your hand?”

Ning Rong glanced at the wound that had suddenly appeared on the back of her hand and said calmly, “It's nothing. Just a side effect of the skill.”

She looked at the things by her feet and, for the first time, experienced the power of this sub-skill.

But correspondingly, the side effects were severe.

She had only obtained things worth less than five hundred game coins in total, yet she was already injured. If what she obtained were something of even greater value, then what?

As expected, this skill could not be used unless absolutely necessary.

Otherwise, the price would be something she could not easily afford.

Zhou Yujing lifted Ning Rong's right hand and immediately brought her back to the top-floor suite.

There was a medical kit in the suite, enough to treat the wound on the back of her hand.

Although Ning Rong had lost quite a bit of blood, her gains were not small.

The items were not valuable, but... she had probed the limits of the sub-skill a little and now had a rough understanding of it.

And she had successfully turned Chen Chu into a pauper.

Chen Chu stole her bag.

She stole Chen Chu's items and game coins.

That was very fair.

【I'm dying laughing, Chen Chu is losing his mind over there.】

【He failed to steal anything and instead became a pauper himself. How tragic can one person be?】

【Hahahahaha, even his teammates are shocked.】

Second floor.

After fleeing here, Chen Chu originally wanted to inspect his spoils.

But before checking what was inside the black bag, he first discovered that the items and game coins he had been carrying were gone.

As if they had vanished into thin air.

Chen Chu instantly went insane.

“Where are my game coins? Where are my items? Why are they gone? How can they be gone?!”

When Teacher Dan and the others found him, this was the scene they saw.

Gu Yu frowned, stepped forward, and asked, “What happened?”

Chen Chu looked crazed as he frantically searched all his pockets.

“All my stuff is gone! My game coins, my items! Everything disappeared!”

The group could not help exchanging looks.

If players did not have theft-related skills, then they could not steal anything in the game.

This was common knowledge known by all players.

Abilities from real life could not be used in the game.

Only skills could accomplish many things.

Teacher Dan stepped forward and suggested, “Could it be that you made a mistake?”

Chen Chu's own skill was related to theft, so he was especially careful with his belongings and always kept them close to his body.

“They were there before! One minute ago... yes, exactly one minute ago, they suddenly disappeared!”

A Leng, who had been silently watching the whole time, suddenly spoke.

“Could it be that she used a skill on you?”

Used a skill?

That really was possible.

There were many reasons why Juanjuan had allowed Chen Chu to provoke Ning Rong.

She did want to stay in the luxury suite.

But more importantly, she wanted to know what Ning Rong's skill was. Only by figuring out the other party's limits could she arrange her next plan.

Now, Ning Rong had indeed retaliated.

Juanjuan guessed, “Could her skill also be related to theft?”

Otherwise, how could she have taken Chen Chu's things?

Gu Yu's expression was complicated.

“Skills related to theft all have to be activated face to face. But after Chen Chu succeeded, he shouldn't have met her again.”

In other words, Ning Rong had most likely activated her skill from a distance.

Skills that could usually be used remotely were never ordinary skills.

No matter how he looked at it, Ning Rong's starting skill could not be Theft.

It was not Theft, yet it could produce the same effect as Theft.

What kind of skill was that?

It would have been better if Ning Rong had not used any skill at all.

Once she did, his headache only grew worse.

Because guessing Ning Rong's skill had now become an extremely difficult matter.

Gu Yu truly had no clue at all.

A Leng added, “These are only our guesses for now. It's also possible that she didn't use a skill at all.”

But they all knew that the possibility of Ning Rong not having used a skill was extremely slim.

Juanjuan frowned.

“What exactly is her skill?”

【Yeah, what is it? I really want to know too.】

【The little newcomer has already used three skills, yet I still don't understand even one of them.】

【What is obvious is that what she has cannot possibly be mainstream skills. Otherwise, us veteran viewers who spend all day in different livestream rooms wouldn't still be unable to guess the answer.】

【Who cares? As long as it's satisfying to watch.】

Ning Rong looked at Zhou Yujing, who was carefully bandaging her wound, and said, “It doesn't hurt.”

Zhou Yujing lowered his eyes and kissed her fingertips, clearly not believing her words.

How could losing that much blood possibly not hurt?

He said softly, “Rongrong, the side effects of this skill are too severe.”

If possible, he did not want her to use this skill again.

But if she did not use skills, surviving in the game would also be difficult.

In the end, it was still because his Shadow Clone was not strong enough.

Otherwise, Chen Chu would never have dared make a move against Ning Rong.

Ning Rong used the fingers on the hand that could still move to scratch lightly at the corner of his lips.

“Alright, alright. This is only one of the skills I possess. In the future, I'll try my best not to use it.”

Zhou Yujing raised his head in shock: !!!

【Brothers and sisters, she admitted it! She admitted this is only one of the skills she possesses!】

【Good thing I'm not a player, just a viewer. Otherwise I'd be going insane with jealousy.】

【Everyone else only has one skill. Why can she have so many?】

【Keep showing off, keep showing off. I'll just worship you harder!】

【Another day of getting shown up by her. Heh.】