Chapter 12: A Hero Saving a Damsel in Distress? Not a Hero, but a Phantom Thief!
[Ding, Task 3: Increase your livestream viewership to 1 million, task completed, current popularity:
Reward: 2 Skill Enhancement Cards]
[Ding, detected host's first successful theft, Kaito Kid card fusion rate +12%, system points +1200, obtained divine-level lock-picking skill (beginner)
Current fusion rate: 42%]
"Lock-picking skill? Not bad."
In the late night plaza, Chen Feng sat alone enjoying a rare moment of quiet. A pigeon perched on his long legs, pecking at breadcrumbs from his palm.
On his phone played a recording of his livestream from an hour ago.
A series of headlines about him continued trending with high popularity.
[Real Thief Appears in Thief Game! China Region 3 Participant Chen Feng Steals World's Largest Sapphire—Heart of the Ocean!]
[Chen Feng's Warning Notice Taunts Authorities, Pursuit Team Returns Empty-Handed! The Match Ends with Chen Feng's Victory!]
[Phantom Thief! A Brand New Title!]
Besides these positive news stories, there were also some critical pieces from experts trying to gain attention.
[Professor Sun Evaluates the Chen Feng Incident, Clearly States that a Thief's Success is a Cultural Tragedy.]
[S City's Professor Li Claims the So-called Phantom Thief is Just Another Type of Thief, Chen Feng is Setting a Bad Example for Today's Youth!]
Of course, whether positive or negative news, Chen Feng just smiled and moved on, showing no intention of responding publicly.
He didn't really care about people's opinions of him online. What he enjoyed more was the fascinating process itself.
As for what others thought, that was beyond Chen Feng's concern.
He used the two skill enhancement cards just awarded by the system—one to upgrade Voice Changer to intermediate level, and the other to upgrade Magic Hands skill to advanced level.
According to Chen Feng's understanding, the system divided skills into four levels.
They were: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Perfect.
Once reaching the Advanced level, one's abilities would basically equal those of the card character. Reaching the "Perfect" level would far surpass the card character's original abilities.
In other words, if all of Chen Feng's skills reached the "Perfect" level, even if Kuroba Kaito stood before him, he would wonder who the real Kaito Kid was.
Just then, a voice from not far away caught Chen Feng's attention.
"Don't move! Hand over all your money, or you'll regret it!"
In a small alley not far from the plaza, a short man with a dirty face was glaring fiercely at a woman.
The gleaming short knife waved constantly in front of the woman, his vicious appearance preventing her from making any sudden moves.
"Don't... don't do anything rash, I'll give you all my money..."
Hearing this, a smile finally appeared on the short man's filthy face.
Who knew what kind of days he'd been having?
Since joining this damn [Thief Game] show, he thought he could legitimately make a fortune under the guise of the program.
Who would have thought that the cursed Pursuit Team would be so formidable, using the city's surveillance system with noses sharper than dogs.
Every time he showed his face, the Pursuit Team would arrive before he could do anything.
Three days had passed like this, and not only had he failed to strike it rich, but he hadn’t even had a decent meal.
Every day was either fighting rats for territory in the sewers or hiding in public restrooms, swatting away mosquitoes.
Today, though, luck was finally on his side. Not long after stepping out, he spotted a lone young woman—if he didn’t rob her good and proper, it’d be an insult to all the mosquito bites he’d endured!
At that thought, the man’s expression grew even more menacing.
His small eyes bore into the woman as if he wanted to devour her whole.
In his livestream, though not as popular as Chen Feng’s, the show’s hype had still drawn over twenty thousand viewers watching his every move.
“Damn, this guy’s disgusting. Too scared to go after groups or tough guys, so he preys on lone girls? What a coward!”
“Agreed. Compared to him, Chen Feng’s practically a saint!”
“Wait… doesn’t that woman look familiar?”
“Familiar? Is she a celebrity? Huh, now that you mention it, she does seem like someone I’ve seen before…”
“Oh! I remember! Isn’t she the girl Chen Feng flirted with at the rooftop bar on the first day of the show?”
“You’re right! Her name’s… Zhou Wanning, right?”
Meanwhile, Zhou Wanning stared at the vicious man before her, regret creeping into her heart.
After what had happened a few days ago, she’d taken notice of Chen Feng and learned he wasn’t actually a fugitive—just a contestant on the hit show Thief Game.
For some reason, the news had brought her an inexplicable sense of relief, even though she barely knew him.
Then came Chen Feng’s viral heist announcement, which had taken the internet by storm. Eager to see it for herself, she’d rushed over after work, hoping to snag a ticket.
But the event was so wildly popular that the line stretched halfway down the block. By the time she reached the front, tickets were sold out. Defeated, she settled for watching the livestream on her phone in the square.
And now, as if that wasn’t enough, just as she was about to head home, she got robbed!
Zhou Wanning couldn’t help but wonder if she’d forgotten to check her horoscope before leaving the house. How could one person be this unlucky?
Seeing her hesitate, the man grew impatient.
He brandished his knife and snarled, “Hurry up! Don’t make this harder than it has to be!”
Zhou Wanning flinched, her hands trembling as she reached for her wallet.
Then—a sharp whistling sound cut through the air.
A flat object sliced across the man’s wrist, leaving a thin trail of blood.
“Who’s there?!”
The man spun around, scanning the area in panic, but saw no one. Only the object, now embedded deep in the wall, gave any clue.
“A… playing card?”
Zhou Wanning blinked in disbelief. She’d never seen someone use a card as a weapon before.
“Such rough treatment of a beautiful lady is hardly becoming of a gentleman.”
Just as everyone was puzzling over who had intervened, a voice drifted down from above.
A figure in white sat casually on the railing of a second-floor window, a card gun in hand—proof that he was the one who’d struck.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Chen Feng.”
Two voices rang out simultaneously from the two individuals involved.
Yet one tone carried surprise, while the other brimmed with delight.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
