What is the most painful thing in life? What is the happiest thing in life?

The most painful is, after going through countless hardships and being on the verge of greatness, suddenly being thrown back to square one overnight.

The happiest is, after returning to square one and doing nothing at all, suddenly becoming awesome overnight.

John Carter experienced both the most painful and the happiest moments of his life in a single day.

The painful part was that the hidden thief class online game account he painstakingly built in the global virtual network was “lost” by the system.

The happy part was that the reason for the account loss was: the virtual thief from the game account had come into the real world and become a controllable master thief.

In short, this is a lighthearted wish-fulfillment novel full of “the underdog outsmarts the strong” scenarios. The protagonist is a very righteous, model youth, and even when he’s a little wicked, it’s all because of the author’s evil designs...

ps: There’s absolutely no harm in reading this book. If one day you also learn the art of invisibility, you can use it as a reference for how to get rich with it.

Chapter 001: The Hidden Job Change

The online game “Gods and Demons” was about to launch a new dungeon. The first team to clear the new dungeon would be rewarded with 1,000 honor points, a piece of purple epic equipment, and six assignable attribute points. This news drove fifty million players worldwide crazy. However, after three days of the new dungeon’s release, hundreds of elite teams from around the world had attempted it, but not a single one succeeded.

Until today, the “Heavenly Sovereign Squad” from Pangu City in the Huaxia region caught the attention of players worldwide. They were hailed as the team most likely to clear the new dungeon.

The Heavenly Sovereign Squad had a total of fifteen members. Fourteen of the main members were between level 32 and 35, all equipped with either top-tier or epic gear. Their level 35 captain even had a sub-legendary item. For a team to have such strength just three months after the server opened—when the highest level globally was 35 (with only 15 players at that level) and the mainstream level was 25—was already astonishing in “Gods and Demons.”

But the reason this team was so highly regarded wasn’t because of those fourteen main members, but because of the last member—a level 20 thief with trash equipment: the player “Shadow Blade.”

The appearance of this Shadow Blade sparked heated discussion on the “Gods and Demons” forum. However, no one expected that when the dungeon opened, this Shadow Blade would stand everyone up—he didn’t log in!

The Heavenly Sovereign Squad, missing Shadow Blade, reluctantly attempted the new dungeon, but in the end, the entire team was wiped out.

The forum exploded. This Shadow Blade was simply an idiot—such a golden opportunity that others couldn’t find even with a lantern, and he just gave it up.

Players speculated wildly: maybe Shadow Blade’s gas tank exploded at home, maybe Shadow Blade was so happy he fell down the stairs, or maybe the Heavenly Sovereign Squad was just putting on a show for attention. After all, what could a level 20 thief in store-bought gear do in a dungeon—he’d be killed by a single hit from a monster!

Of course, there was only one truth. It all started three months ago...

John Carter, an ordinary freshman at Lingnan University, was majoring in the liberal arts, a field famous for its abundance of beautiful girls. Generally, few male liberal arts students are obsessed with online games, but John Carter was an exception.

Three months ago, when “Gods and Demons” launched its open beta, John Carter scraped together enough money to buy a gaming helmet and registered the thief “Shadow Blade” as quickly as possible, then fought his way out of the newbie village.

John Carter excelled at summarizing experience during leveling, calculating which monsters gave the fastest experience, and finding spawn points with lots of monsters.

In the crowded newbie village with too few monsters, leveling was extremely difficult. John Carter gave it his all and finally reached level 10, becoming one of the first players to leave the newbie village.

After that, he skipped countless classes and leveled up like crazy, eventually pulling ahead of the leveling crowd and becoming one of the first players in “Gods and Demons” to reach level 20.

The system rewarded the first 100 players in each region to reach level 20 with a top-tier item—the Soul Ring—and promised that the first player in the world to reach level 30 would receive two sub-legendary items, while players ranked 2–10 would get one sub-legendary item each. Additionally, the first 100 players in each region to reach level 30 would also be rewarded.

This news made the leveling maniacs even crazier. At that time, equipment was extremely scarce—even fourth-tier epic gear was rare, let alone second-tier sub-legendary items.

But among these leveling maniacs, there was one who stood out. Not only did he not grind levels like crazy after reaching level 20, he actually put the Soul Ring—the system reward that could greatly speed up leveling—up for auction!

This caused a huge stir in the auction house. At that time, there were very few other rare items in the auction house, and with the lure of the level 30 rewards, the Soul Ring that could greatly boost leveling speed was bid up to a sky-high price.

People on the forum mocked the “Shadow Blade” who auctioned off the equipment, calling him an idiot with no foresight. How could he trade the Soul Ring for money? Didn’t he know how much of an advantage an early level lead could bring? Not to mention the heart-pounding rewards for being the first to reach level 30.

John Carter ignored all the chatter and quietly moved on to his next plan—using the money from selling the equipment to buy quest scrolls.