Chapter Fifteen: Exposing the Swindler Completely

Chapter Fifteen: Cleaning Out the Swindler

But Gao Yang, seeing Shi Bai so despondent, couldn’t help but laugh aloud. “Haha… don’t fret! It’s just a tattered cloth armor, what’s it worth anyway?”

Shi Bai, faced with his friend’s carefree, hopelessly foolish demeanor, couldn’t be bothered to respond. Instead, he cursed the swindler furiously in his heart.

“Damn you! May lightning strike you every time you step outside! May your sons never be born whole! May every girlfriend you find turn out to be a drag queen, and may your instant noodles always lack the seasoning packets! Damn!”

Swindlers—every gamer has encountered them, but few games are as despair-inducing as this dungeon. Shi Bai lay on the sofa, staring blankly at the screen; anyone who didn’t know better would think he’d just had his heart broken.

Just then, the screen flashed with a loudspeaker message: “Selling the Wind Robe! Thirty million!” The words “Wind Robe” glowed in pink, glaringly conspicuous.

Shi Bai’s eyes widened—wasn’t this the swindler from before?!

“Damn! You’re already reselling it?! Do you have any humanity at all? Couldn’t you have waited until I was offline? Must you torment my fragile soul like this? Wait for it, you…”

Suddenly, inspiration struck. “Damn! I have the system! My emotions got the better of me and I forgot!” He shot a cold smile at the computer screen. “Sorry, swindler, but you’ve made the worst mistake possible—you’ve crossed paths with the King of Hell.”

“Custom task: I want to strip this swindler of all his game assets.”

“Custom task successful. Task initiated.”

“Heh heh.” Shi Bai smiled wickedly. “To take the swindler’s money, I must use the most humiliating method—by letting myself be swindled again?”

He pondered a moment, then messaged the swindler: “Big brother, I think we made a mistake earlier. My Wind Robe suddenly disappeared for some reason. Actually, I’m only in second grade and I don’t know how to play. Um, I still have a purple sword—do you want it?”

After sending the message, Shi Bai felt a bit foolish, but he decided to just try his luck.

Sure enough, after a while, the swindler replied, “Oh, you’re only in second grade? Must’ve been a system bug earlier. I don’t know where your Wind Robe went, but it’s fine—just put your sword up for trade and let’s try again. Maybe we can get your Wind Robe back through the bug.”

Shi Bai grinned. A swindler is always a swindler—not defeated by intelligence, but by greed.

They began to trade again. Shi Bai placed a level-15 short katana on the trade panel and clicked the trade button.

The swindler messaged, “To trigger the bug, let’s do it just like last time.”

Shi Bai smiled coldly and replied with a naive, innocent “Okay!”

The swindler sent a team invitation again. Shi Bai clicked cancel. The swindler pretended to send several more invitations, then finally confirmed the trade.

Shi Bai stared at the confirmation button, then pressed it decisively.

And so, the short katana vanished completely from Shi Bai’s inventory.

“Kid, did you get it back?” the swindler feigned concern.

Shi Bai nearly burst out laughing from rage and typed, “No, I’m crying.”

The swindler replied, “No worries. Next time you have gear, come find me—I’ll help you again.”

Shi Bai clenched his teeth, barely containing his laughter as he typed, “Okay.”

The trade ended; everything returned to normal. Shi Bai sat quietly, eyes fixed on the screen, waiting for the system to turn the tables.

Meanwhile, through the long network cable, the scene shifted to the swindler’s end. It was a dim, cramped room with tightly drawn curtains. Only when the wind occasionally lifted a corner did a faint shaft of light slip inside.

Three computers lined the room, each with a young man in his early twenties, hair disheveled, seated before a glowing monitor. The harsh white light seemed to box their heads in.

Their faces were pale and greasy. The table before them was strewn with leftover takeout containers, torn chicken claw packets, beer bottles—a mess.

Suddenly, a shirtless, emaciated man sprang up, grabbed a bottle of beer, and took a hearty swig. “Ah! What a day! Haha… burp!”

The other two looked up, startled. “What’s up?”

The skinny swindler’s eyes gleamed. “I just hit the jackpot! Hahahahaha!”

The other two, curiosity piqued, pressed him, “What happened? Spill it!”

The skinny swindler took another gulp, licked his lips, and exclaimed with delight, “I just swindled a Wind Robe! Figured the kid would be furious, so I ignored him. But then, he came back to me! Hahaha… guess what he said?”

The two were surprised. “Didn’t he curse you out?”

“No! Hahaha…” The skinny swindler laughed, “The kid actually said, ‘I don’t know what happened, my Wind Robe just disappeared. Big brother, do you know why?’ Hahaha… turns out he’s a second grader!”

“Hahahahaha…” The three collapsed in laughter.

The skinny swindler continued, “But that’s not all! He then asked if I wanted his short katana.”

The other two’s eyes lit up. “Did you take it?”

“Of course!” shouted the skinny swindler. “How could I refuse a gift delivered to my door? So I showed off my con skills, told him it was probably a bug, and asked him to repeat the process. Guess what the kid said?”

“What did he say?”

“He agreed without a second thought! Hahahahaha…!”

Once more, the trio burst into laughter.

“And there’s more!” The skinny swindler’s face was animated. “He even promised to come to me next time he gets good gear! Hahaha…!”

The three were nearly hysterical, “You’re a real piece of work!”

Another laughed, “Yeah, that kid’s bound to seek revenge when he grows up!”

“Hahahahahaha…”

Just then, one of them approached the skinny swindler’s computer. “Let me see that Wind Robe.”

The skinny swindler readily agreed, sat down, and prepared to open his inventory—when suddenly, six words appeared on the game screen.

“Network connection interrupted.”

The swindlers paused, but weren’t too concerned. In the dungeon, disconnects were commonplace.

“So many people playing!” The skinny one licked his lips and logged back in.

But as he returned to the character selection screen, he was utterly dumbfounded.

The character selection screen no longer showed his main account. Instead, there were five unfamiliar, level-one alt accounts.

Their names were:

[Money’s mine]

[Materials, I took]

[Gear, I dismantled]

[Account, I deleted]

[Swindler, you’re done]

“…”

“…”

After a deathly silence, the dark room erupted in agonized wails.

“My damn seven hundred million! Seven hundred million!!”