I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1. The Ruined World

“Damn it.”

A man spat out the curse.

It was a situation where he couldn’t help but swear.

His body bore curse marks scattered across it here and there.

His right eye had already been ruined by Curse long ago.

Moreover, half his body was almost completely numb.

His name was Krash Balheim.

He was the man once branded as the shame of House Balheim.

‘Shame my ass.’

But even that word—shame—was ancient history now.

He was one of the Sky Generation, those who fought against the Collapse known as World Erosion.

Even his family, who had always treated him as worthless, had come to acknowledge him to some degree.

Because of that recognition he’d hungered for, he threw himself into the struggle with even greater desperation.

But the outcome was devastating.

Before his eyes, a meteor shower poured down, and the world was being destroyed.

The Calamity, grown to unstoppable proportions, had devoured everything.

Krash watched this destruction with a hollow gaze.

And then, immediately after, he turned to the man beside him.

“So what now, Arthur… what are you going to do?”

Krash’s voice came out warped because of the Curse.

But the censure contained in it came through clear enough.

“What am I going to do?”

At that, a man with platinum-blonde hair as brilliant as the sun lifted his head.

Despite the world crumbling around him, his face, graced with aristocratic elegance, was almost unfairly beautiful.

Arthur Gramalte—the most outstanding of the Sky Generation and the Hero King as he was called.

The fate of the empire’s vaunted Hero King was genuinely laughable.

Because three women surrounded him, each offering him comfort in their own way.

This wasn’t a Hero King—it was a harem king.

“The world has collapsed. It’s over.”

Arthur’s reply was remarkably calm.

Even though countless people had died along the way to get him here, his tone betrayed no sign of it.

As if the Collapse itself had nothing to do with him.

“Is that what you call it? And how many people have we lost trusting in you alone—”
“Krash, that’s enough! Arthur did everything he could!”

In that instant, a woman with hair the color of the sea cried out.

Krash’s brow darkened.

Her name was Sigrin Epania.

She was the third princess of the Epania Empire and the very architect who had elevated Arthur to the status of imperial heir.

A princess so utterly besotted with Arthur that her judgment had been clouded.

Yet her swordsmanship was formidable enough to rival Arthur’s own.

“Damn it, you lunatic! I was the one who got you to stop mewling about losing sight in one eye—got you to open both eyes again. And now you tell me to shut up? Is that what you call gratitude?”

Unlike his usual manner, Krash’s words came out sharp and cutting.

Sigrin’s eyes turned toward him with unmistakable contempt.

“How dare you speak to Sigrin in such a manner? Are you not afraid of the consequences?”
“Consequences? Consequences!”

Krash spat blood, raising both hands toward the sky.

“The world has collapsed and you talk of consequences?! Damn you! The Epania empire you were so proud of is already—gone, destroyed, finished!”

Sigrin’s eyes widened at those words.

Tears began to well up in her gaze.

But seeing it, Krash’s expression only turned more contemptuous.

She had always believed herself a member of the imperial family and lorded it over everyone save Arthur.

Of all people, her treatment of Krash had been the harshest.

The primary reason was that Krash belonged to the most powerful house in the Staron Kingdom.

“Ah, you’ve been insufferable since the Academy days!”

Their bitter feud had begun back at Rahelern Academy.

Sigrin—blessed with natural talent in the blade, the object of everyone’s expectations.

And against her stood Krash, youngest son of House Balheim, pride of the Staron Kingdom,

yet gifted at nothing in particular—a mediocre failure by any measure.

He might have ignored mere comparison, but that was not all.

It was Sigrin, the leader of the Empire Faction within the Academy.

Because of that, she had relentlessly tormented Krash to crush the Kingdom Faction.

Thanks to her, Krash endured not only the Empire Faction’s contempt but also—

—ostracism from his own Kingdom Faction, branded a disgrace.

The accusation that he was a shame not just to his house but to the entire kingdom had worn grooves into his ears.

Yet Krash had borne it all.

He was talentless, after all, a worthless hack.

She was essential—vital to the Sky Generation that would save the world.

“Ever since I lost my eye, she’s been an absolute plague on me!”

But that was over now.

The world had collapsed, the Empire had been obliterated by World Erosion, and the Kingdom had fallen just the same.

So Krash pressed his right eye with his palm, voice dripping with hatred.

If he’d known it would come to this, he would never have stolen that curse hanging from that madwoman’s eye.

“Worthless trash, good for nothing but stealing!”

Sigrin’s eyes blazed in response.

She drew her blade—the White Dragon’s Fang, a sword of pure white.

The chill radiating from it felt as though it might freeze Krash where he stood.

But Krash only laughed bitterly.

Worthless trash, good for nothing but stealing.

“Yeah, cough-cough, you’re right about that.”

Krash hated his own ability.

Because, as she’d said, he could do nothing but steal.

[Skill · Black Hood

Steals what the target possesses.

＊Conditions

1. The value of what the target possesses is determined by the target.

2. The difficulty of stealing is determined by the value the target assigns to it.]

It was a skill granted by the god who had made a contract with him—truly and literally nothing but a thieving ability.

The more the target treasured something, the harder it became to steal. A strange and perverse power indeed.

But this ability had one advantage, and one alone.

‘I could steal even the Curses born from World Erosion.’

Curses that not even the greatest curse-breakers in the world could unravel—he stole them all.

Because of this tremendous advantage, Krash had stayed with Sky Generation.

As a result, the Curses accumulated in his body numbered in the hundreds.

One of them was a Curse that wouldn’t kill him but would condemn him to eternal wakefulness, which was why he’d managed to survive this long.

It was a number that should have killed him long ago.

‘I thought I’d reach four digits soon enough.’

Unfortunately, the world collapsed before he could achieve that.

Regardless, every Curse in Krash’s body had been stolen from Sky Generation.

Arthur’s Curse of Fear Control.

Sigrin’s Curse of Dark Veil.

The Saint’s Curse of Perverse Benevolence.

The Flame Emperor’s Curse of Source of Malice, and so on.

He now carried even the Curses of the dead.

A Curse is the most worthless thing to its original bearer.

Which made Krash’s Black Hood all the more effective.

“But without me, you never would’ve made it this far…….”

One of Krash’s eyes trembled with fury.

“Isn’t that right? Arthur, Abella.”

His gaze turned toward the woman cradled in Arthur’s arms, who had been weeping since moments before.

In the hands of her small frame rested a staff etched with stars.

Abella—the Red Witch, the Magic Tower’s finest talent and fellow member of Sky Generation.

She too had come this far as their comrade alongside Arthur.

“Arthur, Arthur, what do I do?”

Yet she paid him no mind.

Ever since the world collapsed, all she had done was cling to Arthur’s side and weep bitterly.

‘Well, she was always like that.’

She’d never listened to a word he said, ignoring him with consistent coldness.

When the tearing pain of the Curse grew so unbearable that he’d gone to the Magic Tower seeking painkillers,

she’d turned him away at the gates without even letting him inside.

Of course, humiliation wasn’t limited to that single incident.

From that point on, I’d severed all affection for her.

“So the Curse that stole your voice left you unable to cast magic, did it? Cough, cough—you’re quite good at playing the victim, aren’t you?”

Yet she had the gall to keep begging me to steal the Curse away. The sheer audacity made my skin crawl.

Even now, my throat felt as though metal were scraping against my vocal cords, and every cough was thanks to her Curse.

“How undignified. Perhaps you should stop.”

It was then that another voice cut through the tension.

A woman standing silently behind Arthur.

She was Mery, the Spear of the Epania Empire and the mightiest knight sworn to protect Sigrin.

Her jet-black hair and tall frame cut a glamorous, striking figure—there was no denying her appeal.

But to me, she was utterly worthless.

Because a considerable portion of the Curses I carried were gifts from that fool of a woman.

The mightiest Spear? What a joke.

That arrogant wretch had such bloated self-regard she’d recklessly throw herself at World Erosion—something that demanded immediate retreat—just to collect more Curses to burden me with. The disgust I felt was bottomless.

“Undignified? Don’t make me laugh. Have you forgotten how you were struck by that Curse that made you spill every secret—all because you couldn’t bear Arthur finding out how you felt about him—and then you came crawling to me to steal it away?”

And the very next day after I’d lifted that Curse.

She walked into the same room as Sigrin and Arthur without hesitation. The sheer nerve of it left me breathless.

Because of that, I’d missed the first date I’d promised that day.

Not that dates mattered anymore. Everything had fallen apart anyway.

“Everything that comes out of your mouth is the same pathetic drivel.”
“Drivel? Cough, cough—I can’t help it! Your Curse is still partially lodged in me!”

If the Curses hadn’t partially canceled each other out of their own accord, I don’t know what I might have said in this moment.

“Save the world, then. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

I exhaled roughly, as though surrendering everything, and turned to look at Arthur.

Arthur was the real problem.

He’d never once disappointed me. Not until now.

He’d always accomplished everything flawlessly, as though he could see the future itself.

But when the end came, he stumbled. And now he’d collapsed entirely.

Yet I stayed with Arthur all the same.

Everyone surrounding him was nothing but an idiot.

But Arthur was, at the very least, someone who had told him he was necessary.

Of course, Arthur had never actively discouraged those who acted recklessly toward Krash.

The fact that Krash had remained at the side of Sky Generation, even as he had become this way, was because he believed it had been of use to Arthur as well.

“You were capable, weren’t you?”

Krash recalled the words Arthur had spoken while watching this world collapse.

‘It’s finished.’

As though a single play had simply come to an end.

Those words, delivered so matter-of-factly, had rendered all the effort Krash had poured forth utterly meaningless.

“Yes, but in the end, I failed again.”

In the meantime, Arthur had pulled himself upright.

Beneath his chest, dark blood dripped steadily downward.

That was why Abella clung to him, weeping without cease.

Because Arthur was dying.

He, too, had failed to prevent the world’s collapse.

“This time, too?”

But Krash’s expression shifted as he turned over Arthur’s words in his mind.

It was a reaction as though he had already lived through this moment once before.

“Don’t worry. It was different this time. This time, I obtained the card called Memory Succession.”

The expressions of the three women watching him changed.

Those expressions seemed as though they had made some covenant with him long ago.

Krash, regarding this strangeness, began to furrow his brow.

“Arthur, what are you saying? Am I the only one who doesn’t understand?”
“Krash, this is not my first time facing collapse. This world has been destroyed countless times.”

Arthur’s calm words only deepened Krash’s confusion.

Destroyed countless times—what nonsense was this.

Had Arthur finally lost his mind at the end.

“But that’s all right. I need only return.”
“That’s—that’s—what madness is this! Arthur! Sigrin, Abella, Mery, you all know something!”

Despite Krash’s cry, the three simply stared at Arthur.

As though there were no one else in the world but him.

“Since we’ve come this far, I shall tell you.”

Then, at last, Arthur gave him the answer.

“Regression.”

Regression?

One of Krash’s eyes trembled violently.

The word that seemed fit only for legends had tumbled from Arthur’s lips.

Moreover, the other three already appeared to know of his Regression.

“Re… gression?”

In that moment, Krash felt as though all the puzzle pieces were clicking into place.

Because now he understood every move Arthur had made—every step that had seemed to reveal knowledge of the future.

Arthur’s eyes were sincere.

He truly was undergoing Regression.

“And in this cycle, I’ve obtained Memory Succession. With this skill, I can transmit the memories of Sigrin, Abella, and Mery back to the point where I regressed.”
“So you’re saying… you’ll regress and start again?”

If the Collapse that he alone couldn’t stop could be stopped by bringing others back with him through Regression, then it could be done.

Krash’s eyes widened as the realization struck him.

If that were the case, there was genuine hope of stopping the Collapse.

Even if this cycle had failed, even if their character was flawed, with those three beside him—those three whose strength was undeniable—the odds would rise enormously.

Light began to shine.

The light of a world that had seemed so hopelessly shrouded in Collapse.

“Yes. I’ll start again with everyone.”

Then Krash suddenly lifted his head at the word everyone.

The three beside him had already known this truth all along.

But what of himself?

He who had clung so desperately to survival even as the Sky Generation fell one by one, who had endured by stealing away the curses of them all—what of him?

“Wait. Arthur.”

So Krash decided to ask.

Weren’t you the only one who never acknowledged me?

“…What about me?”

His lips, stuck together, finally parted as the question came.

Arthur gazed at Krash as he had at first, and then, for the first time, a laugh began to spill from his lips.

“Hahahaha.”

Hearing Arthur’s sudden, explosive laughter, Krash stood frozen as Arthur slowly lifted his head, brushing away the tears that Abella had wiped clean.

His golden eyes blazed with crystalline light.

“Krash, what use is there in inheriting your Memory Succession when your mind and body have both become nothing but rags?”

Arthur looked down at Krash, who stood vacant and stunned, and spoke those words.

“Don’t worry. I quite like you, after all. Without you, Sky Generation wouldn’t have come this far. Your ability to steal Curses is useful enough. But that doesn’t mean I need you as you are now. What I need is someone with a clear mind who can follow me.”

Those words now sounded as though Arthur were treating him like a tool.

A disposable implement, used once and discarded.

A tool that was necessary with each Regression, and nothing more, nothing less.

“See you again, Krash.”

With those words, a brilliant light suddenly began to pour from Arthur’s body.

Realizing that Arthur had begun to cast Regression, Krash scrambled to his feet in panic, only to tumble across the ground.

One of his legs, corrupted by Curse, would not move properly.

Crawling through the mud, spitting blood, Krash screamed toward Arthur.

“Wait, wait! Please wait! Arthur! Take me with you! Damn you! If you’re leaving, take me too!”

Yet Arthur’s expression did not change.

From the very beginning, Krash had held no value in Arthur’s world.

The only reason Arthur had feigned acknowledgment was his calculation that Krash might prove useful.

He had never once truly recognized Krash as a comrade.

And now—had Krash only just realized this?

‘That’s not true.’

Hadn’t he known it long ago?

When members of Sky Generation had ignored him and committed degrading acts, Arthur had simply watched in silence.

As if such treatment of Krash were only natural.

If Arthur had truly regarded him as a comrade, he would have stopped them long ago, stood beside him.

Instead, rather than acknowledging Krash’s contributions, Arthur treated him as a tool as well.

‘I was merely.’

Comforting himself alone in the depths of his heart.

Telling himself he was helping Sky Generation, that he must prevent the Collapse of the world, filling the void of self-worth that had been absent from House Balheim with such falsehoods.

Was this it?

Was this truly the end?

Really?

It was the moment Krash’s mind began to drift away.

Krash looked down at his own hands.

A world collapsing.

Arthur slipping away.

An ability to steal what a target possesses.

He’d never given it much thought—his body was already ruined by the curse from the start anyway.

But there had always been a question that nagged at him, from some point onward.

Could he steal a skill itself?

Of course, a skill was the most precious thing a person could have, so it wouldn’t be something he could steal easily.

But now was not the time to worry about such things.

Krash’s hand rose toward Arthur.

Had he taken this same action in Arthur’s previous cycles?

If he’d succeeded then, he would have regressed just the same way this cycle.

The fact that he hadn’t meant he’d failed.

But it didn’t matter.

If he didn’t try this, everything would be meaningless beneath the collapsed world anyway.

“Damn it!”

The moment Krash’s outstretched hand blazed with light, a curse spilling from his lips—

Krash lost consciousness in a blinding flash.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Huh?”

In the rain of meteors pouring down toward destruction, a figure slowly lifted his head.

Only then did he realize that no one stood beside him, and his eyes began to widen with dawning alarm.

“What… what is this?”

Why was he here, when he should have regressed?

Just as he grasped at this question, the meteors crashing down from above buried his thoughts.

Arthur Gramalte, of the ninth cycle, who should have been regressing to face the tenth.

It was the day he truly died.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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