Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

After so long, I’ve finally gotten my hands on a Slaughter Fiend Medallion! Nie Yan’t couldn’t help but feel a little excited, as the two supplementary skills for the Thief version of the medallion were both really good.

Slaughter Fiend Medallion (Thief)Rank: Junior (Owner must kill 1,000 players at least 2 levels above them to upgrade to Intermediate.)

Description: Can be upgraded through slaughter. However, the owner will grow more vulnerable with each subsequent upgrade.

Properties: Attack +20%, Defense -20%, Dexterity +20, Ignore Level +3, Armour Pierce

Junior Berserk Transformation: Enter a berserk state when health drops below 50%. Increases Attack and Movement Speed by 30%. Gain 10 Attack for every enemy slain.

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Junior Mind Immune: Defends against all Mind Magic for 3 seconds.

Cooldown: 30 seconds

Restrictions: Can only be used by the original owner. Bound after being picked up. Cannot be traded or dropped. Can be destroyed.

The Thief version of the medallion was a bit different from the Mage version. Its properties weren’t bad, but it was the two supplementary skills that really made the item so great. Berserk Transformation would give a substantial boost to the player’s offensive power when health fell below 50%. However, the most important was Mind Immune. Any Thief who frequently engaged in PvP was very clear on what type of skills posed the greatest threat to them—crowd control skills! In the previous timeline, the official website once did a study of what Thieves died the most to during PvP: 52% Warrior’s Tendon Break, 35% Mage’s Control Magic, 9% high burst damage….

The Tendon Break skill of a Warrior ranked at number one. Warriors restrained Thieves, this was without a doubt. Whenever a Thief suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a Mage, it was almost always because of Control Magic which posed a far greater threat to them than frightening burst damage.

Whether in large-scale wars or group battles, Priests were a favourite target of Thieves. As a cloth-armour support class, they were the most vulnerable. Not to mention they possessed annoying skills like Glimmer Mark and Illuminate. It was no surprise the vast majority of Thieves chose to take them out right off the bat.

And the type of Control Magic that Priests were most proficient with was precisely Mind Magic! So having something like Mind Immune would give an immense advantage when dealing with them.

Another reason Nie Yan wanted the Slaughter Fiend Medallion was that between Black Heaven and Black Hell, one was a Holy Priest and the other was most likely a Shadow Priest. He couldn’t discount the possibility of them having Mind Control Magic. With Mind Immune from the Slaughter Fiend Medallion and Holy Descent from the Medal of the Ten Holy Paladins, he didn’t believe the two of them could pose any sort of threat to him.

Nie Yan had already made preparations for his encounter with Black Heaven and Black Hell. Since Black Heaven was one of the Seven Archbishops in the previous timeline, he still hadn’t abandoned his goal of recruiting them into Asskickers United. Although they were currently members of Dark Hero, it was in a state of decline, so that would probably change soon. However, if he mobilized a force to snatch the Chapter of Harmony away from them, it was the same as gifting an Archbishop to another guild. He assigned some subordinates to track Black Heaven and Black Hell down, but those two were exceedingly cautious, changing location every hour or so. His subordinates had no way of finding them at all.

Since Black Heaven and Black Hell couldn’t be found, Nie Yan could only wait for them to come knocking at his doorstep. He had already prepared a response for them, and the Slaughter Fiend Medallion emerged at an exceedingly opportune time.

The two gems that dropped were both Fortune Gems. Nie Yan examined the skill book—Poison Mist Cloud. It was an area-of-effect spell for Arcane Mages. All creature caught within the spell would take 10 damage every second. With a range of 3,030 meters, its effects were very potent.

This skill book would definitely be given to a guild member who signed a contract.

“Aside from the Thief version of the Slaughter Fiend Medallion, a skill book dropped,” Nie Yan announced before sharing the properties of the medallion for everyone to see.

Sun’s eyes sparkled. “If I kill over a hundred players, will I be able to get a Slaughter Fiend Medallion too?”

“You’ll have to spend a long time getting your kill count up to 100, then coming back here to farm a Slaughter Fiend Medallion. Even then, it’s not a guaranteed drop, and if you don’t get it, you’ll have to start all over again. Can you imagine how much time you’d be wasting? You’re better off levelling up some more and collecting better equipment during that time.” Nie Yan poured cold water on any ideas Sun might have gotten in his head.

“Oh, I guess that’s true. Forget it, then…” Sun said in disappointment.

“The guild has many sets of Level 30 Gold equipment for Thieves. You’ll get to wear them when you get to Level 30, so you should hurry and level up!” Nie Yan said. Although Sun was a bit childish, his talents were absolutely unmatched. Even so, he still needed careful guidance.

When Sun watched how Nie Yan killed the Lord-class Scaled Frog alone, he had a profound realization. Deep in his heart, Nie Yan became even more of a goal he secretly strived towards. He wanted to be a godly Thief just like Nie Yan!

“Alright, everyone, let’s get in a bit of extra levelling before the servers shut down for the day,” Nie Yan said. They still had about half-an-hour of game time remaining.

Nie Yan and the others continued hunting the Scaled Frogs.

…

Calore Transfer Area, two figures stepped out of the transfer point.

Both of them wore black cloaks to conceal their appearances. They were precisely the owners of the Chapter of Harmony, Black Heaven and Black Hell.

Black Hell checked the system notification and said, “Nirvana Flame’s last location just updated. He’s south of Calore, probably clearing his red name. I don’t think he’ll be moving too far for now.”

“Big Brother, do you think we can beat that guy?” Black Heaven said with a hint of nervousness. He recalled the video of Nie Yan killing Hei Zhuo. It had really left a deep impression on him. He previously had absolute confidence in Black Hell. Out of everyone he had met so far, none of them were stronger than his big brother. However, after watching the video, his heart started to waver ever so slightly. Mad Rogue Nirvana Flame… he really did seem awesome. Now, if people heard someone was preparing to find Nirvana Flame to look for trouble, they would definitely think that person was overestimating themselves.

If you asked what type of a person Black Hell was, not many people could give you an answer. However, if you brought up the name Invincible1, then plenty of people would know. Invincible was a very famous figure in the popular virtual reality games of the past. When Dark Hero was considered one of the best guilds, it was under his leadership. He once ranked number one on the professional player leaderboards for three years in a row. Later on, however, the Dark Hero gaming organization disbanded and Invincible disappeared. From then on, the guild went on a continuous decline. The top experts of Dark Hero all left one after the other, scattering to other guilds. With so many people gone, only a few old members chose to remain. None of them knew that Invincible, the former leader who had brought them to glory, was actually Black Hell. Unfortunately, he was already an entirely different person from the Invincible of long ago. What’s more, he had chosen to renounce the Warrior class to play a Shadow Priest.

However, no one forgot the heyday of the Dark Hero guild. Quite a few experts among the major guilds were former members of Dark Hero. Many of them would still frequently reminisce about the former glory of the guild, only to start endlessly sighing. Whenever they chatted about with someone new, a certain question would still occasionally be asked. “I used to be part of Dark Hero. Do you know what ever happened to our guild leader, Invincible?” However, no one would know the answer, causing them to feel deep regret.

Black Hell’s eyes glowed with determination. “I want to test out just how strong that guy is.” The current him no longer pursued money and fame. All he wanted to do was use his own unique method of playing to enjoy the game. From his perspective, Mad Rogue Nirvana Flame was an interesting opponent, nothing more.

Black Heaven knew Black Hell’s competitive spirit was reignited. His Big Brother’s nature was always like so.

Although Invincible had changed his name, in some respect, he was still walking alone under the heavens. One can only imagine just how brash, just how amazing he considered himself, when he first picked the name.

Black Hell knew just what kind of opponent he was going to face. He wasn’t suicidal. His goal was to defeat Nie Yan, then seize all the chapters from the Book of Order in his possession.

“Let’s go to the Starry Night Potion Shop to buy some potions,” Black Hell said. Before he faced off against Nirvana Flame, he had to make ample preparations, and good potions were absolutely necessary. As for buying potions from other places, he could think of a few other shops, but none of them surpassed the Starry Night Potion Shop.

“When are we going to find him?” Black Heaven asked. Since his big brother had made his decision, he wouldn’t say any more superfluous words.

Black Hell thought for a moment before replying, “Early tomorrow morning, we’ll go find that guy together.“

Mad Rogue Nirvana Flame, let’s see if your skills really match that name…

The two chatted as they walked into the Starry Night Potion Shop together.

After Nie Yan and the others levelled for a while, they checked the server clock. It was almost time to log off.

“Nirvana Flame, I’m logging off now.” Yao Yao bid farewell to Nie Yan, waving her hands.

“Let’s meet tomorrow.”

“Boss, we’re leaving.”

“Big Brother, I’m getting off.”

…

Listening to these simple, ordinary farewells, Nie Yan’t couldn’t help but give rise to a melancholic sigh, recalling how he spent almost all of his time alone in his past life. His daily routine had consisted of hunting monsters for most of the day, returning to the city just before the servers shut down to put all the unneeded drops in the auction house or maybe convert some of his in-game gold to credits, then silently logging off. Only very occasionally would a few people go out of their way to say goodbye to him, like Yao Yao, Tang Yao, or strangers he levelled with on that day.

This life was a far different from his past one. Nevertheless, he rather liked the feeling of his present circumstances.

Nie Yan logged out of the game. He could hear a few relatives, who were on fairly good terms with his parents, helping pack stuff downstairs. From what he could gather from the conversation downstairs, since they were about to move away to the capital, his parents had invited these relatives for dinner at a restaurant tonight. Then, the Nie family would be living in their new villa by tomorrow.

“Little Yan, we’re going to be moving to the capital. Go say goodbye to your classmates,” Mother Nie stroked Nie Yan’s head and said in an affection tone.

Nie Yan didn’t have many friends in his hometown highschool. Although he got along fine with many people, he wasn’t very particularly close to anyone. “They’re probably busy with their own things. I’ll give them a phone call to let them know.”

“That’s fine too.” Mother Nie nodded.

I’m finally moving to the capital… Nie Yan was looking forward to his reunion with Xie Yao.

1. I’ve decided to translate the name Walking Alone Under the Heavens (獨步天下) to just Invincible for short.