Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

After familiarizing himself with the execution of Backbreaker, Nie Yan started gaining skill proficiency in it even faster than before.

93% completion, 95% completion, 96% completion…

After executing Backbreaker numerous times, Nie Yan grew increasingly familiar with the skill and gradually started comprehending more of its mysteries. Constantly correcting and adjusting his movements, he managed to achieve a completion rate of 98%. From an ordinary player’s perspective, this was an inconceivable matter. Achieving 100% completion was seen as almost impossible. 98% was practically the same.

As Nie Yan executed Backbreaker more and more, its skill proficiency rose explosively. Before long, another crisp system jingle rang out. It had advanced to Rank 5.

Nie Yan was perhaps the only player in the Viridian Empire who had a Rank 5 Freedom Skill, which were known for being quite difficult to train. It was already amazing enough to train an ordinary skill to Rank 5, let alone a Freedom Skill!

If Nie Yan landed a 90% Backbreaker on a player, even a Fighter would be instantly killed if not lose most of their health. Combined with the fact that Backbreaker also stunned, the enemy would be dead either way.

After diligently training his skills for the whole day, Backbreaker advanced to Rank 8. At this rank, 90% completion could deal 600% damage!

Nie Yan was speechless. He never knew Freedom Skills could deal this kind of damage. He had never discovered this secret in the previous timeline. This was probably why he was stuck as a second-rate player back then.

Nie Yan snuck up behind a Barbarian Warrior, then exploded forth with Backbreaker.

−7538

The Barbarian Warrior was stunned for seven seconds.

After Nie Yan finished cycling through his skills, he struck out with another Backbreaker.

About 70 seconds later, the Barbarian Warrior collapsed to the ground. Given Nie Yan’s explosive damage, the Barbarian Warrior couldn’t endure no matter how high its health regeneration was.

Nie Yan previously needed two minutes to kill a Barbarian Warrior. Now, he only needed 70 seconds. This increase in combat strength left him feeling excited.

Nie Yan’s harvests from killing the Barbarian Warriors was quite good. They only seemed to drop skill books, nothing else. There were many rare skill books, even three Freedom Skill Books. However, they were all for Warriors and Paladins.

Since Backbreaker had reached Rank 8, Nie Yan wanted to train it even higher. However, the higher the rank, the larger the amount of skill proficiency required. According to his calculations, training it to Rank 9 would take at least three days.

Nie Yan continued training Backbreaker while familiarizing himself with his other skills, including Reverse Grip Backstab, Phantom Assassination, Counter, and Flicker Strike. With his experiences with Backbreaker serving as a guide, it didn’t take long for him to comprehend a few things.

Reverse Grip Backstab, Counter, and Backbreaker were all similar, requiring the channelling of the power from his body to his arm, then letting it erupt out. On the other hand, Phantom Assassination and Flicker Strike required explosive acceleration to run through an enemy to achieve their highest killing power.

After training for another day, Nie Yan familiarized himself with all his Freedom Skills. Even if he wasn’t as skilled with them as Backbreaker, he had still achieved some results.

Before long, Reverse Grip Backstab, Counter, Phantom Assassination, and Flicker Strike advanced to Rank 5. After reaching this point, these skills had become extremely powerful. Nie Yan’s efficiency increase yet again, requiring only 50 seconds to take down a Barbarian Warrior.

Even though his level hadn’t risen, Nie Yan could feel that he had grown much stronger after familiarizing himself with these skills.

The Rank 5 Barbarian Strength and Rank 6 War God’s Rage of Bladelight and Smoke Stub allowed them to dominate over all other Warriors. At this moment, Nie Yan had five Freedom Skills at Rank 5 or higher. He estimated even Bladelight and Smoke Stub wouldn’t last more than a minute against him.

Nie Yan checked his progress on Backbreaker. It was Rank 8, 36%. His achievements were pretty good.

While Nie Yan was busy training his skills, the war between Asskickers United and Alliance of Mages was in full swing. Asskickers United once more showed the world their might.

Alliance of Mages had dispatched 200,000 players and six Armoured Catapults to intercept Asskickers United’s forces in a bid to prevent the flames of war from reaching the Edgarton Stronghold. Even though it was 200,000 versus 60,000, they suffered a crushing defeat, losing over a third of their forces and all six Armoured Catapults. Meanwhile, Asskickers United only lost 2,000 players.

Alliance of Mages greatly reinforced the walls of the Edgarton Stronghold, transforming it into an iron fortress. Asskickers United would have to wait until their trebuchets were complete to begin the siege. As such, Bladelight and the others weren’t in a rush to reach the Edgarton Stronghold. They were perfectly content chipping away at Alliance of Mages’ strength through minor battles.

The construction of the trebuchets was progressing smoothly. Nie Yan had three slaves. One of them, Delfina, had a special ability that allowed her to duplicate blueprints. In about a week’s time, she produced two copies of the trebuchet blueprint. With three engineering teams working simultaneously, their speed increased significantly. Nie Yan believed it wouldn’t be long before trebuchets started rolling out on the battlefield.

All the while Asskickers United was building more and more Armoured Ice Catapults. One catapult after another fresh off the factory came out ready for use. The number of catapults had already reached 25, and more were still being built.

25 Armoured Ice Catapults possessed unrivalled might. As Asskickers United ran rampant in Moonlight City, Alliance of Mages didn’t dare to let out so much as a fart. They could only hide in the Edgarton Stronghold and further reinforce their walls. They had somehow managed to get their hands on large ballistas and installed them atop their towers. Furthermore, they had also moved some of their Armoured Catapults on their walls. Like this, their defenses were quite solid.

Crazy Magic felt like pieces of flesh were being carved out of him. Asskickers United had already razed six Alliance of Mages strongholds to the ground. He had invested a lot of money to build them up, but they were now nothing more than ruins. If Asskickers United simply took control of the strongholds, that would be fine. They could simply take them back. However, Nie Yan was ruthless and directly destroyed them. Even if they took back the strongholds in the future, they would have to be built back up from scratch.

After destroying the sixth stronghold, Asskickers United rushed to the next stronghold. Alliance of Mages was the overlord of Moonlight City. They had more than 20 strongholds altogether. With six strongholds destroyed and the five lost in the bet, they had lost nearly half their strongholds.

At this rate, Alliance of Mages would be left with only the Edgarton Stronghold in another few days. Crazy Magic was probably having a difficult time keeping his cool. When Alliance of Mages’ forces left the safety of the Edgarton Stronghold, they would become nothing more than fodder for the Armoured Ice Catapults.

All the players in the Viridian and Satreen Empires were discussing the war between Alliance of Mages and Asskickers United. At present, Asskickers United was completely overwhelming Alliance of Mages despite not even having half as many players. This development left everyone stupefied. Without any reinforcements, Alliance of Mages wouldn’t last much longer. Even if Asskickers United failed to take down the Edgarton Stronghold, with all the other strongholds gone, Alliance of Mages would eventually collapse in a couple of months.

The war raged on.

Gryphon Woodlands, a map covered in thick fog. From time to time, the shadows of large creatures could be seen flying overhead.

This was a place for obtaining flying mounts. An expedition team of 1,000 players were making their way through the fog, traversing through the forest.

“Boss, the place we left off at last time should be here. Should we use a Dispel Fog Scroll?” a Mage asked.

The head of this group was precisely the guild leader of Angel Corps, Soaring Angel.

“We still haven’t found out where they come from?” Soaring Angel asked. They had previously used a Dispel Fog Scroll and discovered that it made exploring the Gryphon Woodlands much easier. The quality of their harvests was a lot higher too. However, the price of a single Dispel Fog Scroll was too ludicrous. Players reselling the Dispel Fog Scrolls wanted to sell two scrolls for one flying mount. This was too sinister. However, for the sake of increasing their exploration speed in the Gryphon Woodlands, they had no choice but to accept.

After obtaining the Dispel Fog Scrolls, the amount of loot they collected also increased substantially, while the number of unnecessary casualties saw a sharp drop. It seemed like a worthwhile trade. However, to give away a flying mount for every two scrolls was still a bit much. What Soaring Angel feared the most was that these flying mounts were going straight into the hands of an enemy.

“It’s rumoured that the Dispel Fog Scrolls are made by a Great Mage. As for any specific details, the seller wasn’t willing to share,” a Warrior said. He was clad in sparkling golden armour. This full body armour had a sleek design without a single crease or gap. It was covered in many runes. He was the number one Berserker in Angel Crops—Rocksplitter.

Nie Yan knew Angel Corps was exploring the Gryphon Woodlands. However, Asskickers United’s players really couldn’t spare any manpower to follow suit. It would take at least a couple of days for the war against Alliance of Mages to conclude. However, he had made a few arrangements in secret. He first tempted Angel Corps with the Dispel Fog Scrolls, then reaped a portion of their harvests by selling them scrolls for flying mounts. This kind of price was enough to make Soaring Angel want to ram his head into a wall. However, Soaring Angel had no choice but to accept. Nie Yan was the only one selling Dispel Fog Scrolls. Furthermore, he also had Guo Huai bribe two players from Angel Corps, having them record their exploration of the Gryphon Woodlands and send them over. With this footage to study from, Asskickers United would save a lot of unncessary hardship when exploring the the place themselves in the future.

Soaring Angel would never imagine that the one selling him Dispel Fog Scrolls was Nie Yan. He was delivering flying mounts straight into the enemy’s hands. Additionally, footage of their exploration in the Gryphon Woodlands was also being leaked. If he knew this, he would probably faint from anger.