The Great Thief

Lu Li sat on a tree trunk and watched as the players battled each other in the distance.

Some were fighting against the Spider Queen, while others were fighting against the players from Gale Legion. They were determined to kill anything that stood in their way.

”Brother Midnight Ghost, lead a group of people and hold then off for a bit while the rest of us finish the boss off,” Bitter Longing said decisively. ”You can take all the drops and loot, as long as we make it onto TV.”

In Wild maps where the First Clear had yet to be taken, the most valuable things were the drops and being able to appear on TV.

Gale Legion wanted to choose the glory of appearing on World Channel, leaving the drops to Peacetime Dynasty.

Midnight Ghost thought about it and agreed to his proposal.

He had to make a decision quickly, otherwise all of these crazy players would swarm over them.

The most unpredictable factor in the Wild was that there were too many players contending for the same boss. Even if there was a large group of players from a major guild, it wasn’t guaranteed that they would get the final kill. The only sure-fire way was to somehow defeat every player that wasn’t involved with their guild.

Midnight Ghost led the players from his guild as well as some players from Gale Legion to intercept the blood-thirsty crowd, leaving the remainder of Gale Legion to finish off the boss.

Spider Queen Silith was close to being defeated, so the few remaining players from Gale Legion would be more than enough to finish her off.

The casual players would take quite a long time to break through the defence of more than 100 Elites from a major guild. Bitter Longing could finally focus on defeating the Spider Queen.

Lu Li squinted his eyes, believing that he had a chance at taking the kill.

He quietly jumped down from the tree and slowly approached the battlefield in Stealth.

As long as he got the final hit on the Boss, he would receive 20% of the EXP. Additionally, he could also share the drops with Gale Legion.

Lu Li was very greedy and wanted everything.

However, he knew that the chances of him dealing the final blow with so many players around would be very low.

Life would be boring without a little hope; Lu Li believed in himself and betted against the odds.

The Barrenlands were currently the most populated Horde map in the game. Therefore, there were many players that were trying to break through, hoping to deal the final blow to the boss.

The Spider Queen’s HP continued to drop under the pressure of the group of Elites. She would be defeated in a couple more minutes.

Lu Li held his breath and watched her HP bar very closely. He was ready to activate all of his special effects in order to deal a heavy blow at the right time.

”Stop! Bitter Longing commanded.”

The team of Elites were very well-trained and all stopped simultaneously.

Lu Li stopped dead in his tracks; he had activated all of his special effects already.

Goddammit, what is he trying to do.

At this very moment, the star player from Gale Legion, Cloudy Leaf, stepped forward and began casting Frost Bolt.

-264HP!

This was insane damage, as expected from their top Mage.

However, the Spider Queen unexpectedly healed herself and survived with a slither of HP.

Cloudy Leaf smiled because he knew that the next spell would finish off the Wild boss and quickly casted Ice Lance to secure the kill.

Ice Lance was an instant cast skill and had a very fast projectile travel speed. However, it wasn’t fast enough, as a Thief appeared from Stealth and tanked the damage.

-179!

The level 25 Cloudy Leaf dealt a considerable amount of damage to this unexpected guest.

”Kill him! No, wait! Attack the boss!” Bitter Longing screamed.

The indecisiveness of Bitter Longing’s command was enough to throw off Gale Legion’s team of Elites. The split-second confusion delayed enough time for the Thief to stab the Spider Queen with his dagger.

Cloudy Leaf’s reaction was much faster and he quickly casted another Ice Lance towards the boss.

Ice Lance was an extremely fast travelling projectile, however, Lu Li was too close to the Boss…

System: Lu Li, of Ruling Sword, is the first to defeat the level 30 Wild Boss Spider Queen Silith.

Lu Li!

He bent over and began picking up the loot, but before he could even touch another item, he was instantly drowned by a sea of instant cast skills.

Lu Li immediately activated the special effect on his shoes and escaped. He disappeared on the spot and reappeared about 10 yards away from the battlefield.

As soon as he appeared, he had received a lot of damage.

This was not because he was slow, but because there were multiple AOE skills that had had already been casted in the area he was teleported to.

Since Gale Legion had to cover a large area, there was only an overlap of a few skills where Lu Li had teleported. Although Lu Li suffered damage continuously, it wasn’t enough to be kill him.

Even Cloudy Leaf’s Frost Nova had missed him completely.

All debuffs were removed from Lu Li when he casted Gale Steps. He hastily transformed into a cougar and dashed off into the bushes.

”Don’t bother chasing.” Bitter Longing held back Cloudy Leaf and the others that wanted to go after him. He shook his head and sighed, ”There’s no point in chasing.”

It was very difficult to kill a Thief in the Wild and it would be a waste of time to even attempt to chase an elite Thief such as Lu Li.

Lu Li had the time to grab an item and left behind two equips and a skill book.

Bitter Longing was a man of his word and he had to uphold the reputation of Gale Legion. As such, the three items were distributed to Midnight Ghost. Without the rare material, Midnight Ghost was quite dissatisfied, but he didn’t dare to complain in front of them.

The biggest loser today was Gale Legion.

They had sacrificed so many players just for a sliver of EXP.

”Why was Lu Li here?” Midnight Ghost scratched his head.

”Who knows.” Bitter Longing’s face became pale as he said angrily, ”There must have been an undercover player in the guild giving information to Ruling Sword. Just like what you guys did.”

”I doubt it,” Midnight laughed awkwardly. ”They’ve just recently started their guild and probably wouldn’t have the time to send an inside player. Maybe he followed us on our way here?”

”Maybe he was levelling up around here,” Cloudy Leaf interrupted.

”Level 30 monsters are really hard to kill.” That was what most solo players would say.

”The monsters here have low defence, low HP and good EXP. It wouldn’t be too hard since Lu Li is already level 28.” Expert players like Cloudy Leaf tended to analyse every detail of their opponents, even the monsters that they were training on.

He wasn’t displaying any signs of anger or frustration, which was a trait that Lu Li respected.

Lu Li was the best Thief he had ever seen. Quiet yet agile, silent yet deadly – who knew how long Lu Li had been lurking around the area? Rather than competing for the final blow against Cloudy Leaf, he had decisively blocked his skill, then went for the easy kill secure. Before everyone had realised what had happened, it was already too late. Cloudy Leaf was impressed with how calm yet clever Lu Li was.

If it were anyone else that had the opportunity to take the loot from a level 30 boss, they would have stayed and gotten killed because of their greed. However, Lu Li decided to look at the bigger picture and escaped with Gale Steps.

In reality, Lu Li regretted taking only one item and would have grabbed all of it if he had the chance.

”The ship has sunk. We’ll get him back next time,” Bitter Longing said angrily. He led his army away and massacred all of the casual players along the way to calm his anger.