The Great Thief

Lu Li wasn’t allowed to visit his sister in the first few days post-surgery. In the midst of his anxiousness, he was forced to log onto the game to sort some things out.

Apparently, there had been a lot of changes in the mere two days that he had been way.

Drizzling Court had an altercation with Star Moon Union and the two guilds clashed against each other. After two hours or so, Star Moon Union was defeated, and several thousand players left the guild.

However, Lu Li cared more about the Magic Cup Tournament.

Lu Li wasn’t able to log on yesterday and Ruling Sword was up against Purple Lunar Paradise. Purple Lunar Paradise performed really well, easily defeating Fat Monkey and the rest of the team.

Based on what Square Root Three reported, when the new their new sub joined the match, the team became a complete mess.

Fat Monkey left the party out of anger and complained about the lack of chemistry in the team. Moonlight peeled for March Rain and neglected Mu Qiu because he trusted in March Rain’s healing more. Sakurary Memories’ Lifesteal was completely useless.

March Rain became flustered for the first time in a tournament setting and couldn’t heal to her maximum potential.

Mu Qiu tried to turn the game around, but was the first to be sent out of the arena.

Lu Li could almost imagine the mess at the time based on Square Root Three’s description.

People who despised Ruling Sword finally found a reason to flame them. That day, the whole server was talking about how hopeless Ruling Sword was without Lu Li.

When Lu Li logged on, they were preparing for today’s match.

This was their second time fighting alongside each other. Lu Li signalled Square Root Three not to interfere and let them sort it out themselves.

The rules for Magic Cup was quite confusing. Losing two matches didn’t mean they were automatically eliminated, however, they would be placed at a lower seed in the next stage.

”How are things with Xin Xin? When can we visit her?” Square Root Three asked. Before the match started, they decided to sit down together and chat.

”The doctor said she’s doing well, but she can’t have visitors right now because she could get an infection. You’re welcomed to give her a call, but the call can’t last for too long,” Lu Li replied as he read over some criticism from professional players on the game forum.

”Looks like you can’t relax just yet; I thought you’d be relieved after the surgery,” Square Root Three said.

”Yeah, the post-op management is more important than the surgery itself. I need to make more money in the mean-time,” Lu Li said as he smiled bitterly. ”My mind is a mess right now. Even if I joined this match, I would underperform by a lot.”

Whenever he thought about his sister and the pain she was going through, his heart ached and breathing became difficult.

”No worries. This is a great opportunity for them to learn and prepare for the end of year tournament.” Square Root Three wasn’t very worried.

”How’s Fat Monkey?” Lu Li asked.

Although Square Root Three wasn’t a pro player, he had a lot of experience and a good eye for talent.

”He’s too much of a hot head,” Square Root Three chuckled. ”Maybe he’ll get better with time, but he’s too temperamental right now. He should be blamed for the loss yesterday.”

”There’s no other choice. We need more capable players for the tournament at the end of the year and the best way to find talent is to develop them ourselves. He must become more mature and capable to start for our PVP team.”

Lu Li wasn’t disappointed in Fat Monkey at all because he had anticipated all of this.

Someone who wanted to become the best sniper in the world needed real life experiences and practise, as opposed to relying on pure theory.

No one was born to be the best sniper in the world. They had to go through countless years of practice and make mistakes in order to learn and excel. Fat Monkey was currently going through an important stage of maturation into a top PVP player.

Sakura Memories, on the other hand, was playing too passively. Being a DPS player, she needed to be much more aggressive. Green Flag Wine from Peerless City was a great example of an aggressive DPS player.

Lu Li wasn’t too harsh on her because she was a girl.

The tournament at the end of the year featured three individual player matches which gave one point for each win. Two points were awarded for winning the Single Elimination Open Tournament (winner stays on until defeated), while five points were awarded for the team PVP match. This totalled up to ten points.

Of course, this was the information leaked by the gaming company and was still subject to change.

There were other tournament modes that were currently in-the-works such as Challenger Match, Revival Match and others…

There were three players for the Individual Player Match, three players for the Single Elimination Open Match and five players with a sub for the Team PVP match.

According to various sources, players that entered the Individual Match could not enter the Single Elimination Open Match. Therefore, a team of six players was the bare minimum required for the tournament.

If they prevented players from participating in more than one match, then each team would require at least twelve players.

However, Lu Li already knew about the tournament setting from his past life.

Players that participated in the Individual Match could not participate in the Single Elimination Match again, but all players on the team could participate in the 5v5 Team Match.

However, this meant that six DPS classes were required because healers would be useless in 1v1 PVP settings.

Players like March Rain would only be useful in Team PVP Matches.

Mu Qiu had some DPS, but it would be more suitable for him to participate in the Single Elimination Match.

As for Sakura Memories, she would not be ready in time at the end of the year to be able to participate in the individual matches.

Currently, only Lu Li, Moonlight, Fat Monkey and Mu Qiu were capable of participating. He needed to find two more DPS classes to fill the role.

This was much easier said than done. Even with his rebirth, it was difficult for him to think of players to recruit to Ruling Sword.

”Wow, nice Frost Nova…”

The match against Majin Temple had already begun. Their Thief tried to flank March Rain, but Fat Monkey somehow anticipated this and froze the Thief in place.

This was the talent that Lu Li had seen in him. Game sense was something that some players were born with, and this separated the average players from the top players.

The Thief had already lost half of his HP bar and used Gale Steps to try and escape. However, Mu Qiu followed closely behind and casted Consecration.

Although Consecration only dealt 10 or so damage per tick, it prevented the Thief from Stealthing away to safety, so he was killed like a sitting duck.

Unforgetful Maple was late to save his Thief and was furious that he’d lost a player so early in the match. Majin Temple’s sub entered the fight, but they had to play much more conservatively in case they lost another player.

Unforgetful Maple tended to overthink in tough situations and was afraid that their sub was Lu Li.

No one knew why Lu Li hadn’t played in the last match.

Many players, including Unforgetful Maple, speculated that Lu Li didn’t play in order to give their rookie player an opportunity to gain some experience. Since they had lost their last match, it would make sense for Lu Li to participate in this match in order to prevent another loss.

”We might win this match,” Square Root Three laughed out loud.

”Yeah, Unforgetful Maple is very good at calculating and strategizing in tournaments. However, this time, he might’ve complicated the situation against his favour.” Lu Li was more familiar with Unforgetful Maple’s thinking and strategies than Square Root Three.