The Great Thief

In all honesty, Lu Li had acted rather rashly.

He had nothing to do with the solo players who were being bullied by mercenaries. He was the leader of Ruling Sword with thousands upon thousands of men at his disposal. No one could stand against him.

He was also too harsh with his words when he typed, ”Don’t get bullied in a game guys; stop embarrassing yourselves”. Many solo players spoke out and told Lu Li to mind his own business.

Even Square Root Three thought that he had gone overboard. There was no reason for him to provoke the solo players.

The solo players were a unique ‘group’ of people. There were millions of them scattered around in Dawn, so if they were to join together, they could easily overpower many Major Guilds.

However, the lack of trust and communication within this group of people made this impossible and thus, their strength was diluted.

Even smaller guilds were able to take control of a map by removing the solo players in the area. Mercenaries also took advantage of them and continuously hunted them down for equips.

The Major Guilds tried to be friendly to these solo players in order to attract them into joining. Otherwise, if they tried to challenge them, they would be faced with continuous bullying and griefing.

Hunting down weak solo players was a fun aspect of the game that provided a thrill and something to do for the other players. You either remained a solo player and got bullied, or you joined a guild to bully other solo players.

Solo players were spiteful, yet fearful of guilds, so the two parties kept their distance.

Lu Li flamed these solo players because he wanted to empower them and encourage them to stand up for themselves. However, Square Root Three and other Ruling Sword officials agreed that this wasn’t such a bright idea at the time.

Understandably, Lu Li’s image was changed again.

He was the up and rising star that had skyrocketed into fame over a short period of time. He was unknown to the gaming community, just like any other solo player. He was the fan-favorite to win the competition because the general public felt like they could relate to him. This led to many people admiring him as a godly figure.

Then, Lu Li participated in the fight.

Soon, the whole world knew about this fact, whether they had heard it from the solo players that had witnessed this, the mercenaries that exposed him, or Lu Li’s score on the PVP rankings. All of this pointed to the fact that Lu Li had participated in the slaughter of more than a hundred players in half an hour near Zul’farrak.

Who was the one that stood up for the solo players?

It was Lu Li!

Even though he had typed out those harsh and insensitive words, deep down, every solo player knew that it was Lu Li who was sticking up for them.

Lu Li’s words cut deep, but they changed their thinking and motivated them. They sparked their desire to become stronger so that they would no longer be like the useless side characters in the movies.

Everyone had different ideologies and this was no different in a game.

Unexpectedly, Lu Li found himself in the position of being the advocate of the Solo Player Alliance movement. He was sick of solo players getting bullied, but this was never his intention in the first place.

Eventually, he arrived at the final boss in Zul’farrak.

The mobs surrounding the lake had already been cleared by Azure Sea Breeze and the others. Gahz’rilla had returned to his original spot underneath the water and awaited for them to challenge him again.

This was the golden age of virtual reality games. Impossibilities were made possible in the world of VR.

A giant figure emerged from the waters. This would be a terrifying sight for a person suffering with thalassophobia.

Gahz’rilla’s silver scales sparkled under the moonlight and it looked at the intruders with its three heads.

”Lure him over here, away from the waters,” Lu Li instructed as he snorted disdainfully at the way Azure Sea Breeze approached the fight.

Grahz’rilla had increased attack in the water. Did no one realize this after being wiped so many times?

Azure Sea Breeze pulled the Boss away from the water as Lu Li ordered.

”There are pillars near the lake that we can stand against to prevent us from being blown away by the boss,” Wandering explained.

”Pull it over to where the hill is,” Lu Li said as he casually pointed at a random spot.

”Isn’t that too far? Won’t the boss reset?” Bosses in dungeons also had a range of aggro. Because of the terrain in Zul’farrak, it was quite easy for Bosses to reset randomly.

”How will you know if you’ve never tried?” Lu Li shook his head.

In reality, the whole area was in range, so there was no way of losing aggro.

Lu Li then positioned his teammates in the most optimal formation.

”Ranged classes, stand against the hill in pairs. Stack against one another and face the boss.”

Drizzle Court was catching up and was attempting to obtain the First Clear for Gahz’rilla as well.

Although Lu Li promised to give Drizzle Court the First Clear for this dungeon, he refused to wait indefinitely. After giving them his dungeon guide, he placed down a time limit of 2 hours. If they couldn’t complete it in time, then Lu Li would take the First Clear.

This was the arrangement that they had agreed upon since there was a spy in the guild that could give out information to the other guilds.

If two players stacked up and shared the damage, there would be a higher chance of survival.

”I’ve got to admit, you’re good. What if two icicles are randomly summoned and the damage is stacked?” Wandering asked. Usually, two spells animations meant that the damage would be added together.

”Oh, nothing much. We’d get wiped,” Lu Li said calmly.

”....” Everyone was left speechless. Other commanders would think of strategies to account for this. Lu Li, on the other hand, was more of a trial and error type of guy.

”The Boss is about to blow us…” Wandering reminded.

To his surprise, Lu Li’s formation completely nullified Gahz’rilla’s air attack. The player in front collided against the player behind, who collided into the hill and prevented them from being displaced.

”Wow, I was blown away so many times. Poor me,” Hachi Chan cried out from the pain.

Wandering’s strategy was to get everyone to stand in front of a pillar when Grahz’rilla was about to cast his air attack. This was the more obvious and commonly-used strategy, but it wasn’t as effective.

For Hachi Chan, this proved to be difficult as she had to heal and move at the same time. She was terrible at multitasking.

As such, she was blown away and had landed on her butt many times today.