The Great Thief

Lu Li had been leveling with the gorillas for the past two days and had finally reached level 40.

All the players under him on the level ranking were still level 38, while those at the bottom were all level 37. The Scarab quest could only do so much for these players; they needed too much experience to level up.

Lu LI felt relieved after he saw that he stood out from the rest.

This was what it was like for professional gamers. You didn’t need to be ahead of everyone else by a lot – that would be unrealistic and it would also catch too much attention. However, you need to at least be better than the mainstream players.

Two days was enough time for the major guilds to complete the Zul’Farrak dungeon. Some mercenary groups and random players were also lucky enough to complete it.

Countless guides for this dungeon had been released, with some of them being even better than the guides that Azure Sea Breeze had supplied to the gaming magazines. After all, his guides were rigged versions that Square Root 3 had told him to hand over.

The gaming magazines began to interview Ruling Sword players after they received the guide.

Of course, the first one to be interviewed was Lu Li.

Unfortunately, Lu Li wasn’t very cooperative. The interviewers could only make up a biography for him based on the information that they had found and the information that Square Root 3 supplied.

The biography included his First Clears of dungeons and Wild Bosses, as well as some unbelievable kills that he had obtained by himself.

It also recounted his experience with his team and some comments that other top players had made about Lu Li.

These players were either celebrities or team commanders from big guilds. Although they may not have liked Lu Li or felt like they could catch up to him someday, they had one thing in common – they all agreed that Lu Li had his own specialty in each aspect of the game.

The second player interviewed was Moonlight. After they received his consent, his old identity was revealed to the public.

After him, March Rain and the others would be interviewed, and an overall description would be written as a summary for Ruling Sword. This was basically an advertisement for Ruling Sword on a large scale. Usually, the media wouldn’t be interested in making these kinds of advertisements, but Lu Li and his team had compensated them with a single guide that would become outdated sooner or later. This was a good trade for them.

The number of guild members continued to increase; Square Root 3 planned to form a third elite team at the end of the year.

Everything was going in a positive direction, but Lu Li found himself in a pickle.

As players became more and more familiar with Dawn, all kinds of techniques and tactics for each class had been devised. It was no longer a surprise for the top players to cast a skill with a completion level of 80% or higher.

This was especially the case with celebrity players. Most celebrity players were either extremely talented or had worked very hard to achieve their current positions. They improved even faster than the average experts.

A completion level of 90% on still targets became the standard for a celebrity player. Celebrity players bragged about their completion level, especially the close-combat classes.

There was also a portion of players who took another route. They didn’t worry about their completion level, but instead focused on increasing the number of attacks they could make with low-completion levels. Some also focused on a stable playstyle that involved high Strength and Critical Strike Attributes. Overall, everyone had increased significantly in terms of their strength.

Lu Li had already planned his own playstyle right from the start.

He decided that he would play with high skill completion and high number of attacks dealt. He combined the specialties of both classic playstyles, thinking that this was the best route for himself.

However, his completion had already reached a limit for him and it was becoming harder to surpass it. He could often cast a skill and reach a completion level of 95%.

In Lu Li’s previous life, he had heard of players who could surpass a 100% completion level, up to a maximum of 120%.

Ranged magic classes relied on their powerful skills to kill other players, but these had a casting time to wait for. Close-combat classes relied on high completion levels, especially since players were increasing the amount of maximum health they had. They had also obtained more life-saving skills, so attacks without high completion wouldn’t do much to them.

Lu Li methodically practiced the completion levels of all his skills as he continued to level up.

”My posture is a little weird; I should be further away from the target. That way, I’ll have a bigger spin from my torso. There’s still room of improvement for Backhand Backstab,” Lu Lu noted as he picked up the materials that the gorillas dropped and quickly charged towards his next target.

There wasn’t a lot of time for him to think in precise details; his assassin gear required consistency in kills.

The area that he had chosen was a wide, open space that refreshed around ten gorillas. The gorillas were packed tightly and as soon as he killed one, another would refresh. If Lu Li paused briefly, he could be caught by two gorillas.

These gorillas weren’t the type of monster that you could take down in groups, because all of them had a skill that could stun multiple players.

It took Lu Li a lot of effort to clear all these monsters; he had been here ever since he had logged online and hadn’t moved from this location for the past few hours. Even after he reached level 40, he didn’t choose to leave.

”Aiya!”

A dark shadow jumped out from the trees and into Lu Li’s vision. The dim red lights signaled to Lu Li that this was a Horde player.

The Horde player didn’t expect to run into someone in this area; he was caught by surprise too.

An Ice Bolt and a Shadow Bolt landed on him while he was caught by surprise. What followed him was a frantic flurry of other skills.

There were a few other players who came out from the jungle – a Paladin, a Priest and three damage dealers. This was a very classic combination for a small team.

They were surprised to find a player here too.

”He’s killing the gorillas. Seems like he has good gear. Should we...” one of the players asked his team leader. It was hard for average players to understand how good Lu Li’s technique was. Average players would only look at Lu Li and think that he dealt high damage because of his good gear.

Not to mention, it was five against one – it would definitely be easy for them to take down their target.

”You wish,” the leader cursed, clearly annoyed. ”This is an Alliance player; we’re only killing Horde players today. Let’s go!”

”Bro, Stranglethorn Vale is in quite a confusion today. You should leave if you’re not participating. It seems like your gear pretty good. If you’re brave enough, join us to fight the Hordes?” he bellowed at Lu Li before leaving.

Lu Li killed the gorilla in front of him, as if he didn’t hear anything and pounced onto his next target.

”*****, so stuck up. He’s ignoring us,” the one who spoke previously he mumbled under his breath, clearly not impressed.

”The Alliance are killing the Horde today. All Alliance members our brothers and all Horde members are our enemy. If you still want to kill someone for gear, then you better leave,” the team captain yelled impatiently.

Alliance killing the Horde? What did this mean? Was there an event today that he wasn’t aware of?

Lu Li was paying attention to everything around him. He just didn’t want to disrupt his assassin gear effect and he also didn’t feel like these people were a threat to him.