The Great Thief

After defeating Warp 13, Ruling Sword’s total points allowed them to instantly progress into the Top-100 Battle.

Although some guilds were lucky enough to not encounter any elite guilds, it was still unlikely for them to progress any further.

Dawn ended up becoming an extremely popular game. From January to September, there were only around 40 to 50 gaming organisations. Over the next 3 months, this had blossomed to 300 gaming organisations investing time and money into Dawn. Furthermore, a large number of these organisations had legitimate companies backing them.

With money, it was much easier to progress and find high-levelled experts. Small organisations would also have a chance at recruiting experts if the money they could offer was alluring enough.

After the period of Double EXP had ended, the Athletics were about to begin.

From Christmas to Chinese New Year, there were many events that were held in Dawn. However, Athletics was one of the most popular events throughout the year.

This was a legitimate event, with all the traditional competition rules implemented.

Lu Li entered the Marathon first.

The Marathon had 3 stages – the Preliminaries, Promotion Race and Finals – that were arranged in intervals. The first race was on Day 1, the second race on Day 2, and the final race on Day 3.

There were hundreds of thousands of players that joined the Preliminaries. Naturally, the designers would not have allowed everyone to participate at once.

A total of 100 tracks for every region was provided.

The Marathon in Dawn had rules in the flavour of an MMORPG; they were vastly different to real life.

Firstly, the participants were only allowed to retain some Attributes, equipment, mounts and techniques to use in the Marathon. The concept of Stamina would also be introduced.

Flying consumed the most stamina, followed by horseback, then running and so on.

Furthermore, the tracks were not regular and flat tracks – there were mountain roads, rivers, and even maps that were engulfed in flames.

All in all, the terrain in Dawn was impossible to replicate in real life.

The Preliminaries were fairly easy to advance past. The 100 people who were placed in the same map as Lu Li were not experts; he did not even have to resort to cheap tricks to win first place.

The main benefit of coming first was not the abundant EXP, but being able to progress to the next stage of the race instantly, unlike the others who would have to wait after each race. Out of the many people who had registered for the marathon, only around 10,000 would be eligible to participate in the next stage.

During the remaining time, Lu Li chose to participate in another event.

The event that Lu Li had chosen to enter this time was a rare event that only appeared once in a blue

moon.

Bear Hunting Competition!

The sport of Hunting had originated from cavemen times. Most cavemen were great hunters, since their lives depended on their ability to hunt and provide food. However, after the development of agriculture, hunting became a leisure activity.

Although this Hunting competition took place in virtual reality, there were aspects that were closely modelled after real life. There was no artificial increase in health; one shot was sufficient to kill.

As for the weapons that could be chosen, there were different points for melee or ranged combat. The ranged weapon options included a Crossbow, Bow and a Hunting Rifle. For melee weapons, there was a Hunting Knife, Dagger and a Rod.

Lu Li ended up with a Crossbow and a Hunting Knife.

Many people would be inclined to choose a Hunting Rifle and a Bow because they were clueless about the extreme similarities between real life and Dawn.

The Hunting Rifle required the player to manually reload bullets, as opposed to being automatic. Furthermore, the Bow did not have aim-assist, which made it extremely difficult to use for beginners. Only the Crossbow was a beginner-friendly weapon. It might have been lacking in firepower, but the level of precision was much higher.

Everyone had a horse to ride on, which were different to the normal mounts. To ride them, the player required ample horse-riding skills in real life. These horses were easily spooked by wild beasts, and could be injured by attacks.

Lu Li chose a horse that was not too large and looked like it had a temper, but had calm and solemn eyes. Horses like these would fare better in the wild when dealing with beasts, as they were more likely to remain.

The Bear-Hunting Competition had only appeared once in the very first Athletics. The second time that it appeared, it was changed to a more unrealistic version, and the beasts were replaced with monsters in the Game.

During Lu Li’s previous life, he had heard rumours of this event being a vicious competition.

The strategy he had read described what horse to select, weapons, and also emphasised on the importance of bringing sufficient water and rations, as this competition lasted for 6 hours. During this time, water and rations needed to be consumed regularly. Water was extremely important, as the mount also benefitted from the water consumption of the player. If the mount did not receive enough, there was an 80% chance that it would faint and be unusable.

Once Lu Li had confirmed all of his preparations, he entered the hunting ground.

There were many people gathered at the entrance. When they competition commenced, they would slowly disperse into the large hunting ground.

Lu Li had made his way there extremely quickly, as he knew that the entrance site would be a massacre between players. This was because of the game’s rules, which labelled both participating players and the monsters as hunted ‘game’.

A grey shadow suddenly entered Lu Li’s field of vision. Lu Li instantly loaded his crossbow while on horseback.

Lu Li began to tread along, gradually increasing his speed. The grey wolf had noticed him, and began to explode towards him. He was prepared, so he fired a volley of arrows towards it.

The crossbow was able to fire multiple arrows consecutively, so Lu Li was confident that he could quickly kill this wolf.

However, only one arrow had successfully struck the wolf’s hind leg. If this arrow had been fired from a longbow, the wolf would have been pierced and nailed to the ground.

The grey wolf was ferocious, but also cunning.

Its immediate action after being struck by the arrow was to escape, which forced Lu Li into pursuit on horseback.

Fortunately for Lu Li, the arrow had struck the wolf’s hind leg, which greatly affected its mobility. There was no way for the wolf to escape Lu Li’s arrows, so it was struck again and again until it fell to the ground.

Lu Li gained four points after this, which was an extremely decent reward. He did not bother with the corpse and turned around to leave.

After all, this was a hunting ground, so the corpses could not be looted for equipment.