The Great Thief

The interview was clipped and uploaded, becoming one of the most trending videos.

Water Fairy was ranked first on the Beauty Rankings in the game, and the interview had just helped her to gain even more popularity.

Water Fairy used to be a very lowkey girl who liked to wear face masks to cover her face. Only her close friends had actually fully seen her face, and yet she was still able to make it onto the Beauty Ranking.

These days, she had embraced her popularity and had even done some modelling and photoshoots for magazines.

Even though Water Fairy was determined, this still didn’t change that fact that Drizzle Court would struggle against the most dominant guild in the gaming community, Glory Capital.

Even though Drizzle Court was the away team, their fans travelled from all around the world and gathered at the capital to support their team. The crowds erupted as fans from both sides cheered them on; it was truly a sight to behold.

In reality, the fact the Drizzle Court was able to make it this far into the tournament was already quite impressive for them.

There were already tension between the fans because of the rumors about Songs of Fries being poached by Glory Capital. Glory Capital fans mocked them and Drizzle Court fans were quick to defend their team. Before the match even begun, a fight erupted between the fans as more and more people joined in.

Fortunately, security was able to quickly de-escalate the fight and control the whole situation.

According to sources, there were seven fans that suffered injuries and one that was severely beaten up – the guy that started mocking the Drizzle Court fans about Songs of Fries.

Lu Li did not believe that it was Glory Capital that poached him.

Drizzle Court wasn’t even that large of a threat to them, so why would they bother going through all that trouble to poach a second-tier player? They also had no reason to hide it if the rumors were true.

Glory Capital could actually be the victim in this whole situation. They had gained nothing out of these rumors except an enemy in Drizzle Court. Whoever was behind all of this must have been having the time of their life.

Because of all that had happened, there was a lot of tension between the two opposing teams.

The match was held at the National Sports Convention Center – a 200 year old building that had hosted countless major matches and concerts. This was the first time it was hosting a gaming tournament.

As the gaming scene grew more and more popular, the rest of world began catching up to the trend.

The last time Drizzle Court and Glory Capital faced off, Drizzle Court lost by one point in the single elimination match.

Although this was quite impressive, the results were likely to be completely different this time. Because of how the tournament was set up, it would be stupid to leave out their best player until the end.

Putting your best player in first wasn’t always the smartest idea either. Single elimination tournaments are won by controlling the tempo of the fight.

In professional matches, it was very rare for a single player to defeat three or more opponents. Being able to take out two players by yourself was considered very impressive.

Lu Li has defeated three opponents by himself, but that was much earlier on in the game and the players that he faced were all noobs compared to him. Since it was the quarter finals, only capable players would take the stage, making it much harder to defeat more than one opponent by yourself.

Some players were able to defeat an opponent and deal half-HP to the next opponent before going down.

The opening player was usually a capable player that could either defeat their opponent or leave them at critical HP. Other times, teams would send out promising rookies first in order for them to gain some experience.

Glory Capital did exactly that and sent out one of their top rookies Daoless Ecstasy.

His opponent was Water Fairy!

This young professional Mage was only 16 years old and was making his first appearance as a pro. Unfortunately, he was against Water Fairy in his debut.

If Daoless Ecstasy wanted to become as famous as Sorrowless, he had to perform well now.

Daoless Ecstasy was a cool and collected kid and did not felt pressured going against a Top player. According to Lu Li’s memory, he shouldn’t have faced off against Water Fairy today. His reborn life was already straying away from his past. Daoless Ecstasy wouldn’t have made his debut until a few months later where he managed to defeat one of the star players by sheer luck.

In Lu Li’s past life, he had a successful debut, quickly gaining lots of fans and popularity, and was on pace to becoming one of the best players in the game.

Daoless Ecstasy was Sorrowless’ disciple, the one that Sorrowless decided to be worthy to pass his baton onto. Sorrowless was soon to be 30 years old and had been looking to train up some rookies for Glory Capital.

A Mage and a Thief.

A rookie and a famous star player.

Water Fairy had become much stronger in the past half-year. Her popularity was already absurdly high because of her beauty and now her fan base was growing more and more because of how capable she had become.

Watching the livestream of the tournament, Lu Li remembered the time he first saw Water Fairy.

During that time, he was still selling equips, while Water Fairy was busy spending luxuriously. Yet when she challenged Lu Li to a duel, she still lost.

Looking at her mechanics, it was a totally different story compared to the first day. She had realized that buying overpowered gear and steamrolling other players could only get you so far.

Daoless Ecstasy was completely abused by Water Fairy, and when he was defeated, Water Fairy still had 80% HP left. What was even more ridiculous was that Water Fairy hadn’t even use any of her ultimate skills. She slaughtered the rookie as if he was nothing.

Lu Li shook his head and smiled; her desire for vengeance was scary.

She doesn’t care who actually poached her player. All she cared about is directing all her anger towards Glory Capital.

Although it seemed like Water Fairy was able to defeat Daoless Ecstasy easily without using any major cooldowns, it was very obvious that she was trying her absolute best.

Normally, a seasoned veteran would go easier on a rookie.

Every year, almost every guild would have a rookie making their debut, hoping that veteran players would go easier on them so that they could gain some experience. This was an unspoken rule in the community and most players upheld it. A rookie’s debut was very important in terms of building their confidence and preparing them psychologically.

Water Fairy’s next opponent was Sorrowless.

His face was expressionless and no one could tell whether he was angry or not. However, based on the

fight, it was obvious that he was determined. He tried very hard mechanically and Lu Li noticed that there were some changes to his skills and playstyle.

If your pupil was slaughtered in such an embarrassing way, as the teacher, you would have to show them who was boss.

Lu Li was not mad that Sorrowless completely destroyed Water Fairy. Instead, he carefully observed his playstyle, new special effects and how much damage Sorrowless was doing.

Water Fairy had good equips and some of her pieces were borrowed from Lu Li as well.

Despite having slightly better gear, Sorrowless’ mechanics ultimately allowed him to defeat Water Fairy. This showed the clear difference between Daoless Ecstasy and Sorrowless.

Deadly Green Orange was next representing Drizzle Court. Since Sorrowless had just taken out an almost-full-HP Water Fairy, it was impossible for him to survive through this next round.

Blood Dagger finished off Deadly Green Orange and managed to defeat the next player from Drizzle Court as well.

In the end, Drizzle Court managed to edge ahead with a 1-point lead.

The cameras panned onto Daoless Ecstacy, who was almost in tears. From his point of view, it was his fault that they had lost an easy match.

The fans and the commentators had their hopes up, wishing that Drizzle Court would advance up to the next stage and face off against Ruling Sword.

Lu Li shook his head in his seat; nobody else understood Drizzle Court as well as he did. Based on his knowledge, they had already exhausted most, if not all of their players and secret trump cards.

However, he didn’t know how much Glory Capital still have up their sleeve.

Drizzle Court managed to lead by two points after the Home and Away games. This meant that Glory Capital had to win by at least two or more points in the next round to tie or defeat Drizzle Court.