The Great Thief

“Sure, up to you,” Water Fairy said, not bothering to ask for further details. If Lu Li said that it was okay, then it should be fine. She was sure that he wouldn’t do anything to harm her, but didn’t he feel a little tired with the way that he was holding her hand? From the start up until now, she could feel how tense he felt.

To be fair, Water Fairy wasn’t at ease either; there was barely anyone around who dared to hold her hands.

Back when Water Fairy was still in school, her classmate lost a dare to his friends, which was to confess to Water Fairy. This person spent a long time building up the courage and stopped Water Fairy, who back then, was still just a little girl.

Water Fairy simply asked, “what’s up?” and the poor kid entirely forgot what he was meant to say.

At that time, although Water Fairy was already a university student, she was actually only 16 and was curious about love.

However, there was already only a small number of people who dared to make eye contact with her. Anyone who swore in front of her felt like they were breaking the law, let alone daring to hold her hands.

Those who gave up their life for beauty all came to unhappy endings too. CEO Shen had all sorts of negative points about him, but he really cared about his little girl. Anyone who dared to take interest in his little girl had to be handled.

“How’s your Gouge coming along?”

Lu Li’s mind was blank. He couldn’t find anything to talk about, so all he could talk about was the game.

“Hmmm…” Water Fairy thought for a moment, then said, “About a little more than 80%.”

Lu Li couldn’t comprehend why she needed to think about her completion level.

“That’s a little low. There aren’t many benefits for you in learning Empowerment skills right now. How about we head over to the arena and I’ll see where your problem lies?” he suggested.

“Sure,” Water Fairy laughed.

Gouge was useful on monsters, but monsters had limited intelligence. Bosses with slightly higher intelligence couldn’t really be affected by control skills either, so the arena became the best spot for training.

While holding Water Fairy’s soft hands, Lu Li took her to the arena hall to register for a new ranked team.

This wasn’t a suitable time anymore for them to hold hands.

Although unfortunate, he had to let go so that he could use both hands to sort out the ranked team business. Water Fairy didn’t wait around for Lu Li to hold her hand either. Instead, she backed away a little out of shyness. No matter how superior her background was, she was still a girl.

It wasn’t common to find a ranked team of two Thieves in the arena. They hadn’t fought in the arena together before, so this ranked team had to start from scratch.

Similar to the structure of a guild, ranked teams in the arena were formed by players themselves.

Each ranked team had their own name and logo, but they were still different to a real guild. The types of matches in the arena were split into 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5. This meant that there were three different types of ranked teams to choose from.

Players could also be a part of multiple ranked teams at once, but they could only be a part of one ranked team from the same type of battle at once.

For example, Lu Li could not join two 2v2 ranked teams at once, but he could be a member of a 3v3 and a 5v5 team simultaneously. If he were to join another 2v2 ranked team with someone else in the future, his ranked team with Water Fairy would have to disband.

The process of creating a ranked team was the same as creating a guild. First, he had to purchase a registration form from the arena staff.

The information required included their class, level and other minor details. Fortunately, none of the details required were too personal – for example, their bank account details and passwords.

When you were in front of someone you liked, you had to play it cool, no matter the cost.

“Should we give it a name?” Lu Li asked. If this was his own team, he would type in some random numbers and letters, but since Water Fairy was involved, he didn’t want to be so carefree about it.

“Let me do it,” Water Fairy said, then requested for the authority to sign up.

Lu Li humbly handed his power over without asking what name she was going to give the team. Even if she named the team ‘Lu Li Meanie’, he would be able to tolerate it, as long she was happy.

Dog Couple!

Lu Li was astonished; he couldn’t believe his eyes. After he confirmed it, he still felt like he was misreading things.

“If my guesses are correct, I believe this isn’t supposed to be a nice term.”

Lu Li couldn’t believe his eyes and he began to question his knowledge. Was there a deeper meaning to this term?

“The public has been calling us that all day long. We should torture them with it now,” Water Fairy giggled.

Why did he feel like he was being too obedient?

Lu Li felt too mentally tired to dwell over such minor issues. Water Fairy didn’t even care herself, so if he fussed too much over it, he would seem a little less competent. He couldn’t have the dominant side of this relationship, but at least he could stay even.

That was how the name was sorted; they formed a 2v2 ranked team called Dog Couple!

It felt ridiculous.

They both signed their names and handed over the registration form to the arena staff. Next, they needed to pick out a flag for the ranked team. This was similar to the designing process of a guild badge. The main difference was that they finally didn’t need to pay for the design fee.

As long as Lu Li wasn’t requested more money, he was quite easy going.

Since Water Fairy got to choose the ranked team name, they also decided that the flag should be made by the same person. Water Fairy chose a design with a red cross, since the ‘dog couple’ Bosses in the Scarlet Crusade also used a red cross.

Lu Li was the captain. He needed to open the PVP arena interface to begin queuing up for matches. Two celebrity players of the game were starting from scratch and fighting their way up from level 0.

The level reflected the performance of your team in the arena. The higher your level, the stronger your ranked team was. After they entered the arena queue, the adjustment system would automatically queue their ranked team up against an opponent that was suitable for their level.

Every time the ranked team won a match, their level would increase and vice versa.

After a week, the rank of the team would be exchanged for weekly arena points. Every week, the ranked teams were required to at least play in ten matches before they could obtain any arena points. The player was also required to maintain at least 30% attendance in his ranked team matches to obtain the points.

Similar to the Battlegrounds, the arena was also a battle platform that players could use to group and queue together. It was the same as if they were to queue up for a dungeon.

There were a few maps currently available for the arena, but the common ones included Nagrand Arena, Circle of Blood and Ruins of Lordaeron. The designs of the maps were all different and unique, which brought a different battle experience to the players.

Because there were many players, the queue wasn’t too long. The two of them quickly received the notification to begin battle and once they confirmed, their maps changed and they arrived inside the arena.

Just like Arathi Basin and Warsong Canyon, the two teams were assigned in their own individual waiting area before the battle actually begun.

After they entered the arena, the buffs and magical items on Water Fairy and Lu Li were removed. This was to prevent players from using buffs and items created by players outside of the rank team.

What was a little upsetting was that debuffs would stay on players. This was to prevent players from using the arena system to cancel any debuffs. Fortunately, Lu Li and Water Fairy had not been affected by any prior to their entry.

“Shall we just try the skill for now, or should we really try and get our ranks up?” Lu Li asked.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have a mind of his own, but rather, he just felt like he should respect the opinion of his partner. Lu Xin had been teaching her brother how to pursue a girl these days, and she specifically focused on this area. In real life, Lu Li was way too much of a dictator (this was mainly how Lu Xin felt – she was annoyed at the fact that her brother was bossing her over everything), and if you didn’t want a girl to dislike you, it was best to respect their opinion.

This was why Lu Li let Water Fairy name their rank team, but the results were quite questionable.

“Of course – we should play seriously.”

Water Fairy was still studying the rules about the arena. Her character and her background taught her to play things safe.

Lu Li checked the details of their opponent.

Brokeback Mountain?

“What does Brokeback Mountain mean?” Lu Li asked. He had never heard of a mountain in his life called Brokeback Mountain.

As for the Brokeback Mountain in the game, no players knew about it at all. This was an area that was released after level 60.

“Uhm, Brokeback Mountain… that’s a movie. It really impacted society at the time, and people after used it to describe… uhm, two men with a really good relationship,” Water Fairy’s explained, her eyes shifting as they spoke.

“Like Azure Sea Breeze and Wandering?” Lu Li asked, feeling enlightened.

Water Fairy began to uncontrollably giggle, but he had no clue what he said to cause this.

“Hey, dog couple, are we still fighting or what?”

Lu Li and Water Fairy’s opponent was left speechless as they watched the two of them joke around.

The reason why they didn’t seize their chance to attack was because they were a team that were only here for points.

These kind of teams just needed to ensure that they had enough participation per week, and they weren’t at all focused about winning. Or rather, they weren’t strong enough to focus on winning. They just needed to ensure that they had fought enough battles to receive the basic points, and store up enough points to exchange for equipment and items.

Although they were only around for points, they really wanted to kill this dog couple that was showing off their relationship.

Water Fairy and Lu Li exchanged glances and both went into Stealth.

“****, two Thieves.”

The two players were a Paladin and a Mage. They regretted not taking the initiative. It wasn’t that the two Thieves combination countered them, but that they were only here for points and participation. They wanted a fast match – as fast as possible. They were even willing to let their opponents kill them if it meant the match would end.

“Just kill us already! Why go into stealth mode? What a waste of time…” the opponents thought to themselves.

Lu Li and Water Fairy had no clue about their thoughts. They carefully snuck up behind one of them and Lu Li even Sapped the other one.