The Great Thief

Water Fairy was overjoyed with her first win on Survival and Escape.

“Oh, there are so many people.”

Lu Li was on edge. When it came to Survival and Escape, Lu Li was definitely not content with coming second. He felt as if he were a boss, one hit away from death.

“The aphorism is true – that when a man and woman duo together, no task is burdensome,” Unforgettable Maple asserted with a hint of jealousy.

“This game is actually pretty fun,” Lu Li decided in a sincere manner.

“I don’t want to live anymore,” Hornet’s Nest despaired. Everyone was human, so it didn’t make sense that there was such a significant difference in talent between Lu Li and him.

If it was Dawn, then he would be prepared to challenge Lu Li. However, when it came to Survival and Escape, there was no chance of competing. He was already eating chicken by his second game and it wasn’t because of luck. He had successfully killed 13 players, and regardless of their skill level, they had to admit that Lu Li’s shooting abilities were remarkable.

Lu Li and Water Fairy rejected the requests made by many others who also wanted to queue up with them.

For this game, they could queue up alone, in twos, in threes, in fours … and so on. Even though they believed in the saying, the more the merrier, Lu Li and Water Fairy were not the kind of people who desired crowded environments. It was rare for them to find an opportunity for them to be alone. A new round was beginning, so Water Fairy closed the live stream and continued to just play with Lu Li.

A new day had arrived, and Onyxia’s Lair was being run. Lu Li had gamed for longer than he anticipated yesterday, so he came online at a slightly later time than usual today. Wandering gathered everyone and they all sat by the entrance of the Dungeon.

“Why hasn’t Lu Li arrived yet?” Azure Sea Breeze asked while stroking Remnant Dream’s pet out of boredom. The pet was mildly annoyed but it’s face showed a sense of resignation.

“Yesterday, Lu Li and Water Fairy played Survival and Escape together,” Moonlight said softly.

“There were still people willing to go play the game of Foggy Grass, how miserable,” Azure Sea Breeze mocked. He reflected back on the time he entered that game and laughed at the memory of Lu Li’s suffering.

“No, it actually wasn’t. They managed to land a few kills and it seems that they ate chicken twice.”

Moonlight had also played Survival and Escape yesterday. Additionally, he was in Unforgettable Maple’s squad. It was only yesterday that he, Unforgettable Maple, Innocent Child, and Hornet’s Nest, all queued up together a few times. He was familiar with the details.

“Have you carried him yet?” Azure Sea Breeze thought that Moonlight had queued with Lu Li. Moonlight often ranked in the top three. He was also infamously called the King of Cars and had a shooting accuracy rate that was above average. Carrying random players for some chicken dinner was common and easy for him.

“No, I don’t want to be fed dog food,” Moonlight said as he shook his head. He admired not only Lu Li’s capacity to win only on his second attempt, but also his ability to kill ten or so players each time. He did not think Lu Li needed his help to win. Of course, if he queued up with him, Lu Li would be eating chicken dinners more consistently.

Unforgettable Maple’s squad had carried Hornet’s Nest to victory; they played seven games and managed to bring home a chicken dinner five times. The players each earned two sets of Level 60 Dark Gold Armor for carrying Hornet’s Nest.

This actually belonged to the class of prices known as “friendship prices”. If it was someone they knew, you would definitely have to bring legendary equipment from Dawn. Dark Gold Armor would be necessary. However, five sets of chicken dinner for six sets of Dark Gold Armour was not profitable. It was difficult to get equipment. Unforgetful Maple, Moonlight, Innocent child – the trio – decided to go find targets in the Dawn’s wilderness to easily obtain more Dark Gold Armor.

Lu Li and Water Fairy went online at the same exact time. Lu Li swore that this was just coincidence. However, everyone else thought otherwise – they were clearly in love with each other but were just in denial.

Both Lu Li and Water Fairy felt embarrassed. Water Fairy gave Lu Li a quick, angry stare. She wondered why Lu Li started playing half an hour later than usual.

“Did you have a good time gaming yesterday?” Wandering cheekily poked. He subtly messaged Lu Li to take it easy with Water Fairy since the Club needed him.

It was unfortunate that Lu Li was not emotionally intelligent enough to receive the message. He replied matter of factly, “The game was actually pretty fun. It’s just that some layouts seemed imbalanced, and my luck with the bombing area was outrageous.”

He had encountered five explosion zones yesterday and had been hit twice. He learned later on to either run away as soon as he saw explosion zones, or to enter a house. However, a house was not necessarily always a safe haven. There was one time he had entered a house, and just as he closed the door, a bomb exploded at the entrance which resulted in his death.

Lu Li was always able to discover others before they discovered him. As long as he discovered the other party first, he would quickly rush in to assassinate them. Water Fairy rarely had the chance to save Lu Li within the game.

The Clearing Contest for the day had begun after small talk was briefly exchanged. Lu Li had become more serious. Even though everyone was talking, no one dared to make fun of Lu Li. The difficulty of Onyxia was much higher than winning around of Survival and Escape. After all, you could carry yourself in Survival and Escape, whereas in Dawn, Instance Dungeons required group cooperation to succeed.

They had already spent two weeks clearing out Onyxia’s Lair. Everyone was familiar with every single one of the Boss’s battle techniques. The question was how they would enter the last stage with enough members of the team still alive. Although Ruling Sword could consistently make it to the later stages of the dungeon, there was a problem – by then, most of the team would be dead. In fact, Lu Li already thought that his team was already reducing too rapidly before reaching the later stages.

After swapping in two Druids, they had a chance of continuing their battle. A Warlock’s Revival Stone could be used on a Main Tank and they had also found two Darkmoon Cards. Lu Li would be prepared to use them as long as there was a significant chance of succeeding.

They would be able to eliminate the Boss if, by the Boss’s berserk stage, they still had enough Main Tanks and healing capacity. Other guilds were essentially in the same situation.

Ruling Sword’s advantage was already heavily reduced. After all, the game was not created by Lu Li’s family. The knowledge Lu Li possessed was gradually being deciphered by other Clubs. The only difference was that they had to pay a higher price for it. Lu Li’s advantage was rebirth. As for the other clubs, their advantage was that they were extremely wealthy. Glory Capital could, in one go, pull out ten First Clearing Teams. They had managed to spend 30 times more than Ruling Sword on their First Clearing Team. Their wealth proved an exceptional advantage when it came to the purchase of rare and expensive potions. The price of these exceeded what an average person could earn over weeks, or even months.

A successful economist once said, “When one reaches an elite level, economic profit is not the only thing that is considered. When one corporation buys a failing company, it is true that it is at a loss – it will never be able to make back the money spent through profits. However, whilst such a transaction appears as a significant loss, it is in fact an opportunistic gain. This is because one has to consider the pressure that would otherwise occur if one’s opponents got their hands on that exact company.”

Regardless of who was clearing the field, regardless of how many items they could win after eliminating the Boss, the net result was that they would lose money. However, they were willing to do so in order to deny their main competition.

It was another unproductive morning; the last few attempts were even worse than their initial attempts. Lu Li was forced to declare a one-hour rest. He felt frustrated but had nowhere to vent his frustrations. He therefore decided to join three others – Water Fairy, Star Baby, and Moonlight – for a few games of Survival and Escape.

Although Water Fairy and Star Baby were below average players, Moonlight and Lu Li were skilled. As such, they all managed to claim victory.

Lu Li killed over ten people that game and after doing so, he became distinctively more relaxed. His mood had improved to the point that he had begun joking with others and his fighting success improved significantly afterwards. It seemed that coming first in a game of Survival and Escape had a direct impact on his mental state.