The Great Thief

A new player curiously asked, “What is this Xin Xin Mercenary Group? Didn’t you say that the strongest guilds were Glory Capital and Blood Red War Flag?”

“Uh… actually, the Xin Xin Mercenary Group is quite strong as well…” The ‘older’ player, who was actually only more experienced by a few days, was slightly embarrassed.

“Are they even stronger than Glory Capital and Blood Red War Flag?” The new player seemed really interested about this and kept pushing it.

“Not even close.” The older player was an admirer of these super guilds. He had also just been put to shame, so he angrily said, “The Xin Xin Mercenary Group only has a few members; how could they compare to the big guilds? Glory Capital’s guild is already level 23, which means they have over 20,000 players. That doesn’t even include the subordinate groups. You know, they deployed over 100,000 players to the Warsong Valley yesterday.”

“But…” The new player didn’t want to offend the person who was helping him level up, but he just couldn’t help himself.

“Why did the Xin Xin Mercenary Group get the First Clear? Didn’t you say that the Howling Caves were really difficult?”

“They just got lucky,” the older player argued.

“Also, I heard that Glory Capital’s leader, Sorrowless, was killed. Is he really the legendary Lord mage?” The new person didn’t know much, but he added with glee, “To be able to kill a legendary player and still get away with it… it looks like I made the right decision by picking Thief.”

System: You were kicked out of the party.

Dismissing a party member was that easy.

In one of the human-spawning newbie villages, a group of Thieves were farming wild boars in the pumpkin fields.

The village chief had issued a quest, claiming that it was the season where wild boars would ravage the fields. The players were required to defend the pumpkin villagers and would be rewarded with some Bronze weapons.

This group of players were all in a party, and they were all Thieves.

Having a dozen players in a party was commonplace, but for them to all be Thieves demonstrated a clear misunderstanding of the professions.

They didn’t want a main tank or a healer; this had to be some kind of joke.

When the World Announcement was made about the Howling Caves, they had also seen it.

“Is it brother Lu?”

“It should be,” the leader Thief nodded and agreed.

“Do we want to join the Xin Xin Mercenary Group?”

“We don’t need to.”

“Why?”

“We’ve come into the game to be assassins, so we need to keep a low profile. If we follow them, then we’ll become famous. How can we keep a low profile then? Isn’t that right, Buggy Bro?”

“Yep, we need to keep a low profile.”

In another less-populated chatroom, a person who had been silent for quite some time spoke out.

“Them again? What is this?”

“Our people are still stuck on Skum. How did they manage to defeat Skum?”

“Azure Sea Breeze is the number one Main Tank, March Rain’s healing is very strong, Lonesome Flower’s equipment is very good and Remnant Dream is the first hunter to have tamed a pet. As for the new players, I don’t need to talk about Sesame Rice Ball, right?”

“Sesame Rice Ball was a Warlock that we had trained, but he gave up all his equipment when he left. Although his technique was good, our elite party members shouldn’t be that much weaker than him.” The person who was speaking was clearly a high-ranking Seventh Heaven member

“Hachi Chan is a questing maniac and is quite famous is a few circles. Our guild has actually bought quite a few good items from her in the past.” This player was clearly a significant authority, as he had managed to contact those who had dealt with Hachi Chan and gather information about her.

“Wandering is a leader – he has led quite a few Wild Parties. He was the first to lead a Wild Party through the Spider Lair…”

“If he joined the Xin Xin Mercenary Group, would he still maintain a leadership position?” someone asked after some hesitation.

“Definitely not. After all, Lu Li is there too. Is Drizzle Court’s President Falling Star here? Haven’t you done an Instance Dungeon with Lu Li before?”

“Lu Li has really good leadership skills, but it’s the Howling Caves… I really can’t imagine it.”

“Even with a strong leader, it is still very difficult. If this was an easier game, all you would need is one expert.”

“If she hasn’t changed her name, Sakura Memories was a levelling madman in “21 Century”. She stayed in the top three of the level rankings for three months.”

“It should be her – Sakura Memories joined the game after the second system update. She’s now already at rank 4.”

“Moonlight…”

“Moonlight is a bloodthirsty demon. There’s nothing else to say about him.”

“So, the most important player is Lu Li.”

“This guy basically came out of nowhere. He’s about 20 years old and clearly has a strong ability to lead a party through Instance Dungeons. He is also a PVP expert; he uses Manual Mode and almost all of his skills have a bonus effect. He also has top tier equipment. Yesterday, he and a few other players killed Blood Dagger, and even Sorrowless…”

“I can understand how he killed Blood Dagger – he is just too reckless. But I’m curious as to how he managed to kill Sorrowless.”

“No one knows – he was alone, without any accomplices. He even got away safely too.”

“From what I heard, the player who killed Sorrowless was an Undead Thief. The information seemed reliable.”

“Haha, it definitely must have been an enemy of Glory Capital. The killer must have been one of Sorrowless’ bodyguards. I wonder how many connections you have with our guild.”

“Hah, that’s funny. Why would we have connections in our own guild?”

“Okay, let’s get back on topic. If our connections in Blood Red haven’t lied, then there are only two possibilities. Lu Li has friends in the Evil Faction, or he used some kind of item to make himself appear Undead.

“I think the latter possibility is more likely. But how did he gain Sorrowless’ trust and get so close to him?”

“This person is so mysterious. It feels more difficult to deal with him than Sorrowless 10 years ago.”

“We can’t just ignore him – the Xin Xin Mercenary Group has just put us both to shame. What does Drizzle Court think?”

“How about we contact them and see if there is any chance for cooperation?”

“We could also block them out and make sure that they can’t leave the safe area.”

“Haha, haven’t you Imperial Secret Service guys tried that and failed? How about you share your experience with trying to hunt down Lu Li with us?”

“President Earth Dragon, what do you mean? Are you saying you’ve never done something like that before?”

“Ahem, I didn’t fail as horribly as you did. You really put yourself to shame.”

“That’s enough. We’ll get someone to harass him. President Demon Emperor, you will take the lead and I will support you.”

“Do I target the Xin Xin Mercenary Group or Lu Li himself?”

“Don’t worry about the others for now – going after them will negatively affect your reputation. Just deal with Lu Li. Even if you can’t kill him, make sure he is unable to play the game properly.

“If they’re together, should I avoid the others and just kill Lu Li?”

“If President Demon Emperor isn’t afraid of losing some reputation, then you can make that decision. I don’t have an opinion on it. However, he is the same player who assassinated Sorrowless. If you don’t play by the rules, you might be put to shame once again.”

The players within the big guilds didn’t have very high levels, but they did have very tight security. Even so, who would dare claim that their security was better than Sorrowless’?

“Drizzle Court will not be participating in this matter.”

“What do you mean, President Falling Star?”

“I don’t have a choice. Sister Water doesn’t want us looking for trouble with Lu Li, so you’ll have to talk to her yourself.”

“Does Drizzle Court stand by Lu Li’s side?”

“I’m aware that President Earth Dragon is serious, but Sister Water has spoken and we will not be helping.”

“If you divulge any of this information…”

“Does it make a difference? This is someone who got the First Clear on the Howling Caves; do you not clearly see the situation?”

Lu Li and the others didn’t even know that the whole world was going crazy because of them. They were standing before both corpses of Mutanus, waiting to loot them. The Instance Dungeon was also waiting to award them with the First Clear rewards.