The Great Thief

Elevenless was furious, but he didn’t do anything too stupid.

”Are you in the honor hall? Come out and relax; let’s have a drink,” he immediately messaged Lu Li after the match had finished. He had guessed that he was fighting against Lu Li based on his play style and asked him to hang out. Despite their differences, star players were usually on good terms with each other.

Lu Li and Elevenless had teamed up before to assassinate Sorrowless,so they were already good friends.

Perhaps it was because of their pride, but none of the star players would socialize with others unless they were very extroverted like Hornet’s Nest or Unforgettable Maple.

Even though most of the matches were quite easy, Lu Li had already fought almost a hundred today. After the duel against Elevenless, he was even more exhausted.

Lu Li agreed and sent his location to Elevenless.

There was a coordinate for every location in the game. The teleporters located around the maps could transport players to their desired location or even coordinate.

Not long after, the tall and beefy Elevenless arrived.

”Long time no see,” Lu Li said politely.

”It’s a good thing we don’t see each other often,” Elevenless rubbed his nose and laughed bitterly. ”You should count the number of times that I don’t die when I see you.”

Lu Li recalled all the times and realized that he was right. He had crossed path with Elevenless on five or six separate occasions and he had been killed every single time. In two or three cases, Lu Li was the one that killed him.

There were no friends on the battlefield, only enemies.

Elevenless’ joke was self-deprecating and had no intention of blaming Lu Li.

The NPC waiter came over and served a glass of Dwarf alcohol to Elevenless. He took the cup and gulped it down in one shot.

Lu Li took a few sips as well and felt much better. The drinks in the game tasted excellent and grabbing a cold drink with your friends after a big fight was one of the favorite things that players liked to do.

”Why did you decide to do arena matches?” Elevenless asked as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes, then offered, ”Do you want one?”

”No thanks,” Lu Li declined and explained, ”I wanted to improve my skills for the Professional League that’s coming up. Aren’t you guys doing the same?”

”I’m not as chill as you. We need to practice by playing up to twenty matches a day. Based on your win rate, I can tell that you don’t practice in the arena often, right?” Elevenless asked as he puffed on the cigarette; he was jealous of Lu Li’s talents.

Lu Li was probably the most relaxed star player in the game. Even top players like Sorrowless needed to practice a few matches a day in order to maintain their mechanics.

Similar to professional athletes, they had to train for years and years in order to excel at their sport on the big stage. Many top players would continuously grind throughout their entire careers just to maintain their spot in the game. Unlike other players, Lu Li barely played in arena and many would think that he didn’t practice or improve himself. However, this was a big misconception about him.

Lu Li was an unorthodox player who would repeatedly set new records and complete First Clears.

No one had the right to tell him how to act as a professional player. This was the same for the whole of Ruling Swords; they would never practice together until the tournaments because of the chemistry that they had built over the past few tournaments and dungeons.

Since they wouldn’t be up-against good teams at the start of the tournament, they would eventually warm up as they progressed and play as a cohesive unit again. By the time they reached the semi-finals where they were up against stronger teams, they would be at the top of their game again.

Major guilds not only had the professional players, but also had coaches, staff and even a training map…

Lu Li had no idea that other professional players were grinding out in the arena to maintain and improve their mechanics and game sense.

”I do play arena sometimes,” Lu Li said, feeling bad.

He decided to go ask Mu Qiu later about this. Mu Qiu and Moonlight had both received training from major guilds and were familiar with these kinds of things.

Elevenless decided to move on from the last topic and complemented Lu Li’s gear.

”Your equipment is so good. You still had many tricks up your sleeve when you were fighting me, right?”

”Hehe, same goes for you,” Lu Li laughed without actually acknowledging or denying his statement.

Elevenless might have lost, but if you think he was fighting as his full potential, then you would have been gravely mistaken. Just like how Lu Li had saved a lot of his trump cards and actives, Elevenless didn’t show off his entire hand either.

It was just a simple arena battle – who cares about winning or losing?

Trump cards were supposed to be saved for clutch moments. They should be used not to win battles, but to win wars.

”Lame.” Elevenless was unsatisfied with his answer, then glanced at Lu Li and asked, ”Looks like you’re ambitious this time. Are you going for the top three spots?”

Other fake professional players and guild elders would most likely put on a face and answer, ”Haha, how is that possible? We’d be lucky to make it into the top one hundred.” The majority of the players in the professional scene liked to play mind games both on and off the battlefield.

However, Lu Li isn’t like that and replied while nodding his head, ”Yes, we’re aiming to be the champions this time!”

Elevenless opened his mouth and wanted to ridicule Lu Li’s naivety.

Just because you said you wanted to be the champion didn’t mean that it would be easy. Hundreds of guilds and millions of players were competing for that honor. How could a guild that had only been established for a short while with sixty to seventy thousand players be so confident?

However, when he thought about it, he realized that Lu Li was the only player in the game who could say such arrogant things.

The Shadow Cup, Magic Cup and numerous dungeons had all proved the strength and capabilities of Lu Li’s team. The dark horse of the tournament this year was Ruling Sword for sure; it wasn’t entirely impossible for them to win the whole thing.

”Cheers!” Elevenless decided to stay quiet.

He was proud to be in his own guild, but couldn’t help but admire and envy at the glory that Ruling Sword had experienced. However, unless his guild stabbed him in his back, he dared not betray them and join Ruling Sword.

He admired Lu Li’s drive and ambition to be the champion.

While they were still drinking, the news that Elevenless had been defeated spread like wildfire.

With thousands of players spectating the match, and the fact that he had been utterly defeated in a convincing manner, this easily made the top thread in the forums.

Not only were the casual players talking about this, but the news had reached the expert player chatroom as well.

Hornet’s Nest: ”Elevenless, @Elevenless, come out.”

Hornet’s Nest wanted to get his attention by using @ so that he would receive the notification. Most top players would mute the group chat in order to minimize distractions, but @ allowed them to receive notifications in spite of this.

Torrent: ”Apparently Elevenless got wrecked. Who was it by?”

Hornet’s Nest: ”That’s what I want to know. What are you doing Elevenless? Come out and cry so big brother can comfort you.”

Marks: ”Leave him alone Hornet’s Nest. If you were up against Elevenless, you’d lose for sure. Maybe you should stop talking you little girl.”

Hornet’s Nest: ”Elevenless got shit on.”

Marks: ”Have you never been shit on before?”

Hornet’s Nest: ”Elevenless got shit on so hard.”

Marks: ”Goddamnit…”

Marks and Elevenless were from the same guild so it was natural for a brother to defend his friend. However, he couldn’t defend the fact that Elevenless had been defeated so badly.