The Great Thief

“Are they on steroids?” Jiufeng gasped.

“Amazing, absolutely amazing!” Four Seas Dragon cheered for them as well. He quickly explained what Peerless City had done so that the audience could understand what had just happened and how much preparation they had placed into this match.

“Lu Li died! Unbelievable!”

If anyone was to tell them that Lu Li was going to die first in the match today, Jiufeng would’ve thought that the person had gone insane.

“What is there to be surprised about? He’s a human being too, and a player as well. With so much planning done, if four people still can’t take out one player alone, then this game would be impossible to play.”

Compared to Jiufeng, Four Seas Dragon was much quicker to accept that Lu Li had been taken down.

Ever since the beginning of the game, balance had been something that was constantly in consideration, especially after Dawn grew in value.

Only a fair game would continue for long, but a boring kind of balance would make the game lose its attraction. The best designers in the industry thought about the game for generations to finally find the perfect balance. Dawn heavily focused on this aspect of the game.

There had been research in the past into what made a balanced game.

Bloodlust that gave invincibility, legendary weapons everywhere, players who could kill an entire street all by themselves or players with maximum luck attributes – none of these seemed like part of a balanced game at all.

However, to have two players hack at each other all day long and have nothing much happen would be another kind of extreme.

Peerless City made plans to take out Lu Li and had broken the record, which was something to be proud of.

With one less player, Ruling Sword instantly fell into a tough battle. Not only did they have to give up on Falling Smile, who was almost dead, but they also had to turn back and protect their own healer. Once March Rain died, then the match would definitely turn into a one-sided affair.

They protected March Rain as they fought and moved around. Fortunately, they had Mu Qiu. The two healers supported each other, and finally managed to stay alive under the pressure of four damage dealers from Peerless City.

At the same time, Peerless City had used too many things on Lu Li, so they wouldn’t be able to take anyone else within a short period of time.

Sakura Memories entered the match, successfully joining her team and stabilizing the situation.

Losing Lu Li was more than just losing a strong damage dealer. They had also lost a captain to direct them in battle and a support that they could lean on.

The rest of the battle wasn’t too hard to predict; Ruling Sword only managed to take 2 points.

The match ended with 7 points for Ruling Sword and 10 points for Peerless City. Overall, Peerless City claimed the victory for the third match.

This was a bittersweet victory, because it didn’t alter the fact that Ruling Sword was going to make it into the top 4. With the two previous matchups on top, Ruling Sword and Peerless City ended with a final score of 29:22. Ruling Sword made it to the top 4, while Peerless City stayed in the top 8.

However, the performance of Peerless City in the third match was truly brilliant.

It was as Four Seas Dragon had said – if they had done the same in the first match, then the results might have been different for the two teams.

Over the next few days, the results for the other groups also came out.

Without a doubt, Glory Capital took out Blood Red War Flag. The two guilds were known to be the strongest guilds in the gaming circle, but the difference between them was very obvious. Glory Capital had been the boss of the gaming circle for these few years; they were truly strong.

Lu Li looked at the threads which analysed the teams, and his expression sunk.

In the Shadow Cup, Glory Capital clearly didn’t put too much into the competition. For them, even the Magic Cup was just a place to train their team. The League competition was what they were really focused on.

The levels of these competitors rose quickly each day. They had people to look after their equipment for them, including gems, empowerment, enchantments…

The powerful equipment on the market rose in value because of them; it wasn’t rare for an exquisite piece to be sold at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The results of Drizzle Court and Seventh Heaven were no surprise either. Although the match points weren’t too far apart, Drizzle Court still won with all three victories and became the third guild to enter into the top 4.

Gale Legion defeated Wings of Dawn.

If Drizzle Court was on par with Seventh Heaven, then Gale Legion and Wings of Dawn would be almost even. They only had a one-point difference after all three matches were played, but this one point still counted. No matter how upset Wings of Dawn might have felt, they still had to take the result.

The top four included Glory Capital, Ruling Sword, Drizzle Court and Gale Legion.

Interestingly, two of these four guilds were from the Alliance Faction, while the other two were from the Horde faction. Ruling Sword and Drizzle Court were in an alliance with each other, while the Horde guilds, Glory Capital and Gale Legion, were also allies.

What if the top four became Ruling Sword versus Drizzle Court and Glory Capital versus Gale Legion?

They would fight amongst themselves first, then fight the outsiders?

Regardless, all everyone could do was wait around. The top four teams had only just been determined.

Lu Li took out some of his time to give some attention to his little disciple.

Cold Chill had been a member of Ruling Sword for quite some time now and was level 15, but Lu Li wasn’t impressed by this at all.

He thought that it wouldn’t be too hard to direct her towards Alchemy, but the problem was that she was no longer satisfied with being a Trade Skill player anymore. She wanted to become a great Mage.

From Lu Li’s memories, he recalled that Cold Chill was a professional Trade Skill player who spent almost all of her game time on Alchemy. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to become the top Alchemist of Dawn while entering the game so late.

So, what went wrong?

Lu Li thought about it for a long time. He wasn’t the type to force people into doing things that they didn’t want, but it was truly a shame if Cold Chill didn’t touch Alchemy. This was tied to the Resurrection Potion, something of great importance that would play a big role in the development of the guild.

Lu Li took out some of his time to meet his little disciple who had become so dedicated to levelling up.

At this time, she was levelling with some Mages from the guild.

He studied from afar and noticed that his little disciple had improved greatly, compared from a few days ago. However, in Lu Li’s eyes, she was still a beginner, who was worse than an average player. The little girl had no gaming talent, and without the help of others, she might not even be able to take down a monster alone, let alone a whole group of monsters.

After Lu Li came, Cold Chill stopped too. There were others who teamed with her to help her level up, so it didn’t hurt for her to pause.

After some talk, Lu Li gradually realized what the problem was.

In the end, he was the problem that changed everything.

It Lu Li didn’t appear, Cold Chill would still have a teacher. However, her teacher would be the most average player out there, one who worked so hard to earn money but could barely earn anything.

Of course, a teacher like this wouldn’t be of much help to Cold Chill. There was no way a teacher like this would be able to give her a huge amount of gold coins to purchase potions and fix equipment, or provide a whole team of elite Mages to level her up. For Cold Chill these days, killing monsters and levelling was as easy as drinking water.