The Great Thief

It was only when Soul Eater hurried back to Peerless City’s headquarters in Qiantang city did he realise that the few confidants he had trusted to contain the situation had all failed. Some were still held up at the police station. Soul Eater finally regrouped with his confidants and found out what happened. He was outraged. He had formulated his plan for months, yet the hard work he had put in was easily brushed off by the two days Water Fairy had spent.

“It’s over.”

Looking at the expectant expressions around him only made Soul Eater feel more ill. He dreadfully slumped onto his chair.

“Boss, please, there has to be a way to fix this.”

Haze was pale as a ghost. Formerly the commander of an elite guild club and just a step away from becoming a professional player, he had given up all of that because he thought his alliance with Soul Eater could bring him a lifetime worth of riches. Now, he was telling him that not only did the competitive players of Peerless City refuse to cooperate with them, but the one thousand players that formed an agreement with them had bailed as well.

Having hundreds of elite players under the control of Water Fairy was just a waste of potential. “There’s nothing left to do. I’ve lost my authority over Peerless City, and my bank account has been frozen.”

Soul Eater was shivering by this point. He wasn’t sure what lied ahead, but whatever was waiting for him would be terrifying.

“You’ve known Miss. Shen for a long time. Maybe you could get her to be merciful,” one of Soul Eater’s assistants recommended meekly.

“Tell me. If you were Miss. Shen, would you forgive a betrayer?” Soul Eater snapped. There was no way he would beg Water Fairy for forgiveness, let alone feign weakness to a woman. He would be a joke for the rest of his life.

“Boss, do you realise what we’ll have to face if this situation keeps escalating?”

The assistant was becoming frustrated as well. However, he found Soul Eater’s pitifulness much more amusing than the situation was devastating. While other people just wanted to collect their paycheck, Soul Eater was greedy enough to cross every line with Ruling Sword just so he could build his own empire. In the end, Soul Eater was still only a wage earner – albeit a higher-ranked one at that – but he was just as dumb as he was egomaniacal with all this talk about taking back what was his. Having the thousand elite players and a few competitive players in his grasp was all just to create a strong foundation for his own guild club. Now, the plan had backfired and he was shaking like a leaf.

“She’s always been the nostalgic type. I might not have contributed big things to the guild, but I’ve done my share. There’s no reason for her to push me into a corner,” Soul Eater decided.

“Then let’s consider this the end of our alliance. You can continue skulking in a corner and live as a failure, while the rest of us find other ways to survive,” the assistant said.

“You guys can’t be serious. Drizzle Court and Peerless City only became what they were today because of you. Are you all just going to sit back and watch as Lu Li and that woman take all that away? Deny you of your hard work, and just let yourself live as a failure?”

Haze wasn’t ready to compromise their mission.

For this plan, Soul Eater had to contribute the money he had been saving all these years, and so did the rest of his confidants. They weren’t going to waste the hard-earned money they had spent on the plan, so they would see it through.

“You think this situation can be easily fixed just by begging her?” Soul Eater yelled.

“You don’t know that. Aren’t you curious how she’d treat you, considering your past? She might just forgive you.”

Haze was being selfish. He knew that getting Soul Eater to beg was the easy way out. After all, this question would strike every man who had lost the woman they loved, and it had successfully latched onto Soul Eater’s own heart.

Soul Eater’s heart was beating faster by the minute. Without another word, he started his luxury car and drove to the city Water Fairy was in.

Yanbo was a famous restaurant within the suburbs of Jiangnan city. Half of it was constructed on land, while the other half extended over a lake. It had a magnificent view of the nature that surrounded it. Soul Eater invited Water Fairy there to have a fish feast, knowing that her favourite food was fish. He sent a message to her and waited quietly for her to arrive. He wasn’t sure if she would still bother to see this betrayer, but he decided he would wait until she arrived. After all, waiting was the one thing that he had become good at.

Now that he thought about it, waiting was also a privilege that gave him happiness. Unfortunately, the Soul Eater he was today had already been stripped of such privilege, and it was all because of Lu Li!

As Soul Eater looked around the restaurant absent-mindedly, a familiar figure came into view. Water Fairy was strolling towards him. She had her hair in a ponytail, which was a rare sight. Her pale, long neck flowed down to the simple, white attire fitted under it – her dress was so casual he would have thought she just got out of bed.

“Over here,” Soul Eater stood up and waved gently, signalling Water Fairy to approach him. His wave was interrupted as he saw the man he hated most.

Lu Li!

He was wearing black from head to toe, the yin to Water Fairy’s yang.

“Long time no see,” Lu Li said as he waved his hand to greet Soul Eater, an ironic wave that mimicked Soul Eater’s wave at him earlier. Staring at Lu Li’s two rows of pearl-white teeth, all feelings of bliss vanished into the air. Water Fairy might have agreed to meet up, but with Lu Li here, Soul Eater decided he wasn’t dumb enough to believe that she might still have any feelings for him left.

“Well, it wasn’t that long ago when we went out drinking together,” Soul Eater said as he forced a smile.

“I’ve heard about this place when a few friends and I were comparing expensive restaurants we had been to. The food here is very expensive,” Lu Li commented as he looked around. Everyone that was dining here was smartly dressed and even emitted an air that told him they were not of the same level. Standing around idly, Lu Li felt even more out of place.

“The fish here isn’t half bad, we can take Lu Xin with us next time,” Water Fairy suggested in a serious tone. It seemed that she didn’t feel like what Lu Li had just said made him sound low-class.

“I’m paying, so order whatever you like,” Soul Eater butted in to interrupt whatever micro-conversation the couple was having.

“Don’t worry about that. Lu Li is from Jiangnan, so it’ll be better for him to pay,” Water Fairy refused straightforwardly, and even more so by asking, “Is there something that you need to talk to me about face-to-face?”

“I –,” Soul Eater fumbled, unsure where to begin. If Lu Li wasn’t here, if he was to talk in private with Water Fairy, he could still play the victim card and have her sympathy. Now that he was facing his rival, there was no way he could follow through with that play.

“If it’s nothing important, we can talk after we eat.”

Water Fairy was surprisingly calm. With Lu Li by her side, the initial rage she felt from his betrayal seemed to have vanished into thin air.