The Great Thief

Though there weren’t many resources in M City, it was much better than scouting in rural areas. It also meant that Lu Li wouldn’t have to face off Elevenless and his team right off the bat. As Lu Li drove towards M City, he quickly abandoned the car before entering the town. Since skilled players could easily figure out the location and speed of the car just by listening to the passing engine, Lu Li’s team, who still did not have any armor, would be easily gunned down.

Elevenless and his team couldn’t find any accessories at their landing site, so they decided to head for M City instead. Not only was it far from flying route, but it was also within the safe zone. After all, this game wasn’t all about killing people. Sometimes, the key to getting the chicken dinner was patience and the ability to finish off what other players had started – gunning down low-health players.

The clutter of buildings in M City made it difficult to navigate through even if you had a good sense of direction. Lu Li was grateful that Hachi Chan did not play this game.

“The resources in these houses are untouched, meaning they haven’t looted this place yet. Innocent and I will lookout from the roof. Snowy, you’re the phantom tank, so find a grove nearby. Sister Maple… why don’t you camp downstairs? It’ll be great if you can take at least two guys down,” Lu Li suggested. No one objected – even Unforgettable Maple, who was known as a camping fanatic, agreed it was by far the most suitable plan.

“They are looting way too slowly. Should Sister Maple check out their livestream again?” Innocent Child complained.

“Let’s not. It’s… distasteful.”

There were just some lines that Lu Li would not cross. How meaningless would the game become if they had to stream-snipe their enemies to win?

“Fine,” Innocent Child replied indifferently. Knowing that Elevenless and his team were in M City was enough for him.

“I joined a random squad yesterday, and all three of my teammates were japs.”

For someone like Unforgettable Maple who enjoyed gossiping while gaming, it was extremely boring for him. Though it was common to be matched with foreigners, it was unusual to have all three teammates who didn’t speak the player’s language. It seemed that this time, Unforgettable Maple was the only foreigner in his team.

“Did you guys win?” Water Fairy asked.

“Nope,” Unforgettable Maple answered dryly, “I killed them all as soon as I found a gun.”

An uncomfortable silence amongst the team followed as Lu Li and the others decided his actions were too heartless.

“Speaking of random squads, I joined a team in the U.S. server once. Those guys loved to PK, and as you know, my English isn’t great…”

Innocent Child was just about to share his own account of playing Survival and Escape when he was interrupted by Unforgettable Maple.

“Uh, that’s a ridiculous understatement. What English can you speak besides ‘no’ and ‘hi’?”

“Shh!” Innocent Child hushed without skipping a beat. “At first, one guy spoke English, and the other two followed suit. I was the only one who was silent. After a while, one guy spoke Chinese, and so did everyone else for the rest of the game,”

“That was not funny at all.”

Unforgettable Maple shook his head, irritated by the boredom of being a camper. One of the reasons why a lot of players didn’t like being campers wasn’t because it required a high-level of skill, but because patience was essential in doing so. To game was to experience the thrill, and what better way to do so than to kill right off the bat?

“Hush. W285, green roof,” Lu Li said. He had spotted an enemy, but since it took less than a second for them to glide past the window, he missed the opportunity to open fire.

“Don’t kill him right away when he comes out.”

Innocent Child knew they had the upper hand since he and Lu Li both had a clear shot of the enemy. “Let’s wait it out – see if we can find his mate,” Lu Li advised.

“I can’t wait to get my hands on Elevenless this time,” Unforgettable Maple muttered. He was getting jittery as he continued to mumble, “He’s the one in the red vest. Don’t you guys dare shoot him when he’s down; I want to finish him off with my frying pan. If everything goes smoothly, dinner’s mine at Hero’s in Stormwind City.”

“Even if it’s just the four of us, that’s still a huge expense. I thought you guys were poor down at Majin Temple. Sister Maple, can you even afford it?” Innocent Child asked, genuinely concerned and surprised. Hero’s was a restaurant that had recently opened up. Not only did it have beautiful virtual woman dancing and singing while the customers ate, but cute female players would also put on performances as well. It might have been a virtual restaurant in a game, but the experience was much more intoxicating than what they had in real-life.

“I’m actually quite well-off. You got a problem with that?”

Unforgettable Maple inevitably got defensive upon hearing Innocent Child’s tactless response. It was true that Majin Temple was poor, but it wasn’t like that was all he had. He was actually quite well-paid; at least the very least, he was able to contribute a piece of Epic armor to the plan of killing Elevenless.

“Fine, let’s mourn for Elevenless,” Lu Li nodded.

“Let’s mourn,” Water Fairy echoed.

“Yeah, but first, we’ve got to know where he’s at,” Innocent Child sighed. It was difficult enough to camp a professional player such as Elevenless, but now they had to plan his death as well?

“I’ve found another one, but I don’t think it’s him. Why is this guy even wearing a down jacket in summer?” Lu Li commented.

“I got one. Footsteps close.”

Water Fairy was growing anxious. Though the shrubbery she was hiding in was easy to miss, there was a chance that someone was on a lookout for phantom tanks. Thankfully, M City was quite far from the airline route, which meant that Elevenless and his team wouldn’t be expecting anyone soon. Neither did they have the time to check out every single shrub for players. Water Fairy’s target was careless enough to be running around with both guns holstered to his back, and now was standing right in front of her with no idea of what he was about to face.

“Elevenless! It’s Elevenless!” Water Fairy exclaimed.

“Take him out!” Lu Li cried out without hesitation. Water Fairy might not be as good a player as Elevenless, but in this situation, even a noob could kill this professional player. Another charm of this game was that anything could happen.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three shots and Elevenless was down.

“Don’t kill him yet, Snowy. Don’t let him see you either. Detour to the second floor of the blue house. Innocent bro, take down the one on the left – I’ve got the right. Sister Maple, the floor is yours.”

The team had no idea everything would go so smoothly; even Lu Li was genuinely taken back.

Elevenless slowly crawled to safety. Though he didn’t know where the bullets came from, he could at least still be revived by his team.

The one in the house came out running. He was cautious, checking every direction for danger before anything, but he didn’t head towards Elevenless immediately either. Lu Li did not have a sniper rifle, but a mere M16. Since it would have taken at least four shots to bring the guy down, he decided to wait until he was out in the open. That way, he could give himself enough time to aim and shoot.

One shot to the head should have been critical. Unfortunately, the player was wearing a level 3 helmet, and upon taking damage, he immediately began to run sporadically. Lu Li laughed dryly, turned his gun into auto-mode, and started shooting wildly. It was a feeling he indulged in. Whether it was spraying at close range during firefights or at long-range across the map, it would always light up a fire in him. It might have taken him the whole magazine, but another enemy was down. The scoreboards immediately announced Lu Li’s taking down of Dream 13 with an M16.

“Should I take this one down as well?” Innocent Child asked unsurely. “There are only three of them. If I take him down as well, it will be instant death for all of them.”

“Do it,” Lu Li said.

They might have agreed to give Elevenless to Unforgettable Maple, but Lu Li wasn’t going to risk his team’s annihilation just to amuse him. Lu Li did not have eyes on Innocent Child’s situation, but the announcement of him taking down Hornet’s Nest was all he needed. It wasn’t instant death for Elevenless’ team, which meant Midnight Ghost was still lurking around.

“Sister Maple, stop gossiping. If you’re going to finish him off, do it now!” Lu Li yelled.

Unforgettable Maple switched to his frying pan and circled around Elevenless’ crawling figure, delighting in every second he had to shame him.

Humiliation!

No one knew what had happened between Unforgettable Maple and Elevenless. All they could say was, upon the countless times Elevenless had taken him down in the past, it was a love-hate relationship.

“Bet ‘cha never saw this coming, eh?”

One last swing and Elevenless was dead. Lu Li killed off the other two crawling figures but was still unable to find Midnight Ghost.

“He could be camping in one of those houses. Should we go look for him?”

Unforgettable Maple thought it regretful that he wasn’t able to take down the other player who had killed him countless times as well. Maple didn’t feel as much hatred towards Midnight Ghost since he was indifferent to torturous plays like Elevenless. He recounted the ways Elevenless had toyed him in the past – the frying pan, the machete, punching, the sickle, running him over with a car…

“Not necessary. Loot the bodies; we’ve got to run.”

Lu Li found a slightly-damaged level 3 armor on Dream 13, and along with the half-damaged level 3 helmet, he was well-equipped. Lu Li also looted the 98K on Elevenless. Since he remembered them mention that they had two 98Ks, the other one must have been on Midnight Ghost.

The battle was worth it after all. As for the rest of his team, they stocked up on medicine – med kits, first aid kits, energy drinks and painkillers. The loot was more than enough. With no time to spare, Lu Li and his team left M City immediately.

They were on the run. Though the four of them had all turned off their livestreams, with the scoreboards announcing that they had already taken down both The Four Swordsmen and Elevenless’ team, and the likely possibility of those guys reporting the location of their bodies, the sooner they left M City, the better. Unfortunately, Elevenless had long since reported the whereabouts of Lu Li.

“Lu Li’s team is in M City. Hurry up and take a car. There’s only one route for them to get to the safe zone; you guys can cut them off right here… I’ll notify the others. When they pass you, they’ll fire their AKs three times. Let them go. Whoever doesn’t do so, take them out,”

“I suggest that you guys wait in this location…”

“The houses in the central location are all yours. Anyone who passes, take them out, no questions asked.”

Being killed was nothing, but being killed by Unforgettable Maple with a frying pan, and not to mention the countless shaming that came out of his mouth as he did so – Elevenless swore that he would teach him a lesson next time they met in the real world.