The Great Thief

Since Lu Li had taken out three opponents by himself, in the group stage, everyone stripped away his right of starting on the stage.

Instead, Kitty Likes Meat, Fat Monkey, Moonlight, Mu Qiu, and Sakura Memories would enter the arena.

Meanwhile, March Rain, Lu Li and Innocent Child would wait aimlessly as subs.

On the Gaoli side, Purgatory Shrine had a standard five-man lineup of a Mage, Warrior, Paladin, Priest and Thief. The only healer was a tanky Priest, while the other four were all damage output roles.

Lu Li didn’t care. As for what his teammates came out with, he didn’t express an opinion.

Although he looked down upon his enemies, he still admired them. No matter what sort of enemy it was, they all had unexpected strategies and skills.

“Who’s Sakura Memories?” Purgatory Shrine asked in confusion.

After they knew that their opponents were the Chinese champion in the last league match, they made sure to do their homework. They conducted detailed research on the few Ruling Sword competitors that had played in the first league match.

Sakura Memories was a levelling-up fanatic as always, firmly holding on to first place on the rankings and not entering the arena even once.

Naturally, they knew nothing at all about her.

“Could be a tanky Shaman? That Paladin’s a DPS player. His name is Mu Qiu,;I remember it well.”

After some further analysis, they decisively confirmed that Sakura Memories was a healer Shaman.

“Kill their healer first. Shamans don’t have many protective skills; they’re easier to kill than Priests!”

“Kill the healer first then kill that Warlock. It’s a shame their Thief is too scared to step forward, otherwise, we would definitely one-shot him first. He brought shame upon us, so we’ve got to pay it back sooner or later.”

Meanwhile, Ruling Sword, upon seeing that their opponents were targeting Sakura Memories, immediately giggled. After the opponents had entered into their camp, they began their sudden attack.

Sakura Memories cast Bloodlust, then rushed ahead in a flash.

This was a healer?

Her damage wasn’t any less than anyone else, and she had all sorts of terrifying skills. Moreover, she could even heal herself.

Of course, the scariest presence wasn’t her, but rather the other four Ruling Sword players who had now been buffed. To say they were wolves and tigers wasn’t enough to describe their ferocity.

With one Bloodlust, the Priest on the other side was finished off.

The Mage was left on half-HP, and when the others chased Sakura Memories, they realized that she wasn’t the healer.

If Sakura Memories wasn’t the healer, then who was?

The answer was that there was no healer. All five of them were damage output players. With an all-damage team, how hard could it be to eliminate an unprepared priest?

“Actually, if I went on, this Mage would be done for too,” Lu Li sighed regretfully from the sidelines.

“It’s almost done. If you fight too fiercely you’ll be targeted. I heard that on the new map. there’s a common area. We can try it out later,” Innocent Child said. The new map he was talking about was something he had heard through the grapevine. When Lu Li had been reborn, it still hadn’t been released.

“There are two parts to a group competition. Aside from the number of people, fierceness is another thing too,” Lu Li responded, voicing his disagreement.

Soon, Purgatory Shrine’s Mage was blasted to death by Fat Monkey’s Fireball.

Kitty Likes Meat transformed into a demon to try and catch someone, but didn’t manage to. She could only let out her anger on the rest of the players.

Poor Purgatory Shrine had never been rubbed in the dirt like this before.

By the time their subs came on the stage, there were just five corpses left on the arena. How could their one healer fight against five damage players? Of course, all they could do was surrender.

In the interview after the competition, the journalist pursued them with questions.

“Lu Li, this is the first time China has played against an overseas opponent. Ruling Sword, you’ve personally experienced it – how do you feel about facing the Gaoli team?”

“They’re powerful, really powerful. They completely surpassed my expectations,” Lu Li answered with a serious face.

Was he praising them or roasting them?

“Is Ruling Sword confident in representing China to compete in the international league match?” the journalist continued to ask.

“Top three? I think we were number one last time.”

They had won the entire competition last time, so why wouldn’t they be confident in placing within the top three?

The journalist had been embarrassed by him, and had no choice but to go and find someone else to interview.

The atmosphere over on the Gaoli side was completely different. They had made a solemn pledge before they went on, but they ended up being crushed. They didn’t earn a single point, and they didn’t even kill a single person in the group competition.

They finally experienced the sadness that Chinese football fans had been experiencing for almost 300 years.

That Thief on the arena had swept them, and they didn’t even bring a healer into the group stage. That was like not having a goalie in a soccer match.

They didn’t have a goalie, but they still couldn’t get a goal in!

Purgatory Shrine, ranked in the top 30 or so in Gaoli, looked like they had been kicked right out of the gaming association’s top 100.

In fact, being within the top 100 in Gaoli wasn’t something to write home about.

The hundredth-ranked club in China still had about 70,000 or 80,000 people, but Purgatory Shrine, despite being ranked in the thirties, didn’t even have 60,000 players.

After the competition was over, they worked on levelling up before the new Stronghold wars. Like before, no new maps were released this time, but the System warned that there would be drastic changes in the next update.

This didn’t stop Ruling Sword and Wings of Dawn’s half-completed and paid, but not received transaction.

Of course, the game was seriously against any sort of private trades.

That’s why everyone looked like they didn’t know what was going on. Wings of Dawn put down their hard-earned money for the auction, and after that, nothing more was mentioned. With Lu Li’s dodgy morals, he probably couldn’t ever live with the result of his Stronghold being snatched away by someone else.

In order to ‘meet the enemy’, Lu Li personally went out himself.

He had no choice. As soon as they heard that this battle was definitely going to be lost, Sky Moon and Wandering didn’t want to participate. Lu Li couldn’t just casually find someone else to command.

The battle was fought very intensely. Wings of Dawn tried to get to the top of the Stronghold walls as if their lives depended on it, but each time, they were pushed back.

The intensity of the battle made Dream 13 wonder if Lu Li was reneging on his promises and deciding not to give the Stronghold to Wings of Dawn.

At this, Dream 13 hinted with his eyes as he glanced at Lu Li.

Lu Li led his people to charge forward, aiming right at Dream 13. With Moonlight’s Whirlwind, this guy basically wouldn’t have any HP left.

“Don’t forget the promise.”

Dream 13 was angry but he didn’t dare to speak out.

“Don’t worry, we can’t have you break the wall too early. Otherwise, they’ll know something’s up,” Lu Li said with a sparkle in his eye as he picked up the ring that Dream 13 dropped. He was surprised to discover that it was level 70, inlaid with a Level Reduction Gem, and was an Exquisite Dark Gold item.