The Great Thief

Compared to the mountain of pressure on Ruling Sword, Drizzle Court was the most relaxed club.

They decided to attack other Strongholds.

They were originally planning to fight Glory Capital, but after hearing Lu Li’s analysis, they felt that Glory Capital was as strong and unyielding like before. Following the right advice, they chose to fight Wings of Dawn’s Stranglethorn Vale.

There were two new Strongholds this time – the second Strongholds of the Black Sea Coast and Stranglethorn Vale.

There was no doubt that Wings of Dawn would use their strength to try and claim the second Stronghold of Stranglethorn Vale.

After the auction results had come out, Square Root 3 began to grow anxious.

“Compared to the club that was bidding last time, they’ve put in more money than is sensible.”

Last time, the competitors consisted of random few smaller clubs that had struck it rich and were pushing forward. They were hoping to get lucky in this messy situation, but Ruling Sword and Judgement Spear demonstrated that good luck was hard to come by.

That was why most of them had relented this time.

Plus, everyone knew that Ruling Sword needed the new Black Sea Coast Stronghold, leading to a gang-up situation in the Grand Melee.

As for Wings of Dawn, Lu Li really doubted the intelligence of the brothers Dream 13 and Elevenless. They were competing for the new Stronghold in Stranglethorn Vale, but they still had their old Stronghold to protect, and it turned out they were interested in snatching the Black Sea Coast.

Meanwhile, Blood Red War Flag occupied the two Strongholds in the Hillsbrad Foothills. They weren’t defending them well, nor did they use their resources to bring trouble to Glory Capital.

As for Azure Guard, this poor club didn’t have a single Stronghold now.

Lu Li hadn’t heard much news about the Gangnam Royals, only that they were dedicating themselves to development. Perhaps now they would have the power to stage a comeback.

Before the Stronghold battle officially started, a conversation on the World Announcement channel began.

Elevenless: We better discuss well; we’re not gonna fight before Ruling Sword are finished off.

Unforgettable Maple: Well that’s a given.

Dancing Star Dream: Just afraid Maple sis has already been bribed.

Unforgettable Maple: What are you on about? I’m not that kind of person.

Elevenless: Then we’ll finish Ruling Sword and Majin Temple first. @Jade Flower Lover, what do you think?

Jade Flower Lover: Sounds good, I also think Maple sis has something going on with Lu Li.

Dancing Star Dream: Haha, Blood Red War Flag and Majin Temple have been in cahoots since they started, and you guys are actually believing Jade Flower Lover?

Elevenless: Then we’ll finish off Ruling Sword, Majin Temple and Blood Red War Flag first.

Floral Paralysis: The more we talk, the more enemies there are. How do we finish off three clubs? Is the Imperial Secret Service counted as a club? Can you stop making things so hard for me?

Dancing Star Dream: Are you saying that our Grand Hegemony isn’t a club?

Floral Paralysis: No, no, no, as long as we’ve got our Dancing bro, any club is a club. Grand Hegemony’s been doing really well recently – just missing a Stronghold.

Elevenless: So what do we actually do?

Unforgettable Maple: Lu Li, give me money. Otherwise, I’ll work with them.

Lu Li: You’re too scary. We at Ruling Sword aren’t voting this time. After you occupy a Stronghold, I’ll have my Fel Reavers come out. Hmm, we’ll see how it goes.

Unforgettable Maple: Haha, you guys believe it?

Elevenless: Nope.

Floral Paralysis: Who cares? Let’s just deal with Ruling Sword first. We’re not going to fight between ourselves until they’re finished off.

The World Announcement channel remained lively all the way until the Stronghold battles formally started.

The new Grand Melee format really was quite something. The game placed the audience in an immersive position, attracting many people to watch.

The players participating in the Stronghold battle had no way to get info from the outside world, nor could they go offline. As soon as they went offline, they had no way of returning to the battlefield, so they didn’t have to worry information being leaked.

The audience had all taken their comfy seats ages ago, waiting for the eight clubs to make their way onto the field.

After the Ruling Sword players entered into the Stronghold, everyone was immediately stirred up.

“Shameless!”

“How could you be like this!”

“It’s all over! Elevenless’ getting played again.”

“I really think this Stronghold battle is going to be the first that no one wins.”

“So if they can’t find Ruling Sword, do you think the remaining seven guilds won’t battle between themselves at the last moment?”

Those few other clubs that were in this Stronghold battle simply had no idea what sort of secretly evil opponent they were going to face. Lu Li had brought 79 other players with him, either Thieves or Druids, but they all had Stealth.

This wasn’t a competition arena at all. The battle map was vast, and there was very little chance for the eight clubs to bump into each other. However, these 79 players had a commander in the sky flying and telling them where to go.

Ruling Sword’s players rapidly developed and levelled up. Under the command of Lu Li, they didn’t encounter a single enemy.

After about half an hour, when everyone was around level 5 or 6, someone finally realized there was a problem. They were unable to find Ruling Sword after so long, especially when the other seven clubs had made an agreement among themselves to avoid conflict and focus on searching for them.

Ruling Sword couldn’t have been hiding so well this entire time.

Jade Flower Lover had already realized that Ruling Sword had only brought Stealthed players.

However, even though he knew this, it didn’t help his cause at all.

In order to conceal themselves, Ruling Sword gave up the fighting power that different roles together would bring . Lu Li gambled upon these seven clubs being unable to maintain this until the end.

At the very least, Azure Guard, Blood Red War Flag and Wings of Dawn were clubs that had strong armies that seriously wanted to occupy the Black Sea Coast.

The one to take action first was the strongest!

Jade Flower Lover had always been famous for being crafty. He knew he had to be decisive to create an opportunity.

And so, he focused on the Imperial Secret Service.

The poor Imperial Secret Service kids originally thought that today, the clubs were going to shove Ruling Sword off its pedestal. How could they expect to be the loophole in the equation? Before Jade Flower Lover raised his knife against them, they were happy marching alongside Blood Red War Flag’s forces. They even thought they were both each other’s allies.

They had seen them for not even a couple minutes.

All 80 players of the Imperial Secret Service were all killed, while it turned out not a single person from Blood Red War Flag died.

There were definitely some unexpected Cheap Shots there, but players were deeply shocked at Blood Red War Flag’s power. The Imperial Secret Service weren’t guinea pigs either; how could they have killed them off so easily?