The Great Thief

The Brotherhood’s second player was a Warlock named Encore. He was at level 52 and was quite a high-ranking figure on the Level Rankings.

Encore could be regarded as a gaming celebrity, but he was particularly famous not because of his position on the Level Rankings, but because of his appearance. He was obviously a boy, but he was prettier than the average girl. It was the kind of beauty that was quite different from Wandering.

Wandering was good-looking, but was also quite masculine.

Encore looked like he had a girl’s face, which earned him the nickname ‘sorcerer’, while others called him a ‘fake girl’.

Encore wasn’t lacking in strength either; his fighting style was actually quite cunning.

Many players thought that he would be easy to kill because of his beauty, but they quickly changed their minds after fighting him.

A Warlock’s skills were quite capable of controlling a Warrior. Sending Encore to deal with Moonlight was the right move. Although Encore was not the most skilled Warlock, he wasn’t a rookie in this game. Naturally, he didn’t give as many openings for a counter-attack like Canine and just kept fighting steadily. When Moonlight finally fell down, Encore had lost about half of his HP as well.

“Boss, let me at him,” Fat Monkey volunteered.

“My guess is that their next player will be Hot Twitch. Are you sure you’re able to deal with him?” Lu Li asked, expressing his doubts. Although Fat Monkey was quite powerful, he probably couldn’t match the Hunter in attack power.

“I’ll take at least half of his HP,” Fat Monkey mumbled sheepishly.

“Let me do it then. I’ll finish this up so we can all go back to levelling,” Lu Li said, ending the discussion and began transporting into the arena. An opponent like Hot Twitch was hard to come by and Lu Li wanted to know how much progress he had made after changing his equipment.

Encore saw Lu Li on the field and couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

His profession was well-matched against Warriors, but the opposite was true against Thieves.

At this stage, Warlocks still hadn’t learned enough continuous damage skills, which was important for someone like Lu Li, who had Shadow Cloak and many other mobility skills. A skilled Thief could render Encore completely useless.

Lu Li didn’t even use Stealth normally, instead choosing to vanish from his initial position.

Shadowstep: Break into the shadows and appear behind your target. Your next Ambush or Garrote damage is increased by 30% for the next 10 seconds and your movement speed is increased by 80% for the next 5 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

The inferior Shadowstep on his Champion’s Boots allowed Lu Li to lock down his opponent.

Encore’s reaction time wasn’t sluggish either. The moment Lu Li vanished, he immediately rolled to one side and cast a Fear skill that he had already been channeling.

This reactionary move made Lu Li’s eyes light up. No wonder people said that this was a cunning player.

Unfortunately, this kind of reaction wasn’t that impressive when it came to Lu Li, who coolly used a Kick.

Lu Li’s Kick was already at level 5, but the Champion’s Boots also added another level, which allowed it to cancel Encore’s Fear. This meant that his dagger could continue to work as he cast a very powerful Ambush that took a significant chunk of Encore’s HP.

Encore was shocked and couldn’t believe his eyes.

Since the beginning of the game, he hadn’t seen his HP drop like this, except when he was fighting a Boss.

The gap between himself and the top player was so huge!

Encore simply couldn’t believe it. He had sparred with Hot Twitch, who had extremely high attack, but he had never seen so much damage being dealt before.

There were a number of reasons why Lu Li’s attack had been so potent.

The first was because of Shadowstep, which increased his damage by 30%. The second was because of his equipment change and finally, the first attack that Lu Li had landed on Encore was a Critical Hit.

After use, critical hit is increased by 60% for 12 seconds. 60 minute cooldown!

This was the special effect of Lu Li’s new badge, Searing Words. It turned out to be quite powerful as Lu Li’s second attack was also a critical hit, which made Encore’s HP drop significantly again.

Was the battle going to end just like this?

Of course not – Lu Li still had one more item to use before he could finish off Encore.

Ghostclaw (Dark Gold): Damage 36-48, Agility +42, Strength +28, Critical Hit +25%, Special Effect 1: If you deal two critical hits in a row, the third attack has a 50% chance to deal triple damage. Special Effect 2: Slit Throat +1, Special Effect 3: Ghostclaw. After use, deal 600 damage to the target, 50% of which is converted into the caster’s HP. The target also has a 30% Armor reduction for the next 15 seconds. Equipment Requirement: Level 50. Durability 215/215.

In the case of two continuous critical hits, there was a 50% chance of the third attack dealing triple damage.

This time, Lu Li cast Slit Throat which in itself was already an Ultimate skill, but with the triple damage increase buff, it dealt more than 800 damage.

Encore’s vision turned dark as he instantly fell.

The two narrators who had been commentating fell silent. They had no idea what to say. The millions of players watching the game stared at Lu Li and began to feel like there was a bug in the game.

Three attacks – the Warlock with half HP had been killed with three attacks.

This wasn’t some ordinary monster or an ordinary player – this was the famous sorcerer!

The number of players who have died to this player were at least in the high hundreds, if not the thousands.

But just then, Encore was so helpless that he didn’t even have a chance to fight back. It wasn’t just the ordinary players who found this hard to accept – even Lu Li’s teammates felt a chill down their spine.

Lu Li stood on the stage with his expressionless face hidden behind the ghost mask, quietly waiting for the next opponent to come on stage.

After quite some time, a hunter with a pet crow appeared on the other side. This was the core figure of the Brotherhood, and a well-known star player of the gaming circle – the top Hunter known as Hot Twitch.

Lu Li’s attention was first drawn towards his opponent’s pet.

The dark red crow looked similar to the transformation that Lu Li had, but its head seemed much bigger. If Lu Li was correct, this was a rare monster found in the Twilight Forest.

This Undead Crow was an exquisite pet that Hunters specifically used to fight Thieves.

It had Anti-Stealth, Inner Fire, Poison Corpse and Knockout, which heavily countered Stealth. In addition to the Hunter’s Flare, Lu Li already knew that his opponent’s confidence hadn’t come from nowhere.