The Great Thief
chapter-172

Not long after, the two to three hundred players who were farming in the area all converged to stare at the place where No.263 had fallen.

They were an elite group of players from a guild, tasked with protecting their boss while he farmed. There shouldn’t have been anyone who dared to attempt his Bounty Quest – was it not a death sentence?

But even under such heavy protection, their boss had been killed.

They must have been dreaming.

“Is… is the boss dead?” one player murmured to himself, unable to believe it.

“Where is the one who killed him?”

Everyone felt burning anger kindle in their hearts.

It wasn’t because their beloved boss had been killed, but because he had been killed in the presence of so many people. It was truly shameful.

“He’s escaped…”

A player tearfully pointed at the place where Lu Li had vanished. The guild member who was closest to Lu Li also mentioned that Lu Li had greeted them after killing their boss.

“Find him! We have to find him!”

“Stop farming. We have to avenge our boss.”

The group readied themselves for battle and spread out.

“Wait, I know who did it.”

“Do you know him?”

“Don’t look at me like that… there’s a lot of pressure on me with so many people around…”

“Dammit, I’ll kill you if you don’t speak up!”

“Look at the PVP list. The guy with 34 PVP points now only has 25 left.”

“He must have killed the boss!”

“Hunt him down, hunt him down…”

Lu Li had already returned to complete the quest. Upon seeing that his PVP points had dropped from 34 to 25, he felt much more comfortable.

However, he couldn’t help but think that there was something strange about that guy. It seemed like no one was trying to kill him, even though he had 9 PVP points. His skill was average at best and he didn’t even have a chance to retaliate.

Lu Li’s second target was No.852 who had 6 PVP points.

Upon querying for the coordinates, he found that his target’s location was considerably far away from where he was. He would need to travel all to way to the coastline.

Lu Li was unable to cancel this quest for a three-hour period, unless someone else completed it before then. The only thing he could was to grit his teeth and make the journey; he was going to fly anyway.

The moment he left Astrana, he was met with a huge barrage of skills. Lu Li jumped in fear and ran back into the safe area.

At this stage, the whole city was still a safe zone. However, after the fourth update, the area of these zones would decrease significantly. At that point, a player could be killed even when walking on the street.

Fortunately, there was still quite a long time to go before that happened. As he stood in the safe area, Lu Li looked at the hundreds of people guarding the Astrana gates, who stared back at him with ravenous eyes.

“H-Heroes, how have I offended you that you would bring such a strong force against me?”

Lu Li checked that the bandana was on his face, before allowing himself to relax.

Even the Imperial Secret service hadn’t brought this many people. Did these guys have no shame?

The opposing group of players didn’t expect Lu Li to react so quickly and regretted casting their spells so early. However, after listening to Lu Li’s innocent questioning, they became fired up again.

“You killed our boss, yet you dare ask us why we’re offended?!”

“No way, I’m not crazy. Why would I kill your boss? Who is your boss?”

Lu Li kept a completely straight face. It was too bad that his bandana was in the way, so his acting was wasted.

“Our boss was killed right before our eyes by someone whose PVP points have since dropped. So we, the Milky Way Fleet, need to…”

“Oh, number 263!” Lu Li suddenly realized.

“Boy, we aren’t being unreasonable. Come out obediently and let us send you to jail. Otherwise, your future will look very bleak.”

“Wait.”

Lu Li raised his hands and asked, “Do you know who I am?”

The other players looked at each other and shook their heads.

“You don’t even know who I am. How are you going to find me to exact your revenge? See you later everyone,” Lu Li laughed, as he went into Stealth.

The hundreds of people were dumbfounded.

Astrana was the Light Faction’s busiest city and had many gates. The only reason that this group of people had successfully blocked off Lu Li’s path was because this gate was closest to the Mercenary Hall.

Lu Li eventually found an empty alley and turned into a crow before taking to the skies.

Astrana was the Druid’s base camp, so the NPCs treated animals like crows very well. No one would randomly try to shoot him down.

Lu Li flew back and forth a few times which excited the members of the Milky Way Fleet.

“If he’s running so fast, he must be out of energy by now. Everyone, try your hardest to put this guy in prison. The boss was furious about dying, so what this guy did was unforgiveable. Whoever kills him will be award $10,000. Now charge, for the boss!”

“For the boss and for the $10,000, charge!” yelled one of the bemused players, as the group rushed forward in a wild stampede.

Lu Li’s second objective was a smart one – he would change locations every few minutes so they couldn’t work out where he was.

However, just as he was about to change locations, Lu Li found himself cornered.

Lu Li saw a warrior with the red word ‘Guilty’ above his head, who was charging towards him. He instinctively went into Stealth and cast Cheap Shot…

“What’s going on?!”

One rotation of skills wasn’t enough to kill this Warrior, as he was quite well-equipped. However, when he recovered, he didn’t retaliate. Instead, he scratched his neck and ask Lu Li why he was killing him.

Lu Li was taken aback; he thought that he had attacked the wrong person.

“Brother, are you number 852?” Lu Li asked, while he continued to stab him.

“Oh, you’re talking about the PVP list. Yeah, I’m number 852. Wait… you’re wanted by me. How is this possible? How does… ugh….” he gurgled before falling.

His body was then taken away by the system, presumably to the prison.

“Damn, he was a talker.”

Lu Li wiped the sweat off his forehead. This was the first time that someone had intentionally not fought back.

He only had 20 PVP points left. Lu Li nodded with satisfaction, unaware of the hundreds of players around him who were once again left dumbfounded. He then quickly returned to the city so he wouldn’t be caught.

The fourth-ranking player on the PVP list only had 3 points.

Nevertheless, he dutifully continued to complete Bounty Quests, while on the run from the group of players who were trying to kill him. He initially thought that this process would be slow, but by now, he had almost depleted of his PVP points. However, his progress was unexpectedly interrupted while undertaking his 6th quest.

The player that Lu Li was hunting had logged off to avoid being killed.

Bounty Quests could not normally be cancelled. For a Bounty Quest to be cancelled, an application had to be made to the Mercenary Hall after three hours, the wanted player could remove all their PVP points, or someone else could claim the bounty first.

In this case, Lu Li only needed to wait two hours before that player’s PVP points depleted. After this, the System would default to telling him that he had failed his Bounty Quest. He would then be able to continue and take the next quest.

As of now, Lu Li had 12 PVP points left, but he was still at the top of the list.