Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

Magister Lefis watched Nie Yan disappear into the crowd of onlookers. With a dejected sigh, he too left the square. It’d be the last time he showed his face.

News of the duel between Nie Yan and Magister Lefis shocked the entire player base. Defeating a Level 160 NPC Magister was an incredible achievement. Videos of the battle were posted online and rapidly disseminated.

Nie Yan didn’t care for any of this. What interested him was his spoils from the battle.

Abak’s Vorpal Striders (Legendary): Unequippable Requirements: 1,500 Strength, 1,200 Dexterity, Level 180 Description: This item can only be worn by the owner of the Glimpse of Darkness. It is only equippable when the owner has gathered the full set. Abak held strength in high regard. Only the powerful can become tyrants. Eliminate all traitors! Properties: Defense +1,120, Strength +200, Dexterity +520, Movement Speed +50% Vorpal Sprint: Increase the effect of all escape skills by 50%, Movement Speed +300%, does not stack with other speed boosting skills. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 2 days. Set Completion: 7/8 Note: Automatically bound to the owner of Volume I of the Book of Order; cannot be traded or dropped.

The movement speed bonuses from Abak’s Vorpal Striders were quite impressive. Nie Yan’s current movement speed was at 1,393. This was three to four times more than ordinary players at his level would have. He truly was one of a kind.

The movement speed cap was 5,000. Normally, no matter how good your equipment was, it was near impossible to reach. However, with Abak’s Vorpal Striders, Nie Yan could achieve just that. All he had to do was raise his normal movement speed to 1,700, and then activate Vorpal Sprint.

Nie Yan couldn’t even imagine that kind of speed.

Movement speed was divided into six different brackets. Below 30 was extremely slow, 30–99 was slow, 100–299 was average, 300–999 was fast, 1,000–2,999 was very fast, 3,000–4,999 was pushing the limits of speed, and 5,000 was the rumoured cap. Nie Yan currently fell into the very fast bracket, putting him far ahead of his peers. As an example, at his current movement speed, he could finish a 100-meter dash in under four seconds.

Speed was the life of a Shadow Dancer. Nie Yan couldn’t imagine how much influence reaching the next two brackets would have on his strength.

With Abak’s Vorpal Striders, Nie Yan now had seven of the eight pieces of the Tyrant Abak Set. Sadly, he hadn’t an inkling of a clue where the eighth and final piece might be located.

Nie Yan watched over the recording of his duel with Magister Lefis. Unlike in the low quality recordings from the onlookers, in his video he could clearly see all of Magister Lefis’ movements. Lefis’ comprehension of mana wasn’t something ordinary players could imagine.

This footage was definitely precious material, showing off a true Magister! Tang Yao, Xie Yao, and the other Magisters still had a lot of room to improve. It would definitely be beneficial to them.

「Guo Huai, I’m sending you some footage. Share it with the Magisters in the guild.」Nie Yan sent the footage of the duel to Guo Huai.「Make sure this doesn’t leak outside.」 

Guo Huai was puzzled. Just what kind of footage was this important? He briefly skimmed over the footage before his expression immediately turned serious. Even though it had been a long time since he levelled, ran dungeons, or PvPed, as the executive guild leader of Asskickers United, he could tell this footage was priceless!

「Understood. I’ll share it with Sparrow Hawk and the others. I’ll remind them not to share it with anyone else,」Guo Huai said.

「Good.」Nie Yan nodded.「Has the Blood Reaver Corps made a move yet?」 

「No, it’s like they completely disappeared,」Guo Huai said. Even though Asskickers United’s influence ran across the entire surface world, finding a small group of people in a place as massive as the Viridian Empire was incomparably difficult.

If they couldn’t find the Blood Reaver Corps, there was nothing Nie Yan could do. He checked his experience bar, 32% into Level 149. Unless he hunted down another Level 180 Demonified Lord, it would be extremely difficult for him to quickly raise his level. He estimated it would take him at least a month to reach Level 150 at his normal levelling speed. If he focused on hunting Elites and Lords, it might be a little faster. 

「I just received a report that the Century Financial Group has been meddling in the underworld. Many players from the Demon Tribe and Undead Empire are heading towards the surface. We’re probably going to face some trouble,」Guo Huai said.

「What about Fallen Angel?」Nie Yan asked. There was a large number of troops from Fallen Angel on the surface world. They worked closely together with Asskickers United, probing the strengths and weaknesses of Angel Corps. In their several clashes so far, both sides had suffered considerable losses. A war spanning two empires was on the horizon.

「They’re afraid of taking serious losses. So, they’ve only engaged in a few small scale battles so far. In fact, other than occupying three small towns in the Satreen Empire and erecting defenses, they haven’t done much of anything. I feel like they have their own plans, or maybe something happened back in the underworld. I mean, they still haven’t unified the Undead Empire yet,」Guo Huai said.

「We can maintain a cooperative relationship with Fallen Angel for the time being, but we still have to maintain our vigilance. Get in touch with them and have them see if they can do anything in the underworld and help us alleviate some pressure. As for the Evil Faction players arriving on the surface, we’ll have Okoron’s NPC army deal with them,」Nie Yan said. His NPC army was already 10,000 men strong. It was about time they got thrown into the deep.

「No matter how many players from the Undead Empire and Demon Tribe arrive, they can’t threaten us. I’m just worried that our guild members will be too busy dealing with them to level or run dungeons. Sending the NPC army will save us some headache,」Guo Huai agreed with Nie Yan’s idea.

「I’m going to go look for the last piece of the Tyrant Abak Set and also do some levelling while I’m at it. If anything happens, report to me immediately. I’ll drop everything and rush over.」

「Alright.」 

After his call with Guo Huai, Nie Yan returned to Okoron to restock on consumables, then went off to level.

Over the next 20 days, the Blood Reaver Corps appeared five more times. The first time, they ambushed an Asskickers United team levelling in Blaze City, killing more than 200 players. The second time, they ambushed and completely wiped out a 60-man team about to run a dungeon in Hilderlocke. The third time, they launched a surprise attack on one of Asskickers United’s minor strongholds in Nisode, killing over 300 players before retreating. The fourth and fifth times, they dealt considerable damage in Moonlight City and Calore respectively. Apart from these major incidents, many members out levelling alone or in small parties had also died to the Blood Reaver Corps. Combining everything together, in the excess of 1,600 players from Asskickers United had died at the hands of the Blood Reaver Corps.

Every time the Blood Reaver Corps launched an ambush, Nie Yan and the other Masters would come rushing over. However, before they could even arrive, the Blood Reaver Corps would’ve already fled with Unknown Transfer Scrolls. They were yet to catch a glimpse of them. Not to mention the Blood Reaver Corps never struck the same place more than once. They would launch their ambush, disappear for several days up to a week, and then strike somewhere else entirely. Whenever Nie Yan and the others got close to surrounding them, they would slip away into one of the many large mountain ranges where it was next to impossible to find them.

Asskickers United was spread too thin. There were countless opportunities for the Blood Reaver Corps to exploit.

Asskickers United felt helpless against the Blood Reaver Corps, wishing to get rid of these pests sooner rather than later. They also had to deal with a sudden influx of players from both the Demon Tribe and Undead Empire, who seemed all too eager to clash with them. The Abernathy Great Grasslands quickly turned into the main battleground between the two great factions. Okoron’s NPC troops were dispatched to every village and stronghold in the territory and were in charge of maintaining peace and security. This was enough of a deterrent for the most part, though there were still some underworld players who dared to attack a small village here and there.

Guo Huai ran some calculations. There were as many as 6,000,000 players from the Demon Tribe and Undead Empire actively roaming about in the Abernathy Great Grasslands. Some were bribed by the Century Financial Group. Others were ordinary players who came here to grind Glory. Thankfully, Asskickers United wasn’t fighting alone. There were about 3,000,000 players from the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire helping out. Asskickers United could only shudder at the thought of being in this fight alone. They’d be outnumbered 10 to one. It’d be a disaster.

Even though no real problems had occurred in the Abernathy Great Grasslands so far, having so many Evil Faction players roaming around left Nie Yan feeling extremely uneasy. As a safeguard measure, he started putting up high reward quests throughout the Viridian Empire and Satreen Empire, directing players from all over to the Abernathy Great Grasslands.

As the fighting between both sides intensified, Nie Yan felt something big was about to happen. He had to hurry! 

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Translator: LittleShanks (Follow me on Twitter)
Editor: Sietse

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