The Great Thief

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

One was firing his gun while the other one was reloading when Lu Li came out of nowhere and drove over them. The pair saw their names displayed on the killfeed and were utterly dumbstruck. However, Lu Li then crashed his car into an unoccupied vehicle and the collateral damage he took was enough to knock him out. Thankfully, Water Fairy was unhurt and immediately went over to revive him, and they were able to reclaim their two kills.

Both Lu Li and Water Fairy were already stocked with supplies, so all the pair needed to find were replacements for their damaged level three Helmets and level three armor, and to resupply their meds. The two healing items in the game – the energy drink and painkillers – recovered health gradually, so it was essential to take them regularly.

Seeing tenuous smoke seeping out of their car, they had no choice but to leave it. One car flip, a few bullets or a mere slip up of a crash could cause their vehicle to explode. Neither of them were ready to risk dying to a car explosion, nor were they obstinate enough to continue driving a broken car when there were plenty of untouched vehicles nearby. Lu Li chose a blue sports car that had plenty of fuel in the tank. The car was faster than the Jeep, had higher defence than a motorcycle, and Lu Li was much more comfortable driving it. The two headed straight for the safe zone and immediately found a place to hide.

The house Lu Li had chosen gave the two a generous view of their surroundings, which meant it would be difficult for the enemy to go unnoticed should they decide to infiltrate it. Lu Li crouched near the second-floor window opposite the safe zone barrier. With their house right next to the motorway, players who were still rushing to get into the safe zone were sure to pass through them. Lu Li’s predictions were quickly confirmed when he saw a sidecar motorcycle outside of the safe zone slowly coming into view. Since they were in duos, there were only two players on the motorcycle.

“Shoot it!” Lu Li cried out as he pulled the trigger with zero hesitation. Water Fairy quickly followed suit. Although the sidecar motorcycle was slow compared to the rest of the vehicles in the game, gunning it down while it sped down the motorway was not an easy task. The motorcycle started to maneuver while driving and the enemies easily dismissed the threat of the two campers. The pair could not land a single critical hit, but just as they thought that they have failed, they witnessed their enemies’ motorcycle flip over.

Unfortunate was a fitting description for the enemies. Once they realised they were under attack by an M4, and M249 (which could only be obtained from an airdrop), the driver must have panicked and sped up maniacally. One miscalculated sharp turn and the two flipped the motorcycle.

Lu Li was unable to hit them from his window and thus could only wallow in frustration as he saw the two low health players running off to heal up. However, as soon as he saw the two enemies staying at their hide-out, which was right next to his house, he realised those two players were not going to run off, but they were actually planning an attack. These two were going to confront Lu Li and Water Fairy and soon enough, the hunters had become the prey.

Crash! The window behind Lu Li shattered as an unknown object was thrown into their house. Water Fairy, who was highly alert, immediately stood up and ran. Thankfully, she was able to warn Lu Li with a simple “Bomb!”. Lu Li instantly ran away from the object just in time to avoid getting knocked out, but he still took half of his health in damage. Lu Li had completely forgotten about throwables in the game: the Molotov, the Smoke, Stun, and Frag Grenades. Just as he was criticising his own mistake for overlooking such crucial information, two more frag grenades were thrown into the house. Water Fairy was immediately knocked out, but Lu Li would not allow himself to fail twice. He quickly dived into the bathroom and avoided taking damage.

“Will they come up, or will they throw more frags at us?” Lu Li thought. For once, he was unable to predict his enemies’ movements. He didn’t know how many more throwables the two players downstairs had, and Water Fairy was already knocked out, so she couldn’t risk taking any more damage.

“Who knows? If they have more frags, they’ll definitely be using them,” Water Fairy said as she crawled towards the bathroom slowly to be revived.

Lu Li thought for a split second and realised they couldn’t risk staying up here. With a grand leap out of the window, he knocked out one player while he was still mid-air. He hit the ground, went prone, and took down the second enemy.

The chat blew up shortly after. All Lu Li could see was “GG”, “What a beast”, “God mode”– all referring to his play. No one seemed to have mentioned how narrow his health bar was; one more shot would’ve knocked him out. However, even if the odds were in his favour, the fact remained that he was the one who took down those two players.

By the time Water Fairy rushed out of the house, all that was left to do was to claim the loot.

“The zone is shrinking fast. Should we drive?” Water Fairy asked.

“I’ll drive.” That was Lu Li’s only request.

Lu Li slammed on the brakes the second they reached the safe zone. Their current position was perfect for sniping, and he was sure they weren’t the last to reach the safe zone.

“You be the tank, I’ll prone.”

Water Fairy wasn’t spineless, but she had definitely experienced enough deaths from proned players to know she wasn’t going to fall for it anymore. Lu Li stood in a shrub and crouched, blending in perfectly. Since gunshots could easily give away a person’s position, suspicious players wouldn’t risk firing away at a slightly out of place shrub and put themselves in danger. Lu Li has actually used this tactic in the past, and it was a play he figured out by himself. If his chat was bombarded with ‘camper’, he wasn’t planning on arguing with them.

Lu Li decided if Water Fairy were to prone, she would’ve needed the Ghillie suit more than he did. Dropping his suit, Water Fairy picked it up and blended into the grass perfectly. However, the problem with proning was that it limited both a player’s view and the range of shooting angles. If she were to take a shot, she’d have to get up and crouch.

It wasn’t long before two enemies came running into view. Being the hothead that she was, Water Fairy was already getting up and was ready to attack. To her dismay, she was hastily stopped by Lu Li.

“Let them get closer before attacking. I don’t have a clear shot yet. They won’t see us, so get up and attack only when I’ve took one down.”

Though still trying to get into the safe zone, the enemies were on high alert, fully aware that they might be ambushed at any given moment. However, they didn’t have the time to check every inch of their surroundings for proning players. The safe zone barrier was right behind them, and if they weren’t able to keep up with it, they’d be easily knocked out. Lu Li had his sniper rifle aimed at one of the enemies but had not risked the shot. The player’s zig-zagged running made it difficult for Lu Li to gain a clear shot. He decided to wait until he slowed down, but –

The pair went prone to heal as soon as they reached the safe zone. Not only had they just fought off a team, but they had also taken damage from the blue zone, so their health was dangerously low. On top of that, neither Lu Li and Water Fairy nor the enemy team could’ve guessed that one team would’ve proned right in front of another.

This had become a battle of courage.