Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

Little was known about this bandit organization. It was rumoured they had accumulated a frightening amount of treasures. The places they appeared often attracted numerous players, leading to spectacular large-scale battles with several dozen guilds fighting several Lords. There was also always an army of solo players lurking on the sidelines, hoping to fish up some easy benefits.

However, in the previous timeline, it was unimaginable for even one or two Variant Lords to appear, to say nothing of this temple which was teeming with them. If Nie Yan decided to sweep this place clean, he would have to pay a heavy price. In order to minimize losses, he decided to go in alone.

At present, Death’s Kiss had yet to acquire its fame among the playerbase. The players simply weren’t at a high enough level yet to encounter these bandits. But that was only a matter of time.

In this 100-meter wide area, there were at least 60 Variant Lords. If Nie Yan alerted even one of them, he would be surrounded and ganged up on by all of them.

The closest Variant Lord to Nie Yan was a three-meter tall Warrior giant. He wielded a large club spiked with wolf teeth. His body was huge and burly, like an iron tower. Every step he took caused the earth to quake.

The Warrior giant slowly walked over to where Nie Yan was hiding, scanning around for intruders. If one entered his sight, they’d be immediately smashed into a pulp.

The Warrior giant was getting closer and closer, 20 meters, 10 meters… Nie Yan hurriedly scanned his surroundings. There was a five meter tall pile of rubble near him. He leaped behind it and activated his cloaking enhancement skills.

When the Warrior giant passed by the pile of rubble, he paused and glanced over at Nie Yan’s location.

Nie Yan held his breath. 

The Warrior giant didn’t discover anything. He turned around and continued on patrolling.

Seeing the Warrior giant walking away, Nie Yan breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly calculated a path forward. The monsters’ paths were set in a way that they were never more than 10 meters away from each other at any given time. Getting past them without being noticed would be incredibly difficult. 

Glancing at his skill window, Nie Yan had an idea. He activated Pygmy Transformation and shrunk down to a third of his original size. Afterwards, he activated all skills that enhanced his stealth.

He walked out from behind the pile of rubble and slowly started making his way forward. 

A little up ahead were several human and orc Warriors. They were gathered together chatting about something. To the left of them was a human Shadow Priest scanning the surroundings carefully. Thankfully, they didn’t notice anything. An Illuminate or Luminous Mark would instantly put an end to his hopes of getting through this place unnoticed. Apart from the Priests, there were several orc Druids and Shamans. They also had skills to see through stealth. If even one of these many Variant Lords discovered him, all of them would chase him down.

In order to avoid alerting these Variant Lords, Nie Yan was extremely careful with every step, maintaining a certain distance away from them at all times.

After making his way around more than 30 Variant Lords, Nie Yan pressed forward, only to discover another 20 up ahead. As for further in the distance, there were even more.

Nie Yan counted several hundred Variant Lords, and a large number of them were casters. If he had mobilized the forces of the guild, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of battle would take place.

Nie Yan took several steps forward, when two human Mages and an elven Thief came walking over in his direction.

Shit! What terrible timing... Nie Yan cursed. All around him were Variant Lords. There was nowhere to escape!

Nie Yan swept his eyes over the room before focusing on a pile of rubble. Without a second thought, he moved to hide behind it.

The two human Mages were getting closer and closer.

Nie Yan controlled his breathing, trying to slow down his heartbeat.

10 meters, 8 meters, 6 meters...

The two human Mages came to a stop about five meters away from Nie Yan. They scanned the surroundings, but didn’t find a trace of him.

Perfect! Nie Yan smirked. Having evaded the sights of the two human Mages and the elven Thief a little further away, there was nothing to worry about anymore. He finally realized he’d come out of this experience more scared than hurt! Just as he let his guard down, a beastial roar sounded out behind him.

The sound was scary close, only about six meters away. Nie Yan’s heart trembled. When he turned around, he stood face to face with a massive grizzly bear. Its eyes, which were as large as copper bells, stared at him.

This bear with was a transformed Druid. Shit! Shit! Nie Yan instantly realized what had happened. He quickly broke into a sprint and tried to flee.

“GRWOAR!” The bear let out a deep roar and charged after Nie Yan.

In an instant, every single Variant Lord in the vicinity was alerted and moved to surround Nie Yan.

All around Nie Yan were Variant Lords. There were at least 50, with the closest only a few meters away.

Ice Rain! 

Hail Frenzy!

A shower of spells rained down on Nie Yan. The melee-class Variant Lords had blocked off his escape routes.

Nie Yan pulled out an Unknown Transfer Scroll and tried to activate it. A notification popped up.

Nie Yan looked up ahead. A fat Shaman in crimson robes had just finished chanting out an incantation and lowered his staff back down.

These Variant Lords all had extremely high combat AI. Their understanding of skills wasn’t any bit inferior to top ranked players. In some ways, they were even better. This was because the calculation abilities of the system were too powerful.

Unknown Transfer Scrolls didn’t work, and all escape routes were sealed off. This was troublesome. Seeing the ice rain and hailstones rain down, Nie Yan activated Shadow Waltz and made a break for it. BANG! BANG! BANG! The place behind him was covered in ice. He could even feel the cold air creeping up on him.

At this moment, two bear form Druids pincered Nie Yan. He couldn’t possible move around their massive frames.

Crap! I’m done for! Nie Yan couldn’t help but despair. With so many Variant Lords swarming him, there was no way he could escape.