Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

The 500 players spread out across the hall and slowly approached Bencroft. King of the World and Sun arrived within 80 meters of him. They took out their crossbows and fired. Whoosh whoosh whoosh! A volley of bolts flew through the air.

Bencroft brandished his greatsword and knocked down multiple bolts.

Put put put! Several bolts struck Bencroft. 

−1Miss!−1...

The Mages waved their staffs. A shower of magic rained down on Bencroft. However, their spells were barely breaking into the double digits.

Bencroft was a defensive type boss. Nie Yan didn’t have high hopes of killing him. He just wanted the team members to lead Bencroft away long enough for him to open the other two chests.

They quickly found a steady rhythm. Though the battle looked chaotic, one would eventually notice a sense of order. If Bencroft were to charge over toward them, they could scatter and withdraw at the drop of a hat. 

“Annoying pests!” Bencroft growled. He was a Warrior. Even his longest distance ranged attack only had a range of 10 meters. If he wanted to deal with these Mages, he would have no choice but to charge at them and leave the chests unguarded.

「Keep up the damage!」Nie Yan ordered in voice chat. Sweeping his eyes over the team members, he inwardly sighed. It was a shame Tang Yao couldn’t be here. With him missing, their damage output took a noticeable dip.

“ARRRGHH!” Bencroft’s patience reached its limit. He charged at the Mages.

“He’s coming!”

“Everyone, retreat!”

The team members immediately scattered in all directions.

Bencroft failed to catch anyone. He could continue chasing after them and kill quite a few of these pests. However, as he looked over his shoulder, he was already quite far from the throne. Worried for the chests, he decided to retreat.

Seeing Bencroft returning to his original spot, the team members stopped running and came back.

Bencroft was visibly annoyed. Even though these 500 players dealt very little damage to him, to the extent that it wasn’t even enough to overcome his health regeneration, he still felt extremely depressed.

“Scram, you vermin!” Bencroft roared.

His words were ignored, as the players of Asskickers United continued testing his bottom line.

Bencroft couldn’t hold back his anger any longer and charged toward the team members again.

Seeing this, Nie Yan immediately rushed toward the throne. As he arrived in front of the chests, he was shocked to discover that the red one had respawned!

Blue, green, and red, three chests lay before him. Nie Yan knew one of them contained Abak’s Leg Guards of Focus, and at least one other would erupt into flames. He had a one in three chance of picking the right chest. 

Nie Yan gazed into the distance. The infuriated Bencroft had started murdering all in range of his blade. Anyone that was caught by him was instantly cut down, including Bladelight!

Logically speaking, Bladelight should be able to withstand at least a single attack. After all, his defense was even higher than that of Lil’ Gold and Paladin Lafus. However, Bencroft’s attacks had an additional armour break effect. When Bladelight attempted to block, his armour was broken, and he was instantly killed!

Seismic Slam!

Bencroft slammed his greatsword into the ground, unleashing a shock wave that sent over 10 players flying.

The team members were dying left and right. They’d come to Nie Yan’s aid not to kill a great boss, but to give him a precious few seconds at the cost of their lives. However, he couldn’t make a decision. He hesitatingly stared at the three chests in front of him. Which one contained the leg guards!? Bencroft would be back any second, he had to hurry!

Just as Nie Yan was about to select the green chest, Bencroft came rushing back. Nie Yan hurriedly fled with Shadow Waltz.

The ground was littered with corpses. 

「What are our casualties?」Nie Yan asked.

「70 dead!」

Nie Yan’s eyes went wide in surprise. Not even 20 seconds had passed, yet Bencroft had already killed 70 players!

「Revive them,」Nie Yan said. He glanced over at Bencroft with a brooding expression. Just which chest contained the Leg Guards of Focus? Red, green, or blue?

Nie Yan was endlessly vexed. He could only rely on his luck. A one in three chance of success. Every attempt would result in the loss of many lives!

Nie Yan felt like he was in a haze. It’d be so much simpler if there were a hint. However, there was nothing. Even the Holy Stone didn’t provide any help. 

Bencroft had at least some intelligence. Knowing that King of the World, Sun, and the others were trying to lead him away, he wouldn’t leave the throne for long.

Bencroft is intelligent… Nie Yan suddenly had a flash of insight. Right! The red chest contained a trap. Normally, if a player discovered a chest was booby trapped, they wouldn’t pick it again and try the other ones instead. Bencroft had likely moved the leg guards into the red chest!

Thinking to this point, Nie Yan made up his mind. He would open the red chest again! 

Of course, there was no guarantee the red chest held the leg guards. It was only Nie Yan’s intuition telling him they should be in there.

Bencroft took a look at the three chests. Seeing none of them had been touched, he immediately charged toward the team members again. 

“Crap! Watch out!” The faces of the team members paled. They didn’t even have the time to revive the fallen!

「Keep him busy for at least 30 seconds. I think I figured something out!」Nie Yan said.

「Got it, Boss! Leave it to us! We believe in you!」

The Masters launched an all-out assault on Bencroft. Undying Scoundrel teleported behind him with a Blink. With a wave of his staff, he shot out a barrage of spells. BANG! BANG! BANG! A string of damage values floated up above Bencroft’s head.

Bencroft immediately aggroed onto Undying Scoundrel. He swung around and chopped down with his greatsword. 

Undying Scoundrel blinked around the vicinity non-stop, evading Bencroft’s attacks while retaliating with a shower of magic.

“GOAAARGH!” Bencroft let out an aggravated roar. As the ear-splitting sound swept over Undying Scoundrel, he immediately stiffened up. It was a crowd control skill!

Before Undying Scoundrel had a chance to blink away, a greatsword cleaved right through him, transforming him into a ray of light. Instant kill!

Next up was Summer Bug. He fired a barrage of spells at Bencroft, dodged around, and eventually fell under that fearful greatsword. One by one, the Magisters went up, each performing the same play again. Soon, the last of them died. However, they had bought Nie Yan a precious few seconds.

Nie Yan had already crouched down and started opening the red chest.

“Come on! Come on!” Nie Yan anxiously muttered. From the corner of his eye he saw a stream of notifications pop up of teammates dying. Undying Scoundrel, Summer Bug, he read the names one by one. After the Magisters came the Sword Saints. The chest still wasn’t open! The Guardians, Shadow Dancers, and even the several Archbishops, they all died within seconds of each other. Even Masters were nothing but fodder in front of a Level 180 Demonified Lord!

After he killed all the Masters, Bencroft started heading back to the throne, only to be met with fierce resistance. The weakest vermin were throwing themselves at him without any regard for their own lives!

Bencroft slashed away with his greatsword. Each attack would kill one or two players. However, with hundreds more in front of him, it would take him some time to kill them all.

Bencroft left a trail of corpses in his wake.

Please be right! Please be right! Nie Yan didn’t want their sacrifices to be in vain. CLICK! The lid of the red chest popped open.

Yes! I was right! 

Nie Yan was prepared to escape with Gale Step at any moment. Fortunately, though, he didn’t smell any gunpowder!

Nie Yan’s eyes lit up with elation. He quickly stuck his hand inside the chest. The first thing he fished out was a pair of leg guards. Seeing the familiar designs, his heart threatened to leap out of his chest. Sure enough, it was Abak's Leg Guards of Focus! He had finally completed the Tyrant Abak Set!

Nie Yan hurriedly threw the leg guards into his bag. He stuck his hand back into the chest and pulled out a translucent egg about the size of an adult fist. He could clearly see the infant creature floating inside.

A fairy!

Nie Yan was incredibly excited. Another amazing find! He wondered what kind of fairy this was. In all of Asskickers United, only Tang Yao had a fairy, which had played no small role in helping him become the number one Mage in the game. From this, one could imagine how powerful and rare fairies were.

Giving any type of fairy to a Magister would exponentially increase their battle prowess!

Nie Yan rummaged inside the chest some more. There was nothing else inside. Seeing Bencroft fast approaching, he immediately activated Extreme Vanish and retreated.

The 500-man expedition team had been completely wiped out. The floor was piled high with corpses. When Bencroft returned to the throne, he discovered the red chest was empty. The items inside had vanished. He let out a roar filled with pure rage and started blindly destroying everything around him. His outburst threatened to bring the entire temple down. He wanted to drive the thief out of hiding, but Nie Yan was already long gone.

After rampaging for a long time, Bencroft finally tired himself out and collapsed back onto his throne.

The 26 Shamans revived first. They immediately started reviving the others. One team member after another stood back up.

「Everyone, retreat!」Nie Yan ordered in the voice chat. After getting what he came here for, there was no need to stay any longer.