The Great Thief - Chapter 273

Chapter 273
An audience was permitted for official matches and many players bought entry tickets; the location had a concert-like setup with a widescreen that live-streamed the entire match .


Analysts were even assigned for the popular teams .
The tickets were sold at ten silver coins each, which was cheaper than the price of a movie ticket, but of course, the time span of a match was much shorter than a movie .
If ten thousand people paid for tickets, that would be 1000 gold coins .
Players could receive a 10% profit from this, which was equivalent to $10,000 in real money . This was no small sum; many contestants were aiming for this money .
Lu Li had also entered the competition in his previous life, but unfortunately, his team members weren’t the best and they didn’t manage to get promoted .
As each individual stood on different levels from one another, it was only natural that they each received a different amount of income .
Famous professional contestants such as Jade Flower Lover and Blood Dagger had no problem selling out all 100,000 tickets .
That would be $100,000 of real money earned from a match .
For teams who weren’t as famous, if would be fortunate if they had a few hundred people show up to their match . Some teams didn’t even have a single person show up to their match .
Shadow Cup Gaming Competition: Team Lu Li’s 14th match .
“This is the last match; we’ll be promoted if we win this,” Moonlight said as he waved his axe with excitement .
“There’s no doubt that we’ll be promoted . After all, this is only the preliminaries; it’s nothing to be proud of,” Lu Li replied .
His words were also aimed towards Wandering and Azure Sea Breeze . The two teams that they led had already been successfully promoted an hour ago .
Both of them had been very pleased with themselves after they heard that Lu Li hadn’t passed the preliminaries yet .
While they spoke, their opponents had already entered the match .


The first to enter was a Paladin, the second to enter was also a Paladin and the third…… was still a Paladin .
“An entire team of Paladins…” Moonlight wasn’t impressed .
Warriors and Thieves were damage-output classes, so Moonlight and Lu Li didn’t like plate-armor classes . They didn’t expect to match up against a team consisting of three plate-armor players .
The Paladin class was capable of dealing damage and healing at the same time . It wasn’t an easy class to deal with .
It would also be naive to think of these three Paladins as noobs, as they were able to win their previous matches .
“I’ll whip them . ” March Rain was keen to give it a try .
Paladins were March Rain’s favorite – of all the classes that she could burn mana from, Paladins had the least amount of mana . Besides, the Paladins at this stage all had short legs and they didn’t run any faster than Priests .
“Great, we’ll be relying on you for this match,” Lu Li and Moonlight laughed .
The team of Paladins was only a bit harder to kill than their previous opponents .
Lu Li made some observations before he sneaked up on a Paladin which he believed to be the designated healer .
As soon as Lu Li went into Stealth, one of the Paladins casted Consecration, which caused the ground around them to become heated .
Any Stealtheh units that stood on the area would take damage and consequently be revealed .
Because they had three Paladins, they could constantly cast this skill without any delay between the skill cooldown .
As well as this, Consecration was a skill with little mana cost, so they weren’t afraid about running out of mana .
They truly had the battle-style of a porcupine .
Lu Li circled around them for a bit before he gave up his attempt to charge at them .


The three Paladins held their grounds as they slowly approached March Rain, casting Consecration the entire time .
Their existence was truly a headache .
Moonlight kept a certain distance from them, not in a rush to force a fight .
March Rain waited for them to enter her spell zone before she casted a Mana Burn on the Paladin who charged in front .

The Paladin, who specialized in defense, had very little mana to begin with and after her spell was casted, one fifth of his mana bar disappeared .
Unsurprisingly, the three Paladins sped up their pace and were no longer as synchronized as they were from the start . They immediately saw through March Rain’s plan; this girl had no mercy at all and was trying to burn all of their mana .
At this point in time, Priests were truly the most impressive class!
Given that there was no great difference in gears, level or gaming skills, trying to kill a Priest would be a hopeless attempt .
It would even take a huge amount of effort for Lu Li to kill a top-tier Priest like Stellar Union Silver Radiant . In their previous matches, Moonlight and Lu Li had snuck up together on the healer from the opposing team and used all of their skills to kill them .
March Rain continued backing away at a steady pace as she casted Mana Burn .
She casted Mana Burn as soon as the skill went off cooldown .
If the three Paladins tried to pick up their chasing speed, Moonlight would close in to pressure them .
Paladin A: “Damn, if she keeps burning, I’m going to run out of mana . What do we do?”
So far, they had not run into a Priest who enjoyed burning mana so much, not to mention a Priest who casted the skill with such accuracy .
Mana Burn was a skill that fell from above, so a player with good game awareness and a fast movement speed would be able to dodge it .
However, the three Paladins were afraid of ruining their formation and this lowered their mobility . It was no wonder why they were unable to dodge the Mana Burns .
Paladin B: “We can’t continue like this; we’re getting played by a single Priest . ”
Paladin C: “Fight them head on – we’re on the edge of passing the preliminaries . If we lose this match, I’m going to find a balcony to jump off . ”
Paladin A: “I have this strong feeling, he’s going to have to jump off a balcony this time . ”
Paladin C: “After I die, I’ll come to find you every night . ”
Paladin B: “Big bro, for the safety of your butt, get on with it . We’ll cover you from the back!”
Paladin A used a skill to speed up his pace and charged at March Rain .
Lu Li instantly appeared behind Paladin C, who was the healer, following a flash from his cloak .
Paladin B was tossed into a dilemma – he couldn’t decide if he should continue ahead and kill the opposing healer with his leader, or if he should turn around to save their own healer .
However, among the healing classes, Paladins had the best defensive attributes . After all, they wore plate armor and held a shield in their hands .
As such, he chose to continue forward . After he finished off the healer from the opposing team, he would then turn around and rescue the healer on his own team .
Two Paladins went ahead to attack March Rain while Lu Li controlled the one that was left .
It was true that Lu Li couldn’t kill a Paladin healer within a short time-span, but he had the help of Moonlight . Moonlight immediately charged over and the two violent damage dealers quickly killed the healing Paladin .
After they had killed their target, March Rain still had half of her health bar left .
It was now three against two and the results of the match had already been decided .
System: Congratulations, your team has passed the trials of the preliminaries and has successfully become the 6688th team to be promoted .
According to incomplete statistics, over ten million teams had signed up for the competition in China . Those who were able to win a dozen matches were either elite teams from guilds, or some other very skilled random players .

Around six thousand teams had already completed their matches, but Lu Li and Moonlight dragged on the competition because they wanted to give March Rain some opportunities to practice .
Low rankings meant low audience numbers .
The fifteenth match!
Lu Li and his team ran into fairly decent opponents .
When the match began, a Thief sneaked over to attack March Rain while the Mage also focused on her . It seemed like they wanted to kill her in one go .
Lu Li and Moonlight didn’t dare to let them attack March Rain so freely .
Lu Li used poison on the Thief to reduce his speed and proceeded to stun the Mage with the special effects from his cloak . Moonlight used Whirlwind and happened to deal damage to both enemy players .
The Mage took a huge amount of damage from the Whirlwind and with Lu Li’s constant attacks, he quickly fell .
As soon as the Thief left Whirlwind’s area of effect, Moonlight instantly cancelled it, stunned the Thief with a Charge and broke his armor with a slice from his axe .
The special effect from Execute activated and wiped out 20% of the Thief’s health bar, which was all the health that he had left .
After Lu Li assassinated the Mage, he casted Sprint to chase down the Priest from the opposing team .
The Priest wasn’t even able to protect himself, let alone spare the energy to save their Thief .
Following the Mage, the Thief died to Moonlight as well, while the Priest was taken of shortly thereafter .
Their first match in the regular season had only taken them 35 seconds .