399 Chapter 399 - Southern Lone Blade, the Professional Larcenis (2/2)

Southern Lone Blade was considered to be an accomplished professional larcenist. He no longer dabbled with extortion or theft in the streets. Those players that had to find ways to sell off the equipment they got from their targets themselves were nothing but small fry in the business.

Southern Lone Blade, on the other hand, had painstakingly operated his business for such a long time had already created his own seller's market, where people would often look for him to make requests and purchases. Usually, that meant the equipment he hunted for was far more unusual, exclusive to the point that such items could not be regularly found in the market.

Take, for example, those players who flaunted their one-of-a-kind equipment or skill scrolls they had in their possession on the forums. Such people were often the sort that would become Southern Lone Blade's targets. Plenty of clients would reach out to him and indicate the particular equipment they were looking for. These clients of his would not care to ask how they acquired said item, and would only provide the expected payment for said acquisition, which was of course an exorbitant sum.

The income of those lowly robbers on the street depended on the items they fenced. But what Southern Lone Blade was selling was his labor cost. This really gave off the feeling that he was more of a bounty hunter for items, with some people even thinking he was rather cool, as if they were not just a bunch of malicious individuals hunting people for their equipment.

However, Southern Lone Blade was very well aware of his status. Within the Five Unyielding Experts, Svelte Dancer was a top pay-to-win warrior in MMOs, whose name was known across the whole scene; Deep Waters was a specialist, the leader of the most powerful guild in Linyin City; Eternal Dominion led his mercenary group, Eternal War, and possessed the ability to oppress even the guilds in his city; while the name Drifting was renowned, having travelled to many cities. He was the Five Unyielding Expert whom plenty of players had seen and met the most.

Southern Lone Blade was obviously the most low-key out of the five. He had neither a guild nor mercenary group to his name, spending his days like the average player, never causing too much of a scene. There were not even many players who knew him in Linshui City.

The reason why he had worked so hard to attain a spot as one of the Five Unyielding Experts was entirely for the sake of establishing a strong foundation for his business. While not everybody knew one another and only had distrust towards one another, the moniker as one of the Five Unyielding Experts would naturally be a powerful symbol of his strength. It was through this that he had managed to obtain so many of his clients.

Now that his business had stabilized, Southern Lone Blade no longer cared too much about his identity as one of the Five Unyielding Experts. It was just that he had worked too hard getting to the point he was at that no one had managed to surpass him after he had slacked off. Southern Lone Blade had originally aimed to be the number one in Parallel World, but the ferocity of the apex pay-to-win warrior made this an insurmountable dream. Meanwhile, the experience he had accumulated placed him far ahead of the other three in the top five, making it difficult for anyone else to eclipse him easily.

Purposefully losing his level would have been the most effective and simplest method to achieve this, yet Southern Lone Blade was afraid that doing so would simply damage the image of strength that he had managed to build to his clients, making him somewhat hesitant making the move accordingly.

Upon respawning back in Linshui City, Southern Lone Blade began to make preparations for the next step. While the players involved on either side remained unchanged, having the home ground advantage now made things much easier for him.

First, arrival at Linshui City would require a watercraft, and the system's ferry service had a near faultless punctuality, becoming a uniquely impactful criterion when setting up an ambush in Linshui City. There were only a few hours where the ferry would arrive from Luori City, so all Southern Lone Blade had to do was watch and wait during these allocated times, and there was no way he would miss out on his opportunity.

The only problem was the fact that even though Gu Fei was his only target, he had plenty of other players accompanying him.

This was precisely the reason why Southern Lone Blade gave up striking in Linshui City and rushed to Luori City instead. He had hoped to capitalize during the mess that was the final segment of the quest to provide himself with a window of opportunity. However, he did not expect the other party to have seen through his intentions from the start, and was played like a fiddle. He may have made his way to Luori City, but he did not even catch a glimpse of his target, in the end!

There was even news from Luori City that the man had actually took up a PvP match against Eternal Dominion on the streets, and the rumor went that Eternal Dominion had actually made up an excuse and fled because he was not able to beat that Mage.

Linshui City neighboured Luori City, so players from Luori City would occasionally spend the time to travel all the way over to Linshui City to enjoy the beach, barbecued fish, and liquor. Naturally, that meant the matters of someone as famous as Eternal Dominion from Luori City would also be propagated rapidly throughout Linshui City.

In the words of these players from Luori City, did Eternal Dominion become part of the Five Unyielding Experts because of his level? That was not what was so scary about him. What made him truly fearsome was his prowess when it came to PvP. He was a Fighter who mainly engaged in melee combat with his enemies, and had never once suffered a defeat.

Saying that might be a little redundant. After all, if he had lost any PvP match, he would have then died and dropped his level accordingly. For someone in the Five Unyielding Experts to remain as indomitable as he was, would that not prove that he had never lost a PvP match, and consequently his level?

But what Eternal Dominion had gone through was far from this. According to players from Luori City, ever since that man was a newbie, he had fought against ten or even twenty players like it was no big deal. During those times, Eternal Dominion would be found holding his hand against his brow with a wry smile, surveying the street he was standing on that was now littered with the fallen bodies of other players, like a scene staged straight from the classics. That was how Eternal Dominion's name became as renowned as it was.

In the hearts and minds of these players from Luori City, Eternal Dominion would be just as scary even if he was not considered one of the Five Unyielding Experts; he was just like an undefeated icon to them!

But this man had finally lost, and he lost to the Video Mage.

Looks like I must re-evaluate the capabilities of this Mage, Southern Lone Blade considered thoughtfully...