17 minutes ago, Ward 906.
As the two arcs of light rushed straight at Bai Liu, Liu Huai fell from the ceiling with his daggers in both hands, gritting his teeth to block them. He directly smashed Miao Feichi's double knives into the wall. Meanwhile, Bai Liu used the full speed of Thief Moving Stealthily to rush past Miao Feichi.
Miao Feichi squinted and watched Bai Liu pass below him like a swallow touching water, rushing past Mu Ke behind him.
"Fuck!" Miao Feichi's knives cut down at Bai Liu, slipping past him, but his knives were tightly caught by Liu Huai's daggers. Liu Huai used all his strength and stuck his daggers into Miao Feichi's double knives. The daggers slid down the double knives and cut hard at Miao Feichi.
At the same time, his hand was severely cut by Miao Feichi's double knives.
[System notification: Player Miao Feichi has been fully attacked by Liu Huai's shadow daggers. Your mental value has dropped to 43 and entered the danger zone of hallucinations!]
[System notification: Player Liu Huai has been attacked by Miao Feichi's double knives, and your health has dropped by 13.]
Liu Huai raised his head and resisted a scream. His arm was hooked by a curved knife, and a piece of flesh fell to the ground. Still, the effect he achieved was very obvious. Miao Feichi backed away two steps in a daze. The reason why he didn't like Mu Sicheng was that Miao Feichi's resistance attribute wasn't high.
This resistance wasn't high, whether it was against a player like Mu Sicheng with high skill judgment or Liu Huai, who attacked mental value.
Thieves and Assassins are supposed to be a high-judgement pairing for low resistance players.
But only as time passed, everyone forgot about Liu Huai, the puppet-turned-assassin standing in the shadows, and could only see the shiny, arrogant thief.
" Feichi! Bai Liu has joined forces with Liu Huai! We've been ambushed! Drink the mental bleach!!!" Miao Gaojiang shouted at Miao Feichi.
After seeing Bai Liu rush toward Mu Ke in his hand, Miao Gaojiang instantly sobered up. He twisted his hand on Mu Ke's neck to try to kill this player, but Bai Liu on the ground was like a gust of wind. He used a speed invisible to the naked eye to step on the ground several times, leaving a few intermittent afterimages as he came to Miao Gaojiang.
Miao Gaojiang subconsciously reached out to block Bai Liu's attack, but Bai Liu only made a false move, his calm eyes instantly fixed on the choking Mu Ke in Miao Gaojiang's hand, and the monkey claw of his left hand reached out and grabbed, pulling Mu Ke's back collar out of Miao Gaojiang's arms at a weird twisted angle. With a twist of the monkey's paw, he pulled Mu Ke's back collar out of Miao Gaojiang's arms and threw it onto the slippery corridor.
[System notification: Player Bai Liu has used the personal skill 'Thief's Monkey Hand' to successfully steal player Mu Ke from player Miao Gaojiang.]
The choked Mu Ke was thrown out by Bai Liu. He slid down the corridor for some distance and hit the elevator door at the end of the corridor. He realized he was alive and got up with a cough as he looked at Bai Liu, who was in a battle with Miao Gaojiang. His head was dizzy, and he couldn't figure out the situation for a moment.
Bai Liu spoke coldly, "Take the elevator down and call the nurses patrolling the other floors!"
Although it was not clear what was going on, Mu Ke, who had been wrestled to the elevator door by Bai Liu, quickly understood Bai Liu's orders and fumbled to open the elevator and went in, pressing it down to the ground floor for dear life, Miao Gaojiang was stopped by Bai Liu and eventually Mu Ke looked at the closed doors and leaned back against the smooth elevator wall in defeat.
Soon, Mu Ke realized what Bai Liu was doing and sat up with an expression of shock.
Was Bai Liu crazy? He actually went to team up with Liu Huai to attack the Miao duo!
Miao Gaojiang looked in front of him at Bai Liu, who was constantly attacking him from every angle. He had the exact same thought as Mu Ke.
He let Liu Huai, an A-ranked player, slow down Miao Feichi, a high attack player. Meanwhile, Bai Liu had low health, and he would attack the thick-skinned tank player like himself.
What type of messy plan was this? Was Bai Liu crazy?
Miao Gaojiang's confused thoughts of shock and disbelief froze after seeing the black monkey's paw that Bai Liu reached out to him.
This was Mu Sicheng's skill, Thief's Monkey Paw.
"This is Mu Sicheng's skill. How can you use it?" Miao Gaojiang stared at Bai Liu fiercely. He couldn't believe it as he looked at Bai Liu attacking him and soon understood what happened. "Your personal skill is a rule skill? You can not only share backpacks, but you can also share skills across latitude and time?!"
Bai Liu didn't answer Miao Gaojiang and just kept attacking without mercy. Miao Gaojiang gritted his teeth to cope with Bai Liu's attacks while looking at Miao Feichi, who was held back by Liu Huai.
This familiar team operation finally made Miao Gaojiang realize Bai Liu's plan.
This was a very simple battle plan. Bai Liu wasn't trying to fight them at all. He was using a very old method.
It was a very simple thief and assassin routine.
Bai Liu wanted to steal something from them. He took advantage of the assassin Liu Huai's ambush of Miao Feichi. The assassin held back the high attack player, which was equivalent to keeping a lookout. As a thief, Bai Liu took the opportunity to steal something from another player, Miao Gaojiang. This was a routine often used by Mu Sicheng and Liu Huai in the early game against guild team players.
The assassin Liu Huai set up an ambush, distracting the player with relatively high attack power. Then Mu Sicheng would steal items from other players.
Miao Gaojiang once again dodged the monkey's hand as it grazed his cheek. Gritting his teeth, he lashed out with a vicious punch at Bai Liu, but Bai Liu agilely avoided it.
Damn it! This was exactly why they didn't want to run into Mu Sicheng. A thief's skills were slippery and incredibly difficult to deal with.
Bai Liu's attacks couldn't injure Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang, two S-grade players, but they also couldn't easily catch Bai Liu, whose speed was exceptionally high. This created a deadlock. However, Bai Liu's persistent attempts to steal made Miao Gaojiang wary. He realized that Bai Liu was trying to take something important from him.
For the sake of that item, Bai Liu had risked all their lives on this sneak attack.
Thinking of this, Miao Gaojiang couldn't help cursing inwardly. Was this the fucking path a normal player would take? This guy had actually placed all his chips on the game-generated child NPCs. He was stalling them to give those children a chance to escape!
Even so, what item could possibly hold back two S-grade players?
Such an item would have to be decisive—something capable of delivering a one-hit kill. Otherwise, Bai Liu's thief-and-assassin strategy would be meaningless. If the item couldn't cripple them to the point where they lost their ability to fight back, Miao Feichi, with his high attack and speed, would instantly kill the three of them once he recovered.
Such an item simply didn't exist.
Miao Gaojiang wasn't being arrogant; he was stating an objective fact. He didn't possess any weapon capable of breaking through his own resistance panel.
So what exactly was Bai Liu trying to steal from him?!
No matter what it was, it should've been impossible for Bai Liu to succeed.
Miao Gaojiang's mind raced as he glanced at Miao Feichi, who was being restrained by Liu Huai. He stopped panicking and fully calmed down. There was a major flaw in Bai Liu's plan. After Liu Huai led Miao Feichi away, Bai Liu wouldn't be able to steal from Miao Gaojiang so easily.
The abilities displayed by an F-grade panel using the Thief's Monkey Hand were too limited. Even if Miao Gaojiang couldn't land an attack, Bai Liu simply couldn't break through his defense to steal anything.
Especially not after he activated his personal skill.
[System notification: Does player Miao Gaojiang wish to fully activate your personal skill "Carrion Zombie"? After full activation, your personal skill will be upgraded to S-grade, but your physical strength will be heavily overconsumed. It cannot be restored with a physical strength recovery agent for 24 hours.]
Miao Gaojiang replied: [Yes.]
[System notification: Player Miao Gaojiang has chosen to activate the skill. Your body has transformed into a zombie. Defense +8,037. Physical strength is rapidly decreasing…]
Miao Gaojiang's body grew unnaturally tall. His skin turned blue and thickened, and two fangs extended from his mouth. His eyes glowed with an eerie blue light.
When Bai Liu's monkey hand reached out and touched Miao Gaojiang's skin, the sound of metal striking metal rang out, as if his fingernails had scraped against an iron plate.
[System notification: The Thief's Monkey Hand attack power is too low. Attack invalid.]
Miao Gaojiang's palms grew larger; his nails blackened and lengthened. He turned toward Bai Liu.
Unable to land a hit, Bai Liu lightly stepped against the wall and used his speed to evade Miao Gaojiang's strike. Miao Gaojiang's claws tore into the wall behind him, shattering it. Yet the sudden transformation didn't cause Bai Liu's attacks to falter.
His eyes were cold, showing no concern over his ineffective strikes. He pushed off the wall, swiftly pivoted, and extended his monkey hand again toward Miao Gaojiang.
Miao Gaojiang was completely calm now. He stood still, no longer chasing Bai Liu, but waiting for his prey to exhaust its strength like a patient old hunter.
Based on the data, once he activated his skill, Bai Liu couldn't steal anything from him. Even so, he didn't act rashly. He only needed to wait for Miao Feichi to kill Liu Huai. Once they regrouped, the two of them would need only a few minutes to finish off Bai Liu.
Bai Liu himself seemed aware that if this quick assault failed, he would die. That was why he had asked Mu Ke to go downstairs to call the nurses—it was his insurance plan.
If Bai Liu and Liu Huai couldn't end the fight quickly, they would inevitably fall into a disadvantage. Bai Liu would then attempt to use the nurses—NPCs with certain restraining abilities—to hold back Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang.
But—
"I think that before the nurses arrive to save you—" Miao Gaojiang sneered, "our battle here will already be over. When they come, they'll just be collecting corpses."
Bai Liu crouched in the corridor, looking up at Miao Gaojiang from below with a strangely condescending gaze. He replied lightly, "I agree with your point of view."
It took Miao Gaojiang a moment to realize that Bai Liu meant they would be the corpses collected. His expression turned ugly as he cursed, "You fucking dead men sure talk tough!"