The Great Thief

The other difference was that players weren’t allowed to kill the local people who lived here.

If they killed them, a red name would appear above their heads for five minutes. This would make it obvious to everyone that you were a player.

As such, Lu Li chose to only knock out the NPC.

The winning condition for the match was to have the highest score, and points could only be obtained from killing other players.

Most people died during the first minutes that they arrived in the city because they didn’t know how to camouflage themselves.

Lu Li wore the clothes from the NPC as a disguised. While he paced himself to seem like he was in a rush, he would sometimes lower his head to take a bite from the bread in his hands. A policeman stood beside him with no idea that he was actually a player.

These policemen were crucial in the game.

The most frightening NPCs in the game were these policemen, who were the enforcers of law. They were equipped with weapons like tasers or guns, and players had almost no chance of survival if they were up against them.

At the same time, the police were extremely observant, so it was best to just avoid them overall.

Lu Li stood beside the policeman to wait for the red light, then walked across after the lights changed. During this whole time, his expression didn’t change in the slightest.

Perhaps it was because of his past in real life, but Lu Li wasn’t unfamiliar with the police. He knew exactly what would cause them to suspect him.

After passing a street, he walked into a shop on the corner.

"Is the manager here? Can I get a pack of cigarettes? The usual," he asked as he took out some money from his pocket and placed it on the glass counter.

"Take your own cigarette. Just leave the money there."

"How can I do that? You need to come and give me change. Things were fine with you yesterday; what’s wrong with you today?"

With the slightly-blinding white light, he scanned the floor carefully.

"I’m busy, I’ll give you change next time," the person inside responded impatiently.

"Fine, I’m in a hurry home anyway."

In the house, a young man was putting on clothes. A dead man was stripped next to him, only left with his underwear. The young man didn’t expect someone to come in and purchase something now; he knew that he should have closed the door.

Now that he heard the footsteps of the customer leave, he let out a sigh of relief.

The young man put on some clothes and inspected the tiny room in an attempt to find anything that could be useful.

Suddenly, he froze.

In this quiet room, he seemed to have heard the breathing of a second person. It was light, but audible enough to catch his attention.

He turned and waved his fist in one smooth motion, but unfortunately, he missed. He didn’t get the chance to see who was behind him as he felt a pain rush up from his throat.

The structure of the human neck was too fragile; it broke instantly upon impact.

He tried to lift his head to see his attacker, but his consciousness wouldn’t let him as it began to fade. The pain he felt from his body made him curl up like a little shrimp.

Of course, his attacker was Lu Li. He had only made footsteps to trick the player inside into letting down his guard.

The leftover bloodstains on the floor told Lu Li that the real manager of this store was gone. Although it wasn’t that obvious, Lu Li was observant enough to catch on.

His previous action of buying a cigarette was just a test.

After he entered, what he saw in the room was enough to explain everything, not to mention, the young man had a red name. Lu Li didn’t have to worry about killing the wrong person at all.

He tossed the two corpses onto the bed and covered them with a blanket. Lu Li discovered a small, but sharp knife next to the bed. Insecure people would use such weapons to protect themselves, but this one had obviously failed.

It wasn’t smart to stay at a crime scene for long. Lu Li wasn’t as presumptuous as the young man; he left the place as soon as he found the knife.

The System had also rewarded him with five points just then. His reward was slightly better because he had killed someone with a red name.

Lu Li left the store in a hurry with a pack of cigarette in his hands.

He didn’t actually try to find a place to pretend that it was his home; that would make things messy. Some players though of these NPC as stupid people and often got themselves in trouble because of this.

At the same time, there was a time limit to this game, so it was better to earn as many points as possible.

There were some people who decided to hang around the court. As Lu Li walked past, a person dropped to the floor with a quick and fluid movement of his knife.

These were the sort of things that he wouldn’t dare to imagine or do in real life. Virtual reality almost seemed too real.

The man that dropped to the floor was quickly carried away by two policemen. Everyone else didn’t seem to care; they continued with what they were doing. This was probably the only difference between the game and reality.

The person that he had just killed had changed his clothes, but unfortunately, the sizing didn’t match up. Moreover, many of the actions he made were out of a normal NPCs function. The most dangerous place wasn’t always the safest. Being surrounded by NPCs would emphasize how unnatural a player’s actions seemed, unless they were someone like Lu Li.

Along the rivers of the city, plenty of people were fishing. Lu Li placed his work bag beside him and watched an old man fish from the stone steps.

He struck up a conversation with the old man. This wasn’t a usual scene, but there was definitely nothing wrong about it. No player would dare to be so close with a local.

As long as the conversation and actions weren’t too forced, and you really thought of yourself as a local, you would be safe most of the time.

Lu Li used the old man as a cover for himself as he continued to inspect how many players smuggled themselves into this zone.

After he had investigated enough, he made a stretch and waved goodbye to the old man in a friendly manner, then walked towards the closest player, pretending to not be aware of anything.

The player pretended he was fishing; he had already seen Lu Li coming towards him.

However, because Lu Li was talking to the old man before as if they had known each other for a long time, he didn’t suspect that he might be a player. When Lu Li walked behind him, he wasn’t on-guard, which ultimately led to his own downfall.