Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

Asskickers United had less flying mounts than Angel Corps from the start, but the distance between them only got bigger. Nevertheless, they still held the advantage when it came to high rank flying mounts.

According to the reports sent by Guo Huai, Angel Corps had mobilized over 1,000 flying mounts. They were preparing to have a final showdown with Asskickers United. Online on the public forums, they had already issued a declaration of challenge. Asskickers United had no way of backing down. The entire server was waiting to see how they would respond.

Nie Yan glanced at his pet window. The Darkwing Dragon had yet to fully recover, but it was back at at least 70% of its full strength. Meanwhile, the Spectre Dragon had already reached the peak of Rank 6 and was only a step away from breaking through to Rank 7. As for Xie Yao’s Immortal Phoenix, he wasn’t sure how much it had matured.

Asskickers United was definitely capable of going toe-to-toe with the enemy. However, since Angel Corps dared to issue a challenge, that meant they naturally came prepared. He wasn’t willing to gamble away the lives of his main force, especially when they didn’t need to.

Nie Yan pondered for a moment before whispering Guo Huai,「Help me get in touch with Plenty.」

「You want to ask for Fallen Angel’s help to deal with Angel Corps?」Guo Huai asked.

「Yes. Fallen Angel and Angel Corps are sworn enemies. Fallen Angel wants to get rid of them even more than we do. They’d be more than willing to lend us a helping hand in wiping out Angel Corps’ aerial force,」Nie Yan said with a faint smile.

It didn’t take long for Nie Yan to get in touch with Plenty and explain his plan. Sure enough, Fallen Angel immediately agreed to help and dispatched their most elite aerial force to help Asskickers United in this battle.

Nie Yan felt all the more confident. With the help of Fallen Angel, the situation had become a lot less troublesome. Now all he had to do was wait for help to arrive. The more effort Fallen Angel put in, the less casualties Asskickers United would suffer.

「Remember you had me investigate the connection between Fallen Angel and Angel Corps? Well, I found something interesting. Want to guess what it is?」Guo Huai asked.

「Stop with the suspense. Just tell me.」

「Have you heard of the Brutus Capital Group?」

「I have. What about it?」

「The members of the Brutus Capital Group come from all over the world, but their main operations are focused in Europe. At their peak, they were rumoured to have controlled over 50% of all global economic activity. Though they’re not what they were a few decades ago, a starved camel is still larger than a horse. They are a true unshakeable leviathan. In the present day, the leaders of six European nations are from the Brutus Capital Group.

「It was founded by a few men. Initially, no one else was accepted in. Only later did they expand to a little over 200 members, until finally 200 years ago, they started accepting descendants of their members. Each new generation, they select the most talented youth to become the successor. This era just happens to have two extremely talented descendants. So, the leader will be selected from the two of them.」

「So you’re saying these two descendants are Soaring Angel and Plenty?」

「Correct. Furthermore, as per tradition, the companies under the Brutus Capital Group never go public on the market. So, it’s difficult to find out the true depths of their assets. All we know is that their resources are pretty much endless. Their wealth far exceeds that of the six richest people in the world combined, and they’re capable of influencing the political sphere of several dozen nations.

「One final thing of note. It’s rumoured that when the federation was developing Conviction, they received an enormous amount of financial support from the Brutus Capital Group.」

This revelation left Nie Yan completely speechless. He wanted to know what Soaring Angel and Plenty’s backgrounds were since he first ran into them. He knew they were influential heirs from Europe, but he didn’t expect that their influence reached so deep. No wonder Fallen Angel was sparing no effort to wipe out Angel Corps!

「The higher-ups of the Brutus Capital Group gather once every five years. Their next meeting is in two years, and that’s when their new leader will be selected. Until then, the power Soaring Angel and Plenty can utilize is limited. However, suffice to say, we have to make sure Soaring Angel doesn’t become the leader. It’d be really bad for us,」Guo Huai said.

Nie Yan roughly understood the situation. Soaring Angel and Plenty were currently only members of the Brutus Capital Group. Fallen Angel’s victory might not necessarily be a good thing for Asskickers United. But if Angel Corps won, the Brutus Capital Group would undoubtedly become an existence that could threaten World Bloc! Between these two options, picking Fallen Angel was the lesser of two evils!

Nie Yan started mobilizing Asskickers United’s forces. They gathered in the central square in the City of Sin and summoned their various flying mounts.

In the middle of this, Bladelight, Undying Scoundrel, and several others came walking over, fuming with anger.

“That bastard Soaring Angel killed 16 of our members in an ambush! We almost got him, but those damn wings! That rat really can run fast!” Undying Scoundrel cursed.

Asskickers United had no method to deal with Soaring Angel for the moment. Those wings gave him a massive advantage. He could easily utilize them to fish up some easy benefits. Both sides only had a few thousand true elites. Killing 20 of them was an amazing result.

“Have you thought of a way to deal with him?” Nie Yan asked.

“Not really. We can only try and have the Magisters lock him down, but that bastard is really cautious. He ran the moment he saw our Masters coming. He won’t fight us dammit!”

Nie Yan recalled the Demon Feather in his bag. If he could find the other materials, he could craft Demon Wings. Then he’d have a way of dealing with Soaring Angel. It was a pity he had no time to do this quest.

“Let’s think of a way to deal with Angel Corps’ aerial force first,” Nie Yan said. He’d received word that the reinforcements from Fallen Angel were already on their way here. However, the next report said they were intercepted by Pantheon.

“How many flying mounts do we have?” Nie Yan asked.

“900 in the City of Sin. We have a few more rushing over right now,” Paladin of the Elegy said.

“Nie Yan, there is a boss that drops the Dragon King Fruit. If we can get it, it might help your Darkwing Dragon break through,” Bladelight suddenly recalled.

“Where is that boss located?” Nie Yan asked skeptically. Their battle with Angel Corps was about to begin. Why would Bladelight suddenly mention a boss?

“Bladelight, don’t you think it’s a bit too late to go hunting a boss?” Smoke Stub asked with knitted brows.

“It’s not too late. It’s right in the middle of World’s Edge. We can get it easily done in half-an-hour. I don’t believe for a second we’ll start fighting before then. Let’s take advantage of this time. If we can get the Dragon King Fruit, we’ll earn big. Think about it, the Darkwing Dragon is already a Rank 8 flying mount. If it eats the Dragon King Fruit and breaks through to Rank 9, everything will change,” Bladelight said with a smile.

Everyone became silent. Flying mounts were different from other creatures. A difference of two or three ranks was enormous. For example, Rank 6 flying mounts could only deal very little damage to Rank 8 flying mounts, and Rank 5 flying mounts pretty much could do nothing at all. If Asskickers United had a Rank 9 Darkwing Dragon, they could completely decimate Angel Corps’ aerial force. At that time, only the few Rank 7 flying mounts from Angel Corps could deal any damage to the Darkwing Dragon.

Bladelight’s words reminded everyone of how frightening a Rank 9 flying mount would be.

“So, are you up for it?” Bladelight asked Nie Yan. Now, everyone was waiting for his decision.

“Tell me about the boss,” Nie Yan said. A boss that dropped a super rare item like the Dragon King Fruit definitely wouldn’t be simple.

“Fallen Angel Brufut, a Level 180 golden monster. He is in a special underground dungeon. Once we open it, no one else can enter. It has a maximum size of 30 people,” Bladelight said.

“What are our chances of killing that boss?”

Everyone was curious for Bladelight’s assessment.

“I’m not sure. Both Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group have sent teams into that dungeon, but they wiped every time. I’ve collected some data. Take a look,” Bladelight said. What Angel Corps and the Century Financial Group couldn’t accomplish wasn’t something they necessarily couldn’t. After all, they had the best tanks, healers, and damage dealers in all of the game.

“Looking at the data, I say we have at least a 60% chance,” Smoke Stub concluded. They had fought at least several hundred if not a thousand bosses in World’s Edge. On some days, they would beat a dozen. He had ample experience. So, his judgement could be considered fairly accurate.

“If our chances are that good, let’s give it a try!” Undying Scoundrel said.

Dungeons were different from other places. With no chances of anyone disturbing them, even if they wiped, they could simply run back to their corpses to revive. Even if they dropped their equipment, they could simply pick it back up. The experience they lost was reduced too. If they could kill the boss within three wipes, they would come out ahead. Only if a team consistently wiped to a boss, without any hope of beating it, would it be disadvantageous to enter a dungeon.

Everyone gazed at Nie Yan. So long as he gave the word, they would immediately set out.

“Bladelight, you gather the members. Have everyone else remain on standby in the World’s End Bar,” Nie Yan said. The City of Sin had one fairly safe location, and that was the World’s End Bar. The owner was a Legendary Mage. So, no one dared to cause trouble there. It was a place of refuge.

Three minutes later, Nie Yan and the others broke away from public view and secretly set out.