Chapter 273: Warm-up Match (12)

Translator: AtlasStudios  Editor: AtlasStudios

Hubert didn’t know what happened, but the crowds was aware of it. When the swordsman shifted his gaze to the other side, Joey quickly jumped from behind and used his dagger to hit his head. The swordsman was unprepared and directly fell to the ground. The audience only felt their visions go blurry and Joey once again disappeared without a trace.

“Not bad.”

Hiller narrowed his eyes, and then he looked at Shawn, who was silent.

“What do you think?”

“It’s okay.”

Although Shawn didn’t give the answer Hiller had hoped for, Hiller still laughed as he heard his answer. He reached out his hand and patted Shawn’s shoulder. After that, he turned around to look at another man not far from him. Noticing Hiller’s gaze, the man showed an awkward expression.

“Not bad, not bad. What do you think, Hawk?”

“This… This…”

Hearing Hiller’s question, Hawk’s expressions was both angry and awkward, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He forced himself to smile and nod at Hiller. However, he was unable to say anything, because he didn’t know what to say either.

Hawk was the leader of the Mark White mercenary group. It was understandable why would he be awkward. Previously due to the power struggle of the Mark White mercenary group, Anne as the failed representative was removed from the group and Rhode accepted her. After that, three of Anne’s friends also followed her to Starlight. At that time, Hawk didn’t really care about it. In his opinion, although Anne was strong, her character was too troublesome. Plus, she was too simple and couldn’t hide her emotions well. That kind of person might destroy the stability and unity of a mercenary group. Therefore, since Starlight was willing to pay, they were naturally willing to transfer her to another place. As for those rookies? Who cared about them?

At that time, in his eyes, those rookies were totally worthless, but now… it seemed as if someone had slapped him in his face.

Anne, Randolf, Joey.

These people were recruited from Mark White, and everyone knew that. However, before, everyone also thought the same as Hawk—that those people wouldn’t be able to create anything big. As a result, no one really cared about them. But now… seeing Joey’s performance, he almost spurted out blood.

Although barely a few minutes had passed, Hawk had realized that Joey had reached the level of a first-rate Thief, and even the head Thief in his own group was not as good as Joey in his concealment skill. What’s more, that kid had actually gotten Shawn’s recognition!

Even though Shawn only said ‘it’s okay’, but Hawk understood it clearly. To make him say something like that, it meant that he had gotten his recognition. It had to be said that even the head of Thief in his group was only classified as ‘trash’ by Shawn.

Now Hawk felt his face burning in pain. He knew that after this battle, his Mark White mercenary group would definitely be ridiculed. There were four people who were abandoned by them because they were thought to be worthless, and now three of them had become powerful elite… Ah also, that little girl Lapis also seemed to become an independent alchemist. Starlight’s alchemical potions that made people jealous were actually crafted by her…

Damn it, why did that girl never show this ability when she was in his Mark White?

Needless to say, Hawk understood that after this battle, his Mark White mercenary group would definitely become an object of ridicule, and he would be brandished as an idiot who couldn’t see the potential of others. Otherwise, why did these people, including Anne, who were only mediocre in Mark White, turn powerful after they entered Starlight?

Just look at Joey’s performance now. Not only could the White Robe mercenary group not find him, even he, who was sitting on the top, couldn’t figure out where Joey was hiding. In just a few months, how did a guy who was nothing but a rookie in everyone’s mind suddenly become so tough?

In fact, what he feared actually wasn’t being branded as a narrow-minded person—such thing was just a trivial matter. For a mercenary, pride wasn’t really much of an importance. Not to mention someone like him—who gained his leader position through disgraceful means. His thick skin could even compete with the thief who copy pasted their work from Baidu and claimed it to be his own work. This level of ridicule was nothing more than pain in the face, and the pain would soon pass.

If that was the only matter, then he wouldn’t be worried. He was actually worried about one other thing. He was afraid that this matter would bring a negative impact to his mercenary group. Mercenaries were human beings. Naturally, they expected themselves to grow and get stronger. For them, a powerful mercenary group leader wasn’t just their supporter, but also their guide. Everyone hoped to get stronger, and not weaker under his leadership. If he really was nicknamed a narrow-minded person, then he could be sure that there would be no more mercenaries who dared to join the Mark White mercenary group. Not only that, the members of the Mark White mercenary group who were not recognized by him might also choose to leave.

This was the most worrying part for him.

At this moment, he was looking at Hubert with clenched teeth.

What the hell are you doing?! The opponent is just a rookie; can’t you deal with him?

“What are you guys doing, that guy is just a rookie!!”

Right now, Hubert was, of course, unable to hear what Hawk was thinking. Like Hawk, Hubert clenched his teeth and shouted at his men. At the same time, he waved his hand, signaling for his other two subordinates to come up onto the stage. His action led to booing from the audience, but now, he couldn’t care about such thing. He had just realized that this rookie was actually difficult to deal with. He and his subordinates had already swept through the entire ring, but they couldn’t see his shadow.

Is this Thief actually strong?

Hubert was shaken.

At this moment, Joey was hiding in the corner, standing still while secretly watching the crowd.

A Thief had to be able to withstand loneliness. He couldn’t take any actions unless he was absolutely sure. Otherwise, the unlucky one would be him.

This was what Joey had learned from the Mirage. He had never been so deeply aware of the horror of loneliness. At that time, he felt as if he was the only one left in the world and all the people around him had disappeared. This feeling of panic and loneliness almost made him collapse. Feelings of worry and hesitation of the assassination had disappeared because at that time, Joey seemed to be extremely happy.

He would rather have a dagger pierce his body than become crazy in that endless loneliness.

Even so, he still persisted.

A first-class Thief not only had to learn to accept loneliness and endure loneliness, but had to learn to integrate with loneliness and completely erase their own sense of existence. Even if he stood there, as long as he did not actively appear, there would be no one able to perceive his existence. This was a peak-level Thief’s skill.

Of course, the current Joey had not yet reached that state. But for him, using his current skills was enough to deal with these mercenaries.

The second one.

Joey focused his sight on the second target. He moved slowly once again and arrived behind him. He took out the dagger under his cloak and carefully looked at his target’s back. Then, Joey took a deep breath. He leaped up, flipped over the hilt, and tried to knock his opponent out.

Clang!!

At this time, a shining sword appeared from the side and blocked his attack.

Did I just fail?

When Joey turned his head, he saw Hubert’s face.

Finally, I caught him!!

As a leader of a mercenary group, of course, Hubert wasn’t weak. Although what he did before in the ring seemed to be in vain, but he wasn’t as stupid as to wait to be beaten by the opponent. From the previous battle, Hubert had been aware of the opponent’s method, so he deliberately let the remaining two mercenaries go into the ring in order to increase the bait to lure Joey out. From the surface it seemed that the four of them were scattered, but carefully looking at them, it could be seen that no matter where they went, they always maintained a considerable distance. Since Hubert was concentrating on guarding his subordinates’ back, he would be able to detect Joey’s movement and react immediately. Of course, if Joey were to sneak up on him, Hubert would be dead already. However, he still decided to do so. After all, the current situation was to their disadvantage. He would bet that there was a chance. The ratio was 1:3; if Joey didn’t attack him, then he would win this bet!

It had to be said that Hubert placed the right bet. Although Joey had trained for several days in the mirage, he still didn’t have enough battle experience. The reason he didn’t choose Hubert was because he was still a rookie inside.

In the eyes of rookie mercenaries like him, the leader was the most powerful. It would be difficult to attack him and the chance of failure was bigger. Therefore, it was better to start with those who were slightly weaker because the winning chance was higher.

Of course, this idea was understandable in Joey’s opinion, but now, this idea also put him in a bind.

After blocking Joey’s attack, Hubert didn’t stop there.He kept swinging his sword, trying to corner him. At the same time, the other three turned around and formed a circle to surround him.

When Joey finally reacted, he was already encircled.

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