The Great Thief

The Gorilla jumped several yards and easily closed the distance. It jumped high into the air and landed, shaking the earth and creating a mini-earthquake that almost made Lu Li fall over.

There was no point of being in Stealth anymore, so Lu Li transformed into Cat form and ran away.

The Blue Mane Gorilla hesitated for a second when it saw Lu Li’s transformation. In order to add realness to the game, the System gave the Bosses real-life intelligence. It acted surprised and slightly confused when Lu Li turned into a cat.

With the split second of delay, Lu Li managed to increase the distance between them again.

The Gorilla felt ridiculed and appeared to have become even more angry. It grabbed a boulder near him and threw it towards Lu Li.

Lu Li never looked back, but heard the swooshing sound of an object piercing through the air at high speed and immediately changed the direction he was running in.

The momentum made him fall and tumble to the ground. He got up, turned around and saw something that was terrifying.

The boulder thrown by the Gorilla had formed a huge crater where Lu Li would have been if he hadn’t changed direction. If the boulder landed on him, it would have surely been an instant kill.

At first glance, most people would assume the Blue Mane Gorilla to be a melee, close-combat boss.

Lu Li had made the same assumption, but reality slapped him hard in the face when the Gorilla threw the boulder. The throw wasn’t random and reckless, but calculated and precise.

Lu Li decided not to run away in a straight line anymore, but to change directions in order to avoid the ranged attacks.

The Gorilla kept missing the boulders it threw at the little pest in front of him and became irritated. It roared and grabbed more boulders, raining them down towards Lu Li. If this was a skill, then why didn’t the developers add a cooldown to it?

This made things much more difficult for Lu Li.

He wasn’t sure whether he was playing the game or if things were the other way around.

Lu Li finally figured out why there were so many boulders – all the craters on the island had been created by the Gorilla.

Mistakes were unavoidable, even for a top-level player. A boulder finally tracked Lu Li down and sent him flying.

What happens when a small stone collides with a big boulder?

Some would predict that the stone would crack like an egg, but no one had really tested this out before. In this case, Lu Li was the small stone, and instead of cracking, he was tossed into the air.

His HP dropped by a third and the impact sent him flying over 70 to 80 yards.

The only upside to this was that he was now further away from the Boss. He also realised something that he had not thought about this whole time.

Instead of running around aimlessly out in the open, why not run into the forest nearby? Not only would the trees hide his small frame, but they would also block the boulders from reaching him.

Lu Li left the open fields and snuck into the forest nearby.

The Blue Maned Gorilla was too large and his movements were restricted by the trees. Although the trees weren’t enough to stop him from chasing Lu Li, they limited his ability to throw boulders.

"Lu Li, I’ve rescued the princess and I’m heading out towards the beach. Is the Boss stilled aggro onto you?" Laugh Into the Heavens yelled in voice chat.

"Be quiet – I can hear you. It’s still chasing me." Lu Li hid behind a tree and avoided another boulder. He was still able to respond despite being chased.

"I’ll leave first." There was no way that Laugh Into the Heavens could help.

"I’ll go in a full circle around the map and come back to the boat. Tell me when you guys get on and boat and are ready to leave." Lu Li was flustered at first, but now that he had gotten better at avoiding boulders, he was confident that he could easily outrun the Boss. However, he needed to keep aggro in case he returned to his spawn.

Artificial intelligence would never catch up to human intelligence...

From a different perspective, it was quite sad to give an in-game Boss artificial intelligence. As Lu Li glanced back at the boss, he saw that it was howling and pounding its chest hard, frustrated at the whole situation.

The Blue Mane Gorilla had probably never felt these emotions before.

The developers gave the Gorilla King luscious forests and clear blue skies on the island it resided on. However, it was the same trees that decreased the power of his boulders throws.

It had terrifying strength and insane durability, able to trample the giant trees that stood in his path.

Even so, the Gorilla wasn’t invincible because the trees slowed him down and decreased his HP. It tried so hard to catch up to Lu Li, but the distance between them continued to increase.

The Giant Gorilla was so frustrated and was about to burst into tears.

Lu Li stared at the dumb Gorilla that was howling in frustration and knew that he had discovered the limits of this seemingly unconquerable Elite Boss.

Lu Li might not have been able to kill the Gorilla, but it couldn’t do anything to him either.

Just as he thought about taunting the boss again to reset the aggro, he heard countless monkey calls from behind. Lu Li discovered that there were monkeys everywhere that were swarming towards him.

Some were running on the ground, while others swung along the trees and vines. There were so many of them in sight that it was impossible to estimate how many there were.

Lu Li was wrong... he shouldn’t have underestimated the developers of the game, and he shouldn’t have underestimated the power of the Blue Maned Gorilla.

He didn’t even have time to stop and shed the tears in his eyes. All he could do was run with all his might while still avoiding the boulders raining from the sky.

The monkeys were truly like a family unit and they all had the same skill.

They were throwing small rocks and stones at Lu Li, hitting him and causing his head to swell as if he was being stunned by bees.

Apparently, before dying, people tended to have random thoughts and memories flash before their eyes. Lu Li was experiencing this, even though it was just a game.

When the monkeys appeared, his fate was already sealed.

Many people might ask, how come the bullets never kill the main actor in movies? This was because the director had to create a random plot to fill up the 2-hour movie time.

Lu Li could only run through the areas that had less monkeys standing in his way. His original plan of running away and circling back to meet others was ruined.

Now, he had no idea where he was going anymore.

Every second counted and the longer he could survive, the better. He had already used an agility potion, as well as a healing potion to help him escape. He had also used the active effect on his shoes several times to avoid the stones, one of which was the huge boulders from the Boss. Lu Li dared not to tank another boulder throw because the next could be lethal.

From a bird’s eye view, Lu Li appeared to be running without a clue and in a random direction.

However, he continued to make his way towards the centre of the island, almost as if there was something drawing him in.