The Great Thief

by Stayrr

He had never invested in shares or bought a lottery ticket, and neither did he have any experience in the general business industry. Lu Li found that the only thing he could do was play games. Luckily he had experienced rebirth, and was one step ahead of everyone else. Luckily, games had been developing extremely quickly, and there were many people who had become rich through play

6. 161

The Great Thief - Chapter 161: Massacre Light Novel Pub

The Great Thief

Chapter 161: Massacre

The Thistle Village covered a wide area with monsters that refreshed quickly. Additionally, there was a chance for the monsters to drop some Alchemy recipes. This was the reason that the Imperial Secret Service wanted to take over the area.

However, this large area had quickly become a nightmare for them.

There was a ghostlike Thief, whose whereabouts were unknown.

"Dammit, that's the seventh one. Brightly has been killed as well. This guy only picks people with good equipment to kill. How shameless."

The Imperial Secret Service members were angry, but they couldn't find the target of their anger.

"Did you guys grow up eating feces? How can a few hundred of you be afraid of one Thief? Those who were killed, who killed you?"

"It didn't show a name. Maybe he has a special item. Maybe its Lu Li…"

"Lu Li? We aren't even hunting him anymore! How dare he show his face here!"

Lu Li obviously didn't know what these people were talking about. Even if he did, he wouldn't care. He was too immersed in killing people and taking their equipment.

He now had a PVP value of nine, and would be finished after ten.

He had to stop… He definitely had to stop…

Realizing that he had just gained another 5 PVP points, he solemnly vowed to stop.

"Lu Li, I ran into Drizzle Court players. Haha, I'm pretty lucky right."

Azure Sea Breeze's unique laughter filled his brain, allowing him to sober-up from his killing frenzy.

"Oh."

Lu Li picked up his speed, as he quickly finished off the people in front of him. He gathered up the dropped equipment and immediately casted Gale Steps, before a group of long-ranged professions could attack him.

"If you stick around with Drizzle Court, you'll have no problems with your Profession Upgrade Quest. Your map's point of difficulty is the Boss, but with the rank 1 Main Tank, it should be a piece of cake," Lu Li elaborated.

He opened up his character attributes and saw an impressive PVP value of 14.

It seemed as though Lu Li had a demon in his heart, just like in his previous life. The demon had enticed him into indulging himself in the pleasure of killing, and he couldn't seem to break free.

He suspected that he might have some kind of mental disease.

Moonlight was probably even more afflicted by this mental disease.

Some of the players on the Glory Rankings had over 1700 Glory points. There were a large number of people who placed before Lu Li on this list.

It was probably time to go and practice his Trade Skill.

"Lighty, what are you doing?" Lu Li rented a laboratory and began to make 'The world is so big'. His Engineering was almost at the Intermediate (80) level, which led him one step closer to making the Fool's Bomb.

"Killing some people."

Lu Li knew that only Moonlight could say something like that so casually.

"The PVP rules have changed and you're still killing people." Lu Li was bored, so he decided to talk to Moonlight. However, he was also curious about his mentality when he PVPed.

"I don't have a single PVP point. What's there to be afraid of?" Moonlight disagreed.

"Are you PVPing in Warsong Canyon?"

Lu Li remembered that game had certain areas that were specifically made for PVP. Killing players in these areas wouldn't increase a player's PVP value.

"Why? Do you have a PVP value?" Moonlight asked.

"Yeah, 14 points. There were some people trying to take over an area, so I killed a dozen or so of them," Lu Li sighed.

"The solution is simple. Go to the Mercenary Hall and take a few Bounty Quests to clear out your PVP value. With your level of skill, it shouldn't be a problem right?" Moonlight didn't really understand Lu Li's predicament.

"It's not about the PVP value. Have you ever felt like you go into a killing frenzy when you start killing players?" Lu Li asked.

"Of course. There's no pleasure in killing monsters. I play games for the pleasure," Moonlight said and continued impatiently, "Alright, I gotta go. There's someone coming. I want to try and use Whirlwind to kill multiple people at once."

"Remember to do your Profession Upgrade Quest if you're free," Lu Li quickly added.

"Nah, that's too troublesome. You can buy a Profession Upgrade scroll with 2000 glory."

Moonlight didn't appreciate Lu Li's reminder.

"Alright… bye…"

He really was a simple, PVP madman.

Playing games for his pleasure!

Lu Li thought about this phrase. He had mixed feelings about it and was unsure what that felt like.

He would have liked to indulge in his pleasures, but his sister's issue has always been on his mind. He also needed to plan for the future; he wanted his sister to enjoy a wealthy life.

Lu Li reminded himself that he was a professional player. It was best that he didn't offend other people.

Realistically, not everyone would be friendly to him, even if he was patient. There were also some things that he simply couldn't be patient about. People taking over areas were an example; the feeling of being told to go away was unbearable.

But he had experienced rebirth!

Before he had experienced rebirth, he wasn't this affected by this. For some reason, rebirth had made him more susceptible to it.

Lu Li spent his entire afternoon working in the lab. At first, his emotions were in a mess, but he slowly calmed down as he refined his items. During this period, Azure Sea Breeze and sixteen other players completed their Profession Upgrade Quest. This caused quite the commotion among the players, which was different to when Lu Li had succeeded. He was alone and his name had been concealed.

It was a great achievement for sixteen people to complete the quest together.

All the members of the core party had succeeded, even if they didn't end up taking Lu Li's advice.

In reality, Azure Sea Breeze had actually only narrowly completed the quest. There were initially two to three hundred Light Faction players, but after a battle with the Evil Faction players, their numbers had been reduced by 50%. Out of the hundred remaining players that fought the boss, only sixteen actually completed the quest.

The EXP that he gained was also a lot less. Azure Sea Breeze and Lu Li were originally not too far apart, but he was now a whole level behind.

Although this quest was available to LV15 players, it was recommended to wait until LV20 to attempt it.

After LV20, most players would be able to complete their Profession Upgrade Quest.

When the evening came, Lu Li met up with Hornet's Nest.

Hornet's Nest was dumbfounded when saw Lu Li's level.

"You're already level 20!"

"Well."

Lu Li looked at his opponent, who was only LV18. How weak.

"I worked myself to death with a team of a dozen players from the morning until now so that I could gain a single level. But you're already level 20. You must be cheating!"

"You can report me to the System if you want."

Lu Li didn't express any opinion. Did Hornet's Nest want an apology for levelling up too quickly?

"You must be the first person to successfully complete the Profession Upgrade then?"

Hornet's Nest didn't want to fight anymore, and he sat on the ground. This was a common acknowledgement of defeat; the outcome didn't necessarily need to be decided by the death of a participant.

"Yeah."

Lu Li put away his daggers.

"Did you get reward skills?"

"Yeah."

Lu Li also sat down.

"Are they good?"

"Gale Steps…"

"My God!"

"Did you get some Skill Points as well?"

"Quite a few."

Lu Li wasn't so open as to tell him everything.

The skills didn't matter, as they would be revealed sooner or later. However, Skill Points couldn't visibly be seen.

"Well, Sesame Rice Ball is one of you now. There won't be anyone looking for trouble with him, at least, no one from Seventh Heaven."

Hornet's Nest wasn't angry; he knew that he had lost the bet. Although he would become very aggressive when provoked, he was still an open and honest person.

The Great Thief

Chapter 162: Engineering Blueprints

"I hope this is the case. Thank you for your help."

Lu Li knew why Sesame Rice Ball had left Seventh Heaven, so he understood the effort that was required.

After this PVP match in which there was no actual fighting, Lu Li logged off in a hotel room.

He had no intention of logging off in a prison to reduce his PVP value; it just wasn't worth it.

If he logged off in a hotel room for six hours, he would receive a one-hour double EXP bonus for the next day. Being a high efficiency farmer, he would be able earn as much EXP in that hour as a regular player would after farming for half a day.

Lu Li continued to work hard with the Forging Hammer in his hands. He wanted to build the Fool's Bomb.

He could just imagine the situation that would unfold once he had created the bomb. He would find a place that was particularly dense with monsters and use it in the double EXP hour. With this technique, he would be able to farm a day's worth of EXP in an hour.

When he logged on the next day, his main focus was upgrading his engineering.

His engineering had now risen to Intermediate (87). 'The World Is So Big' no longer gave EXP upon completion, so Lu Li had to go into the Exchange Hall to find a new blueprint. He also wanted to sell some of the 'The World Is So Big' that he had made.

He searched the trading panel for 'The World Is So Big', as he needed to determine the current market price.

28 gold!

Lu Li became a little dizzy when he saw this price.

There were only two 'The World Is So Big' on sale in the Exchange Hall; they were being sold for 28 and 30 gold.

People were selling something that cost 20 silver to make for 28 gold. How dare they mark such a high price?!

'The World Is So Big' was really fun to use and there were all kinds of girls who would pay a lot of money for them. However, 28 gold was just way too much.

Was he about to make it big?

These days, he spent all of his free time into engineering. Even though many of his attempts were failures, he still had a small portion of successful products. Lu Li had exactly 70 successful products on hand.

However, 'The World Is So Big' wasn't as universally useful as Snake Trust Grass. The market was much smaller and 99% of people couldn't afford it.

With 28 gold, he could buy a full set of Steel equipment.

Seeing as he knew that there would be some people who would buy them, Lu Li didn't hesitate to throw two of them into the Exchange hall.

He priced them at 27 gold each.

He didn't want to put them all in at once. If he inflated the market with them, they wouldn't appear as precious. They would appear as though someone was trying to sell garbage for 20 to 30 gold. That was more than 3000 dollars.

Next, he needed to find new blueprints.

The drop rate for engineering blueprints were just too low. Lu Li discovered that most of the engineering blueprints were at least Intermediate (100) and had expensive material costs. The most critical point of this operation was to find something that didn't cost too much to make.

Would he have to make Rifles?

Upon reaching Intermediate (80), the System would award the player with a Rifle blueprint.

This was an exclusive equip for Hunters, which sounded great, but unfortunately was only Bronze-grade. Level 10 Bronze equipment was rarely found in the market; these were only bought by miserable people who were very far behind.

A LV10 Bronze Rifle was worth about 40 silver coins in the Exchange Hall.

The material for it cost a little more than one gold. They were also hard to find and would often be out of stock in the Exchange Hall.

The worst part about making rifles was the time that it took. Two minutes for a single item was already considered to be long, but a single rifle took over 50 minutes to craft.

Low level engineering blueprint…

Wait, there was another way.

If he remembered correctly, Lu Li knew a place to find good engineering blueprints.

More accurately speaking, this place was a Steel Treasure Chest.

However, its position was quite awkward. There was a low probability that regular players would be able to open it first.

Yet, if one was an Evil Faction player, it would be fine.

Lu Li needed to sneak into the Evil Faction. In fact, he needed to sneak into a heavily guarded post—the Crossroads Outpost.

Past the front lines of the Evil Faction in the Grey Valley and the Warsong Canyon was a barren land. The Crossroads Outpost could be found in the middle of this barren land.

Thousands of Orc Wolfriders were based in this Outpost; they were tasked with protecting the supply and transportation line of the Grey Valley front line.

Additionally, the Taurens' home was not far from here. If the Crossroads Output let out a distress signal, a steady stream of Tauren warriors would come over to support it.

This was where Light Factions players would die.

After Lu Li thought about it for a while, he decided to take the risk.

He didn't go straight in, instead heading to the Silverwing Outpost first to look for NPC quests.

The Silverwing Outpost was a Light Faction post at the forefront of Gray Valley that protected supplies going into Warsong Canyon. It even provided an exchange for some PVP equipment and items.

The last time Lu Li that was here, it was empty apart from the NPCs. Now, there was a sea of people.

The game was going to continuously expand its maps, but as more people flooded out of the newbie villages, it was going to become overcrowded.

"Young fellow, come here!"

Outpost Officer Vinda Nightwing pushed aside the other players who were attempting to talk to him and walked straight towards Lu Li. He had even put on an Elven etiquette.

"Who is this? Why is he skipping the queue?"

The nearby players felt it was unfair.

"Yeah, we've been waiting for so long. It should be first come first serve."

Everyone had been patiently waiting, so a sense of dissatisfaction quickly spread among them.

"Shut up, that's Lu Li. The number one player. Did you not see the NPC salute him?"

Those who recognized Lu Li immediately started correcting the crowd.

"Who decided that he was the number one player?"

Some people just couldn't be pleased.

"Wild doesn't claim to be number one. Who is he to?"

Wild was the master of the Blood Red War Flag. He was quite good at PVP and completing Instance Dungeons. He would often take parties with him, so he had many fans in the game.

Lu Li glanced at these players before saluting back at Vinda Nightwing.

"I'm here to pay tribute to the Warriors at the front. I hear that our resources are getting a little tight. As an Elf, I am willing to contribute the little strength I have."

"So, what can you do then?"

"I have found a message that the Evil Faction has stored up a lot of fodder…" Lu Li said softly.

"You are correct, our spies have also discovered similar information. But, we do not know exactly what they are storing up."

Vinda Nightwing waved his hand and two individuals came out from their cover.

This was definite a trigger in the plot. To the other players, Lu Li was definitely receiving a hidden quest.

"I know where it is. Please allow me to go and burn it down."

When Lu Li volunteered for the job, he started to feel some confidence in being able to obtain the blueprint.

The Great Thief

Chapter 163: Wind Wielder

"Are you sure?" Vinda Nightwing was a little moved before, but now he was shocked.

Not only did Lu Li know where the storage was, he was also willing to go and take the risk of burning it down. This completely subverted his understanding of adventurers, who would always try to get the maximum reward for every bit of effort they put in.

Take the 'Killing the Undead Alchemist' quest for example. This adventurer was the only one to over-fulfill its requirements.

Now, he was standing before him once again, offering to go to a dangerous place to complete a quest with a slim chance of survival.

"Yes, for the glory of the Moon God, I am willing to do my best to complete this quest," Lu Li said zealously.

In reality, it wasn't actually as dangerous as it seemed to be. He just needed to know the flow of the quest. Additionally, he would be given a one-use item by the NPC, which would guarantee his success and safe passage.

The most critical point was that the NPC would present him with a one-use item. This was why Lu Li had waited until he had more than one reason to take this task.

Vinda Nightwing stared at Lu Li for another moment before nodding, "Young man, you are a brave elf. You will grow into a great warrior. We truly do not have enough manpower on the frontlines to reassign to this task, so I will assign this quest to you."

"I am willing to serve you," Lu Li's heart jumped for joy, as he quickly agreed.

"I have something that might help you. I hope you will return safely."

Vinda Nightwing handed Lu Li several scrolls, before the System prompted him that he had received the 'Destroy the Supply' quest.

Conceal Scroll x2: Strengthens Stealth, reduces the probability of detection by 30.

Accelerate Scroll x2: Gives Movement Speed increase of 100% for 20 seconds. Immune to all Crowd Control during acceleration.

Protection Scroll x2: Provides a shield that absorbs 5000 damage for 60 seconds.

Strength Scroll x2: Increases attack power by 200% and critical chance by 10% for 30 seconds.

There were a total of eight scrolls, which were all quest items. Upon completion of the quest, they would vanish, even if they were unused. If the quest could not be completed, the scrolls would vanish after six hours.

After Lu Li received the items, he ignored the clamoring of the people who wanted to know how he got the hidden quest as he turned invisible and left. His destination was the Warsong Canyon.

The Warsong Canyon was one of the two PVP maps currently available in the game. This map was a PVP player's paradise, and they would fight here until they bled and sweat.

There was no innocence or mercy here.

This place operated under the sole philosophy of kill or be killed.

Lu Li didn't even want to use his crow transformation, because the air was packed with air combat units.

Airships, Griffins, High Hawks…

The Troll Archers were very proficient. They could shoot down anything, even a mosquito.

There were also countless dangers on the ground, but at least he would have sufficient time to deal with them.

If he met an NPC that he couldn't beat, he could use the scrolls to help him offensively or defensively. As for the hostile camp later, he hadn't even considered the possibility of failure.

A white-feathered Griffin dove from above to grab a player into the air and drop them.

The player screamed, before instantly turning into a glowing, white ball. PVP maps didn't leave any corpses, otherwise this place would have been completely covered in bones.

There was a Troll Archer shooting arrows atop a gray raptor that dashed about wildly. It was a LV20 Elite NPC with astonishing lethality; every arrow it shot felled a Light Faction player.

As it galloped through some woods, a large spell flew towards it.

This Troll Archer could no longer dash about. It fell off the raptor and was engulfed into the spell.

Lu Li carefully avoided the dangerous areas, carefully exploring each location. He didn't want to provide himself with any opportunity to be killed.

System: Kill the hostile camp players, Corporal Rank, Reward of 5 Glory points.

Lu Li bent over and picked up a piece of equipment left by his prey and quickly re-entered Stealth. By the time his prey's companions realized what had happened, not a single hair was left to be found.

There was one property that Lu Li didn't have from his set of LV15 Steel equipment – Toughness. Not only did this increase defense, but it also reduced the probability of being critically hit. This kind of attribute belonged to mainstream PVP equipment that would be quickly snatched up if put into the Exchange Hall.

PVE players could grind this kind of equipment by doing Instance Dungeons.

However, PVP players who didn't have guild support would need to spend money at the Quartermaster, if they wanted equipment with Toughness. The price wasn't too high; they just needed to have a certain number of Glory Points.

PVE players could become rich in one lifetime, but PVP players would remain poor for three generations. There was some truth to this statement.

Lu Li once again killed a hostile camp player. As he turned around, he found himself stunned by the amazing scene in the sky.

A huge Wind Wielder was hit square in the chest by a Dwarf's crossbow and staggered, before falling into the hillside forest.

Wind Wielders were of the Wyvern genus, but were not real dragons. They were at most a pseudo-dragon, and were one of the Evil Faction's most common flying monsters. However, the scary thing about them was that they all looked like Bosses.

Fortune favours the bold!

Lu Li quickly looked around, before turning into a Crow and flying towards where the Wind Wielder had fallen.

Despite other people seeing the Wind Wielder fall, they would not be able get there before Lu Li. The ground of the Warsong Canyon was steep, which made it difficult to go uphill and presented a risk of falling.

Lu Li didn't have these issues; he just needed to worry about getting shot down or encountering other air units on the way there.

Lady Luck had always smiled on him and this time was no exception. Lu Li landed and threw his head back to gulp down an Intermediate health Potion, before immediately going back into Stealth.

The Wind Wielder was not very far ahead. It was still not dead yet and was struggling in the trees.

This flying creature was of a dragon-descent, so it had amazing regenerative abilities. Although it was badly bruised and vomiting blood, it would regenerate to its original form if given some time.

He had to be quick!

Lu Li rushed up and cast Cheap Shot to stun it.

The level gap was so big that the original four second stun only lasted a little more than a second.

2645/120,000!

He knew that it would have high HP, but not 120,000-high. Even the Death Mines' Bosses at Difficult-level had 60-70,000 HP at most.

Backstab!

-22

Lu Li went pale. He had always thought he was very strong.

Who knew what level of defense he was up against here?

The Wind Wielder had already suffered a serious injury and was almost defenseless…

Defenseless!

Seeing that the Wind Wielder was just about to wake up, Lu Li cast Ambush on its huge wound.

The Great Thief

Chapter 164: Throwing Caution to the Wind

-168!

Lu Li was surprised – an attack on the wound had resulted in such a strong effect.

Of course, not every attack would result in a wound.

He had five combo points but Slit Throat was too hard to complete due to the Wind Wielder's size. Instead, he cast a Backhand Backstab directly onto the wound.

-236!

At this rate, there was still hope of victory.

The Wind Wielder recovered from its dazed state and swung a claw at Lu Li. He was immediately knocked away into a tree with considerable force.

-1479!

After what seemed like half a day, he got up and checked his HP. What he saw shocked him; he could have been instantly killed.

Lu Li was now LV20 and had significantly better equipment than when he was at LV10.

His constitution had not been increased, but he still had over 1800 HP due to the bonuses from his equipment. This was significantly more than other Agility Professions. Even if another Thief had some additional constitution, they would still look like an anemic patient to him.

Even so, Lu Li was left with less than 100 HP after being hit.

He knew that the Wind Wielder would be strong, but not this strong.

The Wind Wielder wanted to get up and finish off Lu Li, but after failing to do so, it helplessly fell back onto the ground and started to foam at the mouth.

It only had two thousand HP left!

The huge wound caused by the crossbow was still dealing damage to it.

However, this loss was slowly decreasing and the Wind Wielder's HP began to stabilize. In a few minutes, its regenerative ability would quickly restore its HP.

Lu Li faced a tough choice.

To kill or not to kill?

If he chose not to and walked away, he would obviously have nothing to gain.

If he tried to kill it, he might not have the ability to finish the job.

Even if he brought his whole team, he wasn't sure if they could do it.

In his past life, Lu Li was just a second rate expert, so he never had the opportunity to join a strong guilds. He always saw these kinds of giant monsters from afar, so he didn't know how strong they really were. If this Wind Wielder was in its normal form, it would actually not be much weaker than a flying dragon.

There weren't many people who dared to provoke a pseudo-dragon like the Wind Wielder. It was better to try and fight a Griffin.

However, it wasn't as though Lu Li didn't have a plan.

He was currently carrying eight scrolls which were supposed to be used for the 'Destroy the Supply' quest. With these scrolls, he would stand a good chance of killing the Wind Wielder.

Lu Li's expression fluctuated, before he let out a sigh and turned away.

He was afraid that it would be a wasted effort. If he used the scrolls and was still killed by the Wind Wielder, then he would also fail his original goal…

After taking two steps away, he suddenly stopped andslapped himself in the face.

Lu Li, you're a coward!

How big was the probability of finding a dying Boss? Out of the millions of players in Dawn, only a few would face such a situation.

He threw his head back and downed an Intermediate Health Potion. After thinking about it for a moment, he also drank a Basic Agility Potion. The bonuses weren't huge, but it was better than nothing.

Lu Li ripped open one of the scrolls!

A lavender shield appeared around his body. This shield could absorb 5000 points of damage for 60 seconds.

Then, he ripped open a second scroll!

His attack power was increased by 200% and his critical chance was increased by 10% for 30 seconds.

After this, he used his Shadow Cloak's effect to instantly appear behind the Boss.

His grand exit could have been seen from the back of the monster.

Cheap Shot!

Cheap Shot didn't result in a stun this time, but he received two combo points nonetheless.

Lu Li's eyes turned red, as he stabbed the dagger into the wound with all his might.

Ambush!

-928!

This attack was a critical hit. With the 200% attack bonus, the damage that resulted was simply insane.

Suddenly, the enemy before him vanished. The Wind Wielder flapped its battered wings and turned to face him, launching a dark ball of flame from its mouth.

Lu Li reacted quickly. He waved the dagger in his left hand to block the attack as he pressed forwards!

The dark flame ball then exploded.

-102, -115, -89, -126…

It seemed that even near-extinguished sparks still dealt a lot of damage. A few dozen of these sparks landed on Lu Li, dealing over 2000 damage.

Such was the nature of an offensive skill. If the Wind Wielder had used a dark-flame-ball instead of its tail for its first attack, Lu Li would have already died.

Fortunately, he had a shield that could absorb 5000 points in damage. Otherwise, he would have died here as well.

Backstab!

-266

Shadowstrike!

-456!

The Wind Wielder had now sustained a lot of damage. Knowing that its life was at stake, it extended its claws and slashed at Lu Li three times in a row.

-814, -789, 1152!

Lu Li's shield was flickering and was about to be extinguished.

By now, it had absorbed over 4000 damage and no matter how optimistically he calculated it, it wouldn't last the next wave of attacks.

Lu Li got out his second Protection Scroll and put it in his mouth, ready to tear it open. However, he didn't immediately do it.

Even though he had used one of his Protection Scrolls, there was still hope for completing his quest. However, if he used both of them, there wouldn't be any hope left.

As such, he gambled on his last attack.

Slit Throat!

Lu Li jumped as high as he could and swung his dagger at the long throat of the Wind Wielder.

His attack angle wasn't great and he couldn't aim at his target properly, so his Skill Completion wasn't very high. Despite this, Lu Li felt confident in this attack, as his dagger was cut through the Wind Wielder's muscles.

This was a mysterious feeling and was one that couldn't be empirically determined.

He even put away the scroll that he was ready to tear.

-1365！

The Wind Wielder let out a whine and its half-lifted, sharp claws dropped onto the ground.

Lu Li's body flashed white. He had even levelled up!

This monster had made a LV20 Lu Li directly level up from half EXP.

What level could the monster possibly be?

From the start of the battle to the end, Lu Li couldn't work out what grade or level it was.

In fact, he had only received 20% of the Wind Wielder's EXP. After all, when the Wind Wielder had fallen, it only had 2,000 of its original 130,000 HP remaining.

A Wind Wielder was 10 levels higher than a Griffin, and couldn't even be compared to the Troll Archers.

Lu Li had just killed one of the Paladin's strongest mounts. A standard LV50 Boss.

If Lu Li didn't have the scrolls and it wasn't already significantly weakened, it wouldn't even have to fight back. Lu Li's weak attacks would have been mitigated by its innate regeneration.

Lu Li couldn't afford to take a moment to breath. He immediately dashed to the dropping equipment, afraid that someone might rush out to take these trophies.

The Great Thief

Chapter 165: A Gift From The Heavens

Lu Li didn't even pause to breathe and leapt towards the equipment on the ground, afraid that someone else might rush out and steal his spoils of war.

Right after he cleared up all of the equipment, a person rushed out from the thickets with a 'whoosh'.

He was around 30 years old and looked like a classic 'uncle'. Lu Li wasn't sure if he had as much hair in the real world as well, but he had a thick, bushy beard in the game.

Many people made such adjustments to their characters. Even if they couldn't completely change their appearance, even small alterations like this made them look quite different.

Lu Li waved his hand and said, "Aren't you the Demon King Green Flag? Why are you here as well?"

Green Flag Wine had been preparing to make a move, but had been unexpectedly recognised by his target. He somewhat awkwardly put away his hammer as he replied, "That's right, I'm Green Flag Wine. Who are you?"

"Lu Li…"

The other player evidently wasn't an idiot, so he probably couldn't get away with lying.

The name 'Lu Li' was like a magic spell. Almost everyone in Dawn knew about this name and Green Flag Wine was no exception. Although he was also an expert, he had never achieved anything that was announced on the World Channel.

"So it's the great thief. It's an honour to meet you."

"You're being too modest. Did you see who killed this monstrous bird?" Lu Li asked innocently.

"You came first…" Green Flag Wine felt speechless.

"I was too late," Lu Li replied.

"Then…"

Green Flag Wine didn't believe Lu Li, but they were both experts, so he couldn't just make a ruckus.

"Have you learned Skinning? You should probably skin it. I'll be leaving first," Lu Li said, as he activated Stealth.

Being a Thief was incredibly convenient. You could leave at any time you wanted, as long you couldn't be seen.

"Ai, I might as well skin it. I guess it's better than nothing," Green Flag Wine shrugged, as he began to skin the Wind Wielder. To be able to skin a LV50 monster, it was likely that he had an item that increased his skinning success-rate.

As he toiled away, he suddenly felt that something was off.

Looking up, he found that there was a growing crowd gathered around him.

"Bro, give us a share."

The players standing around Green Flag Wine all eyed him maliciously.

A single Knight was completely helpless against such a large crowd.

They would be able to coerce him into dropping the things that he had just picked up.

"Screw you Lu Li!"

Green Flag Wine realised that he had fallen into a trap.

Have you learned Skinning? You should probably skin it.

Green Flag Wine knew that word that he had killed a high-level Wind Wielder Boss would quickly spread throughout Dawn like wildfire. No one would believe otherwise, even if he explained until his lips bled.

"You dare to curse at my idol?! Hurry up and take out the equipment you picked up," a young player embarrassingly said, as he glared at Green Flag Wine.

"He's not retarded – how can he just take out the equipment? Everyone attack him and take his equipment!"

"That's right! If he took it out willingly, wouldn't we just be beggars? If we want something, we'll just kill him and take what he drops!"

With so many people gathered together, there were bound to be a few scoundrels.

Green Flag Wine was furious, almost to the point of tears. He scratched his beard as he defeatedly said, "I'll leave this place to you guys. Don't take this trash too seriously – we're all from the Light Faction, so just teach them a lesson."

"Yes sir. Boss Green Flag, leave this place to us."

Ten or so players stepped forward, all bearing the insignia of the Peerless City.

The Peerless City was a large guild in the Light Faction, and was said to be supported by the multinational corporation Peerless Digital. There were many large corporations investing into the game, with Peerless Digital being one of the largest ones.

Green Flag Wine was one of Peerless City's top experts, so he was always followed around by a group of subordinates. How could he just walk around by himself?

Lu Li seemed to be a lot more devious than he let on.

Green Flag Wine thought back and realised that the Wind Rider had definitely been killed by Lu Li, who took the equipment it dropped. Otherwise, he wouldn't have framed him like this and run off.

I'll settle this with him when I get the chance.

Green Flag Wine was a very open-minded person. Despite knowing that he had been conned, he didn't become angry.

By now, Lu Li had run across half of the Warsong Canyon. It was not until he knew that he was absolutely safe did he stop to have a look at the equipment he had obtained.

Tempest Leather Boots (Silver): 25 Armour, All Stats10, Movement Speed5%, Special Effect: Escape. After activating, you instantly appear at a location within 15 feet. Cooldown Time: 180 seconds, Level Requirement: LV25. Durability: 50/50.

Looking at his own tattered Boots, Lu Li couldn't help but praise the system.

Swift Leather Boots (Steel): 8 Armour, Agility4, Special Effect: Swiftness- when Stealthed, Movement Speed10%. Lasts for 10 seconds. Cooldown Time: 120 seconds. Effects cannot be stacked. Level Requirement: LV5. Durability: 30/30.

The Swift Leather Boots were a piece of LV5 equipment that gave only 4 points of Agility and heavily lacked in Armour. Despite this, he had never replaced them.

This was because the Movement Speed10% effect was too rare. No other special effect, whether it was LV10 or LV15, could compare to that of the Swift Leather Boots..

However, these Tempest Leather Boots were different. Although the All Stats10 wasn't as good as a simple 20 points of Agility, it was still much better than that which the Swift Leather Boots offered. Moreover, with another 10 points of Constitution, his survivability would be significantly increased as well.

Although the 5% Movement Speed it gave was less than the 10% of the Swift Leather Boots, there was a significant difference. The Tempest Leather Boots gave a permanent, guaranteed 5% Movement Speed, whereas the Swift Leather Boots only provided the 10% Movement Speed as an active skill that lasted for 10 seconds.

Finally, there was its Special Effect – Escape.

For players like Lu Li, who relied on speed and positioning, the best type of shoes were Flying Shoes. There were two types of Flying Shoes, with the first being the Escape Type. By activating the Special Effect, players could be instantly moved to a random position within a certain distance. The other was the Flash Type, which allowed players to control their teleportation.

Flash was a core Mage skill, so shoes with this sort of Special Effect were incredibly rare. In Lu Li's 'past life', no more than 10 people had the Flash Type Flying Shoes, even after the game had been opened for 3 years.

Most people would already be ecstatic to have the Escape Type.

The only pity was that this pair of shoes had a high level requirement. Lu Li had just levelled up, and was only LV21. If he wanted to equip this pair of shoes, it would probably take him at least a week.

All he had to do was be patient; he would be able to equip them sooner or later.

Apart from these exquisite Silver-grade Flying Shoes, there was also a Silver-grade Wind Ring for Shamans. Apart from increasing stats and damage, it had a Special Effect that increased Totem-type Magic by 10%, and another that reduced the Equipment Requirement level by 30%.

As he examined the Ring, Lu Li suddenly realised that his Permanent Party was lacking a Shaman.

With the Ring and a Bloodthirster Totem, the entire team's damage would skyrocket.

The final Special Effect was also quite extraordinary. The Ring could normally only be worn at LV30, but with the Special Effect, it could be worn at LV21. This kind of stat made equipment incredibly valuable.

Apart from these two pieces of equipment, there were also two Steel grade equips. However, their stats were far too inferior and could only be equipped at LV40. Lu Li decided to just throw them into the Exchange Hall.

The level of equipment dropped by Bosses corresponded to the players' levels, in addition to some other factors. Normally, the higher the grade, the lower the required level. Silver-grade equipment was usually LV20-30, Steel-grade equipment was usually around LV40, and if there was any Bronze grade equipment, they would be LV50. Luckily, the system hadn't screwed him over by giving him LV50 Bronze-grade equipment.

Lu Li had also obtained a rare material, which was a Darkplate Scale. It could greatly increase HP Regeneration when using it to forge Dark Gold-grade equipment, which made it quite valuable. In time, it would sell for 100 gold or so. However, Lu Li wasn't so dumb as to sell it for 100 gold.

This haul was truly a gift from the heavens. Lu Li patted his full bag, feeling overjoyed.

The Great Thief

Chapter 166: Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Who said that 28 gold coins wasn't worth it?

Lu Li equipped an ordinary Bandanna and turned on his video function. He decided that he would post this video of him passing through the sea of Orcs onto the forum to advertise for 'The World Is So Big'.

This advertisement would surely be very effective.

From how it seemed, the LV20-30 and even the LV40-50 monsters, were unable to detect Lu Li after he had shrunk.

Of course, if someone bought The World Is So Big and tried to do the same thing, they would die a pitiful death. Lu Li was also using a Concealment Scroll.

After suffering much fright but no actual danger, he finally passed through the Warsong Canyon's defence line. In front of him lay the vast Barrenlands.

As the name suggested, the Barrenlands were a desolate place, filled with nothing but rocks and sand. Despite this, it was an important, strategic region in Kalimdor because it connected many important places. To the west stood the Stoneclaw Mountains, and to the east was Durotar. The Mogolei Prairies and Mountains were to the south-west, while the area to the south-east contained the Dustwallow Marsh Wetlands.

The place that he wanted to travel to was at the centre the map and was a significant intersection for many important routes – the Crossroads Outpost.

The Evil Faction extended out from the Crossroads as the centre and controlled a vast piece of land.

On the other hand, the Light Faction only had some mobile camps and small outposts, and was unable to provide any transportation services. Otherwise, Lu Li wouldn't have had to go through so much to arrive at this place.

It was important to note that the next Instance Dungeon that Lu Li and his team were planning on clearing was also in this map. Outside the Instance Dungeon was an oasis which produced mutant fish that were famous throughout all the lands.

In his 'past life', Lu Li had often come here to fish, and participated in many battles. As such, he was incredibly familiar with this region and quickly arrived near the Crossroads Outpost. Despite being called an outpost, it was more or less a city.

The thing Lu Li was looking for was at the centre of the city, inside the clocktower.

If he didn't have the quest scrolls, he wouldn't have even dared to get close to the clocktower.

A few Evil Faction players strolled past Lu Li, talking and laughing as they went on their ways. They had no idea that there was a Stealthed, LV21 Thief beside them.

Lu Li observed everything in the outpost, from its landmarks, to its geography, structures and NPCs. He imagined what would happen if he was discovered by the NPCs and how they would try to stop him. After analysing the data he had collected, Lu Li planned a few escape routes for himself.

He didn't dare to be too careless. Although the NPCs here weren't very high-levelled, they were still around LV20-30. Furthermore, most of them were Elite grade and there was a multitude of them.

Not too far away from where he stood were the Barracks. If he caused too much of a ruckus, a battalion of Orc Soldiers would join the fight and he would be absolutely doomed.

Lu Li recalled some of the articles and guides he had read that detailed the Barrenlands, thanking his parents for giving him such a good brain. Some of the things that he had thought he had forgotten could be recalled if he concentrated hard enough on them.

He couldn't go near the Equipment Shop, as it was very dangerous inside. In his 'past life', there was a team who had tried to attack the Crossroads, but had been massacred by the hammers of the Tauren inside the Equipment Shop.

Lu Li chose a path that strayed far away from the Equipment Shop. If he was lucky, he wouldn't run into any trouble from there.

At this point, everything was still just a plan.

He deeply breathed in, and walked through the gate in Stealth.

There was no time limit for the Concealment Scroll, but once Lu Li cancelled his Stealth, its effects would be lost. As such, he had kept his Stealth activated from when he had used the scroll in the Warsong Valley until now.

The structures in the Orc City were quite crude and had a barbaric air to them.

No one would imagine that a Thief from the Light Faction had relied on his Stealth to enter an important military fortress of the Evil Faction.

The NPCs inside the city were not like the soldiers – they were all enjoying life and minding their own business.

However, Lu Li didn't dare to be careless. Between advancing, he would wait until the NPCs had moved before he moved. Despite being so careful, he was almost discovered. An Orc had hurriedly run over and bumped arms with him. While the Orc seemed to take notice of this, it didn't make too much of a fuss because it was within the city.

Lu Li learned from this mistake and used another The World Is So Big. He couldn't afford to be stingy in such an important situation.

Although his speed was decreased, it was a lot safer for him.

After half an hour, he finally arrived at the clocktower.

The clocktower was tall, with spiral steps circling up around it that led to a gigantic mechanical clock at the top. Apart from showing the time, it also provided the soldiers with a vantage point, through its function as an observation platform.

The treasure chest was at the top.

There were 4 NPC Warriors guarding the entrance that all had hidden levels. Seeing them from afar, Lu Li gave up on trying to enter from the front.

Instead, he walked to the back of the clocktower and stood next to a pile of random items. Then, he cancelled his Stealth and activated the Raven Transformation.

There were NPCs everywhere around the clocktower that all acted like real people. They glanced around and would occasionally look at the pile of items Lu Li had hidden behind. Plotting to do something so devious with so many people around felt quite exciting.

The raven slowly flapped its wings and flew up.

There were also many spear-wielding NPCs that patrolled along the spiral steps. They looked quite solemn and focused on their duties.

However, this sort of alertness led to fatigue. As such, when the Orc Warriors and other NPCs saw the raven flying up, none of them reacted at all. It wasn't strange to see ravens in the Barrenlands.

However, the raven's feathers appeared to radiate a black light.

It must have been a trick of the light.

After being stuck on patrol duty for many days, the warriors all thirsted for battle. They couldn't help but daydream about fighting against the Centaurs.

Lu Li landed on the top of the clocktower, next to a spiky lightning rod.

He even used his beak to smooth out his ruffled feathers, just like a real raven.

Of course, his eyes were focused on the grey treasure chest with green carvings on the observation platform. The carvings were of Frostwolves – a brave and beautiful type of creature.

The soldiers on the observation platform looked down at the Crossroads Outpost and after confirming that there was nothing unusual, they gripped their spears and walked down the spiral steps.

When the soldiers disappeared, Lu Li flapped over to the treasure chest.

Unlock!

This was his only chance!

The Great Thief

Chapter 167: Crossroads

Who said that 28 gold coins wasn't worth it?

Lu Li equipped an ordinary Bandanna and turned on his video function. He decided that he would post this video of him passing through the sea of Orcs onto the forum to advertise for 'The World Is So Big'.

This advertisement would surely be very effective.

From how it seemed, the LV20-30 and even the LV40-50 monsters, were unable to detect Lu Li after he had shrunk.

Of course, if someone bought The World Is So Big and tried to do the same thing, they would die a pitiful death. Lu Li was also using a Concealment Scroll.

After suffering much fright but no actual danger, he finally passed through the Warsong Canyon's defence line. In front of him lay the vast Barrenlands.

As the name suggested, the Barrenlands were a desolate place, filled with nothing but rocks and sand. Despite this, it was an important, strategic region in Kalimdor because it connected many important places. To the west stood the Stoneclaw Mountains, and to the east was Durotar. The Mogolei Prairies and Mountains were to the south-west, while the area to the south-east contained the Dustwallow Marsh Wetlands.

The place that he wanted to travel to was at the centre the map and was a significant intersection for many important routes – the Crossroads Outpost.

The Evil Faction extended out from the Crossroads as the centre and controlled a vast piece of land.

On the other hand, the Light Faction only had some mobile camps and small outposts, and was unable to provide any transportation services. Otherwise, Lu Li wouldn't have had to go through so much to arrive at this place.

It was important to note that the next Instance Dungeon that Lu Li and his team were planning on clearing was also in this map. Outside the Instance Dungeon was an oasis which produced mutant fish that were famous throughout all the lands.

In his 'past life', Lu Li had often come here to fish, and participated in many battles. As such, he was incredibly familiar with this region and quickly arrived near the Crossroads Outpost. Despite being called an outpost, it was more or less a city.

The thing Lu Li was looking for was at the centre of the city, inside the clocktower.

If he didn't have the quest scrolls, he wouldn't have even dared to get close to the clocktower.

A few Evil Faction players strolled past Lu Li, talking and laughing as they went on their ways. They had no idea that there was a Stealthed, LV21 Thief beside them.

Lu Li observed everything in the outpost, from its landmarks, to its geography, structures and NPCs. He imagined what would happen if he was discovered by the NPCs and how they would try to stop him. After analysing the data he had collected, Lu Li planned a few escape routes for himself.

He didn't dare to be too careless. Although the NPCs here weren't very high-levelled, they were still around LV20-30. Furthermore, most of them were Elite grade and there was a multitude of them.

Not too far away from where he stood were the Barracks. If he caused too much of a ruckus, a battalion of Orc Soldiers would join the fight and he would be absolutely doomed.

Lu Li recalled some of the articles and guides he had read that detailed the Barrenlands, thanking his parents for giving him such a good brain. Some of the things that he had thought he had forgotten could be recalled if he concentrated hard enough on them.

He couldn't go near the Equipment Shop, as it was very dangerous inside. In his 'past life', there was a team who had tried to attack the Crossroads, but had been massacred by the hammers of the Tauren inside the Equipment Shop.

Lu Li chose a path that strayed far away from the Equipment Shop. If he was lucky, he wouldn't run into any trouble from there.

At this point, everything was still just a plan.

He deeply breathed in, and walked through the gate in Stealth.

There was no time limit for the Concealment Scroll, but once Lu Li cancelled his Stealth, its effects would be lost. As such, he had kept his Stealth activated from when he had used the scroll in the Warsong Valley until now.

The structures in the Orc City were quite crude and had a barbaric air to them.

No one would imagine that a Thief from the Light Faction had relied on his Stealth to enter an important military fortress of the Evil Faction.

The NPCs inside the city were not like the soldiers – they were all enjoying life and minding their own business.

However, Lu Li didn't dare to be careless. Between advancing, he would wait until the NPCs had moved before he moved. Despite being so careful, he was almost discovered. An Orc had hurriedly run over and bumped arms with him. While the Orc seemed to take notice of this, it didn't make too much of a fuss because it was within the city.

Lu Li learned from this mistake and used another The World Is So Big. He couldn't afford to be stingy in such an important situation.

Although his speed was decreased, it was a lot safer for him.

After half an hour, he finally arrived at the clocktower.

The clocktower was tall, with spiral steps circling up around it that led to a gigantic mechanical clock at the top. Apart from showing the time, it also provided the soldiers with a vantage point, through its function as an observation platform.

The treasure chest was at the top.

There were 4 NPC Warriors guarding the entrance that all had hidden levels. Seeing them from afar, Lu Li gave up on trying to enter from the front.

Instead, he walked to the back of the clocktower and stood next to a pile of random items. Then, he cancelled his Stealth and activated the Raven Transformation.

There were NPCs everywhere around the clocktower that all acted like real people. They glanced around and would occasionally look at the pile of items Lu Li had hidden behind. Plotting to do something so devious with so many people around felt quite exciting.

The raven slowly flapped its wings and flew up.

There were also many spear-wielding NPCs that patrolled along the spiral steps. They looked quite solemn and focused on their duties.

However, this sort of alertness led to fatigue. As such, when the Orc Warriors and other NPCs saw the raven flying up, none of them reacted at all. It wasn't strange to see ravens in the Barrenlands.

However, the raven's feathers appeared to radiate a black light.

It must have been a trick of the light.

After being stuck on patrol duty for many days, the warriors all thirsted for battle. They couldn't help but daydream about fighting against the Centaurs.

Lu Li landed on the top of the clocktower, next to a spiky lightning rod.

He even used his beak to smooth out his ruffled feathers, just like a real raven.

Of course, his eyes were focused on the grey treasure chest with green carvings on the observation platform. The carvings were of Frostwolves – a brave and beautiful type of creature.

The soldiers on the observation platform looked down at the Crossroads Outpost and after confirming that there was nothing unusual, they gripped their spears and walked down the spiral steps.

When the soldiers disappeared, Lu Li flapped over to the treasure chest.

Unlock!

This was his only chance!

The Great Thief

Chapter 168: Facing a Strong Warrior

Lu Li activated the skill. One second, two seconds…

Unlock took 10 seconds to cast.

Those 10 seconds felt like years to him. This was especially so when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. The metallic boots made thumping noises as they stomped up the stairs.

Five seconds, six seconds…

Lu Li could already see the Orc Warrior's savage face and his muscular body. He was holding a gigantic hammer in his hands.

Seven seconds… hurry up, hurry up!

Of course, the moment that Lu Li saw the Orc Warrior, the Orc Warrior also saw him.

Even if the Orc Warrior was intellectually impaired, he would immediately understand what was happening as soon as he saw Lu Li. He stared in shock for a moment, before roaring and rushing towards Lu Li with his hammer raised.

Lu Li remained motionless, as if the Orc Warrior didn't exist.

Ding! The sound of metal being struck sounded out. Lu Li didn't have enough time to dodge, so all he could do was rip open the scroll that he had prepared in advance.

5,000 damage was absorbed!

-447!

The Orc Warrior's attack not only dealt damage, but was able to knock Lu Li back.

Before Lu Li could stretch his hands into the treasure chest, he was sent flying. His body heavily hit the clocktower's stone walls, causing him to take more damage.

The Orc Warrior did not continue to attack him, but produced a whistle and madly blew into it.

From the Orc's perspective, the Night Elf in front of him had the Light Faction's Light Shield which was impossible to quickly destroy by himself. As such, he decided to call for reinforcements.

Lu Li took in a breath of cold air.

Goddamit. You're a LV30 Elite but you're calling for reinforcements? Do you have any shame?!

Lu Li unhesitatingly activated his Cloak's Special Effect, which allowed him to instantly appear behind the Orc Warrior and use Cheap Shot!

His dagger accurately stabbed into the back of the Orc Warrior's head. Because of their level difference, the 4 seconds of stun was reduced to 2 seconds.

Despite the reduction in time, it was still enough.

Lu Li ran over to the treasure chest and grabbed the items inside it.

Luckily, not much time had elapsed. If the treasure chest was not opened within 30 seconds of being unlocked, it would become locked again.

Lu Li didn't have time to see if any of the two items were the item he wanted. He had to face a furious Orc Warrior, not to mention the reinforcements that were storming up the stairs.

Things had escalated rather quickly.

Anyone else would have simply closed their eyes and given up at that point. After all, the items from the treasure chest would not necessarily be dropped.

However, Lu Li definitely wouldn't give up.

Part of the reason for this was his stubborn nature. Even if he had to die, he would die fighting.

Another reason still was the fact that he had a quest to complete and had 7 PK Points. If he died, he would drop so much equipment that he would cry.

Lu Li turned and ran, while reaching into his bag.

The Raven Transformation required 30 seconds of channelling and the Child of the Forest was only effective within an altitude of 100 feet. He was at least 300 feet high in the air, so Lu Li could only count on this item to save him.

A kite!

A torn and tattered kite!

Back when Lu Li first entered the game, he had immediately gone to obtain this kite. It was because of this kite that he had obtained the Supreme One Ring, which had paved the way to his current achievements.

He simply couldn't bear to part with this kite, despite the fact that it took up 3 spaces in his bag.

The Barrenlands were windy all year round. Lu Li held on to the kite as he jumped down. The wind lifted him up, but his descent was quite rocky because the kite was so frayed.

The Crossroads was a major traffic hub, so there were always crowds of people there. At this current stage of the game, its population was at a peak.

The ruckus on the clocktower, as well as the Orcs' ear-splitting roars, piqued the players' curiosity. Soon enough, they saw a large kite floating down.

Bystander A: A god has descended!

Bystander B: God my ass, that's obviously a player.

Bystander A: Bull crap, of course I knew that was a player. It's a Light Faction dog.

Bystander B: Ah, a Light Faction dog. Why's he over here on our side? And why did he fly down from the clocktower?

Bystander C: I think that he stole something good. Otherwise, those big thugs (Orcs) wouldn't be so furious. Haha, what good luck to be able to escape like that.

Bystander B: It's possible that he won't escape. There are people everywhere.

Bystander A: Let's go and have a look. Maybe we'll be able to get some freebies.

Lu Li did his best to control his direction and steered himself towards a point outside of the Crossroads Outpost.

However, to say that he had successfully escaped at this point would be a bit premature. Not only were there many players trying to kill him, a group NPCs had rushed out from the Outpost, wanting to bring him to justice.

Was this really necessary? It was just a Basic Blueprint that he had stolen.

Even with the kite slowing his fall, he had still quite rapidly descended the 300-400 feet from the top of the clocktower.

The ground came closer and closer, as he braced himself for impact.

-825!

Half of his HP bar had been emptied. Lu Li hurriedly drank an Intermediate Potion.

Just as he raised the potion to his lips, a black figure rushed out from the side, stunning him.

Hamstring, Movement Speed Reduction!

Armour Pierce, Defence Reduction!

The third strike of the axe was surrounded by a cluster of red light. This was Slash – a skill that could cause him to continuously bleed.

Lu Li was rather frightened at this point. If he was successfully hit by this, he would be unable to go into Stealth due to the continuous damage. A Thief who was unable to go into Stealth would be ripped apart by these players and NPCs.

Vanish!

Lu Li successfully entered Stealth and stepped back, avoiding the Slash.

After Lu Li disappeared, the Warrior continued to swing his axe. He had previously used this method to force many Thieves out of hiding. It was a pity that he wasn't successful this time. By the time he had swung in another direction, Lu Li, despite his reduced Movement Speed, had already moved away.

Whirlwind!

This Warrior definitely wasn't an ordinary player.

Lu Li closely observed this Orc Warrior, but couldn't identify him. After all, most Orcs looked the same, so they didn't need to worry about being identified in real life.

It was an effective destruction of appearance.

Whirlwind had a large AOE and gave the Warrior a speed buff. If Lu Li maintained his current speed, it would be difficult for him to avoid it.

Lu Li unhesitatingly cancelled his Stealth, and used his Gloves' Special Effect – Sudden Thrust. The instant he activated the Special Effect, he changed direction, dashing away from the Warrior.

Lu Li felt that this Warrior was quite difficult to deal with, but the Warrior was even more shocked by Lu Li's skills.

The Warrior's name was Gaze, and was very famous within the Evil Faction.

He had accepted a Bounty Quest, and his target just so happened to be at the Crossroads. As such, he was close by when Lu Li had jumped down from the clocktower.

Seeing that it was an enemy player, Gaze unhesitatingly used Charge to stun Lu Li.

This was the difference between experts and ordinary players. Charge could be used by anyone, but experts like Gaze and Moonlight could accurately hit their target from a distance and maximise the stun dealt to them.

An ordinary Warrior might not be able to catch an opportunity to stun Lu Li, even if he was standing beside them. When Lu Li had been surrounded by the Imperial Secret Service players, none of the Warriors could do anything to him.

Lu Li rushed out of the Whirlwind's range, but before he could even take a breath, he was stunned by a Warrior who used Charge from behind him.

The Great Thief

Chapter 169: Orb of Deception

Impossible!

If Lu Li could see his own face right now, he would be so embarrassed.

Did he use Charge again?!

He had used Charge twice in the span of 20 seconds. Players at this level shouldn't have been able to do that.

Perhaps it wasn't Charge…

Rather, this skill was from a piece of equipment, much like his own cloak which had an active similar to Shadow Step. If Lu Li were to learn Shadow Step as well, he would be able to cast the skill twice.

Lu Li didn't have time to figure out which Warrior equip had the Charge active, and immediately casted Gale Steps.

The animation of Gale Steps played as Lu Li quickly bolted forward, causing the Warrior's Slash to miss yet again.

Lu Li became invulnerable and proceeded to enter into Stealth.

This caused the slow and the armour piercing effect to both disappear, returning Lu Li to his peak condition. However, he knew that he couldn't stay around for much longer.

"Can I have your name?" he stopped in his tracks and asked.

"My name is Gaze, who are you? There are a few decent Thieves in the Light Faction but I've never seen you before."

The Warrior knew Lu Li was planning on leaving because they were both evenly matched. The battle would take too long to decide and it was not the right place or time.

For the sake of his pride, he would never gang up on Lu Li with a group of players.

"Lu Li…" Because Lu Li knew this, he wasn't afraid to reveal his identity.

"So you're Lu Li. No wonder, some say you're the best Thief in the Light Faction. It was an honour to battle you today; your reputation is well-deserved," Gaze suddenly realised. At first, he didn't care at all about "The Great Thief", but now he understood why Lu Li was so highly-respected.

"Next time, we'll decide the winner."

Lu Li was also more than happy to schedule a rematch against such a formidable opponent.

Gaze wasn't much stronger than Moonlight. However, because Lu Li had played together with Moonlight so many times, he knew his every move, skills and gear like the back of his hands.

Lu Li helplessly watched as the blood-thirsty Evil Faction players came rushing towards him. After taking one last look at the Warrior to make sure he remembered his face, he activated a speed scroll and the speed boost from his shoes and quickly vanished.

Where had stood just moments ago was bombarded with various spells and attacks.

Hundreds of Evil Faction players swore to kill the invader and furiously began to type out, "Protect home-ground, find Light Faction scum."

NPCs sent scouting teams around the area, making sure that there was nowhere to hide.

However, they knew that it was almost impossible to catch Lu Li. All he had to do was leave the battle and find a secluded place where he could teleport back to town.

Lu Li did not return to town, however, and instead decided to rest up in a tent that he had found.

Before entering it, he killed the small mobs that were hanging around inside. No one would care to look inside an old and broken tent.

He rested while eating bread and fruit to fill his hunger.

After the new System Update, a hunger feature was added to make the game even more realistic. Players experienced hunger after fasting for a long time, which decreased stats and could eventually lead to starvation.

Lu Li had been completing the Profession Upgrade Quest the whole morning and didn't have time to eat.

Bread and fruit wasn't enough to satisfy his hunger, but at the very least, his status wouldn't decrease.

While he rested, he took out the rewards he had gained from the day.

Blue Print: Beginner Battle Field Maintenance Robot

Field: Engineering

Requirement: Engineering (85)

Use: Teaches you to create Beginner Field Maintenance Robot. Sells Magic Material and can repair damaged items.

Beginner Field Maintenance Robot: Summons a robot that sells materials and food. Can repair damaged items up to 10 times. After 10 minutes, its internal motor fails.

The Field Bot blueprint was what Lu Li had been after.

Robots that were created from engineering were very useful, especially in an Instance Dungeon setting. When players were killed, their gear proficiency would decrease, which required repair. Repairing damaged items can only be done in town, unless if one had a portable Maintenance Robots, which could conduct repairs on the spot.

Maintenance Robot blueprints were extremely hard to find. Lu Li had coincidentally found out that the blueprint could be found at the clocktower near the crossroads. He remembered from his past life that many players would kill for this blue print.

There was also something else.

Lu Li had high hopes for the item, because the Horde Warriors were trying to retrieve this at all costs.

An orb? An orb!

Deception Orb!

Lu Li held his breath as he started trembling.

How could a Deception Orb come out of a treasure chest?!

Normally the chest only contained blueprints, which was known to most players in the game. However, no one knew that there was a chance of receiving a Deception Orb by opening it.

It must have had an extremely low drop rate.

This explained why the Horde Warriors were chasing him. Deception Orbs were an overpowered item that upon equipping, would disguise a player as the other faction and allow them free passage into enemy territory.

Deception Orb (Special): Allows the user to transform into a member of the other Faction for 1 hour. 4-hour cooldown.

Lu Li knew of another method to obtain a Deception Orb from a PVP quest. However, it was a quest item which was given by the quest NPC and was to be used to scout out and assassinate enemy players.

Being a quest item, it had a limited time of use.

However, the Deception Orb that Lu Li had wasn't the same as the quest item version. The effects seemed to be even better than the one from the NPC.

Lu Li held the Orb in his hands and decided to use it.

System: Item used. Please enter your race, profession and name.

Undead, Thief, No Name.

Lu Li felt his body transform.

After a short while, his flesh seemed to peel away, exposing bone as he became an Undead.

He stood still for a while, completely dumbfounded. The monsters that Lu Li had killed before respawned and rushed towards him. He quickly snapped back into reality and casted his skills in his Undead body.

It worked!

The monsters were quickly taken care of because of the level difference, however, this didn't matter to him. The most important thing was that he had gained a new identity.

The Great Thief

Chapter 170: Setting the Barracks on Fire

The Deception Orb enabled Lu Li to do things that he couldn't do before. No one would suspect that an Undead or Demon character was in fact Lu Li in disguise.

This way, he wouldn't have to stay hidden on the Level Rankings.

Hiding his name on the Level Rankings allowed Azure Sea Breeze to cover for him. Many people argued over whether Lu Li or Azure Sea Breeze was the best PVE player in the Light Faction.

Besides the commander, the heart and soul of any team was the Main Tank. The Main Tank, without a doubt decided how far a team would be able to progress.

Ever since the second system update, many players on the Level Ranking had become anonymous, leading some people to believe that Azure Sea Breeze had become the top player on the rankings.

On the other hand, many people argued that Lu Li was on top of the rankings because he was the core of the team and was even able to solo bosses.

A Thief as the core?

This statement was seen as a joke.

Soloing bosses wasn't anything new or noteworthy either. The expert Hunter Glacial Autumn could do it as well.

The people who actually knew Lu Li's level, such as Hornet Nest, wouldn't bother spreading the news anyway.

Lu Li didn't want to appear boastful, because he was worried about the safety of his teammates and his real-life identity. Even though Internet Security was now very advanced, which deterred most criminals from committing crimes, he still didn't want to risk anything.

With the Deception Orb, he could finally bring out the real potential of a Thief.

Lu Li played the game with a clear goal – to make money and provide his sister a better quality of life. Because of this, he had been constantly under stress was worried about everything.

Decisive and reckless: that was the way Lu Li had played the game in his past life.

He was friends with troublemakers, drank the strongest alcohol, killed people from big guilds, stole bosses from whomever he pleased and became hated by everyone.

However, in the end, he regretted everything because he had been selfish and neglected his sister.

Lu Li was a good kid at heart. Even though he had several altercations with the Imperial Secret Service and other guilds, he was still focused on making money. He was still focused on taking his team to new heights.

No Name, on the other hand, was a Thief, who walked in darkness with blood and death by his side.

As the effects lasted for an hour with a cooldown of four hours, he could have a new identity up to four times a day.

He felt his skeletal face and put on his bandana. Now he could easily complete the quest 'Destroy the Supply'.

The Evil Faction had set up camp on a mountain near the crossroads and stored most of their supplies there.

Lu Li casually strolled into the camp site. The two Orc Warriors that were guarding the door saw him but didn't think much of it.

The camp site was extremely messy with hay and armour strewn everywhere. There was also some marinated meat, which was the staple food for Orc Warriors. As well as this, there were some Human slaves in there and some other players.

"Oi, little skeleton guy, get me some fresh meat," an Orc Commander demanded, as he whipped the ground before Lu Li.

Lu Li had no choice but to stop and ask, "What kind of meat?"

"There are some lion and wolf packs nearby, but if you could hunt some raptors that would be even better," the Orc mocked, with his pungent breath.

System: Quest Received "Fresh Meat".

Lu Li was confused; the Deception Orb's effect was bizarre.

The system had allowed him to accept quests from the other Faction.

In his past life, when he had used the Deception Orb for the PVP quest and tried speaking to NPCs from the other Faction, they would simply ignore him.

Lu Li was actually planning on escaping when he saw the LV40 Orc Commander.

"What are you waiting for? hurry up and go. Goddamn skeleton scum."

The Orc Commander impatiently whipped Lu Li. It hurt slightly, but didn't deal any damage.

"As you please."

You idiot, can't you tell I'm an imposter? Lu Li turned around and saw the pack of lions that had spawned.

The lions were LV15-16 monsters and were a piece of cake for Lu Li.

Lu Li used harvest on the corpse and received Fresh Meat.

After inspecting it closely, he found that it was a quest item and could not be consumed.

Lu Li quickly obtained 40 pieces of Fresh Meat.

He found the Orc Commander again and gave him the quest items.

Perhaps it was because of how fast Lu Li had completed the quest, but the Orc was extremely pleased. "Soldier of the Horde, War Chief Thrall is grateful for your efforts."

Lu Li was rewarded with a pathetic amount of EXP. However, he didn't care and proclaimed excitedly with his hands on his chest, "For the Horde, Victory for Sylvanas!"

Lu Li had a passion for acting.

"For the Horde!" the Orc exclaimed as he thumped on his own chest.

The Evil Faction didn't think that they were evil, especially the Orcs who called themselves the Horde. On the other hand, the Light Faction was an alliance between many races, hence the name Alliance. This was otherwise known to the Evil Faction players as Light Faction dog or Alliance scum.

Lu Li wandered around the camp site for a bit, gathering information about the area. He set the four explosive bombs while nobody was looking.

All he had to do was activate them and the whole campsite would become a sea of fire.

He felt slightly sorry, but it was a game, after all.

Lu Li ignited the bombs and bolted away in his Cougar form.

After a few seconds, the bombs were set off and an explosion appeared behind him.

System: You've defeated Horde players, received 117 Glory points.

System: You've defeated Horde NPC, received 1450 Glory Points. EXP rewarded.

System: You've defeated Alliance NPC. PVP points increased by 27. 2700 Glory Points deducted.

The first two system notification made him very happy. However, the last notification was totally unexpected.

The EXP wasn't so bad. Lu Li's EXP bar increased by 14% at LV21.

He had been rewarded 1567 Glory points, but was also deducted 2700 Glory Points.

He had 468 points to begin with, which dropped to -665 after the explosion. All the effort he had put in was completely wasted.

It wouldn't have been as bad if he had only lost Glory Points, however, his PVP points had also increased by 27 points. He had put in so much effort to decrease his PVP points to 7, but this had been completely undone.

His PVP points were so high; when would he be able to clear them out?!

The Great Thief

Chapter 171: Bounty Hunter

His PVP points were so high; when would he be able to clear them out?!

Lu Li began to regret undertaking this quest; the strategies he had read never mentioned anything about this. He knew there was something wrong when he saw the human slaves, but didn't realize that their deaths would increase his PVP points.

"Dammed PVP points system," he thought.

After completing the quest, Lu Li was transported directly back to the city.

He didn't want to stay in the Barrenlands for any longer than he had to. Who would have thought that he would accumulate such a large amount of PVP points while in enemy territory?

Lu Li wasn't sure if this was simply just in his head, but he felt a sense of malice from the NPCs and players who saw him and his 34 PVP points.

He needed to get rid of his PVP points.

After clearing out his backpack, he immediately went to the forums to make a lengthy post. He then went to the Exchange Hall and put in a few more 'The World is so Big' before getting ready to go to the Silverwing Outpost.

The remaining scrolls had already vanished. Lu Li couldn't help but feel it was a pity.

"Ah, my colleague. I'm so happy to see that you made it unscathed."

Upon seeing Lu Li, Vinda Nightwing immediately moved past the other players to greet him.

'Dammit, how can you say that I made it unscathed?' Lu Li wanted to cry at him, but instead said, "Thanks to your generous blessings, I was able to complete the quest. All glory to Elune."

"Here is your reward. I hope you will continue to provide your great services," Vinda Nightwing said with great satisfaction.

The system prompted Lu Li that he had gained EXP; he was now LV21 at 33% EXP. The second place on the Level Rankings was taken by Azure Sea Breeze who was LV19. Everyone else was LV18.

In addition to the EXP reward, there was also a piece of equipment.

However, it was worse than what he already had equipped, so he had to sell it.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to obtain equipment that was better than what he already had.

Lu Li left the Silverwing Outpost feeling dejected. He didn't want to be the hero that burned down the Orc's supplies. In his heart, he repeatedly cursed at the PVP points system.

This system was something that had been phased out a long time ago in the virtual world, but was now seeing a new resurgence.

Lu Li noticed two players who began to walk towards him. They were laughing among themselves, but he couldn't help but feel like their laughs were a little fake. He also saw that one of the players had just taken out their Magic Staff, while the other was holding their Bow and arrows.

Whoosh…

Arrows flew towards him and skills were being channeled. If Lu Li hadn't glanced at them, they might have successfully pulled off their sneak attack.

Gale Steps!

This blocked all the attacks and put Lu Li into Stealth.

"No wonder his PVP is so high – this Thief has Gale Steps. This isn't Water Fairy right?" the Mage shouted, as his skills hit nothing but air.

"Shouldn't be – he has a male stature. Be careful though," the hunter said, as he summoned his pet.

This was strange – his face was definitely covered. How could they have recognized him?

Lu Li scratched his head in wonder before suddenly noticing a few faint words floating above their heads.

Names above heads had long since been removed, so these words couldn't be their names. Lu Li looked carefully and discovered that they read "Punisher".

Punisher… isn't that the word used for a Bounty quest?

The new system was more likely to designate a bounty to players with high PVP points. Players without PVP points would never be designated a bounty.

After receiving a Bounty Quest, a PVP list would be displayed, which showed the PVP points of players in a descending order.

However, this list did not display the names of those players – there was only a digital code in that column.

As such, players who took Bounty Quests never really knew the true identity of their targets. They just needed to kill their target to gain their rewards.

Lu Li felt depressed. His PVP points were easily the highest, so it was no wonder that he was so quickly recognized. While his two assailants had the word 'Punisher' above their heads, they also saw a word displayed above their target.

This word was a particularly incriminating one: 'Guilty'.

Punishers would obviously exert their punishment on the guilty.

Dammit, how could I have been so dumb?!

The fact that there was a bounty on Lu Li didn't anger him. In fact, it made him happy.

This was his opportunity to deplete his PVP points!

Lu Li ignored the two players who had taken his Bounty Quest. He immediately ran towards the Return Point, transported to Astrana and went straight into the Mercenary Hall.

"Respected Elder, I want to take a Bounty Quest."

Lu Li handed over a gold coin and presented his request to the old, Elven Clerk with a smile.

The elderly wizard took the gold coin and tossed a badge at Lu Li.

"Choose a target from this list. This badge will record all your information – do not lose it."

The badge, which was of a normal size, resembled a small skull that represented death. Its front face had the word "Kill" on it, while the back read "First Order Bounty Hunter".

The Bounty Hunter Badge was the identity of the Bounty System Hunters. With this badge, a player could take and complete quests to accumulate points. When a player had enough points, they could become a more advanced Bounty Hunter.

Lu Li opened up the PVP list. To his surprise, it was quite lengthy. There were about one thousand players who had accumulated PVP points.

The player with the highest PVP points on the list was No.1189 at 34 points. Next to this entry were 32 stars, which corresponded to the 32 Bounty Hunters who had accepted that quest. These players could periodically pay the system to check Lu Li's coordinates.

The interval between queries was determined by a player's Bounty Hunter level. It was unlikely that any player had reached the second level, so all queries would have had a one hour cooldown.

However, there was a way around this. Players could query the system and share the information between a few players in their party. This would allow them to make multiple queries in the hour, but even still, only one person would be able to complete the quest.

The top player with 34 PVP points was a very attractive target, but Lu Li could only tearfully ignore it.

The second player, who was No.263, was quite far behind at only 9 points. Even he was still marked by a dozen stars.

Nine points were nothing to be scoffed at – to accumulate so many without dying meant that he was quite strong.

Lu Li confirmed his selection of No.263.

He then queried the system for the coordinates.

89216, 36725, 48.

His target wasn't actually too far from him. Lu Li knew the location clearly in his mind and bolted towards it.

Haste was necessary, as this was the nature of Bounty Quests. What if the target was moving? Or if someone else got there first? If he failed the quest, his gold deposit might get deducted from.

There was a farming location just outside of Astrana which primarily spawned LV18 "Suffering Souls".

Level 18 monsters were currently mainstream, as most players were also around this level.

A lone Mage was leisurely casting his spells when he felt a cold sensation in his back. A figure with a black mask, cloak and attire had appeared behind him.

Within a rotation of Cheap Shot, Backstab, Ambush and Slit Throat, the Mage's lifeless corpse fell onto the ground. The words 'Punished' were printed on his face and the player was summoned into a cell.

Even a Healing Profession player wouldn't have had time to revive him.

With 9 PVP points, it would be at least nine hours before he got out of jail.

"Bounty Quest," said the Thief, as he picked up two pieces of equipment from the floor and disappeared.

The whole time this happening, the surrounding people stood dumbfounded.

The Great Thief

Chapter 172: Bounty Quest

Not long after, the two to three hundred players who were farming in the area all converged to stare at the place where No.263 had fallen.

They were an elite group of players from a guild, tasked with protecting their boss while he farmed. There shouldn't have been anyone who dared to attempt his Bounty Quest – was it not a death sentence?

But even under such heavy protection, their boss had been killed.

They must have been dreaming.

"Is… is the boss dead?" one player murmured to himself, unable to believe it.

"Where is the one who killed him?"

Everyone felt burning anger kindle in their hearts.

It wasn't because their beloved boss had been killed, but because he had been killed in the presence of so many people. It was truly shameful.

"He's escaped…"

A player tearfully pointed at the place where Lu Li had vanished. The guild member who was closest to Lu Li also mentioned that Lu Li had greeted them after killing their boss.

"Find him! We have to find him!"

"Stop farming. We have to avenge our boss."

The group readied themselves for battle and spread out.

"Wait, I know who did it."

"Do you know him?"

"Don't look at me like that… there's a lot of pressure on me with so many people around…"

"Dammit, I'll kill you if you don't speak up!"

"Look at the PVP list. The guy with 34 PVP points now only has 25 left."

"He must have killed the boss!"

"Hunt him down, hunt him down…"

Lu Li had already returned to complete the quest. Upon seeing that his PVP points had dropped from 34 to 25, he felt much more comfortable.

However, he couldn't help but think that there was something strange about that guy. It seemed like no one was trying to kill him, even though he had 9 PVP points. His skill was average at best and he didn't even have a chance to retaliate.

Lu Li's second target was No.852 who had 6 PVP points.

Upon querying for the coordinates, he found that his target's location was considerably far away from where he was. He would need to travel all to way to the coastline.

Lu Li was unable to cancel this quest for a three-hour period, unless someone else completed it before then. The only thing he could was to grit his teeth and make the journey; he was going to fly anyway.

The moment he left Astrana, he was met with a huge barrage of skills. Lu Li jumped in fear and ran back into the safe area.

At this stage, the whole city was still a safe zone. However, after the fourth update, the area of these zones would decrease significantly. At that point, a player could be killed even when walking on the street.

Fortunately, there was still quite a long time to go before that happened. As he stood in the safe area, Lu Li looked at the hundreds of people guarding the Astrana gates, who stared back at him with ravenous eyes.

"H-Heroes, how have I offended you that you would bring such a strong force against me?"

Lu Li checked that the bandana was on his face, before allowing himself to relax.

Even the Imperial Secret service hadn't brought this many people. Did these guys have no shame?

The opposing group of players didn't expect Lu Li to react so quickly and regretted casting their spells so early. However, after listening to Lu Li's innocent questioning, they became fired up again.

"You killed our boss, yet you dare ask us why we're offended?!"

"No way, I'm not crazy. Why would I kill your boss? Who is your boss?"

Lu Li kept a completely straight face. It was too bad that his bandana was in the way, so his acting was wasted.

"Our boss was killed right before our eyes by someone whose PVP points have since dropped. So we, the Milky Way Fleet, need to…"

"Oh, number 263!" Lu Li suddenly realized.

"Boy, we aren't being unreasonable. Come out obediently and let us send you to jail. Otherwise, your future will look very bleak."

"Wait."

Lu Li raised his hands and asked, "Do you know who I am?"

The other players looked at each other and shook their heads.

"You don't even know who I am. How are you going to find me to exact your revenge? See you later everyone," Lu Li laughed, as he went into Stealth.

The hundreds of people were dumbfounded.

Astrana was the Light Faction's busiest city and had many gates. The only reason that this group of people had successfully blocked off Lu Li's path was because this gate was closest to the Mercenary Hall.

Lu Li eventually found an empty alley and turned into a crow before taking to the skies.

Astrana was the Druid's base camp, so the NPCs treated animals like crows very well. No one would randomly try to shoot him down.

Lu Li flew back and forth a few times which excited the members of the Milky Way Fleet.

"If he's running so fast, he must be out of energy by now. Everyone, try your hardest to put this guy in prison. The boss was furious about dying, so what this guy did was unforgiveable. Whoever kills him will be award $10,000. Now charge, for the boss!"

"For the boss and for the $10,000, charge!" yelled one of the bemused players, as the group rushed forward in a wild stampede.

Lu Li's second objective was a smart one – he would change locations every few minutes so they couldn't work out where he was.

However, just as he was about to change locations, Lu Li found himself cornered.

Lu Li saw a warrior with the red word 'Guilty' above his head, who was charging towards him. He instinctively went into Stealth and cast Cheap Shot…

"What's going on?!"

One rotation of skills wasn't enough to kill this Warrior, as he was quite well-equipped. However, when he recovered, he didn't retaliate. Instead, he scratched his neck and ask Lu Li why he was killing him.

Lu Li was taken aback; he thought that he had attacked the wrong person.

"Brother, are you number 852?" Lu Li asked, while he continued to stab him.

"Oh, you're talking about the PVP list. Yeah, I'm number 852. Wait… you're wanted by me. How is this possible? How does… ugh…." he gurgled before falling.

His body was then taken away by the system, presumably to the prison.

"Damn, he was a talker."

Lu Li wiped the sweat off his forehead. This was the first time that someone had intentionally not fought back.

He only had 20 PVP points left. Lu Li nodded with satisfaction, unaware of the hundreds of players around him who were once again left dumbfounded. He then quickly returned to the city so he wouldn't be caught.

The fourth-ranking player on the PVP list only had 3 points.

Nevertheless, he dutifully continued to complete Bounty Quests, while on the run from the group of players who were trying to kill him. He initially thought that this process would be slow, but by now, he had almost depleted of his PVP points. However, his progress was unexpectedly interrupted while undertaking his 6th quest.

The player that Lu Li was hunting had logged off to avoid being killed.

Bounty Quests could not normally be cancelled. For a Bounty Quest to be cancelled, an application had to be made to the Mercenary Hall after three hours, the wanted player could remove all their PVP points, or someone else could claim the bounty first.

In this case, Lu Li only needed to wait two hours before that player's PVP points depleted. After this, the System would default to telling him that he had failed his Bounty Quest. He would then be able to continue and take the next quest.

As of now, Lu Li had 12 PVP points left, but he was still at the top of the list.

The Great Thief

Chapter 173: Sister's Sickness

Lu Li was almost out of time now anyway. He had an important task to complete tomorrow, so he simply logged off with no regard for the hundreds of players who had been following him.

As he was worried about the results from his sister's medical examination, he did not get a good night's sleep. He walked out of his room the next day with a pair of dark circles around his eyes, which shocked everyone else.

"Looks like you've been over-indulging yourself," said the landlord suggestively.

Lu Li's only response was to fart loudly. He sat at the table and watched his sister eat her rice porridge.

Lu Xin didn't know what was happening; all she knew was that something wasn't quite right with her brother.

"Pervert," Dou Jing Jing exclaimed, "Since you've gotten up, you've done nothing but stare at your sister."

"Lu Li, can I ask you a question?" Zhou Huan Huan was the most normal of them all.

"What is it?" Lu Li had eaten some rice porridge, but his mind was still preoccupied.

He was desperately hoping that this examination would uncover his sister's illness. It sounded a little stupid, but if it didn't, then maybe the disease would continue to lurk in her until it was too late.

"It has to do with the Death Mines – we have been trying to kill the Elite-difficulty Piercing Heart Wolf General for a few days now. Can you give us some advice?" Zhou Huan Huan carefully asked. She did not think that Lu Li had any obligation to tell him, so she was a little apprehensive.

"There isn't much advice I can give there; your Main Tank is just too weak," Lu Li bluntly replied, unafraid of causing any offense.

"Our Main Tank is already LV18. Our guild actually has two LV18 Main Tanks. One of them is with Water Fairy and the other is with us," Zhou Huan Huan gloomily sighed.

Zhou Huan Huan and the others had been integrated well into Drizzle Court, and were now part of a small, elite team. The guild had also provided them with strong Main Tank and DPS players. Despite this, they had failed every time they attempted the Death Mines.

"You guys can reach out to Azure Sea Breeze for help. For two hundred gold, he'll let get you through the Death Mines at Elite-difficulty. Get your guild to pay the money."

Lu Li wiped his mouth before standing up to hug his sister and send her to school.

"Two hundred gold! That's so much."

Dou Jing Jing stuck out her tongue and started calculating how much that was in real money.

"The guild will definitely agree to two hundred gold," Willow said definitively, "Other guilds are capable of paying two hundred gold, but don't have the connections for something like this."

"Yeah."

Zhou Huan Huan let out a sigh and self-deprecatingly said, "The guild leader probably made us into a separate elite group because we know Lu Li."

Although Dou Jing Jing was reluctant, she couldn't deny that point.

After Lu Li sent his sister to school, he immediately went to the hospital where Lu Xin had her medical examination.

Medical developments had still barely made any progress. Contrary to the predictions made by researchers, terminal illnesses were still untreatable, a variety of new, incurable diseases were still being discovered, and a large proportion of deaths each year were still occurring on hospital beds.

"You were the one who came in for the check yesterday right? Where is your sister?" the old doctor with thick reading glasses sluggishly asked, while flipping through the medical records.

"She's at school, doctor…" Lu Li slowly replied.

"You are fine – just a little malnourished, but that can be handled with some supplements. But your sister…"

The doctor looked through his lens and saw Lu Li's clothing before gently sighing.

"What's wrong with my sister?"

Lu Li hand had unconsciously grabbed his thigh, but he was so nervous that he didn't feel any pain.

"Have you heard of Heart Failure Syndrome?" the old doctor asked mildly.

Lu Li felt bitter, but he could only stiffly shake his head.

"It is a very rare heart disease. I have been practicing medicine for 30 years and have only encountered three cases. Its cause is very complex. If she doesn't receive treatment, she won't live past eighteen." The old doctor sympathetically looked at Lu Li, anticipating that he would break down in tears.

"There must be a way to cure it right?" Lu Li's eyes were fixed on the doctor.

"The cure… is really expensive. Regular insurance that provides for basic health cover is usually insufficient," the doctor said as he shook his head, "The amount of relief that the hospital can provide is also very limited."

"Money isn't an issue!" Lu Li's expression was firm.

Otherwise, what use was his rebirth?

To climb into the upper echelon of society?

To wake up in paradise, intoxicated and surrounded by beautiful women?

No, it wasn't for any of these reasons. In these past few weeks, he had never for a moment thought about these!

There was only one thing that his mind was fixated on and he would do this thing right, no matter what.

No matter what, his sister could not die!

The doctor was shocked; he swallowed his saliva and replied, "For this kind of disease, there are two mature treatment programs. Do you want to hear about them?"

"Please do tell me."

For Lu Li to know that there was a cure would make him less frightened.

"The first kind is a conventional treatment. It involves surgery, and drugs to control the disease and improve her heart's function. If it goes well, your sister will be able to live like a normal person…"

"How long will her lifespan be?" Lu Li interrupted.

"We've detected it fairly early, so it can be more easily controlled. I cannot give you a guarantee, but my professional opinion is that she will easily gain 20 years," the doctor dutifully replied.

Previously, Lu Xin's condition had been discovered in its later stages, so the doctor could only predict an additional 10 years if the treatment was successful. However, Lu Li was unable to afford this.

"What about the other kind?"

Previously, the doctor had talked about a transplant, but didn't go into detail as he knew that Lu Li didn't have any money.

"A full transplant. This will cost much more money."

The doctor glanced at Lu Li's clothing again. He was convinced that this kid was at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.

"How much longer will a full-transplant allow my sister to live?" Lu Li asked anxiously.

"A full-transplant is quite different from a traditional transplant in that it can result in a complete recovery. However, this treatment is predicated on two conditions - that there is a donor and that the patient undergoes a high-end regenerative treatment after surgery."

The doctor almost couldn't bear to continue, "But I must remind you, the surgery will cost at least $1 million and the regenerative treatment after will be even more expensive. An average family is usually unable to afford this option."

"As long as my sister can be cured, I can pay any amount of money."

Lu Li reached across the table to grab the doctor's hand and pleaded, "Doctor, please help us. Please find a donor for us…"

"A donor can only come along by chance. I will contact the general hospital to see if they have any reserves."

The doctor was impressed with Lu Li's impulse, but he bitterly said, "Boy, this really isn't a small amount."

Lu Li took out his mobile phone and fiddled with it to open up his bank account. He handed his phone to the doctor and said, "You see, I have $1.1 million in my account right now…"

The old doctor didn't believe Lu Li, but curiosity got the better of him. When he saw Lu Li's phone, he almost jumped.

After repeatedly checking the amount, he confirmed that there was definitely over $1 million.

A million dollars wasn't actually that much; this old doctor had seen many patients who were millionaires. He had even seen some billionaires too, but all those people were successful professionals.

Yet before him was a young man in a ten-dollar t-shirt who had more than $1 million.

The Great Thief

Chapter 174: Diligently Making Money

"Young man, I'm quite surprised, but there will be additional follow up costs. These additional costs will determine the extent to which your sister is healed."

The old doctor was finally considering Lu Li seriously as he discussed the costs of treatment. However, he still wasn't convinced that Lu Li had enough money to completely cure his sister.

What he underestimated was Lu Li's determination.

"A month ago, my sister and I lived in the Common District, in a small, leaky, one-story house. Now, not only have we moved to the University Villa area, but I've also made $1 million."

Lu Li didn't need to raise his voice; he was merely stating the facts.

With this simple statement and the proof of his money, the doctor had no further objections.

"Alright, I guess I'm getting old and my perspective is becoming narrower. Let's just talk about the general plan of the treatment," said the doctor.

"Do as you please. I only have one family member."

Lu Li chose to believe in this respectable gentleman, who in his past life was very patient.

"The medical examination is actually quite superficial. The patient must now come in to the hospital for a more thorough inspection. I will then organise some experts for consultation. These experts won't only come from this hospital…"

From the doctor's description and explanation of the treatment, the $1 million cost didn't appear to be without reason.

After a morning of conversation, a brief medical plan was written up. Lu Li invited the doctor out for lunch, but was rejected.

He had a good impression of Lu Li and his sister, and promised to follow up on this case as much as he could. He also promised to use his personal connections to find an appropriate donor.

Lu Li then returned to the school and stood outside the classroom window, watching her sister.

One of her classmates whispered something in her ear, which caused her to dance with joy and gently smile. Lu Li had never seen her from this outside-observer angle before.

The sun shone through the glass window and reflected off her skin, making it glisten like jade.

She was growing up and was no longer the dependent, little girl that Lu Li had the impression of.

Feeling as though she was being watched, she turned her head and saw her brother standing on the edge of the flower bed. He was wearing cheap clothes and a funny hat…

The September roses had also bloomed and were a deep, blood red.

"Brother!"

Lu Xin's eyes instantly lit up. She happily stomped towards him and jumped into his arms.

"I just got back from the hospital and wanted to check in on you. Have you eaten?"

After hugging her, Lu Li was reluctant to let go.

"Yep, Huan Huan is a really good cook. I helped her to wash the bowls," Lu Xin replied.

"Go back to class now. I have something I want to tell you tonight."

Lu Li saw that some of the other students were wanting to leave the classroom as well. He helplessly touched his sister's hair, before letting her return.

When he arrived back home, Lu Li immediately logged back into the game.

This had nothing to do with his mood, nor was it about his addiction to the game. Rather, he had placed all of his hope in Dawn; he needed to work hard to make money for his sister.

"You're finally on. Drizzle Court is asking us to do an Instance Dungeon and I hear you only asked for 200 gold," Wandering complained, the instant that Lu Li appeared in the tavern.

"200 gold is already quite a bit…" Azure Sea Breeze whispered.

"Shut up. and look at the prospects," Wandering said before beginning his analysis, "… There are hundreds of Unions in Dawn and none of them have been able to clear the Death Mines. Do you know what it means to a Union for them to complete the Death Mines?!"

The other members sat and listened respectfully, like well-trained elementary school children.

"If you and Water Fairy are somehow together, the fact that we picked them is already special treatment. However, we cannot make concessions about the price; we are here to make money."

"Yes, we want to make money!" Hachi Chan waved her fist, but upon seeing that no one else joined in, she quickly dropped it.

"I was just going to let Sea Breeze take the earnings. Do you guys want to split it?" Lu Li was hesitant in asking this question. He thought that Azure Sea Breeze was going to do it alone, while the rest of them would remain unaffected.

Being a party with such strong DPS and Healing, they would be able to clear Elite Instance Dungeons with a single, conventional Main Tank like Wandering.

"Of course we want to split it." Wandering no intention of letting his rival gain a free advantage. "He can keep half of it and the other half can be split among us. This can be the way we do it in future as well – there should be no personal ventures."

"I don't mind," Azure Sea Breeze immediately said.

"No one asked you. You won't take Main Tank equipment, even if it suits you. You're too nice. Next time, ask me before dealing in business matters. I wanted to charge them at least 500 gold but I can't anymore."

Wandering's calculations had revealed his true nature.

Popularity doesn't enable you to place yourself above everyone else, right?

Lu Li didn't reject what Wandering had said, but instead presented an alternative view. One hundred gold split between seven people was just a dozen gold per person.

He displayed some of the things that he was carrying and beckoned at the others to take them.

"And so on…"

Wandering stopped and impatiently snapped at Azure Sea Breeze, "This isn't equipment that has been acquired as a party, so we can't just take it. We have to pay for it."

Of course, internal prices would be a lot lower than what would be found in the Exchange Hall.

The others thought that this was reasonable point so they didn't object. Lu Li didn't mind either way, but also agreed. Perhaps this was how a formal team should be conducted.

The equipment was organized into piles, with the first containing equipment dropped by the players in Lu Li's Profession Upgrade Quest. The next pile was what he had obtained from killing Rennsak. After this, there was pile from killing Imperial Secret Service players and another from the Warsong Canyon…

All in all, there were 19 Steel-grade items.

Upon hearing that they had to pay, none of them retracted their hands. In fact, they had actually become more emboldened to buy the items. Lonesome Flower bought shoes that gave him 3% Movement Speed, which were valued by Wandering at 5 gold. This would be cheaper than buying them in the Exchange Hall, if they could be found there at all.

Lu Li's Swift Leather Boots were taken by Remnant Dream. The swiftness effect was quite powerful, so Wandering wanted to value them at 20 gold. However, Lu Li always personally looked out for the littler hunter and only took 5 gold for them.

The others also picked up equipment that they were satisfied with.

Although Wandering had always played with random parties, he was quite savvy with equipment and hence, was well-equipped. There weren't many Main Tank choices and he didn't find anything that particularly caught his eye.

Sesame Rice Ball's current equipment was the most common. He had returned the equipment given to him by Seventh Heaven, so what he was currently wearing was publicly available in the Exchange Hall. He managed to find quite a few upgrades from Lu Li's piles.

Hachi Chan looked through them excitedly for a long time, but didn't find anything. Her equipment was simply too good already.

The equipment dropped from chain quests was quite similar to what was dropped from Instance Dungeons. As long as the player had a good level of analytical skill and could endure the tedious nature of the quests, they would succeed.

"Oh yeah, there's also this ring." Lu Li took out the Wind Ring.

It was Silver-grade and had very strong attributes.

"Dammit, we have to recruit a Shaman. If someone got this, they wouldn't need friends anymore," Azure Sea Breeze cried out.

"Speaking of recruitment, we have to talk about something."

Wandering was shocked by the ring as well, but he was more concerned as to when a new Shaman would join them.

The Great Thief

Chapter 175: Weapon Mold

"Speaking of recruitment, we have to talk about something."

Wandering was shocked by the ring as well, but he was more concerned as to when a new Shaman would join them.

"Didn't you say that you were going to do it?" Lu Li wondered.

If this task was given to Azure Sea Breeze, Lu Li would be worried, because he wasn't a great judge of character. However, it had been assigned to Wandering, Lu Li hadn't given it much thought.

Lu Li had gotten to know Wandering through Azure Sea Breeze in his past life. Besides his narcissism, he was actually very capable, especially in managerial areas. Many guilds had wanted to hire him to be their Vice President.

"You assigned it to me and said it would be easy." Wandering couldn't help but ask, "I really don't understand why you must make a Mercenary Group and not a guild…"

"I didn't have money at the time," Lu Li replied, a little embarrassed.

"Haven't you made a million dollars?" Wandering didn't quite understand.

"Something happened and I spent a lot of it," Lu Li laughed in response.

"Then everyone can just chip in. Guilds are comparably better than a Mercenary group, whether in monetary earnings or in gaining equipment. When a guild gains enough players, there will be great returns," Wandering said impatiently, seeing that he wasn't getting through to Lu Li.

"I was planning to buy someone else's high-level guild to save some money."

Lu Li thought that this was a good idea.

After the previous day's System Update, guilds had begun appearing on the Trading Platform. Their selling prices were much cheaper than the original cost to create one, but their levels weren't very high. The highest-level guild was only LV3.

"Come on, big bro, you can't save money on everything," Wandering exasperatedly said. "As a party leader, you have to ensure that your party members have a sense of belonging. The same can be said about guild leaders. What else, if not building your own guild, is better to foster this sense of belonging?"

The others thought that Wandering had a point, but Lu Li was such an authoritative figure that they had always listened to him.

"You have a point," Lu Li admitted. He wasn't a stubborn person.

"And about the Mercenary Group name, did you have a stroke when you were creating the group?" Wandering continued his ridiculing.

"Have some respect. That's my sister's name."

Lu Li couldn't ignore his remark.

You could attack him all you wanted, but you could never say anything bad about Xin Xin, no matter what.

"Argh, damned sis-con." Wandering rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Alright, I randomly made up the name, but is it really that important? We are repeatedly the recipients of First Clears and our levels are dominating the rankings…"

"Wait…" Wandering interrupted. "I have one more thing to complain about…"

"Just don't mention Xin Xin…"

The others chuckled.

"I don't understand why you don't put the Mercenary Group name on the World Announcements when you get First Clears. You are missing out on a lot of good publicity." Wandering sounded bitter. Outside of Lu Li, no one knew anything about the Xin Xin Mercenary Group or how to run it.

"We generally just leave the settings to default," Lu Li said as he rubbed his nose. "The only time we changed it was when we helped Drizzle Court get the new record. After taking their money, we had to display their name on the announcements."

"We get the First Clear so often, that we've become de-sensitized to it."

Azure Sea Breeze lifted his head proudly, but no one seemed to appreciate this.

"As for the Level Rankings, I want you all to reveal your names right now. I don't want to go to Luna Square and beg for people to join us. I want people to beg for us. Do you understand?" Wandering spat, as he bore his fangs.

Lu Li thought of the mask in his bag and nodded.

Azure Sea Breeze happily jumped up and cried out, "Wow haha! I can finally reveal the glory of Dawn's number one Main Tank."

"Ah, and now your fans will finally know that you aren't even in first place," Wandering disdainfully said.

"Must you always comment on anything?" Azure Sea Breeze bitterly questioned.

He felt as though he was doomed to always live in someone else's shadow. Wandering had helped him appreciate the competitive nature of life, but he felt like there was no way he could ever surpass Lu Li's ability.

His resistances were slightly better than Lu Li's…

But, for a Defensive Warrior to have better resistance than a Thief wasn't anything noteworthy.

Lu Li pulled open his information panel and revealed his name which sat at an impressive first place on the Level Rankings.

Lu Li – 1st, Azure Sea Breeze – 2nd, Lonesome Flower – 3rd, March Rain – 5th, Remnant Dream – 7th.

Fourth place was occupied by Glory Capital's I No Understand, while sixth was occupied by Bloor Red War Flag's Wild.

The Xin Xin Mercenary Group had taken five of the first ten positions.

Of the new members, Sesame Rice Ball was ranked the highest at 23rd. Wandering was next at 35th and Hachi Chan was ranked 71st at LV18, even though she spent most of her time doing quests.

In fact, apart from Lu Li, all the players ranked 2nd to 86th were LV18.

"Alright, do your job well. The organisation believes in you."

Lu Li promoted Wandering to Leader in an unexpected display of trust.

Everyone else, including Wandering, had no idea that Lu Li would be so trusting towards someone that he had only met a few times.

"Dammit." Wandering felt a little bad. He had always thought that stories about compassion were rubbish, but now that he had actually experienced it, he couldn't help but feel moved.

Of course, this still wasn't to a point where he would kneel before Lu Li.

"I do have one requirement – I will need a large amount of rare materials that I will specifically name. I also intend to learn Forging soon. When I do, my requirements for rare materials will become even greater. As such, any rare materials found by our group must never ever be sold," Lu Li said frankly.

He knew that the people standing before him weren't tycoons. They all had their own reasons for making money.

Azure Sea Breeze and Wandering were graduating this year. They weren't looking for jobs, but had instead decided to become professional players.

Sesame Rice Ball had to pay a termination fee of $300,000 to Seventh Heaven. He was most likely looking to earn that money back.

Remnant Dream and Hachi Chan were both high school students, so anything they earned would be placed towards their University tuition fees.

Lonesome Flower and March Rain's situation wasn't very clear, but they must have had some extravagant spending habits, as they would often trade in their gold for real money at the Trading Platform.

As Lu Li wanted to block the selling of rare materials, he had essentially stopped one avenue by which the group could earn money.

"Rare materials?" Hachi Chan lifted her small hands and said, "I have a lot of rare materials and a Mold. Do you want me to help you make equipment?"

"A Mold?" Lu Li was surprised. He had never seen a Mold before in his previous life. Only bosses above LV20 had a probability of dropping Molds.

"Yeah, take a look…" Hachi Chan reached into her backpack and pulled out something that looked like a Magic Staff.

Mold: Umbranse's Staff (Silver)

Recipe: Forging

Requirement: Intermediate Forging (95)

Use: Creates an "Umbranse's Staff"

Umbranse's Staff: Attributes unknown.

"It's a Silver equip; that's pretty good."

Lu Li rubbed the Mold while the others watched. Only he understood that Molds were not easy to come by.

The Great Thief

Chapter 176: The Amazing Hachi Chan

With a Mold that could forge Silver equipment, even the worst possible Forging outcome would be an entire grade better than any Instance Dungeon drop. If the player was lucky and forged a high or perfect quality equip, it would be comparable to Gold-grade.

The only problem was that Molds were very rare and were single-use.

Upon seeing the name 'Umbranse's Staff', Lu Li immediately knew where the Mold had come from. Umbranse's Judgment!

"Umbranse's Judgment" was a difficult quest in which the player had to face a LV20 humanoid Boss.

Before attempting it, one would have to complete dozens of pre-quests to gather enough of Umbranse's Poison. The boss could only be killed with this poison. This was one of the most tedious, low-level quests.

Without completing these pre-quests, the only way to beat it was by brute force in numbers.

Even so, this LV20 Boss had considerable strength. Facing a large guild, let alone Lu Li's party of ten, would be child's play for it.

Umbranse's drops were usually very strong. In addition to a Mold for a Silver equip, there was also a very small chance of a Gold weapon called 'Fate' to drop.

It also dropped a few recipes…

"You've killed Umbranse; did it drop a Poison recipe?"

Lu Li held his breath, fearing a disappointing response.

"Poison…" Hachi Chan looked confused for a second before suddenly responding, "I think there was a recipe called Deadly Poison. I haven't had the chance to sell it."

"That's great. How about you sell it to me?" Lu Li was overjoyed, as she did indeed have the Deadly Poison.

It seemed that Hachi Chan had stockpiled a treasure trove. Lu Li was glad that he had accepted her.

Hachi Chan rummaged through her backpack for a while before producing the recipe.

"Does your backpack really have that many things in it?" Sesame Rice Ball had always been curious, having seen Hachi Chan rummage through her backpack like that more than once.

"Yeah, there's so much stuff. I have 4 backpacks with 16 spaces that are all full. I can't fit anything more into storage either." Hachi Chan looked depressed.

Sixteen-space backpacks?? How frustrating. Lu Li and the others were still using the 12-space backpacks that March Rain had sewn, which already put them ahead of the regular players. However, all of their backpacks combined wouldn't have been enough for the quest expert.

"Aren't you afraid of losing your equipment?" Sesame Rice Ball asked with concern.

"Nope, I did a quest that awarded me with an attribute that prevents items from dropping," Hachi Chan replied with pride.

"She's child of the System, she has to be," Lu Li thought to himself.

There was a very humble NPC called Cerellean Whiteclaw who resided by the Black Sea Coast. Despite his docile nature, he wasn't one to be underestimated, as he was one of the first Elite Druids to be trained by Malfurion. When the Well of Eternity exploded, Cerellean lost his beloved and had never recovered since. If he eventually managed to move past his sorrow, he could become as strong as Brother Frandral Staghelm.

If Lu Li remembered correctly, there would be a day when Cerellean Whiteclaw would suddenly emerge.

In two years, Cerellean Whiteclaw would fight the Dark Dragon Princess Onyxia, on a day that would become known as Twillight Gloom. In the end, the Druid would be wounded, giving the Dark Dragon Princess an opportunity to escape.

He was the one that could give players the attribute that would prevent any items from dropping upon death. This included anything the player was wearing or storing in their backpacks.

Unfortunately, this attribute was only given to certain players. After Lu Li left the Novice village, he had tried to gain it, but was rejected, because he was not a Druid.

"You'll need two rare materials. I only have Jade Spider Webs with me."

Lu Li only had two Jade Spider Webs left, but he no longer had a use for them apart from helping out Hachi Chan.

"Ah, I've already prepared the materials. Let me find them," she said, before frowning and diving back into her backpack.

"Show me if you have any other rare materials; I still need quite a few of them for an equip," Lu Li said.

"Alright, if you need them, you can have them." Hachi Chan was also a generous person.

"Can everyone not look at me like that? I'll pay for them."

Lu Li broke out into a sweat. Everyone was staring at him as though he was cheating this little girl.

"Ah, I found the Jade Spider Web. I remember now – I traded Variant Scorpion Eggs for these."

Hachi Chan proudly held out the Jade Spider Web.

"What? You traded Variant Scorpion Eggs for a Jade Spider Web?!" Lu Li almost threw-up blood.

"Little girl, can you please be a little more rational!?"

Jade Spider Webs were a fairly uncommon, low-level Instance Dungeon drop, so they were worth about 10 gold each. Variant Spider Eggs on the other hand were completely different. There weren't many scorpion bosses, nor were there any Instance Dungeon that dropped them. Their value was so high that as of now, a single egg was worth 200 gold. Lu Li also needed Variant Scorpion Eggs for his Supreme Ring upgrade, so one could only imagine his reaction when he heard that she had traded them for Jade Spider Webs.

"Are they valuable?" Hachi Chan thought for a moment before continuing, "I think a lady gave one to me for helping her catch a scorpion… Hey, I think I still have another!"

She then buried her head into her bag again and continued rummaging.

The others had incredulous expressions on their faces.

Meanwhile, Lu Li was torturously asking himself who it was that really experienced had rebirth? His achievements almost seemed tiny when compared to hers.

"I've been holding onto this for too long," said Hachi Chan, as she handed the Variant Scorpion Eggs to Lu Li. "My backpack still contains a few more rare materials; do you have any other special requests?"

"Take them all out and I'll help you appraise their value. If you ever want anything, tell me and we'll work something out. Never, ever trade rare materials for it. There are some rare materials that are more valuable than Silver equipment." Lu Li felt heartbroken for her, upon seeing her simple-mindedness.

"Actually, I don't trade often. I just wanted the Jade Spider Web to make the equipment," Hachi Chan weakly rebutted, as she accepted Lu Li's offer and began to take out her rare materials.

All her cloth-related items were given to March Rain, as she was a Tailor.

All her meat-related items were split between them all, as most players would end up learning Cooking.

Everything else that was left behind would need to be individually analyzed.

"Arcane Branches – these must be pretty good. I also bought some ores and gems; you can have them." Hachi Chan gave these directly to Lu Li. They were supposed to be ingredients to be used in forging Umbranse's Staff.

"I'll buy the other ingredients and work out the payments after the equipment has been made."

Lu Li took a moment to calculate that they already had the two, most important materials. The other materials were quite inexpensive and would only cost a few gold. Altogether, the materials for this Silver Magic Staff would be worth 20 to 30 gold.

The price gap between a Steel and Silver equipment was quite obvious.

"When would be a good time?" Hachi Chan was looking forward to receiving her new equipment.

"I haven't learnt Forging yet, so it'll be a few days," Lu Li responded.

"You haven't even learnt it yet and you're promising to forge someone else's item? Are you drunk?" Azure Sea Breeze immediately began to insult him. Wandering seemed to agree as well. If they both agreed on something, then it had to be true, right?

Lu Li ignored them and continued to expectantly watch Hachi Chan, as she rummaged through her backpack.

The Great Thief

Chapter 177: Sesame Rice Ball Is Also Pretty Smart

Lu Li ignored them and looked at Hachi Chan expectantly as she continued to rummage through her bag.

Hachi Chan was a treasure trove, a real-life version of Doraemon.

The materials that Lu Li needed were far too rare and were required in too great a quantity, so it would take a long time to gather them. To suddenly find someone who had quite a few rare materials filled him with hope.

It took Hachi Chan a whole half an hour to take out all of her rare materials.

Apart from the Variant Scorpion Egg that she had given Lu Li and the 2 rare materials that could be used to create the Magic Staff, she had taken out another 7 rare materials.

This meant that she had obtained 10 rare materials just from doing quests. There were a few people bragging about receiving rare materials from quests, as they all felt that they were very lucky. However, that was because they hadn't met Hachi Chan.

This girl was completely dedicated to her quests.

No wonder why Dawn was so acclaimed – one could achieve great things through any way of playing.

Of the 7 new rare materials, 2 were the same grade as the Variant Scorpion Egg and could be sold for 100-200 gold. The other ones were more common and would fetch around 20-30 gold each.

The three rarest ones were worth about 150 gold each, while the others were worth about 30 gold each. That meant Lu Li needed to pay Hachi Chan nearly 600 gold coins.

Lu Li was actually unable to purchase them all immediately.

Hachi Chan never thought that her materials would be so valuable.

"No way, are they really worth this much?" Wandering felt a bit dizzy.

"If you want to make equipment with a Mold, you'll definitely need at least one or two materials. For example, the Jade Spider Webs can be used to make Silver grade equipment, Gold grade equipment, and maybe even Epic grade equipment. Otherwise, why do you think the big guilds would want to hoard these things?" Lu Li explained.

Rare materials didn't have levels or grades – this was a common saying. However, there was another saying that rare materials were simply priceless!

"Let's pay for it together. How can we let you take all the goodies for yourself? We won't take any of your 26 rare materials though," Wandering said.

By saying this, he acknowledged that it was fine for Lu Li to privately keep what he had already.

"Sure, but we'll put them together. In future, if anyone needs anything, just take it," Lu Li agreed.

"Half price, half price," Wandering hurriedly corrected him.

"Big brother Lu Li, is there nothing you need?" Hachi Chan felt a bit disappointed. She felt that she had quite a few rare materials, but he unexpectedly didn't need any of them.

"Didn't you give me the Variant Scorpion Egg? If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have even known where to find one. Thank you, Hachi Chan," Lu Li said as he patted her head joyfully.

"What else do you need? Tell us and we'll look out for them," Wandering asked.

"I need two Lava Essences, one Jade Statue and one Amber Crystal," Lu Li replied. After doing some mental calculations, he felt a bit scared.

"What on earth are you making to need so many rare materials?" For the rest of the party who had only learned what Molds were today, none of them could understand why Lu Li needed so many rare materials.

Two Lava Essences, one Jade Statute, one Variant Scorpion Egg, five Eternal Frozen Shards, one Plague Shard, one Barbaric Blood, one Amber Crystal and a Steel grade Magic Staff as a Magic Vessel. These were the materials Lu Li required to upgrade the Supreme One Ring to LV3. Any ordinary person would shiver upon seeing those requirements.

In Lu Li's 'past life', Azure Sea Breeze hadn't been able to upgrade it to LV3 even after a year.

In contrast, Lu Li had superhumanly managed to gather more than half of the materials in a month.

"To make a really strong piece of equipment. And yeah, it does need quite a lot of materials."

Lu Li thought for a moment before deciding to reply ambiguously.

The fact that he couldn't completely trust everyone was only a small part of the reason. The main reason was that he wanted to have two identities, so the less people knew, the better.

"Rare materials are incredibly hard to find and I haven't even heard of the ones you listed before." Wandering turned to look at Sesame Rice Ball and asked, "Rice Ball, did your guild have these things?"

"I didn't really pay attention to these sorts of things, but I think they had a Jade Statue. It was quite beautiful, so I still remember it."

Sesame Rice Ball apologetically smiled.

"I'll see if I can win one from Hornet's Nest next time," Lu Li said as he licked his lips. He was almost tempted to find Hornet's Nest and fight him immediately.

However, he knew that the possibility of this was extremely small. Although Hornet's Nest liked to fight, he wasn't an idiot. How could he have any hope of winning against Lu Li who was superior in skills, equipment and level?

"I have an idea for you to get rare materials."

Although Sesame Rice Ball had stayed silent, he had been paying attention the whole time and gave his opinion now.

"Oh, do you have a way?" Lu Li was quite curious.

"You can issue a quest at the Mercenary Hall. You can trade with money, equipment, boosting, helping with quests, helping with levelling up. Anything, really…" Sesame Rice Ball paused before awkwardly adding, "Actually, most people don't even know what rare materials are used for."

Lu Li felt as if he had suddenly been shocked awake and he slapped the table as he stood up.

He could issue out quests for rare materials!

To be honest, he couldn't be blamed for overlooking this fact. In his 'past life', he had joined the game half a year after its release. By that time, almost everyone knew what rare materials were used for, so no one would simply give them to anyone else.

However, it was completely different now!

Even those who were at the top of the level rankings weren't very sure about how to use rare materials. This was even more so for ordinary players.

Although it wasn't very likely for rare materials to drop, there was still a certain chance.

Doing quests like Hachi Chan, opening treasure chests, fishing and spin-the-wheel lotteries all had a probability of giving rare materials.

"Thanks everyone."

Lu Li couldn't wait to post up the quest and he quickly said, "Sea Breeze, go help the Drizzle Court with the Instance Dungeon. I'll go and issue the quest, then clear my PK Points. The rest of you can go and clear the Elite-level Deathmines Instance Dungeon."

There were still six other members apart from him and Azure Sea Breeze. As for how to organise the remaining six of them, that was up to Wandering. Without Lu Li around, he would be in charge of leading the team.

However, Lu Li wasn't strict about them clearing the Instance Dungeon. After all, they still needed time to adjust to each other.

After exiting the Tavern, he headed straight for the Mercenary Hall. He spent one gold coin to hang up a quest and paid a fee of two gold coins per day to list it at the top.

If he wanted to be even more extravagant with his money, he could even spend 50 gold coins to broadcast it hourly in the World Channel.

Quest: Can help clear Private Instance Dungeons and guarantee 100% success. Can help clear Wilderness Bosses with team with the option of buying any exquisite equipment. Requested Reward: Rare materials (quantity and type negotiable), long-term quest, Publisher: Lu Li.

Lu Li was going all out for rare materials. He only lacked a sign: "Selling body for rare materials".

After listing the quest, Lu Li contentedly went to receive some Bounty Quests.

The Great Thief

Chapter 178: Killing a Homicidal Demon

"Look, it's him, the top of the rankings, 11 PK Points."

From when Lu Li had logged on, there had been people eyeing him. After all, it was his fault that he was at the top of the PK Rankings, which was watched even more closely than the Level Rankings. This was because there was nothing too interesting on the Level Rankings, whereas the PK Rankings were shrouded in mystery and had a sense of bloodiness and battle.

Lu Li was felt like a monkey in a zoo. He was incredibly relieved that he hadn't forgotten to put on his Bandanna.

"It's just killing 11 people; it's not a big deal. Even killing a hundred wouldn't be a problem for me."

Lu Li didn't quite like the feeling of being watched, but he was an exception. Most people enjoyed being eyed by others like a celebrity.

"11 PK Points aren't that had to get rid of, but would you really dare to walk around with those 11 PK Points?" someone immediately retorted back.

Indeed, gaining 11 PK Points was a simple task, which could be accomplished by casually killing 11 people. For those who were a bit more shameless, they could even kill players with Trade Professions. Getting hundreds of PK Points in a day wouldn't be too difficult.

However, this wasn't worth the risk, because they would be pursued by swarms of Bounty Hunters.

If one had many PK Points, being killed would result in them dropping 3 pieces of equipment and being automatically sent to the jail. There, they would wait for their PK Points to be slowly cleared at 1 point per hour.

"That's not the main thing. Do you see those people over there, the Milky Way Fleet?" someone said as they pointed at some idiots who were trying to unsuccessfully hide.

"It's the Milky Way Fleet that have recently become renowned for their brazenness. They formed a team to clear Bounty Quests? They're way too shameless!"

"You're thinking too much," the other person smugly said. "Their boss was killed by this Number 1189 guy…"

"No way, the Milky Way Fleet's idiot boss is always training with a bunch of people. Why would he be so bored as to accept a Bounty Quest? If you even go near that place, you'll immediately be mobbed."

Perhaps this brother had suffered from that before and he vehemently spoke out.

"That's because you're useless. Number 1189 killed him with hundreds of people around. That scene was the epitome of 'taking a life from a thousand miles away as if taking something out from a bag'."

Lu Li didn't know anyone from the Milky Way Fleet, but he knew that there were many people who hated him. He hurriedly accepted a few Bounty Quests then entered into Stealth.

"Goddamit, this is way too wretched. How can he just avoid battle like this? Where was the massive fight I was expecting?" the spectators dissatisfiedly yelled.

The people from the Milky Way Fleet turned green. They had waited for so long and yet, their target had simply gone into Stealth and left.

"Check the radar, are you pigs?" The spectators were adamant on watching a good fight and began to give ideas. There were even people walking around, trying to find Lu Li.

This was unacceptable for a story-plot. There had been a massive build-up to the climax, but in the critical moment, the main character had run off.

Lu Li had long since exited the Mercenary Hall. This time, he didn't leave the city, but went to the Teleportation Point.

He paid 2 gold coins to be sent to the Lakeside Town.

Lu Li didn't feel distressed at the loss of 2 gold coins at all. He was about to face a homicidal demon.

When he had accepted the Bounty Quest, the No.3542 person had 4 PK Points, which had now grown to 8 PK points. He was definitely killing players with Trade Professions, for his points to be increasing so fast.

Lu Li appeared at the Lakeside Town's Teleportation Channel.

Some players liked to take the boat, while others who didn't like to waste time preferred to be directly sent there. Lu Li was evidently the latter.

From where he stood, the Redridge Mountains could be seen to the east and the clear, still, blue lake could be seen to the west. It was a beautiful scene.

This place was paradise for Trade Profession players and was the top location for sightseers.

The lake was abundant with fish, which included the delicious Spotted Sunfish that were renowned for their amazing taste. Spotted Sunfish that was cooked by Cooking professions could increase Constitution by 1-5 points.

The Redridge Mountains were also abundant in mines and many Miners hoped to make a fortune there.

Lu Li looked at the radar and found that his prey was on a mountain. He was probably killing Miners.

Killing Trade Profession players was one of the most despicable acts that could be committed.

The system gave twice the amount of PK Points for killing Trade Profession players.

It was still early on in the game, but in another few months, the Trade Profession players would form the Trade Profession Alliance. It was a massive organisation that spanned both factions and was even more powerful than the Mage and Thief Alliances.

They would issue bounties for high prices and would sometimes even place bounties on their target's guilds.

By the time Lu Li arrived, the person already had 10 PK Points and was still killing Trade Profession players.

"Girly, don't run. I'll let you go if you let me touch you," a Paladin with the word 'Punish' above his head laughed wildly.

"We have a guild, so you shouldn't push us too far," a female player huffed as she ran.

"Guild? Don't be stupid. Would they become enemies with Very Vulgar Very Violent over useless players like you?" Paladins were slightly faster than normal players and even more so Trade Profession players. He quickly caught up and smashed his hammer into the Trade Profession player's back, clearing half of her HP bar.

"Apologies, doing a Bounty Quest."

A voice floated through the air and suddenly, the attacker stopped moving.

It wasn't that he wanted to stop, but that he couldn't move anymore.

Paladins were a Plate Armour profession that could heal themselves. They also had skills that could reduce damage, so Thieves normally avoided fighting Paladins.

However, the unexpected had happened – a Thief had ambushed a Paladin and had dealt shocking damage. The Paladin's HP began to rapidly fall.

"Who the hell are you? You dare to kill someone from Very Vulgar Very Violent?" The Paladin despaired.

Mentioning his guild when he had the upper hand was a display of power.

However, now that his life was in someone else's hands, mentioning his guild showed how scared he was.

Very Vulgar Very Violent was a second-rate guild with a bad reputation. Their members were all shameless and committed despicable deeds, such as killing Trade Profession players.

Lu Li didn't pay any attention to what he said; his words were useless. Even if they were of great importance, Lu Li still wouldn't let him go.

If he killed this guy, all of his PK Points would pretty much be cleared.

"Just you wait…"

Antagonists loved to utter this line before they lost.

Lu Li picked up three pieces of equipment from the ground and was surprised to find that they were all quite good. They were all Steel grade equips with decent Special Effects.

"Um, thank you. We would have lost EXP again otherwise."

A Trade Profession player stepped forwards. She was a Mage, but wore a Trade Profession badge, showing that she would not participate in battles.

She would not deal damage to monsters and monsters would not attack her for no reason.

It was incredibly difficult for these sorts of players to level up. They could only level up by relying on quests from Trade Profession NPCs. Of course, they could also find people to boost them or help them level up. That was usually what the rich Trade Profession players did.

"I was just doing a Bounty Quest," Lu Li replied.

"Regardless, you helped us, so thank you," the female player sincerely said. She was a Gnome and looked quite small.

"Alright, I'll accept your thanks." Lu Li didn't want to cause a ruckus.

After clearing his PK Points, he planned on going back to his Engineering Laboratory to produce the Maintenance Robots. This would allow him to level up his skills, earn money, and earn even more money.

"Can we hire you to protect us?" the little Gnome hesitantly asked.

The Great Thief

Chapter 179: Thieves Are Killers

"Sorry, I have many things to do," Lu Li refused.

In truth, he sympathised with these Trade Profession players. Perhaps it was because of their hobby, or because they were sick of fighting, but they just wanted to peacefully play the game. And yet, other people simply wouldn't leave them alone.

"Oh, never mind then." The female Gnome and her friends all looked quite disappointed.

After all, this was a game and levelling-up was the most important thing. No one would be willing to sacrifice their levelling time to protect a few Trade Profession players for a bit of money.

"However, if you issue Bounty Quests, I can kill people for you, as long as you pay a fair price."

Lu Li smiled under his Bandanna and continued, "Don't worry about not being able to afford it – if you know any other Trade Profession players who are also being bullied, you can pool together your money. Once the bullies have been killed enough times, they won't dare to bully you anymore."

If the Trade Profession players could see Lu Li's face, they would have discovered the evil behind his smile.

However, he didn't feel bad about this at all. He could only admit that this devil had revealed its fangs in advance.

Trade Profession players were quite weak individually, but once they established their alliance, they would become incredibly powerful and influential. With their wealth, they would even be able to destroy quite a few second-rate guilds.

Lu Li's words sounded like thunder in these Trade Profession players' ears.

This was especially so for the female Gnome. Her eyes lit up with fire and burned so passionately that Lu Li almost didn't dare to look at her directly.

"What's your price?"

"I just need rare materials. Any rare materials."

"I have a Redridge Gem in my bag. Is that alright?"

"Of course…"

"You don't even need to ask who I want to kill?"

"It doesn't matter – everyone's the same." Killing anyone was fine for Lu Li – it was a Redridge Gem.

Although it was also a mineral resource, Redridge Gems were much more precious than the Eternal Frozen Shards that Lu Li had bought from the Exchange Hall. Not only were their drop rates incredibly low, but they were also region-specific to the Redridge Mountains and couldn't be found anywhere else.

Moreover, Lu Li wanted to get on the good side of the Trade Profession Alliance.

Hearing Lu Li's words, the Trade Profession players all saw how confident and powerful this masked man was.

Everyone's the same!

This was an incredibly arrogant and confident statement.

The female Gnome breathed in deeply and loudly declared, "I want to kill the Guildmaster of that person's guild. He wants to chase us out of the Redridge Mountains and has already killed us once today."

"You guys issue a Bounty Quest and I'll accept it. If you're alright with it, you can give the rare material to me now." Lu Li thought for a moment and made a proposal.

"Crystal, don't trust him." One of her friends hesitantly grabbed her arm.

What if he took the goods but didn't deliver on his end?

However, the female Gnome shook her friend off and handed the fiery-red gemstone to Lu Li. She resolutely said, "My name is Half-life Crystal. I'll make sure that those scumbags never look down on us Trade Profession players again."

Lu Li looked at her closely and realised that she was Half-life Crystal – one of the three heads of the future Trade Profession Alliance.

It was no wonder that she had so much charm and charisma.

She was a legend within the game who proved to the players that people could become great because of their dreams.

It seemed that fate had brought them together. There were hundreds of thousands of Trade Profession players, but the one he had saved was her.

"What's your name? How will we find you in future?" Half-life Crystal hurriedly asked, seeing that Lu Li was about to leave.

"Don't worry about the name; I'm not wearing this mask just to seem mysterious," Lu Li replied. "You can create a chatroom and I'll stay in there anonymously. If you need anything, you can message me within the chatroom. Also, if you put 'Trade Profession' in your Bounty Quest name, I'll keep an eye out for it."

Bounty Quests issued by the Trade Profession Alliance all had 'Trade Profession' at the beginning. This was something that Lu Li was used to from his 'past life'.

There were only two people in the chatroom, as Half-life Crystal didn't bother to add her other friends. Lu Li became her own personal resource.

Lu Li returned to Astrana and after handing in his Bounty Quests, his PK Points were all cleared except for one. He would simply get rid of this by staying online.

There was no notice yet from the Quest he had issued. At the very least, no one had asked any questions about it. After all, the contact person for it was Wandering.

"I put up the Bounty Quest. Great god, when will you be starting?" Half-life Crystal's voice rang in the chatroom.

"Hmm, in a few minutes…" Lu Li was currently making 'The World Is So Big'. With the resources he had left, he could make another two.

Although producing them didn't give EXP anymore, every single one of them in the Exchange Hall had sold out since he had uploaded his video to the forums. On average, he could earn 25 gold from one of them, so he wanted to reap as much of the benefits as possible before other players began to jump in.

"Can you record yourself killing him?" Half-life Crystal tentatively asked.

"Of course," Lu Li immediately replied.

After finishing making the two of the 'The World Is So Big', Lu Li once again stepped into the Mercenary Hall. He no longer had any PK Points and Number 1189 was now just a legend.

The Bounty Quest system and the PK system were completely different.

Lu Li looked through the available Bounty Quests. There weren't many of them, so he quickly found the one he was looking for.

Curtainfall, Warrior, Guildmaster of Very Vulgar Very Violent.

After accepting the Quest, Lu Li spent 50 silver coins to check where his target was.

There was good news and there was bad news.

The good news was that his target wasn't far from him. The bad news was that his target was in Astrana, which was a Safe Region.

Lu Li found him in the Tavern, where he was making advances on a female player.

The female player's looked decent and wasn't reciprocating his advances, but wasn't rejecting them either. Evidently, she was playing hard to get.

"Do you know where their guildmembers train in Astrana?" Lu Li typed in the chatroom.

"Please wait for a bit, I'll ask someone."

Evidently, Half-life Crystal had allied with many players and quickly found Very Vulgar Very Violent's training spot.

Ling Chen was very familiar with this place – the Fire Scar Temple.

Very Vulgar Very Violent had recently took in a group of low level players and were helping them level up in the Fire Scar Temple for a fee.

It took Lu Li 10 or so minutes to get there and kill three players with decent equipment. After, this he stayed there to wait for their Guildmaster.

He wasn't sure if Curtainfall would actually come. After all, it would be best for him to stay in the Tavern.

Having their training spot being taken wasn't a big deal, but it would cause them to lose face.

In front of his subordinates, immediately taking action as the boss would cement his position and power. As such, he gave up on flirting with the female player.

He rushed over with tens of players following behind him.

"Where's the guy? Didn't you say he's still here?" Curtainfall's voice was quite loud and he spoke in a direct and commanding manner. Only by being strong and domineering could one control their subordinates, especially in a guild with a mix of good people and scumbags like his.

"He was here just then. Luckily, our defences were quite dense, so we only lost three players."

Lu Li turned on his video function and chose a good angle to record Curtainfall. He then stealthily approached him. From the video's perspective, it looked like Lu Li was simply doing what everyone else was doing.

Curtainfall was a Warrior and his equipment was quite good. Lu Li had to keep some distance between himself and the other players in order to succeed in one blow. Luckily, Lu Li was quite patient.

Perhaps Curtainfall felt that the attacker had left, but after waiting for a while, he began to walk around the training spot. He put on a big show of directing his subordinates to attack monsters and bragged about some mechanics of the game.

It was a pity that he only had money and not much skill. Unless they were of a different profession, even the subordinates could tell how inexperienced and unknowledgeable he was.

Luckily, he found a little Warrior.

The little Warrior's skills were utter rubbish, but he had a sweet mouth. As soon as he saw Curtainfall, he immediately greeted his boss and flattered him.

Curtainfall decided that he would properly teach this junior today.

There weren't many monsters where they currently were, so he took the little Warrior a bit further away.

Lu Li knew that his opportunity was here. When Curtainfall's MP was sucked dry by the Hellhounds, he sprang into action.

The Great Thief

Chapter 180: Trade Profession Alliance

Looking at the awe and respect written all over the little Warrior's face, Curtainfall felt quite pleased. As such, he lowered his guard and still had no idea what was going on even when Lu Li's Dagger stabbed into the back of his head.

Stunned for 4 seconds…

The little Warrior stared in shock at the masked Thief who had appeared behind his boss, unsure of what to do.

Perhaps he was hoping that his godly Guildmaster would reveal his skills and destroy this Thief in a few hits.

Lu Li looked at this Warrior's HP and saw that he had 2,600 points, which was essentially the same as most tanks. It seemed that this guy was afraid of dying and had added quite a lot of his stat points into Constitution.

To be honest, Lu Li wasn't sure if he could finish him off before anyone else came over.

If this guy had average skills and stalled for time, Lu Li would be forced to back off.

After all, he was a Warrior, with Plate Armour and high Defence.

However, Lu Li wasn't worried. If he couldn't kill him, he would just run. As the profession with the greatest manoeuvrability, he was confident that he could escape with his life.

Cheap Shot, Backstab, Ambush, Ultimate Skill Slit Throat.

Not only did the max-level Slit Throat deal a Critical Hit, it also triggered a Bleed effect.

Lu Li's attacks flowed like water. His 2 Daggers continuously flitted through the air, like two butterflies dancing in blood.

It was said that while Mages' skills were dazzling, Thieves' skills were poignant and beautiful.

With Curtainfall's thunderous howls, the scene seemed even more poignant and beautiful.

The little Warrior found that his boss had very limited abilities and couldn't even retaliate. As such, he Charged towards Lu Li, but was easily dodged by a sidestep.

Backhand Backstab! As Lu Li stepped out of the way, he placed himself in the best position for a Backhand Backstab.

Although it was activated with only 2 combo points, it still dealt over 300 damage.

The Warrior's HP fell to less than 1/3 of his original. The other players from Very Vulgar Very Violent were all too far away, so most of them had no time to react and rush over. Only about 8-9 seconds had passed, from when Lu Li started attacking to almost reducing Curtainfall to critical HP.

Lu Li had used up all of his skills, but he continued to circle around the Warrior and attack. Although the little Warrior was an absolute noob, being hit by him would be quite troublesome.

When Curtainfall was finally able to react, he didn't retaliate, but instead took out a Potion.

"Boss, attack!"

The little Warrior was chasing Lu Li around and thought that he had the upper hand. He actually started to direct his boss to help him kill Lu Li.

Curtainfall was a tycoon, so he wasn't completely useless. In the real world, he had a medium-sized corporation. However, he was an idiot in the game. He simply didn't know how to retaliate against this Thief who was running circles around him.

Despite this, he still had some sense of judgment. He could tell that if he was able to hold out for a few more seconds, he would be safe once his subordinates hurried over.

It wasn't that he was wrong, but would Lu Li give him the chance to drink a Potion?

Lu Li's Dagger in his left hand flashed as he stabbed it towards Curtainfall's eyes, shocking him. He couldn't help but quickly turn his head, and as such, couldn't complete the action of drinking the Potion.

This was the strength of the Manual mode: players could freely exploit their opponent's weaknesses.

Curtainfall's equipment was quite good, but he was a tanky Warrior with crappy skills. That was Lu Li's assessment of him. When he dodged the strike to his eyes and tried to drink the Potion again, Lu Li's Shadowstrike was once again ready.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 95%, caused 300% Skill Damage, target stunned for 2 seconds.

Lu Li added in a normal attack and with a 'puchi', the Dagger stabbed into Curtainfall's heart. The Warrior with more than 2,000 HP sank to the ground, defeated.

All of the Healers who had rushed over cancelled the healing spells they were preparing. None of them expected that someone could slaughter their boss in a mere ten seconds.

The shock of this was fatal. After killing Curtainfall, Lu Li picked up the equipment on the ground, then entered into Stealth as he left. Surprisingly, no one tried to stop him.

The tens of guild members looked around at each other, like soulless puppets.

Lu Li had completely overturned what they knew about the game. The noobs who thought they were strong had finally met a true expert.

As Lu Li left, he muttered, "A motley crowd…," which stabbed into their hearts like a thorn. They simply had no courage to make any kind of rebuttal.

They were only good for bullying Trade Profession players.

A few minutes later, a thread appeared on the forums.

The title was very simple: Trade Profession players can get angry too – this is what happens to those who kill Trade Profession players.

The first scene was of the target. Evidently, this video was recorded with the intention of displaying it.

Very Vulgar Very Violent was just a small guild that was only famous because of how shameless its members were.

And now, their Guildmaster had been killed.

After some editing, the clip lasted for 30 seconds in total. The masked assassin in black appeared like a ghost and cleanly killed the Guildmaster, then left with a mocking "A motley crowd".

Although this clip was quite short, it showed everything that was important: Very Vulgar Very Violent's guild badge, Curtainfall's HP and the players who had been madly rushing over to help.

The thread's views skyrocketed. Even Half-life Crystal, who had uploaded the video, didn't expect such a massive response.

This was all because of human nature. People all enjoyed watching a good fight, and revenge killings were especially exciting. Moreover, this thread had a video and it was well-shot at that.

Everyone's attention was focused on Lu Li, but most people just felt as though this Thief was skilled and had high Attack. He wasn't particularly amazing.

This was mostly because of how poorly Curtainfall had performed. Most people felt that if it was them, they would have been able to kill him too.

They also saw the deeper meaning behind posting this thread.

Hiring Hitmen?

Since when did Trade Profession players become so high-profile?

What was even more shocking was that a new thread had soon appeared.

A player called Half-life Crystal announced that it was her who had hired the Thief to kill Curtainfall, and although this was the first time, it definitely wouldn't be the last.

Trade Profession players are like sheep that anyone can bully, but we should band together and create a place for ourselves in the game world.

We just want to live!

Countless people reposted this message and soon, it reached 100,000 reposts.

On that day, the Trade Profession Players Alliance, or Trade Profession Alliance for short, was established. It had been established two months earlier than what Lu Li had remembered.

"Thank you for your help." Despite her busyness, Half-life Crystal made some time to thank Lu Li.

She was indeed a shrewd girl who knew and remembered where all of this had come from.

Before Lu Li's assassination, even if there were people yelling for Trade Profession players to band together, they would simply be ignored. Only after Lu Li's assassination did everyone realise that the game could be played in this way.

"If you want to thank me, you can help me find some low-grade materials for Forging," Lu Li straightforwardly said.

The Great Thief

Chapter 181: Thief-Style

There were a number low-grade materials that were difficult to buy, not because their price was too expensive, but because it was too cheap.

For example, the low-grade rocks and metals obtained from mining could sell for 5 copper per set of 20. At this price, most players would just throw them away to save inventory space.

Players who had just started Forging could level-up their profession by forging equips. In order to advance, they first had to train by forging low-grade rocks. Since these materials were not available on the market, they had to manually mine them in caves, which was a big waste of time.

Lu Li's request could not be any easier, so Half-Life Crystal immediately accepted it.

"I'll put up a quest for low-grade rocks in the Mercenary Hall. Just make sure you get people to do it." Lu Li decided to continue hiding his identity.

"Alright, if I need help again I can come find you, right?"

Theoretically, there were many other experts besides Lu Li that wouldn't mind working as a paid hitman. As long as a decent amount of gold was being offered, most players would happily accept it.

For some reason, Half-Life Crystal had developed a strong sense of trust towards her lifesaver.

"It doesn't matter – I can kill anyone."

That same sentence had been ringing in her ears, ever since she had heard Lu Li say it.

She felt a sense of safety when she was on his side, which gave her the confidence to fearlessly face any challenge.

"Like I said before, as long as you can afford it," Lu Li said impatiently.

The newly crafted Maintenance Robot fell apart in his hands again because the material inside had overheated. This was his fourth failed attempt.

"I understand. I'll have the rare materials ready."

Half-Life Crystal was not angry. She actually respected the attitude and confidence that only an expert would have.

Lu Li was very anxious because he didn't know how to break the news of Lu Xin's sickness to her.

His attempt had failed again.

"No wonder there were barely players that specialised in Engineering. Goddamn useless profession," he thought.

Lu Li decided to stop trying and take a break.

In the meantime, he chose to go and clear his PVP points.

He had gained 4 PVP points after helping Half-Life Crystal, but was able to get rid of one point while being online.

Three PVP points could easily be cleared through a PVP quest, so he decided to enter the Warsong Canyon.

There were many players, NPCs and large monsters in the Warsong Canyon. The drop and EXP rates seemed pretty decent.

Lu Li decided to train here and use up his double EXP time for the day.

A team Evil Faction players were fighting Evil-Eyed Antelopes, which were the most common monster in the Warsong Canyon. However, it was unclear whether they were fortunate or not to be facing a pair of Elite Grade Monsters.

Two LV20 Elite Grade Monsters would be a headache for a small team of 5 players.

Even Lu Li would probably avoid them most of the time.

Luckily, the five players had superior gear and decent skills. After fighting for a while, they successfully defeated one of them, leaving the other at half HP.

At this very moment, the healer who was standing at the back screamed. Everyone turned to look, only to be met with the scene of their healer being slain by a masked Thief.

The attacker had managed to kill a healer in two hits?!

Even though the healer was damaged from the monsters, it was still unbelievable that someone was able to do that.

With the healer gone, the Thief who was wearing a black bandana quickly turned his attention towards the Warlock. He activated his Shadow Cloak and tanked the incoming damage from the Mage and Druid as he killed him.

This mysterious person was Lu Li, who had been hiding nearby for a while now.

After killing the Healer and Warlock, Lu Li picked up their gear and Gale-Stepped into Stealth.

Tanking the damage from an Elite Grade Monster without healing was almost impossible and the Protection Paladin followed his team members' fate.

The aggro of the Evil-Eyed Antelope quickly switched onto the Mage, who was dealing the most damage.

The poor Mage was decimated before he could even apologise to the Elite Grade Monster.

Just like that, the 5-man party was quickly demolished like a piece of cake. The remaining Antelope recklessly charged towards Lu Li and was eliminated as well.

The gear he had picked up was average at best and could be sold for some pocket money in the Exchange Hall. However, the EXP he gained was surprisingly high.

Besides that, Lu Li also gained Glory Points.

Having negative Glory Points, he was unable to accept rare quests such as "Destroy the Supplies" from NPCs. He was therefore determined to make his Glory Points positive again.

A player was being chased in the forest nearby. He was clearly a skilled expert, but it was too bad that he was being attacked by people from the Light Faction.

If he wasn't so skilled at escaping, he would've died earlier.

The people that were chasing him were determined to chop him into two.

A shadow flashed past and before he could react, his was hit in the back of his head and was stunned immediately.

Goddamn, what kind of speed is this?!

Lu Li's speed boost came from his cloak active, which also allowed him to teleport behind his target.

It didn't matter how skilled he was; a low-HP Berserker stood no chance.

This was a frustrating way for him to die. However, the most frustrating thing was that his Two-handed Axe, which was his most-prized possession, had been dropped.

The people in pursuit caught up and were left with nothing but a corpse.

Warsong Canyon had unique terrain with vast, sweeping grounds that could be used for larger-scale team battles.

A Shaman confidently screamed out a number, as he pulled his claws out from his opponent's body. It was the 6th person he had slain so far, and he expected many more to fall at his hands.

But before he could even react, he felt a sharp pain in his back.

Bloody Thieves, all they do is backstab people.

Situations like these were perfect for Lu Li.

He would pick on the weaklings and target those who could easily be killed within a few seconds. Why would he bother wasting time fighting difficult opponents?

Hit and run – Lu Li never gave his opponents an opportunity to seek revenge.

He was a merciless killer hiding in the shadows, ready to strike.

The Great Thief

Chapter 182: Playing For Both Sides

After about two hours in the Warsong Canyon, Lu Li had managed to gain 200 Glory Points, which increased his total back up to -420.

In doing this, he had not actually killed 245 people. Since the introduction of PVP, many people had managed to advance and receive a title. Even killing a Low-Ranked office would award more a single Glory Point.

On average, killing a Low-Ranked Officer gave about 10 or so Glory points.

Besides Glory Points, he had also accumulated quite a bit of gear from the corpses.

Warsong Canyon doesn't give EXP or PVP points. As such, the gear that was dropped here was relatively better.

Lu Li's bag had quickly been filled-up, so he was forced to return to the Outpost outside of the Warsong Canyon. There wasn't a Storage at the Outpost, but at least there was a Mailbox.

After sorting through the gear in his bag, he mailed most of it to Shen Wansan.

All of the gear that Lu Li mailed-off was decent, with most of it being slightly better than the gear of the Elite Teams in the larger guilds. If he gave all of it to Shen Wansan in bulk, he would be able to sell it at a higher price than at the Exchange Hall, while also avoiding the listing fees.

"Hehe, nice work big guy," Shen Wansan quickly messaged.

"Yeah." Lu Li gave a simply reply.

"I sent you the gold from the transaction we made last time. 200 gold," Shen WanSan said.

"How come they sold for so much?!" Lu Li had only given him 20-30 Steel Grade equips and was surprised by the profit they had made.

"Great god, you are wise beyond comparison. As soon as you said that gold would drop in value, it dropped. I managed to avoid making a mistake because of you, so consider this a small gift of respect."

Some people were still hopeful and listed their gold at 1:$100 on the exchange forums. They were soon hit with the realisation that the gold value had declined.

"We're here to help each other. No worries," Lu Li said.

"It's mostly the great god that has been helping my business. If there's anything that Mr. Shen can help you with, don't be afraid to ask," Shen Wansan offered, humbling himself.

He wasn't just being a suck-up; Lu Li had actually given him a great deal of help.

After yesterday's 3rd system update, Shen Wansan had opened a boutique shop which mainly stocked high-end items. Because of his advertising and the amount of stock, the opening had been extremely successful. They had managed to overpower most of the big companies in Astrana.

More than half the stock was provided by Lu Li; mainly of the Steel-Grade equips he had offered were worthy of being featured.

Most people kept their gear to themselves and didn't even have spares to sell.

Lu Li thought for a second and asked, "Can you get me rare materials?"

"Rare materials…" Shen Wansan laughed bitterly because Lu Li had asked for the rarest resource in the game.

"No?" Lu Li was disappointed.

"I do have some, just not that many. I've been trying to store up on these as well." Shen Wansan hesitated, then continued, "Great god, if you really want some, I can give you half of mine."

"Mr. Shen I think you misunderstood me," Lu Li interrupted. "I only need Amber Crystals, Lava Essence and Jade Statues. If you have any of these, then I'm more than happy to offer a price or negotiate an exchange with other rare materials."

All Lu Li was focused on was upgrading his ring; he didn't care about anything else at the moment.

"I only have 1 Lava Essence and I haven't heard of the others," Shen WanSan sighed in relief.

He was scared that Lu Li would be greedy and ask for all the rare materials he'd been storing up.

Since he was so sociable and required connection for his business, he already knew about the value that rare materials had.

From a different perspective, it could be said that rare materials were the future currency of Dawn. Common, Bronze and Steel Grade items were all low-tier trash compared to rare materials.

Although he only had one Lava Essence, Lu Li was very pleased.

"Lava Essence is about 80 gold each I think. Do you want money or rare materials for exchange?" Lu Li asked.

"Haha, if this could be of help to the great god, then I'm more than happy to give it to you for free," Shen WanSan offered generously.

"Don't. If you could sell this to me it would help me a lot. We should keep business away from our private lives."

Lu Li was starting to get sick of his flattery. Ever since he had made money off Lu Li last time, he had been trying very hard to get close to him.

"Alright then. I'll just take it off the money you made from the gear you sent to me."

Shen Wansan knew when to back down and didn't force Lu Li to take it for free.

"That works. Please take notice of the three rare materials I mentioned before. Price is not a problem," Lu Li said and ended the call.

Shen Wan San sat in the break room of his boutique and ordered his employees to mail the goods, while wondering what Lu Li wanted to do with the rare materials.

He had been very specific in what he wanted, so he must have been planning to do more than just stored them up.

To Shen Wansan's understanding, there were a few Molds that had dropped in Dawn. However, even these only required one or two rare materials to create. The fact that Lu Li was asking for more than three meant that he needed them for something else.

Unbeknownst to him, Lu Li's plans had been uncovered by a smart merchant.

He was more troubled by the fact that he couldn't find anyone to kill.

After returning to Warsong Canyon, he had been unable to find a target for ten or so minutes. He could only see players from the Light Faction.

Many players from the Light Faction began to type taunts into the regional chat.

"Where are all the Horde Pigs?"

Lu Li was surprised to meet someone he knew.

This guy had come to the battle field just to brag – Richy Rich.

Not only was he bragging, his words were arrogantly over-the-top. He even included people's family in his insults.

Lu Li was slightly ticked-off and wanted to chop him up, remembering the days when he had made him leave Star Moon Union.

Unfortunately, there was a rule that prevented you from killing someone from the same Faction in battle.

Lu Li pulled out Deception Orb from his bag.

Undead. Thief. No Name.

An Evil Faction player appeared in the place where Lu Li had been standing.

With the Deception Orb, who cares if you're Light or Evil Faction? I'll kill them all.

"There's a Horde pig over here. Let's kill him."

Someone had coincidentally seen Lu Li and shouted for back up from his friends.

Lu Li was only planning on killing Richy Rich; he didn't expect these noobs to come picking a fight.

Instead of running away, he decided to fight them head on.

The Great Thief

Chapter 183: Seeing a Lot of Money Once Again

Lu Li didn't want to shamefully run away, so he could only push forwards and meet him with his dagger.

The Druid that was approaching Lu Li was very worked up, but the Thief that he faced remained calm.

Previously, when most players didn't have very many skills, Druids were considered to be very strong. They could attack, resist, heal and had many crowd control abilities. After learning Bear Form, Druids would even become resistant to crowd control.

However, Lu Li wasn't a player who only had a few skills. Compared to most other players, Lu Li's skills were numerous and ridiculously strong.

As the Druid, Rising Bloody Ocean, charged forwards, Lu Li disappeared with Shadowmeld.

Before he could even turn his head, he was placed into a stunned state by an attack from behind. By the time he was able to cancel his transformation and recover from the stun, Lu Li had already moved behind him to stun him again with Shadowstrike.

Druids could use their Transformation skills to recover from stuns, but they were still subject to a cooldown.

Experts would require a three second cooldown, while other players might require four to five seconds.

What shocked Rising Bloody Ocean was that during this three second period, Lu Li had taken a quarter of his HP without using his ultimate ability.

A Thief's Ultimate Skill dealt incredibly high damage. When other players with PVPed with a Thief, they would be most afraid of the Thief's Ultimate burst damage. If the Ultimate Skill managed to critically strike, you could only pray that you had enough HP to withstand it.

These Ultimate Skills were a core part of the Thief Profession. If Lu Li was still holding onto his Ultimate Skill, Rising Bloody Ocean wouldn't be able to relax.

A fireball then flew over and exploded into a shower of sparks on Lu Li, dealing over 70 damage.

Magic Attacks had some force, so Lu Li was unable to cast Shadowstrike with a high skill completion.

He glanced at the two other approaching players calmly, then cast Gale Steps and vanished from sight.

"Be careful everyone – this is an expert Thief. He must be lurking in the vicinity, looking for an opportunity. We should stand back to back," shouted Rising Bloody Ocean.

The three players stood back to back for a few hours in fear.

However, his statement was completely self-asserted. Lu Li had long since left, after seeing that they had taken up this impenetrable formation.

It was crucial for a Thief to remain calm and patient. Despite this, a Thief should not waste time on an insignificant issue.

Although contradictory, the former described quietly finding opportunities, while the latter encouraged selecting the right targets.

This was a simple idea, but of course, its application depended on the player's objective.

Killing was one objective. Killing for money was another.

Lu Li didn't really hate this group of players; he really only wanted to take their dropped equipment and make some money. However, this would have taken too much time, so he chose to go to his alternative target instead.

It would be easier to kill a single cruel player, Lu Li thought, as he raised his head to see "I Am Richy Rich". He seemed like a good target. His body was carrying some ridiculously overpowered equipment, he was at a good level and he also had seven or eight followers behind him.

They were probably a ten-man party. The missing two players were most likely Thieves or Druids in Stealth.

Lu Li couldn't take on a team like this, so he had to wait for an opportunity.

Like a true Thief, he patiently followed behind them.

I Am Richy Rich had been born with a silver spoon, so he had no respect for others. In contrast, Lu Li was disciplined from an early age by his parents.

A party of five Evil Faction players entered into the view of I Am Richy Rich's party. When they saw that they had numbers disadvantage, they turned and attempted to leave.

With a five-player difference, it was simply a hopeless battle.

"Go, do not let them leave." I Am Richy Rich was clearly excited, as he waved his hand tyrannically.

The five-man party's Shaman Healer flashed as he was successfully Sapped by a Thief. After this, their Mage was Sapped by the same Thief. Finally, a separate Thief Sapped their Paladin.

It turned out that they had two Thieves who specialized in casting Sap.

Of the five members, three of them were stunned. The rest of the members immediately began to attack the Thieves with all their strength.

If they could kill one, they would break even. If they could kill two, then all would not be lost. They weren't going to go down without a fight.

10 against 5!

This was destined to be a doomed battle, even if the five players' skill was above average.

But who would have thought that a new variable would appear? Lu Li was that new variable. He appeared behind the Light Faction's Priest and reversed the tides of the battle.

I Am Richy Rich must have thought his chances of success were guaranteed, because he didn't leave anyone behind to protect their Priest.

This gave Lu Li the means to deal a fatal blow.

This Priest wasn't weak at all and his response to Lu Li's attacks was quite quick. He managed to mitigate some of Lu Li's Skill Completion. It was too bad that he was up against a 3-year PVP Thief expert. Although the Priest's original dodge reduced Lu Li's Skill Completion, it left his back wide open.

Blood sprayed everywhere and he was left stunned for two seconds.

A nearby player attempted to support the Priest with a Shadow Bolt that hit Lu Li for over 100 damage.

This time, Lu Li didn't retreat and instead activated Shadow Cloak. He planned to kill the Priest, even if he had to tank a hail of arrows.

The moment the five-man party saw Lu Li, their spirits were immediately lifted.

However, their hopes were quickly dashed as they realized that Lu Li was only one person. They were still at a numbers disadvantage.

What Lu Li did next was completely beyond their expectations. They had no idea how he had done it, but he quickly took the Priest down to critical HP.

Could they let them save their Priest?

Of course not!

One of the Evil Faction Warriors threw his shield aside and Charged at a Warlock that was attacking Lu Li.

Lu Li wanted to kill the Priest, while I Am Richy Rich's followers wanted to kill Lu Li to save the Priest. Meanwhile, the Evil Faction players were interrupting the players who were attacking Lu Li. The three parties were engaged in a tug of war.

However, this didn't last for very long, as the Priest's HP was simply too low.

When Lu Li Kicked the Priest to interrupt his Healing, his desperate struggle finally came to an end.

After the Priest died, I Am Richy Rich's party lost their healing ability.

Despite this, they still had a numbers advantage.

Lu Li's next target was Richy Rich. He activated his cloak's effect and immediately appeared behind him

Richy Rich was a Magic Druid, otherwise known as 'a chicken'.

This kind of Druid had high Attack and strong Crowd Control, but weak Defence. Lu Li's Ambush dealt more than 300 damage, which caused Richy Rich to start running and shouting for support.

There were definitely some second-generation kids who were experts, but Richy Rich wasn't one of them.

Experts would have had large amounts of experience in battle. They would have teetered upon the balance between life and death to train themselves in the art of battle. Take Water Fairy for example – she had spent a significant amount of time PVPing with other people.

The kind like Richy Rich, who would spend their time ordering others to help them, would have no skill whatsoever.

To Lu Li, killing him felt like slaughtering an escaping duck.

While he was attacking Richy Rich, he also conveniently managed to Crowd Control a few other players.

As such, the Evil Faction was finally able to regain control of the situation.

The two sides fought fiercely, suffering losses on both sides.

After killing Richy Rich, Lu Li walked over to pick up the equipment and left the remaining players to fight.

He had dropped a Silver equipment with really strong attributes!

The Great Thief

Chapter 184: Life's Most Important Person

Richy Rich had dropped a Silver equipment with really strong attributes!

However, this cloak was unlikely to be better than the one Lu Li already had.

Lu Li was confident in thinking that this was the first Silver Cloak in the whole game.

Cloaks were harder to obtain than other kinds of equipment, and a good cloak was even more so.

Forest Ravings (Silver): Armour 15, Intelligence 10, Constitution 5, Cooldown of nature-based spells reduced by 20%, Effect of nature-based spells increased by 20%, Healing Effects increased by 10%. Exclusive to Druids. Level Requirement: level 15. Durability 45/45.

This was clearly equipment that was perfectly suited for a Healer Druid.

The Tree of Life Form was one of the Druid's Transformation spells. After undergoing transformation, they would appear like a cute, young tree.

However, this little tree was not to be underestimated. When in the Tree of Life Form, Druids had 15% increased Healing and 120% increased Armour. They were also immune to the Mage's polymorphing spells.

Additionally, some of their Healing spells would have an increased effect.

With this cloak, a Heal Spell that was cast in the Tree of Life Form would first be increased by 15% and then by an additional 10%.

Lu Li had been in Warsong Canyon many times, so there was no longer any difference between Light Faction and Evil Faction players to him.

All of them were simply walking pieces of equipment.

Lu Li mailed the equipment to Shen Wansan and logged off.

After he woke up, it was already night and time to go back online.

But this time, Lu Li didn't hurry to log on. Instead, he turned off the lights in the living room and sat down quietly.

Ever since his rebirth, he had been busy making money without a chance to take a break.

He was seldom able to just sit peacefully.

The last time he was in such a daze, he had desperately tried to remember his parents, but the only memories he could muster-up were vague, almost non-existent shadows.

He was only 23 this year. If he counted the years of his rebirth, he would still only be 26. Yet, he had experienced much more than the average 30-year-old.

As he recalled the past 20 years of his life, his mind was filled with memories of his sister.

He was given opportunities to be adopted by rich families when he was young, but he refused because he wasn't alone. He had his sister.

When he was growing up, he could have mixed around with bad company. But he didn't, because he wasn't alone. He had his sister.

He was actually quiet smart and would have had opportunities to study abroad and start anew. But he didn't, because he wasn't alone. He had his sister.

For the rest of his life, he would continue to support and depend on his sister.

Lu Li couldn't see his own face in the darkness, but he had quite a calm expression.

The doorbell rang as Lu Xin came in with a bag slung over her shoulder. She turned on the light to see that her brother was sitting on the sofa.

"Brother, haven't you gone to work?" Lu Xin insisted that his video games were his work and that he wasn't unemployed.

"I haven't gone online yet because I have something to tell you. Why are you home so late today?" Lu Li glanced out of the window to see that it was already completely dark.

"A new student had their birthday today, so we all celebrated with a barbeque," Lu Xin guiltily confessed.

"Is it a boy?" Lu Li's eyebrow lifted. She was growing up now and would soon be at the age where she would attract the attention of other boys.

"It's a girl! She doesn't live very far away, just in the neighborhood," Lu Xin hastily explained.

"Barbeques aren't good for you," Lu Li impatiently said.

Her diet was very important, having a severe heart condition. There were many things that she would like to eat that had to forbidden.

"But it tastes so good," the little girl said playfully. Previously, they couldn't even have a proper meal with rice, let alone a barbeque. She was only able to enjoy these different foods because they had finally left the Common District.

"Don't have it again next time," Lu Li sighed.

"Sorry brother, I promise I won't do it again," Lu Xin cowardly apologised.

"Lu Xin, there's something I need to tell you. Can…"

Lu Li didn't know how to tell her.

He needed to tell a young girl that she had a very rare illness and required a very complicated treatment which also costed an astronomical amount of money…

This was just cruel.

"Brother, what is it? Didn't we promise to not hide anything from each other?"

Lu Xin sat down next to Lu Li and grabbed his arm.

"The medical examination results came out and… the results are serious."

Lu Li steeled his heart and decided to come out with it.

"Oh, uh…" Lu Xin panicked.

Her brother had earned a lot of money playing the game. They had moved into a big house and everything seemed to be fine. Who would have thought that she would hear such a message from her big brother's mouth?

"Xin Xin, don't be scared, it'll be okay." Lu Li held his sister tightly.

"How serious is it?" The little girl's voice was tearful.

She didn't ask which of them it was. They were basically inseparable, so who it was didn't matter.

"It's very serious, but you have to believe your brother. I will definitely make sure you are healed. I promise it," Lu Li said firmly. "No one will take you away from me unless I die."

"Big brother, I'll listen to you."

Lu Xin leaned against Lu Li's body weakly. She couldn't stop her tears from dripping down her face.

"First, you will need to undergo a comprehensive inspection. If required, you might also need to take a year off school."

Lu Li quickly calmed down. He had been preparing for this day for a very long time.

"Sorry brother." Lu Xin's tears were now flooding out from her eyes.

Was it really so serious that she needed to take a year away from school?

She felt like she was a burden to her brother. He had made so many sacrifices for her and she could only passively accept them. Just as things were looking up, she had become a burden again.

"Silly girl, what are you saying?"

Lu Li saw his sister's panicked tears and could only casually wipe them away.

"Are you guys okay?" a voice called out. They must have bothered Zhou Huan Huan.

Willow and Dou Jing Jing also heard the sounds.

The scene that they came to was the siblings crying over each other's shoulders.

"It's nothing," Lu Li said, as he instantly calmed down. Other than with his sister, he had never really learned to show emotion with other people.

"Sister Huan Huan, I…" Lu Xin pulled free of Lu Li and ran over to her to quietly whisper, "Can you lend money to me? I'll return it to you when I'm older."

The three land-ladies were left with their mouths open. They had no idea what was happening.

Were these siblings in some kind of fight?

"Xin Xin!" Lu Li raised his tone, visibly displeased.

"Ignore him Xin Xin, what happened? We will help you."

Dou Jing Jing pulled her close and they stood against Lu Li together.

"I'm sick and it might cost a lot of money. Can you guys lend some money to me? When I start working, I'll return the money to you. Otherwise my brother…" Lu Xin started crying again onto Dou Jing Jing.

She wasn't worried about her treatment – she was worried that her brother would be very tired.

"Lu Li, how did this happen? Xin Xin is sick? Is it serious?" Zhou Huan Huan asked seriously, as she got everyone to sit down on the living room sofa.

This young and beautiful little girl was actually sick.

Lu Li was a poor boy, so he never really let the small issues bother him.

However, this sickness must have been very serious.

The land-ladies were very fond of Lu Xin, so the thought had grabbed their attention.

Lu Li tried multiple times to pull Lu Xin back, but this was to no avail. The three land-ladies were unrelenting, like mother hens. He could only helplessly explain some of the details.

"I can solve Xin Xin's issues myself. We don't need your help. Xin Xin, get back over here," he said seriously.

"No, I don't want you to work yourself to death."

Lu Xin held onto Dou Jing Jing like she was a lifeboat.

"So you actually want to do a transplant?" The three girls were dumbfounded.

The Great Thief

Chapter 185: Struggles Of The Heart

"It's a high-end transplant, a treatment that has only recently been released. As long as the surgery is successful, there will be no side-effects on Xin Xin."

Lu Li not only said this to comfort them, but also to comfort himself.

"Will the cost definitely be very high?" Willow calmly asked.

Lu Xin started to cry again.

"The surgery costs a million dollars, but I've already earned that amount." Lu Li tried to console his sister.

"What about the follow up?" Willow was unrelenting.

With an organ transplant, the bulk of the money wasn't spent on the surgery, but the recovery. Various complications might also appear during the recovery period.

"At the rate that I'm making money, I believe that it'll be enough for the medical expenses," Lu Li confidently said.

He truly believed that he had been reborn to save his sister.

"You believe? What makes you believe you can do this?"

The grumpy Dou Jing Jing almost poked Lu Li in the face, while the other land-ladies' faces also showed that they didn't agree.

"Do you have no brain? What if you don't make enough? Do you think the hospital will give you a grace period? I know that you care for your sister, but you are refusing our help because of your manly ego. You didn't have any plans of telling us right?" Willow poisonously spat.

"This is my problem," Lu Li said stiffly.

They couldn't understand the despair that he had been through to raise money for the treatment. He had given up all of his dignity. He had begged old uncles and aunties. He had sold everything that he had, valuable or not.

He asked everyone he knew, hoping that he would receive some mercy.

However, he had been thoroughly disappointed.

Other than Azure Sea Breeze and Wandering, who had raised a few ten-thousand dollars, no one else had lifted a finger to help him.

The others all branded him as a liar and he was even targeted by some players. They had cheated him out of equipment that he could have sold for extra money, which took away his final hope.

When Lu Li experienced rebirth, he had been desperately making money and trying to prove a point.

Even if no one else would help him, he would still be able to save his sister.

But these land ladies who they had only known for a few days?

Why would they lend money to him?!

"Xin Xin, I'll lend $200,000 to you. If it's not enough, I'll ask my grandfather for more. You can return it if you don't use it."

Dou Jing Jing was the first to offer. She held onto Lu Xin tightly and was firm in her decision.

"The surgery will be a million dollars, but it's hard to say how much the recovery will cost. It might be expensive, or it might not even cost a single penny. For now, let's just say that it will cost 1.5 million dollars. Dou Dou has already given $200,000. Huan Huan's money is tied up in the studio, but she has relatives that can easily lend 3 to 5 hundred thousand dollars without a problem. I will lend the rest…" Willow asserted, promising to lend $1.5 million to them.

Someone who could live in this kind of mansion would definitely not come from a poor home.

However, these girls had to get this jaw-dropping amount money from somewhere else. They were still in university, so it had to come from their families.

"Thank you."

Lu Xin didn't dare look at her brother's dark expression, as she continued to hug the sisters and cry.

"Xin Xin, don't feel bad. You are so cute that you'll definitely recover," Dou Jing Jing wiped away her tears as she consoled her.

Lu Li was very touched, but he still didn't feel like he needed to take their money.

"You. What do you think?" Willow was blunt towards Lu Li. He couldn't utter a single sentence without feeling ashamed for it.

"First, she'll need to do another thorough check-up, followed by an expert consultation. Then, we will just have to wait for a donor. The number one expert in the hospital has promised me that he will find a donor as quickly as he can," Lu Li responded.

"My grandfather and Hospital President Zhao are close. I will go talk to him," Dou Jing Jing said as she raised her hand.

"I have an uncle working overseas. I think he's working in a medical institute. I can ask about this to see if he can find a suitable donor," Zhou Huan Huan added.

The more compatible the donor, the less likely the body was to reject the organ during recovery.

"I will make and submit a web page so that the public might be able to support us."

Willow snapped her fingers and said, "Xin Xin, follow us. You'll sleep with us tonight."

After she finished speaking, she and Dou Jing Jing guided Lu Xin away.

Zhou Huan Huan followed them for a little bit before she ran back to Lu Li and said, "Don't worry too much – medical science has come a long way. Xin Xin will be okay."

"Yeah, nothing will happen to Xin Xin," Lu Li firmly said.

"You keep making money in the game. Great master, I believe in you."

Zhou Huan Huan smiled before waving at Lu Li and running off.

When he returned to Dawn, Lu Li felt fully reinvigorated.

"How are you guys going on that Instance Dungeon?" he asked as he entered the Mercenary Group Chat. "Today, we have to complete the Elite difficulty. Tomorrow, we will do the Difficult Level and the day after, we will go the wasteland's Howling Caves."

"Those Drizzle Court girls haven't come online yet," Azure Sea Breeze said in a depressed tone.

"Keep waiting for them then. Wandering, what about you? How are you going?" Lu Li asked again.

"We don't have enough DPS to get through the Piercing Heart Wolf General's armor pierce stacking," Wandering replied lazily.

"Dammit, you clearly couldn't tank it," Lonesome Flower impolitely rebutted. To say that there wasn't enough DPS was to say that he wasn't good enough.

"Everyone shut up. This time March Rain, Flower, Wandering, Hachi Chan and I will do it as a five man party. Riceball and Dreamy can go find a place to train."

Lu Li was too lazy to listen to their squabble and gave them instructions directly.

"Sure." Riceball didn't mind.

"Wandering, have you recruited someone?" Lu Li asked.

"You know that mysterious Berserker out there? When the time comes, we can just let that guy in. How about that?" Wandering and Lu Li had a similar idea. They were also both very patient.

"That works. Moonlight's technique is very good and he has quite a few skills. As for his equipment… we'll talk about that when the time comes." Lu Li didn't dare to guarantee that he had good equipment. Moonlight spent all day killing other players in the Warsong Canyon, so it would be no surprise if he had dropped some of his equipment.

"All we have left is this Silver Shaman Ring, so we will only be looking for Shamans. Countless people have applied to be a part of the group, but many of them are incompatible…" Wandering said.

"Don't listen to his nonsense – Wandering has selected some beautiful girl. He even went into the arena to assess her." Azure Sea Breeze was filled with contempt.

"What?! What beautiful girl? Is she prettier than me?" Wandering was furious.

"Why were you so enthusiastic? You didn't even see if she had good technique, nor did you notice that she was only LV16." Azure Sea Breeze continued to fearlessly attack him.

"Oh, I understand now. Brother Sea Breeze must have seen Brother Wandering walking closely to a beautiful sister. They must have also gone into the arena together and now Brother Sea Breeze is jealous. Am I right?"

Wandering: …

Azure Sea Breeze: …

Everyone else: …

"Hachi… don't say anything if you have nothing good to say?" Remnant Dream was becoming a little impatient towards her. She was afraid that the partner she had brought in was going to be dismissed.

"I, I have no restraint sometimes." Hachi Chan's voice became softer.

"Keke… okay then. If no one else has any further questions, then get ready. Anyone who had their name called should meet at the Instance Dungeon in five minutes."

Lu Li broke the tension and started announcing their next course of action.

"Wait… so is it true?" Hachi Chan weakly asked.

The Great Thief

Chapter 186: Breaking In The New Party Members

"Dammit. Stop asking if it's true. You're so young and you're thinking about things like this."

Wandering was furious and slapped the top of Hachi Chan's head.

Tears began to well up in Hachi Chan's eyes.

"Just say it; you don't have to hit her." Lu Li couldn't bear to watch this little loli cry.

"What, do you think this is real life?" Wandering indignantly grabbed Lu Li by the collar and said, "And you! You seem like a good person, but you really aren't. You left such an infuriating task for me."

"You should have said something then. Is there anyone else more reliable to delegate to?" Lu Li asked.

"Whatever. I took one piece of Magic Cloth and now I have to do a bunch of work for you. You could have set it up so that only players with rare materials could get into contact," Wandering contemptuously spat.

"Alright, I'll change it when we get back." Lu Li rubbed his nose, feeling a little guilty.

"Don't dig around for excuses if you can't do a job properly," Azure Sea Breeze sneered. These two had become accustomed to verbally attacking each other.

"Hachi Chan, hold on to this. Wandering, take a look and work out how many rare materials this is worth." Lu Li took out the Silver Cloak that Richy Rich had dropped and handed it to Hachi Chan.

"Oh wow," was all that Wandering managed to say.

"Use some of that experience that you have rather than staring at it blankly like that."

Azure Sea Breeze continued to attack him. He had followed Lu Li for so long that he had seen all kinds of good equipment. Although this Silver Cloak was indeed strong, it wasn't enough for him to lose control over.

"You fool. Have you seen a cloak better than this?" Wandering couldn't just allow himself to be attacked.

"Waaaaahh!"

Just as everyone thought that Hachi Chan was going to talk about the cloak's attributes, she rubbed it and exclaimed, "This cloak is so fluffy and soft! It feels great!"

"Let me try, let me try!" Remnant Dream pushed in to rub it.

"Hachi Chan can heal as well with this cloak," March Rain enviously said.

She had pretty good equipment already, but nothing improved her healing as much as the Forest Ravings.

"It also increases her damage output. It pretty much increases everything," Sesame Rice Ball added. He now understood why Lu Li let Hachi Chan into the Instance Dungeon and not him.

"I'm going to make two potions. You guys get ready quickly," Lu Li urged.

He hadn't found the time to learn the Deadly Poison recipe that Hachi Chan had given him.

Deadly Poison dealt some damage when triggered, but would then go on to deal damage over time and could stack up to five times. For Thieves, Deadly Poison was inappropriate for PVP, as they had many Crowd Control spells that could be interrupted by their target taking damage. This kind of damage over time would only be a liability.

However, this was of no concern when fighting a Boss, because the chances of applying Crowd Control on a boss were far too small.

Some said that the Thief Profession was made up of two limbs – their Ultimate Skill and Poison.

So far, very few Poison recipes had been released in Dawn, much less than Intermediate Health Potions. As such, most Thieves did not use Poison. Even if they had a bottle or two that they obtained from a quest, they would wait for a critical moment to use them.

Although Poison was also hard to create, the Deadly Poison recipe required inexpensive materials.

Furthermore, it was also quite convenient to make. He managed to make two bottles in less than three minutes.

Each bottle could be applied to a weapon five times over a 30 minute duration, which was just enough for Lu Li to use. It wasn't that he didn't want to distribute the Poison, but that it was exclusive to the Thief profession.

Lu Li wasn't particularly interested in doing the Death Mines again.

They had already cleared the Difficult Level, so what surprises could the Elite Difficulty hold?

However, the other members of the party were in high spirits, especially Hachi Chan. This was the first time that she was going to fight an Instance Dungeon Boss, so she was curious about everything.

There were two new members to the party, so they had to introduce their roles and skills before the fight began.

The player with the most skills surprisingly turned out to be Hachi Chan and not Lu Li.

After counting the number of Skill Points they had, she only had three less than Lu Li.

It should be mentioned that Lu Li had already completed his Profession Upgrade and had gained an additional five Skill Points.

"Are quest players really this powerful?" March Rain was interested.

Although she was actually quite a good player, she would inevitably have some crises because she was always surrounded by experts.

"Not really." Hachi Chan bit her lip before sadly saying, "I did a quest before telling my classmates about it. They did the same quest that I did but they didn't get the reward. So, they called me a liar and said that I was intentionally not telling them the full story."

After speaking she sighed sadly. She was still young, so she didn't realize that her small problem was laughable.

"The process of doing a quest can only be used as a guideline. Dawn's quests are very flexible and thus the lack of a reward is quite normal. If you are interested, you can go and pick up some quests to do. The rewards won't be the same, but you can still learn from the methods used to complete them," Lu Li said.

"Hachi Chan, can you take me to do a quest later?" March Rain asked.

"Of course. You don't know how hard it is for me to do these quests. I always get lost. Dreamy doesn't want to do them with me either – she hates doing quests." Hachi Chan immediately felt like she had found a partner.

"Well, if you want to do quests, you can follow Hachi Chan later. But for now, our main objective is getting past this Instance Dungeon. Wandering, this Boss should be solely targeting you. Make sure to use your damage reduction skills well. Don't use them too early," Lu Li instructed as he began to apply poison to his daggers.

"I'll try."

Wandering had excellent technique, but his equipment wasn't nearly as good as Azure Sea Breeze's. As such, the party had died here a couple of times yesterday.

"Hachi Chan, pay attention and heal him when he reaches three stacks of Armour Pierce. We are the party that defeated the Difficult level of this Instance Dungeon. This is but only the Elite Difficulty, so it should be quite easy," Lu Li reassured everyone.

"Mhm." Hachi Chan clenched her Magic Staff and solemnly nodded.

"On my signal, the three players can start dealing damage, but Wandering should move up now. One, two three!" Lu Li waited for Wandering to draw aggro before he engaged.

If Azure Sea breeze was here, there would be no need to wait until the count of three. A warrior's ability to draw aggro was stronger than a Paladin's, even though a Paladin's defense was higher than a defense Warrior's.

Compared to when they had last fought the Piercing Heart Wolf General, Lu Li's equipment was now considered to be overpowered.

Lu Li's Rager Equipment Set triggered frequently because of the level difference. As such, his total damage output was higher than Lonesome Flower's.

"I'll go. You guys are strong, but won't you draw aggro?" Wandering saw the stats and felt a little inadequate.

"Don't worry about it, I'm keeping track," Lu Li responded.

"Let's see how you fight these monsters."

Lonesome Flower was completely relaxed. The last time they had come here, it was only him doing damage, while Wandering was yelling. The party just didn't have enough DPS.

"As long as we don't deal excessive damage for a long period, it's unlikely that we would draw aggro. Do you notice that Flower and I are alternating our damage rotations?" Lu Li explained.

After thinking back, Wandering realized that it had been just as Lu Li said.

Originally, Wandering had thought that Lonesome Flower and Lu Li's damage was comparable, but it had actually been controlled by Lu Li this whole time.

The Great Thief

Chapter 187: Continuously Keeping Track

The others were dealing as much damage as they could to the Boss, but Lu Li was actually limiting his output. No wonder they had been able defeat it at Difficult level; Lu Li truly was a master.

"When the Armour Pierce is applied, don't cast any of your skills. Trust March Rain," Lu Li yelled.

Wandering was just about to cast his damage reduction skill.

March Rain's heal wasn't strong enough to replenish his HP, so when he watched it drop below half, he became a little worried.

Lu Li turned to look at him before slowly saying, "Drink your potions."

Drinking a potion would only replenish 300HP; this wasn't enough to turn the situation around. Wandering was doubtful about Lu Li's instruction.

Suddenly, March Rain cast a Critical heal and the Main Tank recovered almost all of his HP.

"You can calculate when a Critical Heal will come?" the proud Wandering asked incredulously.

"You think too much – I only know that March Rain's critical rate is quite high. If you were at full HP, the critical heal would be wasted. Regardless, a single Armour Pierce doesn't pose much of a threat anyway," Lu Li explained as he shook his head.

"You're just playing with my life now," Wandering angrily said.

"Hachi Chan, heal him as well. The second stack of Armour Pierce is coming," Lu Li instructed as he ignored him.

"…" Wandering continued to draw the Boss as he resigned to doing as he was told, casting his Damage reduction skill and taking potions when instructed to. He held back his emotions and watched as Lu Li helped them get through this Boss.

After 10 minutes, the Piercing Heart Wolf General let out a cry before falling.

Wandering was left in a daze. How was this Boss so easy? Was this even the same Boss from yesterday that brought them so much suffering?

"The Difficult Level Boss was much harder than this."

Lonesome Flower patted him on the shoulder compassionately.

In reality, he didn't really have a reason to vent about Lu Li. But after all he had seen, it was just a habit.

He felt like nothing was ever difficult when he was following Lu Li. A Boss that was such a struggle for all the other players had not only been killed, but they had done it without any casualties.

Wandering's pride was crushed. He knelt in the Instance Dungeon in admiration.

He had led the party yesterday and fought for half a day, but they couldn't even get past the third stack of Armour Pierce.

"Let me just quickly say, Wandering, your grasp of Instance Dungeons is a bit weak. Hachi Chan you need to go online and find a Druid guide for casting skills. Your equipment is good, but your damage is not even half of mine or Flowers," Lu Li said as he clapped his hands.

"I understand," Wandering nodded.

"Okay."

Hachi Chan was extremely ashamed but she immediately agreed.

But why did he say this now? They weren't finished; there were still two more Bosses.

"I'll be going now. Riceball will be joining you guys in place of me. I don't gain any EXP from this," Lu Li sighed. He was already LV21, so the Instance Dungeon monsters that were a maximum of LV16 gave him no EXP.

He didn't even look at the equipment that was dropped before leaving. There was just no way that the Elite difficulty dungeon would drop something good.

After leaving the Instance Dungeon, he entered the whirlpool once again to fight Illidan's Shadow.

Due to the level difference, Illidan's Shadow no longer gave him any EXP, but he could still drop items.

The respawn time of Wild Bosses had been increased to once per week, so Lu Li couldn't farm them daily anymore. However, the two Shadow Cloak Skill Books that he had obtained were well worth it.

The first book was sold to Water Fairy for 100 gold, while the second was probably valued at around 200-300 gold. There was no way he was going to sell it now.

Shadow Cloak was an essential Skill for a good Thief and before LV30, was the indicator of an expert. It was much better than a Mage's Frost Nova.

He had already killed this ghost numerous times and there was nothing out of the ordinary today. The people outside were envious of this Boss, but they couldn't access it. Most players had now lost hope of ever getting to its spawn location.

Lu Li didn't get a single point of EXP and he climbed down from the pole, mumbling to himself.

Three items had been dropped: a piece of Steel equipment, a rare material and a 'Shadow Cloak' Skill book.

The equipment was quite bad and the rare material was Demon Essence. This material could be dropped by any Demon Boss and was actually quite common. Only the skill book satisfied him.

System: Congratulations to the Xin Xin Mercenary Group with the members Wandering, Lonesome Flower, March Rain, Sesame Rice Ball and Hachi Chan, for breaking the record of the Death Mines.

Lonesome Flower and March Rain were familiar to everyone as regulars of First-Clearing, but the other three players were completely unknown.

The World Announcements instantly buzzed with discussion about this.

It was widely believed that Lonesome Flower and March Rain had left Lu Li to play on their own.

"Lu Li, the Instance Dungeon has been cleared," Wandering joyfully messaged the Mercenary Group Chat.

"Congratulations," Lu Li responded.

"Haha, there are many people trying contact me. Some are asking to cooperate and others are asking to join our group. But we'll talk later, I'm busy right now." Wandering's ego had been inflated once again. He was grinning so much that his lips couldn't turn up any further.

Unusually, Azure Sea Breeze, who was normally against him, hadn't said a word.

"Just like that, I've beaten your score. You should drink some poison…"

An old-sounding voice rang out in the Chat Room, testifying to the speaker's vile character.

Azure Sea Breeze didn't allow Wandering's smugness to last for very long. In fact, it only lasted for seven to eight minutes.

System: Congratulations to Drizzle Court's Guildmembers, Water Fairy, Azure Sea Breeze, Little Bear Huan Huan, Don't hit Dou Dou and a Willow Yi Yi for breaking the record of the Death Mines.

The World Announcements started buzzing once again.

Lu Li must have had a bad day and blamed all his teammates, because they seemed to have all run away.

"I didn't mean to do this intentionally, I just couldn't stop myself. I wasn't careful…" Azure Sea Breeze's singing was surprisingly good. He had a good karaoke voice.

"You dog…"

"Wandering, Sesame Rice ball, Hachi Chan, Remnant Dream and March Rain, you guys go and do the Difficult-Level Instance Dungeon. Everyone else go and find a place to level up."

Lu Li looked at the time and decided that it was still early.

"What about you?" Wandering asked.

He had been assigned all the newbies! What was this?

"I need to practice my Trade Skill. If you have any questions about the Instance Dungeon, ask March Rain." Lu Li wisely chose to ignore the presence of Remnant Dream.

"I feel like this composition is unlikely to succeed," Wandering couldn't help but admit.

This composition would probably fail to clear the Elite Difficulty Instance Dungeon, let alone the Difficult Level.

I can't do it!

"No one expects you to clear it. The goal is to clear the first Boss. If you can clear the second Boss, then the third Boss should not be an issue. When you get to Piercing Heart Wolf General, Sea Breeze and I will join you," Lu Li said straightforwardly, without any hint of formality.

Wandering was just about to cry.

Lu Li's intention wasn't to test their abilities. He was already aware of what they were all capable of.

With regards to PVE, Sesame Rice Ball was the most skilled. He had played with Seventh Heaven in a few different games now, so he had excellent game sense and knowledge. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been promoted by them.

Wandering, on the other hand, had always played in wild parties, so he had his own method of doing things. He just needed to integrate himself with Lu Li's rhythm.

Hachi Chan had an innate talent for Quests that even Lu Li couldn't best. She was just like Remnant Dream – an ordinary player, but with a good understanding of her skills. However, even if she just relied on her strong equipment, she would still be much better than an average player.

Lu Li had put them together in the Instance Dungeon for a simple reason—experience.

The Great Thief

Chapter 188: A Nice Sum Of Profit

The other players generally didn't have much experience with the Difficult-Level Dungeons. They needed to catch up to the level of the original members of the Xin Xin Mercenary group before they could move on to other things.

Practice was also needed so that they could properly complete the Howling Caves together.

Monsters in the Howling Caves Instance Dungeon ranged from LV15-20, while the Hidden Boss could even be up to LV25.

If they were lucky and the Hidden Boss appeared, would they choose to fight?

Not fighting it would be a waste, but their chances of success depended on the ability of the players.

Lu Li had already decided to let them fight through as much as they could to earn some EXP. He would only substitute players in if they couldn't get past a certain area.

In reality, farming outside of Instance Dungeons wasn't that much slower. For Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, and Lonesome Flower, who were LV21, LV19 and LV19 respectively, it was faster to farm outside. Lu Li wasn't able to gain even a single point of EXP within that Instance Dungeon.

However, Lu Li chose not to farm with Lonesome Flower and Azure Sea Breeze. His number one priority was his Engineering Trade Skill.

It was for the bomb!

Once he could make the bomb, farming would become so much faster and more efficient.

If the others got the bomb, they wouldn't need to worry about levelling either.

Moreover, if he was running short of money to pay for Lu Xin's treatment, he could easily make a batch to sell.

Lu Li once again stood before his Engineering desk.

Copper Bar, Raw Wood, Wire, Linen…

He put all the materials within reach before taking a deep breath. After this, he started to recall the process of creating a "Maintenance Robot".

Maintenance Robots weren't expensive to make, but they sold for a very high price. This was partly because of their large demand, but also because their creation was a difficult, lengthy process that required many different kinds of materials.

But Lu Li wasn't about to let a robot that was almost finished to fall apart.

With his three years of experience, he quickly fastened the Basic Emerald into the most important part.

This gem could be found alongside Bronze and Iron Ore. Due to how common it was, it's purity and rarity was rarely discussed. It was barely good enough to be the core of a Maintenance Robot.

Now that he had picked up a good piece of Basic Emerald, he used a Whetstone to carefully grind down the edges and corners.

The shape of it needed to conform to the blueprint and it would be best if the surface was without blemish. After confirming this, he would need to carve some simple runes onto it.

The Rune Writer that he was using had been bought from a grocery store for 10 silver. Although he felt poor as he used it, he didn't have a choice. He knew how to find better Rune Writers, but it was still too early for that. He needed to at least be LV30.

It was a good thing that the runes required for the Maintenance Robot were very simple. He only needed to write 30-40 strokes.

After carving the runes, Lu Li used a little scrubber to rub some Strange Dust onto the top of the gem. This Strange Dust belonged to the Enchanting Trade Skill and could be obtained by decomposing Bronze equipment.

As the dust entered the carved runes, the Basic Emerald began to glow and pulse with magic.

Now, it was better suited as an energy core.

Lastly, Lu Li needed to build a heart chamber to hold the gem.

He was going to use the Copper Bar and Linen to do this.

In real life, Lu Li was actually quite the handyman. His old house's table and chairs were all made by him, so this little chamber was no issue.

The Emerald that he placed into the finished heart chamber fit perfectly.

This was the core of the Maintenance Robot; it would provide the energy for its maintenance activities.

Maintenance Robots were very crude machines. When Lu Li attained a higher level in Engineering, he would be able to make Combat units like the Mechanical Gargoyle. Only those machines could be considered as 'finely crafted'.

Once the power source was complete, Lu Li started to work on the body frame of the robot.

He needed to guarantee that the Maintenance Robot would be able to complete a sufficient amount of repair work, and also that it wouldn't just fall apart.

For the outer cover, low level materials such as Raw Wood cut into Planks, Copper Bars and Wire were sufficient. Lu Li had even added a bit of adhesive to hold it all together. He was a pioneer in this area; no one else knew about things like this.

Lu Li then carefully placed the core into the robot's chest, fastening it onto a Copper Bar.

As he did this, he held his breath.

System: You have successfully produced a "Basic Maintenance Robot". Your Engineering EXP has increased by 3.

The system announcement actually made Lu Li jump, as he had forgotten that the System would notify him of the results. He was so immersed in the production process that he had forgotten he was in a game.

Perhaps it was this focus that led to the finished product having very good attributes.

According to the blueprint, the robot could operate for 10 minutes at a time. However, the robot in Lu Li's hand could be used up to 12 times in total. This was two times more than usual.

Despite this, he was still more concerned about the three-point increase of his Engineering EXP.

He had risen from Intermediate (87) to Intermediate (90), which filled him with joy.

Although Lu Li found that Engineering wasn't easy, he was extremely satisfied with these three points and eagerly tried a second attempt.

But alas, his second attempt resulted in a failure.

Other than the materials, he had also wasted 20-30 minutes of his time.

It turned out that the three points were not that easy to gain.

However, after successfully creating another robot, his success rate increased.

As night fell and he was about to log off, he looked at his creations and was surprised to find that he had made 30 of them. His success rate was now greater than 70%.

His Engineering skill had also significantly increased and was now at Intermediate (128). However, the EXP yield had become significantly lower. He had to make 4 products to go from 127 to 128.

Lu Li then left the Engineering Lab and started to sift through his mailbox.

The "low quality stones" from Half Life Crystal had arrived. There were over 20 stacks, which was more than enough for him to improve his Forging Technique.

The next thing he needed to deal with was "The World is so Big".

Lu Li's advertising had worked out well. He had used a first-person perspective to tell the other players about the item. 'The World Is So Big' wasn't only used to look cute – it also had practical purposes for their adventures in Azeroth.

As for whether someone would buy it and attempt to use it in the Warsong Canyon, that was beyond his considerations.

There was another reason why business was booming.

Someone had made a post talking about how they had bought a "The World Is So Big" to give to a girl for her birthday and for his confession. He was successful in doing so.

Well, no one really knew the real reason for his success.

He must have already been attractive, and the two were probably interested in each other. Yet, the 'World Is So Big' still seemed to serve as a catalyst.

Thus, using 'The World Is So Big' turned into the favorite way for tycoons to confess. In a short time, all 70 that Lu Li had posted were all sold out.

Discounting the transaction fee, each one of them was sold for 25 gold.

The seventy of them were sold for 1750 gold altogether.

Currently, the Trading Platform price for gold after taxes was $112:1.

In one transaction, Lu Li had made $200,000.

Although this was less than the Snake Trust Grass profits, it was still a nice sum.

If it wasn't for the fact that more people were also learning to do this, Lu Li would have made another batch to sell.

The Great Thief

Chapter 189: Buggy

9am in the real world.

This was normally the time people went to work or school, but Lu Li had just finished a 10-hour session of gaming.

After lying on the bed for so long, he felt like his bones were starting to rot.

He put on some exercise clothes and walked out of the building. The air in the district was quite fresh and was suitable for running.

Lu Li's looks were quite average, but he had a silent and calm air about him, which attracted the attention of girls. This was particularly so for the schoolgirls from the Clear Lake Campus.

Even the scars on his body seemed quite cool and mysterious.

Lu Li didn't like being looked at like that and the gazes made him feel as uncomfortable as the condescending stares he had been given in the past. Just as he was about to return to the residence and go to the gym, he heard someone call his name.

"Lu Li, Lu Li…"

Looking over, Lu Li couldn't help but frown.

There were a few people calling out to him from across the district's security gates. They were all younger than 30 years old – the youngest was about 10 years old – and were dressed like hooligans. Anyone could tell that they were not from a good background.

It wasn't that they didn't want to go in and find Lu Li, but they couldn't pass the security.

"How did you know that I live here?" Lu Li asked as he walked over.

"Someone saw Xin Xin nearby."

The leader, who was a skinny and tall guy walked out. Although they were separated by an electronic fence, he didn't seem to feel very safe and he stood in a hunched position.

"Were you following Xin Xin?" Lu Li's voice became louder.

"Big bro Li, don't misunderstand," the skinny and tall guy explained, "We didn't disturb Xin Xin and didn't even dare to talk to her."

"Don't come here in the future."

Lu Li didn't bother wasting more time on these people and turned to leave.

"Big bro Li, please wait. Us brothers have a request."

Seeing that Lu Li had no intentions of listening to them, he started to yell, "Big bro Buggy was caught. Please, big bro Li, save Buggy."

Lu Li stopped walking, and slowly turned around.

"Big bro Buggy offended someone and might be sentenced. Big bro Li, we heard that you turned your life around, so please save him," the tall and skinny guy pleaded loudly.

A few minutes later, Lu Li exited the district and stood in front of them.

"Blacky, did Buggy ask you to come?" Lu Li asked.

"Big bro Buggy didn't let us come," the tall and skinny guy replied, "I made this decision. At least, for Aunty Niu, please save big bro Buggy."

"It's not like he hasn't been in jail before."

Looking at the woods outside the district, Lu Li couldn't but help but think back to the poor alley he had grown up in.

He had only been gone for a month and yet he felt that he now lived in a different world.

"This time they framed big bro Buggy and said that he raped someone. He might get 10 years."

Blacky lowered his head and everyone else stood extremely still, like wooden puppets, not daring to say anything.

"10 years."

Lu Li sighed inwardly.

Buggy wouldn't even be able to make it to the end of the sentence. Not long after he was sent to jail, he was accidentally killed by a warden.

"Big bro Buggy wouldn't do that sort of thing, he…" Blacky hesitantly said.

"I know. What does the other side want?" Lu Li cut him off.

"They want us to give all our territory to them as well as $100,000."

Blacky gritted his teeth and everyone else looked furious as well.

They were just some hooligans from the Slum District. Their income was originally quite poor and if they lost their territory, they would be in a situation worse than dying. Moreover, it would be impossible for them to pay $100,000.

"Tell them to release Buggy first and you'll give them all of the territory. As for the $100,000, that's impossible. If they don't want a lose-lose situation, I can give them $20,000 for their efforts," Lu Li said after thinking for a moment. "If they don't agree, tell them that Buggy's my bro, and we'll see what they do."

"Big bro Li, why would you give them money?"

The others were utterly confused.

"Since they have the upper hand, you can only compromise. Otherwise, what are you going to do? Start a rebellion?" Lu Li looked at them and the blockheads all quickly looked down.

"Big bro Buggy definitely won't agree to giving them all the territory. There are tens of us who need to make a living," Blacky retorted.

"Someone's about to lose their life and you're worried about that? Since you've come to find me, just do as I say. Otherwise, just let Buggy rot in jail. He angered Aunty Niu to death and I cut off ties with him ages ago."

Aunty Niu was Lu Li's original neighbour and Buggy was her son.

When Lu Li was younger, Aunty Niu cared for him and his little sister. She treated Lu Xin especially well.

For anyone who treats my little sister well, I'll treat them well.

This was the philosophy that Lu Li held since he was young.

He had grown up together with Aunty Niu's son, but Buggy began walk on a different path. He began to do more and more extreme things, causing his mother to die of anger. From then on, they had been strangers.

In his 'past life', Lu Li had always been furious towards him and didn't take any action regarding Buggy's situation. As such, the mastermind was able to do as he pleased.

After experiencing rebirth, Lu Li put all of his efforts into his little sister, so he felt less towards the incident with Aunty Niu.

Although Buggy's actions back then were despicable, Lu Li didn't want him to die.

"Okay, as long as big bro Buggy stays safe, we'll do anything," Blacky nodded, looking ashamed. "Sorry big bro Li. We couldn't find anyone else so we could only come to you."

"Are all of your followers still with you guys?"

Lu Li felt annoyed whenever he thought of Buggy's troupe of followers.

They were a rag-tag bunch and although they weren't unforgiveable sinners, none of them were good people. Their livelihoods would be a big problem.

"Including me, there are 42 of us who are waiting for big bro Buggy to come out. There's not a single useless coward among us," Blacky proudly said as he patted his chest.

"Big bro Li, if you're with us, we definitely won't be bullied," blurted one of the people behind Blacky who couldn't hold their tongue.

Everyone else felt the same way and looked at Lu Li in expectation.

Their big bro Buggy valued loyalty, but it was a pity that he was too reckless and was often toyed around with.

Lu Li gave his contact details to Blacky, then gently shook his head as everyone else stared. "I'm different to all of you."

Indeed, I'm different to you guys, not just because I have a little sister.

After getting back from his run, Lu Li took his little sister to the hospital to have an examination.

This time, it was a full examination. The Number 1 City Hospital attached great importance to her case and the hospital's best doctor carried out the examinations himself.

Less than 2 hours after the examination, the results were placed on the consulting room's table.

Apart from the Number 1 City Hospital's experts, there were also some experts in attendance from the Number 2 City Hospital, the Military Medical University's affiliated hospital and some other hospitals.

The consultation confirmed the donor's blood type and a series of other data.

It was a pity that during the consultation, they were unable find a suitable donor in the national donor database.

Lu Li and Lu Xin could only hope that a suitable donor would soon appear.

However, many of the experts agreed that Lu Xin's illness was still in its early stages, so it was possible to use other methods as well.

Lu Li spent the day with his little sister and after arranging everything for her at night, he entered the game.

The Great Thief

Chapter 190: A Bit Touched

"I say, Lu Li, why have you been logging on so late for the past 2 days?"

Seeing that Lu Li had finally logged on, Azure Sea Breeze began to complain in the Mercenary Group's chat.

"Had some family matters to take care of. How have you guys been going in the Instance Dungeon?" Lu Li gave a short reply, showing his intention to say nothing further about it.

"Those guys finished off the first Boss, but couldn't beat the second Boss even after trying a few times. I helped them finish the second and third Bosses and now they're at the Piercing Heart Wolf General, but they've already been killed twice," Azure Sea Breeze replied.

"Where's Wandering?" Lu Li asked.

"Didn't you issue quests for rare materials? He went to help other people do quests in exchange for rare materials. He should be back soon," Azure Sea Breeze uncertainly replied.

He and Wandering were both tanks, so they would never go into a five-man Instance Dungeon together. If Azure Sea Breeze went in, Wandering would be out of a job.

"He went to earn rare materials? When was this?" Lu Li was both a little surprised and touched, as Wandering was quite a lazy person. Even if he knew a quest had good rewards, he wouldn't bother if he thought it was too much effort. Who would have thought he would have gone out doing quests to earn rare materials for Lu Li?

"The friggin' hell, what sort of people don't even know when to heal?!" Wandering roared in the chat, cutting Lu Li off.

"Heheh, why would they ask you for help if they weren't noobs?" Azure Sea Breeze smugly replied.

Lu Li laughed, but didn't say anything. Wandering was narcissistic and sharp-tongued, but he definitely wasn't a bad person.

"Big brother Lu Li, have you been busy with something?"

A message came in from Remnant Dream. She didn't talk in the chat, but privately sent a text message.

"It's nothing much. I've just been working on upgrading my Trade Professions, so I haven't been very active lately," Lu Li replied.

"Big sister March said that some problems probably came up in the real world, but you didn't want us to know. All of us want to help you. Yesterday, when it was nearly time to log off, big brother Sea Breeze took us to steal a Boss, but we weren't successful. Today, big brother Wandering went to help other people with quests, but I think he died once," Remnant Dream said as she secretly told Lu Li everything.

"Everything's fine – don't worry unnecessarily. Oh, right, I've got some fun things for everyone," Lu Li paused. Was it really that obvious?

He felt quite weird having so many people concerned about him.

In a way, Lu Li wasn't a very sociable person and wasn't very good at expressing himself. He had never been cared for or worried about by strangers before.

"What is it? What is it?" Remnant Dream could be quite childish sometimes and quickly forgot about asking Lu Li what had happened.

"A small toy. Go collect it after finishing the Instance Dungeon."

Lu Li sent everyone a 'The World Is So Big', which he had prepared in advance for his teammates. Although he needed money, he didn't want to become a slave to money. There would always be ways to earn more money.

"Alright, big brother Sea Breeze is going to start, so I'll stop chatting. I'll be scolded if I make mistakes," Remnant Dream replied.

"Young master Breeze, how's it going? Can you clear it?" Lu Li asked in the chat.

"It should be fine. You don't get EXP from here anymore, so it's best if you don't come," Azure Sea Breeze confidently replied.

"That's fine. I'll continue to level up my Trade Professions."

Lu Li also hoped that they would work hard by themselves. If they were too reliant on him, they wouldn't be able to grow as much.

He had now reached a new bottleneck in Engineering. The Maintenance Robots no longer gave him much EXP and it took too much time to create them.

Lu Li needed to find newer and more suitable blueprints.

The Maintenance Robots he had put in the Exchange Hall were still there and their price had risen quite slowly. On average, they were worth around 4 gold each and were on a completely different level to 'The World Is So Big'.

This wasn't surprising.

'The World Is So Big' was naturally quite interesting and because he had marketed it well, it had become a luxury good in the game. It was desired by many players, so it could be priced accordingly.

On the other hand, the Maintenance Robots were ordinary goods and their uses were quite limited.

If player's equipment was badly damaged, they would normally go back to town and repair it at a shop. Only the elite groups of big guilds would use Maintenance Robots to save time.

Lu Li first made a few bottles of Deadly Poison. Even now, they still couldn't be found in the Exchange Hall.

He set the price at 10 gold coins, non-negotiable.

Lu Li never even considered the possibility of mass-producing them and hoping that a large wave of people would snatch them up.

That simply wasn't realistic.

Deadly Poison and Intermediate Potions were different. After all, the former only made one's life a bit easier, while the latter could save one's life.

Lu Li then began to look for more suitable blueprints.

His goal was to find Engineering blueprints that could help him rise to Intermediate level, as well as Basic blueprints for Forging.

These were the two Trade Professions that he wanted to upgrade. He chose Engineering so that he could create the Fool Bomb, which was a heaven-defying item. Forging, on the other hand, was for Hachi Chan's Mold and his extraordinary Forging Hammer.

Basic Forging blueprints were very easy to find. Lu Li chose a LV5 Single-Handed Sword. It was a Bronze grade weapon with decent Attack and even gave 2 Strength.

This sort of equipment was suitable for Warriors, Knights and other professions that wanted Strength. After the game helmet's prices had been slashed, there were more and more players joining every day. Lu Li didn't worry at all about not being able to sell these swords.

Moreover, Single-Handed Swords were easy to Forge, so Lu Li didn't have to worry about failing.

Intermediate Engineering blueprints were a little more troublesome. After deliberating for a while, Lu Li gritted his teeth and bought an ordinary Sightscope blueprint. He was a bit reluctant because ordinary Sightscopes were only useful for guns and even then, could only give guns an extra 2 Attack.

If this was the only caveat, Lu Li wouldn't have felt too bad. After all, even if he couldn't sell them, he could use them to gain EXP.

However, they also took up quite a lot of resources and were usually made by Trade Profession players who had too much money.

What was even worse was that ordinary Sightscopes required Intermediate level (135), while Lu Li was only at Intermediate level (128). As such, he had to choose yet another terrible blueprint.

After continuing to look, the best he could choose was the 'Small Blue Firework'.

Dye, Medium Leather, Gunpowder and Wool Cloth.

It actually required four, quite expensive materials, which made Lu Li feel like almost giving up.

However, when he thought to the Fool Bomb and Mechano-Hog, he was determined to raise his Engineering level.

After creating Fool Bombs, levelling up would be no problem for him anymore. After creating Mechano-Hogs, earning money would be no problem for him anymore. Furthermore, there were also Rocket Boots and Goblin Jumper Cables.

Most people thought of Engineering as a Trade Profession without a future. Only Lu Li knew of the benefits and rewards of studying Engineering. After all, the game wouldn't design a Trade Profession that was incredibly difficult to level up without any rewards.

Filled with hope for the future, Lu Li bought a large amount of materials from the Exchange Hall.

The gold coins in his bag were rapidly flowing out.

The resources required to create a Small Blue Firework costed about 3 gold coins, which wasn't too bad. However, fireworks in the Exchange Hall only sold for 20 silver coins.

This meant that Lu Li had to be prepared to make heavy losses.

System: Successfully created a Small Blue Firework, Engineering EXP1.

They weren't difficult to make, but they didn't give much EXP either.

Lu Li bore the pain in his heart and continued to create fireworks.

Of course, he would occasionally fail.

Because he was using Gunpowder, failing would result in explosions which were impossible for Lu Li to dodge at a close distance. It would be fine if he just suffered the loss of materials and was covered in soot, but the explosion would also reduce the Durability of his equipment.

The Great Thief

Chapter 191: Finally Being Able To Make Bombs

As for taking off his equipment, Lu Li simply didn't dare to do that.

Even with his equipment on, being caught in an explosion reduced his health down to about 1,000HP. If half of his HP would be blasted away with his equipment on, he would probably be instantly killed if he took it off.

When Lu Li finally upgraded his Engineering to Intermediate Level (135), nearly all of his equipment was red.

Equipment turned yellow when its Durability became low, at which point the system would prompt players to repair it. After becoming red, the equipment's stats would be affected and if the player still didn't repair it, there was a possibility that it could be permanently damaged.

Repairing his equipment costed 7 gold coins.

Having equipment that was too good was also a problem. The repairing fees were incredibly damning.

In total, it had cost Lu Li 60-70 gold coins to raise his Engineering from 128 to 135. As for the 10 or so fireworks he had made, they were practically worthless, so he decided to give them to Remnant Dream and the others to play with.

It was nearly the Mid-Autumn Festival and there were quite a few events in the game. When the time came, using fireworks could allow one to win prizes.

Although Ordinary Sightscopes were more difficult to make and required more expensive materials, there were no dangers in creating them. Lu Li wouldn't have to take each step with fear in his heart.

Lu Li had spent his entire day in front of this workbench.

Azure Sea Breeze and the new teammates had actually somehow cleared the Difficult-level Instance Dungeon without Lu Li and Lonesome Flower.

They acquired a piece of equipment suitable for Lu Li: a LV15 Steel grade hat.

Berserker's Horned Helmet (Steel): 15 Armour, Agility8, Special Effect: After activating, Detection5, has a certain chance to detect traps, Level Requirement: 15. Durability: 35/35.

Although this piece of equipment's stats were not overpowered, the Detection stat was quite useful.

In PvP battles, Detection could help a player detect Stealthed creatures, such as Thieves, Druids and pets. In PVE, it was also useful for detecting Stealthed monsters and hidden traps.

Lu Li's current hat was LV10 and Steel-grade, without any Special Effects.

Although there was still room for improvement, his body was covered with exquisite equipment. It was a set of godly equipment that would have been impossible for him to acquire in his 'past life'!

The 2 Daggers and his long-ranged Bow were all decent Steel-grade equips with Special Effects.

Berserk Fang (Steel): 16-24 Attack, Agility6, Special Effect: Has a certain chance to trigger the Berserk effect, increasing Attack and Attack Speed by 10%, Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 35/35.

Bayonet of Vengeance (Steel): Damage 20-28, Agility 8, Strength 4. Special Effect: On hit, there is a chance that the target will gain a bleed effect that deals 20 damage per second for 5 seconds. Level Requirement: LV15. Durability 35/35.

Broken Skull (Steel): Damage 20-28, Agility 6. Special Effect: There is a certain probability of dealing Piercing damage to the target. Equipment Requirement: Level 10. Durability 32/32.

His clothing equipment was slightly worse.

Concealing Chest Armour (Steel): 18 Armour, Agility6, Constitution2, Special Effect: Has a certain chance to absorb 20% of damage, Level Requirement: LV15. Durability: 28/28.

Spellbreaker's Leather Pants (Steel): 10 Armour, Strength4, Critical Chance10%, Level Requirement: LV5. Durability: 25/25.

Snake Skin Shoulderpad (Steel): Defence 15, Strength 6, Agility 4. Level Requirement: LV10. Durability 32/32.

[Swift Leather Boots] (Steel): 8 Armour, Agility4, Special Effect: Swiftness- when Stealthed, Movement Speed10%. Lasts for 10 seconds. Cooldown Time: 120 seconds. Effects cannot be stacked. Level Requirement: LV5. Durability: 30/30.

Light Belt (Steel): 16 Armor, Agility 8. Special Effect: Certain probability to deal 20% extra damage. Level Requirement: Level 10. Durability 16/32.

VanCleef's Grip (Silver): 20 Armour, Agility12, Strength4, Special Effect 1: Critical Chance5%, Special Effect 2: Sudden Thrust, instantly dash to a target within 8 feet, causing 150% Weapon Damage, Cooldown Time: 120 seconds. Level Requirement: LV15. Durability: 45/45.

Shadow Cloak (Steel): 12 Armor, Agility 10. Special Effect: Emerge from the shadows (stealth) behind a target, gain 50% movement speed for 2 seconds. Level Requirement: LV15. Durability 32/32.

Rager Bracer (Steel): Amour 15, Agility 6, Critical Hit 5%, Level Requirement LV10. Durability 32/32. (Part of the Rager Equipment Set, exclusive to melee professions)

Lu Li also had a necklace that formed the Rager Equipment Set with the bracers.

Rager's Pendant (Steel): Hit10%, Reduces Ice Magic Damage by 5%, Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 32/32. (Part of the Rager Equipment Set, exclusive to melee professions)

Bloodstained Badge (Silver): Constitution10, recover 1% HP every 3 seconds when wearing the badge. Has a certain chance to activate 30% damage conversion. Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 40/40.

The Bloodstained Badge was currently being used by Azure Sea Breeze, as it was more suitable for him. After finding a replacement, Lu Li planned to give it to him permanently.

As for his rings, one of them was the Sharp Tooth Ring.

Sharp Tooth Ring (Steel): Damage 6-8, Strength 6, Agility 3. Level Requirement: LV10. Durability 30/30.

The other ring was Lu Li's only Gold-grade equipment: the Supreme Two Ring.

Supreme Two Ring (Gold):

Strength10

Agility10

Critical Chance20%

Vampirism20%

Special effect: The Lord of the Forest, Cenarius, gave this ring special powers. You can learn three Druid transformation skills, as well as two skills for each of those transformations. Equipment Requirements: None. Durability: None.

Although Lu Li had a set of exquisite equipment, some of the pieces were still LV10 or worse.

This was especially so for his Shoes and Pants – they were still LV5. It wasn't that he didn't have better Shoes, but that he could only equip the better pair when he was LV25.

However, Lu Li's equipment set would definitely sit far above that of any other player's.

This was especially so when considering his Special Effects. Almost every piece of Lu Li's equipment came with a decent Special Effect. If anyone saw them, their eyes would definitely pop out.

Back when Lu Li had been 'farming' equipment at the Warsong Valley, he had obtained quite a few pieces of LV15 Steel-grade equipment with decent stats. However, none of them were exquisite enough for him to want to equip them.

Almost all of his equipment could be called perfect.

Even his pair of LV5 shoes would attract a crowd of people fighting to buy them.

Moreover, his LV5 Pants gave 10% Critical Chance. A piece of equipment that gave 5% Critical Chance would be considered a treasure, so these Pants were simply priceless. Furthermore, he had the Rager Equipment Set, which was the best equipment set for melee professions under LV30.

In terms of stats, Lu Li had added all of his stat points into Agility. After levelling up 21 times, he had added a whole 105 points into his Agility. All of his Strength and Constitution came from equipment, but since his equipment was so good, these stats weren't that much worse than anyone else's.

Of course, Lu Li wasn't so arrogant to think that his equipment was the best it could be.

At the very least, his clothing, shoulderpads and rings could be a little better. As for the other LV10 equipment, he would immediately replace them if he found any LV20 equipment with Special Effects and decent stats.

His goal was for all of his equipment to be at least LV20 by the time he was LV30.

He still had a badge space that was empty. If he gave the Bloodstained Badge to Azure Sea Breeze, he would have 2 free spaces.

Although he knew of methods to obtain badges, the quests were a bit bothersome and random. He decided to take Hachi Chan to complete them when they had the time. With Hachi Chan, he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to complete the quest.

However, he would leave all of that for later.

After a whole day of work, Lu Li had finally upgraded his Engineering to Intermediate Level (150). He fought back the tears as he finally learned the Fool Bomb blueprint.

The Great Thief

Chapter 192: Receiving Materials For Free

Blueprint: Ivy's Fool Bomb

Field: Engineering

Requirement: Intermediate Level (150)

Use: Teaches you to create "Ivy's Fool Bomb"

Ivy's Fool Bomb: A fool bomb that can be used by any adventurer who knows nothing about Engineering. Will hit the target almost every time! Deals 2000 Fire damage to tall targets within a radius of 5 yards.

Lu Li had slaved away for so many days, not doing Instance Dungeons, not killing other players and not levelling up, all for this.

As soon as he learned the blueprint, he rushed to the Exchange Hall.

The materials that the Fool Bomb required were quite complicated. Broken down into its constituent parts, a Fool Bomb had a Bronze shell, activation mechanism, detonator, and explosives.

The Bronze shell was made up of Copper ore, Tin ore and Iron ore. The activation mechanism was made from a fuse and a metal transformer. The detonator required cloth, flame particles and fuel oil, while the most important element, the explosives, were the easiest to make. Back when he had started learning Engineering, Lu Li had made a lot of explosive powder. He would be able to use them after some purification.

Although the things listed above would cost him quite a lot of money, it was still within an acceptable range.

However, when he looked for 'Starwood', he was dumbfounded.

It wasn't because it was too expensive, but because the prices were ridiculously low. The lowest price was 1 silver coin, as there wasn't much of it.

The results for Starwood in the Exchange Hall didn't even make up a full page and they were all listed separately.

Lu Li counted and found that there were 12.

The cheapest was 1 silver coin while the most expensive was 5 silver coins.

Starwood was only used for making Fool Bombs, so no one paid much attention to it, both in his past and present lives. Everyone just thought of it as a useless material.

Since it was a useless material, it couldn't be sold for much money.

Some people just threw them into the shop, others left them forgotten in their storages, and some smarter people left them in the Exchange Hall. After all, there were no fees involved.

Lu Li bought all of the Starwood in the Exchange Hall.

If everything went well, these 12 Starwood would allow him to create 12 Fool Bombs.

Things had turned out a little differently to what he had expected.

Twelve was definitely not enough. Lu Li wanted hundreds, if not thousands of bombs so he could repeatedly nuke large mobs and Bosses to rapidly increase his level.

What could he do to quickly gather more Starwood?

Lu Li thought for a moment before writing a sentence in the World Channel.

Lu Li: Buying Starwood, 20 silver coins each. Only requesting 20. Send it to my mailbox, pay on receipt.

Pay on receipt meant that the seller could set a price that had to be paid before an item could be retrieved from the mailbox. After paying the money, the buyer could retrieve the item and the money would be sent to the seller.

He said that he only wanted 20 Starwood because he was worried about being taken advantage of.

What if the other players realised how important Starwood was to him and started to charge astronomical prices? This sort of thing was not uncommon and he simply didn't want to risk it.

When he sent the message to the World Channel, the World Channel that he had muted came to life again.

A world of prosperity was opened up to him.

Even though it costed 10 silver coins to send a message, many people simply couldn't help themselves.

1 Slash 1 Kill: Gangnam Royals, don't push people too far. This isn't one of those games where you can bully people as you wish. If you really push us too far, then be prepared for a life and death struggle.

Pepsi: Am I seeing things? This is so rare – great god Lu Li actually appeared to us in the World Channel. Everyone, gather around.

Cute Bookworm: Gathering around.

King: Great god Lu Li, long time no see. Take me to fly.

Ancient Sword Green Fish: Gathering around.

Marquis of Linghu: The Brotherhood of Righteousness is currently recruiting, $100,000 salary. Lean against a big tree for shade – the Voyage Shipping Group will create the most beautiful home for you in the game.

Holy Thunder: Great god, I have one. Can you tell me what it's used for? I'll just gift it to you.

Rabbit Fork: I've never heard of it. Who would have thought some people actually have it? Someone please enlighten me as to why the number 1 expert would ask for it in the World Channel.

Staring Right Eye: Haha, number 1 expert.

Passionate Mango: I have one as well. I got it from an NPC as a reward for completing a quest. I couldn't find a use for it though. Great god Lu Li, I'll give it to you for free if you add me as a friend.

Immortal Doer: I had that those things from ages ago, but I could never work out what they were for. I've asked more than 300 NPCs, but still don't know. Great god Lu Li, please be merciful and tell me how to use them.

Prisoner Number 8: I have one, but it's useless to me, so I'll gift it to you. Check your mailbox.

Lord Of The Flies: Everyone's being so generous? I have one too and I'll give it to you for free as well. Don't you dare give any money though- otherwise you'll be looking down on me.

Nipple Assassin:

Tang City: Can you not all be like this? You're making it impossible for someone like me to increase the price. Forget it. It's just some silver coins. Check your mailbox.

Great God Dudu: Wuu, I finally know what a real great god is like. So jealous and envious~

Dragon City: That's to be expected. This is our faction's great god. No matter if it's the Level Rankings or the Instance Dungeon records, we're on top of the Evil Faction. Why's that?

Please call me Son-In-Law: Look at my name.

Showgirl Chunnie: Esteemed father-in-law, please accept your son-in-law's respects…

At the start, there weren't many people who had seen Lu Li's message, so it was easy to tell what they were saying. After a while, the World Channel exploded with excitement and just looking at it caused Lu Li's head to spin. Only then did he regret posting in the World Channel.

He went to his mailbox and looked inside it.

Swish, swish swish. Ten or so messages flooded in and there were still more coming. After opening them, Lu Li found that they were all Starwood.

Mail only stopped coming in after half an hour. In total, there were 43 packages.

Out of these 43 mail packages, only 6 of them were pay on receipt. All of the others had been given to him for free.

Lu Li paid all of the pay on receipt mail. In the end, no one had tried to take advantage of him. After all, Starwood didn't have much use and even most NPCs didn't know how to use it.

Out of the remaining 37 mail packages, one even contained 2 Starwood.

He had received 38 Starwood in total.

Lu Li didn't really owe these people a favour, as the Starwood wasn't worth much to them.

But then again, it had to be. After all, these people had simply mailed him the goods without asking for any payment.

What's more, these things were only worth a couple of silver coins, so who could be bothered to sell them? Most people would probably just forget about it in their storage.

This was quite problematic. Lu Li scratched his head in frustration.

In the end, he simply couldn't bear to take the Starwood without paying, so he added all of the players who had given it to him for free as friends.

He wasn't an ungrateful person.

Added by Lu Li as a friend!

No one had expected this.

All of the people who had gifted Lu Li the materials did so because they respected him, and didn't expect to use this opportunity to get closer to him.

Why would a great god who dealt in tens of gold coins become friends with you over a few crappy materials? Although there were tens of millions of players in the Light Faction, the number of people who he added as friends could be counted on a single hand.

As such, the group of people were completely dumbfounded when they saw the friend request from Lu Li.

Lu Li originally expected that after adding these people, he would be harassed and annoyed by them. Who would have thought that after preparing himself, not a single person said anything?

Lu Li exhaled in relief and counted his Starwood. He now had 56 in total.

After this, he bought large amounts of the other materials from the Exchange Hall, which dropped the gold he was carrying down to single digits.

However, he had no choice. Engineering had used up a majority of his gold and he was planning to make 56 Fool Bombs. Each of them costed a few gold coins to make, which cooled off his excitement from earlier.

Using these bombs to level up was simply pay-to-win.