The Great Thief

After struggling for a whole day, Lu Li’s finally reached level 55. There was still a bit of time before the day was over, so he went to Thelsama to Fortify some of his equipment.

His originally-full moneybag now only carried a single digit worth of coins. If he didn’t make more money sometime soon, he would have problems repairing his equipment.

Fortunately, he was a guild leader, so he didn’t have to worry much about this. Square Root 3 would soon send him a few hundred gold and the names of the two other apprentices.

Currently, players above level 30 could take on one apprentice, while players above level 40 could take on two and players above level 50 could take on three. Lu Li had already taken one, so he still had two slots left.

He had no intention to waste the two slots and planned to make use of these apprentices to farm EXP and Prestige.

Both of Square Root 3’s assigned apprentices were Mages. These players were veterans that had decided to stay in their previous games. However, now that those games were on the verge of collapse, they had finally decided to play Dawn.

The fact that they would be apprentices to Lu Li was already a great benefit, but Square Root 3 also promised them a position in their Elite Group, which guaranteed their agreement.  ( NovelFull )

Lu Li didn’t really want to personally teach these two apprentices as he did with Cold Chill. They were also given some basic equipment, but Lu Li just didn’t have the time or energy. When these two players completed their apprenticeship, Square Root 3 would find two more to replace them. If Lu Li had to personally teach all these apprentices, then it just wouldn’t be worthwhile.

The players would eventually discover the rich benefits of the mentoring system. In the future, players would pay to become an apprentice, giving rise to the apprenticeship agent who specialized in matching teachers and apprentices for a fee.

However, Lu Li didn’t have to worry about any of this as the guild would deal with that for him. It also meant that he could enjoy the rewards from the mentoring system earlier than most.

The game with Gods of Dusk played out as expected. Ruling Sword defeated Gods of Dusk with a score of 7-3, which also marked the completion of all the matches in the top 16.

Ruling Sword ranked first on the standings and their opponent, Gods of Dusk, were unfortunately eliminated.

Gods of Dusk’s core player Wood Fearing had been losing the quarter final matches for quite a few consecutive seasons. Although his fans were always comforting him, this was no substitute for actually winning. Even during the interview, this famously tough player choked on his tears several times.

Wood Fearing was just a Gods of Dusk’s soldier; he was a professional player that still wanted to win. There was no professional player that didn’t care about becoming the champion.

Wood Fearing had been in the guild for eight years now. When he was young, he had been rushed to the top. Even though virtual reality games meant that the age range of professional players was wider, now that he had reached the age of 30, his mental faculties had begun to go downhill.

This time, he had spent so much time preparing and had such high expectations.

His fans, especially those who had been following him for many years, were also looking forward to a miracle.

Unfortunately, that miracle did not happen. First, they were defeated by Peerless City. Then, they were defeated by Seventh Heaven’s combination of Lucky Southern Persian and Hornet’s Nest. Wood Fearing had fought very hard, but did not give up. He defeated star players like Hornet’s Nest, Half a Smoke and Green Flag Wine to earn a few points for his guild.

If they were matched against a weaker opponent, Gods of Dusk might have still had a chance.

However, they were matched against Ruling Sword. Moonlight, Fat Monkey and Carnivorous Cat all had almost the same capabilities as Wood Fearing. However, it was particularly difficult fighting Moonlight with the Warrior-Thief match up, which prevented Wood Fearing from recovering.

And so, Wood Fearing and Gods of Dusk had lost their final hope.

Some players began attacking Ruling Sword, claiming that they had no sense of honor.

With Ruling Sword’s current number of points, even if they had thrown this game again Gods of Dusk, they still would have been able to enter the quarterfinals. It didn’t matter whether they entered the quarterfinals at first or second place. All the points would be reset anyway as the remaining 8 teams would have to fight it out to take the top 4 places.

If Ruling Sword had made some concessions, Gods of Dusk would have been able to hold on to their hopes in their last quarterfinals.

After being accused online, Ruling Sword naturally couldn’t remain silent. They had to maintain their clean reputation. Square Root 3, as the executive manager of Ruling Sword, sent out a response to media as quickly as possible.

“Wood Fearing is one of the players that Lu Li and I respect the most. Ruling Sword has no malicious intentions towards him.”

“Before the game, I spoke to Lu Li about it and whether he wanted to throw it… but to my surprise, Lu Li asked me if I really wanted to insult Wood Fearing. As such, to avoid that scenario, Ruling Sword went all out for this match, which is out of respect for Wood Fearing, Gods of Dusk and the spirit of the game.”

“A lot of people think that we are just stubbornly fighting for the champion’s title, but in fact, we are just upholding the spirit of champions. It is not the name that we are fighting for…”

“Wood Fearing is a very strong player, and we expected him to take Gods of Dusk into the finals. However, I also hope that more players would pay attention to Ruling Sword. We have many young and upcoming players. I hope that everyone can support them…”

Lu Li didn’t know what Square Root 3 would say before the interview was released.

However, he was very satisfied with Square Root 3’s response. Square Root 3 was quite skilled at PR, and Lu Li would not have been nearly as elegant in his speech.

In fact, Lu Li had not participated in the development of this plan and had not discussed Wood Fearing with Square Root 3. Lu Li was not that sympathetic towards Wood Fearing anyway. One of the reasons that Gods of Dusk that reached this point was because Wood Fearing had been insistent in tying himself to the guild.

When things went wrong and players left, the guild would be forced to improve.

If Wood Fearing was willing to come to Ruling Sword, Lu Li would definitely welcome him. Wouldn’t he

complete his championship dream that way?

Lu Li’s origins and upbringing made him a very pragmatic person. If there wasn’t enough food, then what use was all this talk about emotions and integrity? Wood Fearing had received some favor from Gods of Dusk in the early years, but if it was Lu Li, he wouldn’t have repaid that favor with his entire lifetime. At the very most, he would find some way to repay them so he could be unencumbered.

So this time, the public relations crisis was resolved. Wood Fearing also later publicly stated that Ruling Sword was a worthy opponent and that he greatly admired Lu Li.

Now, Lu Li was going to lead his guild into the Blackrock Abyss again. But this time, he would let his guild members enjoy the bug there. He wanted the top of the Level Rankings to be occupied by members of his guild once again!