The Great Thief

“The winners were the Gangnam Royals. The other seven, including Glory Capital, lost, so the Gangnam Royals have earned their right to attack. Recently, some powerful players joined the Gangnam Royals. There were also interactions between big mercenary groups. Heart of War must have gone crazy,” Square Root Three messaged.

“Well, it’s expected,” Lu Li calmly responded.

“What do we do?”

Square Root Three was quite worried. Power and strength were not the only factors – money was also a big factor.

“We have to spend. It’s fortunate that it isn’t a race to see how fast they could clear it,” Lu Li said with a chuckle. “Don’t forget that there’s a prize pool of 28000 gold. If we can successfully defend it, then we wouldn’t lose money. We may even end up having enough money to fund the Darkshore battle too.”

“That was meant to be allocated to funding and expanding the guild.”

Square Root Three felt like he was being tortured. He realised that since joining Ruling Sword, he had become much more cautious about money, despite improving his administration and organisational skills.

Even the tiniest loss in gold gave him great pain.

“We’ll earn it back eventually. Let’s just take down Gangnam Royals first,” Lu Li laughed. “If Heart War ends up investing a huge amount into this battle and doesn’t win, then he will definitely be destroyed by those behind him. Gold is truly the most unforgiving thing in the world.”

The battle was different this time; it was a live broadcast. There were even two analysts – Dark Wind and Four Seas Dragon. They were, at that time, the best and most popular analysts. In the first season of fixtures, they analysed many of the all-time classic matchups.

There was a fee for players who wanted to watch. Although it was only one silver coin, it was still a tremendous amount after it all accumulated.

Unfortunately, Ruling Sword wouldn’t receive any money for competing.

“How do we go about doing this? Outpost defenses would lengthen the battle. Should we buy all the defensive Outposts?” Wandering asked Lu Li before the battle commenced.

“No need. There are three possible routes to attack, which means that we would need to buy nine sets of them. One set has 18 Outposts, but the Gangnam Royals would easily be able to demolish a set of Outposts. We might as well use that money to buy chariots and line them up on all three walls. We’ll have everyone operating the chariots,” Lu Li said. He reckoned that everyone watching the live broadcast would be disappointed at this.

The early Stronghold battles weren’t contests of strength, but contests of who had more gold.

“I estimate that we’ll need a lot of chariots then. It’ll cost us at least a few thousand gold. If we go along with your preparations, then it will cost even more.”

Square Root Three was in obvious pain. There were also revive points that needed to be bought. Including the one in the Stronghold, there needed to be four revive points.

If Lu Li guessed correctly, it was extremely likely that the Gangnam Royals would attack from all three routes.

During the game’s early stages, Lu Li quickly gained a god-level Engineering blueprint.

“Are all our Thieves ready? Just give them a set of rubbish items. They just need to have good Armor.”

Lu Li’s trump card was of course not the large numbers of chariots, or the additional reinforcements that he had.

It was Ivy’s Fool Bomb.

He had used this bomb to stay at the top of the level rankings. However, because he was lacking the materials to make this item, he had to give up on using it to level up.

The bomb dealt 2000 fire-based damage per second in a 5-metre range. This was extremely effective when used against monsters, but when used against chariots, it was even more powerful. To use to this bomb against monsters would be a waste.

It didn’t matter if they lacked materials. Lu Li had the power to mobilise the whole guild to gather the materials needed. There were hundreds and thousands of players gathering the materials for this bomb. It was safe to assume that Lu Li had an abundant supply of these bombs.

The battle had officially begun!

The first ones to be mobilised were the Thieves. Including Lu Li, there were ten of them, which was already the max number of Thieves. After all, Thieves weren’t as powerful as many other classes in this game mode, such as Hunters, Mages, Paladins and Warriors with Plate armor.

“There are 15 chariots on the top path. These people are crazy,” Scarlet New Moon sighed.

“There are also 15 chariots on the bottom path,” a scout reported.

Each of them brought two players and formed two teams. They had already reached the point that Lu Li wanted them to go towards.

“It looks like there’s 25 chariots coming down the middle. Seems like the main attacking force is the middle path. Everyone, prepare to throw all the bombs when the time comes. Don’t aim for the people but focus on targeting the chariots only. Do you guys understand?” Lu Li brought three people with him to scout out the middle path. All of their original equipment was given to other players in the guild to take care of. They were currently equipped with cheap and ordinary items, so they wouldn’t suffer a loss if they died.

Deaths in the Stronghold battles didn’t lead to a loss of EXP, but equipment still dropped.

If neither items or EXP dropped upon death, then players would just die willingly, which would lead to the battle being not exciting or interesting.

“Haha! They didn’t bother to build an Arrow Tower? Is Ruling Sword planning on giving up?” one of Gangnam Royals’ player laughed. They originally thought that Ruling Sword would fill the place up with Outposts to try and slow down the Gangnam Royals’ advancements.

“Don’t underestimate them,” Old Man Power coldly replied.

“You’re a professional player. I don’t understand why you’re so afraid of Ruling Sword.”

The player clearly didn’t have that much respect for Old Man Power. Druids weren’t great at that time, and Old Man Power hadn’t gained much from Instance Dungeons since he remained in a guild that were extremely poor at clearing them. He was nowhere near the strength at his prime.

“...”

It was tiring to deal with such stupidity, so Old Man Power didn’t bother to reply.

Perhaps he should listen to Dancing Star Dream and change guilds. The Gangnam Royals then had been completely reformed through an abundance of gold. Their strength as a guild greatly increased. From the perspective of riches and wealth alone, they even surpassed the likes of Glory Capital.

However, it was because of this that their professional players were beginning to feel that their heroism in the guild was coming to an end.

The gaming industry had already existed for 200 years. Many things had proven that gold and wealth were not the ultimate thing in games. The second-generation Board of Directors were completely deceived by Water Fairy’s way of doing things. They thought that just by having money, they could build a powerhouse guild like Drizzle Court and Peerless City.

Furthermore, their victory against Glory Capital to gain the right to attack Ruling Sword’s Stronghold further inflated their ego.

“Ready...wait for me to count down from three. After I finish counting down, throw the bombs towards where the chariots are crowding. I reckon that they’ll pack all the chariots together tightly.”

Lu Li glanced at Gangnam Royals’ formation and nearly let out a laugh.

Were they trying to purposely make it easier for them to throw bombs?

Both teams in the upper and lower paths quickly replied with a message saying that they were ready. Then, Lu Li began counting down.

“Three! Two! One! Bombs away!”