The Great Thief

Water Fairy ultimately escaped from the Instance Dungeon in a state of flight. She neither used her small fists to hit Lu Li’s chest, nor did she use a small dagger to stab Lu Li.

The elite Hunters of Ruling Sword were limited, so two Hunters were recruited from Drizzle Court. Two were also invited from Peerless City. Amongst them was Vegetarian Mosquito – an elderly man, who, after the Shadow Cup, joined Peerless City from the Gangnam Royals. Such betrayal led Heart of War to repeatedly cause him trouble. Vegetarian Mosquito therefore took a liking towards Heart of War’s rather ineffective siege of Ruling Sword.

There were a total of six Hunters, all of which were especially powerful.

Then, there were the Priests. The team initially consisted of March Rain, Eternal Night, Machine Bro, Star Baby, and Jaweika. The first four were Holy Priests, or more specifically, Healing priests, while Jaweika was a Shadow Priest.

Lu Li gathered another four Priests. He now had nine priests, eight of which were Healing Priests.

There were also a few Mages who were recruited to eliminate the small dragons in the second stage. Attacks initiated by a Thief, although powerful, could only be directed at one monster and were unable to match the power of a Mage’s Blizzard.

The role of Hunters and Mages was to form the main force against the Boss in the second phase. They only needed to reduce the HP of the Princess of the Black Dragon from 45% to 35%. It was roughly at this stage, the third stage, that the Princess began to loudly exclaim, “Allow me to return again to eradicate you all’”

This assertion marked the beautiful ending of the second phase.

It was a shame that Lu Li and his team, despite playing late into the night, did not reach this stage. The fact that his team was so easily exterminated led Lu Li to feel that this was even more difficult than battling Ragnaros.

There was still a period of time before the end of the day, but Lu Li, upon seeing the dreary looks on everyone’s faces, decided that it was better to end their session early today.

Before he exited the game, Lu Li asked Square Root 3 to continue preparing gold and potions. The provision of various medicines relied upon the financial support of the guild. After all, the guild supported the livelihood of tens of thousands of professional players. The up-and-coming Alchemy master Cold Chill could now replicate almost all of the rare potions on the market.

She was also more advanced than her mentor, Sesame Rice Ball. Cold Chill had already abandoned the process of relying on traditional medicinal prescriptions, and had begun experimenting with different combinations. In this area, her natural talent was evidently superior to Lu Li, who was conducting similar research into poisons.

It was a shame that there were still no developments into her Elixir of Rebirth.

The Elixir of Rebirth belonged to one of her peers. The recipe or composition of it was never revealed, and therefore Lu Li also could not help.

If Lu Li had the Elixir of Rebirth in his hands right now, it would allow him the opportunity to battle with forty revived individuals. So long as there theoretically existed a chance of successfully attacking, then their chances of actually taking down Boss would be near one hundred per cent.

As for the gold coins, they were mainly used for the repair costs.

The current repair costs were still exorbitantly high, especially for those players that were reclaiming land. Every time their team died, their stamina would decrease. After a few times of this occurring, they would need repairs. The frequency of their repairs far exceeded that of the ordinary players. The pressure of repairing equipment was amplified because their equipment was of a higher grade.

If they were required to self-repair, many players would be unable to afford the costs. The club would consequently face imminent collapse.

Gold coins on the market remained a scarce resource. Square Root 3 could only Gold coins from within the guild at a price that was between 10-20% higher than the market rate. This counted as a win-win for those guild members who were content with selling the guild their coins.

After he logged out, Lu Li sat beside the gaming room in deep thought.

He confirmed that the agreed time at which he was to dine with Water Fairy was still a while away. There was something disorientating about the differences between the game-world and the real world. Midnight in the game world was the equivalent to lunch time in the real world. Lu Li had already gone to school, and would not be returning home to have lunch. Because there were many high schoolers amongst the elite group of Ruling Sword, Lu Xin had many peers to eat with, and therefore often abandoned Lu Li, who suffered in silence.

However, this was not the time to address this problem.

The demeaning gaze of Azure Sea Breeze was still etched into his mind.

“Surely you are not going to go on a date wearing your usual exercise clothes and messy hair.”

Lu Li jumped down from the gaming platform, walked in front of the dressing mirror, and looked closely at himself.

He rarely did this, because in his world, this amounted to a meaningless waste of time. Additionally, it was not as if others had not commented on his appearance. Some said he was overly skinny – emasculated even – while others either said he was overly aggressive, or emphasised that his face had multiple scars ...

In short, no one said he was attractive. The comments of the gangsters did not count, because their views focused entirely on the results of fights.

It was already half a year since he moved away from that place. His gaunt face had already grown rounder. It no longer reflected the dark complexion of when he was within the slums, struggling to survive. However, when compared to the Water Fairy’s skin that was pale and as clear as crystal, Lu Li’s still resembled coal – just a healthier version.

His life had improved, his mannerisms no longer seemed so aggressive, and he was no longer troubled or cold.

As of late, there were no new scars and the scars that existed before were less pronounced. On the contrary, they had a special appeal, and would lead some to feel as if they represented a man with an interesting story.

Recently, Lu Xin had begun frequently commenting that her brother had become more attractive, perhaps in part because he was trying to protect family.

Lu Li was currently wearing his pyjamas that had been purchased by Lu Xin. It was difficult to judge the quality of the clothes, but they felt very soft and comfortable to wear. He was wearing a pair of cartoon slippers, which looked very strange on him. Because of his recent busyness, Lu Li had yet to find time to visit the hairdresser. His hair was so long that it almost covered both of his thick eyebrows.

Lu Li had a quick look at the exercise clothes within the wardrobe. He extended his hand, paused, and then quickly turned towards his other clothes.

Azure Sea Breeze’s words clearly had an effect.

He pulled out the set of clothes that was selected and purchased with the help of Square Root 3. Its initial purpose was to compete in other cities – he couldn’t just wear the team uniform all the time.

The clothes he selected were very expensive, and were something that Lu Li struggled over when paying for them.

After changing into this clothes, Lu Li studied himself closely, and felt once again that Azure Sea Breeze wasn’t useless after all.

Because of this self-confidence, Lu Li decided to get a haircut before going to see Water Fairy.

The hairdresser he went to was not the one in the local neighbourhood that provided haircuts to the elderly and retired. It was instead somewhere that took a while to walk towards – a luxurious hair-styling club.

“Welcome”, said the beautiful female workers that stood beside the entrance, as they quickly helped open the glass doors.

Lu Li indifferently nodded his head and walked in. He obviously did not possess the same thought patterns as normal humans – any normal person would have had subconsciously evaluated the two women, and judged which of the two was more attractive.