The Great Thief

“Uh…. Our President has a question.” After recovering from their surprise, the three Mages no longer meant any disrespect to Lu Li and asked very carefully, “Will you break this record again, if another Union pays a higher price?”

“Nope,” Lu Li replied succinctly and touched his heart to vouch for it, not mentioning that one day the record would be broken again. For some reason, Beautiful Moonlight unquestioningly accepted what he said. In this world, there were people that didn’t lie, not because they were morally righteous, but because they felt as though lying was beneath them.

As per the agreement, all the rewards in this Instance Dungeon were to be given to Lu Li. After that conversation, the three Mages said their thanks and left the Instance Dungeon.

“The first Boss dropped Plate Armour for a Main Tank, so I’ll take that. You can take whatever was dropped by this Boss.” Azure Sea Breeze looted the corpse and found a hammer.

Mandelin’s Redemption (Steel): Damage 8-16, Strength +4, Healing Effect +25, Level requirement 5, Durability 25/25.

This hammer’s damage wasn’t’ very high, but because of the +25 Healing Effect, it was a very good one-handed Healer weapon. Healers weren’t concerned with damage anyway.

“Good,” Lu Li threw the equip into his bag to be sold in the evening.

“The minions dropped 3 Bronze equips. Both Bosses dropped two each and there is an additional one for breaking the record. You can go sell them. There were 2 rare materials dropped as well, but unfortunately, they weren’t Jade Spider Webs.” Azure Sea Breeze handed all the equips to Lu Li.

“I’ll split the money after I sell them; we beat this Instance Dungeon together,” Lu Li said.

“Sure, but I’ll just take a third since the strategy was yours. You don’t need to be polite with me.” Azure Sea Breeze was insistent on his share.

Lu Li indulged him. After leaving the Instance Dungeon, he asked Moonlight how they were going in the same Instance Dungeon. They had only just beaten the first Boss.

The two of them spent some time idling, before Azure Sea Breeze suggested that they do the regular difficulty Spider Lair. At their current level, they could take 2-3 players in without affecting the entry conditions.

Lu Li needed money, so he didn’t refuse.

“Expert players to boost in the Spider Lair at regular difficulty! One gold coin for entry, equips will be calculated separately. First come first serve,” Azure Sea Breeze roared and immediately was surrounded by players.

Just because Lu Li had earned some gold didn’t mean that regular players were able to as easily. In reality, a gold coin was no small amount; most players were unable to even afford that.

There were countless gold collection members, but all of their gold was given to their respective unions. These gold collection members were simply unable to afford the $30,000 helmet. All they could do was continue waiting and hope that the game helmets would become cheap enough to afford.

After finding out that this was a fixed price, those without money quickly dispersed, leaving behind the players who had a few gold coins in their bags.

These people slowly earned their money in this game, one silver coin at a time.

“Take me, I’m a level 4 Mage, I’m even able to help out.”

“I’m a Warlock that’s already level 5. If there are any Bronze equips, I will definitely buy them. Take me.”

“Level 5 Hunter, I already have 2 Bronze equips on me. I’m very strong, so please take me through the Spider Lair. Brother please just once okay?”

Who said that earning gold was hard? All these people were willing to give up a gold coin for an ordinary level Spider Lair. They were even making all sorts of promises…

“You know, this is your fault,” Azure Sea Breeze said quietly.

“What do you mean?” Lu Li was bewildered.

“Because you made that strategy, all the parties who enter the Spider Lair Instance Dungeon want close-range DPS members. Magic and Ranged players can’t find a party. Even for public parties, only a small portion of Magic and Ranged players are able to enter.”

“Oh…” Lu Li blushed with shame, “This is the game company’s fault, nothing to do with me.”

“My guess is that next week’s new players will mostly choose close combat occupations. I don’t know what the game company will think about that,” Azure Sea Breeze said.

“Relax, they aren’t going to be replaced,” Lu Li shook his head and started a party.

Lovable Bookworm has been added to the party.

Xx has been added to the party.

King has been added to the party.

Two Mages and a Warlock. All of them were of the Magic Occupation.

“Pay first. When the items are dropped, there will be an auction between the three of you. The starting price of each Bronze equip will be 20 Silver. Common equips will be rolled for between the three of you and all the materials will be taken by me,” Lu Li said straightforwardly while entering the Instance Dungeon.

“We don’t even know if we can complete this Instance Dungeon.” King put on a long face, thinking he had been deceived. He thought that this was some kind of fraud, as there were three clearly rich people in this group. They didn’t even have a healer.

“That’s right. Brothers, please don’t trick us. We’ve all spent money on this game, so our skills are pretty average. We can’t keep up with your non-healing attack team,” Loveable Bookworm said.

“If you don’t believe me, you’re free to leave. No one is forcing you to come,” Lu Li explained lazily.

“Wait…” the other Mage xx suddenly called out, “You’re Lu Li, the one who got a couple of first clears and just set a new record. That Lu Li?”

“Yep, any other questions?” He didn’t think his fame would have this kind of use.

“Of course not.” The three of them quickly traded a gold coin to Lu Li, in fear that if they too were slow, they would be kicked out of the group.

So, this ordinary looking Thief was Lu Li: Dawn’s most regarded player. Unfortunately, the expectations that they had of Lu Li were bound to fail.

Other than his deep eyes, this person didn’t really have the appearance of an idol.

“How do we do this?” Azure Sea Breeze asked.

Lu Li knew what he was asking; he wanted to know if they were going use the same record-breaking strategy. The ordinary difficulty was much easier than Elite, so even without the help of three strong mages, Azure Sea Breeze and Lu Li could easily clear the monsters.

“Just do whatever and push to the end. If you guys want to fight, then hit whatever you want. If you don’t want, you can also just follow.” Lu Li had absolutely no faith that the other members were able to properly DPS. They would probably unleash all of their damage on a single small monster.

Azure Sea Breeze shrugged and cast Charge, successfully drawing the aggro of a little monster. He hit it as he lured it, ignoring the other one on Lu Li’s side. The three members looked at each other and decided to help.

To improve one’s skill requires immense practice. After performing well in front of an expert, maybe you too would be able to attain First Clears or break records.

The regular Instance Dungeon’s chance of dropping Bronze equips was much smaller: the waves before the first Boss didn’t drop anything. Once the first Boss was dead, a Bronze Magic Cloth Armour was found.

The three Magic players fought over it and eventually sold it for 50 silver coins.

They really were tycoons. For a piece of Bronze equipment, they were willing to pay several hundred real dollars. Lu Li’s backpack actually contained several Bronze equips at the moment.

Before fighting the second Boss, an Elite monster dropped a Magic Belt which sold for 60 silver. It was too bad that the last Boss’ two Bronze drops were not what the members were looking for. Instead, they went straight into Lu Li’s bag.

All this took no longer than 50 minutes, which was more efficient than a random party. The members were mostly content and Lu Li and Azure Sea Breeze received 3 gold for their boosting fee. They had also managed to sell over 1 gold’s worth of dropped equips, in addition to the two Bronze equips. In total, their profits were about 5 gold.

Lu Li looked at the gold price on the trading platform. Currently, it was 1 to 800. They had earned $4000 in a single boosting service.

In reality, boosting wasn’t very profitable. Strong teams could only take 1 person at a time and there was a chance that they would not even succeed. Only someone like Lu Li could take three at a time while clearing it faster than a normal team.

Two of the members wanted to continue farming, so Lu Li found one more person and did it again. This time, the income was slightly less, but still totaled 4 gold.

After the second round, there was not much time left. Lu Li was LV7 at 60% exp while Azure Sea Breeze had already hit LV8. They met up with Moonlight who had just finished the Elite Instance Dungeon and went to the plaza together.

Lu Li was going to sell the Guild Upgrade Order and a Steel Weapon, in addition to the pile of Bronze equips.