The Great Thief

Four students rushed out of the classroom and surrounded Lu Li. Their over-excitement made him feel uneasy.

You weren’t able to alter the way that you looked in Dawn: your in-game avatar would look like your real life self. However, most players would add further customizations to their character, which made them unrecognizable in addition to the changes in race.

When Lu Li joined the game, he didn’t change anything for the sake of saving time.

He was now regretting that decision. In the future, he would wear a mask in game.

“Gu… Guru, I’m playing Thief too. Can you… give me an autograph?” a pimple-faced boy stuttered.

The teacher of the class was concerned; it was one thing for these kids to play video games, but for it to reach a point where they would be chasing celebrities was too much. A meeting with their parents needed to be set up tomorrow to talk about this obsession.

“I don’t play Thief, but I really admire you Guru. I’m so happy to meet you… so happy!” another loud voice of a boy rang out.

The admiration for video gamers was so strong. This kid’s father was an internationally renowned musician and didn’t even receive half of this respect.

“Guru, are you taking apprentices? I would like you to be my master,” a third student asked politely.

The teacher’s face had already turned green from betrayal. Her students were being stolen from her before her own eyes.

She looked to see what the last boy, the top student in the class, was going to say.

“Guru, please take care of me.”

The last boy only muttered a few words, as everything else had already been said by the others.

The teacher stumbled before grabbing onto a table. It was… an illusion, it must be!

“We’ll talk some other time.”

Lu Li saw that Lu Xin had found a place to sit, so he waved and started to leave.

The boys looked at Lu Li and back at the pale complexion of the teacher. In this moment of calm, they all moodily returned to the class.

Guru’s gone…

Don’t be afraid!

He can run now, but he’ll be back sooner or later.

We’re now Guru’s little sister’s schoolmates. It’ll be easy to see Guru again.

Lu Li left the campus and strolled along the street, shopping for the daily essentials. He also bought his sister two complete sets of good-quality clothing. Everything from head to toe was branded, even the underwear.

Now that he had more money, he naturally would give his sister better things.

After dropping everything back home, Lu Li went to the Star Moon Union office.

He imagined that there would be a group of people mocking him, but instead, he was greeted by only Square Root 3.

Square Root 3 looked the same in game and in real life; he was a handsome young man. The only difference were the glasses that he wore, which looked elegant and refined.

“I’m honored to meet you Lu Li,” Square Root 3 said, as he shook Lu Li’s hand and invited him to sit.

“Here is the 60,000, as per the agreement,” Lu Li passed the cash over saying, “I’m thankful for this contract, which gave me the opportunity to enter Dawn.”

To this rich second generation, 30,000 wasn’t even enough to take a stroll in the night markets, but to Lu Li, this was truly the start of his gaming career. When the game had just been released, there was no way for him to buy a game helmet. He had to join Star Moon Union as a Gold Collection member, but he didn’t think that his contract would come to an end this quickly.

“I also appreciate this contract very much. Without it, Dawn would have one less expert.”

Square Root 3 passed on the money to a nearby accountant, who nodded before leaving. He then picked up the Relief Agreement and signed his name on it.

He was the Guild’s legal representative and had the authority to sign this kind of contract.

Lu Li didn’t expect this, initially thinking that Square Root 3 had volunteered to see him.

“I’ve been in Star Moon for 5 years, ever since High School. At the time I was young and didn’t know anything, but after so many years I now understand,” Square Root 3 sighed emotionally, laughing bitterly, “They told me to escape, because there was a bigger world out there, but I was unwilling.”

Lu Li understood what he was saying, but didn’t respond. Everyone had to live with their own choices, no matter what they were.

“Star Moon Guild has many issues that can’t be resolved. If you really tried to resolve them, the guild would probably be unable to go on,” Square Root 3 sighed and continued, “Because of these issues, I won’t convince you to stay. I only hope that if we need some help, you’ll look at these papers and extend a helping hand.”

“That’s not a problem, as long as I’m compensated appropriately,” Lu Li responded.

What was originally a hostile meeting was instead carried out in an amicable and united atmosphere. Both parties recalled their initial struggles together, but now shared a fine outlook on their potential future business interactions within Dawn.

In reality, Square Root 3 never wanted Lu Li to stay.

Currently, most guilds were chasing after experts, the most popular of which was Lu Li. They weren’t particularly interested in his PVP ability, in fact, they weren’t interested in PVP experts at all. What were looking however, were PVE experts.

To the big guilds, Lu Li was a talented party leader. How else could he have attained the first clear of the Spider Lair and then broken the record by such a staggering amount?

He had taken three Wild Boss First Clears. No one was unconvinced of this.

Some were even questioning the Chinese Party Leader Rankings. Lu Li’s ranking was one question that no one could answer.

However, the most important thing was that Lu Li didn’t have an official guild!

He was open for anyone to attract him to their guild.

Many people wished to be subordinates under Lu Li’s party leading expertise, except for Square Root 3.

After the few interactions that he had with Lu Li, Square Root 3 knew that Lu Li wasn’t one to cater for public interest. He has his own pride and would not bow down to you because your family was rich or if you were a brilliant student from a good university.

Star Moon Union was made up of these rich, second generations and elite university students.

Both of these kinds of people were too proud, so they were not compatible.

I am Richy Rich actually wanted to legally attack Lu Li, but Square Root 3 had strongly advocated for a peaceful resolution.

Things that happened in-game were best resolved in-game.

To offend an expert in the heat of the moment was unwise.

This wasn’t what Richy Rich would have liked, but he had series of nightmares of Lu Li appearing from the shadows and holding a knife to his neck after watching last night’s video.

There were no skills in real life and no such thing as Stealth, but even then, one should be wary of someone who had that kind of patience and ability.

If you backed someone into a corner, you had to be ready when they came out swinging.

Without a care in the world, Lu Li strolled through the streets, enjoying himself without a care in the world. All the normal things that he saw were brilliant in his eyes.