The Great Thief

“Lu Li, aren’t you curious about why he left?” Azure Sea Breeze asked.

“Not at all,” Lu Li calmly replied. Hearing his tone, Azure Sea Breeze believed that he really wasn’t curious at all.

But how could Lu Li not know? Back then, when the truth had been revealed, the entire gaming community had been sent into an uproar. The matter even became a classic material for fujoshis.

“What is with you? You’re not curious about anything! What’s the point in living like that?!” Azure Sea Breeze exclaimed, “Sis-cons are all weirdos. That Flower is also a boring guy.”

“Have you seen anyone selling Lava Essence recently?” Lu Li asked.

“Haven’t been looking out for it,” Azure Sea Breeze replied.

“If you see someone selling it in future, make sure you let me know.”

The other materials weren’t too hard to find, but Lava Essence was a bit of a headache for Lu Li.

Any Boss, smaller monster or Elite-grade monster had the chance to drop them. However, Lu Li needed a whopping 15!

They weren’t like Eternal Frozen Shards, which could be found in large quantities.

“I’m trying to talk about something really important right now. Can you focus?”

Azure Sea Breeze sounded quite angry.

“Where are you? I’ll go over now,” Lu Li lightly sighed as he closed the Exchange Hall screen. It appeared that finding the rare materials would require luck.

“We’re at the Four Seasons Tavern, next to the Inn. Also, are we really going to take Sesame Rice Ball? There are quite a few problems going on for him right now. Maybe you haven’t played many games before and don’t know how powerful Seventh Heaven is…” Azure Sea Breeze rambled.

Lu Li tried to add Hornet’s Nest as a friend, but the system told him that Hornet’s Nest had disabled this function. This was expected – all pros turned off the feature that allowed others to add them as friends. Otherwise, they would be swarmed with friend requests.

Since they weren’t friends, Lu Li couldn’t privately message him. As such, Lu Li could only use the chat room that he entered in a while: the North Sea Kindergarten.

He thought for a moment before typing, “Is Hornet’s Nest here…?”

The chat room fell silent, then quickly exploded with messages.

Green Flag Wine: Isn’t this Lu Li? You’re like a firefly at night. Even if you conceal your name, we all know that you’re at the top of the Level Rankings.

Lu Li: ……

Wild: Lu Li, are you interested in joining our Blood Red War Flag? If you join, our guild won’t stop you from making your own Mercenary Group, and we’ll give you a salary of $200,000 per year.

Empty: Wild, when did you start to recruit people? Why aren’t you recruiting me?

Wild: I’m just passing along a message for my guild. You know I’m not involved with the running of the guild.

Lu Li: Sorry, but I don’t plan on joining a guild for now.

A few weeks ago, Lu Li would have jumped at an offer of $200,000 per year. However, a few weeks ago, no one knew who Lu Li was. He would have been eager to accept a Gold Collection Unit job with a yearly salary of $20,000.

Wild: Let’s fight when you have time.

Lu Li: Of course, of course.

Hornet’s Nest: Of course my ass. Fighting only takes a few minutes. I’ll create a room and you can join.

Lu Li: There’s something I need to talk to you about.

Hornet’s Nest: Speak.

Lu Li: Sesame Rice Ball – I want him.

Hornet’s Nest: Ah, Rice Ball. Do you know why he left the guild?

Lu Li: Don’t know, and I don’t want to know.

Empty: He’s someone from one of the top 5 guilds. Heheh, Lu Li, good on you. If Hornet’s Nest hunts you down and kills you, I’ll pay for repairing your equipment.

After the third system update, the cost for repairing equipment had been increased. Players were quite unhappy with this, as the Durability of equipment decreased drastically upon dying. However, there was not as much backlash from the community, as the EXP penalty for dying in an Instance Dungeon had been removed.

Empty was implying that Lu Li wasn’t a match for Hornet’s Nest and would be killed by him.

Hornet’s Nest: What do you think gives you the right to take up his issues by yourself?

Hornet’s Nest’s words were impolite, but they weren’t without reason. Although Seventh Heaven couldn’t compare to the Blood Red War Flag in recruiting elite players, they were far superior to guilds like the Imperial Secret Service. No matter how strong Lu Li was, he would suffer quite a lot from going against their guild.

Lu Li: Well, I’m first in the Level Rankings, so I doubt that anyone can catch up to me within a few days. That should give me quite a bit of time to kill Seventh Heaven’s top players. Does that give me the right?

Lu Li’s words were equally impolite and were filled with bloodlust. Although he looked quite calm and relaxed most of the time, it seemed that he had a scary side as well.

Before the third update, this kind of threat wouldn’t have been very scary. After all, dying didn’t have much of an EXP penalty.

However, the third update brought great changes to the EXP penalties. Although there was no longer an EXP penalty for dying in Instance Dungeons, the EXP penalty for dying in the wilderness was increased. Dying brought a 30% EXP penalty, while being revived only incurred a 10% EXP penalty. If a player was attacked by another player, they would not be allowed to revive, which meant that they would automatically lose 30% of their EXP bar upon death.

Hornet’s Nest was very clear about this. It would be no problem for a PVP expert like him to trick the other side into attacking first, unless they adamantly refused to fight at all.

Empty: Goddamn. What gives you the right to threaten Hornet’s Nest?

Hornet’s Nest didn’t have a good temper, but he was a veteran in the North Sea Kindergarten. Empty liked to joke around, but he would always stand with Hornet’s Nest. Moreover, it was quite audacious for Lu Li to speak to a veteran like this.

Hornet’s Nest: Of course he has the right. We fought last night and I lost.

One had to admit that Hornet’s Nest was quite straightforward and honest. He didn’t try to hide the fact that he had lost at all.

Empty: !!

Green Flag Wine: !!

Blood Dagger: !!

Wild: !!

Everlasting Regret: !!

Twilight: !!

Midnight Ghost: !!

Windchaser Sickle: !!

The originally quiet chat room instantly became lively.

A countless number of legendary names began to talk. Any normal PVP player who saw so many famous players would probably die from the excitement.

Even Lu Li was unable to stay calm. All of the players that he had admired in his ‘past life’ had all been sent into a frenzy by him.

Water Fairy: What’s so extraordinary about that? He beat me as well.

Moonlight: I’ve already lost twice.

Wild: Holy crap, fight a round with me!

Blood Dagger: We’re both Thieves, so I should fight him first.

Midnight Ghost: Losers should go away. Come, fight with me. We’ll see who’s the strongest Thief.

Everlasting Regret: This lowly one remains unconvinced. How about I test the waters first?

Lu Li: If you let Sesame Rice Ball join my Permanent Party, I’ll owe a favour to Seventh Heaven.

Hornet’s Nest: Alright, but you have to fight with me again. If you win, don’t worry about the favour. If you lose, don’t try to force this matter again.

Lu Li: Tonight.

Hornet’s Nest: Deal.

After exiting from the chat room, Lu Li rubbed his head and cut off the chattering Azure Sea Breeze.

“Sesame Rice Ball’s matter has been taken care of, so don’t worry. At the very least, the Seventh Heaven won’t openly make things difficult for him.”