The Great Thief

“Speaking of recruitment, we have to talk about something.”

Wandering was shocked by the ring as well, but he was more concerned as to when a new Shaman would join them.

“Didn’t you say that you were going to do it?” Lu Li wondered.

If this task was given to Azure Sea Breeze, Lu Li would be worried, because he wasn’t a great judge of character. However, it had been assigned to Wandering, Lu Li hadn’t given it much thought.

Lu Li had gotten to know Wandering through Azure Sea Breeze in his past life. Besides his narcissism, he was actually very capable, especially in managerial areas. Many guilds had wanted to hire him to be their Vice President.

“You assigned it to me and said it would be easy.” Wandering couldn’t help but ask, “I really don’t understand why you must make a Mercenary Group and not a guild…”

“I didn’t have money at the time,” Lu Li replied, a little embarrassed.

“Haven’t you made a million dollars?” Wandering didn’t quite understand.

“Something happened and I spent a lot of it,” Lu Li laughed in response.

“Then everyone can just chip in. Guilds are comparably better than a Mercenary group, whether in monetary earnings or in gaining equipment. When a guild gains enough players, there will be great returns,” Wandering said impatiently, seeing that he wasn’t getting through to Lu Li.

“I was planning to buy someone else’s high-level guild to save some money.”

Lu Li thought that this was a good idea.

After the previous day’s System Update, guilds had begun appearing on the Trading Platform. Their selling prices were much cheaper than the original cost to create one, but their levels weren’t very high. The highest-level guild was only LV3.

“Come on, big bro, you can’t save money on everything,” Wandering exasperatedly said. “As a party leader, you have to ensure that your party members have a sense of belonging. The same can be said about guild leaders. What else, if not building your own guild, is better to foster this sense of belonging?”

The others thought that Wandering had a point, but Lu Li was such an authoritative figure that they had always listened to him.

“You have a point,” Lu Li admitted. He wasn’t a stubborn person.

“And about the Mercenary Group name, did you have a stroke when you were creating the group?” Wandering continued his ridiculing.

“Have some respect. That’s my sister’s name.”

Lu Li couldn’t ignore his remark.

You could attack him all you wanted, but you could never say anything bad about Xin Xin, no matter what.

“Argh, damned sis-con.” Wandering rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Alright, I randomly made up the name, but is it really that important? We are repeatedly the recipients of First Clears and our levels are dominating the rankings…”

“Wait…” Wandering interrupted. “I have one more thing to complain about…”

“Just don’t mention Xin Xin…”

The others chuckled.

“I don’t understand why you don’t put the Mercenary Group name on the World Announcements when you get First Clears. You are missing out on a lot of good publicity.” Wandering sounded bitter. Outside of Lu Li, no one knew anything about the Xin Xin Mercenary Group or how to run it.

“We generally just leave the settings to default,” Lu Li said as he rubbed his nose. “The only time we changed it was when we helped Drizzle Court get the new record. After taking their money, we had to display their name on the announcements.”

“We get the First Clear so often, that we’ve become de-sensitized to it.”

Azure Sea Breeze lifted his head proudly, but no one seemed to appreciate this.

“As for the Level Rankings, I want you all to reveal your names right now. I don’t want to go to Luna Square and beg for people to join us. I want people to beg for us. Do you understand?” Wandering spat, as he bore his fangs.

Lu Li thought of the mask in his bag and nodded.

Azure Sea Breeze happily jumped up and cried out, “Wow haha! I can finally reveal the glory of Dawn’s number one Main Tank.”

“Ah, and now your fans will finally know that you aren’t even in first place,” Wandering disdainfully said.

“Must you always comment on anything?” Azure Sea Breeze bitterly questioned.

He felt as though he was doomed to always live in someone else’s shadow. Wandering had helped him appreciate the competitive nature of life, but he felt like there was no way he could ever surpass Lu Li’s ability.

His resistances were slightly better than Lu Li’s…

But, for a Defensive Warrior to have better resistance than a Thief wasn’t anything noteworthy.

Lu Li pulled open his information panel and revealed his name which sat at an impressive first place on the Level Rankings.

Lu Li – 1st, Azure Sea Breeze – 2nd, Lonesome Flower – 3rd, March Rain – 5th, Remnant Dream – 7th.

Fourth place was occupied by Glory Capital’s I No Understand, while sixth was occupied by Bloor Red War Flag’s Wild.

The Xin Xin Mercenary Group had taken five of the first ten positions.

Of the new members, Sesame Rice Ball was ranked the highest at 23rd. Wandering was next at 35th and Hachi Chan was ranked 71st at LV18, even though she spent most of her time doing quests.

In fact, apart from Lu Li, all the players ranked 2nd to 86th were LV18.

“Alright, do your job well. The organisation believes in you.”

Lu Li promoted Wandering to Leader in an unexpected display of trust.

Everyone else, including Wandering, had no idea that Lu Li would be so trusting towards someone that he had only met a few times.

“Dammit.” Wandering felt a little bad. He had always thought that stories about compassion were rubbish, but now that he had actually experienced it, he couldn’t help but feel moved.

Of course, this still wasn’t to a point where he would kneel before Lu Li.

“I do have one requirement – I will need a large amount of rare materials that I will specifically name. I also intend to learn Forging soon. When I do, my requirements for rare materials will become even greater. As such, any rare materials found by our group must never ever be sold,” Lu Li said frankly.

He knew that the people standing before him weren’t tycoons. They all had their own reasons for making money.

Azure Sea Breeze and Wandering were graduating this year. They weren’t looking for jobs, but had instead decided to become professional players.

Sesame Rice Ball had to pay a termination fee of $300,000 to Seventh Heaven. He was most likely looking to earn that money back.

Remnant Dream and Hachi Chan were both high school students, so anything they earned would be placed towards their University tuition fees.

Lonesome Flower and March Rain’s situation wasn’t very clear, but they must have had some extravagant spending habits, as they would often trade in their gold for real money at the Trading Platform.

As Lu Li wanted to block the selling of rare materials, he had essentially stopped one avenue by which the group could earn money.

“Rare materials?” Hachi Chan lifted her small hands and said, “I have a lot of rare materials and a Mold. Do you want me to help you make equipment?”

“A Mold?” Lu Li was surprised. He had never seen a Mold before in his previous life. Only bosses above LV20 had a probability of dropping Molds.

“Yeah, take a look…” Hachi Chan reached into her backpack and pulled out something that looked like a Magic Staff.

Mold: Umbranse’s Staff (Silver)

Recipe: Forging

Requirement: Intermediate Forging (95)

Use: Creates an “Umbranse’s Staff”

Umbranse’s Staff: Attributes unknown.

“It’s a Silver equip; that’s pretty good.”

Lu Li rubbed the Mold while the others watched. Only he understood that Molds were not easy to come by.