The Great Thief

”What, here?” Lu Li thought he had heard wrong.

Jiang Nan City’s cost of living wasn’t as high as the capital, but it was still a well-established city. The house prices never went down and unless you wanted to live in the Common District, it was considered a nice country-side location.

”I have a relative that owns a building in the Green Gardens area. I can rent it out at a low price,” Square Root 3 said.

”That doesn’t mean the rent will be cheap.” Lu Li was still calculating how much that would cost.

He knew of the Green Gardens area. Although it was called the Green Gardens, there were actually far fewer trees there than the villa or townhouse areas. The place was populated with high rise buildings because it was very close to the university and business center. As such, the rent prices were astronomical.

Moreover, Square Root 3 had mentioned… a building.

He was currently still renting his own accommodation and now he was thinking about renting an entire building.

”Don’t worry about the rent; the people staying there have gone overseas and have left a 12-storey building for me to take care of. We’ll only be using 6 floors, so $100,000 for a month should cover it. The club itself should be able to handle that.” Square Root 3 saw Lu Li’s anxious expression and laughed.

Lu Li pondered for a moment. $100,000 a month did seem quite reasonable.

He then started thinking about the problem of paying these elite players and started to become anxious again. If a single player was paid a monthly salary of $8000, the cost of 100 players with additional welfare costs and supplied equipment…

Suddenly, he felt a huge responsibility fall on his shoulders. He was responsible for the food and clothing of hundreds of people.

”We don’t have to rush to pay rent either. It doesn’t matter if we take a few months. The building is never full anyway.” Square Root 3 saw that Lu Li hadn’t said anything and tried to comfort him.

”I’m just struggling a little to accept it,” Lu Li openly shared his embarrassment. ”Growing up, I never thought that I’d have to pay $100,000 in rent. It sounds like a joke to me.”

”Well, its best you get used to it,” Square Root 3 said, then continued to explain, ”At the moment, the trade unions are unable to generate any income, but we still need to find some way of funding the elite teams. Other than the funds from the Shadow Cup, the easiest option is for some of the club members to contribute.

March Rain, Moonlight, Hachi Chan and Wandering all received endorsements of some kind, ranging from the thousands to the tens of thousands. They could contribute some of that to the expansion funds.

Any single player in the Xin Xin Mercenary Group was quite remarkable, so there were countless endorsements ready at their doorsteps for the taking.

March Rain really had to take her offer. She was currently valued at $1.1 million, which was beyond even Lu Li.

However, it made sense – she was strong and quite beautiful. Lu Li’s looks were rather average and simply couldn’t compare against hers.

Moonlight had previously never really liked endorsing products. As Blood Demon, he had only endorsed a handful of them, but this time, he took the initiative to endorse a fitness brand and acquired $600,000.

Although he didn’t say much and was rather quiet, everyone knew that he was just as loyal to this club as anyone else.

As for Wandering, he had never participated in any competitions before, but had received an amount that was higher than the average star player. It was $500,000 dollars. He had even made the advertisers sign some agreements that were disadvantageous to them. For example, he made them promise that they wouldn’t profane his natural beauty…

Endorsements were an important part of a club’s survival – even winning competitions couldn’t make them money this quickly.

But of course, if you didn’t do well in competitions, there would be no endorsements to take.

It was only because of this money that Square Root 3 dared to talk about setting up a 100-player elite team.

”Additionally, I also recommend that the club regularly participates in local competitions,” Square Root 3 said as he handed over a piece of paper. ”Those are the places where local competitions will be organized. I’ve collected some information about them. You can have a look.”

The local competitions were basically unofficial competitions.

These usually weren’t very large scale and there was only a small reward, but as long as the competition was recognized, some guild points would be awarded and it could affect the guild rankings.

”The closest one is the Magic Cup, which has an $8000-dollar reward for the champions,” Lu L read out.

”This guy is actually looking down on the Magic Cup,” Square Root 3 thought as he held his forehead.

However, Lu Li had just won the Shadow Cup, so his confidence was somewhat warranted.

Compared to the Shadow Cup’s 3 million dollar prize, the 8000 dollar prize of the Magic Cup did seem a little stingy.

”The Magic Cup is quite an established competition and has some influence. They usually gather thousands of players in the audience,” Square Root 3 patiently explained. ”In fact, star players usually participate in these events for the ticket proceeds or to gain more popularity.”

Lu Li understood everything he had said so far and nodded for him to go on.

”Although we aren’t lacking in popularity, it is something that has a short lifespan. If you don’t participate in competitions, you will be quickly forgotten. If the event is too small, you can send someone to participate on our behalf. You don’t always have to be the one to fight.”

What was star power? It was the ability to make admission difficult the moment you appeared on stage… They wanted to sustain this, but the Shadow Cup alone wasn’t going to cut it.

These local events allowed even more players to see their favorite star players on a smaller stage.

”Alright, we’ll participate. But the Magic Cup is a 5v5, so we’ll need to find two more people.” Lu Li nodded; he didn’t have any reason to object.

Making money was his favorite pastime, after all.

”You can work that out for yourself. The Magic Cup is happening in November so it’s still early. You have a month to prepare.” Square Root 3 breathed a sigh of relief.

He was actually worried that Lu Li would be an arrogant person.

Previously, when Stellar Union ranked 10th, their reputation had gone downhill because their star player had a disdain for local competitions.

Today, they only had one star-player who had defeated his opponent in the top 16, but they were decisively defeated in the group events.

”Well, looks like I will leave the organization of the hundred elite players to you.” Lu Li was already thinking about who to help him fight the 5v5.

Remnant Dream and Hachi Chan definitely couldn’t. He could probably count on Sakura Memories; she was quite strong and her newly-learnt Bloodthirst could greatly improve the burst potential of their team.

The last member needed to be some kind of Magic damage dealer.

Lonesome Flower was an expert, but he was too squishy for PVP – even Lu Li didn’t dare to hit him. Sesame Rice Ball was in a similar situation. He was also too young, so he wasn’t psychologically developed enough for it.

Fat Monkey…

Lu Li unconsciously thought of the future Fire Emperor. His true potential would be revealed six months from now, but he wasn’t sure if revealing him now was a good idea.

Square Root 3 saw that Lu Li looked somewhat absent minded and didn’t say any more. The two of them quickly finalized the matter of the 100 players.