The Great Thief

Lu Li sat in the alleyway to kill some time, then suddenly heard some sirens.

This was when he remembered that he had forgotten something. The last two hours of the game were the hardest to endure. There was nothing wrong with hiding, but he wasn’t supposed to be hiding from these gangsters.

The sirens reminded him that all the police in the city had begun to move too.

Lu Li quickly left the alleyway, but was met with a dead end. If he was caught in a dead end, there would be no escape, not to mention, he couldn’t explain why he was there.

After walking back onto the street, a number of police cars rushed past. Apparently, these models were popular around 200 years ago.

Lu Li tried his best to avoid them, because it didn’t matter how innocent he seemed. Chances were, he would be stopped and questioned. If he was caught, then all his points would be gone too.

In the beginning, there were only a few cars, but they increased in number.

Lu Li even saw some players who got stopped by the police. They were either exposed and beaten to death, or were killed while running away. Lu Li began to panic.

In this game, Lu Li thought that his biggest advantage was his mentality, then the fact that he was familiar with the rules. All the guides that he had read in his previous life weren’t actually too useful – after all, this was a competition with many variables.

As he was walking around, a policeman even spotted him. Fortunately, another player nearby suddenly started running, which caused a distraction.

Lu Li had to run further away from the city. All those who were behind him were players who thought they had hid well, but ended up being found and killed. The scenes were horrific.

Dawn was a game that didn’t really torture their players, but they still had to attract them in some way.

In this special kind of scenario, they didn’t receive any kind of special treatment because they were players.

Some might have thought that this would cause the players to dislike the game, but in fact, these competitions were extremely popular. The more violent the game was, the more attractive it seemed.

As he was thinking, Lu Li had already run through the entire street.

At the end of the road was an even wider path. Police cars were packed and they even began to invade the homes where the civilians lived. They checked these houses one by one, as if they planned to leave no route of escape for the players.

Lu Li checked the time; there was still about an hour left.

This was when he saw a little stall nearby and his eyes lit up.

There was an old guy who was definitely an NPC, standing in the cold wind as he cooked his sweet potatoes. There was barely anyone out at night, but he had to keep going to survive. He needed to sell his potatoes as quickly as he could – the more he sold, the less he lost.

“I have something to discuss with you,” Lu Li said as he walked over and picked up a sweet potato to eat.

“What do you want? It’s not right to eat food without paying,” the old man responded, staring at Lu Li cautiously. These young men often liked to take things without paying.

It wasn’t that they lacked money, but that they enjoyed the feeling of dominating weaker people.

“Here’s some money – I want to buy your stall. You can push it back tomorrow morning,” Lu Li said as he took out all the money he had with him. This was thousands of dollars; it was all of the money that he had taken in the process and had no value to him.

“Why do you want my stall?” the old man asked nervously.

His stall wasn’t worth so much, but it was his means of survival. Without this stall, how was he going to keep his wife alive?

“You can have this watch too. When I was a child, I was always envious of those old men who sold sweet potatoes. I thought they were the richest people in the world, so tonight, I want to pretend to be one of them. If you don’t want to, I won’t force it either,” Lu Li explained, playing it smart.

The old man hesitated but he still couldn’t resist the temptation of the red notes.

“Sure, sure, take over for today. Just don’t break it.”

Lu Li let out a sigh of relief as he watched the old man walk further and further away.

He picked up a few logs and tossed them into the furnace with one smooth action, then placed two sweet potatoes inside to cook them slowly. As the power of the fire grew stronger, the smell of the sweet potato grew stronger too.

“Who are you? Where’s the old guy from before who was cooking the sweet potatoes?” a policeman asked. After exiting a house, he had carefully walked over since he suspected that Lu Li was an intruder. These intruders were very dangerous; they killed whenever they wanted to.

“My father went back; he’s old now. It’s not good for him to stay up,” Lu Li replied calmly.

“Your dad?”

The policeman looked at Lu Li in curiosity, trying to find anything that he could pick up about him, but there was nothing. However, he didn’t want to give up so easily either.

“You look like a businessman. Why would you even bother with this little money? No one really sells sweet potatoes anymore.”

“My dad is a farmer. He’s honest – the potatoes that haven’t been sold today won’t taste good tomorrow. He didn’t want to throw out these potatoes either, so I guess I just have to takeover instead,” Lu Li said as he picked up a cooked sweet potato and smoothly tossed another in.

“Give me one,” the police said. Upon seeing how professional Lu Li looked, he was more than convinced, and even decided to buy one in the end.

“Alright.”

Lu Li took a paper bag from the side and placed one in, then passed it straight to the policeman.

“Bro, just take it – you know it too. I don’t need this small amount of money, but me and my father think it’s such a shame to just throw them out.”

“No way.” The policeman felt a little ashamed, since he had suspected Lu Li before.

“You guys are working so hard at night – just take it. The faster I sell them, the quicker I can go home. I have to work tomorrow too,” Lu Li laughed, determined to pass over the sweet potato.

“I have to pay, or else it’ll be against the rules,” the policeman said as he passed over a twenty dollar note. “Regardless if it’s enough, this is all I have.”

“Sure. Hold on tight to the potato, and be careful out there.”

Lu Li took the money and placed it into his pocket. It seemed as if he was an open guy and the policeman liked him even more.

Not far from here, another few policemen had just killed a player. They saw the scene here and came over. Even before they got to interrogate him, the policeman who had purchased the sweet potato pointed at Lu Li and said, “My friend – he’s helping his father here sell some sweet potatoes. You guys should have some too. The faster he sells them, the sooner he can go home.”