The Great Thief

Proficient players were quite popular with guilds and often received offers to join guilds. Their value had increased significantly due to the rise of Stronghold battles.

Normal guilds wouldn’t be able to produce professional-level players. They might not even be able to produce a core-elite-tier player. However, most guilds had enough funds to hire top-tier talent for Stronghold battles once. Even if they couldn’t defend it afterwards, at least they would manage to get exposure to the public.

In his previous life, Lu Li had entered the game at a much later stage. Coupling this with the matters that he had to deal with in real life, he had no chance at becoming a pro, so he never received an opportunity like this.

At that time, his goal was just to improve his strength gradually, until he could become a hired hand for Strongholds. In the end, he was told that Druids weren’t wanted. He was screwed over because of his class.

That was why he didn’t choose to play a Druid this time; he would rather start over as a Thief.

Ruling Sword decided to hire help this time around.

This didn’t mean that they didn’t have enough people to defend Grey Valley and The Black Sea Coast.

When Lu Li made this decision, other people couldn’t understand him. Although Grey Valley and The Black Sea Coast weren’t the most secure, these two Strongholds were not easy to take either. Why did they need to have reinforcements?

“This will damage everyone’s confidence,” Square Root Three said in opposition to the decision.

“Brother Three, if their self-confidence is that easily damaged, then they’re quite soft, aren’t they? Might as well train their self-confidence,” Lu Li said, clearly unworried.

“Even if our core elites weren’t enough, we could use our elites as well. Why do we need to have reinforcements?”

Square Root Three couldn’t accept Lu Li’s explanation. Who would intentionally try and damage the morale of the guild?

“Actually, it’s not that big of a deal,” Wandering piped up after mulling it over, then said, “These reinforcements, if we use them properly, then they won’t necessarily be reinforcements. Lu Li, are you thinking of recruiting?”

“Well, that only makes it easier for other guilds’ spies to infiltrate out guild.”

Square Root Three understood, but he quickly had another worry.

“Well, do they not need to feed themselves? People can still die from eating.” Wandering rolled his eyes.

“Brother Three’s worry makes sense. However, we still need to interact with these hidden proficient players. This time, we’ll hire ten people in the defense of Grey Valley. We’ll hire the ones who have a bit of reputation and are unlikely to be a spy for other guilds.”

“Old people too?” Cat Dad asked.

“How old?”

“Similar to my age or younger. Don’t worry about their skills,” Cat Dad answered, then continued to explain, “Games like Dawn are made extremely well and don’t take a toll on the older folks.”

Usually in gaming, 30-year-old players would be declining. Therefore, 40-year-old players were extremely rare.

Cat Dad was already 50 years old. Normally, people of his age wouldn’t be suited to games anymore, let alone fighting in Instance Dungeons. However, Cat Dad was fighting in Instance Dungeons and even secured his spot in an elite team.

He was training pro players on one end, while playing in an elite team on the other end. It was as though he was still in his prime.

Cat Dad had many friends around his age; they were around 40 years old. After hearing about the game from Cat Dad, they all started to play. Although they entered a game a year after its initial release, which was around the same time Lu Li had entered the game in his previous life, their experience and financial capabilities were much higher than Lu Li at that time.

They quickly caught up and were comparable to Lu Li’s very own core elite members.

However, they had an obvious weakness. Most of these people had their own families and work in real life, so their time and energy to invest into the game was limited. Furthermore, they didn’t have the passion of the game compared to the younger players as well.

However, Lu Li didn’t have a reason to reject this group of older players.

They had rich experiences and stable personalities. They had been through all kinds of ups and downs in their life. People like these were hard to come by.

“Bring them all. We’ll get some people together and level them up. If we don’t have enough items in our storage, then borrow some from Shen Wansan. We’ll get them to level 60 ASAP.”

“That’s not needed. All of these people have their own pride, so they won’t let others train them. There’s also no need to arrange for equipment. The experience of the game itself is more important than levels to them. Let me handle this. It won’t use our resources,” Cat Dad rubbed his hands and said with a smile.

It was good to have these people join them but hiring reinforcements would still go ahead.

Many people called this type of reinforcement-hiring as ‘revealing the hidden fish in the game’. After hiring a group, there would be a couple of them who would be interested in joining the guild. This way, the guild would gain two benefits. One was to increase their battle strength, even though it would be temporary. However, the other benefit was to increase the guild’s strength in the long term. It was through this method that the hidden pros among normal players would also interact with the guilds.

It was completely valid to say that the Stronghold battles could be used to interview and test the potential recruits.

If Ruling Sword didn’t raise a banner asking to hire strong players, then they would be missing out on a prime opportunity to recruit.

Some top-tier players seemed to quite unfriendly, arrogant and simply unrecruitable. However, the main objective was just to test their compatibility with the guild.

This was why Lu Li was adamant on hiring, even if Ruling Sword had enough players.

After listening to Lu Li’s explanation, Square Root Three was convinced. Then, the guild prioritised to release Stronghold missions in the Mercenary Hall.

This quest listed the class, level and equipment standard requirements. Ruling Sword would be the judge to all applicants. Once they thought that it was okay, then they would contact the applicant. After a few more things, they would sign a contract to enter a fight in the Stronghold battles.

In the earlier periods of the game, it was much more common to hook onto the big fish.

In his previous life, Lu Li was a complete nerd when it came to strategies. Therefore, he knew about the legendary Moonlight, as well as the powerful rookies in March Rain and Fat Monkey. After all, he could learn from these players. As for the more average, but strong players, he didn’t pay much attention to them.

Focusing on the others didn’t earn him money, so it wasn’t that realistic for Lu Li to remember all of the top-tier players from his previous life, then approach them in this life.

Therefore, Ruling Sword could only do things the normal way.

Ruling Sword was hiring top-tier players!

As soon as news of this broke out, it attracted the attention of a majority of the player base. Every player who didn’t live under a rock knew of this news.