The Great Thief

“There are four Strongholds, and there is one I want,” Water Fairy said firmly.

“I understand. Do you need our help?” Lu Li asked.

Of the four new Strongholds, there was a new Stronghold in Arathi Highlands. However, there were two additional Strongholds added to Western Wilderness and Tanaris. As Drizzle Court already occupied a Stronghold in the Western Wilderness, she couldn’t tolerate having another force co-existing on the same map.

In terms of game time, it was now nightfall and Lu Li’s home was in Darnassus.

There were many small animals being raised by Lu Xin in the backyard. They were dancing about in the moonlight, as if the mysterious strength of the moon was giving them endless vitality.

Lu Li and Water Fairy were sitting under the maple trees in the front yard, where you could see the emerald Lake Al’Ameth and the moonlight shining on it. There were even some small fishing jumping about. The scene was filled with life.

When faced with such a vivid scene, Lu Li felt an intoxicating calmness.

He remembered when he and Water Fairy had first come here. They were facing each other, and were sitting quite close, but they weren’t very familiar with each other. They had no idea that they would come this far. Lu Li’s thoughts were entirely focused on his sister’s illness and was frantically trying to change his destiny.

Water Fairy was also a proud woman, and wouldn’t pour her entire life into Lu Li even if she did like him.

But now, they were sitting together with Water Fairy snuggled up against Lu Li. She looked rather cute and Lu Li just wanted to hold her in his arms.

In fact, that was exactly what he did.

“There’s no need – just defend your Stronghold. If you can’t defend it, I can find some people to help you.”

Any problem that could be solved with money posed no difficulty for this female tycoon.

Despite the awkwardness with her father and the lack of support from the Shen Group, Water Fairy’s resources were not to be underestimated. Her uncle had inherited the family business and really cared for Water Fairy. He also recognized her gaming ability, so he would support her in all her endeavours.

At the beginning, when Water Fairy’s mother married her father, it was thought by the community that she had married down.

Besides, Water Fairy also owned a lot of the family property, so it was no problem supporting Lu Li.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that. We… well, Wandering thought of an idea. He is going to

encourage Blood Red War Flag to form a coalition force to fight Glory Capital’s Stronghold. We will then secretly relay that information to Glory Capital so they will both fight very fiercely. I asked you to come here today to tell you that you can rest assured of that.”

“That… is just too mean. I didn’t think Wandering was so crafty,” Water Fairy said with some fear. Fortunately, he wasn’t an enemy.

“I know, you really can’t gauge a person by the way they look. Just because he is good-looking doesn’t mean he thinks good thoughts,” Lu Li said with a look of disgust.

“Aren’t you afraid of him then, since he is so close to you?” Water Fairy asked worriedly.

(Wandering: Damn you Water Fairy – you don’t even know that your man is 100 -imes more crafty than I am!)

“Nah, he is also such a lazy person that if it wasn’t necessary to breath, he problem wouldn’t be bothered to. There is no way he will betray me,” Lu Li said with some relief. He couldn’t go on putting down Wandering.

Water Fairy was now completely relaxed as well. Since she could now focus everyone on the Western Wilderness Stronghold, they now had a greater chance of taking it.

Lu Li wasn’t even thinking about taking the opportunity to win another Stronghold.

He had to recognize his own strengths. This was not like a First Clear. They could take First Clears with 40 players, but a Stronghold War required 80 people in the fight itself. Even if Grand Hegemony didn’t need their help, they would need to find a total of 160 Elite players.

It was already difficult enough to get 160 players, but they also had to help Grand Hegemony.

Once Ruling Sword had control over three Strongholds, they would require 240 Elite players to defend them.

They really wouldn’t be able to achieve that!

There was just no way around it, unless you asked for 100 players to help out, but that would be too expensive. If you could pay 100 players to help, they would just take the Stronghold themselves and sell it to a large club.

“Developing a club is a long-term process that doesn’t have any shortcuts!”

This was what Square Root 3 often said in meetings. While everyone else was eager to dominate the gaming circle, he had been the most calm and pessimistic. He always seemed to think that Ruling Sword was one wrong step away from becoming a sinking ship.

Lu Li wasn’t as pessimistic as him, but felt that they were very fortunate to have Square Root 3 managing Ruling Sword.

Unfortunately, his plans couldn’t keep up with all the coming changes.

“We want the Hinterlands. If Ruling Sword wants it, we can give them the Grey Valley Stronghold,” Drinking Alone said bitterly on the verge of begging Lu Li.

“You guys…”

Lu Li was naturally angry.

Even under the tremendous pressure of Glory Capital, they had made big plans to help Grand Hegemony take the Stronghold, but now they didn’t want it?

“Lu Li, listen to me. I know that this is very disloyal, and I don’t want to do this either. But our Boss insists that this will make us overly attached to you guys. Everyone knows that Grey Valley’s two Strongholds will ultimately be yours. And the fact that we have it really just means that you have it.”

“So it’s your boss who caused this awkward situation right?” Lu Li had calmed down. It had already been done, so there was no point being angry.

“Yes, our Boss wants us to capture a Stronghold that purely belongs to Grand Hegemony. I advised him against it, but he won’t listen. With Grand Hegemony’s current strength, there is no way for us to occupy a Stronghold ourselves,” Drinking Alone said sadly.

“Oh,” Lu Li laughed coldly.

At the beginning of the game, Drinking Alone had invited him to join Grand Hegemony with a very attractive set of conditions. If not for the qualms that Lu Li had with them, he might have agreed to it.

After all, he had to worry about his sister’s illness at the time and had not found his own ambitions yet.

His qualms at the time were with Emperor Hegemony, the leader of Grand Hegemony.

According to his understanding of that person, he was very talented but not a good leader.

Forming an alliance wasn’t something that could be done casually. Once a party stopped benefiting the other, the other party would quickly drop them as an ally.

He just didn’t expect it to be to such an extent and so soon.

Indeed, Grand Hegemony’s occupation of the second Grey Valley Stronghold was essentially in place for Ruling Sword. However, Lu Li was going to treat them as an ally, and would have helped them occupy their own Stronghold in future.

Now that Strongholds and maps were separate, Ruling Sword was basically just lending Grand Hegemony a place where they could develop their own Stronghold.

Once they were capable of owning their own Stronghold, they could then build the same Stronghold onto that spot.