The Great Thief

“This alliance…it’s like a joke.”

Lu Li was trying to suppress his own anger.

“I know…I know. We’ll compensate you for your losses. We’ll cover the financial side of things for the attack. We’ll guarantee your victory.”

Drinking Alone hoped to calm Lu Li down. He originally just wanted to freeload from Ruling Sword a little. He didn’t want to make them enemies.

“This I can accept. However, take back the shares that you gave us,” Lu Li replied coldly.

“Lu Li, why? Don’t do that.” Drinking Alone was panicking.

“You think that we can defend three Strongholds by ourselves?” Lu Li coldly laughed and continued, “Won’t you also need us to deploy a part of our people to help you take down a new Stronghold as well? If you guys don’t want to take it back, then I will sell the 5% shares.”

Lu Li hated this. He didn’t have a rock-solid foundation with Grand Hegemony as allies anyway.

Drinking Alone’s face went pale. He utterly hated his own boss, and utterly hated Lu Li as well. If this happened, then Grand Hegemony’s losses would be too great in this exchange.

Ruling Sword went easy on Grand Hegemony in the last competition, which allowed them to enter the top 100. In return, Grand Hegemony gave Ruling Sword 5% of their shares.

Realistically, this was an overtly one-sided exchange. The shares were not worth it just for them to go easy. Even if it was 0.5%, it still wouldn’t be worth it. Under the advice of Drinking Alone, Emperor Hegemony decided to use this relationship to share in Ruling Sword’s Instance Dungeon strategies and other information.

Well, they proved to be correct. They managed to get what they wanted.

Ruling Sword sold quite a few Boss strategies to them at a low price. Their progress for Instance Dungeons quickly caught up and even exceeded some other mega-clubs as well.

Now, Lu Li didn’t seem like he was too keen on bringing them along for the ride. He wanted to sell

the 5% shares back to them, but it wasn’t the money that was the problem. It was about sending a message.

Grand Hegemony was well known for being a wealthy club. Many large corporations and rich people had invested into this club.

In the game, Grand Hegemony had purchased many lands and also invested in many small and medium-sized clubs. Many other old mega-clubs wouldn’t be able to compare to them.

If they really wanted to sell the club, the price might be as high as 6 billion. However, the market price was estimated to be around 4 billion.

5% meant 200 million dollars!

The 5% that Grand Hegemony gave Lu Li wasn’t just a verbal agreement, but was signed as an official document which was 100% effective. As such, Drinking Alone didn’t know what to do. However, he couldn’t do much, because it was them who had betrayed Lu Li’s trust first.

“I’ll go and talk to our boss,” Drinking Alone said quietly. He could see that Lu Li’s unsatisfaction far exceeded their expectations.

They thought that it wouldn’t affect the stability of the alliance since it would only be the first failure. Moreover, their alliance greatly benefitted Ruling Sword. They didn’t expect Lu Li to be so determined to part ways.

Drinking Alone wasn’t sure that their boss would be able to accept this loss, so he needed to go back and discuss this matter with him.

His relationship with Lu Li only existed because they partied up together once at the beginning of the game. Their relationship was quite shallow, but enough for him to be a liaison.

With an emotionless expression on his face, he watched as Drinking Alone left. After he left, Lu Li’s face instantly transformed into one with an evil grin. It wasn’t that he wasn’t angry, but that he had exaggerated his anger a little.

As soon as Drinking Alone opened his mouth and proposed his idea, Lu Li immediately looked for

new suitors for the Grey Valley Stronghold.

Even if Grand Hegemony didn’t want this Stronghold, there were many others who did. Lu Li promised the Life Alliance that they would give them a Stronghold of their own. However, because of external investments, the capital needed to attack Strongholds grew much higher, so they hadn’t been able to do that.

Lu Li always honoured his promises, so it was only a matter a time. Now, the time had come.

Life Alliance’s warfare capabilities might not have been able to match up with Grand Hegemony’s, but both clubs were wealthy. At the very least, their financial capabilities gave them the right to compete for Strongholds.

However, he was serious about dissolving the alliance with Grand Hegemony.

Lu Li’s personality was actually quite dominant. Unless it had to happen, he didn’t allow for uncontrolled things occur happen.

Grand Hegemony betrayed him, which rocked Ruling Sword’s foundation and hold in Grey Valley. Who knew what would happen the next time?

Lu Li didn’t want to take this risk. He also didn’t need to take this risk.

For Ruling Sword, the alliance with Grand Hegemony was expendable. As for the 5% shares, that was a bonus. Lu Li didn’t plan to just nicely give them back either. He wasn’t that nice.

Grand Hegemony was obviously not happy to receive this news. However, they couldn’t do anything about it.

They could give the second Stronghold in Grey Valley to another club, for example, Glory Capital. Perhaps they might be able to sell it for a decent price, but this notion was immediately stopped by Drinking Alone. He was even willing to leave Grand Hegemony to make a statement.

Emperor Hegemony was considering this possibility.

Drinking Alone was only one of many vice-presidents in the club. In terms of competitions, he had only participated in a few. As for the impact on the club, it wouldn’t be too significant if he did leave. However, he did have a good relationship with Northern Tang Dream.

With the departure of Drinking Alone, Northern Tang Dream was also likely to leave. Furthermore, everyone who had a good relationship with Drinking Alone would also be likely to leave if things weren’t dealt with properly. If that happened, Grand Hegemony would be falling apart.

Emperor Hegemony couldn’t bear the burden of the club breaking apart. Lu Li could act like a spoiled brat, but he could not.

This was because Ruling Sword was Lu Li’s and his alone, while Emperor Hegemony was only managing the enormous capital for Grand Hegemony. Therefore, he had to deal with external investors as well.

To give up on the second Grey Valley Stronghold and turn to a new target was what the body of investors wanted, but the price to pay to make this happen was enough to completely tear Grand Hegemony apart.

Neither Ruling Sword or Grand Hegemony would feel nice about it. The only one rejoicing was probably Half-Life Crystal.

In the beginning, they were mere herb collectors who were poor and weak. Anyone could have bullied them. Because of the bullying that occurred in-game, her and her sisters shed many tears. It was under Lu Li’s guidance that they established the Life Alliance.

After the establishment of Life Alliance, they quickly became one of the biggest groups at that time.