The Great Thief

The whole world received the news of Ouro’s First Clear as well as the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj’s First Clear. Naturally, this placed the spotlight on Ruling Sword.

The number of people wanting to join Ruling Sword nowadays was increasing. Among these players, there were some who left other major clubs to join.

The reason as to why Square Root Three was overworked and extremely tired was because he was picking and interviewing these hopeful recruits.

“We’ll expand our club, then form ten complete elite teams…” Lu Li began explaining his ideas.

“Ten elite teams? Lu Li…Do you know that the elite players still need to be paid salaries?”

Square Root Three suddenly felt a whole lot of pressure. They only had five elite teams at the time, and that was already difficult enough to manage. Now, Lu Li wanted to double that number.

Elite teams were not easy to manage.

They couldn’t just be spoken into existence. If it was that simple, then Lu Li could say that Ruling Sword had 800 Elite teams. Everyone would be an ‘Elite’.

Realistically speaking, Elite players still needed to sign an official contract to be employed, then be included into the trade union. It was just like being officially employed into the gaming industry.

The Union would protect the rights and benefits of these players and make sure that they were treated fairly while being employed. Furthermore, there were also regulations in place that set different minimum wages.

If there were actually 800 Elite teams, Lu Li would immediately go bankrupt.

The only way for players to be included into an Elite team was for them to meet the requirements. At the very least, they would need to be able to contribute to the organisation from their own determination and efforts.

Glory Capital had 300 Elite teams. According to the minimum wage of 3000 per month, it would cost them 100 million dollars per month just to pay the 30,000 players. In one year, it would cost them 1.2 billion dollars. No matter how rich they were, they wouldn’t be able to keep this up.

Realistically speaking, Glory Capital probably didn’t even pay 100 million per month to the Elite teams. Furthermore, they were also profiting from these teams too.

The Elite teams participated in the guild’s activities, which in turn benefited the guild.

According to statistics, only the clubs that were able to reap profits from their Elite teams were able to sustain themselves in the long-term. With more money, they could continue to pay the Elite teams, which would only serve to increase the overall value of the organisation.

It wasn’t easy for Ruling Sword to maintain ten Elite teams either.

“It’s not that simple either. The branch guild would need to form two more elite teams. We need to go and recruit people, and try out best to recruit top-tier players. Throw a few of our newbies into the new branch. Get them to register into the competitions and let them play in them.”

Lu Li’s words were relentless. With ten elite teams already, adding more would not be so simple.

“Where are we getting the funds from? There’s no way that we’ll be able to feed so many mouths.” Square Root Three was speechless.

Lu Li rolled his eyes and started counting on his fingers.

“Stronghold battles are at least once per month. With this, we’re gaining 7 million dollars in profit every time. There shouldn’t be a problem…”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like there will be problems. However, that’s assuming that we win every time. Lu Li, didn’t you say that you wanted to grow and build steadily? If you’re going to do this, then we’ll be walking on thin ice. If we lose our Stronghold, then we also lose our source of income. If that time comes, it would likely that we end up going bankrupt and are forced to disband.

“Well, the Shadow Cup is starting this month. Three months later, there’s Glory Cup. After that, we’ll have the second season of the professional league. There will surely be an increase in competitions, so our income will surely increase too,” Lu Li responded.

“Big bro…Big boss…Again, that’s assuming that we win every time. Are you that confident that you can win every time? Are you willing to bet on it? Do you have a backup plan?”

Square Root Three was about to burst into tears.

“Actually, it’s not without a backup plan,” Lu Li said, suddenly becoming a little embarrassed. “If it really gets to that stage, I trust that Snowy would help us.”

“Hm….” Square Root Three froze for a little.

He didn’t know whether he should have yelled at Lu Li for being irresponsible and a leech, or to yell at him for flexing his relationship like this. However, he needed to admit that Lu Li’s words made sense.

Water Fairy was rich.

Filthy rich.

Some people were worried that Drizzle Court and Peerless City would lose their income and money after Water Fairy split from her family. However, for the people who truly knew her and her family, this wouldn’t have been a concern. This was because without her family, she was still incredibly wealthy.

Furthermore, news leaked out that while she was building Drizzle Court and Peerless City, the funds and resources had mainly come from her.

At the most, she had used some manpower and a few resources from her family’s company. Otherwise, when she split from her family, how would she be able to sustain Drizzle Court and Peerless City during those desperate times?

If Lu Li really was struggling and had no more options, it would be impossible for Water Fairy to stay on the sidelines.

“How shameless!”

He hadn’t seen anyone as shameless as Lu Li. This was all Square Root Three could say.

If only he himself had a girlfriend that was so outrageously wealthy. He wouldn’t even need to work this hard.

Sugar baby!

“Actually, with where we’re at now, we need to keep going. Otherwise, we’ll be left behind. We need to use this opportunity to expand quickly. It’ll be much harder in the future. Even if there are risks, we need to steel ourselves and face it,” Lu Li said with a serious face.

“I trust you.”

Square Root Three couldn’t do anything more.

“Firstly, we need to increase the number of Elite teams. This will be in part done through selection of our current members. The other part will come through our recruitment processes. Secondly, we also need to build two Elite teams for the branch guild. I think that some players will want to transfer to the branch guild. Thirdly, announce that we’re working with the Profession Alliance. Direct partnering. I’ve already told Half-Life Crystal about it.

According to the agreement, Half-Life Crystal had provided the materials for the Door quest for the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj, while Lu Li agreed to eventually conquer a Stronghold for them.

Now, the benefits gained from Strongholds were much greater. Furthermore, the competition for them were also much fiercer. Therefore, with the strength of the Profession Alliance, they probably wouldn’t be able to maintain control of the Stronghold even if they were given one. Lu Li and Half-Life Crystal discussed this, with Half-Life Crystal agreeing to have a direct partnership with Ruling Sword. The only thing left to do was merging the two organisations together.

The Profession Alliance also had large expenses of their own to deal with, so they couldn’t provide much financial support for Ruling Sword’s establishment of a branch guild. However, they had a lot of low-value materials and resources, so they could speed up the expansion of a new guild.

Square Root Three thought over Lu Li’s points and could only agree.

“Alright. I agree with your suggestion to build a branch guild. However, who’s going to manage it? What’s going to be the name of the guild?”