The Great Thief

While there weren’t many other players around, Lu Li went to the Inn to bind his hearthstone to Astrana. In the future, if he used his hearthstone, he would appear in Astrana instead of the Novice Village. However, the Inn did much more than bind hearthstones.

If one logged off in the Inn for 6 hours, they would receive double EXP for 1 hour the next time they logged in. This was another feature of the new update.

The game company used all sorts of methods to force players to rest and encouraged them to strike a good balance in their daily living. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Dawn became more and more popular.

It was likely that no one knew that a new Board of Directors, comprised of people from various countries, was slowly being formed. In the future, Dawn would be controlled by these people.

A few weeks later, a player called Dancing Flower Beauty would become a representative for China’s Magnetic Hovercar Company for $5 million. This was the first time the virtual world began to influence the real world.

Companies in the real world began to enter into the game world and guilds began to seek sponsors, forming strong partnerships!

From that point, the game began to integrate itself more into the real world and vice versa. Companies rented shops in the game, shifting the focus of investments from Equipment Shops, Potion Shops and Item Shops to hotels, cinemas, shopping centres and offices.

More and more people turned their lives and work towards the game. As for labour in the real world, technology had advanced so much that most labour was done by robots.

“Lu Li, over here!” Azure Sea Breeze waved, catching the attention of Lu Li who was slowly walking around.

Lu Li walked over and entered with the rest of the group into the Council Hall. The NPC who gave out the EXP rewards was located there.

“We’ll show those mortals our power. They thought they were so great, but they’ll all be crying once they look at the Level Rankings,” Azure Sea Breeze excitedly said.

“No matter what you want to do, I’m going to hide my name,” Lu Li said as he shook his head.

Lu Li liked to keep a low profile and did not like to be at the centre of attention. If he wanted to, he could probably find a representative contract which would earn him hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. If he was lucky, he could become a star in the game world and earn even more money.

“Hide your name?” Azure Sea Breeze was completely dumbfounded.

It was not as though there were no players who hid their names. There were around 7-8 of them in the top 100, but everyone in the top 10 chose not to hide their names. The update also introduced a World Channel, where many people paid money to try and become famous. Everyone was famous; why would anyone hide their name?

One’s name, profession, level and guild were all great for advertising.

“I also want to hide my name.” March Rain always followed what Lu Li said; whatever he said was bound to be correct.

Lonesome Flower harrumphed and indicated that he would also hide his name.

Remnant Dream did not really mind - she was too preoccupied with grooming her new pet leopard.

Moonlight didn’t say anything, but also decided to hide his information.

Azure Sea Breeze looked around in shock, as he clapped his hands together, saying, “Right, hiding our names would be better. Think about how mysterious it would be if the top players on the Level Rankings all hid their names.”

In order to seem mysterious, Azure Sea Breeze also endured the pain of hiding his name.

And thus, the group went to collect their EXP rewards.

All they had to do was tell the Administrative Officer why they had come. After their identities were confirmed, they immediately received their EXP bonuses.

Azure Sea Breeze, who was nearly at LV11, directly shot to LV12!

Lu Li, who was 10% away from LV10, shot halfway through LV11!

Lonesome Flower and March Rain, who were also LV9, shot to LV11, just behind Lu Li.

Moonlight and Remnant Dream had both just reached LV9, but because of how much EXP they received, they also made it to LV11 and entered the top 10 rankings.

As such, there were great changes to the Level Rankings.

1. Unknown Player, LV12, Light Faction

2. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

3. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

4. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

5. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

6. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

7. I No Understand, LV11, Hunter, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

8. Wild, LV11, Mage, Blood-red War Flag, Light Faction

9. Sorrowless, LV10, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

10. Green Flag Wine, LV10, Paladin, Gale Legion, Evil Faction

All 6 of them were now in the top 10 rankings.

It seemed that I No Understand and Wild had barely reached LV11. After all, they were ranked lower than Moonlight and Remnant Dream, who only had 10% in their LV11 EXP bars.

They were all shocked and even Moonlight, who didn’t really care about levels, started to breathe heavily.

Only the naïve and innocent Remnant Dream looked around in bewilderment, confused as to why they were acting that way. March Rain kindly explained to her what it meant to be on the Level Rankings.

No one knew who first discovered the changes in the Level Rankings. With the hundreds of millions of players, it almost guaranteed that someone would always be looking at the Level Rankings. However, not everyone wanted to spend 1 silver coin to talk in the World Channel.

Wine Courage Wang: GM, there’s something wrong with your game. Everyone, quickly look at the Level Rankings!

Paw Scent: It must be a hacker from the Light Faction. Goddamn! There’s a whole row of them; the Evil Faction only has 3 players up there now.

Monster King: Is this game even playable? Even the Level Rankings are bugged. Where did these 6 unknown players come from? Plus, they’re all from the Light Faction.

Eyeless Fish: Oh my, so many rich people talking in this World Channel. Anyone looking for a spouse? Either gender is fine~

What followed were the messages of many players suspecting that there was a bug in the game. Some of them immediately reported this to the customer service department. After all, reporting bugs in Dawn gave generous rewards.

After waiting for a long time, there had still been no news on the game’s official website. The Level Rankings stayed the same and only after 5 or 6 minutes did someone realise that something was off.

Wonderboo: Looks like some people charged into the top 10. I thought I’d be able to get into the top 100 today, but that just crushed me. I’m going to log off and write a book with myself as the main character.

Mysterious Vanguard: Could it be a power team that made it to the top 10 together? Did they complete some sort of godly quest? Did they help Queen Sylvanas kill Arthas Menethil?

I Will Be The Lich King: Piss off @Mysterious Vanguard, long live Prince Arthas!

Harmony Dragon: You idiot. If Arthas doesn’t die, how will you be the Lich King? Could it be that you want to be the Lich King’s boyfriend?

Showgirl Chunnie: The 9th ranked Azure Sea Breeze disappeared. I’m sure he’s one of the 6 players. As for the other 5, tell us who you are and stop being so mysterious…

All of the prominent guilds took great interest in this matter. All of them wanted to recruit these people, but it was impossible due to them hiding their names.

A few people thought to Azure Sea Breeze and the other person who had obtained the First Clear of the Instance Dungeons and Bosses. Some guessed that Lu Li was one of them, while others guessed that it was Beautiful Moonlight and her friends. Others speculated that some lucky people, who were unknown to the public, had received rewards from the system.