The Great Thief

“We ran into one of Seventh Heaven’s teams and were beaten,” Zhou Huan Huan said casually. However, she was unable to hide the depressed look on her face.

“Seventh Heaven.”

Lu Li shook his head sympathetically.

This was the nature of the competition. Strength was essential, but luck was still important.

The three landladies had above average strength; they were quite strong compared to the ordinary players. If they were lucky, advancing through the tournament wouldn’t have been that difficult, but they would be hard-pressed against a top-level team. Against a team from one of the biggest guilds, there was naturally nothing that they could do.

“It doesn’t matter – we didn’t really expect to get anything. The three of us are more like casual players,” Dou Jing Jing said, trying to comfort herself.

Reality had taught them the difficulties of entrepreneurship – their initial plan of setting up a gaming studio had long been abandoned.

Dawn had already broken the record for that most-played online game and was now worthy of being called the universal game. There was actually a lot do to within it.

For example, setting up a shop…

“I want to open a Potion Shop. I’ll have a banner that says ‘Xin Xin Mercenary Group’s Potion Shop’…” Liu Yi Yi joked.

“…”

Potions didn’t even have that much potential, and she even wanted to affiliate the shop.

“Xin Xin had already promised to be the store salesperson,” Dou Jing Jing said as she put her arms around Lu Xin then continued, “As long as Xin Xin is there by the counter, lots of people will come in to buy things.”

“No,” Lu Li subconsciously refused after thinking about that scene.

“Why not?”

Surprisingly, this question had come from Lu Xin herself. Although she was shy, she struggled to look brave, trying not to show any weakness in front of her brother.

“It’s hard work.” Lu Li lowered his voice and spoke gently.

“I’m not scared; I want to make money too. I can’t make big bro do it all.” Lu Xin began to choke up as she spoke.

She had joined the game and seen her brother PVPing with other players. While other players looked at Lu Li in awe, she only felt sorrow and grief.

The Lu Li in the competition felt so unfamiliar that she was afraid.

She didn’t know that her brother had been putting so much effort into the game. This was something she didn’t normally get to see.

“Xin Xin, as long as you are ok, I am happy. I’m not even tired when I play games.”

Lu Li immediately started consoling her when he saw her tears. He bent down and wiped her eyes with his sleeve.

Once upon a time, Lu Xin’s classmates were making fun of her patchy clothes.

She was generally so well-liked that there were some girls who were jealous of her. In reality, the patches weren’t even that obvious and they actually looked quite nice.

However, a fourth grader didn’t have much control over their emotions, so she starting crying the moment she saw her brother.

Lu Li had bent down in the same way and clumsily wiped her tears away with his sleeve.

Every time he saw his sister’s tears, Lu Li would feel like he had been stabbed in the heart, as he didn’t know what to do. Assassinating Sorrowless again would be an easier task to deal with.

“Don’t cry Xin Xin; big sister will let you make the decisions. We will hire employees and Xin Xin can help look out for the store. She can’t fight mobs and can only stay in the safe area, so she’ll be really bored.” Dou Jing Jing was also distressed.

“How can you manage your sister like that?” Liu Yi Yi couldn’t take it anymore. “I had planned to teach her how to make potions and rent a stall for her. She would have been allowed to keep the money she made,” she protested.

“Xin Xin is already fifteen.”

Zhou Huan Huan felt sorry for Lu Li, who was being ganged up on by everyone. She could only stress this one point.

Lu Li had a decent understanding of Lu Xin’s perspective.

This girl had always been strong even when she was young and was always looking for ways to alleviate her brother’s burden. On the summer holidays, she would take up odd jobs, no matter how bad they were. She just wanted to help make some money.

Lu Li touched her face and sighed, “Xin Xin, I just want you to be happy. Listen to me, your brother isn’t actually suffering that much. Making money isn’t as difficult as you think it is. From the start of the game until now, I have already made over $1 million, and I made over $100 thousand just today. You really don’t need to work in the potion shop.”

“But big bro, I really want to do something…” Lu Xin knew her brother’s weakness. If she cried first and then softly asked for something, he would always agree.

Eventually, Lu Li couldn’t convince her sister and he gave it another thought. Perhaps Liu Yi Yi was right.

Lu Xin couldn’t fight mobs because of her heart; she might not be able to take the fright.

There were also some players who might randomly kill others for fun. These players played the game recklessly and had no regard for the kind of damage that it would inflict on others.

If something like that happened, even if Lu Li killed that player until he reached LV0, it wouldn’t reverse the damage done.

The best thing was for her to stay in the safe area, which obviously included the Potion Shop. Whether Lu Xin could make money was one thing, but the most important thing was that she had peace of mind.

“Promise me you’ll never leave the safe area. Do you understand?” Lu Li carefully urged.

It wasn’t as though the safe area was completely empty either. The game had a cinema where you could watch movies and there was even an amusement park. Currently, tourist companies were also building attractions within the safe area.

“Well, but big bro, when I reach level 10, I want to tame a dog,” Lu Xin said as she smiled. Her tears had dried up now.

Lu Li had no choice but to promise that he would help her.

In reality, he didn’t intend on stopping her from entering the game, but was waiting for the gaming box to come out at the end of the year.

The gaming box couldn’t sustain a person inside of it without eating or drinking, but it did protect the person’s sleeping and nervous systems.

The earlier versions allowed the user to achieve almost the same effect as actual sleep.

The later versions could protect a user’s mental state. If Lu Xin faced some kind of danger, the system would protect her. It could change the scene before her or temporarily confuse her senses.

PVP players generally didn’t use this feature, but this was no problem for non-PVP players.

Since he had promised to let his sister open a Potion shop with the landladies, Lu Li naturally had to discuss Lu Xin’s workload.

The main point that he vehemently argued for was that she couldn’t do work that was too intense

In addition, he urged that they should also give her more money so she could feel a stronger sense of achievement.

As the three landladies loved Lu Xin, they didn’t bargain with Lu Li’ conditions. In fact, they even accepted these conditions as if they were to be expected already.

Even Lu Li wouldn’t have had the compassion that they did. He really needed to repay for them for this.

The best thing about the shop was that the team could take potions out of it. Although Sesame Rice Ball specialized in Alchemy, he didn’t make every kind of potion. They normally got their unimportant potions from the Exchange Hall.

Additionally, Lu Li planned to take his sister to meet his teammates tomorrow.

He also wanted to watch some competitions with her.

When they were younger, they couldn’t spend money on luxuries like this. However, things were different now. They could watch competitions or movies and do anything they wanted.