The Great Thief

”Sell these and use them as capital.”

Lu Li returned to Astrana and tried to make himself feel better. He intended to get Square Root 3 to sell the Headless Paladin’s Reins and the Beginner Mount Skill book.

He could already fly, so these weren’t things that interested him.

Before you learned to fly, you had no other choice but to run on the ground.

”Are you joking?” Square Root 3 couldn’t believe that he was hearing. They had received such good items and he wanted to sell them.

”Won’t this sell for a few million dollars?” Lu Li stared at Square Root 3 like he was crazy.

”Big bro, we don’t need to care about money for now,” Square Root 3 said as he stared back at Lu Li like he was crazy. ”You are the president and your every move is being watched. The more you invest, the greater your returns.”

Square Root 3 tended to get a headache when dealing with Lu Li’s small mindedness.

To him, Lu Li was good at a lot of things, except when it came to dealing with money.

The gaming industry had long since moved past simply selling equipment for a living and was now similar to the entertaining industry. A large guild could develop itself and produce star players which were basically virtual idols.

A virtual idol would continue to be profitable for as long as there were people who cared about them.

For example, a star player could accept an endorsement contract and attend events, as some people were willing to pay a large amount of money to promote their own business.

Glory Capital’s annual endorsement contracts were said to be worth more than a billion dollars. If you participated in both large and small events, someone would be willing to pay you, as long as you won some awards.

All of this was in addition to embedded advertising and so on…

There were trillions of dollars in circulation in the gaming industry and these events were attended by millions of people. As long as you had the attention of enough people, sponsors were willing to pay.

Ruling Sword had not yet accepted any endorsements for its club, but a conservative estimate put their worth in the tens of millions.

But why would Ruling Sword fetch such high prices?

This was because of the guild’s strength, the club’s past record, their rising popularity and their great future developmental prospects.

Now if Lu Li rode a headless war horse around the streets of Astrana, the forums, the media and countless players would definitely be discussing him with envy.

”And this is a reward item, so it can’t be traded anyway,” Square Root 3 added.

In the previous Mid-Autumn Festival, there were similar rewards that couldn’t be traded. However, the items that Azure Sea Breeze and Nuo Yu received weren’t affected.

”Dammit!” Lu Li had only just realized these two lines in the item description.

To commemorate that in the first year of Dawn, Ruling Sword was the first to kill the Headless Paladin!

This item cannot be traded, dropped or destroyed.

He could almost hear the millions of dollars flying away as his heart broke…

You simply couldn’t expect a person who had a poor upbringing to act like a billionaire; it just wasn’t possible.

”If I were you, I would take advantage of the fact that the other guilds have not yet acquired these Headless Paladin war horses. Go out to the streets and gain a little publicity,” Square Root 3 gloated.

Lu Li thought about it and decided that it was the right thing to do. As such, he learned the Mount Skill and found an NPC to tame a Headless Paladin War Horse.

Not only was this the first mount in the game, but it was also the strong Headless Paladin War Horse mount.

After he was done, Lu Li went out into the streets. He looked around and felt a little embarrassed, so he put on his Steel Bandana to at least give him the illusion that he was hiding.

There was a high-pitched neighing as the tall horse appeared in front of Lu Li.

It was bigger than the average mount, its eyes and mouth were filled with a green, phosphorus fire and there was a fine saddle installed on its back. Each hoof was also enveloped in flames; it looked like a messenger from hell.

Lu Li climbed onto the war horse and used the Mount skill. He had learned how to ride in his past life, so he was quite comfortable.

As the war horse walked, it would leave behind remnants of the fire.

If he knew how to fly with a mount, this Headless Paladin War Horse would be even trendier as it left the players on the ground in the dust.

Regardless, the shock value was still sufficient.

”…”

There was silence all around as players came out on Halloween and saw something even more terrifying than the variety of ghosts wandering about.

”Isn’t this is the legendary mount? Who’s riding it?” At first, they were curious about the mount, but then they turned their attention to the rider.

”His face is covered…” This was the first time that most of the players had seen another player doing that.

The attention wasn’t that great; it was just one of envy. If the rider liked attention, then that would be fine, but most players’ attitude was one of outrage. How could this guy have such a trendy mount before anyone even got the regular mounts?

”It kinda looks like the Headless Paladin’s Steed… That means it’s… Lu Li!” Finally, there was someone smart enough to work it out.

”Its Ruling Sword’s Lu Li! I recognize the pattern on his bandana…”

After they guessed that it was Lu Li, the atmosphere became a little more positive. This was the person who had received the First Clear by working together with a big guild.

The other big guilds had sent dozens of groups out, but Ruling Sword only sent one!

Come and see Lu Li!

Come and see the Headless Paladin War horse!

Come and ride Lu Li’s Headless Paladin War horse!

Congested would be an understatement in describing the crowded main road in Astrana. This development was quite surprising, and Lu Li’s palms were a little sweaty holding the reins of the war horse while sitting on the tall mount.

He felt like a monkey at the zoo.

”Lu Li, look at the guild channel…” Square Root 3 spoke quickly as if some great thing had happened. Because he was surrounded, this was quite a badly timed moment.

Even so, Lu Li quickly pulled up the guild channel.

Most players continued to use the outdated text message to communicate as it made it easier for record keeping.

The item of interest was easy to find. Lu Li could immediately recognize it at a glance – Blue Python Fang!

This was because those three words were very important to him.

He had previously given Square Root 3 a list of things that he should get if he saw them, no matter what the cost. This was the reason Square Root 3 was so anxious when he found it, even though he didn’t know what it was. However, he knew that it was important to Lu Li if he was willing to buy it at any cost.

This was the material Lu Li needed to upgrade his Supreme Ring!