The Great Thief

Lu Li’s question was answered the next day.

Not long after logging on, he received quite a few messages from the couple of friends he had on his Friends List. Various players were expressing their sympathy and admiration for him.

It was from these messages that he finally understood how that damned journalist had reported his story.

The part about the game was satisfactory. It mainly emphasized that Lu Li was quite satisfied with his new teammates and wished Ruling Sword for future glory.

As for the speculative section, even Lu Li couldn’t interpret what it was trying to say.

”When inquired about his feelings towards Water Fairy, Lu Li spoke frankly towards liking her…”

This was the original published story; Lu Li was reading it from the official website. He also keenly noticed that this article subscription count had exceeded the one-million mark.

The matter hadn’t become completely widespread yet as Dawn had over one billion players, but there wouldn’t normally be this many players subscribing to a digital magazine.

For an article like this to break the one-million mark meant that it was doing quite well.

Sure enough, other forms of media including the official Dawn forums also reposted this article.

The reposts had a variety of titles including, ”That boy and girl are really together”, ”The Toad wants to eat the Swan” and ”The Counterattack against Ms. Perfect”.

Lu Li was a little confused, but he soon understood that he had been tricked by that reporter.

Yesterday, he was asked if he hated Water Fairy. Of course, Lu Li didn’t hate her – she was a rich tycoon, so no professional player would hate her.

However, that female reporter had deliberately misconstrued his words for some cheap gossip.

From the reporter’s point of view, this wasn’t genuine, but it was surprisingly successful. She devised a linguistic trap and had caught Lu Li in it.

Lu Li didn’t really care for what other people thought and couldn’t be bothered to clarify himself. However, there was one person he thought that he should clear it up for.

This person was the other main character of the news, the female tycoon Water Fairy. She had received news about it even before coming online.

Upon hearing that Lu Li admitted to liking her when interviewed by the media, Water Fairy’s first reaction was to laugh.

She simply didn’t believe that someone who was solely focused on making money would think that. At this point, Water Fairy more or less understood herself as Lu Li’s younger sister.

Lu Li sent a message, but he didn’t really know how to explain it.

”There has been an article published that was written badly. Don’t take it seriously.”

”Which article? The one that says you like me?” Water Fairy asked.

Lu Li nearly choked at her response and quickly explained, ”At the time, she asked if I hated you. I said I didn’t and I didn’t know that the journalist would interpret it like she did.”

”Ah, I see.” Water Fairy didn’t appear to be too indignant.

This was quite normal as a person like her would always be the subject of attention. That was the point this reporter was trying to reach. A brilliant professional player and one of the most beautiful women in Dawn getting together was bound to attract everyone’s attention.

”I hope this doesn’t affect your regular life,” Lu Li said.

”I’m already used to it. But you… I took your Kodo, and yet you don’t hate me. How strange,” Water Fairy said before immediately letting out a laugh.

”Do I need to clarify anything with the media?” Lu Li asked.

If this was just the gossip of ordinary players, then no one would care, but this was different. It had to do with Lu Li, the best new player in the game and Water Fairy, an outstanding member of the Beauty Rankings.

As long as something about these two came up, there would be a big fuss about it.

”Don’t worry about it. The more you care, the more popular it gets.” Water Fairy didn’t want to clarify anything. There were already too many people trying to confess to her.

Moreover, he was the first person in the game to have confessed to her. Whenever she thought about his face during the confession, she would break into laughter without fail.

However, on the outside, Lu Li and Water Fairy remained silent about this apparent public relationship.

”Big bro Lu Li, I’m online now. Let’s go do some quests.” Children were always the most carefree and someone like Hachi Chan didn’t have anything like this to worry about.

”What kind of quest?” Lu Li just remembered that he had received a note from the Southshore innkeeper, which was probably a quest.

He took it out from his backpack and there were a few bright red words on it.

Assassination Order: Mor’Ladim!

Quest Description: Go to the Twillight Forest, find Mor’Ladim and kill him.

Max players: 1

Quest Deadline: 4 days.

In fact, the Assassin’s League often handed out these kinds of assassination quests. They would give you a goal, a general direction and an assassination target. The players would then receive a monetary reward upon their return.

”Lu Li, you liar – you promised me. You said you would take me on a quest that would make my Elf Dragon bigger and now you’re asking me ‘what quest’!” Hachi Chan shouted angrily.

”Oh right. Let’s go try it now then.” Lu Li only just remembered his promise.

”Big bro Lu Li, I knew you were the best,” Hachi Chan said as she ran over excitedly. She was so excited that she was like a dog with her tongue sticking out and her tail wagging.

”You idiot. You’re getting better and better at manipulating your emotions. You just called me a liar and now you’re calling me Big bro Lu Li again? Do you have any moral integrity?” Lu Li was speechless.

”I’m still young; what’s the point of having integrity?” Hachi Chan grunted. She had been pampered for all of her life.

Lu Li took Hachi Chan away from Southshore and all the way into the Silverpine Forest. Their destination was Tirisfal Woodland and the Scarlet Monastery. There were no shortcuts there, so they had to slowly make their way across the land.

The Silver Forest was vast; it stretched across the entire west coast of Lordaeron. It was also hostile territory that was controlled by the Forsaken.

The last time he was here, there weren’t many high-level monsters – only the Son of Arugal posed a threat to him. However, he was alone that time, so there was a risk of him dying. Now that there were two of them, they didn’t have any reason to fear.

”Let’s fly over,” Lu Li said.

”W…why?” Hachi Chan asked sheepishly.

”It takes more than an hour to walk, but we can fly there in half an hour,” said Lu Li as he transformed into a dark red crow.

”But…” Hachi Chan said pitifully.

”Stop messing around. Hurry up and transform,” Lu Li said bluntly.

Hachi Chan channeled for a moment before turning into a big butterfly. It was much better looking than Lu Li, but its flying form was quite pitiful, let alone its flying speed.

”Surely you’ve spent some time practicing right?” Lu Li couldn’t bear to watch her.

Hachi Chan had received this skill in the Howling Caves. It had been so long, yet she had barely improved at all.

”I have practiced, but… I keep hitting walls,” Hachi Chan said embarrassedly.