The Great Thief

Teams were always welcomed by fans; it wasn’t news anymore for them to be as popular as celebrities.

But who were Ruling Sword? Most people had never heard of them.

Although Dawn was the most popular game at this point, there were billions of people in China, and plenty of them didn’t play games. It wasn’t impossible for people to not know about Ruling Sword.

As such some began to share their knowledge, speaking proudly of this mysterious Thief player who began his journey with a Frost Nova skill book.

“Someone can turn into a Panther? This game seems to be a bit different from what I imagined.”

“Only he can? Did no one chase him down? Are the players in Dawn so friendly that they don’t want to steal off others?”

“No way! They won the Shadow Cup champion with just a few random players? Is he somehow related to the owner of Shadow Cup.”

“He established a guild within the span of half a year, and a guild with a club too?! Brother, are you sure you’re not exaggerating?”

From the moment he walked out of the plane, Lu Li’s eyes nearly went blind from all the flashlights.

Although the current camera technology was advanced enough to not warrant these, they were still kept around for the atmosphere. The flashlights were still just as bright as ever and just as exciting as before. At the very least, Fat Monkey, who was walking behind Lu Li, sure enjoyed waving his arms around and yelling at the top of his lungs. Lu Li regretted not walking behind him; he really wanted to kick Fat Monkey away.

Lu Li covered his face with a pair of sunglasses that he borrowed from Square Root 3, who was much more familiar with the situation.

Lu Li had an average looking face; only his eyes stood out amongst his facial features. People would probably remember his eyes in their first encounter with him.

As for the others, March Rain wore a face mask while Moonlight wore a hat. Either way, they all had their own ways of keeping a low profile. Fat Monkey was the only show off who would probably be keen enough to strip himself naked.

However, he definitely had a great number of fans; it seemed like his style was quite popular. People seemed to like celebrities who were straightforward and a little silly. Not to mention, he wasn’t too ugly either.

The staff in the airport also seemed to have received notice and were sent to sort out the situation. There were a few people who were also in charge of transporting the gaming capsules to the hotel.

“Thank-you everyone, thank-you,” Square Root 3 said as he walked at the front and continuously thanked their fans. Unfortunately, no one paid him any attention. They weren’t here for him, and even if he was the guild master, barely anyone knew of him.

The staff allowed a small group of lucky fans into the inner circle so that they could ask for autographs.

Lu Li saw a little girl rush up to Moonlight. Moonlight was quite tall in real life, even taller than Lu Li. The little girl reached up to his chest and passed him a pink autograph book.

Lu Li sighed silently; this girl was bound to be disappointed.

To his surprise, Moonlight didn’t turn down her request or seem impatient at all. He took over the pen and signed his autograph, even reaching out his hands in the end to pat the little girl on her head.

What a complete shock! What had happened to his cool demeanor?

However, Moonlight didn’t express anything else besides this, acting like this was a daily job. Besides the occasional head pats or hugs, he didn’t engage any further with his fans. He was behaving like a standard competitor.

Competitors weren’t just valuable because of how well they performed in matches – this was also decided by their business value. For example, their abilities as spokespeople, in advertising and how much the media paid attention to them.

Wendelian from Gale Legion wasn’t half as respected as Unforgettable Maple in the game, but her income was three times the amount of his. The reason was simple – she had the looks and she was a girl. She also had her own online shop and took almost all advertising related jobs.

Moonlight was also a good example – he wasn’t a fan of socializing, but he didn’t hate the business operations to his career either. After all, these were what earned him his income.

The others did the same things; they just signed away.

Only the girls turned down requests like hugs. At the very most, they would just shake a hand.

Ruling Sword was still just starting out, and the number of fans that were allowed in was also limited. As such, it didn’t take long for the signing to be done. Some people also wanted Lu Li to sign his autograph, but he definitely wasn’t the most popular. This was likely because he had average looks and kept a low profile.

The signing was followed by interviews from entertainment media and locals.

As the influence of the gaming industry continued to grow, more and more people would rely on it to survive. According to the statistics, the value of gaming industry had reached 3/4 of the entertainment industry and was continuing to grow.

Of course, the two industries often collided with each other, so the statistics were questionable.

A temporary location was set up for the event and a few competitors from Ruling Sword sat there for photos and interviews. Most clubs actually didn’t do this; they would just walk and stop to answer a few questions.

However, Ruling Sword was still just a new guild, so there were limited things for the media to write about.

A female reporter about 20 years old had the first chance to ask a question.

“Apparently Ruling Sword has formed an alliance with Peerless City. Is this true?”

There weren’t any negative intentions in her tone, but her question wasn’t a good one either.

“Our club has formed an alliance with Drizzle Court and Drizzle Court is tied to Peerless City, so I guess you could say we’re an alliance,” Square Root 3 answered.

“Then can we believe that the match results won’t be affected by this alliance?”

There should’ve only been one question allowed, but seeing that the second was an extension to the first, no one called for her to stop.

“Everyone can rest assured about this. Our competitors are all very professional; there’s nothing that would stop them from giving the match their all,” Square Root 3 replied seriously, then lifted his hand and pointed at another reporter, saying, “Next. Our time is limited, so please ask some important questions.”

“You were previously an executive of the Star Moon Union. These years, you’ve turned down the invitation to a lot of people. What made you join Ruling Sword this time?”

This reporter seemed to have done some homework.

Square Root 3 didn’t expect the question to be about himself, but there wasn’t anything that he needed to hide either.

“This is a personal issue. Our visions were different, so I took a different path from my previous friends, and Lu Li… we realized that we share the same goals after a long talk.”

“But according to the representatives of Star Moon Union, they say that you and Lu Li left the guild while taking a good number of executives with you, and this caused a huge loss to the guild…”