The Great Thief

System: Congratulations to Ruling Sword’s Sakura Memories for successfully reaching level 60!

This was Dawn’s first level 60 player, and it represented a movement in the greater story, so naturally, there was a World Announcement to come with it. It was even more noticeable than achieving a First Clear.

“Check what kind of reward you got,” a group of players asked as they surrounded Sakura Memories, wanting to satisfy their curiosity.

“An Enhanced Bloodthirst Skill Book and a lot of Prestige. I have almost enough to learn the skill right now,” Sakura Memories said. She had joined a small camp of Draenei people, but didn’t really like doing quests. It wasn’t enough to rely on the Prestige gained from Instance Dungeons, but now, she had more than enough.

She felt as though someone had just informed her that she had won 5 million dollars in the lottery.

“Oh, there is a weapon too. It’s a Legendary, wooow!”

Sakura Memories was almost unintelligible as she was ecstatic. She was just a levelling madman and a part time Professional player, but she was suddenly now in possession of a Legendary weapon.

The others gathered closer to see this Legendary equipment.

Lu Li was standing further away, and didn’t join in on the fun. Wandering patted him on the shoulder and asked in a low voice, “Do you have any regrets for not making her wait for you to each level 60 first? You could have done it; every other commander is doing it too. You could have said that the reward was a Legendary weapon.”

“I know, but there is nothing to regret here.”

As someone who experienced Rebirth, Lu Li knew what the rewards were. It was an exquisite Enhanced Skill Book, a Legendary Weapon and a lot of Prestige. The winner might even appear in one of Dawn’s formal events.

Wandering’s suggestion was quite simple. Sakura Memories and those that had more EXP than Lu Li would stop farming, and allow Lu Li to get all the EXP so he would get to level 60 first so he could take this reward.

This kind of approach wasn’t frowned upon.

In fact, this was the norm among the gaming circles. After all, these rewards would be used differently depending on whether Sakura Memories or Lu Li got them.

There were far fewer players who ever knew who Sakura Memories was.

However, if Lu Li was the first player to each level 60, his personal reputation would definitely be taken to the next level. It would make him even more famous.

The value of the Legendary Weapon could be even greater in Lu Li’s hands.

Sakura Memories wasn’t a main player in competitions, nor was she the main damage output in Instance Dungeons. She wasn’t too interested in PVPing other players as well. She only liked levelling, but having a Legendary item when doing so didn’t make that much difference.

This was why Wandering had made such a suggestion. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Sakura Memories, but he just considered the situation from the perspective of maximizing value.

Now that they had fought three Molten Core Bosses, it meant that there was a large area where they could farm monsters before facing the fourth Boss. The efficiency of farming these monsters was far better than the monsters outside, so even though Lu Li was only within the top 20, he could have easily made it level 60.

However, Lu Li rejected this.

On the one hand, he took issue with the idea personally. There several dozen players in front of him and he couldn’t ask them to stop for Ruling Sword.

On the other hand, there was also the unlikely event that someone else could get it. Then, those who actually wanted to get to level 60 would be crying to no end. Lu Li never felt like he was invincible in this game. What was to say that someone else wasn’t farming Instance Dungeon monsters too? I No Understand could even be working on a long chain Quest which rewarded a large amount of EXP in the end.

Also, this wasn’t fair to Sakura Memories.

From her point of view, if she participated in the competitions and in the Instance Dungeons, she would have to spend her break time levelling. She was levelling when others were eating. She squeezed every single second she had into levelling.

Almost all the money that this girl had earned had been invested in training.

Some people weren’t even willing to take their potions into an Instance Dungeon, but for the sake of saving the time of sitting down and eating her bread, she was always carrying a potion in her backpack.

If she was told that she couldn’t farm anymore after getting so close to level 60, and was asked to give up that glory and the reward for someone else, she would be completely sacrificing her own interests for the sake of the bigger picture. She would also be taking some compensation and suffering in silence.

Why would she do that!?

Why did Lu Li leave Star Moon Guild such a long time ago?

It was because Star Moon Guild made unreasonable requests of those playing the game, and Lu Li couldn’t live on like that.

Lu Li hated this kind of thing the most, so he naturally couldn’t do it himself. He vetoed Wandering’s suggestion without hesitation. Although he was giving up the Enhanced Skill Book and a Legendary Weapon, there would be more opportunities later.

There was a reward for the first person, but was there a reward for the second?

Azure Sea Breeze, who was about to level up, rushed into the next wave of mobs. His Level Ranking position was similar to March Rain and Lonesome Flower. Ruling Sword had taken the top five spots with I No Understand in 6th place. Their EXP gap wasn’t actually that large; it was just a few percentage points at most.

If Lu Li remembered correctly, the second player did receive a reward, but it was not nearly as valuable.

They didn’t have enough time today to get them to level 60 either.

The next day, Sakura Memories received an e-mail telling her that she could ask the city administrator of a main city for a piece of land to establish a Stronghold. The coordinates that they had given were in Grey Valley.

According to the normal process, a player that wanted to establish a Stronghold had to wait until the Stronghold system generated a map and opened up multiple plots of land. These locations would then become a point of competition among many clubs. Once the land was generated, guilds could pay a certain amount of gold to try to invade it. The first eight guilds to pay for it would then compete to capture the Stronghold. Capturing the Stronghold was similar to completing an Instance Dungeon. There were many monsters and Bosses in it that would defend it.

If the attack failed, then the gold was lost.

If the attack was successful, then the gold would not be lost. However, if there were several winners in the end, the System would randomly arrange for some players to be attacking and some to be defending. The goal would then be to eliminate the other winners.

The fact that Sakura Memories was rewarded with a piece of land seemed like no big deal, but it was a huge bargain for Ruling Sword.

The first benefit was that they didn’t have to conquer the land and there would also be no competitors. As long as they could capture it, it would belong to Ruling Sword. Of course, every other guild could try to siege it so Ruling Sword had to hold onto it for long enough to establish adequate defences.

Lu Li got right to the point with his request.

The club would purchase ownership of the land from Sakura Memories. However, after they captured it, a share of the site would remain in Sakura Memories’ hands.