The Great Thief

“Actually, even if you don’t enter the top 100 this time, it’s not like there won’t be other chances. The Shadow Cup is much more important than this, is it not?”

Lu Li was never the type of person to jump into an offer like this. He needed to know the goals of the other party.

“Well, you have to buy a ticket to enter the ride,” Drinking Alone cryptically replied.

Lu Li unhesitatingly chose to reject the proposal.

“Our Instance Dungeon team is the product of our alliance of three clubs, so adding another would be too much. I think I will have to disappoint you.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t care for the 5% offer.

Grand Hegemony’s network wasn’t any smaller than Ruling Sword’s. As a long-standing mega-club, they had many partners. Even if they didn’t count Ruling Sword’s income from competitions and only counted the income from Strongholds, they would still have a few times that of Ruling Sword’s income.

However, Grand Hegemony were different to Drizzle Court and Peerless City. They could be partners and work together, but they would never be family.

“Oh, I don’t have hope for us to join your Instance Dungeon team. We just need someone powerful to back us and be our ally. We can support each other when we need to and join events together. We can also financially support you to form strategies and things like that,” Drinking Alone explained genuinely.

Drizzle Court and Ruling Sword didn’t have any misunderstandings at all. This was because the leaders from both clubs were nearly becoming a family.

“How about this? I’ll accept your proposal for the three points. As for the rest, we’ll discuss it further.”

At this point in the conversation, if Lu Li still rejected him, then it would simply be too cruel.

Dawn wasn’t a game that could just be conquered by one club alone. With the existence of Glory Capital and its might, it was only natural for clubs to ally with each other to face the rest of their opponents.

Although Ruling Sword was no longer a lone club, Lu Li did not mind another ally.

“Haha! Let’s go back to Jiangnan and celebrate!”

Drinking Alone was overjoyed. He knew that Lu Li wouldn’t reject him from the beginning, but he couldn’t help but be excited after hearing Lu Li’s answer.

It wasn’t that Grand Hegemony had too much money and didn’t know where to spend it, or that they were stupid and just gave out their benefits without much thought.

After receiving the utmost support from real life corporations, it seemed that they were going through rapid growth. However, the higher echelons of the club and the corporations supporting them knew that although they were extremely wealthy, they were unable to reach the top of Dawn.

In terms of PVP, they lacked star power and didn’t have the best of the best players representing them. In wild PVP battles, they were also easily beaten by any of the top clubs.

In terms of PVE, while other guilds were all clearing Naxxramas, they were still trying to buy the strategy to clear the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj. They were simply unable to clear Ouro.

Without progress in either aspects of the game, their financial supporters would one day give up on Grand Hegemony.

If they could ally with Ruling Sword, then buying strategies would no longer be a problem. After all, they were allies. Even if they couldn’t join the Instance Dungeon team, they would still be able to buy the strategies from them.

After allying with them, the next time that they met with Ruling Sword in competitions, they wouldn’t be massacred like before. Furthermore, it wouldn’t just be Ruling Sword, but Drizzle Court and Peerless City as well.

“Alright then, let’s look at this afternoon’s match.”

Lu Li gathered together a few of the PvP players. They needed to be on the same page for things like this.

“Wait, we’re going to let them win?” Fat Monkey was extremely surprised.

“No, that’s not it. Grand Hegemony is lacking just 3 points to enter the Top 100. We just need to let them get 3 points,” Lu Li explained.

“I won’t join today’s match.”

Moonlight’s expression was the same as usual.

He had already been in this industry for so many years already. However, he couldn’t really accept using competitive matches in exchange for benefits. Although he didn’t like it, he didn’t despise it to the point where he would leave Ruling Sword because of it.

“Alright. That’s fine. You can go and clear Instance Dungeons with Sky Moon.”

Lu Li didn’t want to force him.

The other people didn’t react much. At least, they didn’t have the right to react much yet anyway. Instead, Fat Monkey felt excited and curious about this, because it was something new that he hadn’t done before.

“Fat Monkey, you go. Defeat their first competitor and leave yourself with 30% HP at the end of the battle. Your next opponent will be a Thief. When that time comes, just intentionally make a mistake and let your opponent take control of the battle,” Lu Li instructed, beginning to arrange their strategies.

The battle against Grand Hegemony would be much easier to win than to lose and make it seem natural.

“So, for the second battle, because I don’t have much HP left, I will start panicking. Then, because I am a little more desperate, I make a mistake and I’ll end up dying that way.”

Fat Monkey was clearly much better than Lu Li at coming up with scripts.

“Mhm. Continue,” Lu Li said, deciding to stop talking.

“Who’s the next one up? Kitty Likes Meat? The boss probably is too embarrassed to lose.”

Fat Monkey was quick to think on the spot and formulated a plan.

Everyone just needed to follow Lu Li’s instructions. They needed to lose two points in the arena battles, and then lose one point in the team battles. This way, Grand Hegemony would be able to gain 3 points and enter the Top 100. Upon entering the Top 100, the points would be reset. At that time, if Grand Hegemony still couldn’t win and survive on their own, then it would be on them.

The Top 100 was the benchmark goal for super-clubs. If they couldn’t even enter the Top 100, then how could they still call themselves a super-club?

The tickets sold out almost instantly for the afternoon match. After all, this was a battle outside of the Top 100 and Ruling Sword had finally matched up with a decent opponent.

Grand Hegemony had encountered super-club after super-club. However, Ruling Sword had a different fate. All of their competitors thus far had been a cakewalk for them.

“Man, I feel sorry for Grand Hegemony. They just had a battle with Wings of Dawn and now they’ve met with Ruling Sword. I remember them getting their ass kicked by Glory Capital just a couple of days ago too! They couldn’t even get a single point,” some players started to comment.

“Blood Red Dagger killed three in a row and they didn’t even have a chance in the Team Battle. Of course they couldn’t earn a single point.”

“Lu Li’s stronger than Blood Red Dagger, right? Looks like Grand Hegemony is going to get destroyed again. Even Moonlight could probably kill three Grand Hegemony players in a row. Looks like anyone can join their team nowadays. I think that even I could.”