The Great Thief

After two weeks of no activity, the Stronghold battles returned. All the major clubs had to set aside the Instance Dungeon and focus all their attention onto the Strongholds.

Clubs who didn’t have a Stronghold were fighting with their all to just get one, while those who had one were naturally not willing for them to be taken away.

Using the Commander of Blood Red War Flag’s words, this was a battle of survival.

Ruling Sword had two Strongholds. Even if they were solidly in their grasp, there were still no lack of clubs that were taking chances to challenge them. Some people had even offered Lu Li or Square Root Three gold to purchase them.

Some people’s offers were ridiculously high. Lu Li was shocked to discover that his value was worth over hundred of millions dollars.

Of course, he wasn’t going to sell them. Even idiots knew that you couldn’t kill a chicken to get an egg. As long as Dawn continued on, this industry would only become more and more lucrative.

Or perhaps with more industries, he could cash in some part of it to improve his life in reality.

Lu Li used to really know how to be thrifty in maintaining a household, but that wasn’t his personality. As long as he was human, he would want to enjoy life. While his sister was recovering, and after the club was on the right path, he would think about improving his quality of life.

If he wanted a car, it would be best if it was the trendy and cool type.

Every man had a dream luxury car. Lu Li liked the vintage and Range Rover type – it was more manly and very safe.

If he was on a date with Water Fairy, it would be too uncool for her to drive.

The Stronghold battle event this time still hadn’t released the new map. As such, the original ten Strongholds were targets. These included Ruling Sword’s Black Sea Coast and Grey Valley, Drizzle Court’s Western Wilderness, Seventh Heaven’s Tanaris, Glory Capital’s Barrenlands and Stranglethorn Vale, Blood Red War Flag’s Hillsbrad Hills, Peerless City’s Stonetalon Mountains, Wings of Dawn’s Thousand Needles, and also Grand Hegemony’s Un’Goro Crater.

Of these, Ruling Sword’s had the longest history and most established defense.

In comparison, the one easiest to target was Grand Hegemony’s Stronghold. No matter how hard they tried, the club wouldn’t progress much in such a short period of time.

Then after that would be the Wings of Dawn, Seventh Heaven, Blood Red War Flag, and others like them. Their Strongholds had experienced a few battles, but they hadn’t had much of a chance of being developed further.

The results from this morning’s bidding came out.

The price of land had risen by a significant amount. The lowest had already reached 70-80,000 coins. It was only a matter of time for it to break through the 100,000 gold coin

If they didn’t win the bid to attack, then the gold coins would be returned. However, only a portion would be, around 60%. The remaining 40% was halved and given to the gaming company to the Stronghold being auctioned.

As such, from the bidding alone, Ruling Sword had a revenue of 40,000 gold coins.

If the club who won the bidding for the Stronghold lost, then half the gold coins they paid would go to the game company and the other half would go to the Stronghold, which was another great source of revenue.

Risk and interest went hand in hand. If they won, then they would not only have the Stronghold but also the income that came along with it.

Lu Li had to take these battles seriously. He wished that there could be Stronghold Battles everyday.

A single battle could earn someone like Ruling Sword, who owned two Strongholds, over 200,000 gold coins. As for the cost of potions, maintenance fees and equipment required defending the stronghold, this would only total 50,000 gold coins at most.

According to the current exchange rate 15,000 gold coins could be exchanged to 5,000,000 dollars in real life.

Of course, development in the game required a lot of gold coins. Under normal circumstances, gold coins wouldn’t be exchanged. In order to save gold coins, guilds would reward excellent members with real world money.

The attack rights for Ruling Sword’s two Strongholds this time were won by Glory Capital and Gangnam Royals respectively.

The former number one and number two were now both targeting Ruling Sword’s territory. From one perspective, Lu Li was already proud enough with that.

Also, he had a pretty definite chance of victory.

This was also why he didn’t request for Drizzle Court or Peerless City to come and attack his Stronghold. That would of course be a safe bet, but it would mean that they lost the opportunity to make money they otherwise could’ve made.

Lu Li led a team at Grey Valley against Glory Capital, while Wandering and Sky Moon led the others at the Black Sea Coast to face off with the Gangnam Royals. This confrontation between the top three clubs had gained a lot of attention.

The entry tickets were another big source of revenue.

With just the revenue of the Strongholds alone, Ruling Sword didn’t need to attract any investors. They could independently gain the capital required for fast development.

Lu Li and Sorrowless were considered old friends. Many people in Dawn’s chat forum had written a lot about them. There was even romantic fan-fiction.

There were also a bunch of people who didn’t like Lu Li and Water Fairy as a couple, so they had imagined a variety of new couple pairings.

Time was so precious. Wasting one opportunity meant that many things had changed.

This time, Glory Capital gave up the easier Stronghold and targeted Ruling Sword again. This was completely in accordance with Sorrowless’ personality. He was never the type to hide from a battle because it was difficult.

 “Boss, what strategy would they have?” Fat Monkey asked, stretching out his neck as he waited for the enemies to appear.

 “Sorrowless rarely uses strategy. Strategy is something only relied on by weak people. Strong people use resolve.”

Lu Li had analysed Sorrowless as a person. He was his number one nemesis.

“Pfft, we’re not weak either,” Fat Monkey said haughtily.

“Monkey, you can’t be like this. Don’t underestimate any opponent, especially someone like Sorrowless. No matter if it’s you or me, neither of us have the right to underestimate him,” Lu Li replied seriously.

Before fighting with Sorrowless, he was already an insurmountable obstacle in Fat Monkey’s heart. However, after his battle, the outside praised him as the most likely person to inherit the title of ‘Mage God’. This type of gap was too large, so it was no wonder Fat Monkey lost himself.

“I understand,” Fat Monkey said, falling quiet instantly and nodding his head.

The main force of Glory Capital soon came into their field of vision. The majority of them were familiar faces. It seemed like this time they were really serious. Only the most powerful people had come from the club.

However, it was not only Glory Capital.

There was also Gaze, Cloudy Leaf, Wendelian and others from Gale Legion amongst them. These two top clubs combining powers elevated the circumstances significantly.

According to the rules of Stronghold battles, neighbouring Strongholds would attack each other more easily than unrelated ones.

This time, Glory Capital’s camp contained only the cream of the crop.

The two commentators who were in the live broadcast of the battle were shocked and speechless. One of them yelled in surprise, “Glory Capital has not had such a complete team in a very long time!”

What advantage did Ruling Sword have?

City walls, Ancient of Lore and their unyielding willpower. Lu Li could see his teammate’s faces filled with fighting spirit; there was not a trace of timidness nor recoiling.

Lu Li felt that even if this was a failed battle, he wouldn’t have any regrets.

 “They brought a ladder. I don’t know what it’s for,” Fat Monkey observed carefully. Lu Li said that Sorrowless didn’t have any strategy, but he didn’t fully believe him, so he kept paying attention to see if the opponent had some sort of trump card.

 “In ancient times, ladders were used to attack cities. This is a virtual reality game, so they would appear sooner or later,” Lu Li said, then continued to explain, “The functions of ladders limiting. At most, they can only send a few more people up. Everyone can just simply kill them off.”

 “Exactly! Even if they come, it would be to give us equipment,” Azure Sea Breeze said fearlessly as he waved his new Epic equipment.

Cannons plus ladders had created lines of attacks, while Ruling Sword responded with artillery and a barrage of skills. The battle at the beginning had already entered into an fierce state.

 “There’s people coming up! Kill them!” Lu Li shouted.

Accompanying his voice was an even faster silhouette. Moonlight collided with the visitor, who was a Berserker just like him.

Gaze!

This was Gale Legion’s number one Berserker. Moonlight, Gaze, Elevenless, Deadly Gold Underpants and Sea Breaker were the top five Warriors in this game.

Their eyes now only saw each other in them.

Gaze also knew that he would not live as soon as he came on the city wall. His aim was to mess up the defensive rhythm of the city walls.

However, he was blocked by Moonlight.

If it was Lu Li who blocked him, he wouldn’t care at all, but this was Moonlight. He had no way off escaping this fateful battle. He couldn’t even if Sorrowless ordered him.

With the same logic, Moonlight threw himself onto Gaze the moment he saw him.

People who played Warriors were relatively more hot-blooded. Glory was something they could never have enough of in their hearts.

Lu Li didn’t act on his own. It was as if he was observing Sorrowless and Sorrowless was also analysing his position. As soon as the opportunity arose, either of them would make the executive decision to eliminate the other.

A battle where its commander was lost made it hard to say which direction it would go.