The Great Thief

Just as Lu Li was worrying about it, many other players were thinking of the same thing.

One clear consequence was that Tears of the Wind would be relentlessly hunted by players, even more so than Azure Sea Breeze in his previous life.

Although no one directly did so, everyone was thinking about doing the same thing. Some were like Lu Li, worried that this item would fall into the wrong hands. Others wanted to get their hands on his equipment to deal with other Thieves.

This development progressed further beyond everyone’s expectations, and even left Lu Li stunned.

In the next two days, poor Tears of the Wind was killed three times. He lost some EXP and even dropped two pieces of equipment.

Although Eternal Kingdom’s spokesperson announced that the item had been dropped, the players did not relent. The problem was that no one believed him and the public refused to give up until

they saw someone else with it.

However, since Tears of the Wind was still being targeted, Lu Li himself had no intention of doing it himself.

There were actually other ways to do the same thing in Dawn, even when it came to revealing Thieves. Top Druids were able to do it with Faerie Fire, which wasn’t any weaker than any equipment effect. Unfortunately, Druids were weaker in other aspects and were uncommon in competitions.

On the day of entering the top 100, Lu Li finally reached level 49.

The vast majority of ordinary players had just reached level 45, while the elite players were still at level 47. The gap that the first ranking player had on them just felt oppressive.

Without realizing it, Lu Li had been a dark horse in this gaming circle for almost four months.

With the added income to the guild, the mini orphanage of the three little girls was basically complete. They had purchased a small place in the old part of Stormwind City. Although the house was simple and shabby, it could keep out the wind and rain.

The main thing was that there was an orchard next to the house. The owner of the orchard, Ms Jennifer, had opened several chain fruit shops throughout Stormwind and was a wealthy widow.

She liked children very much and Lu Xin had actually bought the house from her. Not only did she offer a very competitive price, but she also promised that the children would be allowed to go through the fence to play in orchard.

As a brother, Lu Li didn’t oppose his sister’s way of spending money and tried to help her as best as he could.

Lu Xin had grown up in the most dangerous parts of the Common District under Lu Li’s protection. Apart from how sensible she was, she was still a simple and kind child. Lu Li hoped that she would live this way forever.

After setting up an orphanage in Stormwind City, Lu Li was going to help his sister take care of the orphans.

NPC!

Lu Li didn’t need to give any money to help the orphanage, as they received subsidies from Stormwind City, but they needed to make sure that they were certified.

Otherwise, no one would know if you had kidnapped the orphans.

In the beginning, they could only adopt three kids – a Dranei girl who was cute and naïve, a little Dwarf boy with a tall beard, and a human girl who was relatively normal, but seemed to have been sent from orphanage to orphanage.

The girl didn’t object either, because she wanted to see the world.

Although they were just small children, it wasn’t easy to raise them. The costs for their training needed to be paid for in addition to their food and clothes. All this was stated on the contract with the orphanage.

Right now, no one was doing this kind of work because it was so difficult for what appeared to ahve no gain.

However, after half a year, no one would think that the players at Ruling Sword were dumb. By that time, almost every guild would sponsor orphanages, nursing homes and medical centers. This was the quickest way to earn merits, which could be used to build a fortress if they accumulated enough.

Lu Li had just walked out of the house after taking the children to their new home when he was confronted by a Thief.

“Hey Elf, I’ve been paying attention to you for a long time and it looks like you’re good with children.”

It was an NPC!

Lu Li didn’t believe that a player could follow him so stealthily.

“Don’t be nervous; I don’t have any malicious intent,” the Gnome Thief assured as he uncovered his face and showed that he wasn’t carrying any weapons.

“How long have you been watching me for?” Lu Li asked.

“Since yesterday. I followed you into the orphanage, then I followed you outside for some time. I don’t really understand why you adventurers are always repeatedly killing the same monsters. I saw you do it today too,” the Gnome Thief said with a shrug.

Damn, this guy had actually been following him for two days.

Lu Li felt like the whole world was against him; why had so many bad things happened to him recently?

First it was Tears in the Wind, then it was this NPC. Why would an NPC follow an adventurer?

“What do you want?” Lu Li asked helplessly.

He didn’t think that this NPC was malicious – otherwise, he would have already been killed when he left the city yesterday.

However, this was definitely a level 50 Boss NPC, who could track him without being detected. Not only did Lu Li have a powerful Stealth effect, but he also had high Detection.

“You keep looking like you’re going to eat me; I just wanted to ask a favor,” the Gnome Thief joked. Unfortunately, he had no sense of humor, so his jokes weren’t funny at all.

A level 50 Thief Boss wanted to ask a favor?

Everything that Lu Li knew this Gnome probably knew as well. Regardless of whether he was willing, Lu Li didn’t think he had the ability to help.

“This is what happened – I saved a guy a few days ago…”

Lu Li quickly understood what this quest was; it had been triggered because they had adopted orphans for the first time. The timeline was a little distorted, but this story was set in the year that Gnomeregan fell. The Thief that was before him was named Haggle and he was part of the rescue team.

He had given Lu Li a very simple quest – to teach one of the children that he rescued a Thief Skill.

“After following you into the orphanage, I see that you are very good with children. I don’t get along with children very well,” Haggle sighed sadly, “So please don’t decline my request.”

“How absurd, this NPC is actually asking for the player to teach a skill,” Lu Li thought to himself, feeling that he must have heard wrongly.

He also accidentally mumbled what he was thinking aloud, including a taboo word like ‘NPC’. Fortunately, the other Gnome didn’t seem to be bothered what Lu Li said.

The phrase NPC was one that was used by the players often, but was considered highly offensive to those Indigenous to Azeroth. Some would even attack the players over it.