The Great Thief

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

On Monday, there was a System update, but this didn’t affect the players’ login times.

It was said that the update this time was just an update to the game’s UI and system. The graphics would be even more realistic, but it also toned down the gore. Dawn would be easier on the spectators’ eyes after this update.

However, the game didn’t completely remove it either.

With the installation of a mod, players could see an even more gory world. Lu Li tried it out when he was grinding for levels. There was also a Paladin near him who was trying it out as well. He was equipped with a hammer, which dealt bloody carnage with every swing.

Lu Li witnessed a monster’s head being smashed with the hammer, after which its head exploded and its innards flew everywhere.

Fortunately, this wasn’t Lu Li’s preference. He decided to change his settings back to the toned-down version.

The game company’s intended audience was for everyone, so this toned-down version was good for little children. Otherwise, it would be much too violent for them.

Because they wanted to cater for younger people, there was an update which included many high schools in different cities. Such cities include Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Stormwind’s school was just called the Stormwind Junior High School, while the one at Orgrimmar was called Orgrimmar Senior High School. The goal for the installation of these schools was to increase the number of young players in the game.

At that time, there weren’t schools like the Ironforge Kindergarten yet. After all, it wasn’t good for extremely young children to be playing games.

These updates didn’t affect battle-centred players.

Besides the Instance Dungeon and quest difficulty nerfs, there were two more things that attracted everyone’s attention.

The release of the Talent System!

Players could freely choose their Talent stats.

For example, for Lu Li, there were two paths. The main path was the Agility pathway, which increased his survival capabilities and his crowd control abilities. As a result, there was a new name for him – Agile Thief. The other path was the Strength pathway, which increased offensive strength and gave the title of Battle Thief.

You could still change between these two paths – the price was just gold.

After every Talent reset, there was a fee which grew each time. There was also a quest that needed to be completed to enable the changing between the two paths.

Normally, no one would bother changing paths.

However, players now had the choice to reset their skill points and stats. Unfortunately, the skills that were levelled up through training were not able to be reset, such as Lu Li’s Sinister Strike. As a result, Lu Li could only adjust four of his skills.

Lu Li decided to adjust his skill point investments. His skillset was mostly focused on PVP, since his role in Instance Dungeons was to be a commander.

A normal squad didn’t require the commander to have good DPS. Furthermore, Lu Li’s items were extremely powerful, so his DPS would be above the average player regardless.

Thieves and Priests were among the easier classes to adjust in terms of the Talent system.

Paladins could become Healing Paladins and Retribution Paladins, while Druids could become a Voodoo Druid, Bear Druid or Cat Druid. Shamans could choose between Elemental Shamans, Healing Shamans and Buff Shamans. These classes were more complex, but since they were also more flexible, there were many who chose a hybrid combination of specialised classes.

For example, Mu Qiu was a hybrid between a Healing Paladin and Retribution Paladin.

With this update also came the adjustment of the stats of equipment based on the level between the item and the wearer.

For example, a level 60 player wearing level 55 items might not see much difference, but the stats of an item would drop drastically if a level 60 player was wearing level 50 items.

Everyone was not pleased with this, so they heaped their complaints upon the company. However, as this was a game-wide implementation, no one gained an advantage from this.

These were only complaints after all; they wouldn’t quit the game over this matter.

The other players who were disappointed at this update were the item merchants in the game. Their items needed to keep circulating, and it also wasn’t possible for them to sell one item immediately after getting another. Therefore, for the merchants who ended up with an abundance of items to sell were put in a difficult situation. It was said that a few big-name merchants were made bankrupt due to this.

The other update that attracted much attention was the Couple system.

In any game, the Couple system was a system that brought great profit to the company.

In the early days of gaming, there were a few rich players who decided to play as female players. Of course, male players, upon finding out that their partner was indeed a male player, would instantly separate with them.

Ruling Sword had prepared a long time for this update.

After Lu Li and Water Fairy communicated with the supervisor, Square Root immediately contacted the supervisor for the quest.

There was a stat called Friendship which would increase after players added each other as buddies, then frequently talked and completed activities together.

Only after increasing the Friendship level would the Couple system be activated.

As for those who didn’t have a high Friendship stat, even if they liked each other, they wouldn’t be able to become a couple.

During this time, the game company released an item this update that would resolve this problem. Besides the aesthetically pleasing side of this item, it could be used to increase Friendship levels.

How touching!

Of course, the price was also quite touching.

Lu Li and Water Fairy were the first official couple in the game under the instruction of Square Root Three. This was bound to turn into a major talking point.

Lu Li and Water Fairy’s relationship was the perfect advertisement. If the first couple weren’t prominent players in the community, this system wouldn’t be advertised to its best. Square Root Three had planned to use this to further spread Ruling Sword’s name. If there was a world-shockingly grand wedding, then no one would be left without knowing what Ruling Sword was.

Unfortunately, this grand plan was ruined.

At the moment, Lu Li and Water Fairy could only be in a relationship, but they could not get married. Firstly, they didn’t have enough Friendship and secondly, they needed to be in a relationship for a certain period of time before getting married was an option.

Instant marriages were not permitted in the game!

Since it wasn’t a real wedding, why was there a need to make it grand? It could be likened to watering a budding sprout – giving it too much water would kill it.

Because this was the case, they tried to capitalise on another opportunity.

Lu Li only bought nine Orange Genuine Hearts, which saddened the company. Lu Li originally planned to only buy one, since Water Fairy wasn’t too interested in these things. She was different to other girls. As a person who grew up in a wealthy environment, there weren’t many things that she hadn’t seen before.

The supervisor couldn’t let this go ahead.

He then bought 990 of the Hearts, which cost a staggering amount of money.

Of course, the supervisor didn’t pay for it himself, but reported this to the game company.

The company wouldn’t lose money over this either, since Lu Li and Water Fairy were bound to be the first couple. If the first couple had 999 Hearts, then the other rich players would likely do the same. If they had less Hearts, then it would imply that they were insincere about the marriage.