The Great Thief

Lu Li and the other two remained in place while the players that qualified for the top 16 were

teleported into the arena one by one.

It was time to present the awards and prizes to the players. However, the celebrity players were

more interested in the exposure and the increased popularity that the presentation would give

them.

As the winners of the Shadow Cup this year, Lu Li, Moonlight and March Rain stood before all the

players as everyone congratulated them and the crowd roared in excitement.

The 40 to 50 players on the stage were the top 20% of the PVP experts in Dawn. Whether they had

already established their names, were nearing the end of their career or entering their prime,

everyone celebrated as the crowd cheered.

The excitement of winning had finally hit Lu Li and he felt proud and happy for everyone around him.

Some couldn’t contain their excitement – as if they were the ones that had won the tournament.

Others were expressionless, as if someone owed them money.

A few players were angry about the results and at themselves for not performing to their

expectations. Either way, Lu Li was impressed with each and every one of them and how far

everyone had made it.

As the others congratulated them and shook their hands, Lu Li couldn’t help but notice that they

were holding onto March Rain’s hands for a bit too long.

Everyone became quiet as the representatives from the gaming company and the Shadow Cup

Association appeared on the stage.

It was time for the awards ceremony.

Champion of the Shadow Cup this year – Xin Xin Mercenary Group. Group award of $5,000,000.

Second place Glory Capital – $3,000,000.

Third place Drizzle Court – $2,000,000.

The fourth place received $1,500,000, while every team from fifth to eighth received $1,000,000.

Ninth to sixteenth place received $500,000.

The prize money alone totalled up to almost $20,000,000. There were also awards for the best

player of each class, with the winner receiving $500,000.

MVP Warrior – Moonlight, member of the winning team. His playstyle was very bold and he was

very flexible, both defensively and offensively. He was idolized by many Warrior players as the top

Warrior in Dawn.

MVP Mage Sorrowless – this was clearly undisputed.

MVP Priest – March Rain. In reality, March Rain was less mechanically skilled than Stellar Union

Silver Radiant, Professional Healer and White Westhill. However, because of her beauty and her

improvement throughout the tournament, many people saw her as one of the best up-and- coming

Priests in the game. Based on the votes, she had won the title quite convincingly.

MVP Thief – Water Fairy... That’s right, Water Fairy had brought home the title. Lu Li came in at

second while Wood Fearing came third. Water Fairy received more votes than Lu Li and Wood

Fearing combined.

The sad reality was that the community tended to vote for pretty girls over guys.

MVP Shaman – Jade Flower Lover. There were very few Shaman players and the only outstanding

ones were him and Empty.

MVP Druid – Meow, a very adorable girl. She had won because all of the virgin male players voted

for her.

MVP Paladin – Green Flag Wine. This veteran definitely deserved this award. Many players believed

that he would rise to become the best Paladin in the game once again.

MVP Warlock – Lone Smoker Long. He was an expert Warlock player as well. Hornet’s Nest came

very close to him in the voting, but Lone Smoker Long had the slight edge because he had defeated

Moonlight.

Lastly, the Hunter MVP award went to Marks from the Wings of Dawn.

Marks had a flying pet with very cute animations that looked like Pikachu. He had gained lots of

popularity with his pet alone, especially among the female players.

There was also supposed to be a Hidden Class Award, which was presented to the MVP that played

either Death Knight, Monk or Demon Hunter. However, none of the players from these classes stood

out in particular and therefore, this award was skipped.

There was also the Most Popular Award. The first, second and third places received $2,000,000,

$1,000,000 and $500,000 in prize money respectively.

The first place was presented to the Guild Leader of Glory Capital, Sorrowless. Sorrowless had more

than ten years of experience and was considered a legend among the gaming community. It was no

surprise that he took home this title.

Water Fairy was ranked second – she had both the skill and the looks to be voted in at second in the

Popularity Award. Because of her beauty, skill and outgoing personality, her popularity had sky-

rocketed over the past two years.

Since Lu Li was a new player, he was placed third behind Water Fairy.

Beside all of this, there were a bunch of other random awards that weren’t associated with Lu Li.

After some time, the Shadow Cup officially ended.

Lu Li noticed something that the representative had said during his speech – "The next Shadow Cup

will be bigger and more exciting than ever before."

This seemed like something that had been said for show, however, Lu Li knew that he was being

serious.

The Shadow Cup would be known as Major League Gaming in the future, but it would still be hosted

by the Shadow Cup Association. However, from next year onwards, they would gather all their

connections and sponsorships, and completely upscale the tournament into a League Tournament.

Although the idea had been raised during the past, Dawn did not have a large enough player base to

have a league tournament for itself and therefore, the association would lose money.

However, Dawn had grown into a game that everyone played. The large player base and popularity

among the gaming community allowed them to upscale the tournament, thus creating more

opportunities for profits. Additionally, the large prize pools would attract more players, encourage

players to improve and thus, create more entertainment value.

The tournament format would be completely remade as well.

The number of players on each team would increase from 3 to 8, not including reserves. The veteran

star players would continue to dominate the game as younger, less experienced players began to

rise and more potential star players developed.

For others, this might have been a good thing, however, for Xin Xin Mercenary Group, this was

equivalent to their worst nightmare.

The advantages and knowledge that Lu Li had would fade as time passed on. With changes to the

tournament format, as well as their limited of resources and members, the Xin Xin Mercenary would

eventually be crushed by the major guilds.

In simple terms, if they wanted to continue dominating tournaments, Lu Li had to begin recruiting

talent.

Lu Li had known all of this beforehand and had thought about it many times.

Whether he had to develop young talent himself or recruit famous players from his past life that had

yet to emerge as experts, he needed the support from his team, as well as financial funding and

resources.

Lu Li had no money himself – the money he had made was all spent on supporting his little sister.

Moonlight was broke as well. Even though he had made some money from the tournament, most of

it went to supporting his poor friends and family.

Others were either students or recent graduates and had no money lying around to be invested into

games.

As for accepting outside resources, the Xin Xin Mercenary Group and Square Root Three would

never consider this as an option.

Luckily, they had made quite a lot of money in the Shadow Cup this year.

There was $5-6 million from ticket sales, $ 5 million from the prize money, and $1 million from the

individual awards that were presented to Lu Li and March Rain. This totalled up to $12 million.

Sixty percent of this was shared by the members that participated in the tournament. A portion of

the remaining money was distributed to the others, while the rest was used as funding for future

developments.

Since Lu Li had made it into the finals, he received a share of more than $2 million. He decided to

reinvest part of this money back into the game and set some aside for supporting others.

When he first entered the game, he had made about $2-3 million, then made another $2 million by

selling explosive bombs with Shen Wansan. His bank account had enough money to cure his little

sister’s sickness, as well as some leftover for emergencies.

The others in Xin Xin Mercenary Group had made quite a lot of money as well.

March Rain and Moonlight had made the most because they entered the finals with Lu Li. On the

other hand, the two high schoolers had made enough money for their tuition fees and to support

themselves all the way up to university.