The Great Thief

Chapter 996: New Years

Translator: Halcyon Translations Editor: Halcyon Translations

Goblin Jumper Cables were very profitable because the materials to craft them weren’t very expensive. Lu Li could auction them at a ridiculously high price and players would still fight over it.

He could finally make some money with Engineering.

Lu Li crafted five Flawless Arcanite Rifles but needed three more points of EXP to level up to Lv260. He decided to wait until he had time to find another recipe.

The Flawless Arcanite Rifles disappeared from his crafting options.

Using a recipe allowed the player to craft the item for a limited amount of times, so he needed to find a new one.

Lu Li equipped the rifle and mailed one to Water Fairy while wishing her “Happy New Year” in the description. He mailed another to Moonlight and also sent his new year greetings.

The last two were sold to Global Friendship and Azure Sea Breeze.

Since Azure Sea Breeze was such a good friend, he only sold it to him for the cost price. He didn’t charge Global Friendship too much either, so Lu Li ultimately came out with a net loss.

Fortunately, he could now look forward to making serious money off the Goblin Jumper Cables.

With this item, anyone could become a healer and resurrect their dead friend.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t be used during a fight and they weren’t as reliable as the actual resurrect skill. If the user was unlucky, the Goblin Jumper Cable could fail.

The day before New Year’s, it began snowing in Gangnam.

Apparently, around 200 years ago, it never used to snow here, but as time went by, the weather grew colder. The snow wasn’t as heavy as the Northern part of the country, but it still covered the city.

This year, they received quite a lot of snow. When Lu Li left his house early in the morning, he saw that everything was covered in white.

“Wow, it’s snowing!” Lu Xin exclaimed as she ran out of the house behind him and dived into the snow like a happy little bunny.

She was wearing her furry pink jacket, white scarf and white beanie, only showing parts of her face.

Back in the day during wintertime, the two siblings would cuddle up together in their cardboard house that Lu Li had made. During the cold and windy winter nights, they only had each other as a source of warmth.

No matter how much Lu Li tried to seal up the holes, it always felt like there was a freezing draft coming from somewhere. They could only exercise to warm themselves up and hide under the blankets to keep the heat.

There were fewer jobs available during the winter as well and they would often go without proper food for days.

It was even worse during the times when Lu Li was still too young to work. If it weren’t for the uncles and aunties in the neighborhood sparing whatever leftovers they could offer, they would have definitely starved to death.

“Brother, let’s go visit old man Lee and the others,” Lu Xin suddenly suggested after playing for a bit.

Lu Li was silent and said hesitantly, “Xin Xin, we finally made it out of that place – why do you want to go back? Let’s forget about the past, ok?”

“But brother, they were the ones that helped us when we were in need.”

Lu Xin pouted her lips; she was upset with Lu Li’s attitude and thinking.

She was so innocent and Lu Li had done a great job of sheltering her from the dangers and evils of society. She was very forgiving to those who had done wrong to her, while always remembering those who had helped her in any way, even if it was a small little favor.

“I can get someone to send them some things.”

Lu Li has always been so nice to her sister and didn’t mind her innocence.

“Let’s just go see them since we’re free today. You always taught me to do more things when you’re capable,” Lu Xin ran over and begged, holding onto Lu Li’s arms.

When they were younger, Lu Xin loved small animals and would always want to bring stray cats and dogs home to take care of them.

Lu Li hated to see the disappointment in her face when he refused. However, he was already struggling to take care of his sister, so how could they afford to take care of a pet? As such, he would always teach his younger sister to help others when she became capable of doing so.

He can’t go back on his words now; it was too bad that Lu Xin was such a good kid.

Lu Li thought about it and asked, “It’s true that we’re doing much better for ourselves now, but what exactly do you want to do for them?”

He was unsure whether his younger sister was too innocent. If she wanted him to use the money that he had made from gaming to help those in the Common District, then he wouldn’t do it. He never considered himself a saint and this wasn’t his life’s philosophy.

To be honest, besides his little sister, he always had some sort of a goal that he wanted to achieve when helping others.

For example, when he first met Azure Sea Breeze and gave him the loot that he had obtained, his goal was to gain a trustworthy and loyal friend. He always had the best interests of his guild in mind and fought for their benefit because he wants a group of loyal players backing him up.

“Hmm...” Lu Xin thought as she tilted her head and said, “Should we buy some meat and bring it to them?”

Fortunately, her request wasn’t completely unreasonable.

There was a market near where they used to live in the Common District. Since it was the end of the year, they would probably have plenty of business.

It was not that Commoners couldn’t afford meat; they just couldn’t splurge on it because of the price. Their favorite things to buy were cheap vegetables.

Lu Li calculated how much he would need to buy and got the butchers to deliver it to them. Most of the items were meats that residents of the Common District usually couldn’t afford, as well as some rarer and more expensive things.

Although the economy had gotten a lot better in the recent years, many people, especially the elderly, would suffer in poverty because of their old age, illnesses or disabilities. Usually, their kids would take care of them, but the sad reality was that nobody wanted that burden.

This was because there’s no solution for aging; the elderly would often suffer from an incurable chronic disease.

There were still quite a number of people who managed to make it out of the Common Distract. These were usually the gangsters that would bully others for their own gains, or lucky people like Lu Li and Lu Xin who insisted on studying even though they were dirt-poor.

Nearly the entire district knew that Lu Li managed to make it out of there with his younger sister.

The gangsters also found their own way out.

Now that Lu Li had returned with his younger sister, there was a sense of glory and accomplishment. The two trucks full of meat were a testament to how well they were doing right now and the citizens of the Common District gathered around to see what the commotion was all about.

Lu Li watched from afar as his younger sister greeted the uncles and aunties that had helped them in the past.

Unfortunately, he didn’t understand the joy of helping others, but as long as his sister was happy, that’s all that mattered.

Lu Xin ended up playing too much and caught a cold.

Lu Li was furious at his little sister for getting sick and locked her in the house for the rest of New Year’s.

The pain from the hand surgery was long gone. Lu Li was worried about his younger sister, but a little cold wouldn’t do anything too severe to her.

If his little sister couldn’t leave the house, Lu Li had no choice but to stay home as well to keep her company. This also gave him a lot more time to play Dawn.