Chapter 1 The Boss's Dilemma

A major characteristic of being a boss is endless agonizing. Jian Gui had just finished agonizing over two things in a row, and now Yun Zhongmu was getting hung up as well. And just like Jian Gui, it was a double dose of agonizing – just as one issue was resolved, another cropped up.

Officially, Yun Zhongmu was no longer a boss after joining Extraordinary Thieves, but it was clear that in the hearts of his brothers, he was and always would be their only leader. No matter how good Jian Gui's character, how great his reputation, or how strong his skills, he couldn't replace Yun Zhongmu's position in their hearts overnight.

Even Piaoliu understood this. He still addressed Yun Zhongmu as "Boss," a detail Yun Zhongmu didn't have time to dwell on at the moment as he carefully sized up Piaoliu.

Among their group, there was a strong call to cooperate with Piaoliu. Yun Zhongmu was still hesitant about this, never expecting Piaoliu to take the initiative to approach them first, which made him reconsider Piaoliu's character. After all, they were in different positions. Yun Zhongmu and his crew had joined Extraordinary Thieves for a reason: because they thought Extraordinary Thieves would continue to fight against Yingqi. Opposing Yingqi was a vital objective for them, so even if they took action privately or left the guild again, Yun Zhongmu wouldn't feel guilty towards Jian Gui. After all, Jian Gui had broken the agreement first, though Yun Zhongmu could understand his difficulties.

Piaoliu, however, was different. He was originally a member of Extraordinary Thieves. The boss had already declared they wouldn't do things this way, yet he was secretly contacting people and organizing activities. Yun Zhongmu strongly disapproved of this behavior. His brothers were all saying they should cooperate with Piaoliu, but Yun Zhongmu remained hesitant because he felt that they could do this themselves, but involving Piaoliu would be like undermining Jian Gui, something Yun Zhongmu didn't want to see.

Yun Zhongmu remained silent for a long time, and Piaoliu didn't speak either, simply waiting with a smile for Yun Zhongmu's answer.

"Why did you come to us?" Yun Zhongmu asked suddenly, out of the blue.

"Why? I thought you needed this plan," Piaoliu replied, his smile unchanged.

"But this plan doesn't necessarily need us," Yun Zhongmu said.

"What does Boss Yun mean by that?"

"We don't want to cooperate with you," Yun Zhongmu stated unequivocally.

"Why?" Piaoliu asked, somewhat surprised.

"As a member of Extraordinary Thieves, you should behave yourself," Yun Zhongmu said.

But Piaoliu simply laughed again. "Guilds are just passing clouds to me."

Yun Zhongmu nodded. "I've heard about you. Wandering around like your name suggests. Always shifting the blame to the guild, while you walk away carefree."

Piaoliu was silent.

"But this time, it seems you need someone to take the fall, eh?" Yun Zhongmu chuckled.

"Oh?"

"Qianli Yizui isn't someone you can shake off just by dusting your pants, is he? I think you've seen the function of his wanted warrant," Yun Zhongmu stared directly at Piaoliu.

Piaoliu remained expressionless, but his smile finally disappeared.

"If I said I wanted to buy your teleportation gate scroll, I imagine you wouldn't agree?" Yun Zhongmu said.

"With this plan included, that scroll is priceless. What price would you offer?" Piaoliu asked.

"You're right," Yun Zhongmu nodded. "Then I wish you every success."

Piaoliu left, and Yun Zhongmu's brothers immediately surrounded him. Most of them had guessed Piaoliu's intentions, but Yun Zhongmu turned and shook his head.

"Why?" some of his brothers asked, not understanding. If he was hesitant before, Piaoliu taking the initiative should have been the perfect opportunity to make a decision, right?

"That's no simple fellow. Cooperating with him won't be easy. Now that Jian Gui has decided to reconcile with Yingqi, if we're going to do anything, we should leave Extraordinary Thieves first. We can't let others get implicated in our own actions. But Piaoliu is the opposite. He's acting with the identity of an Extraordinary Thieves member. When things go wrong, he'll run off with the equipment, and the blame will definitely fall on Extraordinary Thieves, with no way to explain it. An ordinary guild might not be able to do anything about it, but Extraordinary Thieves is different. Qianli Yizui's wanted warrant guarantees they can find you the moment you have PK value. How could a pro like Piaoliu never get PK value? So he needs a cover, a cover to divert attention. Everyone knows how deep our conflict with Yingqi is. If we cooperate with him, it'll easily make people think we're the main players, and Piaoliu was dragged in by us. Then, the ones who can't explain it will likely be us. Otherwise, with such a plan, it would be easy to find collaborators."

"That guy is so insidious!" Yun Zhongmu's brothers exclaimed.

"Shouldn't we tell Boss Jian Gui about this?" someone said. Although Yun Zhongmu was still their boss in their hearts, everyone respected Jian Gui.

"This is hard to handle... There's no real evidence, and they might misunderstand us as stirring up trouble. Our situation is already pretty sensitive. Our numbers are much larger than the original number of Extraordinary Thieves members," Yun Zhongmu said.

"Maybe, Lao Yun, we should leave..." Finally, someone said it. Ever since they learned that Jian Gui had suddenly decided to reconcile with Yingqi, many of Yun Zhongmu's brothers had been muttering about it privately.

"Yeah, there's no point in us staying. But we just joined the guild, so let's wait a few more days. Otherwise, it might have a bad impact on their guild," Yun Zhongmu said. Some of his more decent brothers nodded in agreement, while many others held strong opinions against Extraordinary Thieves and Jian Gui. Yun Zhongmu didn't try to persuade them any further.

After leaving Yun Zhongmu and his group's leveling area, Piaoliu wasn't as calm as he seemed on the surface. After turning around a small hill, Zuo Shou Xie Ai and You Shou Xie Shuai were waiting for him, leveling up monsters. When they saw Piaoliu return, they immediately went to meet him.

"How did it go?" Zuo Shou Xie Ai asked.

Piaoliu shook his head, a look of surprise and doubt finally appearing on his face. "Not simple... Yun Zhongmu is no simple man either. No wonder he led over four thousand people. I thought he might reject the cooperation, but I didn't expect him to see through my intentions completely."

"What do we do now?"

"Without them, this will be hard. Let's put it on hold for now..." Piaoliu sighed.

Within the Extraordinary Thieves guild, small factions with different agendas had clearly formed. The official guild members were one faction, Yun Zhongmu and his group were another, Piaoliu's trio were another, and there was also a fourth faction: Jian Nan You's seven-member group.

Several hours after Jian Gui was released from prison, Baishi Jinglun and Huoran Yi finally walked out, one after the other. Their times were close, and they knew they needed to work together after getting out, so they intentionally kept their timing as synchronized as possible. Their release wasn't as sensational as Jian Gui's, but there were still people waiting for them. Besides the Jian Nan You brothers, Ya Xiaosuan Gen brought a few people from Yunteng Studio to wait early, including Ling Gu Feng, who had interacted with Gu Fei and the others.

Huoran Yi came out first and received ordinary treatment. But when Baishi Jinglun came out, a crowd immediately surrounded him. Even Ya Xiaosuan Gen, who was usually calm and expressionless, was excited. He rushed up and shook Baishi Jinglun's hand, "We've been waiting for you!"

The others tactfully stood aside. They knew Ya Xiaosuan Gen's identity. They weren't like Baishi Jinglun, who could be considered a partner on equal footing with Ya Xiaosuan Gen. They were just a group of hired workers.

"Hello, hello," Baishi Jinglun said, very pleased. Nearly forty hours in prison wasn't exactly enjoyable.

"We've already sorted out some of the data. When do you think we can start?" Ya Xiaosuan Gen asked.

"We can start now! Have you met these guys? They're all my... uh..."

"Assistants!" Jian Nan You stepped forward proactively.

"Oh? Thanks for your hard work," Ya Xiaosuan Gen already knew that Baishi Jinglun would bring some people with him, as they had some offline communication, such as formal cooperation contracts. Ya Xiaosuan Gen was eager to sign a contract with Baishi Jinglun as soon as possible. Baishi Jinglun was also decisive. Such a big deal was settled with just a conversation in the dungeon that day, and the offline signing was incredibly smooth, which thrilled Ya Xiaosuan Gen. The contract didn't stipulate anything about assistants, so Baishi Jinglun would have to pay for the expenses of his own people. Ya Xiaosuan Gen had mentioned this situation, and Baishi Jinglun had no objections, so Ya Xiaosuan Gen would only be happier if Baishi Jinglun brought tens of thousands of people.

"But we only prepared one copy of the data..." Ya Xiaosuan Gen said. There were no photocopiers in the game. Everything was handwritten. Books were quite precious. There were rumors that some studios were working on movable-type printing, but Ya Xiaosuan Gen didn't know if it was true. In the game, it wouldn't be difficult for professionals to create printing plates, and the system provided paper, but it seemed that no alchemists had created ink yet, so he didn't know how to print books.

"It doesn't matter, one copy is enough. We'll have a lot of work to do. Why don't we start now!" Baishi Jinglun and Ya Xiaosuan Gen had already discussed the development process for the efficient leveling method.

"Okay, that's great!" Ya Xiaosuan Gen really liked Baishi Jinglun's get-it-done attitude.

Jian Nan You and the others were stunned. They didn't expect to start working so soon. They didn't know what was going on between Extraordinary Thieves and Yingqi Studio. In an instant, they were gone... It wasn't that Jian Nan You and the others were arrogant, but they were indeed a strong force in Extraordinary Thieves. In terms of seven-person coordinated combat, they were definitely no worse than the Eagle Regiment.

"Let me see your data. Where should we go first?" Baishi Jinglun muttered.

"Here are the scrolls, with the leveling areas for the monsters on them," Ya Xiaosuan Gen said, pursuing efficiency. He didn't want Baishi Jinglun to waste time walking around, so he had prepared all the scrolls when he was gathering the data.

"That's very thoughtful, thank you!" Baishi Jinglun took the scrolls. There were too many to fit in his pocket. Blank scrolls without coordinates could be stacked, but once coordinates were added, they couldn't be stacked and had to be stored separately.

"Hehe, Mr. Baishi, you should just take a portion first. I'll keep the rest for you. When you need them, just let me know in advance, and I'll deliver them to you immediately," Ling Gu Feng said, seeing that it was really inconvenient to carry a bunch of teleportation scrolls around.

"Alright," Baishi Jinglun didn't care. He opened the first page of the data compiled by Yunteng and patted it, saying, "Let's start here!"

Ling Gu Feng glanced at it and quickly took out the scrolls. There happened to be two, enough for Baishi Jinglun and the seven-member group to teleport.

"Then I'll go now," Baishi Jinglun said to Ya Xiaosuan Gen.

"Everything according to our agreement," Ya Xiaosuan Gen said.

"Of course," Baishi Jinglun nodded, calling Jian Nan You and the other six over. Two scrolls, two teleportation arrays, and eight people teleported to a leveling area. Jian Nan You and the other six didn't even know which main city it was. The progress was really too fast, and this Baishi Jinglun was too decisive in his actions.

"Da Nan, say hello to Qianli Yizui and the others..." Heishui said.

"We should say something," Jian Nan You sighed. They still felt a lot of gratitude towards Gu Fei. He had introduced them to the efficient leveling method, which would allow them to live comfortably for a long time!

"Say hello about what?" Baishi Jinglun asked casually, observing a small monster fighting a player not far away.

"About the last time we were surrounded. It's not over yet!" Jian Nan You explained briefly.

"Oh, oh, then hurry up! We might need their help when we're done!" Baishi Jinglun immediately went up to hit the monster.

The seven of them looked at each other. This wasn't something that could be finished in a few hours. Everyone had seen that large stack of data, and it was clearly not all of it. When it was all done, when would that be?

"No matter what, let's say hello first!" Jiao Shui also said.

"I know," Jian Nan You nodded and sent messages to Gu Fei and Jian Gui, saying that they had started working with Baishi Jinglun.

"Oh? He's out? Work hard!" Gu Fei replied.

"Okay," Jian Gui replied.

At this time, the two were still in the private room of Xiao Lei Tavern. It hadn't been too long since they had seen off Ying Yang, and they were trying to figure out what Yingqi Studio was thinking. After a brief discussion, they had a consensus: there was no way Yingqi's boss would be so stupid. His attitude clearly meant he wanted to start a war with Extraordinary Thieves! But what was the purpose of starting a war? Was he just unwilling to swallow his anger?

"No matter what, we have no way back now," Han Jia Gongzi said.

"Absolutely not. Baishi has already signed a contract with Yunteng for the efficient leveling method," You Ge said.

"That's right. Besides, what does the efficient leveling method have to do with our guild? Only Baishi Jinglun and I can do it, right!" Gu Fei said.

"Damn, what's with that attitude? You're a member of the guild. You separate yourself so clearly from the guild. I despise you!" Yu Tian Shen Ming said.

"Who are you talking to? Show some respect!" Gu Fei scolded.

"I... I'm just stating the facts..." In the end, Yu Tian Shen Ming didn't dare to argue with Gu Fei.