Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Alright. Let’s speak more of this tomorrow! Don’t you four still have the guild versus guild tournament to take care of?” Brother Assist addressed Gu Fei and the other three men who were part of other guilds.

Nodding their heads, the four quietly departed toward the same location. Intuitively, the four separated from one another as if they were strangers along the way.

Only Brother Assist and Sword Demon were left by the the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. Brother Assist wiped the sweat off his brows as he peeked out of the corner that they were in. “Let’s quickly leave as well! Cloud Herder’s men are almost on us.”

Sword Demon smiled slightly, “I’m not afraid of them; I can use Stealth.”

Brother Assist paused, patting Sword Demon’s arm as he laughed bitterly, “Oh, you....”

Despite what was just said between the two, they still took a detour to sneak past Cloud Herder. Since Young Master’s Elite’s members came face to face with Cloud Herder’s members just a while ago, it was highly likely for them to recognize the six men.

This sort of tournaments usually placed everyone on an equal playing field with no death penalty, so very few people would hold grudges. As for those few people who would bear hatred against others in such fair fights, they more often than not had tyrannical, unprincipled, and other negative personalities. In the Cloud Herder’s members’ case, it was their extreme unwillingness to admit defeat that bred this heavy grudge against Young Master’s Elite.

Sword Demon and Brother Assist went a big round before finally leaving the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. “Shall we head to the bar?” Brother Assist suggested.

Sword Demon did not say no to his suggestion, so the two made their way toward Ray’s Bar. Their usual room was taken, so they occupied a different room.

“Today’s match led to a bit of disharmony within our group!” Brother Assist began to speak about the matter once he sat down.

Sword Demon smiled bitterly. It was not just ‘a bit of disharmony’; in fact, it was no exaggeration to say that this event could even lead to the disbandment of their mercenary group. Fortunately, everyone had been through thick and thin since Parallel World’s open beta days. Although they had not done many things together, spending time every day at Ray’s Bar with one another at least fostered a strong bond among them all. Moreover, they did not lose in this match, so the situation did not escalate too much.

More importantly, everyone had a pretty good grasp of Young Master Han’s personality after knowing him for quite a while. With their great mental resilience, they could one way or another tolerate Young Master Han’s illogical approach to today’s PvP match.

If this was how they had done their first mercenary mission together, Sword Demon believed that Royal God Call would have left without a word and Gu Fei would have slain Young Master Han on the spot. That man was a seriously violent person... Gu Fei’s high PK value and his days of slaying people for ‘Bounty Mission’ had left a deep impression on everyone in the mercenary group.

“How much do you understand of Young Master’s intention for employing such a PvP tactic?” Brother Assist asked. Sword Demon had been Young Master Han’s online partner for so many years already; even if he did not have Young Master Han’s mind for tactics, Sword Demon at least had a better idea of his intention than others. Interpersonal trust was built up through mutual understanding, after all. Even in an online game, it would be virtually impossible to partner with someone that a person did not trust or understand.

Sword Demon thought for a moment before saying, “He must have planned out today’s tactic as he entered the preparation map, only deciding to set his plan in motion after confirming the opposing group’s head count.”

Brother Assist was astonished, “That’s only several minutes before the match began!”

“Yes. He probably had several different ideas from the start, but when it was time to begin the match, he chose to carry on with the plan to achieve a victory without finishing off every opponents. However, an accident happened at the beginning,” Sword Demon said.

“Accident?”

“Wounds did not manage to eliminate any opponents, causing us to fall behind on kill points. That’s something he must not have expected,” Sword Demon explained, continuing, “But... It’s very common for unexpected accidents to happen while plans are underway. As long as adjustments are done in time, the main strategy will still be used. From today’s method of assault, he clearly intended to achieve this sort of victory.”

“This sort of victory... Hmm...” Brother Assist seemed to have understood something.

More people were gathered at the plaza outside the Main Hall of Guilds than at the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. All players queued with their guild leaders to enter the teleportation portal in an orderly fashion. On his way over, Gu Fei was pondering on something, If Amethyst Rebirth were to meet a guild as cohesive as Cloud Herder mercenary group, victory would not be achieved with just my and Svelte Dancer’s efforts. If that time ever comes, should I kill for the fun of it or deal with the enemies as best as I can while considering the guild’s benefit in mind?

At this moment, this saying entered his mind: ‘With great power, comes great responsibility.’ This adage had essentially been vetoed by his father in reality. Even when he already possessed great skills, his father did not allow him to take on some noble calling, such as protecting world peace. This made him feel absolutely helpless. And now he had to resort to playing Superman in this online game... Sigh.

As Gu Fei was thinking of all this, he had unknowingly walked through the teleportation array and was instantly teleported into the ‘changing room’.

“Hi...” Gu Fei greeted everyone. The ladies had arrived earlier than him as usual. However, the ladies’ mood today seemed to be very different from yesterday’s jocular banter. Not only were all the ladies present, all of them wore a serious expression on their faces as well.

Could it be that my and Svelte Dancer’s indomitable performance yesterday made all these ladies gain a bit of bravery through shame, and they decided to seriously fight the PvP matches from now on, too? Gu Fei asked to himself.

“Miles, you’re here,” July welcomed Gu Fei.

“Yup!”

“How was your mercenary PvP match today?” she politely asked. This way of greeting the others had started trending in Parallel World ever since the PvP tournament event began. Asking “How was your guild match” before a mercenary PvP tournament and “How was your mercenary PvP match” before a guild versus guild tournament was was now a common act that everyone in-game performed.

“Close win,” Gu Fei smiled tightly.

“Congrats,” July said. With that, she clapped her hands to get the ladies attention and introduce their opposing guild for today’s guild match.

Gu Fei listened and slowly understood why everyone seemed to have brought out their fighting spirit today.

Today’s opposing guild for Amethyst Rebirth was called Forever in Flowers. It was a level 1 guild with fifty members. The problem was that this guild was established by a bunch of male players who were notorious philanderers. It was unknown if the system purposely matched up a guild filled with lewd men with a guild filled with pure ladies. July looked up some information about their current match-up from the system and was left in utter rage when she read the opposing guild’s lecherous motto. Briefing everyone about the current opponents upon her return, all the ladies’ will to fight was instantly kindled.

Now that she was explaining the matter in greater detail, the ladies were even more agitated. Everyone promptly condemned that bunch of lechers to the seventh hell. Their words kept flowing nonstop as they slowly began to include not just the fifty lechers of Forever in Flowers but the entire male species as well in their verbal condemnations.

When their condemnation even reached all the way to the photo scandal that that had happened to a certain popular male artist at the start of the year in reality, July clapped her hands to draw all the ladies’ attention once more.

All focused their gazes at her, thinking that she was about to express a unique view on this matter.

July said, “There are still three minutes until the match begins; all should make their preparations!” It was indeed a unique view. Gu Fei believed that all the ladies here had long forgotten what they were supposed to be doing here besides July.

Amazing! Gu Fei could not help but think, Our current meeting before the battle... is filled with unity. Despite the tension, it does not lack solemnity or liveliness as well.“Today, I must kill more than you. Hmph!” Just as everyone was about to enter the PvP arena, Svelte Dancer said this to Gu Fei.

The Amethyst Rebirth’s ladies saw a different scenery when they finally arrived at the real PvP arena.

“My fellow sisters, let’s kill!” someone yelled. All the ladies showed their determination by echoing this battlecry. Gu Fei kept his mouth shut this whole time, as he did not agree with that ‘my fellow sisters’ call with him being a ‘brother’.

“CHARGE!” With a bellow, all the ladies dashed forward.

In the blink of an eye, Svelte Dancer disappeared out of sight, and he was left behind with the Priests and Warriors once more....

What’s so different here than what happened yesterday? Gu Fei was irate. Once more, he matched his pace with the Priests and Warriors.

Luo Luo, who was beside him, also had a severe expression on her face today and did not teasingly bestow Heal on to Gu Fei like usual; instead, she asked him intently, “Miles, why aren’t you charging onward?”

When Gu Fei did not reply, she asked, “Do you need me to add fuel to your fire?” Lifting her staff, she acted as if she would bestow Heal on to him, so he quickly ran after Svelte Dancer.

Svelte Dancer was bellicose. Wanting to seize the initiative from Gu Fei, she pushed her limits and sprinted straight toward the opposing guild’s spawn point. However, she found no one around when she arrived there.

Circling the area twice, Svelte Dancer still found no one. She roared in her impotent rage, “Where’s everyone?! Get outta here!”

“Babe, over here!” someone actually answered.

Svelte Dancer turned her head fast toward the voice’s origin and spotted a few men by a small knoll making funny faces at her. Without hesitation, she bounded toward them.

With their mouths drooling, they stuttered their admiration for the pretty lady before them, “Ahh... Ahh...” This went on for quite some time before someone among these men finally said, “G*dd*mn. This babe is too fierce. Let’s run!” These men finally felt terrified when they saw how Svelte Dancer had managed to cover half the distance in a split second.

The men stood up in unison from atop the knoll and ran in five different directions.

Svelte Dancer paused for a moment when she got on top of the knoll. Helpless, she casually chose a target to chase. However, she ran no more than a few steps when she saw a figure clad in black robe opposite her hurtling himself over to kill the targets. Svelte Dancer found this figure to be very familiar! She quickly hollered, “DON’T YOU DARE! THAT IS MINE!”

Her scream arrived too late, though. The man clad in black robe caught up to her target and, with a lift of his arm, turned the target into a stream of white light. “What’s the situation?” Gu Fei asked about the status of the PvP match as he ran toward Svelte Dancer.

“You’re not allowed to steal my kills again!” Svelte Dancer clutched Gu Fei’s arms and shook him.

“Don’t mess around! There are forty-nine more people out there!” Gu Fei did not know whether to laugh or cry at her pettiness, so he just pointed her toward a direction, “There are men hiding inside that forest.”

“You think you can trick me with that?!” Svelte Dancer spat those words with vitriol as she turned to chase after the other four men who had previously dispersed.

“Sigh... To think my kindness would be mistaken for trickery.” With that, Gu Fei entered the forest he had indicated to Svelte Dancer himself.

“Stop hiding and come out already!” Gu Fei knocked upon the tree trunks as he shouted hoarsely.

“Drunk bro! Drunk bro, over here!” someone suddenly called.

Gu Fei followed the voice in shock. “Fireball!” A ball of fire formed on his palm just as he reflexively said this word. “Bleh!” Gu Fei quickly spat to extinguish the ball of fire in his hand, asking as he stared at the mousy Fireball hiding behind a tree, “Why are you here?”

“This is my guild!” Fireball replied.

“Forever in Flowers?” Gu Fei asked.

“That’s right!” Fireball nodded his head vigorously.

Gu Fei suddenly felt guilty. Fireball could be considered as the first friend he had made in Parallel World, yet he did not even know which guild he belonged to, showing how little he cared for his Fire bro.

That was when Fireball suddenly kicked a few trees around him, “Get the f*ck outta here and meet him. There’s no need for me to tell you guys how awesome Drunk bro is, right?”

Five other men, with eyes teeming in admiration for Gu Fei, appeared from behind the trees. They regarded him like a god even as they called out to him in the same way Fireball had done, “Drunk bro.”

“Uhh...” Gu Fei did not know how to respond to this! They were supposed to be enemies, yet they actually treated him as if he was one of their own with Fireball taking the lead! How could Gu Fei kill them at this rate?

“Drunk bro, how did you get into Amethyst Rebirth? Please teach these fellow bros!” someone pleaded while gazing at Gu Fei expectantly.

Now that he knew why they idolized him so much, Gu Fei could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He steadied himself before answering, “It’s all a misunderstanding.” He then began to tell them about Xi Xiaotian tricking him in the past. “Although they have the number now, they decided not to kick me out of the guild once we all became more familiar with one another. That is how I managed to stay there till now!” Gu Fei concluded.

“Ahh! Why am I not lucky like you?!” A few of them lamented as they beat their chests in sadness.

Gu Fei was once more left speechless.

Fireball suddenly became alert as he hushed everyone, “Quiet. Another babe is here.”

These men quickly ducked back behind the trees, including Fireball. Seeing Gu Fei standing there dumb as a doornail, Fireball quickly called out to him, “Drunk bro, over here!” He pulled Gu Fei over and shared a tree with him.

Hiding behind the tree with Fireball, Gu Fei saw July, Will-low, and a few Archers and Thieves rushing to the clearing within the trees.

“Ah. That slender babe isn’t bad,” someone said, pointing to Will-low.

“That one is not bad, too... She is a Fighter, I think?” That was July.

“Drunk bro, be careful. Don’t let them see you,” Fireball felt that Gu Fei was a little too bold with his sneaking, so he gave the latter this advice out of concern for him.

Gu Fei was in tears as this situation unfolded before him. F*ck*ng hell; just what am I doing exactly?