Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Gu Fei and the others arranged for their classes to begin at 4 AM, each class lasting a whole hour for a total of four hours. It was already past 8 AM when everything was done and they got ambushed on the way back to the city. Even though the fight was fierce, the entire battle in fact only lasted no more than a dozen or so minutes. It was only 9 AM by the time they reached the city.

Since Gu Fei refused their help for the meeting, all of them decided to log off back in the city. In the end, they all saw Gu Fei following them to a designated log-off point.

“Didn’t you arrange to meet that guy?” Royal God Call found this to be strange.

“I didn’t say I’ll meet him right away,” Gu Fei said.

“Then, when do you intend to do it?” Royal God Call asked.

“Tonight. What if our dialogue deteriorates to the point that we end up fighting? I should first log off and recuperate myself,” Gu Fei answered.

Royal God Call felt chilled upon hearing this. Somehow, the dialogue Gu Fei had arranged was lacking in sincerity. Why does it seem that this meeting will very likely devolve into a fight? He’s truly a PK maniac.

However, everything that was happening in the game were not resolved just because Gu Fei and the others went offline. A new round of grinding map scramble began once the lessons over by the White Mill ended. What Brother Assist had deduced would happen unfortunately came to pass. Plenty of players, who had taken their lessons, were members of large guilds, so after memorizing what they had learned, they quickly proceeded to organize players from their guilds to learn.

This time, the guilds involved were not merely those from Baishi City but those from the neighboring cities, as well as some faraway guilds. Initially, these men gathered ignored if they were even intending to gather thier own guildmates to grind here, resolving to learn the routine first before making any decisions in any case.

In the morning, it was mainly still the local guilds that first got their groups ready on site to learn this routine, but by the time noon arrived, guilds from the adjacent cities, like Yueye and Linyin, began showing up, and later on, guilds hailing from cities further off started populating the grinding map.

This time, players were not as uncoordinated and unprincipled as was the case in the Wilderness Camp. Guilds were ready to wage war the moment they set foot in the grinding map with their members, as the unaffiliated players knew just exactly how to act in such a delicate situation and let them past without a fight. Meanwhile, the guilds who were acquainted with each other had already coordinated beforehand, splitting up the territory without sparing another word among themselves. Conversely, the guilds who were not acquainted were not in a rush to get into a fight, opting to have a seat and properly discuss the matter thoroughly, instead!

In the end, the entire grinding map was split up in a rather orderly fashion, with each guild taking up their own turf. The unaffiliated players could only bear with everything with a grim smile as they shared the area that was left with the other unaffiliated players. Everyone was unhappy about the outcome, but none of them could do anything about it. They were not even in the mood to kill-steal from one another any longer. With all of them clustered in the area, their numbers more than the monsters spawning, the efficient leveling that they had imagined was essentially just empty words. Additionally, even though the guilds had brought plenty of players along as well, they were all organized! While there was still far from enough monsters available for the entire guild to grind, they did not have that many people over at any one time. Initially having just 500 to 300 players grinding there, they sent a different batch every hour, allowing everyone to experience the triple EXP gain in that one hour. It was at least better than those scattered unaffiliated players who could see yet never experience any of it for themselves.

It was a delicate balance between the various guilds, with everyone conscientiously holding down their turf and no one encroaching upon each other’s stake. Because the strength of the guilds present were about the same, no one could defeat and swallow up another guild. In the event a fight do break, the two parties fighting would only end up damaging each other, which was bound to only benefit a third party, instead.

The various leaders of the guilds could already identify the stakes at play. In any case, they had already secured their guilds grounds, so what was there to make a fuss about? Everyone tacitly understood that none of the guilds was holding a spot significantly larger than the others, so the number of monsters they got was about the same, so none was really complaining.

Feeling that this sort of harmony was not too bad for all those involved, these guild leaders resolved to form a defensive alliance with the other guilds that were also currently presiding in the map, with everyone agreeing that any guild that came later would not be allowed to join in, and any potential troublemakers would end up facing a concerted attack from all these guilds if they pose a threat to the status quo.

This alliance was quite similar to the pact formed by the stores that populated the beach in Linshui City, and this compact was finalized that same afternoon of the same day. From then on, there would just be a total of twelve guilds, with most mainly from Baishi and a few from Yueye, Linyin, and Baofeng cities, stationed in the White Mill grinding map.

The Ten Guild Alliance from Yueye City happened to be one of the twelve present.

Although the Ten Guild Alliance comprised ten guilds, the outside world already considered them to be a single guild. With around 4000 players amid their ranks, they were significantly stronger than the average level 6 guild, but Dusky Cloud did not intend to monopolize the grinding map just because of it. He was no fool and could tell that doing something so tyrannical would end up inviting the ire of the masses in the face of this scenario.

The Ten Guild Alliance might be strong, but dominating their own city was hard enough as it was. Now that they were outside, Dusky Cloud could clearly see how illogical it would be to dream of trying to hold back all these major guilds from the many different cities out there. If these guilds became desperate enough to form a temporary alliance of ten guilds, with ten level 6 guilds numbering over 10,000 players in total, what use would his Ten Guild Alliance be, then?

Thus, when he saw how everyone was united and had amicably divided the grinding map, Dusky Cloud very cheerfully slotted himself in with the lot. As for these other guilds, they had long heard of the untrammeled nature of Yueye City – how the players there were tempered in the flames of PK and how the Ten Guild Alliance was the largest organization of players across Parallel World – so they were originally thinking that this alliance’s arrival would be like that of a raging typhoon. Never did they expect the guild to comply with the tentative rules and provisions they had set for the grinding map.

Nonetheless, Dusky Cloud still raised the issue of his guild being bigger compared to others and his hope of the others carving out an area proportionate to his men’s numbers. Observing the beliefs of equality and fraternity, Dusky Cloud’s request was not particularly excessive, and adding to the fact that all the guild leaders had no wish to butt heads with the Ten Guild Alliance, Dusky Cloud was able to secure a turf four times larger than those level 6 guilds. With Dusky Cloud setting the precedent of taking more based on the number of people they had, the others quickly thought the smaller guilds should receive less. As a result, the other guilds below level 6 were re-allotted smaller areas accordingly.

While Dusky Cloud noted that the grinding map was divided proportionally among the twelve guilds, this did not mean that there would not be more guilds coming afterward. Dusky Cloud’s men arrived at the place near noon after leaving Yueye City early in the morning. Players and guilds from far away cities would still be on their way here at this time and would likely arrive at around 2 or 3 PM.

To prevent the grinding map from being further cut up by newcomers, Dusky Cloud suggested a collaboration between the twelve guilds. He was the Ten Guild Alliance’s big boss, after all, so he was well-versed when it came to such formation of alliances. This suggestion was met with resounding approval by the other eleven guilds, and had originally been a collaboration between the three major guilds in Baishi City turned into a cooperation between these guilds that hailed from the three cities. With each guild getting a piece of the pie upon arrival, the three large swathes of land quickly got cut up into twelve portions. Everyone was pretty pained by the act. They were all aware of the issue that Dusky Cloud had raised; who could really be happy just thinking about how the grinding map further divided as more guilds arrived?

Thus, when Dusky Cloud made this suggestion, everyone applauded and stood up in support of it. With twelve guilds working together, they now possessed the impetus to challenge the world and resolved not to give way to any other guild.

This time, when some of the smaller guilds arrived and saw that the larger guilds had already inducted all the collaborators they needed, they no longer dared to use the pretext of a guild to approach. By the time it was nearly 3 PM, as everyone had expected, the guilds from beyond the adjacent cities descended, and the first one to arrive was the Blue Umbra Guild from Linshui City.

Seeing the grounds clearly divided between the guilds already present, the guild leader Tanzanite Shade could tell at a glance what was going on. However, he did not realize that these people had drawn out their turf only after an amicable agreement with one another. The man treated the grinding map like an all-you-can-eat buffet and, thinking that a guild could easily carve out their spot however they liked, led his guild to venture into the territory where no one had laid claim of.

The area where no one had laid claim was where all the unaffiliated players grinded, and it was, generally speaking, a significantly larger turf than even what Dusky Cloud’s Ten Guild Alliance had to themselves. This was an area that the twelve guilds had intentionally left behind after dividing up the map among themselves, for they had no wish to be too odious; They had to at least leave something for those independent players, guild-less, in this grinding map. There was no comparison as to just how many players there were inside this area. Most of them were there to try their luck and see if there was any monster that would coincidentally spawn right beside them. They were completely dependent on chance and yet were still unwilling to leave.

Tanzanite Shade was not aware at first, but beyond the area of the collaborators laid the free market. Casually grabbing what he could, he led his men to carve out his turf in this grinding map and get a huge slice of the pie.

This was a huge misstep on his part. When Tanzanite Shade saw how the twelve guilds grinded so carefreely, he was misled into believing this to be a grinding map that anyone could just farm as they pleased. How was he to know that there were plenty of caveats to the equilibrium they had achieved, anyway? Actually, the area that the unaffiliated players had to grind was originally huge and was no different from the turf that the three major guilds originally held, which was why the individual players did not care for much at the start, but when guild after guild arrived thereafter, this area slowly got shaved off bit by bit. It was only after Dusky Cloud and his men showed up and ended up with a grinding spot four times bigger than the average guilds did the individual players realize how much smaller their space had gotten.

This was a frog-boiling-in-warm-water death method as the area they could grind in slowly got swallowed without them realizing it. By the time they wanted to speak up, they found that, because they were all individuals of different backgrounds, there was no leader among them to voice out their grievances to the guilds, so all they could do was bear with this injustice. Hence, when Tanzanite Shade and his men came brazenly running into this spot to begin pulling monsters everywhere, everybody had had enough of enduring. They were like barrels of gunpowder that exploded at the slightest touch as someone detonated into a litany of curses directed at Tanzanite Shade.

Tanzanite Shade, who had not realized what was happening even at this point, angrily wondered to himself, Why are these people only scolding us and not the dozen other guilds? Are they looking down on yours truly? He decisively ordered his men to surround and kill the loudest dissenters, intending to make an example out of them for the crowd to show that he was no pushover.

However, the problem was that the number of players in this crowd was no longer in the hundreds; with how large the grinding spot was, no matter how indomitable this example of his looked, a good number of players could not witness it, but they all heard the words spread.

“F*ck! Another guild came, and they’re horrible, killing people the moment they set foot here!”

“D*mn. Even the Ten Guild Alliance didn’t do anything like that when they arrived; just who the heck would act so imperiously?”

“Kill them! The place is already so cramped. Any more of this, and there won’t be anything for us to play with.”

“Kill, kill, kill!”

As long as there was oppression, there would then be resistance. Actually, the oppression of the guilds already occured from time to time, and these unaffiliated players had all along been resisting; it was only that the oppression they faced was not too harsh, so their resistance was not necessarily strong, either. Take for example the area that the twelve guilds had previously taken; while the people had been coerced, it was done in such a way that was more of a nudge. Thus, the only resistance everybody put up was the complaints and curses that they held their tongues from unleashing.

Now that Tanzanite Shade had acted so barbarically from the get go, would that not mean a similarly intense resistance would be mounted now that their hands had been forced?

These unaffiliated players erupted together, leaving Tanzanite Shade momentarily panicked. In the end, it was already too late to back out from the fight, so he had no choice but to organize his men and receive the incoming attackers.

During the group PK battle, the difference between the organized and disorganized, the group with tacit understanding between members and the group without, was simply too huge. Though there were plenty of unaffiliated players, they were pitted against a guild which had organization and cooperation between members, so these players were unable to surge forth and drown the opposing guild in this battle for the people. Nevertheless, Tanzanite Shade could tell that his side would eventually be overwhelmed if this continued, and that both sides would end up suffering as a result. Unwilling to see that eventuality, he ordered his men to carve out a path of retreat from the ensuing enclosure in preparation to withdraw from the map.

But who would have guessed that the twelve guilds would suddenly act upon the news, and had organized their various parties to more effectively surround Tanzanite Shade’s guild, killing out a whole bunch of them in that one wave?

Tanzanite Shade was alarmed. He was wondering to himself why his fellow comrades, who had managed to snatch their turfs would suddenly turn on him. Did he misunderstood something somewhere?

“Stop fighting; stop fighting! We’re one of you!” The urgency of the matter forced Tanzanite Shade to shout out his plea shamelessly.

“No. We’re doing this for your attempt at seizing this portion of the grinding map!” The crowd chided even as their firepower became all the fiercer.

“D*mn! Didn’t you guys seize your turf as well?” Tanzanite Shade bellowed, but his voice could no longer be heard. In the moment he had said ‘stop fighting’ when he leaped out of the crowd, everybody could tell that he was the leader of this bunch, so forty to fifty Homing Projectiles came flying at him from every possible direction and every angle. How could he escape his fate then?

This was the most devastating blow to Blue Umbra Guild to date. A total of 748 players took part in this level-grinding expedition, and only 35 of them made it back alive, while the rest were all wiped out. Furthermore, those 35 only managed to escape in the nick of time after they shamelessly removed their guild emblem and stashed it into their pockets, allowing them to hide in anonymity, otherwise the entire guild would have all been cleaned up.

“Yay!” The cheers of the players reverberated all throughout the White Mill, celebrating their victory in chasing away those interlopers. Everybody once more returned to their respective grounds to resume their grind. The twelve guilds and the individual players all got along even more harmoniously; these unaffiliated players did not discover that the guilds had surreptitiously slightly increased the size of their turf after that skirmish.

There were other guilds that came to the White Mill thereafter, but none of them was as rash as the Blue Umbra Guild. Did they wish to carve out a spot in the grinding map? Even ignoring the twelve guilds, just the glare from the unaffiliated players showed great defiance. This was because they knew that if more guilds arrived, the twelve guilds would work with them to beat up and banish those trespassers from the grinding map. These unaffiliated players were helpless to the guilds taking up most of the map precisely because of their limited strength in the first place, but now that they had the backing of the twelve guilds, why would they be willing to give up their turf? It was only natural for them to stare coldly at these potential invaders. With everyone casting a fierce glare whenever a guild even thought of getting near their space, they forced the other party to beat a hasty retreat upon realizing the potential complication they would face.

Having gotten rid of the unlucky Blue Umbra Guild, the White Mill was considerably peaceful and harmonious the entire day. The twelve guilds, inspired by their success here, thought of developing the same thing in the Wilderness Camp, but they could not help but have mixed feelings about the so-called practices there. The Wilderness Camp had been up for so many days, and the prevalent style of the players there was barbaric and unruly. What should the twelve guilds do if they were faced with the fierce glares of those barbarians? Should they use their weapons to pacify the masses? After thinking this through, everyone simply figured that there was no need to invite further trouble and finally decided to obediently stick to White Mill and their lot, instead.

—

Sometime after 7 PM that same day, Gu Fei got online. Pulling out his friends list, he saw many familiar names appear. Fleeting Smile was online as well, so he sent a message over. “Are you going or not? Say something, and don’t make me wait for naught.”

“I’ll be there,” Ye Xiaowu replied.

“Until we meet, then.” Gu Fei was straightforward, heading to that tavern after he sent that message. Everyone on the mercenary channel greeted him, each asking questions like the location of the meet-up and if he needed any form of support.

“Nope.” Gu Fei calmly rejected all their offers.

“Just what do you intend to do?” Everyone was curious.

“I just wanna hear what his thoughts are,” Gu Fei answered.

“So it’s going to be a debate about game balance and equilibrium?” Everyone guessed.

Gu Fei did not reply to them. He arrived at the tavern at 7:40 PM and saw that Ye Xiaowu was already waiting for him there. He was not alone, either; Broken Water Arrow was with him.

“Long time no see.” Gu Fei first greeted them.

Ye Xiaowu nodded in acknowledgement.

“What have you been up to these days?” Gu Fei began with some small talk.

Ye Xiaowu did not say a word to this.

“Ahem...” Gu Fei took a seat and ordered a glass of liquor. He dove straight to the point. “Are game employees allowed to play the game? Why have you been playing so much recently?”

Gu Fei already knew that Ye Xiaowu was a game employee; but the latter had told him that he was in the game merely to understand certain things better. Furthermore, the man barely spent time online in the game after that first meeting, and it was significantly lesser than Gu Fei’s own. Recently, however, he was acting abnormal. As Gu Fei spent a bit more time playing the game due to it being the winter holidays, this man plunged into the game, like a professional gamer, and spent insane periods of time in it.

“I resigned,” Ye Xiaowu said.

“Resigned? Why?” Gu Fei asked.

Ye Xiaowu remained silent.

“Hmm?”

“Let’s talk about why you called me to this meeting today...” Ye Xiaowu evaded.

“It’s nothing much, really,” Gu Fei casually spoke. “I just want to know why you’re so caught up on all these things. Just what do you want to achieve?”

“Haven’t I already told you this? Your existence is a threat to the game. You’re a game-breaker – someone who disrupts the game balance, which is why I need to stop you,” Ye Xiaowu answered.

“Stop me...” Gu Fei sighed. “How do you intend to stop me? You can’t exactly kill me; this is just a game. I’ll still be able to plant my feet here in this world.”

“Which is why all I can do is reduce your impact to the barest minimum,” Ye Xiaowu said.

“What sort of impact am I making?” Gu Fei smiled.

“The progression of the game has been disrupted time and again by your actions. The Werewolves in Yeguang Village, Giordano in Xiawu City... There are many more examples, but all these are catalytic events that end up undermining the overall pace of this game. Your entirely indomitable PK skills and that efficient monster grinding routine you’ve created recently – all these have created quite a degree of chaos among the player base. I know you’re a gaming noob, so you’re probably unclear of the impact of your efficient monster grinding routine. Ask those friends of yours; they’ll probably have greater clarity on this subject,” Ye Xiaowu elucidated.

“At first, I thought that it’s just the Moonlit Nightfalls and Midnight Spirit Robe that amplified your advantages, so I thought that if I were to get rid of those two items from you, the impact you can make will be under control, but I’m afraid that this recent incident with the efficient monster grinding routine has made me realize that, when it comes to you, the equipment is just the symptoms and not the actual cause. The real cause of your game-breaking existence is that kung fu you know,” Ye Xiaowu said.

“Kung fu? Are you saying that I can’t play the game because I know kung fu?” Gu Fei asked.

“You can still play, but I just hope that you don’t use it to do too many things,” Ye Xiaowu said.

Gu Fei abruptly got up, a single kick from him overturned the table. Having not predicted his abrupt change in mood, Ye Xiaowu was taken aback. Even Broken Water Arrow thought that Gu Fei was about to strike, so he quickly stepped forward right before him.

“Swindlers can swindle all they want in games, larcenists may rob equipment and kill indiscriminately as well, the rich can spend their money, the poor can attempt to make their fortune, and even specialized interest groups can make a living here, yet my kung fu isn’t allowed? I’ve devoted over two decades of my life to kung fu... Forget it. You won’t understand even if I tell you about it. At the end of the day, if it’s forbidden to use kung fu in this game, please inform us of that before opening it to the public. What do you think I play this game for? Is the game even fun if I can’t use my kung fu?”

“So you insist on it?”

“Nothing can make me give up on kung fu, much less doing so for a game. You’re too hilarious.”