Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 11

Translated by: Effyis

Edited by: Stbunbun

Chapter 11: Flying Daggers Appear Again

“Take it out now!” Gu Fei held his hand out.

“Why should I?” the girl refused.

Gu Fei frowned. Must he tell her with geniality and patience that “stealing is bad, stealing is naughty, let’s return it to the owner, ok?” He had done it before, since he was a teacher. But the one before him was around his age, and from the adept and calm actions just now, Gu Fei suspected that she was professional. It would probably not help to try to talk sense into her.

Since it was impossible to reason things out, then his fists would have to do. As Gu Fei grew up in an environment that his dad created, other than the difference in opinion with regards to the point of learning Kung Fu, his personality and character was almost the same as his dad.

Gu Fei clenched his fist and the girl turned pale. “What are you doing? Are you going to beat me up? How can you do that to a girl!” she exclaimed.

“You don’t want a beating? Then hand it over! If not, you won’t be a beauty anymore soon!” Gu Fei said.

The girl looked terrified, and gave in after a pause. “Fine! I’ll give it to you. Just my bad luck!” she said as she flung a dagger she took from her pocket at Gu Fei forcefully.

If he were to be struck so easily, Gu Fei would be ashamed to say that he knew Kung Fu. He caught the dagger with one scoop and was going to say a few words, but the girl had turned to run away.

“Oh no!” Gu Fei cursed silently. The dagger he had caught was not Frost Memories! It was obviously a different dagger. He had been fooled! Gu Fei chased after her, annoyed.

Gu Fei thought that he would be able to catch up with a mere girl, but he found that he was wrong, and very wrong. The game of Parallel World, though said to be completely realistically simulated, had ignored one most basic problem: the difference between men and women.

In this virtual reality game, the difference between male and female players were still the same as old online games: the only difference was the two words “male” and “female” and nothing else. The official website had explicitly condemned the act of sexual harassment in the game, and made major modifications in response to the problem. However, the deciding factor was actually Character Class! Any male mage who had intentions of sexual advancements on a female warrior would probably have his head twisted off. It did not matter how high his level was. For him to successfully molest his target, he would have to get close. With a distance between them, whatever powerful spell he chants would not let him physically touch the girl.

The male-female problem is really a bug, thought Gu Fei indignantly.

Just look at the girl before him. There was only one word to describe her running: fast.

Although Gu Fei had spent all of his sixteen levels of free points on agility, he could do nothing but watch the distance between them increase. She apparently belonged to a Class which agility worked the best for. She even had the time to turn around and make faces at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei was pissed off, but being angry served no use. There was no such thing as reaching your potential in the game. You could reach your greatest value easily with some effort, but to go over that limit, was simply impossible.

“Idiot~ Come catch me! When I turn around this corner, you won’t see me anymore!” shouted the girl. The distance between them was long enough, so she had stopped to turn to tease Gu Fei.

“Don’t you dare run!” Gu Fei tried to goad her.

Yet, as matching to certain studies, the female species were resistant to provocations. The girl acted as if she heard nothing, and blew a kiss to Gu Fei, “I’m not going to play around with you anymore, little mage. Bye!”

The girl got tired of teasing Gu Fei and prepared to leave. But Gu Fei was totally enraged now. “Go die!” he thundered, and the dagger in his hand flew out like a meteor.

For flying daggers, the best would be no other than Little Li’s Flying Daggers1.

Little Li’s Flying Daggers was undeniably fast, but the real deal had to be its accuracy. In game terms, it is able to ignore dodge and has a 100% hit rate.

Of course, the reason why it was so accurate was because of its speed, which no one could avoid.

This was because Little Li’s Flying Daggers were used mostly on masters, who were all as fast as hares and could disappear in an instant. To hit these fellows, speed is essential.

But for Gu Fei, his target now was a girl who turned around a moment ago to run and had no awareness of the dagger nor the skills to avoid the daggers. So to shoot her, just accuracy was enough.

There was no need to doubt Gu Fei’s accuracy with the fact that he could strike someone’s eye with a pebble in one shot.

“Schhwaff” went the dagger as it flew.

“Ah!” The dagger hit the girl on her shin, and she fell flat onto the ground.

Gu Fei was elated and came running at top speed, while the girl burst into tears.

Looking at the puddle of blood on the ground, Gu Fei started to feel bad. He thought that he had gone a bit too far.

Although this was a game, and although this should not have caused any real injury, it would still hurt a lot. Gu Fei could also only guess from the depth of the wound, as he himself had not suffered such a deep cut before.

“You! You! You! You are so mean!!!” cried the girl loudly as she pointed at Gu Fei who arrived beside her. Gu Fei felt a little guilty. But she was a criminal, and thus enemies must be treated as coldly as the winter. So Gu Fei put on a livid face, and took out a big bunch of knives. “Try degrading me again and I’ll thrust all these knives into you.”

The girl shut up immediately. She had already been stabbed once and she didn’t dare believe that Gu Fei would not stick all those knives into her.

The girl lay prone on the ground, clutching her injured leg. She sobbed but did not dare speak.

Gu Fei reached out and touched the dagger on her leg.

“What are you doing! Are you a psychopath?!?” screamed the girl in pain.

“Pull it out. It looks quite ugly to have a knife on your leg,” said Gu Fei.

“Will it not hurt anymore that way?” the girl asked a naïve question.

If it were reality, as long as a knife did not make any mortal wounds or caused heavy bleeding, the injured usually would not die. So to prevent more bleeding, the knife should stay until the doctor came. But this was only a game, so there was also a probability that pulling the knife out would solve the problem. Thinking that, Gu Fei nodded to the girl.

“Then do it,” the girl closed her eyes.

“Ok,” Gu Fei answered and pulled out the knife without giving her any time for mental preparation.

“Ah!” the girl squealed. The pain remained and blood gushed out, proving that the game simulation was indeed very realistic.

“My HP is dropping!” said the girl.

“Oh no!” Gu Fei got worried as well. “Do you have any cloth strips? Bandages would be best! Hurry!”

The girl gave him a bandage which was an item in the game named “Stop-bleeding” Bandage. Gu Fei tore off a strip and bandaged her leg up swiftly. The bleeding stopped promptly, owing to either Gu Fei’s bandaging skills or the bandages being a healing item in the game. Gu Fei was not sure at this point.

“Is your HP still decreasing?” asked Gu Fei.

“No,” answered the girl.

“That was close!” Gu Fei breathed a sigh of relief. If her HP had reached zero, she would have respawned at the respawn point, and he would have no way to find her.

Her condition stabilized and her cries became softer. She glared at Gu Fei occasionally while sobbing gently. Gu Fei felt that his guilt had been more or less depleted, so he stuck out his hand towards the girl, “It’s alright now, so return Frost Memories to me!”

Although the girl’s pocket was near and Gu Fei could reach it himself, Gu Fei knew that other than the owner himself, whoever stretched out into the pocket will find nothing but his own hand.

The girl did not look to be in as much pain as before, and replied him with regained energy, “Return it to you? Is it yours?”

“Uh… no!” said Gu Fei.

“Then why should I?”

“It’s my friend’s!” said Gu Fei.

“Friend?” The girl giggled. “Why are friends not sitting together then? I did notice you there in the bar, and you were sitting with that ogling fellow. You can’t be any better.”

Gu Fei remembered Fireball. His gaze was indeed passionate and daring, and in more proper terms, lecherous.

“You steal things. You are not any better,” said Gu Fei.

“I didn’t say I was,” smiled the girl.

“Hand it over!” Gu Fei acted fierce.

“No!”

“Oh, then I’ll stab you again!” Gu Fei picked up the knife which was just removed from the girl’s leg.

“If you want to do it, then go ahead!” The girl smiled the same sweet smile which she had displayed in the bar before.

This damned girl! She looked straight through me! Gu Fei was a little despondent. He really could not put the knife down onto her again.

“I know your true intentions,” said the girl.

“What are you talking about?”

“When we were at the levelling area, didn’t you already have your eyes on the dagger in his hands?” said the girl.

The woman on the hill was indeed the one sitting before him. Gu Fei now understood the whole development. The girl had noticed SwordGhost’s dagger then, and followed him to the bar. She had easily gotten hold of what she wanted under the watchful eyes of the public.

“This item is really rare and superior you know! There’s definitely a lot of people who want to buy it online with the game being so popular. When it gets sold for a good price, we’ll share it, ok? Do you still want the dagger?” said the girl.

“Hmph!” Gu Fei let out a sound which he deemed most fit to express his disdain. “A knave tends to think of others in terms of their own desires. I just want to get it back for my friend.”

“Hey you, don’t act anymore! Be honest and be a man!” said the girl.

“I’m being perfectly honest with you!” Gu Fei answered lightly. “Hand it over and I won’t bother you anymore. And I advise you not to do such things from now on.”

“Oh?” the girl shifted her eyes. “So, you are really a good guy?”

“Of course!”

“Alright then… Good guy, take me to the healer’s then. You really think this wound will recover just with bandaging? Bring me there and I’ll return it to you,” said the girl.

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Author’s comment:

About the title of this chapter… It is as difficult to come up with chapter names as character names!!

1: Flying Dagger, Flying Dagger Appears Again(飛刀！又見飛刀！)is the name of the fifth and last instalment in the wuxia series Xiaoli Feidao (literally Little Lee’s flying daggers). In the novel series by the famous writer Gu Long, the Little Li Flying Dagger (小李飛刀) is the weapon of Li Xunhuan, Ye Kai, Ding Lingzhong and Li Huai. It ranks third on the Bingqipu (兵器譜), a fictional book of weapons. The author Butterfly Blue has adapted this set of Kung Fu techniques as something that exists in the real world.