Virtual World: Close Combat Mage Chapter 36-37

Chapter 36 – An Utter Defeat

It began to drizzle in Yunduan City. Gu Fei and Xiaoyu rushed back to Amethyst Rebirth’s headquarters with the treasure chest of the guild quest.

Royal God Call was not really willing to hand over the treasure chest to them just like that. Back then, Xiaoyu was only about ten centimeters away from him. However, he was an Archer that specialized in long-range fights, while Xiaoyu was a Warrior that specialized in melees.

With Xiaoyu in front of him, Royal God Call had to either retreat to the side or the back to lengthen the gap between them. Unfortunately, he also had Gu Fei on his left, Fei Lian on his right, and the deep lake on his back. More importantly, the treasure chest was no longer in his hands….

They eventually ended the standstill by parting ways, and the person holding the chest left with it. There was a tacit understanding among them to forget the whole situation.

At present, Gu Fei felt suffocated by the stifling atmosphere that had settled inside the Amethyst Rebirth’s conference room. He casually walked over to the window and pushed open its casements.

All the girls’ faces wore a furious look. Their expressions remained unchanged even though Xiaoyu had managed to bring back a treasure chest. This was because everyone had just gone through quite an ordeal. Out of the seven teams that were sent out, only the duo of Gu Fei and Xiaoyu survived. When Xiaoyu shouted out “Sis July and Sis Luo Luo are dead” before, she had actually used them to represent all six teams.

Receiving such a traumatic experience in their first guild quest was seriously heartrending. Gu Fei could somewhat understand what they were feeling at the moment. Whereas male players were usually hailed as kings in online games, the female players were mostly seen as eye candies. These girls had banded together in hopes of proving themselves, yet they unluckily came across such a difficult hurdle from the get-go.

Someone was bound to snap soon after soaking in their thoughts for so long! Gu Fei closely surveyed the crowd, especially that one lady.

“How despicable!” As Gu Fei had expected, the first one to explode was indeed the Fighter called Lie Lie. She sent a stool flying with her kick, slapped the table, and cursed, “If they had the ability, they should have faced us for real! Those sneaky f*ckers don’t know how to fight fair!”

After voicing her grievances for almost ten minutes, Gu Fei more or less surmised that Lie Lie had been instantly killed by a stealthy Thief’s Backstab, without even catching a glimpse of the opponent’s face. Hence, she strongly condemned the opponent’s fighting method.

Gu Fei could only scoff at her comments with regard to the matter, since he also had executed a sneak attack on Royal God Call a while ago.

While he enjoyed fighting face to face, he did not detest sneak attacks like Lie Lie. Gu Fei even considered such attacks to be on another level as they required a good grasp of the target’s mentality. Ability to grasp at the right opportunity and the strength to execute a decisive strike were needed as well for this sort of attacks to succeed. Therefore, the skill required to insta-kill with sneak attacks was no less difficult than beating an opponent one on one.

Lie Lie’s outburst had stirred up the others’ raging emotions as they began to voice their grievances as well. Gu Fei tried hard to sift through their jabbering to make heads or tails of the entire situation, and he ended up hearing one word the most: insta-kill.

Out of the twelve ladies that went for the guild quest, eleven were insta-killed while the last one was collaterally killed. The last struggler died when a Warrior opponent used Cyclone. She was not originally targeted by that Warrior; however, she had gone up with the intention of helping her guild mate fend off the Warrior. It resulted into them dying to Cyclone instead.

There were other words that were also prominently mentioned by them: Backstab, Cyclone, and Snipe.

Although the ladies did not have high levels, insta-killing them was still not an easy feat. Adding the fact that Gu Fei and Xiaoyu had met Royal God Call, he suddenly thought of three people after hearing the three skill names: Sword Demon, War Without Wounds, and Royal God Call.

Royal God Call could insta-kill players casually, but Gu Fei believed Sword Demon and War Without Wounds would be far deadlier than him.

Sword Demon, whose level of ugliness could make even zombies cry in shock, was easy to describe. But since Thieves usually unleashed Backstab while they were on Stealth, the ladies would have no idea of their killers’ features.

Gu Fei suddenly felt as if he was in hot water. If his guess was correct, then he had truly found himself between a rock and a hard place.

Gu Fei was of course more attached to the mercenary group he was in. After all, he did not think he could get along with the members of this all-female guild. Had it not been for the minimum-guild-member-requirement issue, he would have long since left the guild of his own volition. But if he were to consider everything, it would be hard to say who was in the right or wrong as this was a scenario created by the system’s quest design.

Parallel World’s system was entirely at fault here as it had distributed both quests simultaneously: one requiring the retrieval of the treasure chests and another requiring the safeguarding of the same chests. Gu Fei unluckily got caught in between the two parties involved.

At the moment, all of this was just a conjecture. It was unclear if the mercenary group was indeed the other party involved in this matter. Gu Fei thought up to this point and suddenly stood up, “I’ve got something on, so I’ll take my leave first.”

All the ladies were still busy with their discussion and hardly paid attention to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei chuckled to himself as he headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” someone asked all of a sudden.

Gu Fei felt touched when he looked back and saw that it was Xiaoyu who had called after him. Even though she was a little bit ditzy, she at least showed camaraderie now that they had gone through a near-death scenario together. Gu Fei lightly smiled after thinking of all this, “I’ve got something on, so I’ll be going first.” With that, he pulled open the door and left the guild base.

Everyone finally noticed that Gu Fei had left. When they remembered that it was only Gu Fei and Xiaoyu that were victorious in claiming a treasure chest, they crowded around Xiaoyu and started asking her about it.

After leaving the guild, Gu Fei pulled up his friends list and saw that all five members of Young Master’s Elite were online. Gu Fei recalled that ever since he had come to know Sword Demon, he never saw him go offline once. What a pro!

Gu Fei was more familiar with Sword Demon out of the five, so he naturally contacted him first to inquire about their involvement or non-involvement in the issue.

“Where are you?” Gu Fei messaged him.

“Ray’s Bar,” Sword Demon replied.

Ray’s Bar was just two streets away, so Gu Fei directly headed toward the establishment.

Gu Fei entered and greeted Ray before he went straight to the room they had all been accustomed to. He lifted the curtains and was startled for a moment. Besides Sword Demon, Young Master Han and Brother Assist were here as well.

“Miles is here!” Brother Assist greeted Gu Fei.

“What a rare guest! Come take a seat!” Young Master Han had always been generous with his snide remarks.

Gu Fei smiled and did not say a word. Sword Demon shifted to the side, making room for him to take a seat.

“Where’s Wounds and Royal?” Gu Fei asked.

“Who knows? Probably grinding!” Sword Demon said.

“All you guys do is grind. You don’t even know how to enjoy life properly. We play games to enrich our lives, to rejuvenate our drab and lonely spirits; that’s the most beautiful indulgence,” Young Master Han waxed loquaciously.

“Is he drunk?” Gu Fei asked Sword Demon.

Sword Demon lowered his head and massaged his temples, “That’s just how he is.”

Gu Fei looked at Sword Demon with sympathy as he continued to ask the three, “No missions today?”

Young Master Han lifted his glass with a smile, “Regular quests are unworthy of our attention.”

“What kind of regular quests?” Gu Fei pestered.

“Go to the Hall of Mercenaries and see for yourself!” Young Master Han snapped.

“You didn’t take any quest?”

“Are you deaf? Didn’t I say so already?” Young Master Han replied in annoyance.

Gu Fei was stunned for a few moments. This meant that this group was not the one that had ambushed Amethyst Rebirth! Gu Fei sighed in relief as he no longer felt as if he was caught between the two groups. Gu Fei did not care to find out the actual group behind the ambush. This was just a game after all! Killing and fighting were everyday occurrences. Moreover, this was probably a system-generated quest in which two groups were pitted against each other. It was not done out of spite or malice. In the end, Amethyst Rebirth failed the quest because the ladies’ skills were below par.

If they wanted revenge, then that would be something for another time. Besides, he was not certain that they would want him in the guild for that long!

Gu Fei finally relaxed as he lifted the curtain and shouted, “Ray, bring me a glass!”

The three in the room could not make sense of Gu Fei’s sudden look of elation. Young Master Han latched on to this as he said carefully, “Why are you glad when you heard we’re not on a mission?”

“I’m not happy because of that,” Gu Fei explained.

“What’s going on?” Young Master Han asked, “You’re acting a little weird today.”

“How so?” Gu Fei asked.

“You don’t come here if you have nothing in mind,” Young Master Han stated.

“What?” Gu Fei quickly said, “I just want to hang out with everyone!” Gu Fei had no intentions of telling them about the issue. Doing so would mean telling them about how he became Amethyst Rebirth’s member as well. Gu Fei was unlike Fireball in this matter. He did not consider mingling with a bunch of ladies as a wonderful thing, so it was something best left unsaid.

“What do you mean hang out? We’re not exactly that close,” Young Master Han remarked.

“D*mn, you’re being way too straightforward!” Gu Fei felt depressed. It was true that they had barely known one another for three days, and that this was just the third time they had met, but to say such things so bluntly was rather rude.

Sword Demon shook his head as he mumbled, “That’s just how he is.”

“Sword Demon, if you’ve got something to say, say it out loud!” Young Master Han smacked the table.

Sword Demon shook his head once more, “That’s just how I am.”

Gu Fei finally realized that there was something off with Sword Demon, so he suddenly asked, “What’s going on here?”

Brother Assist grimaced, “Can’t you tell? They have had too much to drink.”

“F*ck!” Gu Fei felt foolish, “Then why are you still with them?”

“They won’t let me out! They got me sandwiched between them,” Brother Assist smiled weakly.

Gu Fei stood up, “Sword Demon, Ray has got drinks for you!”

“Oh, I’m coming,” Sword Demon stood up and shuffled out unsteadily.

“Let’s go!” Gu Fei indicated the way out with his head.

“That was easy!” Brother Assist sighed.

“Actually, I have something I wish to ask you,” Gu Fei frankly said as he and Brother Assist walked out of the room, randomly picked a seat by the bar, and sat down.

Chapter 37 – The Information Expert

Young Master Han’s loud shout could be heard from within the room, “Sword Demon, if you’ve got something to say, say it out loud!”

Sword Demon was not in the room anymore, however. Instead, he was leaning over the bar counter and pestering Ray, “Where’re my drinks? You called me over to give them, right? Hand them over!”

Ray smiled wryly as he looked toward Gu Fei and Brother Assist, knowing they were all friends.

Brother Assist was about to stand up when Gu Fei stopped him. He looked around and spotted two Warriors sitting at a table nearby, both wearing beginner’s equipment.

“Hey, fellas!” Gu Fei called the two.

They turned their heads.

“Do me a favor! Throw that guy by the counter in the back alley. I’m a Mage and I don’t have the strength to do it,” Gu Fei pointed at Sword Demon as he spoke to them.

The two barely registered his words and remained seated.

Gu Fei thought for a moment before taking out two gold coins, “Please help!”

The two Warriors’ eyes twinkled. They did not care whether he was a Mage or not. What they cared for was the gold coins he was offering. Gold coins were hard to come by in Parallel World for a majority of newbie players. In fact, Gu Fei could already be considered as a wealthy player in-game after yesterday’s mission payout.

They two Warriors took the coins and grabbed Sword Demon. Sword Demon was so drunk he could barely remain upright, let alone resist being dragged out of the bar by the two. It was not long before the two came back and excitedly asked, “Do you still have someone you want to throw out, bro?”

“Nope, that’s it. Thanks a lot!” Gu Fei said to the two Warriors.

“Is this fine?” Brother Assist asked in a hesitant voice.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s all good,” Gu Fei waved his hand nonchalantly. At this moment, Young Master Han’s singing voice could be heard from the room. Gu Fei had the urge to call the two Warriors back again.

“He looks like a cultured man of refined taste, and often waxing poetically. Why is he…” Gu Fei muttered.

“It seems like you don’t know,” Brother Assist laughed, “Young Master Han is a new name he came up with for Parallel World. His previous alias was Drinking Addict.”

“Wouldn’t that make Sword Demon Smoking Addict?” Gu Fei said.

“That’s actually his name in other games before switching to Magic Domain,” Brother Assist confided seriously.

“No way!” Gu Fei was utterly taken aback, “So why the change of name?”

“Well… Heard it’s because Smoking Addict and Drinking Addict were being used as BL material by fujoshis. Sword Demon would rather die than to call himself Smoking Addict again by the time he switched to playing Magic Domain. Master Han followed suit now that they are playing Parallel World together,” Brother Assist explained.

“Oh…” Gu Fei drawled and then asked, “What’s a fujoshi?”

“Uhmm… It’s a very strange creature,” Brother Assist said.

Gu Fei decided not to dig further since it sounded rather complex. He waved at Ray, “Ray, get me two glasses of your most expensive liquor.”

“Isn’t that a little too much?” Brother Assist felt stunned. As a self-proclaimed information expert, he knew very well how much the drink would cost.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gu Fei said flippantly as his order was brought to them. Gu Fei inhaled sharply when he asked the price, “That’s really expensive! Put it on Young Master Han’s tab!”

“Ah?” Ray was taken aback.

“Isn’t he still here? Just let him pay for our order,” Gu Fei said.

“Oh!” Ray did not say anything further. He was not afraid of not being paid. Not paying for something was considered as fraud and was something penalized by the system. The immersion of the business was well-protected by the system and the safeguards in place were foolproof. No matter how strong the players were, they were nothing more than paper tigers before the system.

“You’re actually shameless!” Brother Assist said to Gu Fei, “I didn’t peg you as such a person!”

“Just drink! This is a rare opportunity,” Gu Fei lifted his glass.

Brother Assist drank a gulp and was pleasantly surprised, “This is something else. It’s well worth the coin.”

“Mmmhmm. Especially when it’s not your money,” Gu Fei lifted his glass and finished it in one go, “Ray, get me another one.”

Brother Assist was speechless.

“Oh, yeah. You said you want to ask me something,” Brother Assist quickly inquired when he saw Gu Fei accepting the second glass from Ray. He was worried that Gu Fei would become drunk like those two.

“Yup. I do,” Gu Fei placed his glass down, “Is there a type of quest in this game that two separate parties can acquire and be pitted against each other? For example…” Gu Fei was worried that he did not phrase the question well, so he was about to give an example when he saw Brother Assist bob his head, “Yup. That happens. Actually, it’s one of the selling points of Parallel World. Guild quests usually have plenty of participants, so the chances of acquiring a competitive quest at guild level are pretty high, whereas getting a competitive solo quest is much lower.”

“The content of such usually focuses on snatching or protecting something,” Brother Assist’s information network was truly amazing as it was exactly the situation Amethyst Rebirth found itself in.

“But…” Gu Fei still had some doubts and began to describe the situation Amethyst Rebirth was in to Brother Assist.

When Brother Assist heard everything, he laughed, “That’s their mistake. What they discussed and planned for is a search mission called ‘Find the Treasure Chest’. But the quest they received is most probably the ‘Retrieval of the Stolen Treasure Chest’. While both quests seem similar, the goals are different. No plan is needed for ‘Retrieval of the Stolen Treasure Chest’ since every opponent the quest will set guild up against is not fixed. There’s essentially no definite strategy guide for that.”

“That makes sense!” Gu Fei nodded his head repeatedly. He lifted his neck and finished the glass once more, “Ray, liquor!”

“How’s your alcohol tolerance?” Brother Assist felt apprehensive.

“Don’t worry,” Gu Fei laughed. “I’m still sober with this drink. I’m not like those two.”

Brother Assist nodded and casually asked, “Why are you asking me these questions for? Did you join a guild?”

“Nahhh! Why would I?” Gu Fei hurriedly retorted. He would be a laughingstock if he admitted he was stuck with a bunch of ladies, so he slightly tweaked the details of what happened at Yunjiao Lakeside. He recounted the entire ordeal to Brother Assist from the perspective of a bored player crawling after the people snatching the treasure chest.

“Yunjiao Lakeside… Hey!” Brother Assist, the information king, was obviously familiar with the location and immediately revealed a knowing smile once he heard that Gu Fei had gone there.

“I was just passing by!” Gu Fei quickly added, “Oh, yeah. I even met Royal God Call and he was doing the mission to protect a treasure chest.” Gu Fei originally did not intend to mention Royal God Call and only added that bit to divert the conversation.

“Oh? He’s in a guild? I’ve never heard of that before,” Brother Assist said.

“His guild must be pretty strong to be able to snatch all the treasure chests and kill off all their contenders. I heard all the players were expert at using skills like Cyclone, Snipe, and even stealthy Backstab,” Gu Fei said.

“That’s truly pretty strong! Only one guild in Yunduan City would be that strong,” Brother Assist said.

“What guild?”

“Traversing Four Seas.”

“That name’s so old-fashioned!”

Brother Assist laughed, “Guilds with old-fashioned names in online games won’t be weak.”

“Why?”

“Just think! Anyone could come up with such an old-fashioned name. But actually acquiring the name for their guild means that it must have been set up just as the game was released. The sooner they establish their guild, the more time they get to polish their skills. So of course they won’t be too weak,” Brother Assist explained.

“That makes a lot of sense!” Gu Fei really learned a lot today. It was as the saying went: “It is better to hear a wise person speak than to study for ten years.” It seemed he should spend more time with Brother Assist so as to improve his own gaming knowledge. After all, online game was not real life. Just like when he wanted to stop the players by the lakeside back then, but was completely ignored and even knocked over by their rush instead. The less such lapses of judgment occurred, the better.

“Got it!” Gu Fei finished his third glass and stood up, “Alright. Time for me to leave.”

“Later!” Brother Assist watched Gu Fei leave the bar, and then he called out, “Ray!”

“Yes?” Ray came over.

Brother Assist pointed at the glass sitting on the table, “Give me a bottle of that expensive liquor. I’m leaving with it.”

Ray was momentarily stunned before he finally asked, “Shall I put it on Young Master Han’s tab as well?”

“Naturally,” Brother Assist’s smile appeared innocuous, “But don’t tell him it’s me who ordered it.”

Gu Fei headed back to Amethyst Rebirth once he left the bar. Since he now understood the whole situation, he decided to report everything to the ladies so as to let them see the whole picture as well and stop their endless grumbling.

Any guild member had permission to open the headquarters’ door. The ladies inside looked at him once he pushed open the door to enter, albeit their gazes somewhat varied.

After hearing what had happened over at Yunjiao Lakeside, they understood that Gu Fei’s involvement let them acquire a treasure chest. However, there was one major issue: Gu Fei personally knew the sniping Archer.

Everyone’s impression of Gu Fei boiled down to three points: high level, lousy equipment, and randomly added stats.

The last two points alone were indicative of his idiocy, which was more than enough for them to ostracize him. Hearing that such a Mage had defeated a level 30 well-geared Archer was unbelievable, so finding out that Gu Fei knew the Archer made the ladies suspect that he was a mole. This might mean that those two had acted the part together to help Gu Fei establish an image that would help him gain a foothold within the all-female guild.

Lie Lie came up with this speculation and she even posited an example: How could a lousy Mage get to such a high level? Except for leeching off the experience points of a skilled partner, what other way was there?

Xiaoyu was the one who told the story as well. Given how unreliable Xiaoyu was… It needed no further elaboration. Even if there was a very obvious problem that cropped up back then, she would not have noticed it.

Miles appeared even more suspicious because he had picked to partner up with Xiaoyu. Could it be intentional?

No matter what the case was, they decided to put him under detailed scrutiny. As all these ladies picked apart every detail with every word they uttered, they managed to twist the fact that Gu Fei got the treasure chest and saved Xiaoyu into a situation where Gu Fei was a lecherous wolf who orchestrated a deep, vast, and intricately planned conspiracy.

In the end, all the women split into three factions. Lie Lie, who insisted that Gu Fei was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, had the most supporters. July, Luo Luo, and a few others belonged to the second faction that felt the ridiculous story woven by the ladies was impossible. Xiaoyu was the only one who belonged to the group that understood nothing at all.

When Gu Fei entered the house, all three faction members stared straight at him. They all smelled the scent of alcohol once he got about two steps near them. The ladies in the first faction who already had a poor impression of Gu Fei immediately dropped him down hundreds of points.

Even the ladies in the second faction could not help but wrinkle their brows. Having suffered such a disastrous setback in their first guild mission, Gu Fei actually left to drink while they wallowed in their disappointment. It was far too insensitive to say the least.

Only Xiaoyu remained oblivious to everything, “What’s that smell? Ah, what sort of smell is that?”