Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

These two groups rushed over from two different directions and ended up seeing a black figure and a red figure run past them.

There were too many people, far beyond the number Gu Fei had expected. Gu Fei felt that he might have made a huge mistake. The player count had increased tremendously ever since Parallel World’s official release; plenty of players would surely have PK value on them considering the prevailing atmosphere in Yueye City, and each of them would be hoping to clear it fast, so it was a given that many of them would be gutsy enough to pick up Gu Fei’s lucrative ‘Bounty Mission’ that was worth 14 PK points.

Svelte Dancer’s killing-spree quickly accumulated her PK value, and she became the second most wanted fugitive in Yueye City following Gu Fei’s, acquiring herself quite a lot of bounty hunters as well.

Given how their location was right next to Yueye City’s prison, which was conveniently placed close to the Bounty Assignment Hall, plenty of bounty hunters happily rushed toward the two. Before long, Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer started experiencing immense pressure from the combined force of their bounty hunters.

Svelte Dancer’s mana was thoroughly depleted by her test of the Shadow Walk skill, yet another assault was already upon her before she could finish replenishing it. Gu Fei had it much worse, as he did not even get the chance to munch on a piece of fruit after using up all his mana. In fact, Gu Fei’s situation was more perilous as well. With his higher PK value than Svelte Dancer’s, more players were aiming for him. Svelte Dancer was decked out in top-grade equipment as well, so she was still considerably powerful despite her depleted mana. This was in stark contrast of Gu Fei. He was considered as a very peculiar Mage, yet the fact remained that he was still restrained by the limitations of being one. Without mana, the damage he could deal was insignificant.

Gu Fei could rely on his skill as a fighter and Svelte Dancer could rely on her superior equipment if there were only few enemies. However, Yueye City’s Bounty Assignment Hall currently resembled a base that kept spitting out soldiers, with Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer acting like a rally point for players to gather. At a glance, these players seemed to be forming a line to take shots at the two. “Hey!” Even the unrestrained Svelte Dancer could not help but worry over their current situation and called Gu Fei’s attention as they fought, “We can’t continue like this; there are just too many of them!”

Gu Fei nodded his head gravely. Although he enjoyed fighting with many players, Gu Fei had no intention to die because of that pleasure. Combat was similar to a competitive sport, where its greatest charm lay in victory. Gu Fei might enjoy PvP, but he also needed the satisfaction brought by winning the fight. In fact, what he relished about fighting was the process of him steadily attaining victory. Was there even anyone out there who would enjoy fighting if he or she could not achieve victory?

Having determined that they did not stand a chance of becoming victorious in their situation, the two exchanged looks and fled in unison. Young Master’s Elite and Amethyst Rebirth happened to reach their location at this time and saw this embarrassing scene of the two fleeing with Yueye City’s dedicated PvPers hot on their heels.

Svelte Dancer’s movement speed was astoundingly fast despite not activating Fleetfoot, so no one could catch up to her. As for Gu Fei, although he had an all-Agility build that was further improved by the Agility granted by his Moonlit Nightfalls, Bandit Leader’s Ring, and Eddie’s Emblem, as well as the additional movement speed from Windchaser’s Boots, Yueye City was not lacking in talented players of its own. Thieves chasing with Fleetfoot and Archers with all-Agility builds were able to attain Gu Fei’s movement speed without much trouble, provided that they had decent equipment themselves. Furthermore, some of these Archers had fired off arrows with Homing Projectile while in pursuit. Svelte Dancer was able to ignore the damage from these arrows given her superior equipment, but Gu Fei had to slow down whenever he turned to deal with them, allowing his pursuers to close the gap between them.

I really got burned playing with fire this time! Gu Fei reflected. He was in his current predicament precisely because he had underestimated the mob’s strength too much; he was sure to drown beneath this sea of commoners’ attacks now.

Fortunately, Svelte Dancer showed great solidarity in this crucial moment and did not abandon him to his devices. Svelte Dancer was hopping mad once she discovered that Gu Fei was steadily lagging behind her while their pursuers were steadily catching up to them, “Why are you so slow?!” With that, she turned around and dashed over to Gu Fei.

“Why did you come back? Save yourself!” Gu Fei said.

“You’re such an idiot!” Svelte Dancer grabbed a hold of Gu Fei as she took out a scroll from her dimensional pocket with her free hand. A mystical breeze suddenly emerged as the scroll bathed the ground where they stood with its white light. The instant the teleportation array completely formed, the two disappeared in a flash of light.

“You caused me to waste my Teleportation Scroll because of your slowness; it’s my last one, too!” Svelte Dancer abruptly let go of Gu Fei and pointed her finger right at his nose after they materialized.

“Where did you get that item, anyway?” Gu Fei asked.

“It was a quest reward; there’s nowhere to buy it even if you’ve got coins!” Svelte Dancer said.

“I’m sure we’ll get an opportunity in the future,” Gu Fei consoled her before asking, “Where are we, by the way? We can’t have been sent to another city, right?” He checked their coordinates.

“You wish. There’s a limit to how far the teleportation scroll can move us, so it definitely can’t send us to another city or region. We are still somewhere in Yueye City,” Svelte Dancer said.

“Why is this sort of teleportation so inconsiderate, though? Can’t it just put us on solid ground or something?” Gu Fei asked as he checked their surroundings.

“That’s why it’s called Random Teleportation!” Svelte Dancer was annoyed.

The two had very inhumanely materialized atop a tree in the middle of the woods. Gu Fei’s Midnight Spirit Robe was caught by a tree branch and he dangled rather precariously, as if he would fall at any moment. Svelte Dancer was just right across him; she looked to be stable, yet the branch she was caught on was visibly bending, straining from her weight. This meant that her situation was far more precarious than his, and Gu Fei involuntarily shut his eyes as he yelled, “SVELTY!”

“What?”

“You’re about to fall off!”

“Ahhh...” Svelte Dancer cried out shrilly as she lowered her head to look down. She was eight meters off the ground; falling now would surely hurt. She suddenly had the urge to grab Gu Fei. It was unknown, though, whether she intended for Gu Fei to help her or to drag him down with her.

“Stop fidgeting!” Gu Fei advised. The branch had yet to break, but Svelte Dancer’s hood slipped off of it due to her struggling, and she screamingly fell down.

The fall was torturous, but the damage it dealt was insignificant. Svelte Dancer moaned for a while before she got up. Raising her head, she saw Gu Fei still dangling in the tree branch precariously.

“Dislodge yourself from that branch! I’ll catch you!” Svelte Dancer said aloud as she stretched her two arms out.

“No need for that!” Gu Fei did not believe the Thief Svelte Dancer could hold his weight. Perhaps, the Warrior June’s Rain would be able to.

“You can’t possibly dangle up there forever!” Svelte Dancer admonished.

Gu Fei did not argue with her. Very slowly, he reached inside his dimensional pocket for a banana.

“The heck! How can you think of eating at a time like this?!” Svelte Dancer was ruffled.

“I need mana!” Gu Fei explained, advising, “You should recover what you can, too!” Peeling the banana’s skin off, he slowly brought it up his mouth to eat.

Gu Fei recovered a bit of his mana shortly after, and he promptly shook his body vigorously, loosening himself off the tree branch. Halfway down, Gu Fei cast Blink and landed stably on the ground. He then retrieved another piece of fruit and munched on it to fill up the rest of his mana.

“We’re not too far from Yueye City, so if any of those men chase after us, they’ll be upon us pretty soon,” Svelte Dancer said as she checked their coordinates.

“Even if those men from before give up chasing us, others will surely come for our heads. What’s your PK value right now?” Gu Fei asked.

“I’ve got 23 PK points. You?”

“I’ve got 24 PK points.” Gu Feis ability to kill sharply declined when he ran out of mana, almost letting Svelte Dancer surpass him.

“We need to clear off our PK value; otherwise, we can’t stay in Yueye City.” Gu Fei finally realized how incompatible Yueye City was to PK maniacs like him.

“We have to go to the Bounty Assignment Hall,” Svelte Dancer said.

“That’s quite dangerous. Ha ha ha...” Gu Fei stated rather feebly.

“What other solutions do we have?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“Return to Yunduan City.” Gu Fei suggested, as it was exactly what he had done when he had accumulated a lot of PK points in the past.

“I can enter the Bounty Assignment Hall since I have Stealth, but what about you?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“Hmm... Guess I’ll check and find out what’s happening over there first!” Gu Fei opened the mercenary channel and saw that the others had been sending him streams of messages. All were asking for his status.

“We used a Random Teleportation scroll that sent us somewhere in Yueye City. I currently have 24 PK points that I need to remove. How are things over by the Bounty Assignment Hall?” Gu Fei typed out.

“Still as busy as before,” they replied.

“That makes things rather troublesome!” Gu Fei sighed.

“Mhm. Why don’t you look for Dusky Cloud and his gang? If he utilizes the Ten Guild Alliance to protect you, I doubt anyone will continue to bother you,” Brother Assist suggested.

“No need for that,” Young Master Han interjected icily, saying, “Give me a vantage point and I’ll direct you safely to the Bounty Assignment Hall. All you have to do is fight your way in to obtain your mission. You can do that, right?”

“But this is a world map!” Brother Assist was astonished. They naturally knew what Young Master Han was trying to get at, but this map’s size was incomparable to the ones they had had during the mercenary PvP tournament. Those coordinates were limited in the hundreds, yet the city map’s coordinates were way larger.

“That’s nothing. It is just like before; as long as I know the coordinates of a few locations within the city, I can easily narrow things down appropriately,” Young Master Han was not fazed by this.

“But there’s clearly a simpler solution to this!” Brother Assist exclaimed.

“It’s not like we have anything better to do now, anyway,” Young Master Han reasoned.

“Miles, why don’t you decide what to do?” Brother Assist finally asked. Ultimately, this was still his decision to make.

“Look for a vantage point, then!” Gu Fei replied.