Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Drifting was also quick with his casting after long hours of practice, instantly completing the necessary incantation crisply. With that slash from Gu Fei, the Drifting before him shattered to the ground like a broken ice sculpture, releasing swirling icy vapor upon contact.

It was a fake! Gu Fei hurriedly looked all around him and was taken aback by what he saw. Out of the Four Driftings that had been conjured from the Icy Mirage, one was shattered by Gu Fei, two were in the opposite corners of the room, and one was currently floating outside the window.

Furthermore, it was this Drifting floating outside that was waving his hand to Gu Fei. "I’m gonna take my leave first, Miles bro." With that, he began his descent to the ground.

Before Gu Fei could even react, another figure bolted right over to the window and leaped right out; it was Left Hand of Love using Spurring Meteor to jump off.

Gu Fei hurried over the window and saw as the two in the middle of their descent to the ground outside. Left Hand of Love reached out to grab hold of Drifting’s legs, activating his Seismic Toss an entire floor before they landed.

Drifting was thrown down to the ground like this, but even though he suffered damage from the skill, he managed to survive the fall since this allowed him to avoid the fall damage. Meanwhile, Left Hand of Love used his Sparrow Dropkick on the wall and successfully redirected his body’s fall trajectory. Even though he ended up tumbling quite a few times when he landed, he too did not injure himself too much as well.

At the same time, Gu Fei heard a sound coming from behind and turned to see Right Hand of Cool dashing away.

Gu Fei sighed and did not bother to give chase. Right Hand of Cool was Six – the one Gu Fei had tried catching up back when he was being led to meet the group by the ruins. It was apparent that the two of them had about the same movement speed since Gu Fei was unable to get near Six back then.

This was also about the time when Drifting sent a message to him: "Why did you rush over to the window? I can’t help you any longer..."

Gu Fei laughed coldly. He knew what Drifting meant was that since he ran to the window, the people below had already spotted him and Drifting could no longer cover for him.

While what he had said made sense, was it not human nature for Gu Fei to head over to take a look after seeing the two of them leap out a window like that? Drifting could not have failed to expect this, given how well-thought-out Drifting’s plan was. That man was clearly aware that facing off against Gu Fei was unideal, which led him and his companion to turn tail and flee; blaming Gu Fei for being ignorant was just being injurious.

Gu Fei did not bother to reply, yet another message soon followed: "I am rather curious to see how you’re gonna escape from this, however, so I’ll be waiting here in the courtyard to watch your performance."

Gu Fei chuckled. How am I gonna escape? In truth, he had already formulated a plan in his mind. Even though it was not necessarily a very honorable plan, he really had no other choice left.

Gu Fei left the room and immediately went to the third floor. Entering the Vigilante Corps Chamber, he briefly interacted with Giordano. The NPC immediately commended his action, clearly indicating his completion of the ’Daily Bounty Mission’. With the experience and gold coins awarded, Gu Fei was rather curious as to what sort of punishment Cool Apple received. Unfortunately for him, Giordano did not provide any further information regarding this. Gu Fei took a look at the time, headed over to the couch, and buried his head into the plush cushion, and promptly fell asleep...

In the courtyard outside the Government City Hall, Drifting and Left Hand of Love were rather exhausted after leaping out of the building. The people around them would never have thought that the two had actually taken the initiative to leap out the window to escape with their lives and, instead, assumed that the duo were survivors of a fierce fight.

"That’s what it takes to be an expert, alright..." Spotting that Mage standing by the window ledge, everybody naturally assumed that the man had forced the two right out the window. There was supposed to be an Archer with the two; was that man killed by now?

As they were wondering about this, they saw Right Hand of Cool dashing out of the main entrance to the Government City Hall in a hurry. Looking particularly battered, he cried out the moment he saw the people, "Too strong!"

That was when Three Sighs of Flowing Maple came to Drifting’s side. "Brother Drifting, thank you for your hard work!" Instead of hurrying to ask about the result of their mission inside, he made sure to show his concern to his comrade first. It could be said that Three Sighs of Flowing Maple was rather diligent when it came to showing the necessary traits of a leader.

Drifting chuckled weakly as he regretfully answered, "It’s a pity I didn’t manage to complete my mission."

Everybody looked up to that window, but Gu Fei could no longer be spotted from there.

"How many people are still inside?" Three Sighs of Flowing Maple asked.

"Just the one," Drifting replied.

"And the rest are eliminated?" Three Sighs of Flowing Maple was still rather happy about this. Without Drifting, all they could do was watch as the lot of them made it into the building. Who knew what sort of shenanigans they could have gotten into there? With just one player left inside, the troubles they were in had more or less been reduced by quite a bit.

"They are all eliminated except for that last one who is simply too difficult to take on," Drifting answered.

"Yes, leave the rest to us," Three Sighs of Flowing Maple said. Drifting and his two companions looked worse than wear one after another; Three Sighs of Flowing Maple naturally felt awkward to ask them to give it another shot.

Drifting nodded and retreated to a corner with Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool. The man looked pensive as he turned his gaze over to that same window Gu Fei was seen moments ago.

Just what is that guy gonna do now? I’m actually curious to find out myself, Drifting thought. He doesn’t have that much mana, so he’ll surely run out of it if he slays his way through the guild. What’s more, he’s currently bearing quite a lot of PK value. Casually killing a few more players will surely draw the attention of the NPC guards. There’re not just two guards out here in the courtyard, so I doubt he’d dare to antagonize them.

Drifting ponder on this in his corner as Three Sighs of Flowing Maple began to tighten their security around the perimeter. "Everybody, focus. Keep watch over the front and back doors. Don’t forget all the windows, either. Make sure to kill that man on sight."

"Roger!" the players in the courtyard yelled in unison. Everybody’s morale surged forth with Drifting and his companions’ successful elimination of all but one of those who had made it into the Government City Hall.

"So noisy..." Hearing this loud cry from outside, Gu Fei muttered out his displeasure as he turned his body to resume his sleep.

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Time trickled by as the members of Flowergazing in the Fog watched the building with unblinking eyes.

A minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten...

Half an hour, one hour, one and a half hours...

Everybody began to feel tired. Someone even guessed that the man had forcefully logged off, and was making everyone wait out in the courtyard like a fool.

"No, he’s still there," Drifting dismissed this notion as he was friends with the man, but at the same time, he was equally nonplussed as to what Gu Fei could be up to inside.

Is he waiting for his PK value to drop over time? How long is that going to take?! Or is that man taking the fight straight to Giordano? That’s impossible; there’s a whole horde of guards in that room! Since he was aware of the quest Gu Fei had picked up, Drifting made the conscious effort to find out where Giordano was in the Government City Hall and concluded that there was simply no way for Gu Fei to strike.

What is he up to? Drifting was a little restless.

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Three Sighs of Flowing Maple, who was most concerned of the guild quest, was all the more restless. That guy’s been hiding in the city hall for such a long time; who knows what sort of damage he has done inside? Three Sighs of Flowing Maple thought asking Drifting and his companions to head in and take a look many times, but he tried his best to hold himself back from doing so. This time, however, after wrestling with the idea once more, he finally got up and walked over.

"Brother Drifting... It’s been a really long time since that guy showed himself. What do you think that’s about?" Three Sighs of Flowing Maple asked.

"Well... I’m not too certain myself, but there’re no other exits in that building; I’ve already checked. Plus, there’re plenty of guards inside, so there’s not much opportunity for that man to cause any sort of trouble. I really have no clue why he’s been staying inside for such a long time," Drifting answered.

"Oh..." What Drifting had said helped alleviate most of Three Sighs of Flowing Maple’s doubts, since he was indeed rather worried that Gu Fei would be preparing to blow the entire building up from the inside.

"Everybody’s really anxious since man has yet to come out even now. Do the three of you, who have permission to enter the building, mind taking a look once more?" Three Sighs of Flowing Maple finally made his request.

Drifting’s mind immediately clicked. It couldn’t be, right? Did that guy predict that the men from Flowergazing in the Fog would get anxious waiting for him to come out and would ask me to enter the building again? Does that man really intend to take me down first, like he claimed earlier, before planning his next step...

The more Drifting thought of this, the more plausible his supposition sounded. Knowing that there was a high chance of this being a trap, there was no way he would be so foolish to take the risk. As such, he could only lose face and reject Three Sighs of Flowing Maple, "That man’s really too powerful. The three of us are absolutely no match for him. I’m afraid we may be unable to survive if we head back in and clash again."

"If that’s the case, we’ll just have to think of another solution!" Three Sighs of Flowing Maple chuckled lightly as he left. He was of course unhappy with this. While it was normal for humans to be selfish, he was nevertheless hoping that his members would have a degree of selflessness when it came to sacrificing themselves for the sake of the guild. This was trait that Drifting did not demonstrate. No matter how high their levels are, there’s still a limit to the help these people will give the guild, Three Sighs of Flowing Maple sighed as he thought of this.

Thus, the wait continued. There was already a discussion brewing privately among the guild members. It had already been so long. If the man truly really wished to ruin their quest, the deed would have been done by now. What use was there for them to camp out here, waiting like fools aside from enacting retribution?

The core members of the guild Three Sighs of Flowing Maple was leading quickly came forth and reassured the crowd. They reminded every member of the importance for the guild to guard against such arrogance and to be grounded in hard work and rigor; this was done to make sure that everybody adhered to the core policy of the guild’s development and continued to patiently stand guard.

Three Sighs of Flowing Maple made sure to point out that their enemy was currently playing a game of cat and mouse with them and was intentionally dragging the time out so as to lull their senses, disarm them of their greatest weapon, and make use of this opportunity to sow discord among them. That was why the foe they were facing this time around was not the enemy but, rather, themselves. As long as they were able to eliminate this distraction within them and devote themselves to the task at hand, victory was anything but assured.

Three Sighs of Flowing Maple’s speech evoked a strong response from the men. As they all bellowed. The members from Flowergazing in the Fog each expressed their resolve to stay by their allocated position until they logged off.

Time continued to pass as the sun in the sky slowly went west. At the moment, it was already afternoon in-game. Suddenly, a dull thud broke the silence, and the doors of the Government City Hall opened. After waiting for almost three hours, was it finally time for them to see fruition to their efforts?