Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Gu Xian cast Gu Fei a side-eye. He huddled under the table at the other side after he leaped into the pile of tables. This pile of tables was like the Great Wall as it defended these two men. Broken Water Arrow and the others were standing on the other side of this cordon, flustered in their exasperation. Head in and search! Afraid that Gu Fei would Blink out from some unknown corner and insta-kill them, they could only depend on the bombardment from Old Lightning and Thunder for support. However, if they did not approach the target to confirm his hiding place, they would only end up hurling their attacks at the wrong spot.

“Target that guy first; he doesn’t know Blink! Provide cover fire and get ready to charge in!” Broken Water Arrow commanded. Old Lightning and Thunder acknowledged the order and began tossing out their ‘grenades’ as they alternated in casting spells. Soon, they created a sea of flames where Gu Xian was hiding. Gu Xian did not know Blink, so he was unable to reposition himself without alerting others like Gu Fei could. Broken Water Arrow and his men kept their eyes glued for any movement, not letting even the slightest movement in that forest of furniture escape their watchful gazes.

“Over there!” Sniper God lived up to his name as a top marksman; that keen eyesight of his easily detected a slight movement among the mess of furniture and pointed it out for everyone. Of course, in order not to expose their intentions, he did not vocalize this discovery but sent a message over the mercenary channel, instead.

The others followed where Sniper God was pointing and spotted that movement within the tables and stools, but it soon came to a halt, making it evident that this person had no wish to make too much of a movement and alert the other party in the process. The ex-soldiers were now utilizing hand-signals to communicate and setting up their plan thusly. Old Lightning and Thunder continued bombarding the original position as per normal while the others slowly inched nearer and nearer to that position where they had seen movement...

“Be careful; they can see you!” This was when someone from the crowd of onlookers shouted out this warning. Gu Fei and Gu Xian might not know about Broken Water Arrow and his men’s plan of diversion by making a din in the east to attack the west, but the crowd watching could see this clearly. Even though they had no idea what the hand-signals these ex-soldiers were using, much less even aware what words had been exchanged over the mercenary channel, they could all tell just what they intended to do from observing the actions they had been undertaking from start to finish.

These ex-soldiers were extremely dispirited by this. This was the result of not completely clearing the area of operation! With so many people watching, they had no idea just who had shouted this, so all they could do was helplessly toss a dry stare in the general direction.

With someone sowing further chaos into this, the ex-soldiers had no choice but to speed up what they were doing, and these people rushing to Gu Xian could no longer take their time, immediately lunging toward their destination. The two Mages Old Lightning and Thunder also instantly changed their area of bombardment over to this new position, each tossing out a spell within the area where their comrades were blitzing. Just from these two spells, anyone could tell that, even though these two men were not good at gaming, their ability to coordinate with each other was something they were quite familiar with. Take these two spells they lobbed out for instance; treating them like grenades when they unleashed their spells respectively, none of their comrades was damaged by its cast as the AoE from the spell completely enveloped only the targeted area.

A whole troop of men came charging in as if they were ransacking the place, but they were once more left dumbfounded as there was nary a single human in the middle of the furniture.

“That’s impossible; I’m positive I saw movement!” Sniper God was astonished. He had absolute confidence when it came to his eyesight.

“Thank goodness you’ve got such a keen eye.” This voice came from beside several men, and Gu Fei and Gu Xian suddenly launched their assault in tandem. With the Blink spell in his arsenal, Gu Fei’s location was hard to ascertain, and these ex-soldiers did not dare to hope to get a grasp of his position any longer. However, Gu Xian was exactly where he had been from the time he somersaulted into the forest of furniture. As it turned out, the Fighter did not budge in the least, and it was unknown what method he had used to create that slight movement elsewhere.

“We’re the ones who fell for their diversion!” These ex-soldiers were in tears. They were the ones who wanted to divert Gu Xian and Gi Fei’s attention by making noise in the east to mount an attack to the west, but who would have thought that they were the ones who would be diverted by the enemy, instead?

The two men that had come barreling out from the pile of tables did not bother to attack these unlucky men but split to the left and right respectively and bolted out of the two tavern.

Gu Fei horizontally lashed his sword out, executing a 720-degree Twin Incineration as he came drifting out. As the ex-soldiers guarding the door knew Gu Fei’s spell damage was so powerful to the point that the barest touch would instantly cause death, none of them had the guts to take it head on, so they were left with no choice but to try dodging the strike. Some even thought to find out if there was any pause that they could exploit to directly take down Gu Fei, but his pirouette was incomparably fluid; the flames that circled out haloed even more perfectly than a Ring of Fire; by the time the fiery glow subsided, Gu Fei had already twirled his way out of the premises.

Over by the other door, Gu Xian was all the more elegant than Gu Fei. After running out from that pile of tables, he randomly borrowed a nearby chair and stepped on it. Directly flying out and over, Gu Xian intended to glide past the two men standing guard by the door. But why would either man let him leave so easily, though? Together, they reached out their hands in an effort to snatch him out of the air. But Gu Xian, who had been sailing straight in the air, abruptly dipped vertically halfway through; his single leg swept the man on the right as his other hand grabbed hold of the man on the left, heaving him toward the other pursuers behind him before darting right out the door himself.

That... That...” Everyone was rooted to the spot as they watched the two players escape. The ex-soldiers were able to hold their own when it came to actual close combat, but their understanding of skills and its uses in the game were still fairly weak, to the point that they could not even compete against the majority of the average gamers out there. At the moment, the Mages were all singing astonished praises of how magnificently Gu Fei had undulated out the door with a Twin Incineration. While the Fighters were beside themselves with shock at how Gu Xian had used his skills when making his getaway.

Gu Xian’s act of boosting his jump by stepping on that chair was not just any ordinary move, but he had also activated his Fighter skill, Spurring Meteor, in the process. He then proceeded to cancel the skill in mid-flight with great precision, unleashing a Swallow Dropkick that let him abruptly descend like he did. The Seismic Toss that followed looked rather ordinary, but that player who had been thrown out keenly understood: That grab Gu Xian did perfectly accommodated to the angle of the ex-soldier’s impetus, making it impossible for him to avoid it.

Sniper God was feeling abnormally melancholic when he saw the two men get away. The fact that it was due to his eyesight being too good that caused him this misjudgment only made it all the more infuriating for him. He turned to look at the place where Gu Xian was originally hiding and was stunned for a good moment before he suddenly asked, “Old Lightning and Thunder have bombarded that spot with spells; how did that guy even survive through all that without moving? Just how much HP does he have?”

This was a question about the game, and none of them present had any idea about the game algorithm on such matters, so all of them was stumped. Broken Water Arrow, who had spent the longest time playing the game out of the team, found this to be strange too. When Old Lightning and Thunder were hurling their spells endlessly, the damage they had done in total should have been enough to kill anyone who had toughed it out and stood through all that fire.

As everyone mulled over this question, Broken Water Arrow sent a message to consult with Ye Xiaowu, but they soon heard someone in the crowd snickering audibly. The spectacle might have ended, but these onlookers remained to appreciate the embarrassment Broken Water Arrow’s lot was showing for their mistake. This was like a comical ending after a huge climax, and not watching it until the end would be quite the loss.

These onlookers continued to discuss the recently concluded battle, and that person who had snickered glanced at the ex-soldiers as he pointed at Gu Xian’s previous hiding spot, animatedly discussing what happened with the person beside him. Broken Water Arrow and the others saw where the person was standing and immediately knew those standing there had perfect sight of what Gu Xian had been doing while he was hiding.

The ex-soldiers could all tell that they were not particularly favored by the majority of those watching the fight. They would most likely end up rubbing the crowd the wrong way if they directly asked them to explain. Broken Water Arrow made eye contact, and a Thief understood what he wanted. Activating his Stealth, he went over to eavesdrop on the players’ discussion even as he related everything he learned on the mercenary channel.

They were all vomiting blood when they learned the truth. It turned out that Gu Xian had hooked his limbs to the legs of the table when he was being assailed by the spells. As such, the Descending Wheel of Flames that came from above was blocked by the surface of the table, while the Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno that sprouted from the ground did not make contact with him, so he took no damage during the entire ordeal.

“That’s... That’s... That’s just too rascally of him!” Old Lightning and Thunder were speechless when they heard this answer. They were all older men, so they ended up settling on the word like ‘rascally’ to describe the childishness of the young man’s action.

The others could only grimace as they exchanged looks. They now understood that a game was a game, and real life was just that. Not mentioning Blink, even a lousy table could block and survive their seemingly outrageously powerful spells. Then there was also what Gu Xian had done as he made his escape. Just the skill cancelation alone let him ignore the laws of physics as he completely changed his trajectory in mid-air; these were all things that could not happen in real life!

“A fall in a pit, a gain in the wit. All we can do is learn from our mistakes!” Broken Water Arrow said.

“Old Broken, you’ve played longer than we did!” someone mentioned.

“I’m getting on in years; I simply can’t compete with the youngsters...” Broken Water Arrow meekly replied.

“Ah. It looks like we’re really getting old.” Everyone was in low spirits. They were just a band of old and retired soldiers. With their age upfront for all to see, even though the game could allow them to relive the strength and dexterity they had in their youth, they were very helpless at their capacity to adapt to fresh things and other cognitive concepts. This could be seen as the anguish for anyone getting on in years; the young would always be quicker at picking up new things.

“Let’s make a move first.” Just as these crestfallen ex-soldiers prepared to leave, the door was pushed open, and Gu Fei poked his head through and looked at them. “What’s the matter? What’s holding you guys up for so long?”

The ex-soldiers were all rooted; the onlookers were also stunned. From what Gu Fei said, did that mean that he had actually been waiting for them outside this whole time? Did they not do all that just so that they could escape from the tavern?

“You... You...” These ex-soldiers had no idea what to say.

“Come out quickly; the little space inside gets in the way too much. Let’s come out and fight,” Gu Fei urged.

“Atta boy! I admire you just a little!” Sniper God perked up almost instantly. He rolled up his sleeves and got ready to do battle once more, but this was when someone suddenly appeared before him to stop him from leaving the tavern. After exchanging a few words, everyone could hear Sniper God blurt out with a bewildered look on his face, “What‽ Pay for damages‽”

With that, he walked around this person a few rounds checking him out before asking, “Are you a NPC?”

The NPC most likely had never heard such a stupid question before, for had no proper response to this question – a stark contrast from the intelligent AI the game company touted. It was instead the crowd that now burst into raucous laughter. Of course, that person was a NPC. It was the NPC in charge of receiving the patrons in this tavern; how could there be someone that did not recognize it?

Broken Water Arrow gave a mirthless chuckle. He was the one who had pulled all these old buddies of his into the game to help out, and they had been spending their time zealously leveling out in the wilds the moment they started. Even those few party quests that Ye Xiaowu had organized were all settled by the man himself, and all his comrades did was run errands and fight monsters. Their life here in Parallel World was very simple and plain, so much so that they had not even interacted with any NPC before this. In fact, this was the first time they had visited a tavern.

Broken Water Arrow did not feel a bit embarrassed that Sniper God was being made a joke of. Rather, he felt a little contrite. There was a lot of content to the game, yet his comrades had only focused on grinding monsters to level up since they started playing Parallel World. They had completely forwent any sort of entertainment solely to help him with this task.

“Yeah. We need to pay for damages.” Broken Water Arrow patted Sniper God’s shoulder.

“How much? I don’t have any money.” Sniper God had a very unabashed look on him. Broken Water Arrow quickly recalled how when he and his comrades were playing cards back in the days, even though gambling was strictly prohibited, everyone would still have a little wager privately, and this man would always shamelessly refuse to pay up every time he lost.

“This sum... It might be quite a lot!” Gu Fei’s head was still poking out from behind the door, and he interjected to this conversation when he saw what was happening. It could be said that he was experienced when it came to the issue of tavern claims; plenty of his ‘Bounty Mission’ would have him visiting taverns and breaking tables, stools, and chairs. Gu Fei had no clue about the rules of the system, but most of the time, he would be asked to pay for damages. Player-run taverns like Ray’s Bar were not too bad; he simply had to help clean up and pay a token sum and the proprietor would not seek to make things difficult for him. As a player-operated business, it was important for them to emphasize on peace to bring in the money. However, when facing a system-operated tavern, the only language spoken was that of the almighty coin, and there was no room for accommodations.

Gu Fei was quick and vicious with his attacks, and he could often insta-kill his bounties without much of a fuss. The highest record he had was breaking three tables, but what these old army veterans had done was far more overbearing. They made a huge mess of the tavern moving the furniture from its place, and this was also a rather large tavern to boot. There was no tavern of this size in Yunduan City, so even Gu Fei had no idea how much the final bill would be when talking of claims and compensation.

“How much are we talking about?” The bunch of them did not bother acknowledging Gu Fei as they asked Sniper God. The NPC had been talking to him just now! Actually, everyone had plenty of questions floating in their minds, such as what would happen if everyone had another round of PK and die. Would this NPC come chasing them over to the spawn point and ask them to pay? What if everyone forcefully logged out the game and never come back? Would this become their bad debt?

“How much, huh... I forgot. How much is it?” Sniper God asked the NPC again.

“3216 gold coins, 14 silver coins, and 54 copper coins,” the NPC announced.

Everyone’s breath hitched. No one thought that the system would be so black-hearted. There was no way of knowing just how this sum was calculated, so everyone could only pity the ex-soldiers this time around. How enjoyable could offending the system get? These men did not seem to be very wealthy, so there was no knowing if they could even scrape together 3000 gold coins. What would happen if they could not do so? Everyone had never come across such a situation before, and an intense discussion began.

“Anyone has any money?” Sniper God asked.

Everyone was looking up at the ceiling. They had only been focused on leveling after entering the game, so where would they get that much coin? What money they earned from their monster grind were just the spare copper coins that did not amount to much. The players nowadays see those as no more than trash, and there were plenty of players who would not even bother to pick those up.

The more cynical players were now looking at how Gu Fei was seemingly behaving as if he were uninvolved as he picked a fight with these men; they skeptically wondered if he was shameless enough to have calculated the penniless background of these men into the equation. The hatred for the rich was a mentality many had, so quite a few people began to have an unfavorable opinion of Gu Fei at this very moment.

“What’s going to happen if you don’t have the money? Can you leave?” Gu Fei asked.

“You...” Everyone was speechless.

A sum of over 3000 gold coins was definitely substantial; Gu Fei would have shared the same sentiment had this been several days ago. Now, even though he had only taken a few bags of gold coins from his efficient monster grinding routine earnings, as long as the sum was in the single digits of the thousands, it was no longer something he would be short of. Seeing these men caught in such an embarrassing predicament, Gu Fei casually pulled out a bag of gold coins from his dimensional pocket. “Pay it off first!”

The crowd was left dumbfounded once again. This bag of coins went flying to Sniper God. Caught unprepared, the man instinctively grabbed the bag but then saw how his comrades looked at him and hurriedly tossed it back. “Don’t need it.”

The onlookers’ eyes nearly fell out of their sockets as they watched this bag containing several thousand gold coins get tossed back and forth like this. They simply could not make sense of these two parties’ relationship. Were they enemies? Would enemies so forthrightly pull out several thousand gold coins like this?

“Just take it. I recently struck gold. I have so much money I have trouble spending it,” Gu Fei said even as he tossed it back at Sniper God. Most people would sound very modest and humble when talking about something like making a fortune, yet that was not how Gu Fei sounded. Adding that remark of his, it simply made him sound like a nouveau riche. Even if he did not think much about money, his previous image to this crowd was subverted by his hands.

The bag of money flew over, and Sniper God seized it once more. He did not even wait for his comrades to stare at him and just sent it flying back to Gu Fei, resolutely refusing, “No need.”

“Then, what do we do about this?” Gu Fei scratched his head.

These ex-soldiers were exasperated. “This isn’t any of your business, yeah?”

“I’ve been waiting for you guys for so long already,” Gu Fei grumbled.

“Come on in; we can fight here,” the ex-soldiers said.

“I can’t unleash inside. Besides, I would have to pay for damages if I make a mess of things, too,” Gu Fei stated.

The eyes of these ex-soldiers dimmed when Gu Fei said that. When all was said and done, there was just no way around this matter! Broken Water Arrow hurriedly sent a message to Ye Xiaowu detailing what had happened. Ye Xiaowu was on his way back even as they corresponded, and learning that over 3000 gold coins was within his capacity to pay, Broken Water Arrow could sigh in relief at last. When Ye Xiaowu asked him about the situation on their end, Broken Water Arrow had no idea how to answer him. What could he tell him? Tell him how Gu Fei originally escaped but returned and was now chatting them up, even going as far as to offer to lend them money?

When the onlookers saw that this matter was not over, those who were about to leave came to a halt again. Still, there were some who ran and circled around the tavern exterior, believing that the two men had surely set up a trap since they were so determined to continue the PK in a wider arena. In the end, after circling the establishment, all they saw was the Fighter from before squatting outside, and there was nothing else anywhere that hinted otherwise.

“Could there be a large number of Thieves in Stealth?” These onlookers muttered to themselves. Some continued walking around while feeling the air everywhere and others ran back into the tavern.

Time passed by. Suddenly, one of the onlookers outside came in. He was looking at the ex-soldiers, wanting to say something, yet afraid of saying a word. He turned to the other players, who were also here for the spectacle, and announced, “That Priest from before came back, but he got killed off by that Fighter outside the moment he reached the front door.”

“WHAT‽” Broken Water Arrow and the others were all stunned. Did that not mean that the situation they were in was akin to being stuck in the frontlines of this tavern as their supply lines were cut off?

Just as they were at a loss on what to do, Gu Xian pushed open the door and came in, wholly unsatisfied, “Why aren’t you guys out yet?”

“Why did you kill off Fleeting Smile?” Gu Fei asked.

“I’ll let him run to his death!” Gu Xian said. With that, he asked, “Is the Priest Academy very far from here?”

“Not far at all,” someone answered, causing Gu Xian to express visible disappointment.

“Since you have so much resentment, I do have a way to help you return,” Gu Fei suddenly said.

“Oh? You’ve got a solution?” Gu Xian quickly asked.

“I can kill you,” Gu Fei replied.