Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 769: Chapter 769 – The End of Yunduan City’s City Wars Event

The city assaulter’s encampments were all in ruins. Furthermore, they had all been ruined in one go. The players who were tasked with keeping an eye on things had not imagined that while the water flow lacked the explosive force that shot up into the sky like what they had seen initially, it was secretly submerging the very foundations of the encampments. This was why nothing had appeared to have changed over a long period of time for these locations, yet they had all sunk in unison all of a sudden. While the collapses themselves were nothing too deep, the encampments had all suddenly turned into low ground. This resulted in the water to all flow to the lowest point, effectively flooding these encampments in a flash flood over the span of a few brief moments, destroying the place as they fell into the enemy’s hand.

The message that the city assaulters got was from the system, so the authenticity of the message was not in contention. The pinging sound of prompts rang one after another, which obviously meant that it was not just one location that got destroyed. Everybody was reading the words of the message with great trepidation almost as if they were afraid to count the number of messages they received.

However, the reality was not going to change just because 200,000 players refused to count. There were five lines. A total of five message prompts had appeared, one for every encampment that was still up, no more, no less.

Furthermore, the system messages continued to broadcast to everyone indifferently, announcing that the city defenders from Yunduan City had achieved victory in this City Wars event, and that all the players in Yunduan City would then be subjected to a 15 minutes disconnection from the game after this event had ended. The city would undergo a brief city-wide maintenance in that time, mainly to change the various unique game rules that the City Wars event had in place back to how it was, while also tabulating the contribution points and rewards that to guilds accumulated for this City Wars event.

The system message continued to be repeatedly broadcasted afterward, and even those players who had not participated in any of the war efforts were paying attention to this. Since the past two days had stipulated a rule where dying had no penalty, everyone picked up the cautious gameplay style once more now that things were about to return to back to normal.

Of course, the ones who were most deeply affected by this announcement were still the players who had participated in the event, and over 200,000 city assaulters shared the same glum and ashen-faced expressions. Just a second ago, these players were all desperately jostling with each other as they tried to charge into the Mage Academy, but everything had already come to a stop by now.

Silence. Everything was extremely quiet. Gu Fei had just received the news after insta-killing a row of players, the other city assaulters came to a stop soon after. Gu Fei had obviously read the message as well and subsequently saw each and every glum face that the players were showing. There were looks of disappointment, anger, depression and some that looked irritated.

Gu Fei scratched his head. What should he say at this time? He looked to his left and right, spotting Sword Demon and the other experts all forming up in a column. The expressions on their faces were rather complex as well.

Did we win? Did we actually win? That was the thought running through their minds now.

Did we lose? Did we actually lose? This was what all the city assaulters were thinking.

Thousand Miles Drunk was trouble, but Sword Demon was also hard to deal with as well. Plus, with how he had established a guild and rallied men over to the city defender’s side, even though all of them had been creating nothing but issues for the city assaulters, none of them truly believed that these people could actually cause any certain degree of impact to the City Wars event as a whole. All of them had only seen Sword Demon and his bunch as no more than mere nuisances.

Conversely, the five men that consist of Gu Fei, Sword Demon and Drifting’s trio had all been forced by the system to join the city defender’s side, due to the fact that they each belonged to a Faction that forcefully included them as part of the city’s defense; none of them could even become part of the city assaulter’s forces even if they wanted to. Meanwhile, the guilds that they had established after, as well as the manpower that they had gathered, mostly consisted of neutral third party players who had not joined the City Wars event in the first place. These people originally had not expected nor cared much about the outcome of the event, and their thoughts were mostly occupied over other things even after they had joined in. Then there were the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth, who were just a group of ladies with no want for lofty aspirations. They had joined in this City Wars event entirely so they could join in the fun; they were better off discounting their strength entirely. In terms of the event as a whole, they were also another bunch of players who did not hold much of any hopes toward it.

Yet it was precisely this group of players that ultimately emerged victorious, and this was an extremely shocking surprise for them all.

“A miracle! It’s truly a miracle!” Drifting muttered in awe.

“We actually won...” Sword Demon turned to look at Gu Fei.

“A single quest that completely settles the city assaulters? This quest is truly too much!” Royal God Call exclaimed.

“I feel like this quest—”

“Now is not the time to analyze these things, celebrate a little Brother Assist!”

On his end, Brother Assist was scrunching up his forehead and knitting his eyebrows as he prepared to disentangle this water geyser quest, and he had only begun his analysis when Southern Lone Blade interrupted him. They were victorious in this City Wars event, and would surely gain plenty of benefits from this. Southern Lone Blade was presently very excited about the prospect of obtaining his potential rewards, looking as if he had won the grand prize for the lottery right now.

“We’ve won. Have we actually won?” Finally, some unknown player had yelled this out in all his excitement after he confirmed that the system’s message that had appeared several times was in fact true. Others had quickly come to their senses and were very quickly influenced by his euphoria as everybody began to cheer and celebrate. The inside and outside of the Mage Academy was essentially divided into two worlds like heaven and hell.

At this very moment, Gu Fei was standing right in between this heaven and hell, and he was still comparatively composed. The city assaulters were all feeling moody when they saw the excited expressions on these people, but there was nothing they could do about it. This was a game ruling, and while the outcome was unbelievable, it was exactly what had happened.

“Congratulations,” This was when Gu Fei and Sword Demon actually received congratulatory messages from Oathless Sword, Brave Surge and other guild leaders from the large guilds in Yunduan City. At this very moment, these men were at least maintaining their civilized demeanor on a superficial level, even though they were all wondering in their hearts just how they should extend their greetings to Gu Fei and Sword Demon.

“Thank you all. Luck. It has truly been just luck,” Gu Fei was not actually trying to be modest when he replied to the messages honestly.

Luck? Why is it that I don’t seem to have a brush of this luck at all, huh? These leaders of the large guilds were all sighing repeatedly at this. However, not all 200,000 players were trying to save their own faces and accepted this defeat with grace. Some had departed in a huff, while others were cursing silently in their hearts. But there was also a handful of men who had abruptly darted right into the Mage Academy.

Without saying a word, the men that came dashing in had eyes that were bloodshot red. There was only one thing this expression signaled: Kill.

There were some of these city defenders who were in shock, and there were some who remained calm in the face of this sudden attack. Sword Demon and the other veteran experts were all the latter, and they had already foreseen such a possibility from transpiring as a result.

There were no reasons that could be exchanged or raised right now. The only thing that they could do was still that one word: Kill.

Even though it was a miracle that they had won, and it was all a lucky fluke, they had obtained their victory in this event fair and square. Sword Demon and the others could understand and even sympathize with the disappointment that the city assaulters must be feeling, but that did not mean that they would just transform into non-retaliating sandbags for the players to vent their own frustrations at such a time now. But not everyone had reacted the same, and some city defenders made the prompt decision to log off from the game before they even gave the players the chance to attack, while some had cheekily taken the hits and did not retaliate, letting the city assaulters take their own anger out by allowing themselves to be killed. Then there were those who were even more despicable, using their words to further provoke and prod the enemy’s wounds.

Sword Demon did not do something like that, and neither did Gu Fei. Had Young Master Han been around, there was quite a good chance that he might have taken the lead on this among these men.

What Gu Fei and Sword Demon had done thus far was just fighting, so they continued to go by the book and fought.

The Mage Academy immediately became even more hectic as skills and spells flew everywhere. Because the rule had not been refreshed anew yet, the NPC guards were still running toward the city assaulters like before, so there were a number of these players acting on their fantastical whims that were trying to finish off the guards, hoping they could still somehow salvage their defeat.

Sword Demon and the others were not about to go mad following their sort of logic. The system message that was being repeated was very clear: The City War event had already ended.

As such, there was a very good chance that the current battle would not earn the players any contribution points toward the event. Meanwhile, all the whimsical daydreamers finally gave up after none of them received any system prompts after they dealt with the city guards. Disheartened, none of them were in the mood to fight any longer.

However, there were still players who wished to vent their frustrations by attacking the city defenders.

When some of the players used up their 25 lives limit, they were still sent to the 15th District like before.

Both sides were engaged in a chaotic battle, with neither organizing their manpower or employing any sort of battle tactic. It was just a good-to-honest fight.

That was how all the players spent the 15 minutes engaged in a messy battle. Out of the 200,000 city assaulters, a good majority had already dispersed, but there was still quite a good number of them that had stayed behind so that they could continue to contend with the city defenders. As this pandemonium of not so serious fighting continued, a good portion of the city defenders soon found themselves being sent to the 15th District.

That was when the system rang it’s final prompt and subsequently disconnected all the players that were still in Yunduan City.

—

The energetic Brother Assist hurried to check out the forums once he was back in the real world, but there was already a player who was even quicker than him that had already made the thread about the resolution of Yunduan City’s City Wars event. It was only 15 minutes, and yet that thread had already been upvoted a thousand times, with a majority of the replies to the original post being exclamations of disbelief.

Furthermore, all the players in Yunduan City had logged out by now, so the forum was even busier. A refresh of the messageboard and dozens of related threads had all appeared at the same time.

In the short time since, there was no technical post that wrote at length about what happened, and most were either players having a sigh or sending a tirade of curses. Brother Assist already had plenty of thoughts floating in his mind, and he was hurrying to type out his in-depth analysis right now. Even though he had not tagged along with Gu Fei whenever he was out questing, not being nosey was not a trait Brother Assist had. Asking here and there, the man had already heard a full account of everything that transpired.

After several minutes passed, there was finally a technical analysis of the City Wars event, though Brother Assist turned his nose up in contempt after reading through it. There was no way anyone from the city assaulters would know how many twists and turns had happened with Gu Fei and the city defenders. Everything had only resulted all from the fact that Thousand Miles Drunk had been in a Faction. Brother Assist was engrossed in reading all the gossip and quickly logged back into the game after 15 minutes passed. Actually, Brother Assist did not wish to give up on making his post right now, but he had no choice. He realized there was still quite a bit of detail that he needed to beseech Gu Fei and the others on as he typed on, so he reluctantly made his way back to Parallel World once again.

—

A good number of players had calmed down after 15 minutes passed, so even though they were still looking at one another inside the Mage Academy when they logged on, nobody made any move on each other. Besides, they were unable to do anything anyway, since the designated spawn points had regained their function as a safe zone.

When the city defenders first logged on, they were of course most concerned with the rewards, yet none of them had received any messages from the system.

“What’s going on?” Everyone felt a little uneasy. Honestly speaking, they had all felt that this victory had been too much of a miracle. Could the system have not recognized it?

“Perhaps it would only be given out only after all the City Wars throughout Parallel World had ended? Indeed, that must be it,” Brother Assist thought out loud.

“Yes, that must be it!” the others nodded.

Everyone began to look at each other. What should they do now? Leave the Mage Academy? There were still plenty of city assaulters around, while there were still stragglers in the courtyard outside. Would they still be waiting for a chance to attack? Dying would still result in a loss of a level if they were to fight now.

Sword Demon looked all around and noticed that the city assaulters were also in a state of disarray. Those who had charged into the Mage Academy were completely bereft of organization. There was no leader giving out orders either, so all of them had had no idea just who they should be listening to. There were quite a few players who looked to have already departed, but who knew if these people were truly over it.

After a short discussion, everyone temporarily made the decision to remain inside the safety of the Mage Academy. Brother Assist was very elated about this, as he happily jogged up to interview Gu Fei.

It was at this time when Sword Demon looked out over to beyond the Mage Academy courtyard gates and spotted Oathless Sword and the other guild leaders making their way over to them. The expression on these men’s faces as they made their way over was one that was exceptionally weary from the vicissitudes of life. They had finally managed to step into the location that they had tried every sort of method to get into, yet there was no longer any point to it now that they had very easily walked right in.

These guild leaders entered the Academy and saw Thousand Miles Drunk and Brother Assist having a conversation in the corner, not recognizing their presence. As such, they made their way over to Sword Demon who had been keeping his eye right on them the entire time.

“Congratulations,” the men repeated what they had previously messaged in person, their expressions quite twisted. None of them even pretended to hide it. Everyone could tell that this congratulation was surely very painful and unwilling on their part.

“We got lucky, that’s all,” Sword Demon said.

“Luck is luck, but there must still be the strength behind it at the end of the day,” the guild leaders chuckled bitterly. Even if someone had unscrewed their heads and planted the idea, none of them would have believed that any other player could have been successful doing what Thousand Miles Drunk had done to them, even if they possessed equipment that was greater than what Thousand Miles Drunk possessed.

Having known each other for such a long time, these people knew that while Thousand Miles Drunk was a strong and skilled expert, it was primarily due to his combat expertise while his equipment was merely supplementary. Without it, his strength would be greatly limited, although Thousand Miles Drunk would not even be anything more than a run-of-the-mill expert if he did not possess that level of skill in close combat.

“Brother Sword Demon! The name of your guild is really daring! Extremely Heaven Defying!” Oathless Sword had wanted to make a joke but at this point, he truly could not find it in him to laugh, so he could only say this dryly.

“Just friends messing around,” Sword Demon scratched his head awkwardly.

“Ahem, I wonder what Sword Demon plans to do from here on out?” Oathless Sword asked.

“Hmm, I haven’t thought about it,” Sword Demon honestly answered.

“If you need any help, go ahead and ask. We’re old friends, after all,” Oathless Sword was finally able to flash a smile.

Sword Demon smiled back, neither agreeing nor denying his offer. Brave Surge, Foe-herder, and Black Index Finger each followed suit afterward, their words more or less along the same lines of “Go ahead and ask if you need any help.” Sword Demon maintained that smile of his and nodded, not once making his attitude toward their offers known. He was quite clear that these guild leaders were all already putting on their PR faces. It was evident that all of them placed great value in Extremely Heaven Defying’s display of prowess, as for whether they would continue to placate or suppress them in the future, that remained to be seen. Sword Demon had plenty of experience in such things and he was well aware of such matters, so he had casually given off his unconcerned and confused attitude.

The four guild leaders turned away, wondering if they should go converse with Gu Fei while he was busy over by the other corner, only to suddenly see Gu Fei lift his head up and wave his hand toward them all.

The four were quite delighted and were about to head on over when they saw Gu Fei wave his hand again in their direction.

Why was he waving his hand twice? The four paused and immediately realized one of them was not directed for them. The four quickly turned around and saw that Young Master Han had also entered the Mage Academy with Gu Xiaoshang, and there were even some other leaders from the more inferior guilds tagging along. Even though these people were not exactly as high up as the five level 6 guilds, all of them had the same idea to work hard and develop their own guilds, so they had each come over in the hopes of establishing diplomatic relations with Sword Demon.

Sword Demon socialized accordingly. There were many guild leaders who wanted to invite him to go out drinking or food, and all Sword Demon could say was to reject them politely by vaguely saying “the future is long1”. Most of them had in fact used this method to make a show of their warmth, so none of them cared to insist.

This back and forth, however, went on for quite some time, and the attitude that these guild leaders showed was also a representation of their guild’s perspective on matters, that they were just working within the constraints as guilds and that there was no need for Sword Demon and the others to view them with animosity any longer. As for the other players, they naturally felt quite dissatisfied when they saw how the top guilds of Yunduan City were all beginning to build relationships with the city defenders, but no one dared to raise an issue about it either.

It was around this time when they heard someone clear his throat, and War Without Wounds came striding into the Mage Academy with great fervor. Seeing his friends upon entering, he instantly opened his mouth and railed, “You g*dd*mn bunch of scoundrels, to think you’ve actually won the d*mn*d thing, where’s the divine justice in such an outcome?”

“Hahaha, bet you’re regretting it right now!” Royal God Call mocked.

“Tsk, yours truly is a man who finishes what he started, unlike some hairless kid,” War Without Wounds scoffed as he eyed Royal God Call with contempt. He then ran over to Gu Fei’s side after, “Miles, quick add me to the guild.”

“Eh?” Gu Fei wondered aloud.

“Stop pretending. Aren’t you the guild leader for Amethyst Rebirth?” War Without Wounds said.

“Oh? What about your guild?” Gu Fei asked.

“Of course, I’ve already left it. I’ve already told our guild leader about it the moment you guys established a guild. I’ve said my best friends are now establishing a guild, so I’ll head over to help once the City Wars event ends,” War Without Wounds explained.

“To think you’ve said such a thing!” Gu Fei mused.

“Of course, are you doubting my character!” War Without Wounds flared his nostrils dramatically.

“No, not doubting. But the problem is that your best friends seem to be in Sword Demon’s guild,” Gu Fei answered.

“Ahem, you’re my best friend too! How could I leave you out in the cold? Aren’t you very lonely in Amethyst Rebirth, all by yourself? Have no fear, your bro has arrived to accompany you,” War Without Wounds declared.

“You’re way too shameless!!!” Gu Fei could not stand him any longer.

“Come on then, add me to the guild, quick!” War Without Wounds had his arms spread out like he was gifting himself.

That was when Gu Fei’s gaze turned over to another direction, asking, “Is there anything?”

The newcomer was July, and in all fairness, Gu Fei knew he was no more than a figurehead for her in Amethyst Rebirth. Now that she had strolled over to his corner, it was most likely she had something to say.

July nodded, “It’s this. We’ve discussed amongst ourselves, and wish to merge both Amethyst Rebirth and Extremely Heaven Defying together.”

“merge?” Gu Fei was stunned.

“Actually, none of us ladies in Amethyst Rebirth had done anything during this City Wars event, but now that there’s a chance that we might actually obtain rewards for our role in it, don’t you think the ultimate reward would be counted together if we were to merge right now?” July said.

Gu Fei heard her offer and immediately understood. Even though Amethyst Rebirth had also recruited a lot of players to their side right now, in July and the other ladies’ hearts, their guild was just the group of ladies, even if some of them had volunteered to join up with Extremely Heaven Defying.

“But we are not certain whether the reward for this event would be shared if we were to combine our forces!” Brother Assist interrupted.