Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Brother Assist was still smiling, except that confident smile of his had suddenly become quite avaricious.

“It is indeed possible,” Brother Assist began to expand upon the idea. “I’ve already begun to hear people posting for information about hiring men for revenge in the forums of many cities out there. Word on the street is that some mercenary groups have even began to accept these sort of requests. Right now, the most difficult aspect to nailing these targets down is entirely the lack of information. It’s not easy to find out where these people are hiding.”

“What, there’s already people out there already doing this sort of thing?” Eternal Dominion had originally thought he would have cornered the market exclusively. He had not expected there would be others who had already attempted the same and momentarily felt discouraged.

“Competition begets development. Brother Assist, continue,” Gu Fei quipped.

“Actually, it would be too limiting for you to merely focus on the larcenists. After all, you’re really just helping your potential clients PK their targets, right? There’s already plenty of such requests right now. I dare say there must be plenty of missions up in the Hall of Mercenaries here in Luori City alone. However, the targets for these are usually experts and would often result in unending conflicts, so plenty of mercenary groups are unwilling to pick them up. However, given the strength that Eternal War possess, there’s no way you guys have not came across such missions, right?” Brother Assist inquired.

Eternal Dominion coughed once before answering sheepishly, “Of course we have.”

“The rewards for these sort of missions are usually pretty high. If you keep doing them consistently, I think you’ll definitely be able to reach the income a professional player makes.”

Eternal Dominion was quiet for a while before coming clean, “It would be quite difficult for us to do these sort of missions here in Luori City.”

“Why’s that?” Brother Assist was perplexed.

“Because the target for most of these missions is me…”

“Pfft..” Even the ever calm Young Master Han struggled to stifle his laugh, but he covered his mouth with a casual wipe of his hand. “Please, continue.”

“In that case…” Brother Assist felt awkward as well. Had he considered the other side of things, Eternal Dominion’s mercenary group had demonstrated a level of strength in Luori City that even the guilds were unable to keep up with. Even if he had not targeted anyone maliciously, plenty of people would be tempted to hire someone to assassinate him just out of jealousy alone.

“Then head to a different city, then!” War Without Wounds was still far more direct when it came to his thinking.

“Actually, the main problem with such conflict between players is how difficult it is to prove who’s in the right or wrong. It’s not really easy to lend a hand like that!” Eternal Dominion said.

“That’s right; that’s why I say the targets must be a bunch of evil larcenists!” Gu Fei stated.

The experts were originally surprised by the statement Eternal Dominion had made, but after Gu Fei’s words, these men immediately realized that these two were truly the same sort; equating both morality and value equally, They might be very strong in Parallel World, but they would never use that strength to prey on the weak. It seemed like it was a moral code that they would never turn their backs on.

Gu Fei had never maliciously targeted others for PvP in the game.

There were very few players that had died from PK when Eternal Dominion and his Eternal War mercenary group rolled up, too. This was one particular aspect that showed him to be kinder than Gu Fei, as Gu Fei would still act like a player did and not show a hint of mercy when the opportunity presented itself. He happily accumulated PK Value in huge amounts, creating much talk about his crazy ways.

“Well, in that case…” Eternal Dominion was clearly uninterested in Brother Assist’s suggestion, and Brother Assist was naturally not going to bother convincing Eternal Dominion to change the way he thought, either. All he could do was follow along with the Fighter’s wishes. “Well, it’s sure to be a lot more difficult if you’re only targeting the organizations that commit larceny and such. I’m not really confident I have that much information on these matters, myself.”

Seeing that the group of experts that he had gathered were not contributing anything positive to the formulation of this business idea of his, but were instead pointing out even more potential roadblocks in their way, and causing Eternal Dominion to hesitate and even shrink back from committing, he quickly knocked on the table. “Now is not the time to plan that far ahead! I called you guys over because I know you guys have plenty of friends. Is there perhaps any potential business that you guys might have at hand to get Eternal Dominion started?”

All of them showed a rather despondent expression. Everyone present here were considered to be legendary MMO gamers. If they had any issue that they themselves could not handle, was there even a need to spend coin to hire others? Would that not just ruin the names they had made for themselves if word got out?

Just as they were thinking Gu Fei was being a little too outrageous, it was Young Master Han who suddenly said, “Ah. There is something...”

The others were stunned, but quickly realized what he was thinking about.

“Oh, do tell!” Gu Fei said, just as it came to him. “Wait a minute! You’re not gonna hire him to kill me, are you?” Gu Fei felt that it was entirely possible for him to come up with such a vile idea.

Young Master Han merely shot him a scathing look as he turned to Eternal Dominion, “The Warrior Southern Lone Blade is someone who dabbles in larceny, and he has his eyes set on us. Why don’t you take care of him for us?”

“No problem!” Eternal Dominion immediately agreed.

Truly a show of indomitability! All the experts marvelled silently in their hearts. Even if Southern Lone Blade had lost a level, he was definitely not someone they would dare to belittle. After all, what good was a difference of just a level or two in MMOs? Parallel World had made leveling an arduous process precisely as a means to reduce this gap between the players. Southern Lone Blade might have dropped a whole level, but that did not change the fact that he was still a top-notch expert.

On the other hand, Eternal Dominion did not even spare a moment’s hesitation when he heard Southern Lone Blade’s name come up, agreeing as readily as if he had just received a request to stomp on that ant outside your front door. This aura of power that he displayed was indeed far from ordinary.

“Southern Lone Blade…” Gu Fei muttered. As the incident had only happened two days ago, he still had quite the impression of that Warrior bearing a sword and shield in his hands.

“As for the price… How much are you intending to charge, Brother Eternal?” Young Master Han asked.

“That… I’m not too sure about that. You guys are all MMO experts, do you mind helping me come up with something suitable?” The tone Eternal Dominion used was sincere, which made things somewhat uncomfortable for these experts present. They were all more than happy to call themselves as peak experts in front of anyone, but truly felt it would be inappropriate and even lacking to do the same in front of people like Gu Fei and his sort.

No one else had a better understanding just how frightening it was going up against people like Gu Fei and his fellow martial practitioners.

“This.. well…” Young Master Han turned to look at the others. After all, this matter pertained to everyone present, so this move expressed the fact that he would not be the only person paying the bill.

“Ahem! Honestly, we should be more than able to deal with this matter by ourselves…” War Without Wounds began. Even though he was not actually saying they could really deal with it themselves, he nevertheless expressed this idea to use it as a bargaining chip for the price negotiations.

“What? So you guys don’t need my help?” The sincerity of Eternal Dominion’s voice remained. War Without Wounds simply had no idea how to carry on when he heard the man say things so plainly.

“Don’t be so hasty,” Gu Fei hurriedly butted in. “He’s just all talk anyway. This matter is yours to earn for sure.” Gu Fei turned his gaze to Young Master Han as he said this. Gu Fei was naturally well aware that when it came to this gang of experts here, they would always seek to resolve a problem at hand by themselves before bothering others. There was only two reasons that this potential opportunity would be mentioned in front of Eternal Dominion: It was either their attempt at giving Gu Fei face, or there must be some other reasoning behind the matter. Since Young Master Han was the one who raised this suggestion, Gu Fei was inclined towards the latter. Taking into consideration the man’s personality, Gu Fei was rather certain that he might be looking to stir up trouble for Southern Lone Blade. In any case, he was certain that Southern Lone Blade had some tumultuous days ahead of him.

Young Master Han chuckled, “I’m not the only one who would be affected by this. Everyone, chip in!”

Everyone was now in tears. Although the matter truly affected each one of them, it was solely Young Master Han’s idea to hire Eternal Dominion. They had all essentially been dragged into paying!

But now that the discussion had already come to a head, this was no longer the time to refuse chipping in. This was an embarrassment that no one would be willing to bear, so these people looked at one another, probably already discussing the matter of price.

“It is really hard to put a finger on how much it should cost when it comes to the price for this sort of mission.”

“That’s right. The market rate has yet to settle for this, so there’s really no such thing as market rate to speak of.”

“That’s right. So how much should it be?”

Their discussion was done entirely over the mercenary channel, so Gu Fei could clearly see it happen in real time. They were all coming up with excuses and evidently against having to pay the bill. From Gu Fei’s perspective, he did not think the amount here was key. It was more important to first allow Eternal Dominion to feel that this was a viable venture to go into.

Taking a step back, Gu Fei felt it was better to become a hitman that targeted more than these larcenists with no questions asked than it was to violate the rule that the kung fu of old that had been passed down for generations refrained from imparting martial skills to people who were unable to discern between good and evil. After all, certain priorities out weighed certain others! Sometimes, it was better to choose the lesser of two evils; if all they did was get bogged down by strict rules and regulations, how would anyone be able to eke out a living?

Thus, Gu Fei once more decided for Eternal Dominion, “We’ll leave the matter of price for later! Let’s just complete this mission first. Come, let’s take down Southern Lone Blade!” Gu Fei said the first sentence to the players of YME, before finally finishing off that last bit with Eternal Dominion.

Eternal Dominion had also gotten up and nodded towards the people present, “Then I shall take my leave first.”

“I’ll go with you,” Gu Fei said.

“I await the message of victory from the two of you,” Young Master Han said calmly.

“How many levels do we drop him by?” Gu Fei asked, a question that was frequently fielded by professional gamers.

“Anything goes!” Young Master Han’s answer once more revealed that his reason for hiring Eternal Dominion was entirely just to embarrass Southern Lone Blade.

“We’re leaving!” Gu Fei got up and said to Eternal Dominion.

“I don’t think we might be able it make it today?” Eternal Dominion looked at the time.

These experts all nodded knowingly. These two were indeed two peas of the same pod; they even shared their habit of logging off on time.

“We can first make our way to Linshui City. We’ll do everything else we need to do tomorrow,” Gu Fei.

Eternal Dominion nodded, and the two man bade farewell to the others and left the tavern.

--

“Where are all your disciples?” Gu Fei asked Eternal Dominion. “Aren’t they all the students from your bodyguard school?”

Eternal Dominion nodded, “Most of them are. I don’t think there’s a need to call them. How are we gonna split the payment if over a hundred of them join in? They have their own jobs anyway, it’s better if they just focus on their bodyguarding career!”

“Sounds like even you could go become one yourself!” Gu Fei said.

“Following your boss the whole day, sounds more like a nanny than a bodyguard. You don’t even have time for yourself at all, how would that work?” Eternal Dominion was indeed a bodyguard instructor; given his understanding on what the job entailed, it was likely he might have once considered becoming one himself.

“Looks like your only option is to become a professional gamer, then!” Gu Fei mused.

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