Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

As that scimitar came cleaving down, Gu Xian knew that it would connect to him if he continued to lie there, so he got up with extreme reluctance.

He got up far quicker than anyone had expected; he, who seemed stuck to the ground like mud, suddenly sprang up like a coiled spring and was immediately in midair from the momentum of his action.

The man wielding the scimitar jumped in fright, and that cleave he delivered was already past the man’s body. He was about to adjust his blow, but all he saw was a black blur before him as his opponent sent a kick right onto his temple.

He wanted to retaliate, but who would have guessed that Gu Xian’s follow-up attack would be even faster than his? As such, a second footprint was planted on to his face right after.

In contrast to the man who was getting his face kicked, the others had earnestly thought that they were watching an exciting performance. The Fighter kicked their comrade with the scimitar many times while in midair and continued to deliver punches on the latter once he descended to a certain height.

The other Fighters that had witnessed this scene were dumbfounded and intoxicated… To think one can execute Heavy Punch, Uppercut Punch, and Thrusting Kick while in midair? Oh, wait a minute… Can one unleash Seismic Toss, too?

After that poor Warrior received that mess of punches and kicks, Gu Xian grabbed a hold of the Warrior’s shoulders in the last instant before he landed on the ground. Jerking the man downward in one smooth motion, Gu Xian used that counter force to remain suspended in midair and quickly forced the Warrior to eat dirt on the ground.

“Was that a Seismic Toss?” The players all discussed this, even as that pitiful guildmate of theirs lifted his middle finger toward the lot in his pain, disappearing in a white light.

“Ah!” This was when everyone realized that they were in a fight, that this was not a demonstration of a Fighter’s skill from the game officials, and that their comrade had already been done in by a chain attack they had never seen before by their opponent.

At this moment, Gu Xian finally landed on the ground, and the crowd, which had woken from their sudden induced stupor, moved to surround him.

“Ugh, this is so troublesome!” Gu Xian lifted his head and gazed up at the sun a little longingly before disappearing in a flash of white light.

“Eh? Who attacked?” The core member leading these men, which was also considered to be an expert, was very perplexed when he failed to discover who did the killing blow.

Everybody was equally baffled as they turned to look at one another, the statement ‘not me’ spreading among them.

Finally, someone realized something and pointed toward the center in shock, “Could… Could… Could it be…”

“Could it be what?” Everyone turned to regard this man.

“Could it be that the man has forcefully logged out?” He finally completed his question.

The crowd burst into discussion once more.

They eventually came to the conclusion that the expert possessed an unparalleled temperament.

“Considering the repercussion of forcefully logging out, wouldn’t it be better to lose a level, instead?” The core member stared at one of his comrades in confusion.

Everybody nodded their heads. The prevailing sentiment among players was that losing a level was nothing compared to the unknown terror that forcefully logging out held, and the more expert someone was, the less likely they would dare to forcefully log off. What if they lost a rare skill in the process? Or top-grade equipment? This sort of things had happened before. Given the large number of players in the game, such a tragedy had already happened to plenty of people, subsequently crying and bemoaning about it afterward. That was why everyone was all the more cautious with checking if their electricity bills were up to date, that their internet bills were paid on schedule, and the house they were in was safe from any immediate danger like catching on fire… Otherwise, who knew what losses they might suffer if these objective reasons became the cause of anyone forcefully logging out?

However, right before their eyes right now, one of the Ten Great Adepts of the Fighter job class had actually forcefully logged out without a hint of hesitation when surrounded; just what sort of mentality did the man possess?

“It must be an accident…” Everybody discussed, refusing to believe that someone would have such a mentality.

“Yes, that must be it!” The core member expressed maturely. “Let’s wait around for a bit.”

The people nodded. If this was an accidental disconnection, the man would most likely log in the first chance he got to check everything after the matter was resolved. Yet, in the end…

Several minutes had passed. Some looked at one another awkwardly. “Doesn’t seem like he’s coming back, right?”

“Most likely…”

“Do we continue to wait?”

---------------

Over by the other side, Sword Demon was running along with Gu Fei as he watched what had just happened. Gu Xian’s impressive leap from the ground followed by his chain of kicks and punches, which almost instantly floored the Warrior, only served as confirmation to Sword Demon that he was no match for that man in a direct confrontation… Soon after, when Gu Xian calmly forcefully logged out, displaying that air of composure, Sword Demon was all the more certain: That man was definitely not a proper MMO gamer…

The two made it to the door of the firewood shed as that crowd of players that they were originally not too far from continued to hold their position around where Gu Xian had forcefully logged out. Meanwhile, another bunch of troops from Flowergazing in the Fog that had just turned up from the other side of the Government City Hall was actually closer to the Mage and Thief duo at the moment.

The door to the firewood shed was rotten; Gu Fei felt he could break it down with a simple slap, yet the door remained shut even with a casual shove. He had already noted that rusty keyhole on the door, and the shove he did was merely him checking its sturdiness.

“Key!” Gu Fei shouted. Sword Demon came forward and successfully fit the key right into the keyhole in one motion. He twisted and pushed as the door creaked open; the two of them rushed in and closed it behind them.

The entire firewood shed was equally dilapidated as the door. Visible holes up on the walls and roof could be seen, allowing in a bit of light in the musty and gloomy shed. The two men quickly scanned the room they were in, subconsciously moving toward a hole, which let them observe the situation outside as they came to a stop at the same time.

“They can’t get in, right?” Gu Fei asked.

“That should be the case,” Sword Demon replied.

Applying the usual logic found in games, the existence of a lock to a door meant no one else could enter without the key no matter how rotten door’s state was. Holding onto such a inference, that was why Gu Fei had brought Sword Demon into this shed without any hesitation. In that moment before, Gu Fei was not confident they would have enough time to get over the wall using the grappling hook, much less expect the less adept Sword Demon succeed in making it over after him. As such, he decided to duck into the firewood shed temporarily for shelter. As for how they would escape, they had no choice but to consider that at a later time.

“I’ll keep an eye on things here while you search this place!” Sword Demon said as he continued to head over to the hole. While the people outside should not be able to open the door without the key, he was still skeptical over it, given how different Parallel World had panned out to be.

Gu Fei began closely examining the things within the shed and soon heard knocking from the door, which slowly turned into a more forceful and loud banging that seemed to cause the entire shed to shake. Dust began to fall like snow, but the door refused to budge. Gu Fei and Sword Demon were finally at ease. Things that the system created were truly indomitable!

Sword Demon finally stopped keeping a wary eye on what was happening outside, even as more and more people gathered. The men outside were soon left helpless and made no headway with the door. Sword Demon began searching the place as he asked, “Do you think they would go search that Sleeping Assassin?”

“Would they still be able to find the key?” Gu Fei asked.

“Hmm. This isn’t the first day that that Assassin sleeps there, right? Also, it’s unlikely that no player has ever popped by here before. If anyone did arrive here and spotted that NPC, I’m sure everyone would search it accordingly. Still, the fact that we managed to find a key on it means that this item might respawn when the game refreshes; it isn’t unique.” Sword Demon lived up to his name as an MMO veteran with his familiarity over the mindset of the average gamer.

“What you said makes sense, but nothing about the key indicates that this is the door that it opens, correct?” Gu Fei asked.

“Indeed. But if those guys outside can’t get in, while we can, they’ll naturally be able to surmise that we have a key in our possession, and if anyone happens to have a key they got for no rhyme or reason, they’ll surely give it a shot here,” Sword Demon explained.

“But no one has tried it yet, so I reckon that they aren’t yet aware of this,” Gu Fei said.

“Let’s hope so!”

“Putting that aside, let’s hurry and search the place. We ain’t gonna be able to get out from here any time soon,” Gu Fei said.

------------

Outside the shed, the guild leader of Flowergazing in the Fog, Three Sighs of Flowing Maple, finally arrived at the scene. He was previously leading his men as a vanguard by the courtyard in preparation for defending the compound from an invasion from a large guild, but he quickly realized that this was just a deception of the enemies and immediately sent all his men back to their respective positions.

Those two packs of troops that came from the left and right side of the Government City Hall were nothing but men returning to their posts. Because the backyard was precisely the place where Gu Fei had managed to break in from a few days back, this area became a place where they had concentrated a heavy defense in. Spotting the two suspicious characters Gu Fei and Sword Demon the moment they arrived had left them surprised.

They had originally positioned a good number of men here. This also included Windchord, the man who had confidently taken the initiative to remain. Everybody thought that even if Gu Fei and Sword Demon were to arrive and the Fighter was unable hold them off, he would at least send a message to inform them accordingly. Unexpectedly, Windchord had simply remained silent, not saying a word after letting the two men go, and even went as far as to kill off one of their comrades.

That core member that had led the first pack of men informed Three Sighs of Flowing Maple of this, making a point to first admonish Windchord for his actions.

“Blood relative?” Three Sighs of Flowing Maple was a little astonished when he heard about the connection between the two, glancing at Drifting.

Drifting grimaced. “We are not so close that I’ll know his blood relatives.” Drifting and Gu Fei were indeed not particularly familiar with each other; the number of times that they had met each other were countable by hand. Drifting would never reach the level of familiarity where he would be able to perceive facial similarities between Gu Fei and Windchord just like what Sword Demon had done.

“Are they inside right now?” Three Sighs of Flowing Maple felt that discussing two men’s blood connection now was inconsequential.

The people nodded.

Three Sighs of Flowing Maple eyed the rusted keyhole on the door that they could not destroy. “Do they have a key?”

“Perhaps this is the rumored lockpicking ability that a Thief can have?” someone suggested.

“Isn’t that skill more in line with a Rogue?” someone asked.

“Sword Demon’s an Assassin, yes?” Three Sighs of Flowing Maple asked Drifting.

Drifting nodded.

“Where did they manage to get the key?” Three Sighs of Flowing Maple was stumped.

“Perhaps he got a hold of the key when he previously broke into the Government City Hall,” someone mistakenly deduced.

“It’s possible.” This mistake had actually been seconded by another.

“His quest is to assassinate Giordano, so what’s the point of making a break into this d*mn shed?” Three Sighs of Flowing Maple muttered as he walked around the place. He spotted the hole on the wall and quickly stepped forth in an attempt to look right in.

Gu Fei continued to keep watch over this same hole after Sword Demon had left it. The moment the light from this hole got obstructed, he promptly realized what was happening and casually grabbed something nearby and threw it over.

“F*ck!” Three Sighs of Flowing Maple yelled as he retreated several steps. The nearby players looked over at him and each of them lowered their heads to hide their sniggers. The dignified leader of the largest guild in Xiawu City had his face dirtied black by a cloud of dust tossed right at him.

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