Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Gu Fei looked questioningly at Coco, who had casually waved goodbye at them and left, before he turned to regard Sword Demon… How tragic it was that Gu Fei, with his face painted, could not tell whether Sword Demon was surprised or calm at this moment. Gu Fei had just taken his first step to knowing just how frightening camouflage could be. Because of how the face paint had ‘broken’ the features on their faces, it was difficult to tell their expression at a glance. Their faces could only be described with a word: ferocious.

Seeing Broken Water Arrow step forward to the two men, Gu Fei quickly sent a message to Sword Demon: “What are we gonna do if he adds either of us as friends?”

“Well, we’re of course going to reject him…” Sword Demon replied even as he regarded Gu Fei strangely. What a foolish question! Their IGNs would surely expose their true identities if they were to add Broken Water Arrow as a friend.

“Reject… Won’t that be too suspicious? What reason are we going to give?” Gu Fei asked.

“Our friends list is full,” Sword Demon answered simply.

“Eh? Is that even possible?” Gu Fei was astonished.

“Of course. It’s actually rare to find people who haven’t filled up their friends list after the game had been on for so many months…” Sword Demon said.

Gu Fei was feeling a bout of inferiority come over him, for he was not even aware that the number of friends he could add on the list had a limit.

Broken Water Arrow was now standing before them. In fact, in just a short time, these three men had met twice. However, right now, on the surface, this was their first meeting.

“Broken Water Arrow!” He gave a crisp introduction of himself. He actually did not need to introduce himself, as there was no way any member from Deep Freeze would not know him, yet he still did so anyway. Treating it as a sort of icebreaker, Gu Fei and Sword Demon took the cue to introduce themselves to him.

When he had first come up with this plan, Gu Fei had already thought of an alias for himself: Drunk Flight ¹ . It was an amalgamation of his real name and his IGN. But the moment he was about to tell this to Broken Water Arrow, he felt Sword Demon, who was standing beside him, lightly touch his arm. This caused Gu Fei to stop himself just as a message quickly came from Sword Demon. “Your name is Rice Soup.”

“What sorta lousy name is that?!” Gu Fei questioned, even as he heard Sword Demon introduce himself. “White Sand.”

“Rice Soup.” Gu Fei did not dare to mess things up, so he had no choice but to go along with Sword Demon’s introduction.

“Coco gave us these names.” That was when Sword Demon sent a message to explain it.

Gu Fei quickly realized his mistake. Aliases? They could not possibly pass scrutiny joining someone’s guild like this, since every IGN would be logged into the guild members list. If the man casually flipped through it, he would realize that there was no Drunk Flight in it at all! Would he not end up exposing himself even faster by doing so? Gu Fei was a little ashamed that he had not considered this. The fact that he would always forget these simple rules in the game just went to show how subpar he was when it came to gaming compared to MMO veterans like Sword Demon and his friends.

Meanwhile, given that Coco had provided this name for them, they must belong to someone in the guild, whose job class would most likely align with theirs as well. As for the authenticity of said person, Gu Fei reckoned that the lady should have thought of it before choosing the names, so there was no need for him to worry too much.

“Hope we may have a pleasant cooperation.” Broken Water Arrow was already extending his hand out to the two.

Sword Demon was the first to shake the man’s hand with Gu Fei following right after. Broken Water Arrow was still using that measured strength with his hand grip, while Gu Fei had intentionally used a bit more strength than usual. He had no idea if Broken Water Arrow had the same assessment as he did from the handshake before, but Gu Fei decided to play it safe and was not careless with this particular detail.

Furthermore, Gu Fei might be able to recognize Broken Water Arrow from his build, but he believed the same could not be said with Broken Water Arrow to him. This was because the muscular neck, waist, and thighs Broken Water Arrow possessed were physical traits the average joe would not have. Conversely, Gu Fei’s build was very common, and it was only when he wore form-fitting clothes would people discover that he was well-built. This very fact was perfectly covered by a mage robe. Moreover, in addition to how his clothes’ billowy fabric unintentionally hid his body proportion, he was currently wearing a long windbreaker over the robe itself. If he were wearing the trademark Fighter’s clothes, which effortlessly showcased the curves of the wearer and ended up hamstringing the efforts of plenty of male Fighters to flirt with the fairer sex with their ill-proportioned body figures, he would surely be recognized by Broken Water Arrow.

With the introductions out of the way, nobody bothered to waste any more words. “Follow me!” Broken Water Arrow turned around and strode forward.

“He’s pretty straightforward, character-wise.” Gu Fei was rather fond of people who let their actions speak louder than their words.

“Yeah. He’s giving off a bit of a soldier-vibe,” Sword Demon agreed.

“Hmm. I don’t know about that. I haven’t interacted much with soldiers before.” Gu Fei was unsure.

“Well… Neither have I, but I imagine that is how they will act,” Sword Demon admitted.

The average joe would hardly or never have much interaction with soldiers in real life. Most likely, they would encounter long-retired military personnel from the army that would be no different from anyone else after all those times. Thus, the impression anyone would have of such men was mostly based on the movies and films about military that they had watched before. From that perspective, Broken Water Arrow completely fulfilled the criteria of an ideal soldier to a T. Every step he took seemed to be done with a purpose.

“Let’s not discuss this now and just catch up to him!” Gu Fei ended the conversation with Sword Demon as they followed in the wake of his footsteps.

Deep within the jungle, the two found themselves in the official training grounds of Deep Freeze. Gu Fei could sense glimpses of killing intent flaring around him from time to time. It was apparent that the players around would throw the occasional glance their way as they went about changing their positions. Sounds of whistling arrows was occasionally heard, and from the way Broken Water Arrow turned his head to the side to look, Gu Fei could tell that the man was involuntarily knitting his eyebrows at every sound of it. No matter how heavily disguised anyone was, the act of knitting eyebrows was still very visible.

Seems like he’s not particularly satisfied with the drills… Is this guy taking all this seriously? Gu Fei wondered to himself.

“Job class!” Broken Water Arrow suddenly came to a halt and turned around to shout.

“What?” Gu Fei and Sword Demon were startled by this.

“Report your job classes,” Broken Water Arrow repeated.

“Mage.””Thief.” Both gave a reply.

“Oh.” Broken Water Arrow acknowledged this as his eyes probed the two before him. As Gu Fei and Sword Demon were already feeling a little guilty, they could not help but be a little anxious under such scrutiny by the man. Just as they were starting to feel uneasy, they heard Broken Water Arrow say, “Why does neither of you have your guild emblem?”

Gu Fei was surprised. He had not expected this person to notice that so soon. He was still thinking of an explanation when he heard Sword Demon answer. “We agree with your thinking. In order to better hide ourselves within this jungle, we need to hide our emblem as well.”

“Well said.” Broken Water Arrow actually nodded to show his approval.

Gu Fei was extremely astonished by this. Sword Demon had very quickly gotten into character already. On second thought, he felt something amiss with this because it sounded as if Sword Demon had received Broken Water Arrow’s teachings before. This was naturally impossible, so he swiftly sent an inquiry to Sword Demon.

“Coco told me to say that if he inquired about our guild emblem, since this man doesn’t approve of members wearing their guild emblems so blatantly,” Sword Demon answered.

“When did she say that? Why don’t I know anything about it?” Gu Fei asked.

“She messaged me privately. It’s safer,” Sword Demon informed.

Gu Fei could understand this. Since they were right before Broken Water Arrow’s very eyes, resorting to messaging privately would indeed be a lot safer. Still…”Why didn’t she tell me as well?”

“She doesn’t have you on her friends list.”

“Then, add me!”

“Her friends list is full.”

To think that excuse would be used on Gu Fei himself this soon.

“You two, follow that group.” Of course, Broken Water Arrow was unaware that they had been sending private messages to each other all this while as he deployed them for the drills.

As Broken Water Arrow called out, several players poked their heads from the jungle and came to where Gu Fei and Sword Demon were standing. Anxiety abruptly gripped Gu Fei again. It was easy for them to fool Broken Water Arrow, as the latter was a fresh recruit, but with long-time guild members were in the mix, they might run into some trouble. Coco even told them how harmonious their guild was; an unfamiliar face would be deadly conspicuous right now. While they were wearing camouflage and everyone could barely recognize each other, the past relationship that players shared still existed. With them directly meeting these long-time members, would they not be immediately exposed if some happened to bump into Rice Soup and White Sand and shared a couple of drinks, as well as do quests or grind monsters, previously?

While the worry set in, those men came forward and began to size up the two newcomers, gingerly asking, “Who are you guys?”

Everybody in the guild was in disguise, so unless these people had reached a certain level of familiarity with one another, they would have no difficulty recognizing one another.

“Rice Soup.” With the situation unfolding as it had, Gu Fei had no choice but to bite the bullet and pray that these people would not be particularly familiar with the player Rice Soup!

“White Sand,” Sword Demon answered as well.

“Oh!” someone exclaimed. He dragged it in such a way that left Gu Fei’s heart palpitating madly, especially when the man clapped his hands together. “So it’s the two newest recruits! Welcome, welcome!”

“Eh?” Gu Fei realized that the player he was impersonating was not someone whom these other members would recognize. This meant that he had plenty of room to work with. In a bout of elation, he saw Sword Demon similarly look as if a burden had lifted off his shoulders as Gu Fei read the message he received: “So she actually made the necessary preparations for everything. Can’t believe she hasn’t said a word about this. She nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Be content that at least she told you anything,” Gu Fei replied. Thinking back, at least Sword Demon was able to get the names of their false identities and to know how to explain their lack of guild emblems. Had the two of them went their separate ways, he would have been dead in the water upon arrival.

“Onesie here is the team leader for group one. You guys will be learning from him first.” Broken Water Arrow pointed to the man he was calling Onesie. This player happened to be the same man who had clapped his hands together.

“How do you do?” Gu Fei and Sword Demon acted the part of sincere and humble newcomers.

“Onesie here is ranked 21st on the Archers leaderboard!” a player beside Onesie boasted.

“How amazing!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon praised.

“Besides the guild leader, Onesie is the most impressive trapper in our guild.” Another player helped to promote his friend.

“How spectacular!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon continued to commend.

“Ha ha ha ha! Frogs in a well. You guys are just a bunch of little rascals that know not of the world!” Suddenly, a discordant voice came from within the jungle. Gu Fei, a man who had specialized training in determining position through sound, already turned in the direction of the voice while everyone was still looking around, yelling out, “Who’s there?!” Another group of players appeared from behind a certain tree copse, looking just like everyone else.

“Huh, and here I was wondering who it is. Turns out it’s just one of the seven Bottlenecks – that so and so!” someone beside Onesie ambiguously said. They all stared at this new group that had appeared.

Sword Demon and Gu Fei looked at each other for a moment; Gu Fei then sent a message over to Sword Demon. “Didn’t she say that her guild is harmonious?”

“We ain’t got a choice. As long as there are people, there’s bound to be aJianghu ² ,” Sword Demon answered.

“Let’s watch.”

“Yes, let’s.”

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