Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

“Eternal Dominion’s movement speed isn’t too fast, not like Thousand Miles Drunk’s.” As the six men discussed this, they grew more and more convinced that this was a brilliant idea.

“Then, I’ll go!” Blackwater volunteered. Glue had quite a hard time yesterday, so no one was heartless enough to let him take sequential blows at this point.

“We’ll keep watch over here and assist you in ganging up on him if you can’t hold on. I don’t believe that’s not enough!” Paddy Scent Pastures said.

“It’s not a matter of belief. It’s not like we haven’t tried it before… Don’t be reckless,” the Knight Unrivalled Lucky Star spoke. Eternal Dominion had beaten everyone down to the ground in that fight in Xiawu City last time. The fact was that Eternal Dominion had already shown restraint back then by only sending Southern Lone Blade to the spawn point; moreover, Southern Lone Blade was the strongest among them.

Blackwater left under the encouragement of his comrades. He looked calm and collected on the surface, but his heart was a bundle of nerves; he felt as if he were about to die from anxiety. Even though Eternal Dominion did not have fast movement speed, the skill he had demonstrated on them was demonic. Blackwater was worried that the guy would just snap his neck directly before he could even find an opportunity to disengage. In the end, he could only console himself with the ultimate indoctrination phrase: ‘If death comes, so be it.’ It was only losing a level, anyway.

Walking up to the door, Blackwater took a deep breath and pushed it open abruptly. The first thing he saw was Eternal Dominion standing right in front of it. Without a word, Blackwater shut the door, turned around, and ran. The direction and route had all been chosen beforehand. Blackwater did not even bother looking back as he activated his Fleetfoot at the risk of death.

A message prompt appeared half a minute later, and Blackwater had no time to take note of it. He continued running with reckless abandon, circling over eight different streets before he gathered what courage he had left and boldly took a look behind him. He let out a sigh of relief when he failed to see Eternal Dominion on his tail. Still, the man did not dare to relax as he made his way to the more crowded area. This was when he started checking the messages that came pinging endlessly while he was making his escape.

“Where is he?”

“Where’s Eternal Dominion?”

“Where did you run off, too?”

“Eternal Dominion isn’t chasing you, you idiot!”

“What is wrong with you?”

…

The series of messages were all from his comrades. Blackwater was in a daze as he quickly picked out a name out of the lot and replied, “What happened?!”

“D*mn! You’re still alive? Where did you run off to? Seriously, how could you not have taken a look behind you all this while? Eternal Dominion didn’t even step out of the Bounty Assignment Hall!” Blackwater was speaking to Paddy Scent Pastures right now.

“Eh? What’s going on?” Blackwater was surprised.

“Did you even let him see you?” Paddy Scent Pastures asked. “We just saw you turn and flee the moment you pushed open that door.”

“I saw him! He was standing right there by the entrance. I was facing the man once I pushed open the door; how could he not have seen me?” Blackwater asked with certainty.

“And you’re certain he is Eternal Dominion?” Paddy Scent Pastures probed.

“Absolutely.”

“Strange…” Paddy Scent Pastures did not reply after this. The others listened as the Priest told them all what had happened, and they were all equally baffled. Blackwater quickly made his way back to where they all were and saw that the other five were still squatting right there!

“Perhaps, I was too panicky and moved too quickly, so he failed to identify me right away.” Blackwater had thought about the entire sequence of events on his way back and felt that this was the only plausible explanation. His state of mind was too tense earlier, and he ran the moment he opened the door and spotted Eternal Dominion. Blackwater might have identified the guy right away, but that was because he had been prepared for it. As for their enemy, Eternal Dominion, everything happened too suddenly that all he had seen was the door opening and all he had registered was the scene of Blackwater sprinting away.

“F*ck!” all of them jeered. Blackwater appeared to be calm and collected when he volunteered for the task, but it turned out that his heart was actually all over the place.

“I won’t do it again this time!” Blackwater was also rather ashamed of his performance, showing a look of determination that said he would try his best.

“Quick; I reckon Big South is about to drown under that sea of saliva,” Flame Singed Clothes said, having experienced the same thing himself.

“There’s no way saliva can make contact with people in a safe zone, right?” Blackwater turned to ask the others as he made his way to the door.

Everyone lifted their middle fingers to show their contempt.

Outside the Bounty Assignment Hall’s door, Blackwater took in a deep breath. Having realized that his last attempt was counterproductive, he thought that he should move much slower this time. Thus, slowly, bit by bit, he pushed the door open.

Eternal Dominion was standing right before him. Their eyes met.

There’s no way you didn’t see me clearly this time! Blackwater was extremely confident for this attempt, turning around to close the door to flee. Still, having learned his lesson from the last time, he did not run off without ever looking back this time. Alas, before he could even do this, he received a message. Blackwater glanced at it briefly and turned around. Sure enough, nobody was chasing after him. He pulled up the message, and it was the same criticisms from his comrades, each questioning Blackwater just what he was trying to do.

“F*ck*ng hell! What the f*ck?! Did that guy fall asleep standing there like that?” Blackwater was crushed. As he made his way back, he began to worry that Eternal Dominion had only reacted too slowly and was making a beeline for him right at this moment. As such, he intentionally increased his distance from the Bounty Assignment Hall. Turning his head to where his comrades were hiding, all five men expressionlessly looked him straight in the eyes, their middle fingers pointed toward him!

“I’m certain that he spotted me this time! I guarantee it.” Blackwater swore to everyone.

“Can you make sure that he moves before you make your move? Relax! His movement speed is much slower than yours; there’s no way he will be your match when it comes to running. If he’s too close to you, I’ll make sure to help divert his attention a little,” Glue said.

“Seriously, I really wasn’t scared off. I made sure that he saw me clearly last time.” Blackwater was dejected. He felt that he was really maligned to the point where he would not be proven innocent even if he were to jump into the Yellow River ¹ .

Making his way back to the door again, Blackwater really gritted his teeth and decided to go through with it to the bitter end. With an unrestrained kick, he kicked the door open and glared at Eternal Dominion.

Eternal Dominion was still in that standing posture from before. The moment he heard the door being opened so grandly, his eyes darted over and went away after a quick moment; the man resumed scrolling through the ‘Bounty Missions’ up on Wanted Players list in his boredom.

Blackwater was stunned for a good half minute. The other five stared over in their direction and found it to be strange as well. Blackwater was being far too manly here… Not moving for half a minute after opening the door, just what are the two of them doing?

Eternal Dominion remained preoccupied with himself over that half a minute. Blackwater could stand it no longer, so he opened his mouth to ask, “What are you doing?! Come kill me!”

Eternal Dominion turned over and proceeded to look all around. They were the only two players present in the entire Bounty Assignment Hall.

“You talking to me?” Eternal Dominion asked.

“No kidding.” Blackwater scoffed.

“Who are you?” Eternal Dominion was astonished.

Blackwater instantly felt as if the wind in his sails was taken out. Only then did he realize why Eternal Dominion had not chased after him these two times. It was not because the man failed to make out who he was; rather, Eternal Dominion did not even know who he was in the first place. Even though both parties had exchanged blows before, they had always gone their separate ways soon after. Everybody would naturally have a deep impression of Eternal Dominion given just how powerful the Fighter was; Blackwater’s mistake here was to think of himself as someone who played a significant part in all this – enough for the enemy to remember how he looked as a result. Still, he knew now that Eternal Dominion had been treating him as just a random passerby all this while. In this person’s eyes, he was akin to that noob their gang had asked to enter the Bounty Assignment Hall to check the situation out; how, then, would this man recognize him after so many days had passed? It was apparent that this was how Eternal Dominion had viewed Blackwater deep down. Monikers, such as the Five Unyielding Experts, Ten Great Adepts, and Seven Bottlenecks, were nothing but bubbles to this sort of expert; they would all burst from a poke of a finger.

Blackwater went rigid there and then even as Eternal Dominion remained puzzled, asking once more when he just stood there without reacting. “Who are you?”

“I’m… I’m someone with Southern Lone Blade,” Blackwater answered, worried that Eternal Dominion would follow up with a question like ‘What’s a Southern Lone Blade?’

Thankfully, such a tragedy did not happen. Eternal Dominion exhaled a long ‘oh’ before asking, “Where’s Southern Lone Blade? Why isn’t he here yet?”

Blackwater was slightly comforted that their boss had a place in Eternal Dominion’s heart – at least, not to the point where Eternal Dominion would be unable to differentiate him from the masses.

“You gotta get through me first before you meet our boss!” Blackwater yelled as he got ready to flee. He would achieve his goal as long as he could lure Eternal Dominion away from here.

In the end, Eternal Dominion merely shot him a quick glance and muttered a “You’re mental” before continuing to browse the Wanted Players list.

Blackwater was on the verge of a breakdown. He was not in the other person’s radar at all. It was just like taking on an enemy up on the battlefield. if he wished to get the enemy commander to chase after him, he at least needed to prove that he was of a certain caliber. This was similar to sending out a measly run-of-the-mill infantry to lure Lu Bu ² ; who would care to spare a glance at him? Even if he shamelessly sought to engage with the enemy for real, a single clap of his hands was all it took to delete him; there was not even a need to attach any importance to this small fry.

Blackwater was in a situation where he could neither lure the enemy away nor dare to go forward and take on Eternal Dominion. He stood there like an idiot, uncertain just how he could face the others backing out like this.

Blackwater made his way straight to the five when he left. The others had a fright and wondered if the man had gone mad. In the end, they realized that, even though Blackwater had backed out, there was still no one following him behind, which was far too unusual. Blackwater had been inside for quite some time that they believed he had been killed off; there must be something wrong if he could not lure Eternal Dominion out even after this.

“What’s going on?” The five could hardly wait to ask Blackwater the moment he got near them.

Blackwater’s face was twisted. As if he had just eaten a bitter melon, he answered with a grimace, “He doesn’t recognize me.”

“Eh?” At first, none of them knew what he meant, but they soon realized what he was getting at after a moment of rumination.

“And then?”

“Then, I introduced myself… He’s only concerned with where Big South is and has absolutely no intention of taking care of me,” Blackwater replied, feeling depressed.

“How can that be? Why did he stomp me dead yesterday, then?!” Flame Singed Clothes was infuriated.

“Probably because we bumped into Thousand Miles Drunk last night. That man knows who we are unlike this one,” Glue answered.

“At least, Thousand Miles Drunk’s good! Eternal Dominion’s far too aloof!” Blackwater hit the wall ³ .

“Hey!” Everyone darted their eyes over to him. Say that in your mind! They were all suffering in a state of psychological distortion, yet they were still concerned over such things.

“Let me go, instead. Having exchanged blows the other night, he should be able to recognize me at least,” Glue proposed.

“I doubt that will have an effect; I’ve already introduced myself, yet he’s still adamant on waiting for Big South,” Blackwater said.

“That’s pretty stubborn…” everyone derided, even as they felt aggrieved deep down. The man ignoring them even though they had essentially served themselves up… Using Gu Long ⁴  as an analogy, it was as if he did not even acknowledge the presence of a naked lady in front of him – a total disgrace!

“Let’s go have it out with him!” Paddy Scent Pastures shouted. He might be a Priest here in Parallel World, but he was one of the more aggressive out of the seven.

“Calm down. Don’t make any unnecessary sacrifice. We still have our lives beyond this!” The others persuaded the man.

While they coaxed him, they made sure to update Southern Lone Blade to their current situation. Surprisingly, Southern Lone Blade did not mind it in the least. “There’s no need for you guys to bother with this any longer. Go do your things; I’ll just spend my time here. I’d like to see just how long they can camp me out like this. I don’t think I’m losing out if just me alone can squander both, or perhaps even more, of their time.”

Seeing this, everyone could tell that Southern Lone Blade was really reduced to helplessness, since he had opted to behave so shamelessly. All of them knew about how Gu Fei would not be online for long. Since they were technically no match for him in Parallel World, this was all that was left that they could do to contend with the man. It was essentially a method that was similar to beating up someone in real life just because they could not be beaten online. It was despicable, but Southern Lone Blade was really left with no other options.

“F*ck. It’s all that scumbag Silver Moon’s fault!” The six men were in a state of metal imbalance at this point; they quickly figured that the root of all this was the assignment Silver Moon had hired them for.

“We might even have to pay him back in the worst-case scenario! F*CK, F*CK, F*CK!” Everyone was all the more enraged when they thought of this.

“Let’s teach that twerp a lesson!” The six men looked at one another, finally finding a target whom they could bully.

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