Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Five Nights had a somber expression on his face, “That is precisely the problem that I am very worried about. This is why I kept stressing on the importance of striving for time. We can only teach as many players as we can before the game company steps in and asks us to stop. The moment they ask us to cease our operations , we will have to refund the players who haven’t learnt the efficient monster grinding routines in time to maintain the reputation of our workshop.”

“Is that so… ?” Gu Fei nodded.

“Yes, do you have any other questions, Brother Miles?”

“Nope,” Gu Fei said.

“Alright then. Shall we continue to estimate how much profits we would make? Brother Miles, how much time do you think it would take for the game company to respond after they see our advertisement go up?” Five Nights continued with a tone ready to negotiate.

“Heheh, what will happen to us if they are quick, and respond the moment we make our announcement?” Gu Fei asked.

“Then we will have no choice but to suffer a loss from this deal…” Five Nights said.

“Heh, by your words, doesn’t that mean our profits would simply be zero, and the 20% cut we had agreed upon would essentially be worth nothing?” Gu Fei said.

Five Nights chuckled as well, “But that is only Brother Miles’ assumption. From our workshop’s understanding toward how the game’s operated, the chances of the game company being able to immediately respond to our actions is abysmally miniscule. From when they first see our advertisement, proceed to inform the managing director, the ensuing discussion and subsequent decision, and then relaying said decision to the necessary personnel, the time taken for the entire process would hardly be very quick. Especially if we choose to launch our services on a weekend night, during the peak period of player traffic. Even though the game would operate as per normal, the higher ups would be resting at home, so even contacting the relevant people would take some time, and we can use this to our advantage. Furthermore, we are not about to release the information in such a public venue like what you guys did through internet forums. We would instead utilize the in-game channels that we have in Parallel World, spreading the news in the game so it would take even more time for the game company to notice what’s happening.”

“Wow, you’ve sure got plenty of methods!” Gu Fei exclaimed.

“But of course,” Five Nights laughed. “Actually, for us who work in workshops, dancing back and forth with the game companies has always been one of the main responsibilities of our job. While we would not dare to claim that we have a complete understanding of how they would act and make their moves, we could at the very least be able to get a vague idea of it.”

“Hehe,” Gu Fei laughed. “That is to say, you are very certain that the game company would stop us from developing efficient monster grinding routines, right?” Gu Fei said.

“Who would dare to say that for certain? I just feel that such a possibility exists, so of course we must do our best to take precautions against such an eventuality,” Five Nights said.

“Hmm, you’re right. We must definitely take preventive measures, but this is not what we should be preventing,” Gu Fei said.

“What do you mean by that, Brother Miles?” Five Nights was confused.

Gu Fei stood up, “Calling me and Eternal Dominion to help you develop the efficient monster grinding routines is actually the preventive measure you’ve taken, am I right?”

“What are you saying?” Five Nights asked.

“A workshop sounds like a really good place to be. All of you would be familiar with the game, the players and are even on relatively good terms with the game company. In a game environment, you guys might perhaps be the only entity that could achieve all these points. Even if it is the game company itself, they must consider the big picture, and would not be able to put themselves in the shoes of every single player out there. When it comes to the game, they must leverage on the game’s playability and entertainment to earn money. It is completely different for you workshops, racking your brains to research and study how the game works so that they could find business opportunities to make a profit.”

Five Nights was still nonplussed, “Brother Miles, just where in the world are you going with this?”

“I’m saying that because you guys understand the situation from many different perspectives, which is why you came up with your current plan, am I right?” Gu Fei said.

“My… Plan?”

“As long as the efficient monster grinding routines are promoted widely, you seem to be absolutely convinced that it would most definitely be shut down by the game company. What you are safeguarding against here isn’t the shutting down of the venture, but in the event there isn’t a call to shut down this venture by the game company. This is why you’ve reached out to me and Eternal Dominion to provide you guys with the efficient monster grinding routines, so if this business isn’t halted, you guys would still have something to teach,” Gu Fei said.

“Brother Miles, there’s a part of what you said that I don’t understand. According to what you’ve just said, would we still be able to conduct this business without the efficient monster grinding routines?” Five Nights asked.

“Of course you can. We’ve all successfully done the promotion and the deposit payments, so all you have to do is just clone it. However, the main difference this time, is that the net you’ve cast is too wide. So after you collected the deposit, the game company would step in before you guys could even finish organizing the lessons, and they would stop this project from taking off. Thus, you guys don’t even have to provide the actual efficient monster grinding routines,” Gu Fei was looking at Five Nights as he said this.

Five Nights opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but Gu Fei had continued to elaborate, “You just said the moment there’s a call to halt the operations, you would most definitely stop everything at once. Of course, this is a must. But you’ve also said that you would fully refund all the fees you’ve already collected in advance; so I do believe this is the part of the story where you would have had your hand in things, right?”

“How is that possible!? If you don’t believe me, then let us add that condition straight into the contract, so you guys can oversee our actions when the time comes,” Five Nights angrily said.

“Of course this stipulation would be written into the contract; as long as this condition exists, the fees that you’ve collected in advance would be refunded in full, and so what we would get in the end is no more than the lowest guaranteed commission that we had previously agreed upon when we first signed the deal. This would be the capital you’ve set aside for PR. What do I mean by PR? Obviously, it would be the public opinion from the players after the game company halts your operations, as you guys would try and redirect as much of the resentment from the players towards the game company. Your workshop would refund the fees that they collected in advance, but I believe it would just be a small portion of the fees you received, as just this small portion alone would successfully spread rumours that you need. I have no idea what sort of excuse you guys would find to deny the majority, but I have no doubt that it would all find its way into your company’s pockets.”

“There’s plenty of reasons you could use!” Southern Lone Blade began throwing out ideas to Five Nights. “You guys can make a gesture when the time comes, and officially announce the news that you would be paying out refunds, but the news would surely state that because there were no prior preparations for such a result, there’s no proper records or list of the players’ name, so they hope players would step forward candidly. Then some time after that, you guys can say that many players were dishonest, having tried to hoodwink their way to make off with the 99 gold coins, and the number of players that came forward for their refund went several times beyond the numbers that originally registered, and you are unable to handle them all. How about it, do you think this idea would work?”

Glue nodded his head vigorously when he heard this, “If the cries of the players continue to be too much, then they would have no choice but to grit their teeth and and refund everybody! But there’s a limit to the amount of money they have, so it is impossible to return the full 99 gold coins, so everything will be evenly divided. How much the workshop has is how much they would get. Players cannot blame the workshop, as the capitalists don’t have any surplus; if you want to find someone to blame, blame those people who pretended to be a victim like you!”

“Yes, if the workshop was even more daring, they might even claim to have added their own additional reserves to the refund process, and further mention about the deposit they had to pay to Miles and Eternal Dominion. As such, the players would see that they had already paid out plenty, and would sympathize with their plight, no longer feeling that they should make a ruckus any further. Adding to your deliberate direction of the story to blame the game company for what happened, the point is you guys won’t be the focal point of the public’s ire. And if you’re lucky, some might even praise you for the efforts you’ve taken,” Southern Lone Blade said.

“You guys!!” Gu Fei shook his head repeatedly. “Now that you’ve both said everything, what’s left for Brother Five Nights to say?”

The expression on Five Nights’s face had yet to change, chuckling, “Guys, you sure love to jest. What’s with all these stuff that you’re talking about? It’s definitely not like that.”

“But right now, we are severely skeptical and have plenty of suspicions because of this, what now?” Gu Fei gazed at him.

Five Nights wrinkled his forehead, “Gentlemen, what am I to do if you guys want to make such baseless accusations? You guys can make your assumptions, but what proof do you have?”

“We don’t need proof!” Gu Fei said. “Just having this suspicion means this deal of ours would fall apart. However, the onus is on you, as it is more important for you to hurry up and provide us with the proof that you actually haven’t made such plans.”

“You… You’re just intentionally making things difficult for us,” Five Nights was angry.

Gu Fei turned to consult Southern Lone Blade and Glue, “Do you guys think this anger he’s showing is real, or just an act?”

“It’s an act, there this idiom that goes… How does it go again?” Glue turned toward Southern Lone Blade.

“Is it ‘adamant in the face of guilt’?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“Hmm, seems about right, the meaning is there,” Glue said.

“You people…” Five Nights slapped the top of the table and got up.

“Don’t slap the table,” Gu Fei said. “Even though you’ve the numerical advantage, it’s not good to do this.”

“This is a table in a place he owns,” Southern Lone Blade reminded.

Gu Fei immediately thought what Southern Lone Blade said made sense. Today’s rendezvous location was not a tavern or the barbecue joint, it was actually the actual office for Remarkable Flair workshop, so the furniture in this place were all their own.

“Oh. Slap whatever you like then. But let me just say that slapping the table like that isn’t considered proof!” Gu Fei warned with a hint of nonchalance.

“You guys should not go overboard,” Five Nights could barely contain his rage at the moment.

The moment Gu Fei saw that the man might really be incensed, he himself got up and said, “This is just business! There’s nothing overboard about what we’re doing. This has all been a discussion, and if we cannot see a meeting of minds, we don’t have to go ahead with anything. Like now, for instance; let’s go!”

Gu Fei led Southern Lone Blade and Glue to leave, as Five Nights slowly said behind them, “Thousand Miles Drunk, don’t be too arrogant. Remarkable Flair workshop isn’t just any organization you can casually bully.”

Even though Five Nights had spoken out of anger, the fact remained that he had spent quite a lot of effort with this deal, drawing up the contract in-game and in the real world, thinking up solutions and conceiving ideas, collating the data and information he had just provided, and contacting all the various colleagues from all over the workshop in the various cities. After all, he was just a director in charge of six cities, and there are a total of a hundred cities in the entire Parallel World; just the number of people sharing his rank would already be enough to form a guild together.

This project spanned across all the servers in the game, but the work had all been left in Five Nights’s hands exclusively, despite his other colleagues wanting a share of the pie as well! Five Nights had to consider and manage the negotiations with Gu Fei and the people on his end, as well as manage everything that was happening within the workshop. So it was not too excessive to say that the man had been kept busy dealing with internal and external troubles. After settling on every front with much difficulty, and the finishing line in sight once they cleared this final hurdle, Gu Fei ended up toppling everything over in just a few words.

What Gu Fei had guessed was not too far off from the truth either; Five Nights was mortified at seeing his own plan having been seen through so thoroughly by the man, and had been feeling rather guilty right from the start. But no matter how much contrition he felt, there was no way he could stand such a bout of sarcastic ridicule! His tense nerves from these past few days finally snapped after being subjected to such provocation.

Hearing Five Nights making such a cold-blooded threat, Gu Fei turned back and threw a glance in his direction, not saying a word before finally departing. Southern Lone Blade and Glue naturally did not say anything either when they saw this, and the three men stepped out of the office and started walking away.

Five Nights was still fuming, and seeing that Gu Fei had not given any response, Five Nights had even thought that he was in the right, so he grandly walked out to chase after Gu Fei. In the end, the moment he stepped past the transom of the office, a fiery streak came slashing down from his head, down past his face. Before Five Nights could make out what happened, he died.

Gu Fei returned his sword into his dimensional pocket, “I couldn’t kill you since you’re the owner of the property. To think you’d dare to give chase, how arrogant of you.”

Even though the property was Remarkable Flair workshop’s office, it was still required to assign it to a player, and the lease for this location happened to be under Five Nights’s name. When players enter places they own, they are invulnerable to attacks. Southern Lone Blade and Glue were wiping their sweat as they stood by the side, thinking to themselves, no wonder he left the office without any reaction! Five Nights truly deserved his death, to actually be bold enough to give chase as he did; was he not just throwing his life away?

“That person is really sinister, ” Gu Fei sighed to Southern Lone Blade and Glue as they got on their way. “That’s why I say, with how risky he had described this deal to be, even going to the extent of wanting to enroll potential pupils even as they are being taught. It is such a dishonest manner of trade that leaves the consumer without the guarantee of a follow up. To have actually spent so much effort on such a venture, I’ve always felt he must surely have ulterior motives.”

“Yeah!” Southern Lone Blade and Glue nodded.

“We almost got cheated,” Gu Fei added.

“Uhhh… I don’t think you can qualify that as cheating, can you?” Glue said. “Honestly, we won’t really be losing out if we went through with this transaction, though we will be defrauding the players.”

“How would we not be cheated? Just from his plan to completely refund the fees, on the one hand, their workshop has to maintain their image. And on the other, it’s specifically against our interest as well. If we include the portion of the revenue they secretly kept, who knows just how much our 20% will be? The point is, it would surely be more than the minimum guarantee amount we were promised in the agreement,” Southern Lone Blade explained.

Gu Fei nodded, “He keeps talking about this being a collaboration, but where’s the teamwork in the collaboration? All he wants to do is treat us as fodder from start to finish, he would have surely have found an excuse to take credit for taking even the 20% that we managed to negotiate for.”

“That’s right!” Southern Lone Blade and Glue answered in unison, they do not like the feeling of becoming fodder for someone else as well.

“From how that guy spoke, I think it’s more or less a guarantee that the game company would come out and halt the operations, and they might have already gotten wind of this from their own connections. I wonder how long we can keep on doing this,” Gu Fei said.

Southern Lone Blade gave the matter some thought before he voiced out, “Why don’t we do it like how we did it this time from here on out? We’ll just get in contact with some guilds and make our deals in private. Let’s not announce it up on the forums and draw people’s attention toward our venture.”

“That’s useless too. If the game company had already taken notice of this matter, there’s a very good chance that we’re already being monitored as people who are doing this business. I’m sure they have the ability to secretly watch us in the background, right?”

“Most likely…” Southern Lone Blade and Glue agreed.

Gu Fei sighed. How could there be nowhere for kung fu to exist? No one believed it in the real world, while the game world refused to let it be used. On the one side, there was someone hunting him in the game in the name of rectifying him, while on the other side, their act of using kung fu to come up with a bit of routine had resulted in the game company keeping a close eye on them, exerting quite a huge pressure as a result.

When Gu Fei returned, he gave a detailed account of everything that transpired to Eternal Dominion. Actually, Gu Fei had already sent a message and given him a simple analysis when he first realized that there were problems during the negotiation. After all, Eternal Dominion was the biggest and most direct beneficiary of this deal, so he at least had the right to know about what happened.

The values that Eternal Dominion held were the same as Gu Fei’s, so anything that Gu Fei disapproved of was also something that he would naturally despise as well. The favorable opinion that Eternal Dominion once had toward Five Nights had him frothing at his mouth now that he knew what was really going on. Deep Waters was equally surprised after he heard about this, even exclaiming about how the new wave of talents surpassed that of the old. he never would have thought Five Nights would ultimately have gotten to such levels! It was no wonder that man had been willing to give Gu Fei and Eternal Dominion a percentage of the overall revenue. Everything had already been premeditated.

As for the threat that Five Nights had tossed out at the end, Deep Waters had determined it to be no more than words spoken out of anger. A workshop sought profits, so a deal that fell apart was not grounds for revenge. It was entirely possible for workshops to suppress one another in retaliation, though Gu Fei was the number one slayer in Parallel World. The man was still just a normal player in their eyes, and there was no reason for them to make a huge fuss over a single person like this.

However, Deep Waters still made sure to remind Gu Fei in all earnesty, “He should not be bothered with taking revenge, but there’s no guarantee he would not do so. If there happened to be another incident that coincidentally puts him in a position to harm you in the future, the man would no doubt have no qualms throwing a kick in while you are down as well.Furthermore, a workshop isn’t like a player who only knew how to fight and kill, so their revenge might not even be in the form of a PK attempt.”

Gu Fei was originally quite excited when he heard that there might be revenge coming his way, but the moment he heard that a workshop might not choose to retaliate in the form of fighting, and would choose to pull off some schemes and tricks instead, he instantly felt the energy being sapped from within him.

His day resumed like before. Gu Fei returned to Yunduan City and continued his demonic special training with Sword Demon. He had already spoken to the Thief about the mentality he needed to correct, so all he did was teach him a bit of techniques as Sword Demon continued to slowly adapt to this new style.

Furthermore, their workshop received another business opportunity, and this time it was yet another guild that came knocking. Everybody had analyzed the future of the efficient monster grinding routine and felt that selling their services away from prying eyes was not a bad solution. Perhaps the game company was not paying attention to them, and they could just get away with this.

This time it was an unknown guild from some foreign city, and completely lacking in prior relationships. None of them was willing to offer the cheaper price of 500,000 gold coins any more, so they opened with the 2,000,000 gold coins price tag to the other party. A single level 6 guild would have 1050 members, so a 2,000,000 price point meant each players would end up paying 2000 gold coins. There was no way anyone could afford this, but even if they were to drop the price down to 500,000 gold coins, that would still require every player to foot 500 gold coins per person in a thousand-man guild, which was also a price that people would find it hard to afford. Since either price was considered out of reach to the common player, everyone felt there was no reason to treat themselves shabbily, and decided to open negotiations with the higher amount, and leave the other party with finding a solution on their end.

This guild leader had a really came up with a plausible solution. Since a single guild could not afford it alone, he grabbed a few other guilds along as well. It was unknown how many guilds he ended up getting in contact with, but they ended up with over 10,000 players, and they were able to afford the price if everyone paid 200 gold coins for it.

The whole gang traveled far to the final location, and began to develop the grinding map and the subsequent instructions for the routines. Everything proceeded very smoothly, and there were no players that turned up to create any sort of trouble, nor did the game company step in to halt the operation.

Could the game company be unconcerned with the efficient monster grinding routines? This was the thought in everyone’s mind when the game company finally threw out an atomic bomb of a news, announcing the contents of two important changes with the coming updates.

The first change: After the upcoming update, the game would no longer be generating any new currency, and all the currency that was currently in the game would be all that existed for player usage. Furthermore, a portion of the currency in the game were in the hands of the players, and another portion was in the hands of the NPC. The system had completely integrated the currency that was in the hands of NPCs, so be it the barkeeps, store owners, city lord or the citizens that offered quests, all of them now possess a certain amount of currency. Quests, businesses, rewards, fines and taxes were ways in which the in-game coins were circulated. And what was in the NPCs’ hands would also be circulated in such a fashion, either ending up in the hands of the players, or in other NPCs’ hands.

The moment this announcement was made, the sales of gold coins for Parallel World across the major currency trading platforms online were all cancelled. Everyone had realized that the value of currency would inflate as a result, so it was better to hold on to what they had and watch what would happen next before doing anything with it.

At the same time, plenty of players began wondering: If the amount of currency in circulation becomes regulated, what about items? Would it also be regulated along side the in-game coins and form a fixed industrial chain, and new items would no longer be generated any longer?