Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

The players took in their surroundings, realizing they were now in a simple war camp. The timely arrival of a system broadcast sounded, announcing to everyone: Throughout the duration of the City Wars, the cities would be temporarily sealed off, and the seven spawn points would be temporarily moved to a point outside the city. The respective coordinates are listed as follows… During the City Wars, players who were not participating could still grind as per usual, and dying would then respawn them at the spawn points. Meanwhile, players participating in the City Wars would not lose experience, levels or equipment upon death. Similarly, players would respawn at one of the seven designated spawn points upon death and could immediately get back into the battle. These spawn points would contain all sorts of supplies for players to use.

After the system finished its broadcast, every player in Parallel World could hear the voice of an NPC next to them, “The City Lord is a cruel dictator that bullied the people and has trampled on our lives, exploiting everything we got, suppressed our words and deeds, and massacring our brothers and sisters! We shall not endure this any longer. Brothers and sisters, pick up the weapon in your hands, sound the horn for the assault, let us overthrow the City Lord’s dictatorship, and build a tomorrow of our own!!”

The NPC commanders from the various barracks were the ones who echoed this cry, each of them wearing a shiny coat of armor. When they reached the end, their cloaks swayed in the wind when they pulled out the longswords they had by their waists, directing the point of their swords right toward the city.

The players exchanged looks with one another; just what was going on here? It looked like this was a peasant uprising, and it even felt as if the event had a background storyline to it as well. This term was of course hardly rousing to the players, so why would any of them care to be bothered by it? They had been randomly scattered across the spawn points when logging in, and all of them were busy messaging each other to locate their groups! This was, historically, the messiest army ever raised, and while the leaders had already given the order to charge, the soldiers had not even managed to find their groups yet!

“This is my set of coordinates. Everyone gather on me! Assemble, do any of you hear me? Quickly!!”

“Where’s the flag? Who has the flag? Did we not get a flag made? Pull it out now! Follow the flag!!!”

“Quest! There’s a quest in the camping grounds, I’ve found one!”

The guild channels were even more of a bigger mess than the present crowd, just a cacophony of endless voices that filled the logs.

Oathless Sword, as the guild leader for the most overbearing guild in Yunduan City, was completely dumbfounded. Normally, he felt that his guild would be a dominating existence. But with all the guilds being mobilized, how would he not realize what it means to be part of the people? With a population of 500,000 players in most cities, just what can his 1000-man strong guild appear in front of everyone? At the moment, he could not even make out the edge of this crowd of players with a single look to the horizon. This was the first time that Oathless Sword felt just how small his guild was in comparison to the population of players in the city. A level 6 guild? What did that matter? Even Yueye City’s Ten Guild Alliance, with over 4000 members, was no more than a drop in the barrel in the face of their current circumstances.

Oathless Sword had never seen a scene as grand as this! Truly, were there just 500,000 players out here? There was no doubt that the city held a population of at least 500,000 players, but a good portion of players had not joined a guild. Others had joined guilds but were not interested in participating in this event, and their guilds could not force people to join either. There were some guilds that had no intentions of joining in the fight to begin with and were completely uninvolved with the City Wars. Admittedly, most players would not have bothered to participate had it not been for the fact that the officials had mentioned that aside from the guilds were able to win area of influence in the city when they were properly ranked in the end, whatever contribution score accumulated in this event could ultimately be exchangeable for EXP rewards, making it more lucrative than merely grinding as usual.

With everything in such chaos, it was a major guild like Traversing Four Seas that was in a state of unmanageable disarray instead. After calling out for the longest time, nobody managed to find any other members from their guild. Perhaps there were some, but with a guild that numbered a thousand, Oathless Sword barely recognized a third of his members in person, and those who he was familiar with him could be counted with just using his four limbs. So if that was the case for the guild leader, how much better would the average member fare? There were plenty of people in large guilds like his that did not know each other, so now that they were all randomly placed in the wild plains with innumerable players side by side, all these players looked out as far as their eyes could see, even as they wondered to themselves, Where are my fellow guildmates?

It was only until their gaze shifted to these people’s bodies did they catch sight of their emblem, “Hey! A fellow guildmate!”

Meanwhile, small guilds like Amethyst Rebirth and Forever in Flowers were able to gather much quicker than the larger guilds, since everyone in their guild was close to the point that they were essentially family. They were all very familiar with each and had fewer people, which helped them to gather quickly. Everyone online from Amethyst Rebirth had managed to meet up by this time, with July looking to her left and right, wondering, “Where’s Miles?”

“For him to be dropping the ball during such a crucial moment, quickly call him over!” Svelte Dancer was yelling even as she sent a message to Gu Fei, only for her to receive a system notification: Messages could not be exchanged with hostile forces.

She was not the only one who attempted to reach out to Gu Fei. July and Luoluo had also tried contacting him at the same time, and each of them received the same response. They looked up and saw the look of confusion on the other ladies’ faces.

“What does that mean? What did it mean by hostile forces?” Luoluo asked.

“Is it referring to the City Wars?”

“The enemy for the City Wars, wouldn’t that be those who are guarding the city? Miles is guarding the city?”

All the ladies broke into chatter. Just what was going on here? Their apex expert had been stolen away to defend the city, the system must be cheating!!!

Gu Fei was equally confused on his end as well. When he got online, he found that he had appeared at the spawn point where he had logged off, and he did not notice that there were no players around him. Because this was the City Wars, he was also keen on meeting up with the ladies, so he took the initiative to message them to find out their whereabouts. In the end, all he got was the system’s “Messages could not be exchanged with hostile forces” notification. Gu Fei was confused, so he sent a message over the Young Master’s Elite mercenary group’s channel, yet he received the same system notification.

Gu Fei simply could not make sense of what was happening, only realizing that there was nobody around him at all when he lifted his head to take a look at his surroundings. Normally, no matter what time it was, the spawn points would be aglow with white light flashing as people came and went, so what was up with today? Why was there nobody around for such a huge event?

Gu Fei stepped out of the Knights’ barracks, the place he had logged off before, and got the fright of his life. Right before his eyes was a troop of hand-picked Knights gathered in the parade square outside the barracks. Gu Fei stepped forward to take a look and realized that these were all NPCs and not players. He was wondering just what was going on when the system announcement ended, and Gu Fei saw the commander of this troop of Knights flourish its sword, “Soldiers! There’s now a horde of ruffians planning to disrupt our peaceful way of life. They have amassed a huge force, and are now preparing to siege and assault our city walls. Soldiers, pick up your weapons and protect our homeland, safeguard your honor and protect your brothers and sisters! Follow me, and let’s slay these thugs with the sword of righteousness that we hold in our hands!”

Gu Fei was completely nonplussed after hearing this; Wasn’t I supposed to assault the city? Why did I end up hearing the speech given by the city defenders? Why are they are NPCs around me? Where’re the players? Where have all the players gone?

Gu Fei ran through several streets and not a single player was in sight. But everywhere he looked, there were NPC guards patrolling everywhere. The team composition that the NPC had adopted was very different from what they were usually in as well. Aside from the NPC guards that he would regularly see, Gu Fei had even seen squads of Mages and Priests around. He even saw a gang of Assassins when he passed by the Thieves’ Union. They were unlike Warriors, Knights and the other job classes who were speaking or boosting the morale of the others. They were all quiet as they sat down in silence, expressionless and not saying a word; the NPC’s interpretation of the atmosphere was really appropriate. However, in the sea of expressionless faces, Gu Fei spotted a look of surprise, which he found strangely familiar…

“Sword Demon!!!!” Gu Fei yelled loudly.

Sword Demon quickly turned his head to see where the voice originated from, and he was beyond excited as well when he saw Gu Fei.

“What’s going on?” Gu Fei walked up to the man.

“Originally, I didn’t have any idea what was going on. But the moment I saw you, I think the issue might be because we both belong to a Faction!” Sword Demon gushed.

“Faction?”

“That’s right. Because it is related to our Faction, the two of us have been assigned to be the city’s defenders by the system,” Sword Demon theorized.

“This… What sort of explanation is this? I didn’t see anything like that in the official announcements!” Gu Fei cried.

“How many people are actually in a Faction? That’s why the system did not specifically make such an announcement!” Sword Demon said.

“If there’s no special announcement, then they should just treat us like everyone else!” Gu Fei bemoaned.

“Who knew what were the rules in place here,” Sword Demon shrugged.

“So what are we supposed to do now? Are we expected to go to war against the hundred thousands of players?” The moment he said this, Gu Fei suddenly felt a little excited. This was pretty enjoyable! Furthermore, he had also heard the system announcement that was just made. There was only the loss of an equipment’s durability with deaths in the City Wars. Gu Fei was never one to have cared about life or death when he PKed, but he mainly did not wish to be a trouble to the other players. Were it not for this mentality of his, why else would he stick to just the Bounty Missions? Could those players who wished to PK everywhere they went even be considered human? Was that not what Cool Apple did?

With such a thought in mind, Gu Fei quickly asked, “That Cool Apple and Broken Water Arrow. Those two seem to be people with Factions as well, right?”

“Both of them dropped under level 40, so we have no idea if they are still considered to be in their Faction or otherwise. Furthermore, even if they were, I think it’s dependent on where your account is registered?” Sword Demon said.

“Didn’t you go off to help Deep Waters? Why weren’t you sent to Linyin City’s defense?”

“My account isn’t registered there! I’ve been grinding here in Yunduan City these past few days, and I only teleported over to Linyin City. I figured I would be fine if just logged off there since I was under the system’s protection having logged out in a designated safe zone, right? By the time I got back online and found myself here, I was about to send a message to Deep Waters to tell him about what happened, when I realized I was unable to send a message.” Sword Demon said.

“So you’re saying that we are the only two players assigned to defend the city. So what would happen if we end up successfully defending this city? Would we end up splitting it in half?” Gu Fei asked.

“That’s impossible! If you’ve checked the rules that the system had made public for this City Wars event, it had actually only mentioned that there would be 10,000 points that divided up the city, and it had never actually mentioned if it could be accomplished or failed. I hypothesize that the entire event might end once the players collectively accumulated up to 10,000 points. Instead of calling this City Wars an event, I feel it might be better to say that it is a one-time participation for this new update, and depending on the players’ participation, the city would then divide its power amongst the players,” Sword Demon analyzed.

“Hmm, I feel like your analysis is a lot more reasonable than everything Brother Assist has extrapolated,” Gu Fei said. Brother Assist had been concerned the last few days with money, the economy, circulation of the currency and product value, and he would always grab someone to discuss it with. The other five men in Young Master’s Elite were all mentally drained, each of them dismissing him for Southern Lone Blade to handle.

“That is why it’s a task that has no victory or failure, and is no more than a transition for the new update. I do believe the show has not even begun to unfold.” Sword Demon said.

“What do you mean?”

“After the area of influence is divided among the ranked guilds, do you think it would be directly given to the guild to pass down hereditarily? I’m sure there would be some sort of corresponding rule would be introduced, and those areas would then be the main platform by which the guilds could vie for control among themselves.”

“Even after saying all that, what’s the role for the two of us in all this? Are we supposed to leave the confines of the city and fight all 500,000 players?” Gu Fei asked.

“I just got a quest inside,” Sword Demon said.

“What quest?”

“Assassination. The target is a player by the name of White and Black.”

“Who’s that?”

“Do you know about the guild, The Black and White, Life or Death Federation? White and Black is their guild leader,” Sword Demon said.

“Oh!” Gu Fei suddenly realized what was going on. “You’re tasked with assassinating an enemy commander! You’ve really become an Assassin, and it looks like this lot here is also a death squad that would pick out the different enemy guild leaders as well.” Gu Fei gazed at the gang of silent Assassins gathered inside and outside the Thieves’ Union.

Sword Demon laughed bitterly, “They will know where to go as long as they have been assigned a target, but what about me? How am I going to find my guy among the 500,000 players?”

“Hmm, it does sound like it’s going to be impossible. Let’s just charge right in and randomly kill people!” Gu Fei was already itching to have a go.

“It’s 500,000 players!” Sword Demon exclaimed though it was only to remind Gu Fei: I know you’re fierce, but the enemy we’re facing today was not just 5 or 15 men, but 500,000 players, a number that could defeat us by drowning us in their spit alone.

“When are these guys going to strike? When that time comes, we can join them and mix around with the NPCs here,” Gu Fei said.

“I don’t know! We’ve been sitting here for a long time, yet no one has even moved or spoken a word,” Gu Fei said.

“There’s a bit of movement in the city, let’s follow them and see what’s going on,” Sword Demon said.

“Okay!” Sword Demon nodded. The two men left the Thieves’ Union, and turning around the corner of the street, they came face to face with a squad of Archers setting off valorously with their bows slung over their backs. Both of them quickly followed in step right behind them, and the NPCs disregarded them. The two continued to follow the squad forward until they reached the watchtower that stood at a corner of the city. The squad went all the way up the stairs until they reached the battlements of Yunduan City’s walls, spread out in a line, and pulled out their bows as they began to get ready.

“F*CK!” Gu Fei and Sword Demon cursed in unison. This squad of Archers was not g

It was not that players did not normally climb up to the city’s battlements, but this situation was not for the usual reason of touring or taking a lady out on a date to see the sights. Archers and Mages were the two ranged job classes that were found up here on the battlements. Furthermore, there were trebuchets spaced out every 20-30 meters up here. Gu Fei and Sword Demon walked over to get a closer look and saw a pile of boulders stacked to the side of the trebuchets, each boulders bigger than a player. Both Gu Fei and Sword Demon tried together to move one but were unable to even move it an inch.

“Damn, just what level must a Warrior be to move this? For the system to send out such a high-level NPC for this, it’s being shameless yet again!” Sword Demon said as he saw a robust Warrior guard run over. Gu Fei and Sword Demon were waiting to see how it would move this rock, but it did not move the rock at all. Walking right up to the pile of huge boulders, it waved its sword and hollered, “Load!!!”

As Gu Fei and Sword Demon waited for laborers to come over, they instead saw a while light flash from the pile in the end, as a single boulder disappeared and reappeared snugly in the sling. The two of them were in tears, how can they nitpick on its realism when it comes to the system? The NPC did not even move it, and the system would generate a new one boulder to replace the one that disappeared.

With the display on the battlement complete, they looked down at the ground below. Kilometers out were the comrades that the two were familiar with: the players. Sword Demon looked at them for a bit, furrowing his brow, “Why is it so chaotic?”

Roughly 30 minutes had passed, and the situation outside the city was still in a mess, plenty of people were still unable to find their guildmates! Everybody was shifting the blame toward the system. What is with this careless spawning? Everything was in such disarray that they were not even able to find one another, how can they even have a city war at this rate!?

The NPC guards had all made declarations and sworn oaths from the start of the city battle, yet the players were not doing anything solemn in the least. Gu Fei and Sword Demon saw that all the rocks were loaded in, the Archers had accounted for all their projectiles, and the Mages had all made sure they had their supply of fruits ready. The assault teams that comprise of the melee job classes down below the city gates were also assembled and in formation. Even the Assassins from the Thieves Union were out; it seems like after leaving the square they were originally gathered, it was unknown what corner they were hiding in.

As the two players who could see what was happening inside and outside the city, both Gu Fei and Sword Demon believed that if the system did not go easy on the enemy, there was no way the players would be able to successfully assault the city. Thus, this only further cemented Sword Demon’s deduction, that the system had set-up this event as a mere formality, so there was no way it would be anything serious. Players were randomly spawned in when they got online, throwing the two lone players who had joined a Faction into the city with disregard. No matter how it looked, this was not a meticulously planned major event.

The two were feeling melancholic! That was when Gu Fei pointed in a certain direction, “Look over there.”

Sword Demon turned to look in the direction that Gu Fei had pointed in, and saw a dark patch of players in the distance. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all, so he asked strangely, “Look at what?”

“Look, that flag. Do you see it?” Gu Fei continued to point.

Sword Demon was still befuddled, “Which one!? There’s so many of them.”

“That one in black and white, isn’t that the flag of that guild you called Black and White, Life or Death Federation?”

“Eh, that might be it…”

“Where there’s a flag, I reckon the guild leader will be somewhere there as well. Do you know that person?” Gu Fei asked.

“Not really, but I should be able to recognize him,” Sword Demon said.

“Then let’s go!” Gu Fei was excited. Even though this was PK, it was PK with purpose, and so it would always be more meaningful than randomly killing people. To leap into this sea of players and keep on killing indiscriminately was not very interesting either. It’s like a race; if an end line is properly drawn in front, victory would be achieved upon passing said line. On the other hand, a race with no end line in sight, was there any meaning to just keep on running like that?

“Won’t we just be sending ourselves to our deaths going out now? Let’s watch a little, and wait for the players to make their move,” Sword Demon said.

“I feel that your quest is pretty convenient to make your move. By the time you mix into that crowd, no one would care what guild you’re from, as long as they see you’re also a player, they would treat you as a comrade. Why would they be aware that we’re actually on the side of the system!?” Gu Fei said.

“The important thing is to find the target,” Sword Demon said.

“Keep your eye on that huge flag,” Gu Fei said.

“Had I known this would happen, I would have borrowed the spyglass…” Sword Demon muttered.

The spyglass was now back in Young Master Han’s hands. When they came in contact with Vast Lushness days ago, the woman had made it a point to ask for it back and he did return it. But because the City Wars was in a few days, Young Master Han went to borrow it from her again, and since Vast Lushness was now a part of Forever in Flowers, and they did not have any strategies revolving around its usage in their jungle warfare plan, she had lent it to him once more.

At about this time, Young Master Han was observing the city through the spyglass, and he was looking around until he paused. He put the spyglass down and rubbed his eyes, glancing at the bottle he had placed beside him on the ground. “Could I have drunk too much?”

That’s impossible! Young Master Han thought this even as he raised the spyglass again. This time, he finally confirmed what he saw, and it was indeed Gu Fei and Sword Demon, the two men who went missing. Just why did they suddenly appear on the city’s battlements?