Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 736: Chapter 736 – Your manpower’s a little low

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“What nonsense are you talking about?” When Gu Xiaoshang heard Young Master Han elaborate on the last step of his plan, the expression she showed was considerably aghast. This man is truly capable of doing anything! To actually want to her guildmates to treat their own as mere contribution scores to farm and kill. How could he even think to suggest such an idea? Gu Xiaoshang forcefully controlled herself as she was not about to burn bridges with this person. Ultimately, it was all because of Young Master Han’s strategic arrangement that Colored Clouds had managed to take the initiative in this City Wars event, getting themselves the chance to kill apex experts like Thousand Miles Drunk, Sword Demon and his bunch.

“That’s really your reaction, huh,” Young Master Han gazed at Gu Xiaoshang before chuckling, unperturbed. “This is only my suggestion. After all, the formation of this company of players and everything they do will not result in any tangible reward to Colored Clouds, so this step that I proposed would allow you to at least have the chance to get some contribution scores from everything we’ve done. Whether you want to go ahead with it or not, it’s all up to you!”

“Don’t mention it ever again, and that’s the end of this topic.” Gu Xiaoshang said firmly.

Young Master Han shrugged. Without another word, he turned around and set his eyes upon the chaotic battlefield all around him. Players and the NPC city guards were still caught up in their battle, a seemingly unending scene that kept playing back on itself. Players collapsing, charging forth, collapsing again before surging forward once more. As time passed, more and more players began to near the end of their death counts. The various guilds had all set conditions to such ends before, stipulating that players could back out from the assault of the city once they reach a certain amount of deaths, allowing them to be swapped out to do quests instead. There were plenty of people who had their doubts about this: What if all the players had reached a certain limit of deaths, and the siege had yet to show any visible changes in the state of affairs, then what would be the result of this City Wars event? Just where exactly are those vital quests that would affect the outcome of everything?

“Just what exactly is your reason for doing everything thus far? Just what sort of benefit are you gaining from all this?” Gu Xiaoshang was standing behind Young Master Han when she suddenly asked him this question.

“It’s all for the sake of the event,” Young Master Han did not turn his head around to answer her.

“Oh? Is that so?” Gu Xiaoshang was looking at his back, suddenly getting the feeling that he was very alone. His ex-partners-in-crime, because of Thousand Miles Drunk and Sword Demon’s special status in this event, had both rebelled and were now on the city defender’s side, while he had gone all out just to deal with a bunch of players who were mutually familiar with each other. These were people who had left the various large guilds in an utter state of disarray, uncertain of what to do, forcing all 800 guilds to resort to coming together and employ a cooperative defense plan, were actually all forcefully restrained just by how Young Master Han had tapped into certain resources which they had been unfamiliar with, coupled with his ingenious utilization of the system configuration. He had contributed heavily to the elimination of these eyesores, becoming the biggest contributor to the city assaulter’s force, yet he would not be eligible for any reward from the system. In fact, those comrades whom he had always been fighting side by side with might even start to loathe him for everything he had done thus far.

Yes, very loathsome indeed… Even though Gu Xiaoshang had such a thought, the moment she recalled the final step that Young Master Han had suggested, she simply could not shake off her disgust. In the end, she still spoke up, “Uh… Even though I find that last step of the plan you suggested disgusting, I still have to say… Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Actually, I’m not too concerned about how much contribution score your guild could earn from all this.” Young Master Han said.

“I know. It’s the City Wars event after all! Really, the whole lot of us should be working together on this,” Gu Xiaoshang expressed.

“Unfortunately, this level of cooperation is impossible to attain. You guys should be all the more cautious. With over 40 players moving about that could be seen as potential contribution scores, there’s no telling what sort of flies might be buzzing around,” Young Master Han warned.

“I understand,” Gu Xiaoshang nodded. She did not like the fact that the guilds would be engaged in schemes that secretly undermined each other, but just because she had a disdain toward such efforts did not mean she would not take precautions against others engaged in such acts on her. Gu Xiaoshang had already reminded the 43 quest holders and the other players assigned to them that they must take extra care and stay alert against other players. If any of them would still choose to act in the current circumstances, that would essentially be just a flagrant disregard for etiquette and face. Gu Xiaoshang had a rather good understanding of the guild leaders of Yunduan City’s four large guilds, so even if they each had their own scruples, all of them still paid attention to their own prestige. There was no way that they would do something that was akin to daylight robbery so openly; what they needed to watch out for were the shady and amoral guilds, but Colored Clouds was not exactly afraid of these guilds either.

Young Master Han silently admired the scene of the battlefield in front of him while Gu Xiaoshang consistently heard the battle report regarding the quest progress from the 43 quest holders.

Completed.

Completed.

Completed.

…

Time passed, and the reports of each quest completion slowly trickled in. With those who were done with their quest heading off to help others who were not yet done with theirs, the rate of progression increased over time. Finally, the 43rd message was sent, reporting its completion. After all, the quest holders had swiftly gathered and they finished handing out the teleportation scroll needed, the whole group of them was getting ready to teleport themselves directly into the Hall of Guild Creations now that they were ready for the final step, much like how Sword Demon had expected. Out of all 43 quest holders, they only needed 34 of them to successfully hand over their quest so as to quickly level the guild, Ray’s Bar, up to level 2. At the same time, the number of guild members would increase to 200, and including the 50 or so players from supporting job classes, their combat strength had surged well past the combined forces of Amethyst Rebirth and Extremely Heaven Defying.

“And we’re off,” Young Master Han hailed Gu Xiaoshang, tossing away the bottle of liquor he had in his hand as he stood together with the quest holders, prepared to be teleported away with the lot of them.

“Best of luck!” Gu Xioashang waved her fist to everyone, which of course included Young Master Han. A blast of white light appeared, and several teleportation scrolls were activated. All 44 players disappeared in that light, teleporting them right into Yunduan City’s Hall of Guild Creations.

Fire and flames!

Inside the Hall of Guild Creations, the moment Young Master Han and the others had appeared, they saw a dazzling sight of various spells and skills that came pouring straight for them.

“All within our expectations,” Young Master Han chuckled mirthlessly. The 43 men from Colored Clouds did not completely ignore this welcome either. All of them were currently positioned somewhere near the 12 quest NPCs inside the hall, and because they were so far apart from one another, it was impossible to be killed by this one wave of attacks. The first thing that everyone did once the white glow faded was to head toward their respective quest NPCs and turn in their quest. There were players who died from that attack, but there were a lot more crisp sounds of players successfully turning in their quest in the guild channel.

Young Master Han turned his head slightly and spotted Gu Fei holding his Moonlit Nightfalls, forever diving into combat in an extremely flagrant manner.

“This is your last chance to stand out,” Young Master Han chuckled to Gu Fei.

“Is that so?” Gu Fei was smiling back at him.

Young Master Han shrugged and was not bothered to get into a verbal argument with Gu Fei. Just moments ago, Ray’s Bar had already obtained enough quest completion and they had successfully risen to level 2. Meanwhile, Ray had already previously agreed that he would immediately pull out the guild management window and accept all the pending guild members that had previously applied for the guild. Young Master Han was also a member as well, and he had access to the guild channel so that he could more conveniently give out orders. When he received the system prompt about being successfully accepted into Ray’s Bar, he knew that they had already succeeded in their operation.

“ATTACK!” Many were heavily injured or dead around Young Master Han after they bore the brunt of Gu Fei and the other’s attacks, but now that their initial goal had been accomplished, everyone did not mind letting themselves go. All they wanted was to bring a couple of corpses along with them, so they could properly grief them all, repeatedly killing them all 25 times.

“RETREAT!” Gu Fei bellowed loudly. The players who had unleashed the initial concerted attack with him each began to withdraw from the Hall of Guild Creations. Gu Fei placed his sword horizontally in front of him, adopting a stance that looked like he was about to take on everyone all by himself. Young Master Han looked to his left, then to his right. The remaining stragglers truly had no means to take on Gu Fei, and the reason was very simple: Those who died quickly from the initial wave of attack were all the players with lower HP pools, and those are usually the ones who would have high movement speed. Meanwhile, those that survived were all the baby legged players with plenty of HP, and all they could do was suffer being bullied by Gu Fei.

“Go and busy yourself with your own business!” Gu Fei waved his hand, dispersing the players who had withdrawn out to the Plaza.

“Looks like it’s time for your Hero complex to shine,” Young Master Han laughed.

“It’s a waste having so many people around anyway,” Gu Fei chuckled back.

“Kill me and chase me all the way back to the Priest Academy before you grief me 25 times over?” Young Master Han asked.

“That’s a good suggestion,” Gu Fei nodded.

“Why don’t you give it a shot?” Young Master Han answered.

“Don’t be in such a rush; it’s not your turn yet!” Gu Fei suddenly made his move. With a Blink, a rotating Twin Incineration, what would have been indubitably a perfectly executed Insta-kill move had been ruined by a flash of white light that descended. Young Master Han’s grasp of timing was of such precision that he had been able to sneak in his Heal between that single moment between the two cuts from Gu Fei’s rotating Twin incineration. Gu Fei had no control over this, after all, the duration of his skill was limited as well, so failing to execute his Twin Incineration within that space of time meant that he would not be able to create that double damage effect.

“With me around, Insta-killing won’t be that easy,” Young Master Han said.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Gu Fei was not overly surprised by what happened. He already knew that Young Master Han’s Priest skills were not just for show, and the man was also very adept when it came to grasping tempo. Weaving amidst the crowd, Gu Fei flicked his sword flicking left and right, even managing to find the time and run up beside Young Master Han to give him a slash.

Of course, Young Master Han lacked the dexterity to evade Gu Fei’s attack, so all he could do was cast a Heal over himself in a timely fashion, narrowly avoiding being insta-killed as he said, “Aren’t you being very unrestrained? Did you gain another equipment or something?”

“You can simply Appraise me and find out.”

“There’s no need to go through all that trouble. I can more or less guess it,” Young Master Han said.

The whole group of baby legged players from Colored Clouds was feeling particularly dejected by this point. They did not have the movement speed to even chase Gu Fei to begin with, much less since Gu Fei’s footwork was anything but normal, and it was a kung fu technique that he had spent many years studying. His figure flitted about like he was an incorporeal spirit; ordinary people were completely unable to predict just how he would move. Even Young Master Han was secretly surprised by this display. He had originally planned to depend on his own skill when it came to Healing, intending to somehow find a way to organize all the babylegs and form an effective encirclement that would shrink on Gu Fei. However, he had no choice but to admit that he could not make sense of Gu Fei’s movement the entire time, completely unable to anticipate just how he would move at all.

“Can you make sense of my footwork?” Gu Fei had evidently worked out just what these men were intending to do, gazing at Young Master Han provocatively when he temporarily paused and stood still at one spot.

“Not at all,” Young Master Han admitted. This was something that was completely outside his scope of knowledge.

“How much mana do you still have?” Gu Fei asked.

“Why don’t you make a guess?” Young Master Han did not reveal this information. The men from Colored Clouds were even more dejected by this time. Gu Fei had been running circles around them this entire time, almost twisting their legs into braids after all that turning, yet the two were chatting with one another like it was all a lark. Why was there no one sympathizing with them?

Gu Fei managed his mana consumption very well. Juggling his mana regeneration, he barely expended any of his mana in this assault, when instead, it was Young Master Han who slowly saw his mana deplete very quickly. A single slash from Gu Fei depleted a substantial amount of HP that a single Heal would not be able to cover. In fact, Young Master Han suspected that his own Heal would not be able to keep up with the speed of Gu Fei’s damage output had he been continuously casting his Twin Incineration on a single person.

However, Gu Fei did not do that, because he was well aware that he cannot stop to target just a single individual. As long as he stayed in one spot for too long, Young Master Han would immediately command the others to form a more effective encirclement.

One by one, the players were all taking turns to be cleaved by Gu Fei’s blade. All of a sudden, a stockily built man darted right in front of Gu Fei. Gu Fei chuckled as he slapped his palm into that man’s forehead, “Move aside. I’ve already seen through your scheme here.”

“That is really unfortunate,” Young Master Han appeared to be unfazed by this, but he was actually rather shocked deep down. He had no idea when Gu Fei had realized what he was doing.

“Reflect Damage. I’ve already lost to that once, so of course, I would be on guard against it,” Gu Fei laughed. He was not blindly brandishing his Twin Incineration on everyone. Ever since that time he had been killed by Xi Xiaotian’s Reflect Damage back during the mercenary PvP tournament, Gu Fei had been very wary of such a kill move. Did Gu Fei do as what Xi Xiaotian had suggested and Appraise the opponent? Gu Fei did not have the patience to train that skill, and he relied on his own methods instead. When facing against a suspicious enemy that had plenty of HP, Gu Fei would not do a full powered attack, casually probing with a few slashes of his sword first, basically to check and see if there were any sort of Reflect Damage. Presently, out of the players who had not died, a good number of them were Warriors. And because there was someone as devious as Young Master Han in the mix among the enemy here, even if Gu Fei would not usually be too hung up on such matter, he could not afford to not be on his guard at such a time. When he was attacking these Warriors, Gu Fei had made sure to probe every one of them with some basic attacks first, and he was quickly discovered that there was a Guardian who had specifically equipped himself with equipment that had the Reflect Damage effect.

“Do you still have anything else in store for me?” Gu Fei asked Young Master Han.

Young Master Han did not give him an answer. Given the current state of affairs, there was no way that they would be able to have the upper hand on Gu Fei and the others, but this was no more than a skirmish in the overarching battle. Colored Clouds and Young Master Han had already obtained the absolute advantage when considering the entirety of this confrontation between the two forces. That was why Young Master Han did not really take it to heart when his scheme failed. Seeing that he truly had no means to deal with Gu Fei, he decided to casually cope with him even as he tried to get a grasp of everything else happening in the other locations. Holding the killer Gu Fei in here was not really a terrible situation to be in. Furthermore, if he were to delay things in this fashion, it seemed there would be no need for so many people to remain here.

Young Master Han thought about it and temporarily halted his Healing. In the guild channel, he simply decided to make it known to everyone that it was more straightforward to simply die and head back to their spawn point so they could swiftly begin their hunt, leaving just him alone to deal with Thousand Miles Drunk.

A Twin Incineration spun out, and a player disappeared in a white light. Gu Fei turned his head around to look at Young Master Han, and saw that he was munching on a fruit, a rare occurrence in itself, like what Gu Fei would always do.

“Oh, have you finally run out of mana?” Gu Fei was not in the least bit courteous as he used this chance to immediately insta-killed someone.

This was already part of the plan that Young Master Han had come up with. He was a Priest that allocated his points toward Intelligence and Spirit, so his mana was much more than the average Priest out there. Actually, he had not used up all his mana, but it was only that the time he spent here was very inconsequential for the moment, so he had casually pulled out a fruit to replenish his mana for a bit. Gu Fei had slain two players and immediately turned around to launch his attack on Young Master Han. He waved his hand, gesturing for the others to withdraw from the fight.

These people did not dawdle, abruptly making their way out of the Hall of Guild Creations. They could all tell that they had no hope of going up against someone as insane as Thousand Miles Drunk.

In the end, just as they stepped out from the building, they were greeted by a deluge of flaming glow from spells and arrows… Every possible attack skill was mercilessly sent their way like a sneak attack, beating this crowd of babylegs completely at a loss for what to do.

Gu Fei wiped the sweat off his brow, sighing, “Why are you thinking of fleeing only at this time?”

Young Master Han laughed noncommittally. His enemy did not dare to fight it out inside the building, yet they had to run outside to set up an ambush instead. Naturally, this was all because they did not have the strength or confidence to stay unscathed like Gu Fei. They had their misgivings over any sort of casualties or losses when fighting, this was why they had left Gu Fei to hold everyone up while they set up their sneak attack outside.

But what use would that all be? During this round of skirmish here in the Hall of Guild Creations, Young Master Han and the others had not held out any hope to walk away with any of their lives completely, and all they fail to have any wish of fighting. All they wanted was to hand in their quest and be done.

The babylegged players that were ambushed howled and prepared to retaliate, but the ambushers seemed to have already homed in on their weakness; not a single one of these players suffered from baby legs, and all of them bolted in different directions when they saw that they were about to mount a counterattack. Young Master Han laughed out loud, “Do you guys intend to use such a strategy to fight?”

This team escaping the Hall of Guild Creations right now had a huge weakness, and that was the absence of any Agility-based job class. However, the real small guerilla hunting team he had put together would not have such a fatal flaw. There was no way Young Master Han would leave such a huge flaw for the enemy to exploit.

Gu Fei shook his head as he stood from the sideline, not in the least bit anxious to slay Young Master Han. He very consciously gestured over to the entrance, “Take another look, carefully this time.”

“Hmm? Could there still be more than meets the eye?” Young Master Han was not afraid of being ambushed, since he knew it was only a matter of time before he died here.

When Young Master Han stood by the entrance of the Hall of Guild Creations and took a look outside, his expression suddenly changed very drastically as he barked out in astonishment, “Who are these people?”

“Have you finally noticed?” Gu Fei smiled.

Young Master Han had finally noticed.

Originally, the combined forces of both Amethyst Rebirth and Extremely Heaven Defying, aside from the ladies, were just those faces whom he was very familiar with. However, these people in front of his eyes right now were just a bunch of men that he had absolutely no recollection of meeting before. Young Master Han was dumbfounded for a good while as a thought appeared in his mind.

Gu Fei walked up beside him, standing shoulder to shoulder with the man. They did not look like they were enemies at all, as Gu Fei patted him on his back, “Have you forgotten? Your bro’s Amethyst Rebirth had already turned into a level 2 guild a long time ago.”

Young Master Han turned his head and stared at Gu Fei.

“With the no.1 Slayer across all of Parallel World, Thousand Miles Drunk, as the leader, and given that it is an all-woman guild, if such a guild were to promote their recruitment, how attractive do you think Amethyst Rebirth will be?” Gu Fei asked.

“You guys…”

“Ahem, actually that’s not the key factor. For all intents and purposes, the key here is that there’s just one thing that you’re completely no match for when pitted against Sword Demon or even Brother Assist,” Gu Fei said.

Young Master Han now had both his eyes fixed on Gu Fei.

“They really have a lot of friends…” Gu Fei explained.

“Even I have quite a few myself,” Gu Fei nodded, waving over in a certain direction. “Hello, long time no see.”

“G*dd*mm*t, I feel like I’ve been swindled by you,” A man stepped out from a corner, tossing out a spell to bombard a patch of land before showing a very pained expression. “After all that, this is just a situation where men from the same side killing each other? Wouldn’t your contribution scores to turn into the negatives at this rate?”

“It’s only temporary. After we deal with these traitors, there’s still a whole city worth of contribution scores for you to earn outside. Perhaps you would like to establish a guild yourself?” Gu Fei suggested.

“Are you gonna loan me the men?” Drifting asked.

“Having traveled extensively for such a long time, what good is everything you’ve done if you can’t even put together the 20 players necessary to start a guild?” Gu Fei retorted.

“Bro, I’m now on the city defender’s side, who can I even message to?” Drifting fired back just as quickly.

“Think of a solution to that yourself!” Gu Fei said.

“I’ve been tricked. Utterly swindled,” Drifting was in anguish.

“See,” Gu Fei said to Young Master Han. “Just these three men here means that we can establish another 3 level 1 guilds. Actually, Brother Assist isn’t even in the city right now. He’s outside in the grinding map in the midst of our recruitment drive. Believe it or not, Amethyst Rebirth isn’t that far from becoming a level 3 guild. How about your guild? I heard that you’ve got a 200 member limit? Your manpower’s a little low!”