Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“Why did he want to mess with you?” The guild leaders of the four large guilds were examining Ye Xiaowu with great interest, feeling that this person must have some backstory to him, otherwise, Young Master Han would most likely just throw out words of contempt and kick him off his high horse if he was just anyone else.

“And you gentlemen are?” Ye Xiaowu was not a prominent player of MMOs. He might be able to recognize the names of the guild leaders from the four large guilds he learned during his research, but that did not mean that he would recognize them in person.

After a round of introduction with everyone, Ye Xiaowu nodded, “This is an inconvenient location. Men, how about we chat while we walk?’

The four guild leaders exchanged glances with each other. Looking at this trash Priest adopting such a calm and confident bearing, all four were intrigued if this person was the real deal or just talk.

“There’s no GM here, shoo!” With the guild leaders of the four large guilds driving everyone away, the crowd that surrounded them gradually thinned out. The four were now staring at Ye Xiaowu, eager to hear just what this man might have to say that made it ‘inconvenient’ before.

—

The four players on the city defender’s side; Gu Fei, Royal God Call, Xi Xiaotian and Svelte Dancer, used a teleportation scroll to leave the city, and it brought them out to that secluded area where Gu Fei and Aural Valley Wind had completed their transaction. It was quite a distance away from the battlefield, so their sudden appearance would definitely not have attracted anybody’s attention.

Svelte Dancer took a quick glance at her coordinates and that slip of paper with the coordinates of Gu Fei’s quest, then she got angry, “You fool! Do you know how far we are from that location? Why did you teleport us out here?”

Xi Xiaotian came over and swept her eyes across it, and she revealed a look of disdain as well.

“Hmph!” Royal God Call walked over and snorted when he took a look too.

“What are you harrumphing about; do you even know which direction this set of coordinates is in from where we are?” Gu Fei was fuming. He was fine with being mocked by the others, but for Royal God Call to also foolishly do the same… That rascal really did not know his place.

Royal God Call was willful and did not admit his mistake, simply taking the slip of paper from Gu Fei’s hand to examine. Gu Fei tried to explain to the smarter two, “It could not be helped. My first trip out of the city was no vacation, so the coordinates were set wherever we were. How was I supposed to know that the location of this quest I’m on would be all the way over there?”

“You d*mb*ss, Why didn’t you purchase scrolls that had pre-recorded coordinates set?” Svelte Dancer berated.

“Did they offer such a thing?” Gu Fei had no idea.

“You could have asked them about it!” Svelte Dancer spat.

“Maybe next time!” Gu Fei hurriedly answered.

That was when Royal God Call showed the fruits of his examination and barked out a laugh, “Who says I don’t know which direction to go, it’s that way, isn’t it?”

“Scram!” Gu Fei snatched back the slip of paper, “You used two whole minutes to determine which direction we should be going, yet the answer you got is still wrong.” With that, he started to head in the exact opposite direction that Royal God Call had pointed out.

Royal God Call was utterly embarrassed, quickly sliding up beside Gu Fei, “Bro, you clearly know I’m inept when it comes to this, so you gotta at least show me some face!”

“Who’s the one who first mocked the other?” Gu Fei asked.

“I made a mistake, okay?” Royal God Call turned around and saw the two beauties secretly whispering to each other, their laughter tinkling in the wind, most likely ridiculing him. It was so disheartening that he felt like dying.

Gu Fei and the three had teleported to a location in the northeast from Yunduan City, while the location the Vigilante Corps captain had directed them toward was in the southwest direction of the city. It was perfectly opposite from where they ended up, so the four had no choice but to make a huge circle around. Gu Fei saw that Sword Demon and the others seemed very concerned with this quest, so he did not wish to disappoint them. It was due to this reason that he showed the proper appropriateness when he made this trip, going straight for the target location without taking any detours, all so as to minimize potential variables from cropping up. However, the lady Svelte Dancer simply lacked any sense of responsibility, pointing and nudging everyone toward the massacre that was happening on the battlefield several times as they were traveling, egging the others to join her and swing by to directly take part in the fight.

Xi Xiaotian did not say a word, Gu Fei rolled his eyes, and while Royal God Call wanted to curry favor with the lady, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut under the stern gaze from Gu Fei. When Svelte Dancer saw how she was not getting any response, she got dejected and began randomly kicking little rocks as they journeyed to their destination. From time to time, she would find herself ‘missing’ her kicks and end up kicking Gu Fei by ‘mistake’. The man controlled himself from sending her straight back to the city, as he at least knew that Svelte Dancer would often throw a little tantrum when she was unhappy, but would not drop the ball or cause even more trouble during a time of crisis.

“I’m going to kill you if there’s no fighting when we reach our destination,” Svelte Dancer did not threaten Gu Fei just once.

Finally, Gu Fei could not bear it any longer as he sighed, “do you think I don’t want that?”

“What?”

“I hope there’s going to be fighting too, I want to kill you as well,” Gu Fei said.

“Are you courting death!?” Svelte Dancer kicked Gu Fei a few more times.

“Okay, we’re about to reach our destination, stop fooling around.” Xi Xiaotian coaxed Svelte Dancer. Royal God Call had stepped in pace with Gu Fei as well, expressing how envious he was seeing Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer quarrel. Gu Fei was rolling his eyes so much, it felt like it would just fall off.

“Over there,” Xi Xiaotian took a quick glance at Gu Fei’s slip of paper and pointed up ahead.

“There’s nobody here!” Gu Fei paced over to where she pointed. This map was called Yunjiao Quarry, a place that was shared by everyone to level. There were NPC miners around level 40 – 45 going about their business, and it was a location where questing players on the city assaulter’s side would often head to as the Quarry had plenty of repeatable missions players could all obtain.

Gu Fei took several steps forward, and he was already standing right on top of the set of coordinates written on his slip of paper. Aside from a miner swinging about its pick in front of him, there was nothing else worthy of note.

“The coordinates we were given is the entrance to this Quarry, so it appears as if the person we’re looking for will be inside this mine,” Xi Xiaotian surmised.

“That looks about right,” Gu Fei sighed, helpless.

Fortunately, the Yunjiao Quarry was not too huge a map, so it would not take too long to finish walking the loop. When the four players came forward, they saw that there were quite a few players grinding in the Quarry, and there were a few who were busy mining and shoveling, players pushing mining carts, all apparently doing missions for the city assaulters.

“Let’s disguise ourselves slightly!” Xi Xiaotian suggested.

“Yeah,” Gu Fei nodded, instantly changing into that Thief’s cloak he had used before, covering his face in the process.

“Where did you find your crap outfit? It’s so ugly,” Svelte Dancer sneered, changing out her equipment as well. It was still top tier equipment that accentuated her curves, rather stylish looking while still providing decent stats. Xi Xiaotian had also changed into a lousy Thief’s cloak and covered her face as well. Royal God Call did not have anything prepared for such a scenario, and just as he was at a loss for what to do, Gu Fei looked at him briefly and said, “Forget it, I reckon there’s no one that would recognize you.”

Royal God Call was dispirited, but it was the truth. A player’s IGN would not be floating above their heads in Parallel World, so no matter how famous Royal God Call was, with over tens of thousands of players in the entire city, just how few would actually be able to recognize him by his looks? It was not like he was a superstar that had been on the television; even apex players like Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer were mainly deeply etched in the hearts and minds of others by how they were dressed. Thinking about how he was dressed, Royal God Call’s heart of never admitting defeat leaped up. Tugging at the three bows that he had slung on his back, he asked, “But aren’t I being too conspicuous looking like this? What am I going to do if people identify me through this?”

Gu Fei spared a quick glance before answering, “Stow them away in your dimensional pocket.”

Tears were flowing freely down Royal God Call’s face. He had accidentally shown his IQ, or lack thereof, yet again, causing the two ladies behind to snigger once more.

The four continued their way into the mine in this fashion, pretending to fight monsters as they continued their walk deeper into the mine.

“You’re a Thief now, so don’t use your spells,” Svelte Dancer reminded Gu Fei.

“I know,” Gu Fei said.

“Heh!” Svelte Dancer’s smile was both subtle and profound.

“I can still kill you without any spells,” Gu Fei told her the truth to waylay any thoughts she might come up with.

“You utterly lack even a shred of manners, you know that? Would it kill you to let me win occasionally?” Svelte Dancer scolded.

“Manners? When does this guy even show any bit of manners?” Xi Xiaotian chimed in.

Royal God Call nodded his head lightly in agreement.

Gu Fei ignored the three and concentrated on the task at hand. They cleared out the monsters they met along the way, discovering nothing aside from the normal monsters they come across as they circled the mined.

“There are only those NPCs over there, so could the one we’re looking for be one of them?” Xi Xiaotian pointed over to the other side, and there stood some non-combative NPCs, giving out quests to the players from the city assaulter’s side.

“Let’s head over and take a look,” Gu Fei brought everyone in that direction, killing the monsters along the way. Logically speaking, there were plenty of monsters in the Quarry, and there were players busy grinding there as well. Even though monsters would occasionally spawn, the hindrance of a battle was hardly a convenience to anyone, so nobody cared to fight the monsters here. However, Gu Fei and the others did not care if they appeared suspicious or otherwise. They fought all the monsters as they made their way over, bringing along all the monsters with them while they headed toward the NPCs.

“Guillermo is dead.” Gu Fei had no idea how to test the NPCs, so all he could think of was this particular line. If he was indeed searching for Guillermo’s assistant, it must surely have some sort of reaction to this particular information. Thus, Gu Fei treated it like a secret code, interacting with each NPC along the way.

No reaction. Each and every one of the NPCs did not react at all, though it was the players who were questing around them that began to curiously regard them. The four players were killing monsters, yet they were also making their rounds with the quest giving NPCs. It was rather strange.

The four were not too bothered about all the attention, and they were all anxious when they saw how they were about to finish questioning all the NPCs present. It was at this time when Gu Fei blurted out his line “Guillermo is dead” and the NPC he was facing had no reaction, but someone crouched on the ground shoveling a heap of rock and dirt nearby that suddenly turned over, “He’s dead?”

The four were surprised. This was an NPC? None of them had noticed its presence, and had even thought it was a questing player going about his shovel work.

“That’s right, he’s dead.” Gu Fei quickly confirmed its query.

That diminutive man’s expression at first appeared to be apprehensive and shocked, but upon hearing Gu Fei answer it again, its face instantly turned into that of glee as it wiped the sweat off its face with its dirty sleeves, “That old coot is dead? Then that means my plan can finally be implemented, hahahahaha!”

The four players were astonished by this exclamation, uncertain if the NPC had gone insane as it bounded off the ground and sprung out at them like a bullet, making its way up a mound several meters high in a short while.

“Wow, it’s an expert!” Gu Fei was ecstatic, and without saying another word, Blink right out and began chasing after it.

“It’s Thousand Miles Drunk!!!” The questing players who had long been watching the four newcomers all exclaimed this out loud. All the players on the city assaulter’s side had already been instructed by their guild to familiarize themselves with a few key characteristics that Thousand Miles Drunk would possess: His black Mage robe, a sword that shone a deep purple, the Blink spell and Lightning affinity. Cloud Herder’s guild leader Foe-herder had even newly added a fifth characteristic, that Thousand Miles Drunk’s head of hair was like poo. Any sensible person would have rationalized that as the guild leader Foe-herder having lost his wits after being killed by TMD and was now slandering the enemy so as to vent his anger, so this newest characteristic was not spread to everyone.

The most probable and identifiable characteristics out of these four stated was absolutely the usage of Blink. There was no other player in Yunduan City that could use the skill at all, which was why the moment they saw Gu Fei Blink went up the mound, all the players questing had immediately yelped, and this yelp of surprise soon turn into panic, as each of them began to report what happened to their own guilds.

Gu Fei could not care less to pay heed to any of these players. Up on the mound, Guillermo’s assistant had not stopped, and was still happily bounding in joy. Gu Fei shouted for the NPC to stand still as he quickly chased after it. Svelte Dancer and the other two were not as swift as the pair, so they were already several paces behind as they scrambled to get up as well. The three were also giving chase right behind them, with Royal God Call already had his bow out with the bowstring drawn, yelling as he asked, “Are we shooting it or not?”

“SHOOT IT!” Gu Fei shouted.

“Don’t be so reckless!” Xi Xiaotian hurried to stop him.

“Is this my quest or yours!?” Gu Fei was furious.

“It’s a quest for the guild!!” Xi Xiaotian reminded.

“I’ve got a quest prompt!!” Gu Fei shouted. He was not so noob to such an extent. When the new NPC showed its face and began running, Gu Fei gave chase as he checked his quest log. The usually concise Parallel World quest prompt would always have a sentence shown. As it turned out, the order from the Vigilante Corp’s captain to ‘make contact’ was no longer there, and in its place was a simple order to ‘stop’ it.

“Here it comes!” Royal God Call responded and fired his arrow. The projectile whistled as it sliced through the wind, striking the miner square on its back. The NPC suddenly turned around, and its expression was savage. It charged at the four players bellowing, “NOBODY CAN STOP ME!”

With that, it dashed forward and lunged, a single palm striking toward the first body that was in its way, which happened to be Gu Fei.

“Good one!” Gu Fei did a sidestep to avoid this palm, whirling his sword waiting for the counterattack when the palm had suddenly twisted and come chasing back over to Gu Fei. It struck Gu Fei on his head and the strength behind that blow was astounding. Gu Fei was completely unable to mitigate the force of attack, and the slap sent him bowling over to the ground.

Svelte Dancer, Xi Xiaotian and Royal God Call were all so flabbergasted by what they saw that they had immediately come to a halt. They had witnessed the Miner twist its arm joints and somehow struck Gu Fei in quite an inexplicable manner. It had completely turned backward around, and any normal human who did the same would most likely end up breaking their arm in the attempt.

“What in the world was that?” Gu Fei was sprawled on the ground and he had also seen how that Miner had forcefully contorted its own arms. He had not even expected that this NPC would be able to do something that defied the motion of basic human body structure.

*Crack!* A sound could be heard as the Miner actually used its other hand to force its bent arm back into position, casually lifting a leg to try and stomp on Gu Fei as he lay on the ground.

Gu Fei quickly rolled away. The Miner continued its attack even as it gave chase, causing Gu Fei to roll left and right evading the attack, never finding the chance to stand back up. He lifted his eyes and saw those three standing blankly staring at him. Gu Fei was dismayed, “Do the three of you want to just come here and stomp on me a few times as well?”

It was as if the three had immediately snapped out from a dream. Royal God Call quickly pulled out a bow and released an arrow, this time hitting the Miner right on its forehead. The Miner yowled, pulling out the arrow with its hand and throwing it right back at Royal God Call. The arrow flew was not much slower than Royal God Call’s own shot, though its accuracy was a bit worse. Royal God Call was able to evade the arrow by shrinking his head down behind cover, startled to the point he broke out in cold sweat, but the Miner was already snarling and swinging its arms wildly as it came rushing at him.

Royal God Call turned tail and wanted to flee, only for the Miner to end up pouncing over at him again, only it did not squat this time. Everyone could see the Miner stoop low, and its legs folded up several times; Both Xi Xiaotian and Svelte Dancer nearly wanted to puke just seeing it. The legs of the Miner then straightened and that launched itself like a cannon as it sprung out. Royal God Call yelped, but he could not react in time, resulting in the Miner to pounce right onto him as they both collapsed into the ground.

Turning around, Royal God Call saw that miner open its unusually large mouth hanging just above his head, looking like it was trying to eat his head. Royal God Call was screaming, unable to say a word as he was scared beyond his wits.

“Twin Incineration!” Gu Fei came over in the nick of time, executing a powerful cut directed at the Miner. Dealing a chunk of damage to it, the Miner yelled loudly with its outstretched neck, the drool that ran from its huge mouth finally hung loose in the wind. Royal God Call was pinned under the Miner, completely unable to move. Struggling as best as he could to free himself, he felt a sense of coldness fall upon him, as its drool finally dripped onto his face.

“Ugh…” The faces of the two ladies by the side went pale, as both felt a wave of nausea come over them, though all they did was dry heave. Royal God Call could only grit his teeth and bear this as well, but he soon exclaimed in shock, “D*mn, it still deals damage.”

“What?” Gu Fei asked.

“Its drool deals damage,” Royal God Call shouted.

“Then you better be careful, another one’s coming,” Gu Fei said.

“What?” Royal God Call twisted and met with the client. A glob of saliva was already slathered over Royal God Call’s face, blurring his vision with two eyes.

“Save me…” Royal God Call wanted to cry, but no tears came forth as his face was drenched in its saliva.

“Quick! The two of you, come and help!” Gu Fei turned around to yell at the two ladies. Royal God Call got spat on yet again and that only aggravated their unwillingness. Hearing Gu Fei call for them, they reluctantly picked up their weapons and charged over, even as they continued to dry heave the whole way there.

“Stop dry heaving already, you’re both being even more disgusting than it!” Gu Fei shouted.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY!?” Svelte Dancer was infuriated, dashing right over to deliver a vicious cut at the Miner, “Say that one more time!!!”

“Not bad, continue,” Gu Fei commended.

However, the Miner was not one to not retaliate when attacked. When it swung its arm out, Gu Fei lowered his head, as did Svelte Dancer, but that was when its forearm suddenly plunged downward, once more making an action that humans were unable to do. This time, however, Gu Fei was prepared and he rolled back to avoid it. In the end, the forearm that came hammering down became like a swinging pendulum, shifting to the side and it boxed Svelte Dancer in her ear.

“This madam will kill you!!” Svelte Dancer leaped to her feet and began brandishing her dagger. In the same time she had stabbed the Miner twice, she was also struck once by it. Royal God Call took this chance to scramble away from the scuffle, escaping till he was beside Xi Xiaotian, not forgetting to fawn at the beauty, “Big sis Xiaotian, be careful.”

Xi Xiaotian glanced at him once and threw a piece of cloth at him, “Wipe your face.”

Royal God Call quickly wiped it even as he shouted to Svelte Dancer, “Big Sis Svelty, be careful of its drool.”

“Drool on yourself!” Svelte Dancer’s stab headed directly for the Miner’s mouth, but it had unexpectedly opened its mouth and actually bit down into Svelte Dancer’s dagger. It then extended both its arms out, like it was attempting to get her in a hug.

For Svelte Dancer to evade this, she would have to let go of her dagger, and there was no way she was willing to do that. Thankfully, Gu Fei had come thrusting over at that moment, his sword slashing the Miner’s throat, followed by a Palm of Thunder that struck its forehead. The Miner was repelled off as a result, but its bite force was shockingly powerful, so much so it actually ended up dragging Svelte Dancer along with her dagger as it staggered backward from the attack.

“Release my dagger at once!” Svelte Dancer’s indomitable spirit was invigorated once more, shifting her non-dominant hand over to the dagger handle as she shoved her free hand into her dimensional pocket, pulling out another dagger that she drove straight into the Miner’s left eye.

A squelching sound was heard as her dagger went straight into its eye, causing its dark green colored blood to spurt out. The Miner was in pain, opening its mouth as it howled in pain. Svelte Dancer used this chance to snatch her dagger back, but she had been frightened by that hideous face it had, so she swiftly retreated to a safe distance away from it.

“What the heck is that thing?” Svelte Dancer asked, her voice trembling slightly in her fear.

“It’s not human!” Xi Xiaotian exclaimed.

“Yeah, it’s the most troublesome sort,” Gu Fei furrowed his brow. Parallel World had mainly humanoid creatures. Aside from some of the animals and fantastical monsters, Gu Fei would always have to expend quite the effort when fighting against such monsters. Meanwhile, the Miner right in front of him now, despite having a humanoid form, was actually an otherworldly, non-humanoid creature.