Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

This one wave of attack had resulted in the deaths of more than half of the players taking the mountain path. Out of those that remained, there was also quite a number that lost quite a bit of their HP in the process due to all their bumping and jostling. They did not have any Priests handy to give them Heals either, so each and every one of them were anxiously swallowing their bread, even as they raised their heads up wanting to know just what exactly happened.

Was it a natural disaster? Or a man-made one?

The answer was of course the latter, and the best proof to this was that the enemy troops that they had been chasing this whole time were still neatly formed up along the mountain path, not a single one of the huge rocks or logs that came falling from the sky striking any one of these players. It had been a trap, an ambush, and it was clearly a scheme that had been premeditated for a long time. Originally, such a deadly rain of rocks and logs that came smashing down would not differentiate friend or foe. But because the company of men that Black Index Finger and the coalition of guilds had sent opted to maintain their distance and attack from afar, that had given their enemy an opportunity for them to avoid ending up as unnecessary collateral damage. The 30-40 meters distance between both parties had instead become a guarantee that reduced any potential margin of error.

At the moment, these pursuers only had two thoughts in their minds. Looking up to the sky, they wondered if there would be another wave of falling rocks and logs coming their way. Turning to look at the neat formation their enemy had adopted in front of them, they wondered if they could charge out and break through their ranks to safety.

No matter the case, there was simply no way that they could stop another barrage of rocks and logs from above, but it was still worth a shot to make a mad dash for the enemy. Their survival depended on this one lifeline, and none of them had meekly shuffled back to hide this time round. In a situation where it was unknown if those party leaders of theirs were still alive, what remained of this company of players had managed to gather their last bit of will and all of them turned their gaze, and they could all see that determination to put their life on the line and die in each other’s faces.

However, this willpower of theirs very quickly dissipated. The sound of heavy objects whooshing through the air could be heard once again as another round of rocks and logs attacked them again. There was still limited space for all 2000 players to hug the cliff face, so the other players that remained experienced the entire ordeal once more. Once this wave of attack passed, these pursuers were all depressed. Their numbers had been diminished once more, and there were very clearly less of them now compared to the enemy. Warriors and Priests were holding their ground on the other side, so what sort of charge could they even mount?

“The other way!” Someone had actually put their hope in the other direction, where there was only Thousand Miles Drunk standing in their way. If they were to all dash headlong toward the lone swordsman, he would surely have to let some of them pass, right? But these players were ultimately mistaken, because it was not just Thousand Miles Drunk alone who was cutting them off from behind. The players behind might have sent a message crying out about Thousand Miles Drunk’s presence, but that was only because the man had been the most conspicuous and frightening threat.

Similarly, there was also a fully kitted party that had a comprehensive job class composition at the back of their procession, and they were not waiting for these players to charge toward them. Instead, these players had already taken the initiative to begin their assault, while the players that were further on the mountain path ahead had also made their move at the same time, resulting in a pincer attack from both sides; those poor players in between essentially had nowhere to run. The members of these two groups consisted of Dusky Cloud and his comrades as well, so not a single one of them went easy on these players despite their pathetic state as they very cleanly wiped them out in the span of a few short minutes now that they had nowhere else to run to.

“Boss, are we gonna do it once more?” Up on the top of a mountain, several players had lugged and pushed the large rocks and logs from the side of the mountain, and someone came around to ask Young Master Han this question while he was poking his head downward to look at the mountain path below him.

“Young Master Han turned around to smile, “It looks like there’s no further need for that.”

“Ah!” This other man was surprised. “Are we not going to use any more after this?”

“That’s right! And you guys have prepared so much more? Thank you guys for all your hard work. Here’s the remaining money. You guys should hurry up and leave while you’ve got the time!” Young Master Han tossed a coin pouch to that player and dismissed them accordingly.

These players seemed to have had quite a jolly time playing around with the rocks and logs, so they were all somewhat disappointed when they heard that they were just going to do it twice and be done with things; the man was not even very happy with what happened as he took that coin pouch. Young Master Han was not bothered by all these either, casually pulling out a teleportation scroll as the teleportation shimmered into existence, before transporting the man immediately down to the mountain pass below.

“Are you done gloating? Time to hurry up and be on our way!” Young Master Han said fairly calmly.

“What are we still running away for? Let’s wait for them to catch up again and give them another round of this,” someone chimed in.

“You imbecile. Why would they come here and be slaughtered twice in the same fashion? All they need to counter this tactic is to first send out a team to the mountaintop and check to see the coast is clear,” before Young Master Han could even berate that man, Dusky Cloud had already lambasted this witless comrade of his who had really thrown his face.

“Alright everyone, let’s not waste any more time and get going,” Gu Fei called out. His words truly had weight in the party, as everyone immediately complied and continued their trek.

“Was all that prepared beforehand?” Gu Fei turned around to ask Young Master Han.

“But of course. It was a matter of time before we had to make this move, and the enemy would most definitely come chasing. There’s no harm in making early preparations for such an eventuality,” Young Master Han said.

“You’ve really been busy this whole time, huh!” Gu Fei knew that while he had been running around killing and clearing his PK points, Young master Han had also been hard at work as well. Just from this ambush alone, it was quite an amazing feat that he was able to use the Hall of Mercenaries to hire the manpower necessary and still not get himself tainted with PK points at all after massacring over a thousand players in this manner.

“What other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Quick, tell them all to me!” Gu Fei said.

“Tsk,” Young Master Han ignored him as he followed the rest of the group along. It was not his style to tell others about the arrangements he had made prior.

All 2000 players had been completely wiped out.

When Black Index Finger received this news, he and the other guild leaders could feel numbness set into their hands and feet as if they were about to have a stroke.

“How could that be?” Everyone was shouting in their respective guild channels, asking all these speedsters that had participated in this pursuit just what happened.

“They had set up an ambush from the mountaintop and were waiting for us to catch up on the mountain pass before they threw down rocks and logs from out of nowhere. There was basically nowhere for any of us to hide or evade this ensuing litter, dying the moment those objects smashed right into us. Thousand Miles Drunk had also brought a portion of their men and hid somewhere along the road that led to Oolong Mountain Cave and intercepted our retreat. So we all ended up—”

“Where’re our scouts? Why didn’t he say a word about this?” the guild leaders were still flaring up.

The scouts did not dare to make a sound. These scouts from the various guilds truly had no idea that there was such a set up here. Furthermore, nobody had told them there was a need to check for such ambushes. It was very apparent that nobody had thought something like this would happen, but the sin of not having a comprehensive enough reconnaissance should not be all on them.

“What do we do now?” The more senior guild leaders had all gathered together and were all crazy anxious.

“What else can we do, send a team up to the top of the mountain range and weed out all their men up there.”

“Would they still be there? Wouldn’t they have run off already?”

“Who knows. If you’re not going to go, what if there really were people that remained, and when we chase after them, they let loose a rain of rocks and logs again?”

“We’re still going to chase after them?”

“What else are we going to do if we don’t do that?”

“Can we even catch up to them at this rate? I’m afraid they would have reached Yueye City by the time we caught up…”

Everyone became silent. Yueye City was not their home grounds, and hearing just how flagrantly unrestrained the city customs were, where even a bump in the shoulder while walking past could result in a group battle. Additionally, given how powerful and entrenched the Ten Guild Alliance were there, there was no doubt that the Ten Guild Alliance would turn and target them if any of them pursued Gu Fei and the others all the way to Yueye City. The 4000 strong Ten Guild Alliance might not have as many players as the coalition of guilds from Yunduan City, but crossing to another city to hunt down players, only to cause all the players to put up a united front in response was actually something that had happened before in Parallel World. There had been a player hailing from some powerful guild in a certain city who had an argument with another player on the forums. This matter actually escalated to the point where the man had very confidently put together a party of his own in an attempt to travel to this other city and hunt down this other person. But that ultimately caused the players in that city to spontaneously gather and beat up the invaders till they were stripped of their levels and equipment, becoming the laughingstock of the forum at the end of the day, and the guild had even been disbanded along with this incident.

The lesson from these predecessors became the perfect example for Black Index Finger and the others to take reference from, and none of them had the courage to hunt down their target across cities, much less a tough and uninhibited city like Yueye City.

“So what are we going to do now?”

“We still have to go after them, but we cannot do so too openly. Let’s gather a few of our men and scatter them to quietly infiltrate Yueye City. They’ll be keeping an eye on where Thousand Miles Drunk and the others are, and we can gather our manpower and launch an assault after we’ve got their position. Before then, we’ll need to take extra care to avoid getting into any altercations with anyone from their city,” someone said.

“Then let’s settle it like that then!”

Once the discussion was over, each guild leader returned and picked out the players who would be participating in this cross-city hunt, while several of the larger guild leaders had also secretly contacted each other.

“Since we’re going cross-city, inform those guys from the workshop and get them to contribute as well.”

“Those b*st*rds had even said that they had made arrangements for Thousand Miles Drunk and that he would most definitely fall for their trap. Yet I have not heard any g*dd*mn*d thing from them all this while.”

“No matter how you put it, Thousand Miles Drunk has successfully made his way into another city now, and there’s a limit to what we can do from here onward. With Thousand Miles Drunk and those guys gone, I’m afraid we won’t have any chance to strike if they really do end up working together with the Ten Guild Alliance.”

“To think this matter had been overblown to such a degree…” Someone sighed.

“You’re not thinking of backing out, are you?”

“Back out?” That person hesitated… Should I withdraw from this? The identity of his guild had not yet been exposed after all.

“Hmph, don’t think I have no idea what you rascals are trying to figure out. Right now, our fate is pretty much all intertwined with each other. Do you really wish to back out and wash your hands from this matter? Perhaps thinking of letting The Black Hand Syndicate bear the burden in full?” Black Index Finger was infuriated at this point. As the only guild leader that had been identified by Gu Fei and subsequently targeted and killed a few times over, he was definitely not going to let any of these other people here announce their withdrawal from this matter. If they were to back out at this juncture, their scheme here would essentially become a bust, and those men from Extremely Heavenly Defying would most definitely seek revenge. No doubt Black Index Finger and his guild would end up becoming the scapegoat for all this, and he would most definitely throw the others under the bus if that happened.

“Senior Black, don’t be angry. No one had such intentions,” Someone said.

It was evident that Black Index Finger was still in a foul mood, and no matter what anyone said, nothing would sound pleasing to his ear. He gave that person a side eye, “Foe-herder, of course you would say that, since there’s no way you can extract yourself out from this. If they can find out I’m involved in all this, then I’m sure they would have heard about your participation as well. The only difference is that I happened to have a few PK points on me, which was how Thousand Miles Drunk had g*dd*mn*d found me…”

“Heh, which is why I say, perhaps Thousand Miles Drunk’s already aware of all the guilds that had participated in this scheme of ours,” Foe-herder said.

“Then why did he just threaten The Black Hand Syndicate and did not call out any of the other guilds as well?” Someone could not help but blurt this out.

“F*ck, I knew you rascals were planning to back out from this. Let me warn you, you can forget about it! I’ll be the first to kill you if you even think about leaving! We need to stay united in this situation. We’ve now reached the point of no return with our plans, all of you can forget about extricating yourself from what we’ve done!” Black Index Finger angrily bellowed.

All these people who had been the subject of this tongue lashing glanced at Black Index Finger, muttering to themselves: you’re just level 38, what kind of power do you possess to kill us? Everyone here are experts that are above level 40. But at the end of the day, nobody dared to say it out loud because of how powerful his guild, The Black Hand Syndicate, actually was. All of them could only silently grimace and bear it.

“Alright, let’s stop fighting amongst ourselves. Right now, we’re all in difficult times, so what are we even arguing for? Let’s quickly and carefully plan things out instead!” Someone tried to smooth things over with everyone.

Black Index Finger was still seething, wanting to curse and swear at people every time he opened his mouth now, yet he also felt that further quarreling would simply be unproductive, so he decided to keep his mouth shut instead.

Foe-herder looked at these people and opened his mouth, “While we are currently in quite the predicament, we at least have a clear understanding of what’s going on. These guys want to contend with us further, testing our patience in the process. The spy we have inside the Jail had already sent a message to us, saying that they are waiting for Thousand Miles Drunk to give them the word before they would all choose a time to come online together…”

“F*ck, that’s what we were afraid of! We might have the patience to drag things out like this, but can we say the same for all our guildmates? Who would want to not spend time every day leveling or grinding out quests and instead properly stand guard by the Jail entrance? We’ll definitely fall apart if we are to carry on like this.”

“Which is why I say, we will have to take turns with this thing. At the moment, Thousand Miles Drunk is our most important adversary that we would be going up against, and as long as we can deal with him, everything afterward would be easily settled. I suggest that we get everyone to back away from all the spawn points and send over men to camp out the Mage Academy and the Jail entrance. Each of these places would have 500 players, totaling up to 1000. Let’s arrange our manpower for this and take turns swapping out the 1000 players every day. The other players can continue with their own business, but we still need to take heed. Send a message out to everyone if any sizable company of players was to appear, if Thousand Miles Drunk were to turn up, or any other suspicious character was spotted. What do you guys think?” Foe-herder suggested.

“I think 500 a side is too little. There are now close to 300 enemies we need to go up against, and if they were to appear at the same time as the 50 players that are currently in Jail to attack the players camping the Jail entrance at the same time, given the quality of their experts, I don’t think the 150 extra players we have would be too much of an advantage.”

“We’ve got close to a total of 20,000 players participating in this right now, correct? Why don’t we set it as 2000 a day, 1000 players on each side? This way, we can finish a complete rotation in 10 days; I feel like that is an acceptable turnover.”

“10 days for a full rotation? Are you g*dd*mn expecting our players to just stand there for 24 hours? The way I see it, the math for this wouldn’t be that simple. Some people won’t even be online during the day or in the wee hours of the day. Our manpower for these periods would be tight, making it hard to organize.”

“Okay, stop squabbling already. Let’s discuss this properly. There’s bound to be a solution,” The moment the seeds of discord rear their head, those who were quick to mediate the conversation had swiftly made their voices heard.

“This matter…” Everyone sighed as silence pervaded. Even if none of them said a word, there was no doubt that they were all sharing the same feeling of remorse deep down. Even Black Index Finger was feeling exceptionally vexed despite being one of the fiercest advocates for this scheme. But he had grasped onto the tiger by its tail in this instance, and now that things had blown to such proportions, they might be keen to call it quits, but would Thousand Miles Drunk be willing to do the same?

“Should we privately find Thousand Miles Drunk and discuss this?” There were already people who harbored such thoughts as well.

“Wait a minute! I’ve got a message!” Black Index Finger’s eyes suddenly gleamed, and everyone could tell that the news he got was good news.

“What is it?” Everyone quickly asked.

“They have already finished setting up their formation to intercept Thousand Miles Drunk and the others headed for Yueye City,” Black Index Finger said.

“What sort of formation?”

“A formation that would let them have a taste of their own medicine.”

———————————————–

On the mountain path over by Oolong Mountain Range, Gu Fei and the others could see that they were almost at the end of the pass, when the Sharpshooters in the front of their group nervously reported, “There’s a company of players coming right for us!”

“A company of players coming for us?” Gu Fei and Young Master Han exchanged glances. This was a message that Dusky Cloud’s men had relayed to them, which meant it was not any of their men. Could the enemy actually have such foresight that they had set up a roadblock on the way to Yueye City in advance?

“Halt! Everyone stop moving!” Young Master Han quickly stopped their group’s advance.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Fei could see that the expression on Young Master Han’s face was a little awry.

“A lapse in judgment…” Young Master Han said. “How could I have forgotten that the enemy still had workshops participating as well?! If we’re dealing with people from the workshops, then they would surely have the ability to rally troops across cities. When they received word about our departure from Yunduan City, they would then be able to prepare an ambush over at Yueye City for us beforehand.”

“G*dd*mn, there are still organizations that would dare make a move against us in Yueye City? I’ll go call my men over!” Dusky Cloud was fuming.

“It’s too late,” Young Master Han abruptly lifted his head to the sky.

Gu Fei suddenly thought of the same thing as well, raising his head up, “You mean to say—”

“Even if the enemy had not thought of this trick, they are more than capable of mimicking the same move that we’ve shown them just a while back. In the time it takes for our ambush to resolve and for us to get here, they should have had more than enough time to prepare, right?” though Young Master Han was looking over to Dusky Cloud as he said this.

Dusky Cloud was shocked, but soon understood what Young Master Han meant. He did a quick calculation of the time it took for them to get here and the time it took for them to travel out from Yueye City over to the mountain pass entrance, his face paled as well, “They do have enough time…”

“Everyone, keep close to the cliff face!” Young Master Han shouted even as everyone could hear a sound coming from above. Everyone took cover even as they laughed mirthlessly, “Isn’t our retribution a bit too soon? We had only just cleaned up their men, and now it is our turn to face a similar fate in a blink of an eye.”

However, it was a good thing that there were fewer of them, and with how they had been making their way to Yueye City at a leisurely pace, their formation was loosely packed. After Young Master Han shouted, everyone had enough space to position themselves and squeeze into corners. Even if they were unable to directly hug the cliff face, they would at most just be a single human space away from it, so the difference was not too much.

Despite the case, it was still not a guarantee that they would all be spared. The rocks, logs, and other free-falling objects were falling down unsympathetically onto the mountain path, flying debris scattering in every conceivable direction. White light sporadically shone as dozens of men on Gu Fei’s side got killed as everything came crashing down.

“Tell the ladies who were sent back to the spawn point to log out immediately!” Gu Fei sent a message to July.

“Got it!” July quickly replied. This was not the time to feel sorry for themselves.

“Here they come,” Someone pointed. The company of enemies ahead was rapidly closing in, and they could all clearly see that most of them were Mages and Archers. It was apparent that they intended to use this chance while Gu Fei and the others were unable to get into formation to rely on their ranged attacks to kill them all.

“Retreat! Turn back and bring them onto the mountain path. Miles, charge out and engage the enemy!” Young Master Han shouted.

“I’m already doing just that!” Gu Fei had already leaped out, but that drew the exclamation from everyone around.

“F*ck, you consider that charging out?” Young Master Han had cried out as well. He had meant for Gu Fei to begin swapping positions with the others bit by bit, slowly edging his way forward in hopes of finding a way to attack the enemy. But who would have guessed that Gu Fei would jump straight onto that mountain path and run forward like that? Everybody knew that Gu Fei was the only one capable of disrupting the enemy formation all by himself, so if he were to die here, the rest of them would have no hope of getting out of their present quandary alive. None of them had expected that man to not cherish his own life, still using the mountain path despite everything falling around them.

In the end, everyone got to admire peak kung fu’s body movement and footwork. Gu Fei nimbly threaded his way between the rocks and logs, making everyone watching feel as if he was always facing the threat of being flattened into a meat paste, yet he was constantly able to dodge everything coming his way at the very last moment. People could chalk it up to luck if it happened once or twice, but Gu Fei had already demonstrated his ability to consistently weave about everything thrown at him for the 20 meters he covered, and while his movement varied between fast and slow, it became clear that he had been able to judge where all the objects were falling, and in doing so, made his way forward to the enemies step by step.

Everyone was sweating on his behalf, but Gu Fei did not disappoint anyone in the end. Under the expectant gaze of his own comrades, while the enemy was still flabbergasted and horrified by what they just witnessed, Gu Fei had already cleared this length of the dangerous mountain path. The enemy had been so shocked to the point that they had forgotten to attack, so Gu Fei seized the moment to quickly dash right up. In a glance, he did however feel that he was not facing that many opponents, and there appeared to be reinforcement just a short distance ahead. Just how many lives do I need to take this time? Gu Fei wondered…