Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Drifting was back. Actually, Gu Fei had been the one that told him to leave the guild. Back when they were surrounded from all sides, there were a total of 4 players who had PK Values over 20 PK points: Gu Fei, Sword Demon, Drifting, and Svelte Dancer.

As someone who often spent his time doing Bounty Missions, Gu Fei was at least aware that anyone who had a PK Value over 20 points would lose 2 levels even if they were sent to the Jail. Back then, he was already prepared to send everyone to Jail by grabbing their bounties, but the loss of two levels was best avoided if possible. As a result, he had sent Drifting a message and told him to temporarily leave the guild. Time was of the essence back then, and Gu Fei simply did not have the time to explain to Sword Demon and the others about his explanation, not to mention he was unable to announce it in the guild channel.

Thus, Drifting had departed just like that, while Svelte Dancer had also safely left the scene with the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth. Gu Fei himself had conveniently cleared out his PK Value at the same time he was bounty hunting his own guildmates, leaving just Sword Demon still unaccounted for. He was unable to leave the guild since he was the guild leader of Extremely Heaven Defying. Besides, as a newly created guild, they lacked any sort of unity to speak of that might very well disband right there on the spot if Sword Demon were to choose to do so. Even if this was not a problem, Gu Fei reckoned that Sword Demon would not choose to leave the guild as a means to escape the penalty, so he did not even speak to him about this matter at all.

Furthermore, Gu Fei had also thought to tell Royal God Call, Southern Lone Blade, and those experts to leave the guild when he dashed up to them. This was because he had also expected the enemy would not give up so easily as long as the guild remained intact, and that meant that this battle would most likely carry on for quite some time, so having more of such experts outside would always be the stronger fighting force.

It was just that Gu Fei did not dare to do so in the situation back then, because these experts were also the players who were shouldering the guild on their backs, and there was no way that they would have left the guild at that point of time. Besides, Extremely Heaven Defying would not need as many players and keep themselves from going under the minimum requirement of 20 players a guild needed with them serving as the base, but Gu Fei did not really have confidence with the others if they were to leave. The guild would still be doomed in the event that these people flee and scatter into the winds the moment they face experts.

These thoughts had sprung into Gu Fei’s head in an instant and were all resolved just as quickly. As such, Drifting was the only one he messaged out of everyone in the guild. The man had also been weighing his own losses and was a little hesitant going through with it. He did not expect Thousand Miles Drunk to have actually thought of this point at that time and was quite surprised by it, though he was also more than happy to leave the guild. Because he did not explain this, it led to Royal God Call and the others berating him for his action, and he did not have a chance to explain himself afterward either since those men were all sent to Jail by then.

Drifting had left the guild, so he would of course bring Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool along with him, pulling out a teleportation scroll to temporarily leave Yunduan City so they could all clear their PK Values. With over 20 PK points to clear, most players, especially those with babylegged job classes like Drifting, would have quite a tough time clearing everything without any tools to help him with his Bounty Missions. He had been forced to go back and forth with the missions until now, and had only just managed to clear them all before teleporting right back to Yunduan City, getting in touch with Gu Fei as he did so.

180 PK points… Drifting had already spotted that printed on the global Bounty leaderboard when he handed in his final mission. At that time, the Bounty Assignment Hall was bustling as if it was the Auction House, and plenty of players were not even there to get a Bounty Mission, but had come because they had heard that there was a PK Maniac who was on a warpath, his PK Value climbing unceasingly like a rocket attempting to challenge the world record. As a result, everyone had gathered so that they could personally witness such a record come to be.

Aside from that, it was of course inevitable for them to guess who this person was. Drifting caught a few casual discussions on this and felt there was hardly any suspense. 8 or 9 out of 10 players were all convinced that it was Thousand Miles Drunk, and of course there was no doubt that it was indeed the man himself.

When Gu Fei heard Drifting mention ‘Reference Room’, he instantly perked up. During the City Wars event, he had very fortunately flipped through the books found in the Reference Room and even though the information on the equipment that the players he looked up on were not given, their levels, job class, and guild were all stated, and he could indeed fish out all the members of The Black Hand Syndicate in this manner.

“Since you can pick up plenty of bounties in one go, you can let their coordinates decide where you can go and avoid killing those that are inside the city and specifically locate those that left to grind their levels beyond the city. This way, the city guards won’t be able to come and cause trouble, and you can return back to the city and hand everything over all in one go once you’ve killed enough! F*ck, that thing you’ve got is simply too convenient,” Drifting was somewhat envious of this despite having no interest in Bounty Missions.

“Great, that’s how we’ll do it then. Head on over and copy down the whole list of names from both The Black Hand Syndicate as well as Cloud Herder guild, and I’ll make my way over to outside Yunduan City and wait for you,” Gu Fei said.

Drifting felt chills run down his spine. The list of members from those two guilds meant over 2000 IGNs. Including the time and effort it would take to search and copy down, Drifting felt that he had really cheapened himself! Why did he come up with such a terrible task for himself?

Gu Fei had begun pulling out his teleportation scroll once he was done with this conversation, as he casually shouted, “Hey, come help me take a look and see which ones are coordinates outside of Yunduan City?”

No one answered him after he shouted this, so Gu Fei lifted his head to look. While he and Drifting were messaging one another, everyone had already walked off, and no one actually stayed to show any concern about his PK Value predicament. Gu Fei was depressed and promptly chased after them. Clutching onto a pile of teleportation scrolls, he asked Young Master Han which one would drop him outside of Yunduan City.

“What are you planning to do?” The conversation between Gu Fei and Drifting was done via private messages, so none of them had any idea about this plan.

“Drifting can help provide me with a list of names in their guild. Since I’ll be clearing my PK points anyway, why not target those men of his?” Gu Fei explained.

“Oh? How would he know their IGNs?” Young Master Han asked even as he began wondering just what sort of tool could have such valuable use.

“It’s from his Faction. He’s able to enter the Reference room in the City Hall and look up people’s information,” Gu Fei said.

The players around all pricked up their ears. Faction, Reference room, they were all playing the same game, so why was there such a huge gap of knowledge between them? Why are these people already coming into contact with content that they had never heard of, while they were still fumbling around the same old grounds?

“That’s pretty useful,” Young Master Han said as he took the pile of scrolls from him. The man was clearly a genius when it came to identifying coordinates, and after going through a bunch of them, he pulled one out, “This one! You’re really such an idiot, to actually still have this teleportation scroll left in your possession from before.”

“I must have dropped it into some corner of my inventory and forgot to use it,” Gu Fei said.

“Then we’ll split our forces up two ways; You will head back to Yunduan City and continue creating trouble for those guilds. As for me, I’ll head over to Yueye City. Help them with their fight with the workshop,” Young Master Han said.

“Are you going to help or instigate things further?” Gu Fei asked.

“Why not both?” Young Master Han nodded as he waved his hand and departed.

Gu Fei unfurled the teleportation scroll and the formation shone upon the ground. He transported himself back to Yunduan City once more.

180 PK points, I wonder if there would be anyone who would come and pick up a bounty for me? Gu Fei was thinking about this and felt that he could not rule this possibility out. He understood the fantastical creativity that players have. The moment something strange and unique were to appear, there would always be players with a very powerful imagination that would fantasize that this was some sort of special overleveled quest. Now that he was a God of Death with the shockingly high PK Value of 180 points hovering over his head, there was no telling that there would not be a player out there who was convinced that they would definitely receive some overleveled reward upon completing the bounty.

However… the reward for clearing a bounty target with 180 PK points would most definitely be something beyond the current standards. Gu Fei frequently completed Bounty Missions, so he was able to calculate out just how much experience and gold coins would be awarded for turning in a target as huge as himself, and even he himself was a little moved by it.

I wonder if I can pick up my own bounty? Sure enough, Gu Fei had played enough of Parallel World that he had been infected by it and begun having nonsensical fantasies of his own. He took out his Bounty License and tried to search for his own name. Just as he keyed in the first two words, he suddenly began to hesitate. If I were to pick up a bounty on myself, would the shameless system immediately view it as turning myself in and send me straight to the Jail? 180 PK points mean 180 hours, which comes up to 7 days and 5 hours online, without any breaks. Gu Fei thought about this and decided to err on the side of caution. It was best if he experimented with this when he had only 1 PK point!

Gu Fei was wandering outside the city limits, waiting for Drifting to send him a message. He had originally thought that this would take some time, but he soon saw a message from Drifting pop up, and in it were several names.

“Are they from The Black Hand Syndicate?” Gu Fei asked.

“Yup. We’ll save time if you check up these IGNs while I send you them as I go,” Drifting said.

“Okay. You can write down a copy of the names as well while you’re at it,” Gu Fei requested.

Drifting swore. Using this messaging style could save him from having to write them down himself, but he had not thought Gu Fei would not let him go on this. I’m not Brother Assist, Drifting thought to himself as tears streamed down his face, gesturing for both Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool to begin doing the writing. Both men were equally dejected and listless as well.

Drifting sent out five IGNs with every message, changing it to ten, fifteen, and twenty at once after… Gu Fei copied each and every one of them and tested it with his Bounty License. Those who had no PK Value would turn up blank, while those who had incurred PK points would immediately be registered as a target. Gu Fei could more or less determine how far out and in what direction these Bounties were when he compared his own coordinates with that of the targets. Some were inside the city, so they were naturally ignored, while he immediately turned in the corresponding direction and set off toward those who were outside of the city.

The grinding maps that players over level 40 would head to were relatively far away from the city, so there was no danger of city guards chasing Gu Fei all the way out there. Gu Fei was spirited and ready to go, making his way over as he continued to test the IGNs that Drifting was still messaging to him, and the names in the bounty list in his quest logs continued to pile up. In the end, before he even reached the target that he had originally sought out for, Gu Fei discovered that a new IGN that had appeared in the meantime was actually not too far away from his current position. He immediately turned in the direction of this new Bounty, circling around a little hill and instantly spotting a group of players sweating profusely as they ground out their levels with the monsters around.

Gu Fei could immediately feel a headache build up in him. If he were to attack the target with this group of players around, the others would most definitely lend a hand. This target was only worth a single PK point, and there were a total of 9 players in their team right now… He would lose a single PK point, but he would most likely end up adding an additional 8 PK points to his tally. Would he ever be rid of his PK Value at this rate?

Attempt a hit and run? But the enemy team had an Archer and a Thief as well. At their level, they would most likely have movement speed that outstripped that of his own. If they had a reckless disregard for their own lives and gave chase, he would still have to kill the two, and that meant that he would still end up with the short end of the stick and see a net increase in PK Value.

No matter how Gu Fei calculated, he would always result in him vomiting blood, so he could not help but hesitate to make the move. In the end, he just stood there like an idiot, causing that team to notice his presence instead. Very carefully, those men slowly advanced closer and closer to Gu Fei’s position, until finally, someone from among them blurted out, “Thousand Miles Drunk!” But just as he said this, there was someone beside him whose hand shot out to gag him, his eyes betraying his panic even though he pretended like nothing had happened.

Gu Fei was astonished, suddenly coming up with a question. His targets were either someone from The Black Hand Syndicate or someone from Cloud Herder guild, so the players that were partied up with the man would most likely be from either of this guild too. Even though he would increase his PK Value killing them, their deaths would also happen to be a punishment to these two guilds, and after someone had cried out his name, the others were very clearly panicked over it. If they did not belong to either of those guilds, then what reason would they have to be so afraid of him?

It had to be mentioned that this last thought Gu Fei had was somewhat wishful thinking on his part. Players who had not even met him would also be somewhat nervous and afraid. In their hearts and mind, Thousand Miles Drunk was a PK Maniac, and that 180 PK point he got needed no explanation.

But at this moment, after analyzing the real identity of this team, Gu Fei no longer hesitated. Without saying another word, he whirled his sword and charged at them. These men were all wracked with anxiety after they recognized Gu Fei, especially when someone from among them had blurted out his name. A 9-man team was nothing to Thousand Miles Drunk. Pretending they did not know who he was and calling out for assistance, waiting for more players to arrive before they attempted to surround him was the best option they got right now. These men in the team were currently piling all their resentment on that player who lost his cool and cried out Gu Fei’s IGN, at the same time hoping that Thousand Miles Drunk had not heard what their teammate had said. All they wanted right now was to quietly turn around and sneak away.

But who would have thought that Thousand Miles Drunk would come charging right toward them with his sword at the ready without so much as saying a word. This 9-man team lacked any sort of quality professionalism when it came to PK combat, shrieking, and scattering as their immediate reaction. The Thief and Archer were especially fast, running along as they took the time to turn around and shut, “We should all split up!!”

The other babylegged job classes were so mad that they nearly felt like vomiting blood. Splitting up meant Thousand Miles Drunk could at most catch just 1 of them out of the 9, and while it was true that this would result in the highest proportion of players having the chance to escape, but no matter the case, the ones in danger would most definitely be someone from among the babylegged job classes. Those two would hardly be in any danger given their movement speed, so they were naturally very happy to call for the others to split up.

Sure enough, Gu Fei ignored the two of them with their fast movement speed, directly making a beeline toward the Warrior amid the babylegged players left. That Warrior yelled out “Let’s stand united and hold our ground”, while the others responded to him with a “Best of luck, bro”, before sprinting off in the farthest direction from that Warrior.

“You guys have no sense of loyalty at all!” That Warrior chastised.

“A pointless sacrifice is just a waste. Today’s retreat is so done for the greater advancement of tomorrow!” All these players who had abandoned the Warrior were still reciting platitudes!

Tears streaked down that Warrior’s cheeks as he lifted his weapon to receive the incoming Gu Fei. There was nothing exciting about the exchange of attacks between the two either, as he very peacefully got killed off by Gu Fei’s blade. It was only when he looked around after his respawn did he realize that he was not actually sent to the spawn point, but the Jail.

“A Bounty Mission?” This Warrior was elated at this prospect. Compared to losing 2 levels, getting sent to spend some time in Jail was a much more preferred punishment. Looking around, he however discovered that in the corner of the cell that he was in, there was a Thief quietly sitting there. The life of a convict was a boring one behind bars, and all he could depend on was for players to while the time away by chatting to one another. The Warrior immediately stepped forward and used the age-old line fellow inmates would use to break the ice, “Bro, how many hours?”

“39,” this other man very quietly answered.

“Ah…” the Warrior opened his mouth wide. For someone to have such a high PK value, it was very almost a guarantee that he did not turn himself in, and was most likely someone who had been sent over. This Warrior immediately thought of one such person, and continued to get even closer, “Were you sent here by Thousand Miles Drunk?”

That player nodded.

The Warrior had managed to find a common talking point, and immediately began to lambast Thousand Miles Drunk, yet that player simply silently stared at him, neither smiling nor saying a word.

Could he be so angered to the point he became mute? The Warrior silently thought to himself, eyeing that weird man once again before he quietly found a corner to wait things out as well.

————————————————————-

After Gu Fei completed his Bounty Mission, he was surprised to find that the others had actually run off. This situation was entirely different from how he had imagined, as he had even thought that his attempt here would draw the desperate resistance from the whole team. By then, that 1 PK point that he managed to remove would have turned into an 8 point increase, but how would he have expected for these men to just scatter into the winds instead. He would end up taking the initiative to inflate his PK Value if he were to continue hunting these men down, so should he go for it or not?

Gu Fei was very conflicted, but upon further thought, he felt that he should not miss out on such an opportunity to deal this sort of blow to the enemy guild, so he should not be showing them mercy and nitpicking over his PK Value at this time. Kill, he must kill them!

Gu Fei turned toward another target and gave chase accordingly. A babylegs Against Gu Fei, it was only a matter of time before the latter caught up to the former. When that player saw that escape was no longer possible, he very disappointedly came to a stop. Gu Fei dashed right up to the man and asked, “Which guild are you from?” Gu Fei realized that the enemy was not wearing their guild emblem.

“Cloud Herder,” the man replied.

“I won’t kill you if you leave your guild,” Gu Fei said.

The man was stunned for a moment, before doubt settled in. Any player in the know was of course aware that in their struggle with Extremely Heaven Defying, Thousand Miles Drunk was now fighting eye for an eye!

Leaving the guild would save his life. That man hesitated for a brief moment before finally nodding his head, “I’ve already left the guild.”

“Oh? What’s your name?” Gu Fei asked.

“Trampling Elephant,” the man answered.

“Ah, what a meaningful name,” Gu Fei chuckled as he very swiftly sent a message out to Drifting, “Search this man’s name: Trampling Elephant.”

It was as if the magnificent Mage Drifting had now been reduced to a mere clerk that was constantly being dispatched for tasks by Gu Fei. He felt insulted, yet he could not just refuse to do it. Flipping through the reference books for the name, he soon came back with a reply, “Level 41 player. Knight. Cloud Herder guild. What’s the matter?”

“He’s still in Cloud Herder?”

“Yup.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yup. What about it?”

“Check again.”

“What are you being such a nag for?”

“Fine then!”

“Just what exactly are you on about?”

“He’s going to die.”

“Oh,” Drifting continued to bury his head and work on his assignment.

“How childish. Do you think you can try and pull a fast one over me? You had not even left your guild at all,” Gu Fei criticized Trampling Elephant and lashed out with his sword in hand, slaying that man where he stood.

Trampling Elephant died without even understanding what happened. How was he suddenly so certain about me lying? Do we have a traitor in our midst? That must be it! Trampling Elephant hurriedly reported what happened to his guild leader that there was a spy from Extremely Heaven Defying inside their guild, or that someone had already been bought.

COMMENT

“I’ve been betrayed by someone!!!” Trampling Elephant was bawling his eyes out. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have died. Guild leader, you must call the shots here!”

“I know…” Foe-herder was a little vexed that Thousand Miles Drunk had actually started targeting his guild. As for the guild having a spy, was that even considered a secret? Any guild that did not have at least a handful of traitors would probably feel embarrassed to even call themselves a large guild. It was just that Extremely Heaven Defying had only been established not too long ago, and Foe-herder was quite surprised that they had actually so quickly and effectively made such a move. From what I can recall, pretty much everyone in my guild had joined before Extremely Heaven Defying was established! Someone must have been bribed, that was the only possibility. Those guys were rich, after all! Foe-herder thought to himself.

“Just what is that guy going to do?” Black Index Finger and the other guild leaders in their coalition were also having a headache over this at the moment. They were vexed when Thousand Miles Drunk had left Yueye City, but the players who had picked up Thousand Miles Drunk’s 180 PK Value Bounty Mission had all discovered the change in his coordinates placed him back in Yunduan City again. Of course, they were still as vexed as ever now that he was back.

They had already arranged the manpower necessary for their plan by this time to surround and kill Thousand Miles Drunk, yet the man had unexpectedly been the one to take the initiative to launch an attack instead.

“Could he have already anticipated that we would set up a schedule for rotation, so he ran all the way out to the wilds to make his move against our players who are grinding?”

“If that is the case, he might not be the only one who came back!”

“D*mm*t, quick get all the players grinding outside to gather. Don’t split up!”

“F*ck. If this were to carry on, how are we even going to play this game?” The complaints and grumbling began piling up once again.