Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Gu Fei used the darkness to appear from out of nowhere, appearing once every minute or so. Every time he struck, he would always end up snuffing out the life of a player holding onto a torch. The players had specifically used the Warriors with plenty of HP to be the torchbearers, all for their sturdy durability, but Gu Fei did not appear to be pressured at all. So what if they were Warriors? All Gu Fei had to do was add a few more spells into the mix, and the fast tempo of his attacks meant they would still be insta-killed at the end of the day. It was the Priests who ended up being pressured by this; Gu Fei was not insta-killing the Warriors with a single spell, but with a series of spells that were seamlessly chained together. No matter how fast they were, it would naturally mean that there would still be the slightest time for the attack to be unleashed in full, yet the Priests were all unable to grasp the timing of it. By the time their Heals were cast on their targets, these Warriors were already reduced into a flash of white light…

Five torchbearers had already been killed as Gu Fei came and went in such a fashion. They had died rather quickly, and the speed at which this happened made it impossible for the players to hand their torches over before they died. In the beginning, there was someone who claimed that they could use this situation to bait and slay Thousand Miles Drunk in return, but because there were quite a lot of torches to choose from, they had no idea just who Thousand Miles Drunk would end up assaulting. As a result, they spread their men out in such a way that they had people all over the place, only to end up causing their manpower to be stretched too thinly, making it extremely difficult for them to surround Thousand Miles Drunk effectively in any sense. A single Twin Incineration not only ended up killing the Warriors holding torches, but also three other players along the way who were trying to surround him. The man who came up with the idea had quietly shrunk himself away in a corner, no longer daring to make a noise after.

The players did a quick headcount and realized that they were just left with six torches by this time. The lighting was really dim and everyone looked very miserable under its glow. The 6 players holding onto the torches were in the center, surrounded by everyone. However, they did not dare to be too packed together either, since that would just mean trouble for them if the two AoE spells were to sandwich them again. At the moment, the crowd had issues grouping up together, but they also could not spread themselves out either, everyone feeling restless in their current predicament. The torchbearers were all surrounded, not daring to make any reckless movement while the search for their quest had temporarily hit a roadblock, which left all these players feeling exceptionally anxious.

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Outside the tunnel, the members from Carouse were swiftly making their way to the coordinates that Brave Surge had given them, but they very quickly spotted a large and similarly sized company of players right as they neared their destination. These players naturally noticed the men from Carouse as well. Indubitably, anyone else who could rally such a huge company of men would also be a large guild as well. When both parties stepped forward to approach each other, they were able to identify the opposing guild via the emblem on their chest respectively.

Carouse.

Colored Clouds.

“What a coincidence…” The players from both parties greeted one another with wide smiles and grins, even as they sent a message to their guild leaders on the sly.

“Players from Carouse have arrived!”

“We bumped into the men of Colored Clouds!”

In the gloomy underground cavern that they were in, Brave Surge and Gu Xiaoshang seemed to have received these messages at the same time, before both players searched for one another amidst the crowd, staring at each other’s dimly lit figures.

Gu Xiaoshang was straightforward by nature, so she was not about to beat around the bush. She immediately called him out, “Guild leader Surge, you must have put in plenty of effort to call most of your men over.”

“I could say the same about you,” Brave Surge said but they were anything but in the same situation. Colored Clouds had a guild member holding onto a quest, so they had called for reinforcements in an effort to secure the success of their quest. Carouse had merely been tagging along in the capacity to observe and assist. Just what sort of plan did he have in mind now that he had actually mustered such a sizable force over here?

Oathless Sword had come over while the two were halfway through the conversation. As long as Gu Xiaoshang was present, this man would most likely have his eyes glued to her every move and when Gu Xiaoshang addressed Brave Surge, Oathless Sword had of course picked up on this and had immediately come over to interject, “What’s going on?”

“Reinforcements have arrived,” Gu Xiaoshang simply answered.

“Oh? Your men are here? Does that mean that there’s no need for my players to make their way over now?” Oathless Sword said. He had also called for reinforcement from his guild, except he did not have any ulterior motives like Brave Surge, having called for them in advance. He had only panicked and sought assistance from the rest of his guild after realizing all 200 of them here in the cavern were left helpless to Thousand Miles Drunk’s assaults.

“There’s no need, with my men and the reinforcements from Carouse, we should have more than enough men. Any more and I think we won’t be able to fit them all in this place,” Gu Xiaoshang answered.

“Reinforcement from Carouse are here as well?” Oathless Sword furrowed his brow. He was a rather ambitious first generation guild leader here in Parallel World, and having been clashing with Brave Surge for such a long time, it was as the saying went: Your enemy would usually be the ones who knew you best, not your friends. This was what had happened between Oathless Sword and Brave Surge right now. While the former had no idea what the latter was planning, he was at least certain that he must not have done so out of goodwill. At the very least, the goal that he was hoping to achieve would not be the same as what everyone was currently going for. Oathless Sword acted far more boldly since he was in front of Gu Xiaoshang, directly approaching Brave Surge to ask, “What are you up to, you rascal?”

“Oh? Nothing at all. I simply saw that dealing with Thousand Miles Drunk was a very prickly affair, so I called more of my men over in an effort to finish him off together,” Brave Surge was very composed on his end because his goal was indeed the elimination of Thousand Miles Drunk. Nobody would have any issues with this, and it was only what would result from succeeding in this task that would end up sabotaging Colored Clouds’ quest; He could not be blamed if Broken Water Arrow refused to reveal the relevant quest information Colored Clouds needed to complete the quest afterward.

Oathless Sword was unable to grasp the deeper purpose of his action because what he understood was merely Brave Surge, and he had not seriously mulled over the original intent of Broken Water Arrow and Fleeting Smile. But even though he did not know Broken Water Arrow’s way of thinking, there was someone who did. Young Master Han had drifted right to his side in a timely manner, “We’ll have to begin all the way from Broken Water Arrow and Fleeting Smile. Their real objective is to stop Thousand Miles Drunk from succeeding in his quest. As for helping us complete the city assaulter’s side of that competitive quest, they are only doing so because we are now their last resort. However, killing Thousand Miles Drunk would obviously be a way to sabotage his quest progress as well, so consider the situation that we are currently in. If the goal is to sabotage Thousand Miles Drunk’s quest by killing him off, I doubt any of us will be catching this gravy train all the way to win the City Wars event, right?”

The moment Young Master Han said this, several of them all became stunned as they turned to regard Broken Water Arrow together.

“Big bro Surge, there’s no need for you to glare at me like that. I’m not specifically opposing you; I’m only against that person, nothing more.” Young Master Han saw that Brave Surge was unhappily staring daggers at him, so he added this line as well. Given how smart the man was, he had of course guessed what Brave Surge was attempting to accomplish. So even though Young Master did not expose it outright, given how Broken Water Arrow and Brave Surge’s goals were now one and the same, discrediting one would mean the other would not succeed either.

“You scoundrel, to think that you were plotting this behind everyone’s back? Did you only offer to help with our quest just so you could use us to help you sabotage Thousand Miles Drunk’s quest?” Oathless Sword was enraged.

“You’re not helping me,” Broken Water Arrow was actually calm. “You’re helping yourself. Are all you city assaulters the ones who will be negatively impacted once Thousand Miles Drunk completes the quest, or will it be me?”

Everyone froze. What Broken Water Arrow had said was true; He and Fleeting Smile were clearly both neutral players who were unaffiliated to any guilds, yet they had tirelessly sought to spoil Thousand Miles Drunk’s quest progression. Just what sort of energy drove them? What were they ultimately trying to achieve?

Now that these players had a topic to discuss, they were all collectively distracted, making it a prime opportunity for Gu Fei to capitalize on. However, because the torchbearers were all being protected in the center of the formation, while Gu Fei might be able to get near, the chance of him escaping after was slim. As such he changed his target once more, directly killing the players that were on the outside of the formation, throwing out spells imperiously at them.

“CRAP!” The players exclaimed as white lights were imprinted upon their pale faces. The moment Gu Fei saw that he had a rather good chance, he was not in a hurry to leave. With his sword dancing like a dragon that came alive, Gu Fei whipped and flurried his weapon all over the place, insta-killing whomever he could cut, while those who managed to survive were also left convinced that they had been insta-killed. These players were all fleeing with their hands covering their heads as all the guild leaders yelled. The orders that were being given were all different, hardly in harmony at all; players were running into each other, and by the time the chaos settled, everyone became aware of one important problem, “Where’s Thousand Miles Drunk?”

“Did he leave?”

“I didn’t see him do that!”

They had all been focused on fleeing that no one had actually kept an eye on where Thousand Miles Drunk went.

“Could… Could he be in our midst?” Someone’s voice was quaking as he gave such a suggestion.

“Emblems! Flash your emblems!” Oathless Sword yelled out. Because the members from the various guilds were now all intermingled and they hardly knew each other, so they could only rely on the presence of their guild emblem as proof of identification. Everyone puffed their chests out to flash their emblems so the others could see, and an exclamation could soon be heard from someone within the crowd, “What guild emblem is that?”

“Who else could it be, then? What are you even asking that for?” Gu Fei had mimicked the others and pinned his guild emblem to try and pass off as a fellow guild member, but he had underestimated the players’ eyesight too much. In the end, he was identified in a single glance, so his sword was once more in his hands as he finished off the man on the spot. The players were all thrown into disarray once again as another massacre began, yet they were still helpless to stop Thousand Miles Drunk.

“Hey, you must have thought of a solution,” Gu Xiaoshang was now more convinced of what Young Master Han was capable of after everything they had been through together, so she had actively sought the man out for a plan. Young Master Han had been quiet the entire time Thousand Miles Drunk was going about killing people left and right, and that was hardly his style.

But Young Master Han had actually shrugged, “I’m also in a very difficult spot right now. If we manage to finish him off, then all the effort that we’ve put into your quest would be for naught. Right now, we need Gu Fei to be a little more ruthless, so as to force Broken Water Arrow to quickly tell us what our quest is about. But speaking of which, that guy will most likely lose himself once he gets in a fight! But Broken Water Arrow’s not afraid of him going around killing with impunity; what he’s truly afraid of is that guy completing his quest. He’s such a total imbecile. Could he actually still have no idea what he’s supposed to do for the quest after getting himself all the way here?”

“No matter how you slice this, we will still need to think of a way to keep him suppressed. Are you telling me to just watch him eliminate us all like that?” Gu Xiaoshang said.

“Honestly, I don’t have any ideas either.” Young Master Han shrugged. “Look, I don’t even know where you’re at right now. Where are you anyway?”

Everything had turned into darkness in the time Young Master Han did all his talking. Gu Fei had not forgotten his goal to extinguish all the torches as he reveled in his slaughter, and the final torchbearer had finally been slain by this point.

“Spells, cast your spells!!!” The players were shouting as that was the last thing they had that could be used to illuminate this cavern. However, the spells would only give them a short burst of light that would recede almost as quickly. It was a terrible substitute for the light that the torches provided.

“Don’t release it all at once. Coordinate a bit and do so rhythmically,” the nerves were getting to these players.

“Screw you all. Why don’t you guys come and do it?” The Mages, Priests, and Archers were the ones who had spells and skills that emitted light, and they were all very annoyed at the nagging.

They were already out of options dealing with Gu Fei when these people had torches to light the place. Now that they could only rely on spells and skills, how much longer could they hold out for at this rate? With all these players becoming no better than lighting for the others, their battle efforts suffered drastically, and Gu Fei was able to run everywhere he liked, killing left and right, completely unhindered as he rendered the place a no man’s land.

“Have you found the place yet? Get your butts over here already!” Brave Surge saw that there was simply no way for the players present to hold on any longer, so he could only pin his hopes on the incoming reinforcements.

“But the men from Colored Clouds are still around,” his underling reported.

“So what?”

“We’re still discussing over… who should go first…” the man replied.

“D*MM*T!” Brave Surge wanted to cry, though no tears came out. He sent Gu Xiaoshang a message in the darkness, “Guild leader Gu, can we not fight over who gets to go first at this juncture?”

Gu Xiaoshang was obviously aware of the situation outside too, but because she knew that Brave Surge harbored ill intentions, she did not back off, “Fine, then let us go first.”

“Let’s take turns sending in our men together, 100 at a time,” Brave Surge was still bargaining.

“Guild leader Surge! My men are coming in to kill Thousand Miles Drunk as well! This is clearly in line with your goal! So what’s the point of fighting over this?” Gu Xiaoshang replied evenly without backing down in the least, directly shifting the attention right onto his ulterior motive.

“Gu Xiaoshang, shouldn’t you be the one who’s feeling anxious right now? Don’t forget, if everyone here ends up getting killed by Gu Fei’s hands, that would also include the man from your guild who’s holding onto the quest. How will you be carrying on with the quest at that rate?” Brave Surge asked.

Gu Xiaoshang jolted. During the City Wars event, death would result in quests to fail, so even though most of the quests could be reclaimed afterward, the men from Colored Clouds actually had no idea where to go to find this quest that they had forcefully intervened. It was Broken Water Arrow who had provided them with the details regarding this quest, and he had not cooperated solely after identifying Colored Clouds as the one taking point.

“Fine, we’ll take turns sending in 100. We’ll go in first,” Gu Xiaoshang had no choice but to compromise.

Brave Surge did not ask for a mile after being given an inch, merely reminding her, “Bring more torches.”

“I don’t need you to remind me about that,” Gu Xiaoshang scoffed even as she messaged Wing, “How are you? You better not be dead.”

“That’s difficult…” Wing replied. Right now, his survival was solely dependent on luck. As long as Thousand Miles Drunk managed to locate him, death was but a certainty.

“Run a little farther. Our reinforcements are coming,” Gu Xiaoshang said.

“I know… We all know…” Wing answered. The players no longer had any mind to form up together, everyone running wildly all over the place so as to avoid Thousand Miles Drunk from getting a hold of them.

“Hold on people, our reinforcements are about to arrive!!” Brave Surge’s voice rang brightly in the darkness, giving them all the confidence to endure a little longer.

“Guild leader Surge, it’s not smart to be speaking so loudly,” a player who had a rather warm and calm voice appeared near Brave Surge’ left. Brave Surge slapped his own mouth right there and then, he was really selling himself out! Was this the time for him to show off and pretend to act as the leader here? Everybody was maintaining their silence, pretending they were not even there, yet he had actually shouted out loudly, giving away his position. Look, did he not end up luring the wolf to his doorstep?

Gu Fei had specially honed his ability to judge people’s position through his hearing thanks to all his kung fu training, and he was of course not on the same level as the average human when it came to this. When Brave Surge shouted, he was immediately drawn over to his position. Even if the players were just simple targets for him to casually kill, there was still a greater sense of achievement killing a guild leader, so Gu Fei had come dashing right over when he heard his voice. It was evident that Brave Surge was a lot poorer in this respect than Gu Fei, not able to determine where Gu Fei was when he heard his calm voice. He ran in a random direction in response, only to end up bumping into the full embrace of someone in a few steps.

“Quick, it’s Thousand Miles Drunk!” Brave Surge held onto this person even as he warned him to run.

“It’s me. Are you excited?” Gu Fei asked.

Brave Surge was so shocked that he felt that his soul had fled from his body, silently cursing his terrible luck; not only did he fail to get away, he ended up running straight into the perpetrator himself!

“I’ll take you down with me!” Brave Surge bellowed, casting his spells onto himself in an attempt to slay Gu Fei along with him.

“Oh, you know how to use idioms?” Gu Fei slapped the man unceremoniously, interrupting Brave Surge’s spellcasting as he sent the man sprawling to the ground.

“Bombard my location!” Brave Surge hollered out his final set of instructions with his death throes, even sending out his coordinates to his guild members at the same time. Everything was pitch black all around them, so what use would having the coordinates be? While they were all confused about what to do, they suddenly spotted a single Fireball shoot upward, and these people could see the utterly beaten figure of Brave Surge was in via the dim light his spell emitted. The players could feel their eyes moisten. Was this your ploy, guild leader Surge? You’ve sacrificed yourself just so you could signal to us Thousand Miles Drunk’s position; we will definitely not dash your hopes!

It was not just the Mages, even the Archers made their move in together as they directed all their attacks toward this one spot the Fireball had illuminated.

“Hold it, he has run off!” Brave Surge quickly tried to give chase while he yelled this out, but it was already too late. The attacks were already unleashed, and the sound had easily drowned out Brave Surge’s shout. Arrows came flying over in a parabolic arc while the spells cast from the dark gave off a different light by contrast. Brave Surge transformed into white light under the admiring gazes that the players shot toward him. Before he died, Brave Surge had made sure to curse with his dying breath, “Thousand Miles Drunk, YOU BASTARD!”

Gu Fei was of course alive. When he had slapped Brave Surge down to the ground, how could the man himself have even a moment’s respite to send that Fireball out? After that person gave out that cry, Gu Fei had quietly replied, “I’ll grant your wish.” He then proceeded to toss the Fireball spell to the sky and Blinked to get away, leaving Brave Surge to enjoy the outcome of his shouting.

“Is Thousand Miles Drunk dead?” The players were still trying to figure this out!

“I don’t think I’ve seen any other flash of white light,” another mentioned.

“Aye, that’s a pity,” everyone lamented greatly for Brave Surge’s tragedy.

The horror lasted for a very long time until light suddenly appeared in their dark world. It was coming from above their heads, so everyone lifted their heads in that direction. There was a very distinct glow from torches from that tunnel they had entered from. Everyone stirred. People were cheering, waving wildly as they greeted the players who were bringing them light.

Gu Xiaoshang had already instructed these reinforcements on how to make their way down to their level, so nobody ended up falling to their deaths like when they first got here. Almost every single player entering the place was holding onto a torch of their own, and they had split up taking both paths down, the left and right steps that wound down. The lit torches in their hands looked like a flaming dragon that descended down, spiraling as it reached them. The cavern slowly lit up, and all the lucky survivors who had been in the dark looked all around them. None of them knew where they had ended up as they blindly ran all over the place.

When the players filing in through the tunnel reached the ground, there were still more players right behind them, and the whole bunch of torches they brought along practically lit every inch of the place up. The space that they were in could no longer be called a cavern. There were no decorations or furnishings of any sort. It was simply an underground room with the pipes in the middle. Sure enough, it was used to transport water, with traces of rust and strange corrosion on them.

The players had all forgotten their quest by this time, Under the light from the torches, everyone searched for Thousand Miles Drunk. Just where was that boogeyman?

Nowhere! He was actually nowhere to be found!

The ground level of this underground room was already lit as bright as day, and it was very open. There was simply nowhere anybody could attempt to hide, yet none of them caught sight of Thousand Miles Drunk even as they scanned the area.

“Where’s Thousand Miles Drunk?” The players were quietly whispering to each other.

“Could he have been killed off by accident?” Someone wondered.

“Is that so? Did someone manage to attack him?” It was very hard to verify this answer. Thousand Miles Drunk had bumped into many players throughout their time here in the dark, and everyone would have tried to put up a fight, but because they would always be swiftly defeated, no one had any idea if their resistance had any effect at all. After asking around in the various guild channels, practically everyone had said that they were able to land a blow or two on Thousand Miles Drunk.

“What do you think?” Gu Xiaoshang asked Young Master Han.

“Old Broken, I think it’s time to do the quest,” Young Master Han said to Broken Water Arrow.