Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Gu Fei was considered quite fastidious. Since he could not teleport back underground, the moment he got out of the tunnel, he took out another scroll and made note of the coordinates outside before sprinting his way back to Yunduan City.

Even though Gu Fei was questing in an irregular manner, that did not mean that he was unclear as to how to go about doing quests in the correct manner. Sometimes, it was merely due to his aversion of the process being troublesome which was why he often left a trail of bloodshed by carving his own way with his own methods. The freedom that existed in Parallel World meant that it allowed players to run wild. It was merely that he had simply too much freedom after using the magical air bubble to dive down to this highly suspicious location. Even if there were not any city assaulters that ended up causing trouble for him while he was down there, Gu Fei felt it was impossible for him to deduce the necessary clues he needed from that place.

He had first sent a message out to Xi Xiaotian and the others, getting them to look for Courtney and inquire after further information since they were outside. However, Courtney herself had not participated in the project, and she had already shared whatever information she could have offered by this point. Meanwhile, the other two NPCs that were directly involved with the project, Guillermo and Angus, had both already been killed, and there was no way to get the dead to speak.

What could he do during such times?” The answer was actually very simple. The quest was originally offered by the Vigilante Corps, so returning back to them and relaying what he had learned from his investigated thus far might net him some new directives. It was unfortunate that there was no way for Gu Fei to delegate this task to anyone else, so he must make the trip personally. That was when he had wanted to teleport out, failing to do so due to the restriction the system had in place for that location. It was only after Gu Fei realized that those players were actually able to enter the place did he add two and two together and deduced there must have been a different route he could take.

Gu Fei returned back to the city and made a beeline for the City Hall, approaching the Vigilante Captain. The NPC would forever be sitting right behind that desk in the Vigilante Chambers, waiting for Gu Fei’s return with great dedication. Naturally, Gu Fei did not waste time with pleasantries or the like, quickly regurgitating everything he had learned thus far. The captain’s eyes darted over to a corner, and when Gu Fei followed its gaze, he saw that its eyes were resting on that self-proclaimed Great Mage, old man Austin, who had once more appeared in a corner of the chamber.

“Great Mage!” Gu Fei had previously been rather disdainful toward the old man, a self-proclaimed scholar that apparently did not know any magic of its own. However, it had appeared from out of nowhere and was now inside the Vigilante Chambers once more. It was highly likely that this person would be relevant to his quest, and he reckoned it was this NPC who would end up giving him a very huge hint about what he ought to do to progress the quest.

The old man Austin coughed twice, his eyes looking at Gu Fei with great pleasure, “You’ve finally located Yunduan City’s water storage and drainage project.”

Gu Fei nodded, “Is there anything strange about that place?”

Austin began to elaborate in its slow and detailed orientated manner, explaining the role of the project, which was actually no different from what Broken Water Arrow had gone into detail previously. Of course, Gu Fei had not heard him talk about it back then, and now he could only patiently listen to the nonsense the NPC was spewing. What Broken Water Arrow had summarized was the key content that Ye Xiaowu had picked out for emphasis, but the NPC was being very verbose with its explanation, immediately starting from the magic plague that came into existence years ago in Yunduan City, talking and talking until it finally touched on how the water storage and drainage hub was actually storing all the wastewater that would be treated before it got released. The reason why it was installed beneath the lake was because the magical plane it existed on required a huge amount of water as its medium.

“In other words, that frightening transformation that happened to Angus was because, during the construction of the project, he had accidentally soiled himself with that magic wastewater?” This was a plot that the city assaulters had no knowledge of, but when Gu Fei heard all this, that had actually given him the answer to the mystery.

“Poor thing, may he rest in peace,” It was unknown if Austin actually knew Angus, but all it did was say such a line and did not make any cross sign across his chest, so it was unknown what god it was praying to at this point.

“So what should I be doing right now?” Gu Fei asked.

“Thousand Miles Drunk, it is now the time to retaliate! We’ll utilize the water project to deal a strong blow to these rebels!” The Vigilante Captain had blurted out with great confidence at this point.

The moment Gu Fei heard the Vigilante Captain say such important sounding words, he quickly abandoned the old man and ran back over to the desk.

“Follow me!” the Vigilante Captain left his desk and opened the doors leading out of the chamber. The NPC guards in the room had also finished getting into their formation and followed right after. Gu Fei did not bother cutting in line with these NPCs. He did, however, turn back, and saw that the Great Mage Austin seemed to be following everyone out as well.

Gu Fei followed the NPCs down to the end of a corridor down on the first floor. Pushing open the double doors, Gu Fei spied the sign hanging above the door that read “War Assembly”. The Vigilante Captain and his entourage made a grand entrance, with Gu Fei following right behind. In front of him was a large military sand table, and when Gu Fei casually eyed it and realized it was a sand table map of Yunduan City.

“Are you done with the terrain layout yet?” The Vigilante Captain was still speaking in that crisp and commanding tone of his.

“Right away,” an NPC replied.

“Hey, not bad. You guys know how to do something like this huh?” Gu Fei chuckled. Incidentally, there were three players who were sweating profusely as they worked, and they had habitually ignored the conversation going on between the two NPCs. However, when they suddenly heard the very life-like voice of another player asking a question, the three had involuntarily lifted their heads.

Drifting, Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool, the three of them had all rolled their sleeves up high, sand and dirt streaked across their faces and arms, making them look particularly haggardly when mixed with their sweat. The moment they saw Gu Fei happily standing beside an NPC who was inspecting their work with great enthusiasm, they could not help but feel extremely unhappy. Drifting threw a ball of sand right at Gu Fei without another word, which Gu Fei dodged with deft ease. The NPC standing beside the three players actually got angry, “How can you show such disrespect to an esteemed member of the Vigilante Corps!?”

“HAHAHAHAHA!” Gu Fei was roaring with laughter. The trio were all extremely gloomy. They were all affiliated with a Faction, yet when it seemed like in terms of their standing, Gu Fei was seen to be esteemed, but what about them? Wayfarer’s Society sounded rather romantic, but they were no more than the lowliest manual workers inside the government!

“You guys better hurry up, we’ve got an urgent use for that!” Gu Fei sternly said to irritate the three.

“Huh?” Drifting cautiously glanced over, wondering if Gu Fei was being solemn or was that sentence uttered in mock seriousness just to bait them.

“I’m not kidding around here. We’re about to make preparations to do battle. If we succeed, we may very well directly defeat the assaulting forces,” Gu Fei said.

“Is that so?” The three were thrilled, quickly hastening to finish their work even as they said to Gu Fei, “We’re almost done.”

“Is this your quest?” Gu Fei asked.

“That’s right!” Drifting confirmed.

“Could the system have already expected me to complete my mission, and made such preparations beforehand?” Gu Fei was astonished.

“Can you not be so shameless? Our quest is of course our own, who even said anything about it being used in service for you? Isn’t creating a military sand table model in the War Assembly a very common affair?” Drifting said.

“You’re right, you’re right. Quick finish up your work,” Gu Fei urged.

Sure as what Drifting had said, the sand table was only lacking just a bit of touching up and now that the three were already practiced with the task, they very quickly completed their mission when all of them sped up together. Gu Fei gazed at the very true to life model of Yunduan City on the map and asked the three men, “Who pinched this? It’s so life-like!”

“Pinch? Do you think we’re molding with plasticine?” Drifting extended his hand and lifted the city with a pinch, while Left hand of Love had also demonstrated how he was able to lift the entire Yunduan Lake up.

“So you guys were actually making a jigsaw puzzle!” Gu Fei laughed. He could tell that these props were actually provided by the system.

“Most of it is!” Aside from forming the jigsaw portions, the three had to engage in some handicrafts that were made on the spot, but they had very quickly finished them. Drifting reported to the NPC that previously berated them, and it nodded before bowing his head toward the Vigilante Captain and made his report. Drifting once more felt disgruntled. He was truly low on the rung!

“All the idle personnel may leave!” The Vigilante Captain decreed.

Gu Fei was chortling once again as he pointed to the trio, “idle personnel.”

“D*mm*t, we’re just not going to leave. What are you going to do about it?” The three of them were angered at their loss of human rights in this instance.

It was as if the NPCs understood what the three had said as the Vigilante guards that had come along each pulled out their weapon and got ready for combat. The three no longer dared to say a word now that the system was baring its fangs, so they quickly departed. The doors to the War Assembly slammed shut as the Vigilante Captain began to speak to Gu Fei over that sand table, gesturing and relaying instructions.

Gu Fei immediately panicked when he heard it speak, “You better not be pulling my leg here! Give me coordinates; do you have coordinates?”

In the end, the Vigilante Captain simply ignored everything Gu Fei was saying, continuing to talk like it had not even been interrupted. Fortunately, before it was done with saying its piece, it raised its hand and stuck a little flag on the position that he had just mentioned. Gu Fei’s eyes sharpened and immediately saw that a set of coordinates was written on the flag, but he did not dare to confiscate the item, so he decided to send out a message of it there and then.

“What?” The person who received the message was none other than Sword Demon.

“Take note of these coordinates. The following quest will be very difficult, and I’ll be leaving it to everyone,” Gu Fei said.

“What’s going on?” Sword Demon hurriedly asked.

Gu Fei did not immediately answer, and he was not listening to the Vigilante Captain continuing with its spiel either, and this was because he could already deduce what he was supposed to do after. He pulled open the double doors of the War Assembly, only for Drifting and his crew to immediately come rolling in. The three of them had been unseemly sprawled on the door eavesdropping!

“What are you doing!?” The trio was very unhappy. They had thought that Gu Fei was intentionally pranking them after sensing their presence. They were fine being looked down upon by the system, but for a player to have not given them face as well, it was simply just too much.

“I was looking for you three! I’ve got a job for you guys!” Gu Fei pulled out five teleportation scrolls from his dimensional pocket and handed it over to them. “Quick, hold onto these scrolls and find Sword Demon, round up five passers-by and directly teleport out of the city. There’s a new battle plan in the play!”

“Is this about what you guys were planning in there?” The three were pleasantly surprised.

“That’s right!” Gu Fei nodded.

The three men quickly sprinted off. They were naturally very enthusiastic after hearing from Gu Fei that this was an important quest that could directly allow the city defender’s forces to achieve victory for this City Wars event.

Gu Fei returned back into the room, and the Vigilante was still talking, except there was already another new flag that was standing on the sand table. Gu Fei looked at the position and it confirmed what he had expected. It was one of the encampments the city assaulters used, so he rapidly sent over its coordinates to Sword Demon.

“Do you want me to head over to this coordinates first? What next?” Sword Demon asked.

“Find the well cover for the underground water channel and leave it open,” Gu Fei instructed.

“Underground water channel? A well cover?” Sword Demon was confused.

“It is exactly what it is as we know it. I can guarantee you would have no idea if I were to use the terms that the system provided. I’ve already handed Drifting some teleportation scrolls and sent them heading over to you. Use them and these locations should still be a short distance away from the point I’ve set. I’ll leave it to you to make the arrangement with who would be up to the task since they would still have a distance to travel before reaching their destinations. It’s best if they are Thieves! Nevertheless, these locations could still be considered close to these encampments, so be careful,” Gu Fei cautioned.

“I’m still a little clueless regarding what you mean,” Sword Demon said.

“We’re going to release the water to flood their encampments, so we’ll need those water channel well covers to be open. Got it?” Gu Fei said.

“And this will instantly demolish their encampments?” Sword Demon was delighted.

“Perhaps! You would best be on your way! Svelte Dancer, Xi Xiaotian and Royal God Call are still outside the city. You could contact them as well, see if they can be of service,” Gu Fei reminded.

“Yeah, I got it. We’ll also probe the city gates, try and get out if we could mingle our way out,” Sword Demon had no need for Gu Fei to worry about any sort of thing pertaining to commanding, so he took it to himself to take charge on that front. Before Gu Fei was even done with what was happening on his end, Sword Demon was already done picking out the players to teleport along with him. Even though the Vigilante Captain was not yet done with sticking all the little flags, Gu Fei could already be certain: They were all the encampments the city assaulters use. So after assigning the players where they would be teleporting to, they simply had to make their way over to the various encampments first. By the time the small flags were planted on the sand table, Gu Fei would naturally be able to send out the coordinates to Sword Demon.

Gu Fei was only thinking about the 5 encampments left by this point, but the captain had ultimately stabbed 7 little flags on the map, providing the coordinates for the two already dismantled encampment as well. Gu Fei felt that there was no need to bother the two, so he simply ignored them.

After the Vigilante Captain was done saying everything it wanted to say, Austin stood up once more, “I’ll now tell you how to get to the project’s control hub.”

“I’m aware of it already,” Gu Fei answered.

“You’re aware of it already? Hehe, you don’t know this, but the control hub has effectively been hidden within a magic plane, and there’s no way you could find it without the proper direction. Listen carefully,” Austin’s face actually revealed a trace of cunning as he solemnly expressed. “From the thickest pipe: seventeen grids north, fourteen grids west, eleven grids north, four grids west, eight grids south…” Austin was actually rattling it off endlessly. Gu Fei was surprised and quickly grabbed some writing materials to write everything down. Fortunately, he had a very good memory, so he was still able to record down everything even though he was a few seconds off what Austin was saying. In his notebook, he wrote down everything he missed and continued. By the time Austin was done, Gu Fei was able to fill half a page with what Austin had said.

“Go on, my child!” Austin gestured.

“Thousand Miles Drunk, protect the city, its citizens. For the sake of ideals, freedom, and honor…” The Vigilante Captain was still there embellishing when Gu Fei had already unfurled a teleportation scroll and departed.

———————————————————

Reaching back to the tunnel, Gu Fei had immediately made his way through. He had been cautiously advancing down that path, even going so far as to extinguish his torch when he was nearing the exit so as to keep his presence hidden. In the end, it was all pitch black down below and there was actually nobody at all down in the underground room.

“Where’s everyone?” Gu Fei still had his doubts, relighting the torch in hand, he continued to stay vigilant. He started to make his way down the stone steps and was soon reaching the end when Gu Fei tossed out two AoE spells to his side and in front of him. In the end, the sea of flames that ensued shone light all around him, and Gu Fei saw that there was indeed no ambush of any sort anywhere.

“Okay, now this is strange…” Gu Fei was talking to himself. Having groped his way in, he was still contemplating just how he would do this quest that required him to do a puzzle while massacring the enemy. The quest was arduous and the difficulty was huge to boot. After all, he was going up against close to 2000 players, yet Gu Fei had no choice but to give it a shot. It was just that nobody expected that even though he needed to brave this, these people had not given him the opportunity to do so as they had all disappeared.

“They’ve already completed their quest? That was even faster than me! It sure is convenient to have someone like Ye Xiaowu giving a walkthrough for the quest,” Gu Fei had reached the base of the stairs by this time, and he was walking over to the center of the room. Soon he was among the pipes and Gu Fei spun around and searched for the first thing Austin had mentioned: The thickest pipe.

“Hey, why is there a dagger stabbed in here?” Gu Fei saw that a certain pipe had a dagger driven into it, and got suspicious, so he reached his hand out to pull it. However, it was a dagger that a Thief with 220 Strength had wedged into the pipe, and what little Strength Gu Fei had on his Mage was not enough to even make the weapon budge. Of course, it was inevitable for Gu Fei to tread on old grounds again, expressing great resentment over his pathetic Strength. He had no idea that his weak Strength was what saved his life, as he would have been sent straight to the 15th District if he had pulled the dagger out there and then and got himself a jet full of that magic wastewater.

“The thickest one…” Gu Fei mumbled until he finally located the pipe he wanted. He proceeded to stick the Torch into the ground and get a closer look. Sure enough, it was unknown what sort of material it was that was this floor, as a grid pattern was faintly visible.

“Seventeen grids to the north… North… Wait, where is north?” Gu Fei froze. It was just darkness all around him, without any sky he could take reference from, which meant he had no way to determine which direction he should be facing to get north. However, a game was ultimately a game, and by utilizing the coordinates and the distance that spans between the coordinates, it was not particularly difficult for him to identify the cardinal directions; all he needed was the relevant data. Gu Fei immediately contacted Brother Assist, and of course, he did not disappoint. On top of the data, he even provided Gu Fei with the formula, so he could use his trusty Moonlit Nightfalls, a weapon he knew the exact dimensions to in every sense, as his ruler. After several minutes spent on calculations and practice, Gu Fei was finally able to identify where is the right north.

“Seventeen grids,” Gu Fei set the torch to the ground and began counting the grid and walked. The grids here were uniformly marked out, and that was hugely advantageous to Gu Fei. With his kung fu as his foundation, gauging the right distance for his pacing became easy, so after he got used to the size of the grids, he no longer needed the torch to light the ground. With each step he took, Gu Fei was convinced that he was doing it perfectly.

Seventeen grids later, Gu Fei continued to take reference of his cardinal directions and changed where he was headed. The size of the grids remained the same, Gu Fei did not even need to adjust his footsteps as he continued moving according to the instructions. With every step he took, when he was done with walking four grids to the west, light was suddenly produced from that grid Gu Fei stepped on, but this beam of light was temporary. After the white light faded, all that was left was the faintest glow on the grid, but it looked particularly eye-catching in his pitch black surroundings.

Gu Fei did not stop, merely continuing on his way. Every time he completed the next line of instructions, the grid he stepped on would light up and then fade. By the time Gu Fei had finished walking the entire half a page of instructions, just as he stepped onto the final grid, every spot where the faint glow remained suddenly shot forth a light beam upward. Between these beams of light, they were also lines that interconnected with each other forming a web together.

Gu Fei could not see why this had happened so he took several steps back, so he could see the final product from a distance. He suddenly found the pattern to be fairly familiar looking, appearing to be very similar to the teleportation array that Gu Fei had used plenty of time with the teleportation scrolls.

“Could this be transporting me to another place?” Gu Fei muttered to himself before examining closely once more. It was at this time when he discovered the secret about these pillars of light. There was still a focal point with this web of light, and it was the very same point where Gu Fei had started this entire thing: the thick pipe.

It was as if the thick pipe was drawing the web of light of these pillars of lights right toward it, while it was shining brighter and brighter itself. This light came from the ground, slowly becoming taller until the thick pipe was completely basked in the light, emitting out a bright light in this underground room. Meanwhile, the pillars of light themselves still remained, but it was hardly as lustrous as before when juxtaposed with the bright glow in the center.

Gu Fei had no idea what was the next step to activate it, so he silently cursed the Great Mage, walking back right into this array, ready to examine it in detail.

But how was he to know that the moment he stepped right into the array, he felt an irresistible pull coming from that thick water pipe. Gu Fei was startled by all this and realized it was completely too late for him to struggle. He turned his head around to attempt and cast his Blink, hoping to first Blink away, but it just so happened that despite targeting somewhere 6m away, he ended up materializing two steps away. He got cut off at the edge of the beams and Gu Fei knew deep down that this must have been something the system had forcefully established. Thus, he decided to just give in and walk toward where he was being sucked toward. Just as he was about to slam right into that thick pipe without any signs of slowing down, Gu Fei blinked and found himself actually beginning to sink into that thick pipe…

“Just what in the world is going on?” Gu Fei could not see anything aside from that bright glow in front of him, so all he could do was wonder about the entire experience until he was completely swallowed by the light. It was at this moment when all these pillars of light disappeared, and the light before Gu Fei’s eyes was gone as well. After his eyes adjusted, he found himself inside a circular space with something like a control console in front of him.