Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Gu Fei had logged out after finishing his quest, but Sword Demon and the others still remained in the game, and they were presently conversing with the players in the guild. They had been rather pressed for time when they were recruiting players while the City Wars were underway, so they were not too particular with their selections, though Sword Demon had made sure to inform them what the general mission and purpose of their guild was. Actually, the rules of most guilds were more or less the same, emphasizing on the importance of getting along harmoniously and working with each other, for the members to have active participation in guild activities while also making sure not to cause unwanted trouble. Sword Demon said pretty much all the usual talking points and there was nothing new about it. However, he was far more capable of expressing the seriousness in his delivery of everything than most people, which showed just how much he loved gaming through how he treated the game world as real as his own life.

War Without Wounds was unable to join Extremely Heaven Defying due to the guild being filled up, so he first joined Amethyst Rebirth for the time being. He was still dreaming, fantasizing that he would be able to get a bit of the reward if he joined the victorious city defender guild at this point, and that resulted in everyone regarding him with disdain.

As for the other experts, Southern Lone Blade and his squad had no qualms about staying in the guild and were not about to quit. The two sisters Slyris and Yan Xiaozhu did miss their friends in Xiawu City, so they were a little hesitant. To players in Parallel World, changing their city was akin to changing an entire game server in the games of old, and it was truly not a decision someone could make so easily. As for Drifting and his Left and Right hand, they had basically made it a habit to run about and hang around with different guilds. They had expressed their willingness to stick around with Extremely Heaven Defying and play around for the moment, so of course Sword Demon did not mind having a few more experts around.

In any case, the members of the guild were all staying, and Sword Demon had a simple conversation with everyone, including those on Amethyst Rebirth’s side as well. In the end, the final decision was to wait until both guilds were officially merged before getting everyone together to seriously examine the issue of their guild’s development.

The official merger would naturally have to wait until the City Wars event ended. Currently, only about a fifth of the guilds out in Parallel World had completed their City War, but from the breaking news that the forums provided, a good majority of them had already picked up the vital questline found in each city and were soon about to complete them. However, there were still cities out there that had not made any headway even till now, and Linshui City was one such place where the situation was much more severe than the others. Not only had the vital quest not been discovered, but the players had also already taken huge losses in the process of the battle. Furthermore, the city required players to sail ships and boats to engage in amphibious landing assaults. Facing the harsh and organized resistance that the system threw up, the players struggled immensely to hold on to even a tiny bit of foothold in their attacks. There were also around 200,000 players that participated in the City Wars event in Linshui City, and about half of these people had already been lost, which meant over 100,000 players had completely lost all their 25 lives and were stranded in their 15th District. With victory nowhere in sight, the players spontaneously began to protest in the forums, blaming the unconventional terrain of their city as the influencing factor that affected the players’ performance, yet the officials had yet to respond to any degree to their pleas.

———————————————

Sword Demon and everyone was now just waiting for all the city wars to end across Parallel World. They were unable to receive news of this in the game, so all of them were camping out on the forums refreshing the site live, watching the gossip that players from various cities got into as they dictated the reports of their respective city wars on the forums. Every city had a different account, and they all found it interesting to read about how each of them fell.

When Gu Fei got online the next day, it was no longer the weekend, so of course there were a lot less players online during the day. At the moment, about 80% of the cities had already completed their City Wars, while people like Deep Waters over by Linyin City were already giddily inviting guests to drink and celebrate. They had been rather successful in their battle during the event, so while even though the contribution scores that they earned had yet to be tabulated, Deep Waters was very confident that he had made it to one of the top three guilds in his city.

“It’s not over yet…” Inside Ray’s Bar, Sword Demon and the others were banging on the table in their loneliness. They simply lacked the energy to do anything since they were unable to obtain their event reward.

“Gentlemen, do try my latest concoction,” Ray had brought several glasses of liquor into their booth.

“Ray, how’s your guild doing?” Sword Demon casually asked. After clearing out Young Master Han and the men from Colored Clouds from the city, Ray’s Bar had declared that they were not viewing Extremely Heaven Defying as enemies any longer, and that was precisely what they did. The men that were in his guild after had very consciously worked on quests with Ray, coexisting cordially and peacefully with the other players in the city defender’s forces.

“My guild? We were of course able to benefit from your glory,” Ray was beaming brightly. As one of the three guilds on the city defender’s side, Ray had been unable to contribute in any way, shape or form to the overarching battle. He was even initially the enemy of the city defenders for a brief moment, only to end up achieving such an ending. Ray was feeling rather pleased with his good luck.

“You got lucky!” War Without Wounds was looking at Ray with extreme envy.

“Thank you all for letting me be a hanger-on. Drinks are on me today, so drink up!” The usually business savvy Ray was being rather magnanimous as well.

“Then we shan’t be courteous,” Sword Demon chuckled.

“Oh most definitely, go all out,” Ray placed the glasses down, said his goodbyes and left.

“There’s a good chance that the reward that he got for his guild won’t be anything worse than yours,” Young Master Han suddenly blurted out after Ray left.

“How can that be? They were only grinding all the minor quests, while we had managed to obtain the quest that ultimately led to the victory of the city defenders!” Royal God Call bragged.

“That is if there’s no penalty to killing people from your own side,” Young Master Han said.

Sword Demon furrowed his brow, “You’re referring to the time when Ray’s Bar fought against us?”

“That’s right. Both guilds belonged to the same side, and if killing one another resulted in the reduction of your score… Then you would surely lose quite a bit,” Young Master Han reminded.

“Ray’s Bar would also see a reduction to their score as well,” Sword Demon mentioned.

“But you guys were still the more indomitable force,” Young Master Han said.

“That’s a problem…” Sword Demon nodded.

“Isn’t it all because of you?” Royal God Call glared at Young Master Han. “It’s all your fault for butting in and messing things up like you did.”

“Trust me,” Young Master Han nodded. “I completely did not think that you guys would actually end up winning the City Wars event somehow. I had thought that you would all be eliminated by me.”

“If there’s really such a penalty, then we would surely lose quite a good amount of our contribution scores, even though we had surely earned far more than Ray’s Bar. However, Thousand Miles Drunk’s quest actually began when he got it from his Faction, and we have no idea if that quest would ultimately be counted as something that provides contribution points for the City Wars event. It must surely be something very important, so if we do end up not getting any score off it, we don’t seem to have anything else that makes us stand out,” Sword Demon analyzed.

“Does that mean the reward for that super vital quest would completely be given to Thousand Miles Drunk alone?” Royal God Call mumbled to himself.

“D*MM*T!!!” Royal God Call slammed his fist down to the table heavily. Jealousy had made him go mad, “If the reward for that quest were to go to him alone, I think he’s going to earn 10 consecutive levels.”

Everyone was silent.

“Where’s Miles?” Royal God Call suddenly asked. Gu Fei was online, but he did not visit the Bar.

“He’s off doing Bounty Missions…” Sword Demon said.

“That guy… Can’t he show a bit more promise…” Everyone could not help but descend into silence once more.

“Hey, Brother Assist is online!” Royal God Call was instantly excited. Brother Assist had been camping out on the forums, waiting to hear the latest update first hand. For him to be willing to get online now, did that mean the City Wars event throughout the land was over?

Sure enough, the moment Brother Assist got online, he immediately sent out a message to the mercenary channel, “All the City Wars have ended!!!”

After being kicked out of the mercenary group, Royal God Call had been reinstated by now, so even though they had established a guild, everyone was still accustomed to using the mercenary channel to chat. Evidently, they would become the core members of the new guild, so the mercenary channel would naturally become the group of men that made the most important decisions.

“Can we obtain the reward yet?” Royal God Call asked. The system’s announcement had begun sounding, completely informing everyone that the City Wars were over and that the contribution scores had all been tabulated. After all the players received this message, it was the guild leaders who were required to head over to the City Hall to accept their rewards.

The bar that had been filled with boisterous energy moments ago was now abruptly quiet after this system message was sent. But in no more than three seconds, people heard a cacophony of swears and cursing coming from outside. Sword Demon and the others could only grimace as they remain seated inside their booth. It was apparent that this news was like pouring salt to their open wounds to the majority of the players from Yunduan City.

Ding!

The system prompt rang, and members of Extremely Heaven Defying all received a message from the system: [The guild Extremely Heaven Defying has earned a contribution score of 645 points during this City War event in Yunduan City.]

“645? So little?” Disappointment was etched all over Royal God Call’s face.

“Amethyst Rebirth got more than you guys,” War Without Wounds was currently in Amethyst Rebirth, and he had received the system’s message. “We’ve got a score of 1142, much much more than you guys.”

“That should be the inclusion of Miles’ quest,” Sword Demon reasoned.

“Not only that. Didn’t that guy take down an encampment as well?” Young Master Han added.

“Yes, he should have earned quite a decent score with that move as well,” Sword Demon nodded.

“Actually, this is by no means very little,” Brother Assist was not in Ray’s Bar in person, so he could only learn everything via the mercenary channel. After hearing how much contribution score Amethyst Rebirth had obtained, he began to analyze this in detail once more. “The City Wars event had a total contribution score of 10,000 points up for grabs, and our two guilds have managed to collect close to 2000 points together. I feel that this portion isn’t small in any respect. Perhaps we can ask Deep Waters, Old Cloud and the others, see how many points they’ve gotten.”

Sword Demon saw the sense in his words and immediately queried the other guild leaders. In the end, he learned that Deep Waters’ guild, Deep Freeze, had only earned 312 points, while Dusky Cloud and his Ten Guild Alliance was a self-creation that the system did not recognize, meaning the reward was allocated accordingly to all ten guilds. The guild that Dusky Cloud was directly in charge of had only earned 198 points, far from comparable to Deep Waters’, though there was a guild among the ten that got a score of 542. Incidentally, it was the guild that had completed the quest with the werewolves, that resulted in the werewolf army to come to the aid of the city assaulters in Yueye City.

Deep Waters, Dusky Cloud, and the others were already very content with just these scores, while the guild that had over 500 points had treated it like some sort of miracle. It was clear that they had plenty of other guilds for them to compare themselves against. Using these other guilds from the city assaulter’s side as a reference, those that had managed to earn over 100 points were all from the stronger and more prominent guilds, and the majority of the second and third rate guilds were all floating around in the tens, while most guilds only got themselves single digit scores.

“Looks like we’ve already got a lot of points…” Sword Demon related what he had learned about the situation to the others. These level 6 large guilds were already over the moon with contribution scores that range from 200 to 300 points, while the 50-man level 1 guild Extremely Heaven Defying had actually obtained over 600 points…

Meanwhile, the cursing and swears that were originally reverberating loudly in the hall outside had suddenly vanished. The men in the booth had only been preoccupied with researching the contribution scores business. By the time they realized the change and were wondering what had happened to cause this when Ray had run into the booth all of a sudden.

“What’s your score?” Both sides pretty much asked the same question at the same time.

“22 points,” Ray answered.

The four men exchanged glances with each other. It looked like Young Master Han had been worried over nothing. Ray’s guild did not contribute too much to the defense of the city, only being able to make progress with some quests without any obstruction or competition with others, and it was evident that the score he obtained was more conventional. Everyone finally understood just why Deep Waters and Dusky Cloud were so elated with their 200-300 contribution score.

“How much did you get?” Ray asked again.

“Uh…” Sword Demon was kind and was afraid that telling Ray their score would be too much for him to take.

“That high huh?” Ray mentally prepared himself.

“Yeah. it’s around 30 times yours,” Sword Demon felt saying it thusly was more euphemistic.

“That’s marvelous!” Ray praised, not at all surprised. His mental preparation had been very sufficient.

“Oh, hearing what the people outside are saying, it seems like they have also received a message from the system, and even though it was not their score, it seemed like the city assaulters were still given a bit of reward,” Ray said.

“Consolation reward,” Young Master Han nodded.

“That’s not easy either,” Royal God Call said this even though his eyes were lit up in schadenfreude delight.

“Enough talking, let’s go get our reward!” War Without Wounds stood up.

“What has this gotta do with you?” Royal God Call disdainfully spat.

“It’s hard to say,” War Without Wounds’ expression was determined.

“Actually, it’s really easy. You’re the one with the short end of the stick, don’t you know?” Young Master Han said.

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you hear? Even though the city assaulters have been defeated, they were at least rewarded with a consolation prize of sorts,” Young Master Han continued.

War Without Wounds suddenly froze up. The City War event was a guild activity, so the reward would be given to the players according to the guild they were in. War Without Wounds had joined the city defender’s guild after the event ended, so he was actually very clear that he would not be getting any reward out of this. However, never did he consider that there would be something like a consolation prize for the losing side, and now that he had left his guild, that similarly meant that he would not be getting his share of the reward.

As War Without Wounds stood there petrified, he suddenly heard the ping of a message. Quickly pulling the tab up, he saw that it was a message from some of his ex-guildmates from Home of the Warriors, who were promptly reminded of him after they received the message from the system, all of them sending out congratulatory messages of mockery. Royal God Call beside him was also laughing like a hyena as well, making War Without Wounds feel so depressed that he felt like vomiting blood.

“You can stay here then, we’re leaving,” Royal God Call waved goodbye to War Without Wounds as Sword Demon, Ray and he exited the booth in unison.

The still dazed War Without Wounds turned his head to look, and saw that Young Master Han was still remaining in the booth not moving, and instantly remembered that this guy did not get any reward as well. No longer alone in his misery, he suddenly felt somewhat better about himself. War Without Wounds clicked his tongue and sat down as well, smiling goofily at Young Master Han.

———————————————–

Sword Demon and the others called for Gu Fei and the rest the moment they stepped out from Ray’s Bar. Gu Fei had already been subjected to July’s call and had left for the City Hall. Actually, he was still a little puzzled! This was a guild reward, so just the guild leader collecting would have been enough. Everyone could each pick up their personal rewards if they received any, so why call him over as well?

Both parties met along the way there, and Gu Fei had received the message for Amethyst Rebirth obtaining over a 1000 contribution score. He only asked Sword Demon about how Extremely Heaven Defying did when he met Sword Demon.

“Only around 600? So little?” Gu Fei was astonished, while tears were flowing freely down Ray’s cheeks beside them.

“It’s already a really good result,” Sword Demon related the situation with Deep Waters and Dusky Cloud to Gu Fei as he explained.

“So that’s how it is!” Gu Fei nodded. “We’ve really got the advantage here especially seeing how few players we got. So much of the points ended up in our hands.”

The few of them chatted as they made their way to the City Hall, unexpectedly seeing quite a good number of players had already gathered there. The guild leaders on the city assaulter’s side were already there to get their reward, and there were even others who were here just to join in on the fun.

It was unknown when a luxurious red carpet had been laid in front of the entrance of the City Hall, and a single NPC bearing a solemn expression stood on it, looking rather dignified. Beside it on its left, right and behind was a troop of bodyguards. Gu Fei saw his Vigilante Corps Captain looking no more like a normal soldier standing behind this NPC.

“Who is this person?” The players were all discussing this.

“That should be the City Lord, right?” Someone made a guess, which everyone agreed. Every city had a distinguished City Lord in charge, but it would usually be holed up inside the City Hall. Players could enter the City Hall’s courtyard at their pleasure, but the building itself would not be somewhere that they would be commonly admitted to, which was why no one had ever seen the City Lord before. Upon witnessing such a scene assembling in such an imposing manner, the only answer as to the identity of this NPC was that of an important official.

“Will we need to approach the City Lord to get our reward?” The players did not have any clear indication to do so, and none of them were informed if they should step up like that. However, as Gu Fei and the others arrived at the destination, a good portion of the players’ gaze all began to gather on them.

They were the real victors of the City Wars event, the real people whom the City Lord was giving out the reward to. These players that had come to get their consolation prize were looking at Gu Fei’s group with such envy and resentment. But when they saw Gu Fei walking in front carrying his sword so openly, quite a good number of these players began to subconsciously avert his gaze.

“You’re all here,” It was around this time when July popped out, arriving a bit earlier than Gu Fei and the others.

“Can we get what we came for yet?” Sword Demon asked July.

“There isn’t any word on who to look for, or how to do it. Looks like it should be that NPC there, right?” July pointed to the City Lord.

“Why hasn’t anyone tried it out yet?” Sword Demon looked at the others.

“It seems like they are all waiting for us to make the first move,” July laughed bitterly.

“Let’s go then!” There was no scenario that Sword Demon had not experienced before, and being enviously regarded by people around him was so common that he pretty much treated it like any other day. At the moment, he was calmly walking up to the NPC, stepping right onto the steps in front of the City Hall’s double doors.

“Yeah, so…” Under the watchful gaze, Sword Demon was still unable to think of anything imposing to say as he attempted to initiate a conversation with the NPC.

“Soldier of Extremely Heaven Defying, you have achieved an outstanding result in your defense of this city this time, contributing admirably to the war effort as you defended your homeland through your blood, sweat, and tears. In light of your sacrifice, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and the highest salutations on behalf of the entire city and commend all of you!” When the NPC opened its mouth, it spewed line after line of words, though the players’ ears had only picked up the wondrous sounding word ‘commend’ in the end. When the words ‘commend all of you’ were uttered, a soft glow of white light instantly erupted from Sword Demon, and every player here could instantly recognize this glow to be the same as the glow a player would get when they leveled up!

The crowd around was immediately ablaze with chatter. It was evident that the experience reward had already been awarded as Sword Demon immediately leveled up. All that they did not know was if he was nearly about to level himself, or if the experience he got was just that abundant.

After this white light dissipated, the NPC lifted its hand once again and adopted an expression of someone discussing worldly matters, “I will now grant you both Xiaoyun and Miyun Precincts in return for your services while defending our homeland.”

The players erupted into an uproar again. The Division of Power reward had indeed appeared, and it was two Precincts with a simple wave of the NPC’s hand. The average player would always use street names to refer to locations, but there were actually also Precinct names as well, and it was something that players did not exactly remember, because the area it covered was really large. When deciding on a meeting place, if someone were to say to meet in Xiaoyun Precinct, people would most definitely beat that person up in response.

The rewards did not end there either; in addition, the City Lord proceeded to take out coins and equipment, so that they could better protect their homeland in the future. However, giving it all to the guild leader might not be appropriate, and Parallel World still needed to be an MMORPG when the need arose. After the City Lord announced this reward, it ended by telling Sword Demon that the guild members themselves could come over and retrieve their portions.

Experience, property, coin, and equipment…

All sort of rewards that the game could give out was being awarded in this event, and the rest of guild leaders could only watch on, green with envy, as they witnessed it right in front of their very own eyes.