Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Gu Fei’s Faction now looked like it was affiliated with the guards found in the City Hall, and its members were considered to be working as civil servants, and that Bounty License was proof of his identity. Presently, the reward the Faction had given him was actually this Bounty License of his, which left him really disappointed.

He took out his Bounty License from his dimensional pocket for a look. Consecutively promoting his grade by 2, it did indeed seem different from before. At the very least, he could sense that it had gotten heavier. Upon closer inspection, it seemed like the hardcover leather bound book that he once possessed was now completely resealed in gold, while the words and images in every page were now vividly etched. Even the cover and back of his book were now polished till they shone, capable of reflecting light if raised to the sun.

“This couldn’t be part of the reward right!” Gu Fei sweated a little. The physical changes to his Bounty License were huge; if this was considered as the reward for being promoted, the system might perhaps be more than a little shameless.

Fortunately, the system still had a bit of face, and while the looks of the Bounty License had undergone many changes when it was promoted in grade, the real reward it provided was firstly, it gave the user the ability to Search. This was the feature that Gu Fei had wanted back when he was hunting down Southern Lone Blade and his squad, but if it was for his usual bounty missions… it was not bad either, as he could directly identify the experts on the list if they had made the mistake of PK-ing. Thinking of this, Gu Fei nodded his head. He was very satisfied with this reward.

Furthermore, the second reward from his increased grade was that he could temporarily requisite the city guards to help in his bounty mission while within the city limits. His current grade allowed him to take command of two normal city guards.

Gu Fei actually disdained this function. He was already afraid that someone else would steal his kills when he was slaying his targets normally. It was just unnecessary for his reward to actually give him additional helpers! Gu Fei had a lot of opinions about this reward as he left the City Lord’s grand hall with a belly full of discontentment.

Outside City Hall, Sword Demon and the others had been left standing there pitifully! Furthermore, they were not the only ones there. After Southern Lone Blade and his squad came over to redeem their rewards from the Logistic department, there were also some of the guild leaders on the city assaulter’s side that had experienced the City Lord’s ‘magnanimity and largesse’, who had also heard about Thousand Miles Drunk going to receive his even more powerful reward, that had stayed behind. Each of them had a rather anxious expression on their faces while they waited, like the parents standing outside of a college entrance examination venue.

Gu Fei finally walked out. Everyone was staring with their eyes wide open, completely Appraising him from head to toe.

They failed. A lot of these Appraisal skills failed when used on Gu Fei. Gu Fei was level 43 right now, and that was well beyond the majority of players in the game that were still level 41 and 42. The experience points that these miserable players from Yunduan City got from the reward was not enough to make such a huge leap in level.

“Just what reward did you get? Quick, take it out and show us!!” Svelte Dancer was one of the players outside the entrance, and she was one of those who tried to use her Appraisal skill on him but failed. She was still level 42 at the moment. While the amount of experience points awarded to the victorious city defenders in this event was an entire class above the losing city assaulters, the difference between what she earned and what Sword Demon and Gu Fei earned was heaven and earth. Actually, just comparing Gu Fei and Sword Demon alone was a difference as much as heaven and earth. But because Gu Fei’s level was already a step lower than the top tier experts, that was why he had only been able to reach an even footing against these top tier experts. However, Sword Demon was still overtaking Gu Fei in terms of experience, since he had also gotten a sizable amount of experience points as his reward.

Just as everyone was jumping up and down, Brother Assist, who had been flitting between being in the game and being in the forums, had just arrived with news. As players began to retrieve their rewards from this City Wars event, the Five Unyielding Experts and the Seven Bottlenecks had once more seen an upheaval change amongst its ranks, with Sword Demon and Gu Fei currently placing as the top 1 and 2 players all across Parallel World. The rankings after them were being fiercely competed over as the list kept refreshing with names.

“Players who had completed the vital quests this time round had managed to earn themselves a handsome reward,” Brother Assist was saying. Take Yueye City as an example; the player who had managed to complete the werewolf quest had already surpassed one of the original Five Unyielding Experts, the Big Boss of the Ten Guild Alliance, Dusky Cloud.

In truth, the guild leaders from all the various guilds had taken up command during the City Wars, and that was not something that the system could evaluate. That was why when it came to getting rewards, guild leaders did not get anything spectacular either. However, the guild prestige and city Precinct rewards would have ended up belonging to the guild leader, to put it bluntly, so none of the guild leaders had qualms about it.

“Aside from Sword Demon and Miles, who are the other three new players that could be counted among the Five Unyielding Experts?” Someone else asked Brother Assist.

“It’s still not confirmed yet. They are still being settled! I’m sure we’ll more or less know the names once most people have redeemed their rewards. I’m gonna go and get my reward first.”, Brother Assist replied thusly, temporarily putting his investigative report on hold as he ran over to the Logistics department to get his reward as well.

When Gu Fei exited the City Hall building and saw so many people staring at him with great intensity. Even Svelte Dancer was dashing and shouting right at him, and he immediately understood why they were around. Furthermore, seeing that they were all experts in a glance, he felt gratified, raising his Bounty License as he declared, “All of you experts better beware! I’ll be able to directly search for players’ IGN when I do Bounty Missions, so I’ll prioritize you guys first!”

“What?” All the guild leaders were momentarily uncertain of how to react.

Thus, Gu Fei patiently explained the function that his Bounty License provided, and instantly all their faces greened. Svelte Dancer was in a huff, “You dare to target me as well?”

Gu Fei was stunned, and before he could even think about it, Svelte Dancer had already gone over and pinched him, “You actually dare to hesitate?”

“I won’t search for you, I won’t search for you,” Gu Fei had no choice but to grimace.

“That’s much better,” Svelte Dancer nodded her head in satisfaction. Her indomitable personality meant that it was unsurprising for her to end up earning PK points. If Thousand Miles Drunk were to really keep his eye on the experts as he said, she would most likely spend half her life stuck in Jail.

After Svelte Dancer succeeded in using this backdoor approach, Royal God Call and the others also called out, “Miles, surely you’re not the kind to put gals before pals, right?”

Actually, everyone felt that no matter how much Gu Fei loved his Bounty Missions, there was no way that he would not give face to those good friends he had gotten familiar with. But there were still some who came forward to confirm this, and that made Gu Fei wonder, Am I really the sort that is not amenable to reason with? But as people spoke up, he suddenly understood something from the expression on these people’s faces. These people were not trying to confirm their own safety, but they were bragging to all the guild leader experts that had already been so shocked by the revelation, their faces had turned ashen.

Look, you guys are going to have Thousand Miles Drunk chasing to PK you, but we’re going to be fine since we’re friends of Thousand Miles Drunk.

Not one of the old friends of his that came forward with Royal God Call at first harbored such a thought. Even Sword Demon was being as honest and considerate as always, not joining in with this crowd. Gu Fei was grouchy, but the other guild leaders did not wish to miss this chance either. While Thousand Miles Drunk was right in front of them, all of them suddenly exploded in warmth, enthusiastically swarming around Gu Fei.

“Brother Miles, this matter—” Brave Surge felt that he more or less had a bit of relationship with Gu Fei, so he felt that his name should not end up being searched by Gu Fei. But how was Brave Surge to know that just as he said those four words, some brusque and forceful individual beside him came out of nowhere to push him aside?

Brave Surge was enraged, but when he turned his head around to look, he saw that there was a huge pack of Strength focused players that had sprung out from some unknown place. He watched as these Warrior guild leaders utilized their enormous Strength to get to Gu Fei’s side before everyone else, and they were all yelling brashly, “Boss Miles, I am so and so from this and that guild. Show me some face and don’t search for my name, alright? Go ahead and lay out whatever conditions you have to make this happen.”

There were of course many people out there whom Gu Fei had not made acquaintances with nor had any sort of relationship being fostered, so they could only introduce themselves in a hurry and offer some sort of benefit. Plenty of them acted like they were comrades, opening a blank check for Gu Fei to fill however he wanted, but when these people increased in number, the possibility of these being bad checks became suspect, so some had gone ahead to shout out exact remunerations. And even after that, there were those who were directly waving bags of coins in their hand as they gave their word. Furthermore, many of these guild leaders were no longer just thinking for themselves, and someone had even waved a large piece of paper in the air, claiming that the names stated on the list were hoping that Thousand Miles Drunk would give them all face and let them buy clemency for all.

Brave Surge had originally thought that he had the most hope in being pardoned by Gu Fei, but how would he have guessed it would descend into such a situation. Only those who had Strength were able to get near Gu Fei by now, while a Mage like Brave Surge would be lucky to not have been trampled and treated like a carpet in the stampede. Looking to his left and right, he saw all the guild leaders who were without Strength like him swept beyond the encirclement, and they were not even sure where Thousand Miles Drunk was in the mob. Brave Surge was infuriated, quickly messaging someone within his contacts that had the most Strength to squeeze out a path for him at all cost.

Brave Surge was not the only one who had the same idea, and in addition to the message that these people had passed on out after, more and more players began to rush over so they could seek leniency from Thousand Miles Drunk. The row of guild leaders, who were all Warriors, obviously did not dare to offend Gu Fei, so the wall of men that had initially formed to forcefully hold back the horde was now having trouble doing so as the force exerted by the people behind became larger. These Warriors could no longer hold on as they quickly bellowed out to Gu Fei, “Boss Miles, we can’t hold on any longer. It’s best you run off!”

Gu Fei saw how the situation had completely gone out of hand, and he did not even have any idea where his own friends had been pushed and shoved to. There were players all around him in every direction, so where could he even run off to? Do I slay my way out? None of these players came looking for trouble with me though, and are actually all here to fawn over me. Thousand Miles Drunk truly could not find it in him to kill his way out. The only move that he had left was teleportation, and just as Gu Fei was about to pull out a teleportation scroll for this, he suddenly received a message from Drifting, “Get back into the City Hall, you dummy!”

It was like Gu Fei had suddenly seen the light, and he swiftly turned around and pushed open the entrance of the City Hall right behind him. It was also in that moment when that row of Warrior guild leaders that were seemingly protecting Gu Fei like bodyguards finally could not hold the rest of the players back any longer. With a crash, three of them had become too lax after they saw Gu Fei leave, and the ensuing force instantly sent them sprawling to the ground. In the next moment, a stampede of players surged forth and trampled those Warriors beneath their feet, turning them into white light… The three staunch Warrior guild leaders had actually been trampled alive.

Gu Fei had no idea that this happened as he was in a hurry to duck into the building the moment he pushed the doors open, which automatically closed behind him. This door would open for Gu Fei with a casual push, but for the players behind him, they would only be squashed flat by the others crowding the door, and yet it would not budge no matter how much force was acted on it. Several of these players squeezed to the point that they were pretty much flat on the ground and were trodden on several times to the point they were yelling out at the top of their lungs, “STOP SQUEEZING, I’M ABOUT TO BE CRUSHED TO DEATH!”

These words of course fell on deaf ears, as the people who were crowding continued to do so. Thankfully, there were people who were quick witted that shouted, “THOUSAND MILES DRUNK HAS LEFT! THERE’S NO NEED TO KEEP SHOVING!”

Even though some players might not believe this, they would all naturally glance over and see that there was no figure dressed in a Mage’s black robe by the front of the entrance as they had expected. Slowly but surely, the mob slowly settled down, as the various guild leaders began mobilizing their intelligence network. They were all convinced that they must contact Thousand Miles Drunk and negotiate matters with him at all costs.

This calm did not last longer than a minute when someone raised his hands all of a sudden, “Is Thousand Miles Drunk over there?”

Everyone turned around to where that man had pointed, only to find Gu Fei’s figure appear behind a window in the City Hall building, pulling open the window so he could poke his head out.

“Say, can’t you keep still?” Drifting sighed as he sent this message to Gu Fei as he quickly darted to the side. He soon saw people quickly crowding over toward the small window, like it was a ticket window during the Spring Festival. In fact, the current situation that they were in could even put it to shame.

“Stop jostling, we can’t get in through the window,” the tragedy soon repeated itself, as the players in the front were all yelling once again.

However, Gu Fei was hiding behind the window this time, and the players were unable to interact with him. This could be considered to be his chance to calmly address everyone, so he opened his mouth and shouted, “Everyone, settle down. Listen to what I’ve got to say.”

All of them were excited. As long as Thousand Miles Drunk was willing to speak, that meant no matter what condition he would set, it would be worth negotiating.

“Everybody, look. Each and every one here could be considered an expert, but there’s only that many of you. If all of you are asking for me to let you go, then just who am I left to bounty hunt?” Gu Fei shouted.

“You can Bounty Hunt whoever you like. It’s fine as long as you don’t target myself, Boss Miles. This is my guild’s name list,” a guild leader who was standing right by the window was already squashed to the point he was like a flattened pie. The moment he heard what Gu Fei shouted, he struggled to stuff the register in his hand forward. In the end, another player near him was quick as well, grabbing that name list over to toss it away. Furthermore, this was a very selfish player who kept trying to poke his head over to the window, “Boss Miles, I am not as concerned as that man. All you have to do is recognize me and not hunt me and that will do. My IGN is—”

“Your IGN is your mum, SCRAM!” A third player came pouncing over, shoving that other player to the side before he began to make his way to the front of the window.

“There’s actually a solution for those of you who do not wish to be Bounty Hunted at all,” Gu Fei spoke up.

Gu Fei did not shout this time, but what was miraculous was how almost everyone had heard what he said as all of them quietened down. Those who had not heard him could only whisper and ask, “What did he just say? Did he mention a solution? What is the solution?”

“That’s right, he said there’s a solution!” The players who had heard him clearly were also animated.

“The solution is to check yourself.” Gu Fei said.

“Check ourselves?” Everyone that heard froze, as someone began laughing, “Boss Miles, is there such a need? We admit that none of us is your match; you’ve managed to slay Carouse’s 1000 players, so why would any of us dare to throw down the gauntlet with you? That said, we’ve essentially been checked by your hand. We’ve already lost.”

“That’s right, we’ve already lost,” everyone echoed in agreement, and only the players from Carouse who were used as an example were fuming. They really wished that they could just leap out and explain to everyone that the 1000 of them had not been slain by his hands.

“Everyone, you’ve made a mistake,” Gu Fei quickly called out. “What I mean to say is that everyone should be placing HP limits on themselves when PK-ing with each other. This would be the only way for you to stop yourself from gaining PK Value, which naturally means I won’t be bounty hunting you. Get it?”

Plenty of players wished that they could curse and swear, but each of them forcefully held their tongues. Just what sort of d*mn*d solution was that? Placing limits while PK-ing? Would that still be called PK, then? Were they supposed to lay down a duel like the MMOs of old and just spar? But the problem was that Parallel World lacked such a feature! Even if they did have something akin to this, there’s no way that two guilds could just duel with each member 1 on 1 if they wanted to do battle, right? How would they even be able to leverage their numbers and bully the few then?

Gu Fei’s solution was completely unacceptable to these players. As a member of a guild, PK-ing was not a 1v1 duel in their minds, but a group level activity that had each party assaulting each other. Could they even limit themselves in such battles? Nobody had ever heard of such things…

“That’s precisely it. All of you better act accordingly!” Gu Fei threw this final line out and closed the windows. The players had not even recovered from this when they saw Thousand Miles Drunk leave, causing them all to promptly yell and moan.

However, this time, Gu Fei did not show his face again, merely sending a message to Drifting, “What’s the point of getting inside the building; I’ll still have to teleport out.”

The players were all blocking the City Hall entrance like they were the paparazzi, hanging around unwilling to leave for the longest time. In the end, Gu Fei still had to use a teleportation scroll in order to leave. Fortunately, he was still holding onto a surplus of the teleportation scrolls that he had gotten after the City Wars event, and he would have been in quite the pickle if he did not have them on hand presently.

Sword Demon and the other experts had not expected for something like this to have happened too, for there was most definitely no precedence that indicated so. This was all because there had never been such an indomitably powerful expert in any MMO before this.

Brother Assist could not help but exclaim in their mercenary channel, “No way, could Yunduan City be transformed into a PvE only city now that Miles has gotten himself a Bounty Register?”

“There’s also the chance it might transform it into a ghost town, no? If we really can’t PK anymore, the game would have lost quite a lot of entertainment. Just from this point alone, I reckon it would force plenty of players away, right? If Yunduan City were to empty out…” Royal God Call hypothesized.

“Forced out? Forced out to where?” Gu Fei asked.

“To other cities, of course!” Royal God Call said.

“My Bounty License is not only applicable in Yunduan City alone,” Gu Fei reminded him.

Nobody said a word in response.

“Are you being serious, or are you still joking around?” Royal God Call asked.

“Joking around? What’s the joke? It can really be used everywhere in Parallel World. That’s how I tracked down and dealt with Flame Singed Clothes in Xiawu City, remember?” Gu Fei said.

“Ahem, but the matter this time around! Even though I find it rather comical, the pressure of being an expert that would often find myself blemished with PK Value is pretty huge. I only wish to say just one thing,” War Without Wounds said somberly.

“What’s that?”

“Miles, it’s been really great to have made your acquaintance early,” War Without Wounds said.

“You’re so disgusting!!!” The entire channel wanted to puke.

“Is what I’m doing here that big a deal?” Gu Fei asked.

“It isn’t,” Young Master Han said.

“You’re only saying that because you’ve never once gotten any PK point, have you?” All of them disdainfully said.

“Put yourself in others’ shoes; imagine if we’ve not met Miles. It would indeed be quite the heartbreak if we end up getting targeted thanks to his Bounty License,” Sword Demon mulled over this aloud.

“Miles bro, I’ve finally found you!” Just as everyone was discussing this in the channel, Gu Fei suddenly saw his way forward being blocked by a row of men. He lifted his head to look and saw that it was Oathless Sword, as well as Brave Surge, the two old acquaintances of his that were working together again.

“Hello, you two,” Gu Fei greeted the two guild leaders.

“Regarding that Bounty matter. We’re hoping to have a good conversation over it with Miles bro. Shall we search for a location to sit down?” Oathless Sword came over with his suggestion. They had originally added Gu Fei as friends, but Gu Fei had the foresight to turn off all private messaging after he teleported away from the City Hall. Since Oathless Sword was unable to make contact with the man, the only thing that he could do was search all over the city for traces of Thousand Miles Drunk. But who would have guessed that luck was on his side this time and he very quickly located him. Naturally, it was not like there was no flaw to his plan, as Brave Surge had also abruptly appeared as well.