Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“You speak,” War Without Wounds and Royal God Call both nodded and bowed away, gesturing for Gu Fei to step up and be interviewed.

“I’ll elaborate,” No matter the case, Brother Assist would not let go of a chance to gossip.

Dommu and Mudou glanced over at Gu Fei and saw that he did not seem to have any opinions about this arrangement, so they continued with their interview this way. Gu Fei personally answered the questions hereafter, while Dommu and Mudou adopted the graceful bearing of professional reporters. The questions they asked were mostly bland and generic, hardly awkward or pointed, though it would be something entirely different by the time they sorted through everything and wrote their article. Fortunately, the pair had always been doing their reports about Gu Fei from a positive perspective, so while they might exaggerate matters at times, it was mostly Brother Assist who would read these and return to tell everyone like its a joke, and Gu Fei would just shrug it off with a placid smile.

Dommumudou were very serious when it came to their work, swiftly departing once it was over to start preparing for what they would be writing. Gu Fei had only just sighed in relief when he heard the sound of knocking on wood. All of them were shocked by this interruption as another person outside was calling out, “Is Big Brother Miles in?”

This time, the voice sounded very foreign. Gu Fei just happened to be sitting beside the door, so he turned around and poked his head out, wanting to see who it could be, only to get the fright of his life.

People! People as far as his eyes could see! It was unknown when so many players had flooded Ray’s Bar, all lined up snaking out along the corridor as it coiled out into the main hall, all the way from the entrance of the bar to the room where Gu Fei was drinking in! By poking his head out, someone right in front of the door immediately smiled, “Big Brother Miles, how do you do.”

“And you are?”

“I am the guild leader of the guild, Mirrored Moon, Elusive Reason,” the person introduced himself.

“And you’re…” Gu Fei sighed. He did not even know what he should say.

“May I come in?” Elusive Reason asked.

“Please come on in!” The one who answered was not Gu Fei, but the five others in the room. At the moment, they were warmly inviting Elusive Reason into the room, before patting Gu Fei on his shoulder, “Put in the effort, you can do it!” It was with that final statement that the five men stood up and left the room.

Conversely, Ray was absolutely delighted right now; The sudden influx of so many players, many who did not mind that there were no seats available. All these players were buying their liquor off him, with some even directly buying a bottle so it was more convenient for them to carry it. Ray was over the moon getting so much support from all these clients.

In a single glance, Gu Fei could tell that he could not carry on like this. Seeing this unending stream of players, was he meant to hide out in the wilderness from here onward? With such a thought in mind, Gu Fei walked out of the room as well. Taking two steps in lieu of three, he very quickly climbed up Ray’s bar counter and waved his arms to get everyone’s attention, “Everyone, listen to me speak.”

This time, the people were much more disciplined than they were back outside the City Hall building, and it was unknown how these guild leaders had managed to cooperate, lining up in an orderly fashion. They were so quiet that even when Dommu and Mudou were inside the room interviewing Gu Fei, the pair were completely unaware that there were so many people gathered just one wall away.

When Gu Fei spoke, everyone became even quieter. Gu Fei addressed the crowd openly, “I know very well the reason why everyone is here, but Bounty Mission is my main source of entertainment in this game, and a huge portion of this game would be meaningless to me without it. That is why I am most definitely not going to back off on this. Please leave, everyone!”

Everyone was nodding their head, patiently listening to Gu Fei speak, looking like they completely understood where he was coming from. But just as Gu Fei finished saying his piece, a voice immediately followed, “Big Brother Miles, may we have a chat?”

“Was what I just said not plain enough?” Gu Fei asked.

“Big Brother Miles, just listen to my suggestion!” There was someone who was stubbornly trying to bargain.

“D*mn!” Gu Fei was really left without an option. These players simply refuse to give up even if they were to die! Gu Fei could not find it in him to just slay them all either, so since he could not afford to deal with this, he figured it was best if he simply avoided them instead. Pulling out a teleportation scroll, he silently unfurled it and a teleportation array abruptly formed around him and swiftly spirited him away.

The players were all dejected, but they had no choice either since the man in question had insisted on sticking to his decision. The players were afraid of Gu Fei, but there were still those who were discontented with this, feeling like the man was simply not cooperating as he seemed intent on going against all the players in the city.

All the guild leaders slowly dispersed after having waited for nothing. In the corner of a table in Ray’s Bar, Ye Xiaowu was actually talking to Broken Water Arrow through gritted teeth, “Did you see that?”

“I did,” Broken Water Arrow sighed.

“What’s the big deal if it was an ordinary player that had gotten such a reward? But now that it is Thousand Miles Drunk who got a hold of it, just look; Did you see what sort of huge waves he is making? He has single-handedly ruined the game state for everyone,” Ye Xiaowu spat bitterly. The system would allocate a random reward after such global events, so there was no way for Ye Xiaowu to predict this in advance. He had only learned about what sort of situation Thousand Miles Drunk got up through word of mouth from another player, before proceeding to tag along with the horde of guild leaders that ran over to Ray’s Bar and further investigate. Unexpectedly, Thousand Miles Drunk had not given anyone face, and insisted on sticking to his gaming style.

“With him acting as such a powerful restraint, would the banks be closed to such a degree that the players from Yunduan City no longer dare to PK?” Broken Water Arrow wondered.

“It’s very possible,” Ye Xiaowu concurred.

“So when talking about game design, are you guys in favor of players PK-ing, or not?” Broken Water Arrow suddenly asked.

“This…” Ye Xiaowu hesitated for a moment before saying, “From a market angle, we are completely supportive of players engaging in PK fights and competition, since this would motivate players to be even more engrossed in the game, and would thus spend a lot more in the game…”

“Then what’s the point of having a Bounty Mission system in the game at all? It has now caused Thousand Miles Drunk to upset your potential income,” Broken Water Arrow said.

Ye Xiaowu wanted to cry, though no tears came to him, “the Bounty Mission system was meant to keep the PK-ing in check, but it was really to give players with PK Value a legitimate way to remove all the PK points earned, as well as to encourage PK-ing. But who would have guessed that this guy would treat Bounty Missions as a source of entertainment, doing it even when he did not even have a lick of PK points on him. The rewards for the mission isn’t much, so why would anyone run the risk of potentially getting PK-ed to grind these Bounties? Were it not for the fact that he is so invincible, would he have dared to spend so much of his time doing Bounty Missions? All it would take is a few mistakes and anyone would end up losing a whole level.”

“How about Cool Apple? That guy has killed over a thousand players, and it doesn’t seem like he has ever made a mistake, right? But isn’t he still quite far off from being called invincible?” Broken Water Arrow mentioned.

“The problem is that with an ordinary player, if they ever have the wish to PK like that maniac Cool Apple, they would be randomly PK-ing players, so why would they even care to do Bounty Missions? This guy… What he’s doing isn’t wrong, and of course there’s nothing wrong with his character for doing what he’s doing, but his existence would ultimately have a sort of effect on the game, and this particular impact is becoming greater and greater. In the beginning, he was only getting overleveled equipment and killing BOSSES that are above the current tier. Then he began getting involved with that efficient leveling method of his, and he had essentially single-handedly turned the flow of the City War in Yunduan City, now making it impossible for people to take the risk PK-ing. I really can’t imagine just what sort of imbalance and ruin he will continue to cause if he continues to play the game,” Ye Xiaowu was at his wits’ end.

“Cause everyone all over Parallel World to no longer dare to PK if he leaves Yunduan City?” Broken Water Arrow guessed.

“That is not impossible… He will most likely discover the secret function of his Bounty License after this promotion,” Ye Xiaowu ominously said.

“What function?” Broken Water Arrow asked.

“He no longer has to head to the Bounty Assignment Hall to pick up his Bounty Missions. All he has to do is use the search function with his Bounty License and he can instantly identify a Bounty and pick it up… Furthermore, he no longer has to hand in a Mission before he picks up another; he can continually complete his Bounty Missions before handing them all in at once. These are the two hidden functions that the Bounty License would provide upon promoting two grades,” Ye Xiaowu explained.

“So what can we do about it?” Broken Water Arrow asked.

“We… We just don’t have the strength yet…” Ye Xiaowu was grinding his teeth. Ever since he found out that the final stage of that quest during the City Wars event had changed, the infallible confidence he once possessed had been constantly wavering. He discovered that other players would become more and more familiar with the game as time went by, but for him, he would begin to find this game world more and more foreign, and there was no way for him to familiarize himself again either, since there was no going back for him any longer.

——————————————

Gu Fei had teleported himself back out to the wilderness, and it was actually the same coordinates that he had set during the City War in Yunduan City. At the moment, he was slowly making his way back to the city as he sent a message out in the channel, “Brother Assist, have the leaderboards settled yet?”

“I’m currently in the game. I’ll be leaving to check on it in a short moment though. I believe everything would be set in place once everyone had finished retrieving their rewards. However, we might be due for a tragedy here in Yunduan City this time…” Brother Assist said.

Everyone was silent. Each of the other cities had approximately 200,000 players that were able to happily redeem their rewards, but the efforts of the 200,000 players in Yunduan City had been for nothing, and all they got in the end was just a bit of a pity boon from the governing body. It was apparent that there would be a huge slide in their levels compared to the other cities.

“Do you want a list of the expert’s IGN? Leave this to me, I’m great at that!” Brother Assist was excited. He felt like he was being a broker to a hitman.

“Yes, that would be nice,” Gu Fei was not in the least courteous.

“Are you really prepared to kill like this?” Sword Demon asked.

“I’m just doing Missions. Bounty Missions, specifically,” Gu Fei corrected.

“There are so many people, you’re really not showing face to any of them!” All of them were rather astonished. Actually, ‘face’ was quite a fantastical concept. At times, it could be even more effective than money or friendship and sentimentality. This was especially true for when a whole host of players that were hoping their candied words and requests would be enough. It was not easy to simply just refuse everyone without going back on the decision like what Gu Fei did.

“How are things with the guild?” Today was originally supposed to be the momentous day when Extremely Heaven Defying and Amethyst Rebirth were supposed to merge into a single guild, but Gu Fei had essentially stolen their thunder so thoroughly that no one had their eye on this matter.

“There are still some in the guild who have not obtained their individual reward. We’ll talk about it once everyone’s done with it,” Sword Demon said.

“How about your Faction reward? Have you gone to get it yet?” Gu Fei asked.

“I did….” Sword Demon grimaced. “All it gave me was a bit of experience points and some money.” Sword Demon did not really do much for his Faction during the event aside from assassinating the player White and Black and failing to locate the other target, Small Bottlecap, afterward. He then spent the rest of his time following Gu Fei to attack the Hall of Guild Creation for the task of capturing the building, before finishing up with taking charge of leading the guild that they created.

“So what are you guys doing now?” Gu Fei asked.

“Heh, we’re taking a walk around the city Precincts that we have gotten of course!” War Without Wounds was even more pleased with this than his guild leader Sword Demon. The man had suffered a great tragedy when he failed to get any sort of boon from this City War at all, so he was presently in high spirits, wanting to learn about just what sort of benefit he would get by staying around these areas that Extremely Heaven Defying and Amethyst Rebirth had gotten a hold of.

The system was at least considerate though; since they had given these Precincts out to one guild, they at least made sure they were next to each other. Xiaoyun and Miyun were two Precincts given to Extremely Heaven Defying, and they were located in the southeast, relatively close to the east gate. The location was not particularly good or bad. Yunduan City’s Knights’ Barracks were located within Miyun Precinct, so they were at least assured a bit of popularity with this designated log off point. Over by the entrance of the Knights’ Barracks, there was a bit of sparse area for people to set up stalls.

Furthermore, looking at the development of the overall area, both Xiaoyun and Miyun Precincts were not complete yet. At the moment, a huge number of players could not afford the real estate that the system had to offer due to the exorbitant price of the land, which meant business was stagnant. Most people who were buying up plots of land currently were mainly the guilds. Because guilds were able to pool their money to purchase housing, it made sense that they had the capital to achieve this. No matter how big or small the guild was, owning a house would most definitely show their greater breadth of spirit, and that would surely give off great confidence when recruiting others.

Outsiders had only heard how these two city Precincts were offered up in a single utterance from the City Lord, but the guild members had all received a system prompt telling them about the letter that the system had sent to their individual mailboxes, detailing further details and information about their reward.

Sword Demon and the others had of course already retrieved this, and the letter clearly stated that upon receiving these two Precincts, the guild would firstly be provided with a house which was roughly about 200 square meters large, and also the rules regarding a player-managed Precinct. The main business for city Precincts lay in their real estate, and the property that the system had previously offered were only for sale. But now that there were Precincts that would be player-managed, there was now an additional option to rent. But whether players choose to purchase or rent a property, the system would still be the one ultimately reaping the profits, and as the guild overseeing these Precincts, all they could do was gain points on the transaction, which was akin to earning a commission.

However, these commissions would have long term profitably, so even for the properties that were sold, there was no way for players to get away from it once and for all; there were still the estate taxes that players had to pay, and if they were to engage in sales on the property, they would still have to give a cut on every transaction to Sword Demon and the guild. This was actually a very ideal money making machine, and for Sword Demon to have gotten two Precincts just like that, as well as the four additional Precincts that were to be included after the merger, the guild’s income was truly a sight to behold, and their future was looking very lofty.

Because of this, Sword Demon felt a little awkward about the ladies of Amethyst Rebirth wanting to quit and re-form a new guild, so he made a suggestion to July again, asking if they would like to stay in the guild but consider themselves a self contained group, and allocate a Precinct for them to manage.

July represented the ladies of Amethyst Rebirth to politely decline his gesture. The ladies had a very good attitude about the matter. When they saw the system’s letter, they of course understood the value of having a Precinct as well, but that did not change their initial plan at all. To their knowledge, had they not been a guild on the city defender’s side, there was essentially no way that they would have gotten themselves such a valuable reward just based on their own capabilities. As such, they felt that this city’s Precinct reward did not belong to them in the first place, so none of them felt hurt losing it.

Sword Demon laughed bitterly. If everyone followed their logic, just how many players would have had the qualifications to relish this reward? Talking about the ‘what ifs’ for such matters would be counterproductive. Given how everybody had contributed a little to the entire process, it made sense that everybody had the qualifications for the reward. As such, their proposition about how they should not take a share in it just because they did not do anything was completely unfounded!

Despite this, Sword Demon was still unable to convince the ladies as all of them already had their minds set on the plan that they had to begin with. There were even some who had not gone to redeem their reward, and July was just waiting for these ladies to get their reward before leaving.

“Don’t bother discussing it with them. Let’s go see if we can transfer the ownership of the city Precinct and give them two if it is possible,” Brother Assist recommended.

Normally, War Without Wounds and Royal God Call would feel pained hearing such a suggestion, but when they thought that they would be transferring it to Amethyst Rebirth, all of them were instantly very understanding.

“That’s a good idea!” Sword Demon nodded.

With that, the group of them continued to check out their Precincts, while Brother Assist had swiftly pulled out his little book of records to make note of the number of empty houses in every street, how many stores there were, the business that they were engaged in, which ones were system-operated and which ones were by players. He even counted how many stalls there were set up…

As they were walking, the door of a large house nearby suddenly opened, as someone happily walked out, waving at these men, “Gentlemen, how are you doing!?”

Young Master Han slapped his forehead, “I was saying. I’ve got the sense that I’ve been here before.”

The four men gave him the side eye, “You’re really the sort who doesn’t participate in guild activities huh?”

The man that appeared in front of them was Brave Surge, and the door he had opened was also adorned with the Carouse’s guild emblem. As it turned out, Brave Surge’s guild residence happened to be inside Extremely Heaven Defying’s Xiaoyun Precinct.

“Gentlemen, I’ve already guessed that you guys would be taking a look around the area. Come on inside and take a seat,” Brave Surge very kindly invited them inside. Sword Demon and the others exchanged glances with each other before finally deciding to step into Carouse’s guild residence.

It was a very large building, and they first stepped into a waiting room. Beyond that was a long corridor, with rooms on both its left and right. Royal God Call rolled his tongue out, “This residence has got to be about 300 square meters, right?”

“286, to be precise,” Brave Surge chuckled.

“Oh. That’s 1 square meter larger than Traversing Four Seas’!” Royal God Call said. This sounded like it was hardly a coincidence.

Brave Surge laughed, proud of himself that his guild residence was one square meter larger than Traversing Four Seas’.

“Gentlemen, over here please,” Brave Surge led the five deeper into the corridor. There were other players in the residence, and they were all the core members of Carouse. All of them gave a very friendly wave to these five men as they passed.

Young Master Han did not participate much in guild activities, but that did not mean that he had not been here before. He was becoming more and more familiar with the place the more he walked, subconsciously turning when he reached the middle of the corridor. The people behind him were startled. Brave Surge and Young Master Han were walking in two different directions! A cough, and Brave Surge had already turned his head around. Upon seeing that Young Master Han had gone over in that other direction, he paused, before quickly nodding, “That’s a good place too. We can talk things over there!”

Everyone was confused and joined Young Master Han as he entered the room. Everyone did a quick glance and saw that this was actually a small taproom, average in size. There were two tables inside, but it was much tidier than the taverns outside.

Brave Surge led them to their seats and brought liquor over. He had originally wanted to bring everyone over to their meeting room, but he did not expect Young Master Han to follow where the liquor led him.

“Guild leader Surge has very conscientiously renovated this place!” Sword Demon looked around even as he tried to calculate how he should tidy up their own guild residence.

“You’re too kind. I was merely casually minding things,” Brave Surge said modestly, pouring everyone some liquor before settling himself down. What actually proceeded was just a casual conversation, covering topics that were of no importance whatsoever. By the time Sword Demon and the others said they were about to make their move, Brave Surge had even courteously sent them all off to the door.

Watching as the door behind them closed, the five men could only laugh bitterly.

“This Brave Surge is really very patient. Looks like he wishes to establish a good relationship with us, step by step,” War Without Wounds commented.

“Patience is one thing, but the way this man is doing things is a bit too obvious! Letting us so clearly see through the fact he is coming to us with an ulterior motive, this just instantly makes people feel like doing just the exact opposite,” Brother Assist said.

Sword Demon was still looking at Carouse’s residence, and only turned his head around when everyone called for him, “I suddenly feel like we’ve got a seriously huge advantage. In terms of our economy, we’re able to collect a commission from our city Precincts. In terms of battle, Miles’ pressure is so shockingly great that plenty of people would not even dare to PK with us… Isn’t the development of our guild going to be way too easy at this rate?”