Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

The 10,000 players or so were currently in a state of uproar as they stood in front of Sword Demon and the others. It was already no longer an encirclement but more like they were directly receiving a lecture. Several of the spokespersons that Sword Demon had looked for had stood out, yet they were all looking at one another, not one with any idea what to do, as more and more players stepped out. Sword Demon could tell that there might not be a single large guild here out of these people here, and there might even be more guilds here than the number of members present in Extremely Heaven Defying.

“Looks like all of you would need some time before you come to a decision. In that case, let us take our leave first. We would gladly clash again in the future if an opportunity arises,” When Sword Demon saw that the other representatives were unable to come to a decision after quite some time has passed, he decided against waiting for them any longer, saying his line before leading his men to leave.

All those players could only stare in bewilderment as this happened, and not a single one of them made any suggestions, nor did any of them tried to take the lead and become an example. They merely stared blankly as the players from Extremely Heaven Defying departed without much of a fuss.

“Hahahahahaha, cool, that was too cool!!!” Everyone in Extremely Heaven Defying’s guild channel was already cheering and celebrating at this moment. Today’s battle was a complete shock, yet the risk of danger was absent. In the beginning, they had all made the mental preparation that they might end up losing their lives, but how would they have known that the enemy would be so weak that they could so easily defeat them despite their disadvantage in terms of numbers. No matter how terrible they were, it was truly something worth being proud of to have been able to stand firm despite going up against over 10,000 players despite only having just around 100 players themselves.

“We are invincible! Yeah!!!” Such cries were commonly repeated over the guild. Even though Sword Demon felt that claiming to be ‘invincible’ was a tad bit of an exaggeration, he did not endeavor to be the wet blanket seeing just how exuberant everyone was, emotionally speaking. Being the considerate person that he was, he figured that there would be no harm in letting everyone continue to enjoy this night of enjoyment.

“This must surely be the big gift some hero had sent us upon seeing Extremely Heaven Defying’s successful merger, as part of our joyous celebration?” Someone jokingly made such a comment over the channel, though it was unknown when all the experts had gathered together at this time, and Young Master Han was also posing this question so everyone could contemplate this situation.

“It’s very obvious that these enemies had been cobbled together at the last minute, but isn’t it a little strange how they had been gathered together like this? So many guilds could not have possibly come up with the idea to ruin our night party all at the same time, coming together and perfectly form up an encirclement like this, right? At the end of the day, someone must have come up with this plan to surround us, and then there must also be someone who went through the process of organizing everyone. In doing so, surely they must have established a few guilds to be core, right? And these core guild leaders would of course possess the most charismatic and eloquent commanders. But those guys? Why were none of them just that?” Young Master Han wondered.

“Why?” Brother Assist very obediently asked. Anyone who attempted to answer Young Master Han’s query would only receive a look of contempt. Young Master Han was never the sort to ask a question, but the one who sets them. So of course, he would most definitely have the answer to the question he asked.

“There must surely be a group of people who had instigated them, provoked them into action. And these men are still hiding even till now, not springing their true plan yet,” Young Master Han said.

“Then who could it be? Fleeting Smile?” He was the first name that popped up in Gu Fei’s name, someone who had spared no effort in trying to go against him.

“It shouldn’t be him,” Young Master Han continued to say. “I’ve already said they must be a group of people. No one man would be able to incite so many guilds in one go like this, as that would mean that he would have to visit plenty of guilds to achieve this. Based on that, I suspect this is the work of an organization, capable of sending their men everywhere, provoking so many players altogether to assault us in this manner.”

“If we’re talking about a whole bunch of people, could this be a workshop’s handiwork?” Gu Fei involuntarily turned his gaze to Deep Waters even as he said this. He had originally thought that Deep Waters would immediately leap out and begin to elaborate on just how shameless and despicable workshops were, but he did not expect Deep Waters to actually calmly state, “Workshops would always prioritize their profits when doing things. It doesn’t matter whether what’s happening is a plan that has been set into motion or a follow-up plan, there just doesn’t seem to be any economic benefits to reap. That’s right, a certain someone seems to have just said that the enemy might still have a real scheme, so I wonder just what exactly would this real scheme be?” Deep Waters was eyeing Young Master Han with such contempt and disdain as he responded to his assumption.

“We did not lose anything in this fight, but we did gain something else instead,” Young Master Han said.

“Gained something?” Brother Assist was muttering. “Could you mean the pride and excitement we are all feeling right now?”

Young Master Han rolled his eyes and looked at Gu Fei, “How many you got?”

“Do you mean my PK Value?” Gu Fei was very astute when it came to such things.

“That’s right!” Young Master Han nodded. “Throwing a messy horde of noobs to surround us, it is only natural we end up gaining PK points as a result. Furthermore, I’m sure it is not just a small number either. Miles, how much do you have right now?”

“I…. have 78…” Gu Fei answered.

Everyone instantly sucked in a cold breath. Royal God Call was already anxiously looking in every direction, “Are the city guards coming to apprehend you? Or would a single bolt of lightning come straight from the heavens and strike you to death?”

“I think the city guards would only hunt you down if you are within the limits of a city,” Gu Fei said. “As for being struck by lightning, I can call one to insta-kill you.”

“Okay, let’s not mess around. I’ve got PK points on me as well.” Royal God Call hurriedly backed away.

Everyone immediately sunk into a state of silence after this was said. The PK Value issue at hand was indeed a very serious problem. With this, dying would mean losing 2 levels, and that is for players who had a PK Value of 10 and under. For those who reached 30 points, a single death meant losing 5 levels, and as for 78 PK points… The system did not continue to give an example to explain, so it was unknown if there would be no change for offenders that had a PK Value that went well above 30. Otherwise, if they followed the rule of an additional level with every 10 levels, a player with PK Value of 78 would approximately lose 9 levels upon death.

9 levels… Everyone turned to look at Gu Fei, but very quickly had a different thought in mind. Even if he loses 9 levels in one go, was there anyone out there who could kill him?

Putting aside the matter with Gu Fei’s PK Value, everyone had begun to check their PK Values by this time. During this fight against a weaker enemy, the teams had killed whomever they came across wherever they went, and each and everyone had let loose their attacks without any care for restraint. Aside from the Priests, practically everybody had killed someone in the skirmish, while Mages and other such job classes that possessed spells and skills that dealt AoE damage naturally acted unchecked. Drifting had quite expressionlessly said with a hollow voice, “F*ck me. I got 29 PK points, just shy of 30. Seems like I’ve yet to adjust my mentality with regards to my role during the City Wars event.”

Killing players during the event did not result in players earning any PK points, which was why the players who had participated in the City War were acting so tyrannically in this instance. It had barely been a day and they ended up clashing in PK again. It was like everyone had completely forgotten to consider the matter of PK Value altogether.

Drifting was the other player aside from Gu Fei who had such a high PK Value. The majority of the PK Value others reported were under 10, and those who did go past the 10 point threshold were not Mages, but indomitable players like Sword Demon. It was only after they made a tally of their total PK Value did they realize that they had actually killed quite a lot of their enemy in that one battle, which explained why the over 10,000 players did not dare to act rashly when Extremely Heaven Defying and everyone else made to leave.

Furthermore, it was only through this count of everyone’s PK Value did they realize just how out of control they had acted in that battle. Most people would of course not have the guts to compare their kills with a maniac like Gu Fei, but when they competed with one another, those who had killed 10 or more players were a little more proud of themselves than those who killed 9. The guild channel had instantly begun a PK Value competition, and the Priests all felt very left out since none of them could even join in.

“Alright everyone, let’s organize ourselves and head on back to grab Bounty Missions to clear our PK points!” Sword Demon declared.

“I’m afraid it won’t be that easy,” Young Master Han spoke up.

That was when everyone’s hearts skipped a beat. They recalled the question Young Master Han had asked from before that very clearly pointed out that there must have been an unknown party of players who had rallied the mob; there was a huge possibility that their plan was to intentionally cause them to earn PK points, and of course, that meant their goal would be to make it that much easier for them to effectively hunt them down and scavenge their equipment when they were dropped. Southern Lone Blade and his squad were the most experienced when it came to that last point.

“We need to move out, quickly!” Sword Demon gave the order to the whole guild.

“Where would we go?” Everyone asked.

“We couldn’t just keep hiding out here in the wilderness either. I suggest we pick a neighboring city and cleanse our PK points before heading back to Yunduan City,” Brother Assist suggested.

Everybody found this idea to be a lot more agreeable and nodded their heads in approval. Thus, the whole lot of them immediately headed in the direction of Oolong Mountain Ridge. Young Master Han had been holding onto the spyglass the entire time as he kept an eye on their surroundings the entire time this conversation was happening, and it was at that moment when his expression changed, “I’m afraid it’s already too late.”

“What is it?” Sword Demon took the spyglass from Young Master Han’s hands and looked all around them. His expression changed as well.

They had been surrounded. It was another encirclement. It looked to be just the same as what they had seen the last time, but everyone was certain that the fight this time would not be as simple as the battle they had just fought with the unorganized mob, who had been intentionally sent to make them gain PK points. This was a premeditated scheme by the other party, which meant that they had a very clear idea of Extremely Heaven Defying’s strength. A PK fight was one thing, but PK Value would not affect a player’s combat strength. At this moment, for these players to have the courage to employ such an encirclement, that would naturally mean that they had the confidence to defeat all these experts.

“Their numbers are even greater than the last time,” Young Master Han concluded after looking at the mob that was descending upon them in the distance.

The various teams present were all completely quiet.

Now that everything had progressed to this point, there were already no other options left for them.

“LET’S GO ALL OUT!!!” There were already members in the guild who were bellowing this without even needing Sword Demon to give them a speech of encouragement.

“That’s right! LET’S STAKE OUR LIVES ON THIS ATTACK! Losing 2 levels isn’t a big deal!!”

“G*dd*mm*t, you’ll lose 2 levels, but yours truly will drop by 3 levels dying here!”

“So what if you’re losing 3 levels. I’m only level 40 now, so losing 2 levels means I’ll become level 38. That means I will have to re-do my job class advancement and everything!”

“No sh*t. It’s not like I won’t be dropping below level 40 as well if I lose 3 levels now…”

Almost instantaneously, players were bickering over the guild channel, and that was when Sword Demon very disappointingly realized that something like a guild’s cohesion isn’t something that could be formed in a day or two. A single bonfire night party and a victorious PK battle were essentially nothing; both situations could help cultivate fair-weathered friends that would gladly share the goods, but these people would begin to shrink away when trouble came knocking.

“Everyone, stop fighting,” Sword Demon roared.

The crowd finally settled down after their guild leader shouted.

“What more can we say at this point? It’s still the same words I’ve said before. Our enemies are hell-bent on vanquishing us, but we couldn’t possibly just roll over and die. Losing levels? Everyone will be losing their levels. My PK Value is now 21, I’ll be losing 4 levels once I’m killed! But let’s not get flustered. We can all still grind our levels back if they are lost. As long as we don’t give up, we’ll always get back our level in the end. Our defeat here is all but confirmed today, so everyone make sure to identify our opponents here. There will be a day when it’ll be their turn to taste defeat,” Sword Demon said.

“Well said!!” Brother Assist was beside him cheering and applauding loudly. Except this time, the response that echoed in agreement was sparse. Furthermore, these players did not bother to ingratiate any further when they saw there was hardly anyone that joined in.

Are we really doomed? Sword Demon muttered to himself.