Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Yunduan City began to be filled with masked men, staring at any black robed Mage the moment they spotted any of them walking around. However, they did not dare to get close either even though they were unable to tell if the player was who they were looking for from afar. All of them were very conflicted about this, having to cognizantly accept that they might find themselves slain in the end when they anxiously brush past these targets as if they were passersby.

Each and every one of the players that they brushed past ended up not being Thousand Miles Drunk. There were not a lot of players in Yunduan City that would be dressed in black robes, and there were plenty of black robed Mages that had their shoulders bumped into several times that day. This 1000-player search that they had mobilized was very significant, yet they had not found a single thing after checking through every possible nook and cranny inside the city. But they were very uncertain about the six city Precincts that belonged to Extremely Heaven Defying. The various guilds that were rewarded with the city Precincts for the event had already revealed that the city would gift the guild in charge of each of the Precincts a residence of their own, which meant that Extremely Heaven Defying possessed six completely safe hiding place; as long as the owner chose not to open the door, nobody outside could enter the place, dead or alive. It was said that a cunning rabbit would have three dens; Extremely Heaven Defying actually had 6 separate locations, and that was really far too infuriating.

What made it even more depressing was that Extremely Heaven Defying had just gotten this reward as well, and while the residences were in their ownership, they had not hung up signs for these places yet. As such, none of the guild leaders were aware just where these places were located, and even the guild members themselves temporarily had no idea where they could be.

What could they do if they were hiding him in one of these residences?

The player who posed this question got death-stared by everyone. What could they do? There was essentially nothing the coalition of guilds could do. They had no idea where the residences were, and it was impossible for them to physically keep an eye on all six city Precincts. In the end, the best that they could do was leave two to three players on every street and get them to report if they discovered any suspicious movement. This also used plenty of their manpower given how huge the cities were in Parallel World, and with how the streets and alleys crisscrossed and merged. Even the native players from Yunduan City ended up attending a geography lesson after this arrangement, discovering plenty of alleys and lanes within the six Precincts that they had no idea existed before.

“From what we’ve learned of the current situation, they might either be hiding indoors or maybe they have left the city altogether.”

“It would be fine if they aren’t inside the city. They are probably grinding if they are outside the city, and it would be fine just sending our men to sift through the handful of grinding maps that they could be in.”

“Send them then!”

“Head on out!”

The 1000-player search party stepped outside the city. While the area outside the city was even bigger than inside, it was a lot easier to find people than inside the city. This was all because there was a lack of a single destination in the city, and nobody knew which corner they would end up hiding in. In the event they were outside the city, players would most likely be grinding, and the grinding maps were all designated accordingly, so a good search through these places would most likely end up uncovering something. If they were not grinding and were purely doing what they did to hide… There was really nothing much they could do, aside from cursing them for their shamelessness.

The level 50 grinding maps in Yunduan City were not particularly populated; after all, there were not many players who were capable of fighting monsters that were 10 levels above their own. Gu Fei and the party he had brought over was considered to be the most prominent group out there in terms of their numbers. Aside from times when a guild commandeers the entire map, there would rarely ever be a scene where hundreds of players would be gathered to grind levels, and none of them were avoiding the gaze from all the other players grinding there. Thousand Miles Drunk, all the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth and the reprehensible lads from Forever In Flowers that were ever-lurking. They were all very distinctive characters here in Yunduan City, and players who were able to take on monsters 10 levels above their own were not those who would not be able to recognize these people.

“Guild Leader, we’ve caught sight of Thousand Miles Drunk and the others out in the level 50 map, Yunfeng Forest,” someone secretly messaged.

“Oh? How carefree of them!” The player who received this message was none other than Carouse’s Brave Surge. It was only natural for most of the experts in Yunduan City to hail from the various large guilds, as basically only players that belonged to a guild were able to grind their levels out in level 50 maps. Presently, Brave Surge was not the only one who had received this news, and even Oathless Sword had someone keeping him updated on this. Instead, it was Black Index Finger and his men who had all their experts participating in this conflict that had nobody out there in the grinding maps.

“They achieved quite an impressive victory over by the Archer Range. They had practically no losses while wiping out all their enemies there,” Folding Fan Invader was standing right next to Brave Surge when he made this comment.

“I’m not in the least bit surprised that a two-bit rabble would face such utter defeat once there are experts lending a hand,” Brave Surge was still rather calm.

“Those experts might be from The Ten Guild Alliance,” Folding Fan Invader added.

“Indeed. Aside from us, I can’t think of anyone else who could provide such powerful assistance to Thousand Miles Drunk and his bunch,” Brave Surge nodded.

“But aren’t the Ten Guild Alliance rumored to have over 4000 players under their banner?” Folding Fan Invader wondered out loud.

“This is a guild struggle here in Yunduan City, there would hardly be any benefit to the players of Yunye City, so they had come all this way to lend a hand sheerly out of the friendship they shared. Only friends who make the trip, and not coming over would be the right choice for those who are not friends with Thousand Miles Drunk.” Brave Surge truly lived up to his status as a guild leader, able to deeply understand the difficulties of being a guild leader in an MMO.

“But I see they only number around 200 players at most. I’m afraid that won’t be of much help, right?” Folding Fan Invader said.

“That would depend on how they are utilized. Why isn’t Young Master Han online? Where did that guy run off to?” Brave Surge had Young Master Han on his friend’s list, so he was slightly shocked to find that the man was actually offline right now.

“Oh, he has most likely gone off to get in touch with the people who are in Jail. It looks like those guys are in for a rough time,” Brave Surge laughed mirthlessly.

“What about us?” Folding Fan Invader asked. Their guild leader had been very interested in the struggle between both parties, and as someone who had a good grasp of Brave Surge’s character, he had also expected their guild would choose the right time to butt in.

“We’ll watch the skirmish that breaks out from this round first. Tell those people out in the grinding maps to keep their eye on things,” Brave Surge said.

———————————————-

Everyone was still leveling over by the grinding maps outside the city, but as time went by, Dusky Cloud became more and more vigilant, having already deduced that the other party would definitely not wish to be so passive and that they must have sent men out to search for their whereabouts. Honestly speaking, he did not really think it was a good idea to come out and grind like this, as doing so in such a huge group would make them that much easier to find. However, the efficient monster grinding routine was very alluring, and even though this was not in their own city, he did not wish to miss out on learning this just once; life was truly filled with contradictions.

“It’s about time we leave,” Dusky Cloud felt that the enemy should have more or less found them and finally said this to Gu Fei.

“Oh?”

“They should be searching for our whereabouts, and the whole lot of us gathered together make it rather eye-catching. Perhaps we’ve already been discovered, and they are now mustering their manpower to strike,” Dusky Cloud explained.

“That makes sense,” Gu Fei nodded. That was when he heard the system prompt ring and saw that Young Master Han had logged on once more. A message was swiftly sent over, “So, have you been attacked yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Man, the enemy sure is slow!” Young Master Han exclaimed.

“What are we gonna do now? Change the place we’re grinding?” Gu Fei asked.

“Why don’t you just change the city while you’re at it?” Young Master Han suggested.

“That’s so extravagant!” Gu Fei cried.

“That’s right, we must definitely toy with them till they are ruined,” Young Master Han expressed.

“How long are you letting Sword Demon and the others get online after?” Gu Fei asked.

“They won’t be getting online if I don’t send a message to them…” Young Master Han drawled.

How ruthless! To actually go for an unknown period of time; this time Black Index Finger and his men were sure to be in for a tough time.

“Let’s head on over to Yueye City first!” Young Master Han decided.

Gu Fei agreed with his decision as well, turning over to Dusky Cloud, “Why don’t we head on over to your city first?”

“Oh? Are we going to play the long game? Take the time to fully recuperate ourselves before striking hard at the enemy when they are tired? Gonna properly toy with those milksops till they are better off dead?” Dusky Cloud was also rather well-versed in such strategies and had very quickly understood what was going on.

“Yup,” Gu Fei nodded.

“Let’s go,” Dusky Cloud was straightforward. Sending a message out, the nearly 200 comrades of his began to move out. At the same time, they were keeping an eye on their surroundings. This time, they would be paying attention when they saw anyone throwing more than a few glances their way.

“Do we kill them or not?” Dusky Cloud pointed to some players that had been watching all of them as he asked Gu Fei, “Those cowards have been looking at us, and I don’t think their intentions are anything good.”

Gu Fei briefly looked over them and recognized Carouse’s guild emblem on their chest, so he smiled, “There’s no need for that. Let’s be on our way!”

Dusky Cloud and the others were already on the road while Gu Fei went over to speak to both Amethyst Rebirth and Sakurazaka Moony and his men from Forever In Flowers. Neither guild had any objection to moving out to Yueye CIty, and Gu Fei had even clearly mentioned to the ladies that it would be best if the ladies did not return to Yunduan City before this matter got resolved. Everyone knew that their connection with Gu Fei was anything but superficial, and with how weak most of them were, they would indirectly become Gu Fei’s weakness and that would only prove to complicate things further if they find themselves becoming used to coerce Gu Fei.

These ladies had always been very upfront about their own weakness and very empathetically agreed to avoid Yunduan City and travel to other cities for the time being. However, the mention of traveling to other cities got them all excited. Having previously followed Traversing Four Seas on their guild quest, there were many ladies from Amethyst Rebirth who did not dare to travel across the wooden bridges found in Oolong Mountain Ridge before and backed out from the expedition entirely. After hearing the other ladies describe the scenery in Linyin City, Linshui City as well as all the other cities they passed, all of them found it to be very interesting. Even later, they had also heard Slyris talk about the heavy fog that hung around Xiawu City and felt that it would be worth the trip. As a result, this journey out of Yunduan City became a discussion over where their final destination would be, with even some going so far as to suggest visiting all the cities once over. Gu Fei deeply felt that it was possible that Amethyst Rebirth might not ever return to Yunduan City.

“They’re leaving!!”

The players who were participating in this conflict, and those who were not, had all received such a message. Black Index Finger and his men were all flustered when they learned this, quickly asking which direction they were headed. Conversely, Brave Surge and the others were just onlookers hoping for this matter to escalate further. These men simply continued to calmly drink their tea and waited for the continuation of this situation.

“The direction they are going… It seems like they are going to leave Yunduan City!!” This news was also sent out to everyone concerned. Brave Surge and his men were elated hearing this, knowing just how severe a problem it would be if they were to leave the city. Black Index Finger and his men were extremely anxious by this point. They must send out a company of speedsters to try and waylay them.

The speedsters were of course Thieves and Archers, as well as other players who had carelessly added their stats. At the moment, these players shared the grim expression like they were a part of a death squad, dashing away with their somber faces.

“How many of them?” Black Index Finger asked his underling in charge of the numbers.

“Over 1000, give or take!” It was impossible to get an accurate account since they still had to leave behind players in the various spawn points, the Jail, the Bounty Assignment Hall, and all the other random locations. And disregarding all the babylegged job classes, that player in charge of the numbers added another line after giving that rough calculation, “It should not be more than 2000.”

2000 against 300… This should have been, without a doubt, utter annihilation, yet each and every one of these men was completely afraid as they had no idea how this would pan out. Just a careful instruction about the necessity to intercept them and stall for time. None of them had actually believed they would be able to completely vanquish the enemy despite having the numerical superiority.

If the leaders had no faith, there was no need to even mention the average player below. Chasing after them the whole way through, everyone actively shifted themselves to the back of the pack as they ran, fighting over the chance of not becoming the frontline troops in this engagement. This ended up making it seem like they were all retrograding, angering the guild leaders that were leading this interception. The guild leaders were of course very enthused, eagerly hoping to takedown Thousand Miles Drunk and Extremely Heaven Defying, obtaining the abundant reward thusly. Unfortunately, their own underlings did not have the same mentality as them; letting cowardice rule their minds during such a crucial moment.

“D*mm*t, what are you so afraid of? Just follow yours truly and charge! So what if we’re going up against Thousand Miles Drunk? Alone, that man could only kill a maximum of 30 players, and even if each and every one of them ends up killing 30 players each, they would g*dd*mn only kill 900 of us; we’ve still got another 1000 players! Otherwise, they can go and contend with the NPC guards if they have the guts to do so!” One of the guild leaders bellowed out angrily.

“Would the city guards even travel so far, all the way out here?” someone was skeptical.

The question here was too profound. Nobody had earned over 30 PK points aside from Thousand Miles Drunk…

Furthermore, this speech that the guild leader gave completely left the question unresolved. Actually, these players did not lack the confidence that they would be victorious, but it was that there would no doubt be many deaths even if they won. None of them wanted to be a casualty in this fight, which was why they were all shifting to the back of the procession. Just like the arithmetics that the guild leader had done before, if they were to really lose 900 players in this skirmish, none of them would of course want to be one of the 900 and would rather be among the 1000 that would survive. This of course meant that they needed to work hard to ensure their own survival, and they did so by heading to the back of the pack.

And so as these men continue to take turns shifting to the back of the pack, the entire procession advanced at a turtle’s crawl. The handful of guild leaders were so annoyed by this that they were hopping mad. There were only that many players that belonged to their guild, and the rest simply refused to listen to their command. At a complete loss, these guild leaders had no choice but to complain to the relevant leaders, causing all the guild leaders to become furious together, using the same words over their own guild channels to berate and lecture their guild members. Things took a turn for the better from then, and those players who were now at the head of the procession could only accept their ill fate and quickly try and devise a way to swiftly reduce the distance. At the moment, all of them were self-conscious enough to no longer shuffle themselves to the back, so this company of speedsters was finally picking up speed appropriately as they slowly gained on their target.

“Where are they?!” The company that was now advancing at a brisk pace was also shouting out loud boldly in order to bolster their own morale.

“D*mm*t, could there be a second route that leads to Yueye City?” The leader of this procession rapped someone’s head hard as he yelled this, and the whole lot of them stirred up a cloud of dust as they marched out toward Oolong Mountain Ridge.

“Any news from the scouts?” the leader asked the player in charge of the reconnaissance.

“We’ve confirmed that they headed toward Yueye City,” the scouts reported.

“What’s your present position?” the leader asked.

“We’ve begun our trek through Oolong Mountain Ridge,” the scouts said.

“Very good. We’ll be there shortly.”

The company of men was also not too far away from Oolong Mountain Ridge and when they hurried over, they could vaguely make out a troop of players hurrying along the mountain pass.

Since they were all here, nobody was breaking the chain any longer. Everyone started walking on the mountain pass as well, with the front row of Archers ready and in position, waiting to begin their attack once they got within range.

But this mountain path was not very wide, and they were unable to completely fan out and get an angle. This was quite similar to engaging in an alley fight inside a city; nobody would be able to gain any foothold between both parties once they began exchanging fire, and this made the Thieves among the speedsters feel like there did not seem to be any way for them to be utilized. Thus, this company of men began to have an animated discussion over whether the Thieves should first get close and use the Archers to provide cover fire after the melee fight broke out.

However, the Thieves were vehemently against employing such a strategy. They believed that given how many Archers they have on their side, directly using their superior firepower to suppress the enemy would be the better option, before using the Thieves to provide melee cover if the enemy did manage to make it to them.

In the end, the decision was to use the second strategy, with the front row of Archers getting to the maximum attack range and firing off their shot immediately, but the Archers behind were yelling, “Get even closer!”

The front row Archers were infuriated. Would they not be exposing themselves to Thousand Miles Drunk’s sword if they were to get even closer? As such, none of them bothered to comply with that request. Presently, the company of men was lined from the left to the right, allowing at most ten men to fill the row. Because the front row of players was not willing to continue advancing forward, there was no way for the players in the back row to engage in the skirmish if a fight were to break out, meaning their firepower was weakened to the point of being completely average. In order for the people in the back to attack, they ended up squeezing and shoving their way forward, but the front row refused to budge, cursing everyone behind even while the leader shouted from the side “standards, watch your standards” until someone suddenly exclaimed as the people around slowly backed off, cold sweat ran down everyone’s back. It turned out that someone had been too near the edge of the cliff while everyone was jostling for a better position and had accidentally fallen off. Fortunately, they had only just gotten up the slope, so the cliff fall off was not too deep. Everyone very quickly heard the sound of that man’s body hitting the ground and everyone poked their head over to look. Everyone was relieved to see a body sprawled down on the ground. There were no corpses in this game, so for there to be a body laying down on the ground there meant that at least the player had not died from the fall.

“Everyone, don’t be so disorderly, slow down! Maintain the assault and intersperse yourselves accordingly! We can still push in a little closer; we won’t have any problems keeping within the 30-40 meters range!” the leader took this moment when everyone had quietened down to shout this, as everyone finally calmed themselves down as well. Because they had let loose a messy jumble of attack just now, the other party did not retaliate but continued to hurry along. Seeing that they did not seem to demonstrate any intention of retaliating, these men had a bit more faith and listened to the orders they were given. They staggered their formation and picked up an interspersed position as they got close. Thus, the second wave of attack had almost a hundred Archers firing in unison. It was quite the sight to behold.

Looking over at the other party again, they could already see the Guardians lagging behind, their bodies glowing in white light constantly. It was apparent that their Priests were trying to save them as best as they could. The leader was delighted, as he continued to give out orders, “Release the arrows, fire them at will; Let’s see how much mana their Priests have!”

Hunting them down the entire way, the enemy tried to hold on just like this until the bitter end. Actually, they would have long been able to catch up to them if they focused on bringing their superior movement speed to bear. However, the state of affairs right now was stable and safe, so everyone was more than happy to maintain their pace this way. The almost 2000 men were pretty much all on the path leading through the mountain pass, but that was when they came to a halt. The Archers had no idea what that was about, and they stopped in their tracks as well but continued to fire their arrows. Their leader was quick-witted, raising his arm up and cried out, “Those guys are at their limit and are now about to risk their lives. Everyone, take care and vanquish them!”

Everyone immediately became alert when they heard this. The front row Archers were already in tears; if their enemies were to put their lives on the line and clash like this, these men were most likely going to die for sure. There was no chance for them to attempt and sneak to the back and avoid this fate any longer.

Unexpectedly, this was when a cry of exclamation from the players at the very end of the procession, and there were plenty of people who were shouting out loud in the party channel, “There’s an ambush!”

The handful of leaders in charge of the men had all happily rushed out to the front, so none of them had any idea what was happening behind. When they hurriedly asked, the answer was the three dreaded words, “Thousand Miles Drunk!”

Everyone had not even reacted when they suddenly heard an explosive sound above their head. All of them raised their heads up puzzled, and saw countless black shadows dropping down. All these shadows that had appeared in front of them in a blink of an eye were actually made by huge rocks and logs… Essentially, anything they found along these mountains that could be used to kill these players was all plummeting right for these players right now.

“F*ck me, what the heck is going on here?” They were all shocked. The narrow mountain path meant there was no way for them to dodge these incoming objects at all, and everyone tried their best to stick themselves flat on the face of the cliff. The players who were on the inside from the very beginning were lucky, rapidly snatching a good position that allowed them to avoid a good majority of these objects from smashing into them. But a sizable portion of these players was in quite a tragic state; it was unknown just how much damage these falling objects caused to the players, but it was apparent that anyone who was struck by any of them was killed. A trail of white light was left on this mountain path while the players ran helter-skelter, searching for a place to hide from everything. These people ended up running into each other in their chaotic confusion, and aside from those who were killed outright when the objects smashed into them, there were also those who were jostled and knocked off the cliff edge. The whole lot of them had already reached the middle of the mountain range by this point, and the fall from the cliff was so deep that no one could even make out the ground below. Death was the only outcome for any player that fell down…