Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Proud Sovereign appeared to be rather calm and composed, but he was very much unnerved deep down. The players here had been camping up on this mountaintop just busy throwing down rocks and tossing the logs. The whole lot of them were complete noobs aside from Proud Sovereign, and as the one in charge of this task, he had originally been delighted, thinking that there was absolutely no risk taking charge of this, but who would have guessed that Gu Fei would directly climb up and find him. With this bunch of noobs that barely had any combat strength, facing against the most indomitable PK-er in Parallel World, Proud Sovereign wondered if he should just jump off the mountain cliff and call it quits…

He was watching Gu Fei’s movement even as he was wildly firing off messages, calling for rescue. But no matter how quick the people below were, they could not be any faster than the time it took for Gu Fei to take the several steps needed to close in on them. Instead, it was one of the noobs who demonstrated bravery, suddenly giving out a roar as he pounced on Thousand Miles Drunk, his stance looking like he was prepared to tackle Gu Fei off the ledge and suicide together.

Gu Fei rather admired the fearless mentality that man had shown, but knowing what was at stake, Gu Fei had no choice but to only grant half of his wish, turning his body sideways to avoid the man as his leg poked out, while his hand shot out and delivered a blow to that noob on his back. Unable to hold back his inertia, the man staggered magnificently forward all the way off the mountain, his scream could be heard while he plummeted all the way down until they could hear the dull thud of something heavy connecting with the ground. Everyone who heard this could feel their own hearts tremble, while Gu Fei did a quick glance at his PK value and felt tremendously gratified. He did not earn a single PK point killing players in such a manner.

Young Master Han and the others standing on the mountain path heard the screaming followed by the dull thud and suddenly understood what was going on! Gu Fei had actually managed to mount an assault up on the mountain. Despite none of them knowing how Gu Fei had done so, things had turned out the way Gu Fei had managed; they were finally able to fan out in formation and begin their charge!

They had been trapped here, which was the reason why Remarkable Flair Workshop had been able to badger Gu Fei. That was their key goal, only leaving behind players with ranged job classes to form up a few rows and slowly advance. At the moment both parties had received the message at the same time, Young Master Han’s brain worked out the details much faster. He immediately thought about how the enemy would instantly block the path again if they do not use this opportunity to dash out, so he raised his arm and yelled out, “ATTACK!”

Dusky Cloud and his men were hugging the wall and had been toyed with by the enemy’s ranged players this entire time, so the anger that was welling inside them was already substantial, letting loose a battle cry as they all went dashing out for the kill. This charge of theirs was very effective, easily tearing right through the bit of defense Remarkable Flair had in place for the ranged players. Dusky Cloud and his men wanted to begin their massacre, but Young Master Han had urgently shouted from behind them, “Don’t lose yourself to the bloodlust. Charge down the mountain path first and we can discuss everything else later!”

All of them came to their senses when they heard this, continuing the fight here with all their enemies would only give them more time to reorganize themselves and block off the path anew, and that would change nothing from their present situation.

“Follow me and charge!” Dusky Cloud bellowed, no longer caring if the complete team was present or otherwise, as he joined the players with fast movement speed to try and make a breakthrough. And it looked as if they were cutting it close too. Just as they had expected, the enemy was indeed mobilizing their own troops to circle over to the mountain pass entrance in an effort to better seal it.

However, Dusky Cloud and his men had already made their way down the mountain path, and in their confidence, surged upon reaching the open plains, already making the decision in their hearts that they would not back an inch even if death threatened them. Nobody knew if they would have another chance to snatch back their position if they were to lose these grounds once more.

With both parties exchanging fire in earnest, the battle was finally in full swing as Dusky Cloud and his men mustered all their strength to sally forward while the rest of their forces continued to hurry and follow up behind them. The mountain pass entrance was choked. At least half of their people had managed to get down the mountain path and were starting to get into formation and engage in combat with the enemy down on the open plains.

They were fewer in numbers, but they won in terms of their standards. Meanwhile, the enemy was unable to effectively use their army’s total combat strength all at once, since they had to divert a significant portion of their men over to ascend the mountain and hunt down Gu Fei.

Screams could still be heard constantly coming from the top of the mountain. Looking toward the source of the noise, players could be seen falling off the edge of the cliff repeatedly, turning into a flash of white light the moment they touched the ground, it was all in all a fairly tragic sight to behold. Everyone mentally noted Gu Fei’s ruthlessness, though the man himself actually thought otherwise. This was nothing but a game, so it was all the same if people ended up getting cut down or falling to their deaths. What was there to feel tragic about? Getting them off the mountain in such a manner did not expend his mana or incur any PK points, and Gu Fei felt he was becoming more and more like a professional gamer for being able to make such a mature decision.

And what of Proud Sovereign? That man was already long gone. He had originally intended to keep talking to Gu Fei so as to drag things out, but would Gu Fei be that big a fool to do something like that? After slapping the first noob off the mountain, he had immediately dashed toward Proud Sovereign. Proud Sovereign was a veteran expert himself, so throwing the man down the edge would be a little more difficult. Gu Fei had no choice but to bear the pain of another PK point and slew Proud Sovereign right where he stood.

The other noobs had not yet given up either, each of them was also trying their best to grab Gu Fei and make the ultimate sacrifice. Gu Fei gave them all the chance, intentionally standing by the edge of the mountain completely exposed. These noobs were fearless, lining themselves up in a single row with the intention of shoving Gu Fei right over the cliff. But right as they were about to knock right into him, Gu Fei Blinked past and reappeared right behind them and threw out a series of quick kicks, booting every single one in that line of noobs all off the cliff. This was a particularly tragic scene that the people down the mountain did not even dare to open their eyes and look when it happened.

The noobs on the mountain already knew that there was no way that they would be able to deal with the opponent right in front of them, even if they tried to brute force it. They were not afraid to sacrifice their own lives, but if the sacrifice was for naught, respawning back at their respective spawn points would just mean that they have to make the trek back out here again, so why bother? As such, they too began fleeing as far as they could to hide from Thousand Miles Drunk.

Gu Fei was not in a rush to hunt these men down either, walking over to the other side of the mountain and looked down, spotting Dusky Cloud and his men already plowing halfway down the mountain path. Any falling rocks would still pose a slight threat to them at this time, so he figured it was best if he stayed around and guarded this spot a bit longer. Thus, he sent a message to Young Master Han, “Are you guys able to hang in there?”

“We shouldn’t have any problems for this part here, but there’s another batch coming over there,” Young Master Han replied.

Gu Fei was able to see far into the distance since he was holding such a high vantage point. Besides, he had already spotted that batch of players as well, and they had covered quite a bit of ground since he last saw them. They would soon be upon them in a blink of an eye.

“G*dd*mm*t, where are you guys? Why has not one of you guys turned up after all this time?!?!” Dusky Cloud was also barking furiously in his guild channel.

“Boss, we need time to gather the manpower too!” What the man said was not a lie; players would all be busy with their own things when there was nothing going on. Be it grinding out in the wilds, shuttling about doing quests, farming in-game currency, leveling their profession skills, chasing skirts, or just drinking in taverns… Players could get up to all sorts of business in Parallel World, so it was of course impossible for them to just hang out in one spot. Such a last minute call to arms would most definitely require time.

“F*ck off!! It’s not like I’m asking you to muster all 4000 men. Quick send over whomever you’ve managed to muster!” Dusky Cloud was infuriated.

“Coming…” Though they said they were coming, would they be able to make it in time? The enemy’s reinforcement was about to reach them very soon, and not everyone had made it down the mountain path yet!

“Over here!!!” Gu Fei suddenly heard a racket behind him as he stood by the mountainside. Turning around, he saw that it was the enemy’s reinforcement that had made the trek up the mountain, and they were all gleeful when they saw Gu Fei standing right on the precipice. These players were not noobs, so they had plenty of methods up their sleeves. Now that Gu Fei was standing in such a precarious spot, was he not just being suicidal?

“Surround him!” The leader of this squad gave the order, as players began to fan out.

Gu Fei swept his glance right by them, “Surround? What are you even talking about.” And with that, he somersaulted backward off the edge.

“What the f*ck?” Everyone was stunned. What just happened? Did Thousand Miles Drunk just end his life without even putting up a fight? That did not sound like Thousand Miles Drunk’s style at all!

“Could there be a rope? Quick, sever the rope!” Someone shouted this as he bolted forward. Taking a look down, he saw that Gu Fei was already at the bottom of the mountain, slaughtering folks left, right, and center. When the slayer arrived, the position that Remarkable Flair workshop had right by the mountain pass entrance immediately fell. The enemy’s forces instantaneously all ran down the mountain path, defeating whoever stood in their way under Gu Fei’s lead.

Those players still up on the mountaintop sent a message to ask, and they ended up throwing their weapons to the ground in their frustration when they learned what happened. “F*ck me, that guy Blinked!!”

The players down below very clearly witnessed Gu Fei leap off the mountain, and at the moment before he hit the ground, he cast his Blink, using the spell to survive that fall without any injury whatsoever.

They already had problems holding back Dusky Cloud and the others, not to mention now that they had an additional Thousand Miles Drunk to deal with. The whole lot of them very rapidly broke through the human barrier as they turned around and continued to fight to their hearts’ desire, clearing out each and every player they could lay their eyes on.

The casualties they suffered were still pretty heavy though. Close to 100 players had been killed from the two times with the rocks and logs before, and it was also impossible for nobody to get hurt in the ensuing battle. Almost half of the 198 comrades that Dusky Cloud had brought along for this were killed, while quite a good number of the men from Forever In Flowers had died as well. Proportionally speaking, it was the ladies of Amethyst Rebirth that had the least losses. Dusky Cloud and his men were rather manly in this respect, taking care of the ladies since they knew of their standard, protecting the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth even in the chaotic fight they got in. There was even less of a need to mention the men from Forever In Flowers, with some even pushing the ladies aside and sacrificing themselves in the process when the rocks and logs were raining from up above. Of course, there was also an incident where one of the men had made a mistake reading the trajectory of the incoming rocks and ultimately ended up pushing said lady into the path of the rock instead. After being universally condemned for his action, he attempted to redeem himself by making a brazen sacrifice during the battle later.

“Hold on just a bit more, everyone. Our men are about to arrive!” Dusky Cloud encouraged everyone. However, he did not expect everyone to still be able to persevere, and instead, it was their enemy who retreated, not even getting caught up with the battle as they turned tail and retreated toward the mountains.

“Hmm?” They were all astounded. Even though it was obvious that the men from Remarkable Flair had lost the current battle, their reinforcements were just about to arrive, and there were those players that had gone up the mountain before that would be joining in the fight very soon. The best strategy for them would evidently be holding on and dragging things out for as long as possible, waiting for their reinforcements to surround and annihilate everyone altogether. By turning tail and retreating at this time, would they not be letting Gu Fei and everyone go free?

Young Master Han furrowed his brow and gazed out at the men that were getting closer by the second, “Could those guys not be their reinforcement?”

“But they aren’t my men either!” Dusky Cloud said.

“Could they be passersby?” Everyone was dumbfounded. They had been very anxious over these additional troops that looked to be joining the fight, but they turned out to be just a bunch of passersby? Yet from the direction they were heading, there was without a doubt that they had come from Yueye City, going in the direction to Yunduan City. It was rare to see such a big group of players rushing toward another city, so everyone reckoned they might be doing a guild quest of some sort.

“Looks like the men from Remarkable Flair thought they were our reinforcements,” Young Master Han commented.

“We were fighting men from Remarkable Flair?” Dusky Cloud was shocked.

“Yes, the players who were impeding our advancement here were men from Remarkable Flair. Don’t tell me you thought that they were from the guilds of Yunduan City who had managed to set up an ambush for us beforehand?” Young Master Han said.

“They are from Remarkable Flair, alright. I met Proud Sovereign when I was up on that mountain,” Gu Fei added.

Dusky Cloud and his comrades were of course familiar with the name. He was the Arrogant Spawn that was from the organization in Yueye City that was currently putting up the strongest resistance against their Ten Guild Alliance!

“Arrogant Spawn is from Remarkable Flair as well?” Dusky Cloud had not known about this fact.

“Yup. Furthermore, he is the one in charge of his workshop here in Yueye City. Here, take a look at his name card,” Gu Fei had kept Proud Sovereign’s name card which caused the man quite a bit of a heartache. It was still inside his dimensional pocket right now!

“That b*st*rd was actually someone from a workshop!” Dusky Cloud nodded his head repeatedly. “That makes things a lot clearer. Come, spread the word. PK everywhere that Remarkable Flair has a foothold in.”

“That’s not good, is it?” Dusky Cloud’s comrade voiced his concern. “There’s quite a lot of our men from the Ten Guild Alliance that also have their hands in the pockets of Remarkable Flair.”

“G*dd*mm*t, it’s not like they are the only workshop around. Those who enjoy working can just contact other workshops. Anyone who stands on the side of Remarkable Flair can scram!” Dusky Cloud raged.