Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

The task that Forever in Flowers had previously taken on was their specialty of harassment and teasing; this act required movement speed, and Vast Lushness was of course unsuitable for this as a Priest, so she had not joined them in their maneuver. But she knew that Gu Fei and the others were running into trouble, so before she left the bonfire night party, she had sent a message out to Blue Ease and called on him to help out.

While Dusky Cloud was still worrying about what most of his guild members would think, Vast Lushness did not bother to think too much about it. In her eyes, Thousand Miles Drunk was already one of their friends, and friends would of course be helping and supporting each other. Now that one of her friends was facing woes, it was only natural for her to take the initiative and do whatever she could to lend a hand.

As for Blue Ease and the others, just a word from Vast Lushness was all it took. There was no need for any further questions as he led his men out immediately. It was only that Baishi City was two cities away from Yunduan City, so they would obviously arrive much later, only for it to end up being perfectly timed to run into Gu Fei and the others here.

Gu Fei and Blue Ease both sent a message out to Vast Lushness, but the content of their messages was different. Gu Fei was confirming that Blue Ease was here to help, while Blue Ease did not have issues with coming to help Thousand Miles Drunk, but was instead asking why such a burden like Dusky Cloud would appear here.

Vast Lushness gave her answers accordingly; she answered in the affirmative to Gu Fei, and as for Dusky Cloud, Vast Lushness had also more or less guessed what transpired and knew that they were also here to assist Thousand Miles Drunk. If Blue Ease were to get into a row with Dusky Cloud, then she would have created more of a hassle than assistance for calling Blue Ease and his men over. As such, she very quickly reminded Blue Ease to keep his emotions in check, to first help her settle this matter and that it would not be too late for him to find an opportunity to make his move on Dusky Cloud afterward.

Gu Fei had very quickly gotten his reply, but seeing Blue Ease still having his head down there, he knew he was still having a conversation. However, Blue Ease soon lifted his head and turned to regard Dusky Cloud, “We’re dealing with proper business today, so I won’t fuss over the little things with you.”

“Tsk, yours truly ain’t afraid of you! See how I’m gonna deal with you once we’re done with our business here,” Dusky Cloud was also someone who understood the bigger picture, that for both parties to clash at this moment would only cause further complication to Thousand Miles Drunk. It was from this that it could be said that these men were the sort to prioritize their friendships.

“As long as you don’t run off when the time comes,” Blue Ease was still retorting!

“Whoever who runs would be an m*th*rf*ck*r,” Dusky Cloud slapped back.

“You’re still an m*th*rf*ck*r even if you stay.”

“I’ll f*ck*ng kill your dad!”

“My dad’s your ancestor!”

Both men were not going to be physically at each other’s throats, but they continued to fight with their words, swearing and cursing at each other unceasingly. And when they led their men respectively, both sides ended up flinging insults to each other as a whole. However, Dusky Cloud had suffered heavy casualties on his end, so there were only about 60 or so of his men left, incomparable to the nearly 300 players that Blue Ease had brought along, each of them still brimming with vigor, and it was evident that Dusky Cloud and his men were at the disadvantage just hearing from the difference in terms of the volume of their voices alone. The more Dusky Cloud scolded, the more he felt he was in an unfavorable situation, as a single sentence he uttered would see a retaliation five times that of his own. He was instantly dissatisfied with this, and slowly began to lose his cool once again, his hand already itching to draw his blade. That was when Gu Fei finally stepped out and forcefully pressed both men’s heads down, “Enough from the two of you. Stop fighting”

Gu Fei’s action here was rather effective, as the din on either side quieted down a little. Those who were still railing on each other suddenly saw Gu Fei reach for his sword, and that was enough to shut the dissenters up in a hurry.

“Why doesn’t everyone come together and find those guys hiding up the mountain and use them to vent your frustrations?” Gu Fei suggested.

“Oh? There are enemies up on the mountain?” Blue Ease had come from afar and had long since spotted the fight occurring by the mountain pass entrance, yet they had no idea that some of those involved were actually who they had come to aid, so they did not pay too much attention to things.

“Yup, there are still some up there,” Gu Fei answered.

“Let’s go!” Blue Ease waved his men out. “I could feel my anger rising after seeing a certain someone, so let’s all go and let loose our wrath!”

“Let’s go and vent!” One of Blue Ease’s compatriots tried to pump up the people present, echoing his sentiment loudly.

“I don’t think you’re there to release, but directly get extinguished by the enemy, yeah?” It was completely impossible for Dusky Cloud to just leave that comment alone without his retort.

“I think you’re the one who had been extinguished, no? Why are so few of you left? What happened to your 4000 men?” Blue Ease turned around and mocked him.

Dusky Cloud was about to give his response, and Gu Fei saw that there would be no end to this back and forth at this rate. Taking the lead in the charge, he swung his sword out, “Follow me and attack!!”

Dusky Cloud swallowed those words that he had on his tongue and followed Gu Fei up the mountain for the charge with his comrades. Blue Ease and his men were not about to falter behind either, and with a single motion of his arm, the speedsters from his party sprinted forward to snatch the lead. The PK had not even started, and they first had a race instead.

The troops of both men were yelling and swearing at each other as they ran with no order whatsoever, all of them holding themselves back as best as they could from actually duking things out for real, shoving and jostling with each other the entire way until they made it up to the mountaintop. The ladies and the men from Amethyst Rebirth and Forever In Flowers respectively were completely dumbfounded as they stared at the two groups of players, unclear as to what their relationship was.

The Oolong Mountain Range ran across Yunduan City and Yueye City. There was actually someone who had been bored enough to attempt and tested if it was possible for players to pass straight through the mountain ridge. As it turned out, this person made the discovery that there were indeed higher peaks and portions of the mountain ridge that players were unable to surmount, which was evidence that it was impossible for players to trek across them. The men from Remarkable Flair had made it up to the mountain, so unless they teleported themselves out, there was basically no other exit they could take to escape.

Gu Fei led all these men up the mountain, and they could still see traces of men from Remarkable Flair that were busy fleeing deeper into the mountain range, and all of them picked out one at random to give chase without saying another word. With such an indomitable PK-er like Gu Fei around, Dusky Cloud and the others with Agility-focused job classes had plenty of confidence. No matter if they ended up with Priest’s assistance or otherwise, all of them went their separate ways and pursued their prey. Some of them actually had movement speed that was superior to what Gu Fei possessed, but since Gu Fei was the general taking the lead right now, everyone had subconsciously followed his pace and were right behind him.

In the end, it was of course Gu Fei who became the first to reach the enemy, and those lagging behind were naturally the baby-legged job classes. These people had no intention of fighting either, as the enemy merely turned around and put up a casual resistance once Gu Fei caught up, all of them easily dispatched in a quick move or two.

“Marvelous!” Dusky Cloud praised. The man was utterly impressed at the dexterity and skill that Gu Fei demonstrated when killing these men.

“You guys should kill them too, unless you’re telling me that you would be more than happy for my PK Value to end up shooting past 200,” Gu Fei added another PK point to his stack, thinking to himself just how much of a headache it would be if he were to clear them all.

“Got it. We’ll get to killing!” Dusky Cloud had caught an enemy as he was saying this, finishing that player off. It was at that point when he felt as a look of contempt had swept past him, turning his head to look, he saw that Blue Ease and his troops had already killed 3 in one go.

“G*dd*mm*t, what are you idiots doing? Pull yourself together and get to killing!” Dusky Cloud urged his underlings.

However, Dusky Cloud and his comrades were already comparatively inferior in terms of their numbers. Given how Blue Ease and his men were all originally born from Yueye City and were all once considered to be experts as well, they had not have gotten any worse since their heyday, and their numerical superiority of course meant they could slay the enemies much faster than Dusky Cloud. Nevertheless, Blue Ease did not care to mention their advantage either, dropping their enemy like flies as they announced to everyone within earshot, “Hey, that’s another kill. I wonder how many that would be.” They were sending provocative looks toward Dusky Cloud even as they kept verbalizing their kill count for the people around them to hear.

Dusky Cloud was roaring his lungs out the entire time, but he simply did not have enough manpower. However, he was not able to conjure out men either, so all he could do was kill with greater ferocity. Blue Ease and his man held the upper hand in terms of their numbers, so they would most definitely suffer even greater disdain and scorn if they were to lose this unofficial competition between the two parties. As such, they did not dare to slack either. The players from both sides were no longer concerned with where Gu Fei was as they forged ahead with great effort, hunting, and killing their targets.

The men from Remarkable Flair were in great dismay; they had already discovered Blue Ease and his men, so they were of course aware that they were not their men. They had treated them to be the reinforcement from Dusky Cloud’s Ten Guild Alliance, not to mention the fact that their enemy had already managed to get away from the mountain path’s danger zone. Knowing they would not be able to defeat their enemy head on, nor were they able to flee since the newcomers would be able to intercept them, these people had no choice but to climb further up the mountain, heading deeper toward the unknown mountain ridge. All they could hope was for Gu Fei and everyone to lose their patience while pursuing them, ultimately allowing some to survive this encounter.

But who would have guessed just how ruthless these people all were, completely focused on killing them all. They had no idea where they had ended up here at this time, yet Gu Fei and everyone was still hot on their heels.

The final member from Remarkable Flair finally had nowhere else to go, finding himself surrounded by a handful of players who surrounded him and fought over the kill. These men were still exchanging insults even as they killed. “This guy’s ours.”

“B*ll f*ck*ng sh*t, I was the one who stabbed him first.”

“Lies. He was first struck by my arrow!”

“No, it was my dagger!”

“No, my arrow!!”

“Let’s ask him!!”

Hence, the whole lot of them showed mercy to that pitiful player from Remarkable Flair, lifting him off his feet and tossing him to one side, “Tell us, was it a dagger or an arrow that scored the first hit?”

That player from Remarkable Flair stared at this gang of murderous bandits, finally breaking out in tears, “Brothers, just kill me already!”

When men from both sides saw that they would not be able to get a resolution this way, their eyes turned to each other when someone suddenly cried out, “Whoever deals the killing blow would get the kill.” That very moment this person finished his sentence, arrows and daggers all came homing in toward their victim. The player from Remarkable Flair blissfully closed both his eyes. He was finally dead.

Even though Dusky Cloud and his comrades worked very hard, their numerical disadvantage was truly so large that there was no way for them to catch up with Blue Ease and his men. All of them had a glum expression across their faces when it became apparent there was no way the could catch up in terms of their kill count.

Blue Ease was of course not someone who would let this go so easily, enigmatically asking Dusky Cloud, “Boss Cloud, how many did you manage to kill?”

“Tsk, PK-ing is a daily occurrence for us, why would we even care to count our kills? How ignorant,” Dusky Cloud expressed his condescension.

“There’s no need to count. Just take a look at your PK Value.”

“If you’re looking to compete in terms of PK Value, why don’t you go look for Thousand Miles Drunk?”

“Thousand Miles Drunk? How many could he have killed?” Blue Ease and his men had no idea about Gu Fei’s ‘foundation’ of PK points from before. Gu Fei had been hanging back during this hunt for stragglers, so he did not add too many points to his total PK Value. The man had also happened to rush over at this time, looking to both his left and right, “All gone?”

“They’re all gone. Oh. Since you’re here now, this brother here was asking about how much PK Value you’ve got,” Dusky Cloud asked nonchalantly.

“I’m at 180. What about it?” Gu Fei asked.

Blue Ease’s jaw nearly fell down to the ground as he croaked out feebly, “You gotta be joking, right?”

“A bumpkin has never seen the world, yet he’s bragging about how much PK Value he earned. Scram to the side already!” Dusky Cloud was delighted, as if the 180 PK Value was his own.

“Let’s go now that there’s none left!” Gu Fei had not been concerned about this pissing contest the two men were having, turning his head around to leave.

The news about Gu Fei’s 180 PK Value spread among the players from Blue Ease’s troops. All of them gazed at Gu Fei with horror in their eyes. Upon recalling how their old guild Past Deeds had been dismantled by that man, none of them could really call it a disgrace.

Coming down from the mountain at this time, it coincided with the arrival of the majority of Dusky Cloud’s men, each of them brimming with killing intent, loudly calling out for their target to show themselves.

Dusky Cloud had the urge to point toward Blue Ease as the target, but he did his best to curb himself from doing so, simply answering, “They’re all gone. Slain.”

“Boss, did you only bring out so few men with you?” Dusky Cloud had originally gone to Gu Fei’s aid with 198 men, yet only exactly 62 of them remained. It was a criminally low number that anyone could tell in a glance.

In the end, Dusky Cloud blew a gasket when he heard this, “What nonsense are you spouting? Get lost.” His eyes furtively darted over to Blue Ease after he was done scolding that guildmate of his. Sure enough, that rascal was maintaining eye contact with a big sneer after overhearing this. Dusky Cloud wished he could just kick that b*st*rd who had helped him count to his death.

“How are things in the city?” Dusky Cloud changed the topic.

“All the stores that belonged to Remarkable Flair had shut down, and we’re now going around slaying everyone we can find from Proud Skies! Boss, I feel like we’re being a little rash going about with this matter. Proud Skies has quite a bit of connection as well. If we were to be so heavy-handed in weeding them out, won’t we end up provoking the whole city into rebelling against us?” The one speaking was also an old guild member of the Ten Guild Alliance, someone who had witnessed the rise and fall of the various guilds here in Yueye City.

Times have changed. During the era of Past Deeds, there were still comparatively little players, and most were scattered with different affiliations; that was why they ended up in a situation where a single guild held dominance over the entire city. But now, every city had several guilds that were all sharing supremacy, and there were plenty of partisan groups formed by players that would instantly change their allegiances and goals even on a daily basis. As such, while today’s Ten Guild Alliance was several times stronger than Past Deeds before, its hegemonic position that they held was nowhere the same as Past Deeds back in those days. To simply extinguish a guild at the drop of a hat? Even Dusky Cloud needed to be very careful executing such a tyrannical act, as he did not wish to repeat the same mistakes that Past Deeds had done, rousing the players in the entire city to rise up and go against them. Besides, players were all living beings, and now that the world map was becoming clearer, anyone in a city that got overly bullied might just travel to another city to play. Dusky Cloud had no wish of turning Yueye City into a ghost town, so he restricted his underlings more and more, and had even made sure to maintain cordial relations with several guilds in Yueye City.

Of course, there were several relationships that were on the opposite end of this spectrum, such as Proud Sovereign and Overgrown Foliage’s guild respectively, but Dusky Cloud had never given the order to utterly destroy these organizations. However, what happened today had him completely disregard all decorum and gave the order to do a city-wide hunt. This was not a moment of rash decision making by Dusky Cloud either. The moment he discovered that Proud Sovereign was actually someone who was in charge of a workshop, he knew he could no longer go easy on them anymore. Veteran gamers were all aware of the capabilities that a workshop possessed, and the methods of repercussions they might employ would most definitely not be limited to just PK-ing through the use of force. Since Proud Skies was a guild that had the support of a workshop in its shadows, and considering how strong the guild had grown up till now, their future prospects were simply too frightening that meant they needed to use this chance and suppress them. It just so happened that Thousand Miles Drunk and Remarkable Flair happen to be not seeing eye to eye with each other right now, so why would he not be more than happy to lend a hand if he was also able to achieve his goals along the way?

Thus, when this player mentioned the possibility of the whole city picking up arms against them, Dusky Cloud could only deride their shallow insight and waved his arm, “Don’t say another word on their behalf. Just kill them all!”

“Boss…”

Dusky Cloud ignored the man’s plea, suddenly pointing to Blue Ease on the side, “Commit that wimp’s face to memory. We still gotta kill him after this matter is resolved!” There were plenty of new players in the Ten Guild Alliance in the current day and age. There were not many among them who would still recognize their old nemesis, Blue Ease.

This time, there were close to 1000 players on Dusky Cloud’s side and their numerical superiority was huge. Nevertheless, Blue Ease did not reveal even a shred of fear as his eyes drifted over to meet Dusky Cloud’s, “Coward!”

All 1000 of them were in an uproar; These men had spent a lot of their time in the Ten Guild Alliance, and they had witnessed their own guild members and guild leaders bicker and swear at each other plenty of times, yet they had never once seen an outsider do the same right in front of their face. Everyone immediately pulled out their weapons and looked like they were ready to go up and break out into a fight, yet there was no need for Gu Fei to persuade them to back down. Dusky Cloud himself had extended his hands out to stop them, “Everybody, there’s no rush. Old grievances and new grudges should all be sequentially resolved; Killing this wimp now would be giving him too much face. Best to leave him in our dust for now.”

When everyone heard their guild leader address them all, they too settled down, with some echoing similar sentiment as embellishment.

Just as Blue Ease was about to open his mouth and jeer at the 1000 gathered, Gu Fei was already one step ahead of him, offering a bitter laugh as he stood beside the man, “Bro, put your quarrel on hold for now.”

These two parties were here to help him, and they had all journeyed hours to get here; there was no way Gu Fei would be able to avoid feeling guilty If they were all to end up killing one another in this place. But given the temperament and storied past with one another, it was clearly impossible to get them to hold hands and become bosom buddies. As men who would fight at the drop of a hat, Gu Fei could only hope that both sides would not end up killing one another all because they came to help him.

Blue Ease decided to hold his tongue for the moment when he saw Gu Fei jump out to help persuade both parties to back down. Dusky Cloud was also someone who knew how to act, and he had also realized that furthering the squabble would only make things difficult for Gu Fei, so he quickly gave the order to his guild to temporarily avoid clashing with the other side. Once the men from both sides quieted down, Dusky Cloud waved his arm and called out, “Back to the city.” as he took his 1000 guild members and led the way toward Yueye City.

Blue Ease was beside Gu Fei when he asked, “Are you guys heading to Yueye City as well?”

Gu Fei nodded.

“Can’t you stay in Yunduan City any longer?” Truth be told, Blue Ease was enjoying the taste of schadenfreude deep down. This was retribution. Back in the day, they had all been faced with decimation when Thousand Miles Drunk intervened, making it impossible for them to continue staying in Yueye City till they had no choice but to depart from their home city. Now, it was finally the perpetrator’s turn to experience this outcome. However, this man is now a friend of Vast Lushness, so I guess I’ll give him face and not mock him about it! Blue Ease thought to himself.

“The situation over at Yunduan City is a little complicated. Our men are now all in Jail, so we’ve made the trip to this city and have some fun first, let those men there waste their time and camp there, test their patience a little,” Gu Fei said.

“So I see,” Blue Ease nodded. “Then when will you be launching your counterattack?”

“That depends. But I’ll have to clear up all my PK points first,” Gu Fei was vexed just thinking about this.

“All 180 PK points?” Blue Ease asked.

Gu Fei nodded.

“G*dd*mn*d. How would you even begin to do that? Why aren’t the city guards coming out to apprehend you yet?” Blue Ease asked.

“Probably because we’re not yet within the city region… However, it won’t be long now if we keep going down this road,” Gu Fei stared into the distance.

“So what are you going to do?” Blue Ease was extremely curious about how he was going to go about clearing his 180 PK Value.

“All I can do is teleport to the Bounty Assignment Hall and attempt to cleanse my PK Value while holding off the city guard’s pursuit,” Gu Fei shrugged.

People who heard his answer were all left speechless, their minds imagining the flamboyant display of a crowd of city guards hot on Gu Fei’s heels even as he went about slaying his targets.

Meanwhile, Young Master Han was by the side, wanting to make mention of something but decided against doing so. Actually, Young Master Han was thinking that since Gu Fei had the ability to directly pick up Bounty Missions through Bounty License in his ownership, he could very well just get Dusky Cloud to send some men out with a combined PK Value of 180 PK points and let Gu Fei clear all his PK Value in one go in this fashion. All those men had to do was hang out in the Jail and end up sacrificing a bit of their time in exchange.

Young Master Han reckoned Dusky Cloud would not be too troubled if he were to make such a suggestion, but the bigger problem would be that Gu Fei might not accept such an idea. That man would often bring along a whole host of trouble and problems wherever he went, but he just so happened to be mindful enough to not want to bother anyone else with it. Furthermore, he was also frighteningly obstinate over certain things, so it was highly likely that Gu Fei would not even entertain this idea of his.

Gu Fei was no longer going toward the city any longer as he began to search through the scrolls in his dimensional pocket, wondering to himself which Bounty Assignment Hall he should head to. This was a highly difficult task too; Gu Fei felt that going to a foreign city like the last time would end up making this all the more difficult, so he figured it was best to search for somewhere he would at least be familiar.

 As he was sifting through the scrolls, Gu Fei suddenly received a message, and saw that it was coming from Drifting, “I’m back. Where are you guys?”

“That took you quite some time. We’ve left for Yueye City already.”

“A PK Value above 20 PK points isn’t that easy to clear. Do you think I’m you! Have you gone to Yueye City to clear your PK points?” Drifting responded.

“How did you know that?”

“What nonsense. The Bounty Assignment Hall here had exploded by now. Everyone here is talking about someone whose PK Value was on the road to 200 PK points, and I knew this man must be you.”

“It’s 180 points, and it is rather difficult,” Gu Fei was in tears as he bemoaned his fate.

“Aren’t you able to pick up Bounty Missions directly through your Bounty License, able to do plenty of targets at once without even needing to use the Bounty Assignment Hall?” Drifting asked.

“I’ve still got to know their IGNs.”

“IGNs? I can go help you get those. How about we target those of the enemy?” Drifting suggested.

“Oh? How are you going to do that?”

“By accessing the Reference Room, of course!” Drifting answered.