Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-12

Chapter 12 - Where are you going?

The lady met Gu Fei’s eyes shamelessly.

But even though their eyes met, their thoughts were not the same.

Just as she was about to say something after watching Gu Fei maintained his silence for a while, he suddenly nodded his head, “Alright, I’ll bring you over to the Medic.”

She laughed as she stretched out her arms to Gu Fei, “Sorry to trouble you.”

“No worries,” Gu Fei laughed also as he held her arms and pulled her close to his body.

“Hey! You…” She was starting to suspect that Gu Fei might harbor ill intentions, but he just leaned his body down to rest her waist on his shoulder. He then hefted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and stood up.

“D*mn! How heavy!” Gu Fei couldn’t help but blurt out these words as he balanced her on his shoulder. Truthfully, the lady was slim and would normally not weight much; the real issue here was him being a level 16 Mage who specialized in speed. His strength was exactly the same as when he first spawned. It was truly difficult for him to accomplish a physically demanding task like this.

Gu Fei sighed. If this were in reality, hoisting the lady on his one arm would be considered simple, not to mention carrying her properly.

While Gu Fei complained about her weight, she was not having a much better time either. The stomach was a very soft part of the body. People who had experienced having to support their full body weight on it would know just how uncomfortable she was feeling at this moment. Furthermore, she was being carried by a Mage whose strength was clearly lacking; his unstable and shaky gait was truly worrying! However, she could only grit her teeth and silently bear with the situation since the Medic’s place was quite far. She feared that if she complained, Gu Fei would say, “So you want to get down? Return Frost Memories to me first!” She was naturally unwilling to do so. Thus, she could only endure the discomfort without complaint to avoid angering him.

The lady’s thoughts were actually not far from the truth. Gu Fei had intended to torment her for a while at first. Taking the nearest route? Nah. Let’s take a detour instead!

But Gu Fei soon regretted this, as well as his shallow understanding of the game, as he had to squeeze his way through the crowded main road. Therefore, Gu Fei abandoned his original plan to take a detour and was now also eagerly trying to reach their destination fast.

The game had a job class that specialized in healing; it was called Priest.

First Aid was only a secondary in-game skill. The Medic NPC, which provided free first aid to beginner players, was situated not too far away from the Priest Academy. Since there were no available skills that could provide healing in the early stages and most players were poor, their only choice was to visit the Medic within the city if they had severe injuries.

The severe injuries in this case did not refer to the loss of HP while fighting. Bruises could easily be cured as long as the players left the combat zone and rested. Severe injuries, on the other hand, were much more serious, as even the players’ maximum HP would be depleted. Resting would not help recover the loss HP back either. More importantly, severe injuries were unbearable because players would continue to feel pain unless they received proper treatment.

In fact, heavy injuries were so severe that the area around the Medic was filled with agonized cries, as well as blood and tears.

No one paid attention to how Gu Fei swayed with a lady in tow to the Medic’s place. It was very common for about half of the people who came for treatment to be carried here.

Gu Fei found a place to put her down after much difficulty. The people Gu Fei saw queuing here were much more than the ones buying glasses and brooms back in the Mage Academy. He looked back at the lady and said, “We’re here. You can go line up. Just don’t forget to hand over Frost Memories.”

“There’re so many people ogling me!” the lady winked flirtatiously. A beauty like her would indeed always draw people’s attention wherever she went. Although the people here were in great pain and were hardly in the mood for dirty thoughts, distracting themselves from pain by appreciating a woman’s beauty was an actual method that General Guan Yu used during the Three Warring Kingdoms’ period. While it was not as gentlemanly as playing chess, beauty appreciation could also be considered as an art.

Gu Fei was not swayed in the slightest by her beauty. He said coolly with an open palm, “Give it back.”

“People are really checking me out! Look around you!” Her voice grew louder as she anxiously gestured around with her hands. Even those who had not paid attention at first looked over after hearing her words.

The eyes of a group of five people flashed in recognition when they spotted the pair, and quickly made their way over. Finding a more agile and lively individuals than them in a place like this was not easy.

“It really is you!” The five quickened their pace as they got nearer. They had already closed in on the two with fury in their eyes before Gu Fei could make heads or tails of the situation.

Gu Fei did not recognize any of them, and they were not looking at him either. At the next moment, everyone was distracted by the lady’s sudden movement. She grabbed onto Gu Fei’s arm and shook it violently while saying, “Oops, they found us. Let’s make a run for it!”

“Trying to escape?” The five quickly moved and surrounded the pair in an instant.

F*ck! Duped once more! Gu Fei immediately realized that these people must have swindled by her before as well. Because he was so caught up in exacting his revenge along the way, he had not realized he was being deceived and was now being treated as her accomplice.

“Let’s not be too hasty. She and I are perfect strangers. I don’t know her at all,” Gu Fei quickly explained.

“Strangers? Then why is my dagger in your hand?” one of the guys demanded.

Dagger? Gu Fei wondered as he looked at what he was holding in his hand.

It was the dagger he had flung earlier, which the lady originally used to stab him with. It had remained in his hand after pulling it out of her leg.

This dagger… Gu Fei had not inspected it closely earlier since all he cared about was that it was not Frost Memories. His detailed inspection now of the dagger, Howling Rage, revealed that it had a higher damage output than Frost Memories. It could increase a player’s attack speed and damage by 5% as well. Although it could not match Frost Memories, it was still considered a rare item by most beginners. Gu Fei finally understood the situation. While she was the one who had used some unknown method to steal Howling Rage from this person, he was the one currently holding it.

She had purposely shaken Gu Fei’s arm earlier to let the others see the dagger he was holding. She had to explicitly draw attention to it because the dagger was not as noticeable as Frost Memories.

It was really difficult to explain his way out now, especially after falling victim to such an impeccably calculated plan.

“Quick, let’s get out of here!” shouted the lady as she pulled Gu Fei closer to one of the guys as if the two intended to strong-arm him to flee.

This action created a two-against-one advantage for Gu Fei and the lady, so the four others hurriedly moved closer to that one guy to provide reinforcement. This in return freed the left and right sides of Gu Fei and the lady. She quickly let go of Gu Fei’s hand and headed to the right opening in an instant. She ran off without looking back as she yelled, “You take the left; I’ll take the right. We’ll meet back at our usual spot!”

Gu Fei grimaced. If she had just signaled him, he could have easily escaped as well since he was also someone who specialized in speed. But her shout was made to reinforce the ruse that they were partners in crime. He had become her scapegoat; it had nothing to do with splitting up and escaping. Her leg had long since healed based on how nimble her movements were. She clearly made up the excuse of visiting the Medic to trick Gu Fei into coming here before attracting her enemies’ attention in order to get him off her back. She had truly managed to deceive him this time.

She fled the healer’s compound and managed to lose the five people on her tail by using the back alleys around the city.

The lady sat down on the ground, as if she was momentarily overcome by fatigue. She lifted her leg and noticed that the bandage had thoroughly been soaked with the blood of the wound Gu Fei had inflicted on her. She cursed the game in her heart for making some portions very realistic while other areas were scarily defiant of the common sense. Stupid Mage. You actually called me heavy, the lady silently complained.

She took out a fresh roll of bandage from her pocket and applied it to her wound once more.

The item’s healing effect would begin to work if the subject stayed still. This was nonetheless the lowest grade bandage; the more severe the injury, the longer it would take to heal the wound. Her injury was far from healed when she was at the Medic’s compound, but seeing how rare and exquisite Frost Memories was, she felt it was worth it to bear the pain and make a run for it. The lady had not expected someone to find a dagger way better than Howling Rage so soon after the game launched. She needed to act fast since beginner items like this would only decrease in value the more time passed.

With that in mind, the lady leaned on the wall and got up as she began to limp toward her destination.

Trade Exchange.

Similar to the Auction House, a Trade Exchange post was where players could sell items. However, there were quite a few differences between the two trading places.

The Auction House allowed the players to set their prices for the items they were selling after being charged a set fee, allowing the system to sell said items in their place. Players could bid for an item during the allocated period, with the highest bidder receiving the item once the time expired.

As for Trade Exchange, its main appeal was that it allowed real world currency to be used for trading purposes.

With how online games had developed in the current day and age, virtual goods being sold for real world currency at appalling prices was nothing new. Many gaming companies did not object to this, yet the issue of security was a huge concern given the variety of ways these transactions could be accomplished. Parallel World’s officials opted to provide real-time currency trading platforms for the players to use within the game as well. The computers available within the various Trade Exchange platforms could be used to connect directly to the external network through the game’s main servers, making it really convenient for buyers to use their online banking accounts to buy in-game goods.

The sellers, on the other hand, had to hand over the items to the Exhibition Hall first before they could set the prices and provide their bank account details. Once everything was accomplished, the information about the items would be posted on the game’s official website.

Buyers could view information on an item from the site and even visit the Exhibition Hall to physically look at it. Once a purchase had been confirmed and the funds transferred to the designated system account, an item would become obtainable from the Exhibition Hall. The system would later transfer the money to the bank account provided by the seller.

The way trades were carried out in Parallel World was similar to most MMORPGs; however, the security and dependability of these transactions were far better when it was personally overseen by the gaming company.

The lady arrived at the trading lobby and passed Frost Memories over to the Exhibition Hall. She began to access the computer to input the required information. After entering her bank account details, she was now at the final step: Price.

As the game was still in open beta, the market prices for items had not been properly established yet. The lady could only gauge it in accordance to her gaming experience. Frost Memories was definitely a top tier weapon in the game thus far. Pay-to-win players should be willing to pay this much money for it. With such a thought, she typed the amount of fifty thousand dollars using the keyboard to the transaction page. She took a deep breath and was about to confirm the amount she had assigned when a hand shot out and hit the Esc key, canceling the operation menu.

A look of surprise overcame her. She turned around to find Gu Fei with a forced smile plastered on his face.

“You’re selling it for fifty thousand dollars?” Gu Fei asked with concern.