Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-122

Chapter 122 - An Archer in a Tavern

As the two left Ray’s Bar, Gu Fei beckoned Royal God Call over and said, “Go ahead and do your ‘Bounty Mission’. Call me when there’s one that you can’t handle.”

Royal God Call nodded his head compliantly. He was already very grateful that Gu Fei had volunteered to help him, so he was not expecting for the latter to fully assist him and any support from Gu Fei would do. He and Gu Fei had the same thought: only asked for help when a target could not be handled alone.

The two went their separate ways, with Royal God Call getting a new ‘Bounty Mission’ – as his previous one had expired – and Gu Fei heading to a grinding map.

Based on Gu Fei’s bounty hunting experiences for a whole month, the ‘a lot of companions’ situation that Royal God Call had encountered usually occurred over at a grinding map. Who would be able to summon and gather up a whole gang of brothers when he or she was just casually walking on the streets, anyway? At most, it would be a pair of lovers who would be capable of such feat.

Gu Fei had actually encountered many pairs of lovers while he had previously been bounty hunting. For the vile-looking boyfriends, he would just go straight up and finish them off. As for those with kind-looking faces, he would generously approach the pairs of lovers and asked for a private moment with his targets before inviting them to a secluded corner and saying, “Bro, I won’t disgrace you in front of your girlfriend, so just say that you’ve been ambushed later.” Only by then would he proceed to kill his targets.

There were some instances when his targets turned out to be the girlfriends. Dealing with those situations were trickier, since male players were often more hot blooded and the boyfriends would always confront Gu Fei angrily regardless of whether his first strike landed on his targets or not.

Gu Fei would normally say, “I am on ‘Bounty Mission’, so snap yourself out of it!” to explain himself to the pairs of lovers before killing his targets and proceeding to deal with the partners afterward. For those boyfriends who understood the circumstance, Gu Fei would leave after casually exchanging a few blows with them. As for those who did not realize that Gu Fei was on ‘Bounty Mission’ and were continuously spouting foul words, he would straight up kill them. Suffering a level drop while their girlfriends were stuck in prison... truly a tragic, double loss.

Ironically, with how the PvP rules worked in Parallel World, Gu Fei’s PK value would not even increase by killing those boyfriends since they were the ones who had chosen to ‘die’ with their partners by initiating the attacks on to Gu Fei. Frankly speaking, Gu Fei was not afraid of acquiring PK points, as him doing ‘Bounty Mission’ would clear off the gained PK value anyway.

In the past month, Gu Fei even experienced hunting and killing the same people, with the most ridiculous one being a good-looking man whom Gu Fei had received the ‘Bounty Mission’ for three times in a row. Eventually, the two met for the fourth time in a tavern and the good-looking man burst into tears upon seeing him, “Bro, I’ll buy you a drink. Just please spare me!”

Gu Fei laughingly said, “You already know that I’m on ‘Bounty Mission’! Why be afraid of me if you don’t have PK value on you?”

“But I do have PK value on me....”

“Oh, that’s fine, too. My current mission target isn’t you.” After saying this, Gu Fei proceeded to slay the good-looking man’s wife who was sitting beside him, causing the man to cry even harder. Gu Fei paid for his drinks and silently left....

Having experienced the many ups and downs of PvP, Gu Fei finally realized something: Those who killed must be consciously aware that they could be killed as well. The players who were aware of this would handle everything calmly whenever Gu Fei declared: “I am here on ‘Bounty Mission’” and do their utmost to go up against Gu Fei. Only the scummy players who did not understand this logic would lash out and spout nonsense, such as “None of your f*cking business!”

Just what reasons or mindsets did these people have when they killed others? Gu Fei had thoughts of doing research about the matter to understand it, but he immediately gave up upon remembering that it was not his forte.

A message from Royal God Call arrived while he was still deep in his thoughts. “HELP!” Royal God Call typed this word in English.

“So soon?” Gu Fei expressed his doubts, as he was not even out of the city yet! Royal God Call only needed such a short time to accept a new mission and acquire a difficult target?

“The target is not in a grinding map. He’s at a tavern and a bunch of people is drinking with him!” Royal God Call reported his location as he said that.

“Oh!” Gu Fei acknowledged as he made his way over to the direction of the indicated place. This type of targets that appeared inside taverns was indeed very troublesome for Royal God Call. Archers’ strong suit lay in their ability to perform long-range sneak attacks, which included the ‘kiting’ method of shooting people from afar. Excluding the fact that staying hidden in a tavern was impossible with the many pairs of eyes inside, the showy action of an Archer drawing a bow and nocking an arrow would surely cause a commotion, leaving no room for the Archer to launch any surprise attacks at all. It was truly hard for Archers to display their might in fixed, cramped spaces like a tavern that were populated by people.

Gu Fei arrived at that tavern not too long after and spotted Royal God Call standing and waiting anxiously for someone by the entrance. He quickly waved at Gu Fei when he saw him, “The target is still drinking inside!” He politely asked, “How should we do this?” Royal God Call was being very courteous at Gu Fei as he knew that the latter was the real expert in this aspect.

“Which one is the target? Point the person out to me first,” Gu Fei said instead.

The two entered the tavern, and Royal God Call carefully pointed out his target to Gu Fei, “See that Warrior? It’s the one wearing a black cap.”

“Yeah, I see him,” Gu Fei affirmed.

“How should we do this?” Royal God Call nervously repeated his question.

Gu Fei took his sword out and coughed once loudly. Quite a lot of people looked over his direction, with some already displaying a change of expression on their faces. Gu Fei knocked on an empty table by the side with his sword and, as if he was declaring a holdup in a bank, he announced, “‘Bounty Mission’!”

Many tavern patrons began to grow nervous... Clearly, a lot of people with PK value were inside the tavern.

“Hey!” Royal God Call panicked. We should be doing a sneak attack! Although revealing our intention outright is a polite gesture, it’s not logical and reasonable at all!

Gu Fei had long pointed his sword over at the black-capped Warrior, saying, “You are the mission’s target; let’s settle this outside!”

While the others breathed a sigh of relief, the black-capped Warrior felt stunned. I’ve seen people doing ‘Bounty Mission’ before, but never someone who did it in such an arrogant way until now. Didn’t he see that I’m with others at this table? “Who’s this guy?” he asked aloud, thinking that he had stumbled upon a lunatic.

A player sitting at a nearby table drew closer to the black-capped Warrior and whispered to his ear, “Good luck.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the black-capped Warrior questioned, baffled.

“You don’t often hang out in taverns, right?” the person asked. As the black-capped Warrior nodded his head, the person sighed and said, “You’ll know what I mean if you hang out in taverns more often.”

The companions of the black-capped Warrior obviously barely hung out in taverns as well, as they were at a loss regarding this current situation.

“Hurry up!” Gu Fei urged.

“Miles, are you trying to get me killed?” Royal God Call asked, already teary-eyed.

Gu Fei paid no attention to him, “Hurry up and go outside! Let’s not fight inside the tavern; the others still need to drink their liquors!”

Enraged by Gu Fei’s words, the black-capped Warrior stood up violently. His partners shared the same sentiment and got up rather violently as well, totaling to six people.

“We’re just doing a mission; we request that unrelated parties do not interfere. Weapons are blind, after all. He’ll only be imprisoned after dying, but for others, dying means dropping in levels!” Gu Fei reminded everyone.

“Did you not hear me? I’m talking to you!” he suddenly hurled a kick outward. A thud was heard and a human figure faded into view as it fell down. The falling figure knocked a wooden stool over; the table next to the figure wobbled and was about to drop onto the person when Gu Fei swiftly reached for it with his hand and dragged it back to its initial position.

“We gotta pay up if we break anything. Go check if the wooden stool is broken or not.” Gu Fei was displaying his rich experience with melees through and through.

Royal God Call went over to have a look. “It’s not broken,” he informed Gu Fei.

The Thief who had just fallen down was lying numbly on the ground and was having second thoughts about getting back up to his feet. He stole a glance at Gu Fei before peeking at his black-capped companion. The black-capped Warrior and his buddies dared not act rashly after that.

“Shoot him,” Gu Fei ordered Royal God Call.

“Now?” Royal God Call asked, dumbfounded. As an Archer, he felt that it was too shameful to openly shoot someone in such a showy manner.

“Would the people behind please make way!” Gu Fei shouted.

The spectators behind had long since dispersed from that area. Players who hung out often in this tavern had come across Gu Fei too many a time in this one month. They were quite the experienced bunch regarding his bounty hunting business.

“Shoot him already!” Gu Fei said.

“Using my skills?” Royal God Call asked.

“Must I spell out everything for you?! Do you know how to play or not?!” Gu Fei anxiously asked.

“Sh*t!” Royal God Call became anxious as well. This was the first time he had been accused of such a thing after years of playing MMOs. How can I be clueless of how to play a game? It’s just that I’ve never experienced such a flashy situation before! D*mn it! There’s truly a first time for everything! Royal God Call resentfully thought to himself as he nocked an arrow to his bow.

Just why did Archers refrain themselves from carrying out attacks in plain sight? It was because Archers’ attacks were simply too troublesome. The shooting preparation of Archers contained many sequential actions that would lead up to the release of an arrow, so anyone with eyes and decent speed would be able to evade their attack. The current situation was an example of this; seeing Royal God Call draw his bow so openly in front of them, the group of men immediately attempted to dodge his attack by lowering their heads and hiding under the tables.

“You take too long to attack!” Gu Fei scolded Royal God Call.

Royal God Call felt aggrieved for himself, No matter how fast I draw the bow and nock the arrow, others will still have enough time to crawl under the tables! Must I be blamed for this? Just who is the one that really doesn’t know how to play a game?!

Gu Fei swiftly stepped forward and swung his sword. He was simply too fast for others to react properly, and they could only watch him slice a wooden table apart. “Shoot him now!” Gu Fei yelled to his side.

Swish! Royal God Call who had just finished his shooting preparation released an arrow. The arrow was shot out using the archer skill with the current, highest attack power, Snipe, so evading it at such a distance was simply impossible. The damage that Royal God Call could inflict on to others was not something to scoff at as well. Although the arrow failed to insta-kill the black-capped Warrior, the damage it dealt was enough to confound him.

Royal God Call did not wait for Gu Fei’s cue this time and already shot out his second arrow. He truly was an expert, since he knew the most important quality of being an Archer in a game like this. His speed when drawing a bow and nocking arrows was incredibly fast and his posture when unleashing arrows on Double Shot was prim and proper, which were all evidence that he had practiced the stance countless times.

Swish, swish! Two arrows flew out one after another. The black-capped Warrior hiding under the table just now frantically got up, only to be hit by Double Shot.

“You’re still alive! What an impressive amount of HP!” Royal God Call started to get cockier, swiftly nocking yet another arrow on his bow.

At this moment, the six companions of the black-capped Warrior that had been crouching under the table could no longer tolerate the ‘loneliness’, so they hastily stood up and darted toward Gu Fei who was the closest to them.

“Don’t care about me; just find a chance to shoot him!” Gu Fei shouted. He easily dodged the attacks of the six people that had encircled him as he slashed at the Priest among them. His attack perfectly interrupted the Priest’s bestowal of Heal.

Royal God Call nodded his head in acknowledgement and shot out his third arrow under the level 36 skill of Archers: Homing Projectile. Although this particular skill was not powerful, it had a terrifying homing ability that never lost sight of a target it had locked on. It was different from the Fireball spell of Mages that could only trace enemies for a short period of time.

The tip of the arrow, which had been powered by Homing Projectile, shone faintly with white light as it cut its way past the gap between people in this chaotic scene and struck the head of the black-capped Warrior.

The Priest that wanted to bestow his Heal kept on getting interrupted by Gu Fei, so the HP of black-capped Warrior did not even recover once and he ended up collapsing to the ground with that follow-up arrow.

“Time to leave!” Gu Fei hollered at Royal God Call, slipping past the gap that had emerged after the black-capped Warrior died. He then took out a gold coin and threw it toward the tavern’s counter. “Compensation for the table!” Gu Fei yelled as he fled from the tavern.