Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-123

Chapter 123 - The Number One Mage

The tavern had one door each on the left and right side, and Gu Fei fled alone through the door on the right. As for Royal God Call, he did not see him come out from the other door. Gu Fei immediately returned to the tavern, yet Royal God Call was nowhere to be seen.

“Where are you, Royal?” Gu Fei grew nervous. Did the opponents catch up to him and end his life?

“I have your emblem teleport me away~” Royal God Call replied to his inquiry.

Such awareness… He’s a real expert alright. Gu Fei sighed in admiration. Back when he had just obtained Windchaser’s Emblem, Gu Fei would often forget to use it and mindlessly walk back to the Quest Assignment Hub on foot whenever he completed a ‘Bounty Mission’. Royal God Call just borrowed the emblem and used it a few times, yet the uses of Windchaser’s Emblem were already deeply ingrained in his mind.

Gu Fei raised his head up after ruminating on the issue and happened to see the few companions of the black-capped Warrior numbly standing on one spot and blankly staring at him.

“The ‘Bounty Mission’ just now...” Gu Fei began to patiently explain to them, “Was the mission of that brat who had just run away. I can contact him if you lot are looking for revenge.”

If this scenario occurred in reality, Gu Fei could fish out a cell phone to increase the sense of authenticity of his proposal. But since the situation was happening in-game, his proposal was fated to not be taken seriously as the others could not tell it even if Gu Fei indeed sent out a message!

As expected, the men standing opposite him did not take Gu Fei’s words seriously. Upon seeing that Gu Fei had returned to the tavern, ‘delivering himself to us’ was the only thought that popped into their heads. All the black-capped Warrior’s companions, including the Thief that that had been kicked by Gu Fei before, were all clenching their teeth and glaring viciously at him.

Gu Fei was actually feeling very delighted inside right now, as this was exactly the kind of development that he was after! The chain reaction that arose after every ‘Bounty Mission’ was the thing that he loved the most; how else would he enjoy PvP if not for that?

“Uhh...” Gu Fei gave the others a friendly reminder out of habit, “Are you looking at me for revenge? Your levels will drop if you die, you know!” As everyone took three steps forward, Gu Fei also took a few steps onward while happily continuing to remind them, “Your levels will really drop!”

“You are the one whose level will be dropping!” roared someone from the opposing party as he wielded a weapon and charged at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei was simply overjoyed. He was just about to clash with the opponent with his sword in hand when a sudden gust of wind blew diagonally from his side. “A Spurring Meteor attack…” Just as Gu Fei said this, a guy was seen darting over while executing a Fighter’s combo move. The angry opponent of Gu Fei was turned by the Fighter’s attack into a stream of white light without being able to do anything else.

The sudden interruption to Gu Fei’s PvP did not end there. A brave-looking Mage with fluttering long hair that had been standing next to the Fighter pointed a glowing magic staff to the feet of the remaining people and chanted, “Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!”

Casting an AOE spell inside a tavern… Gu Fei had never met such a dauntless Mage before.

The spell’s flames rose abruptly from the ground with a range beyond what Gu Fei had anticipated, making it apparent that the Mage’s proficiency of this spell was very high. The players inside the tavern screamingly scrambled away from the flames for a while, as Gu Fei’s would-be opponents were roasted inside the inferno. And just like that, his chance to PvP was reduced to nothing but ashes along with the five. “Argh!” Gu Fei groaned sadly; his free hand grasped the air in front as if he wanted to grab onto something that was originally his.

The blazing flames in the entire tavern painted all the nearby players’ faces red. Gu Fei, who was rich in combat experiences, was currently pondering on how much it would cost to pay for the tables, chairs, and wooden stools that were being scorched by the burning fire.

The flames became smaller with every passing second until they finally got extinguished when the spell’s duration ended. However, the few seconds from that the spell had caused some furniture to continue burning on their own. The surrounding players tried to put out the fire by thoughtlessly pouring their cups of liquor on to the burning furniture. Fortunately, the cheapest liquor that the players usually ordered was not hard liquor, so the flammable liquid only weakly fed on to the flames. Otherwise, the tavern would be a lot livelier.

The fire had been put out after everyone worked hard to contain the incident. The Mage, who had started everything, went to talk with the NPC tavern owner, probably to discuss about the compensation for everything. Although he had caused such a scene, none of the patrons lodged a complaint against him.

Such a dauntless Mage! Who would dare complain about him? He did not even hesitate to burn those five to their deaths, so he probably would not mind casting Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno on the loud-mouthed people as well.

The Fighter, who was the instigator just then, was currently looking at Gu Fei with a smile.

F*ck your smiling face! How dare you steal my PvP... Gu Fei’s heart was in pain, but what made him even more in anguish was his inability to vent it out. These two seemed to genuinely be trying to help after seeing an injustice occur, and it was simply not right for him to turn them into his new PvP opponents. “Thanks! You’ve got some moves!” Not only could he not vent out, he also had to thank the two. Oh, life, look at how desolate you have made me, Gu Fei heaved a long sigh within him.

The Fighter smiled at him and said, “You are not so bad yourself, bro.” As Gu Fei forced a smile on his face, the Fighter continued, “If you don’t mind, why don’t you join us for a drink?”

Gu Fei was momentarily stunned. They just ‘took care’ of my opponents, and now they’re trying to treat me to a drink... Seems like they’ve got something else in mind!

The Fighter did not insist more after seeing that Gu Fei had yet to say anything. He apparently had another person with him as he waved at somebody else next. Together, the two ardently set about rearranging the overturned tables and chairs.

The fire in the tavern occurred mere seconds ago, yet the functionality of the scorched furniture was not the least bit affected. Done tidying up everything, the two chose a table and sat on the seats available while vacating two more seats – one was for their Mage companion, who was currently settling things with the NPC tavern owner, and the other was for Gu Fei.

Gu Fei laughed lightly as he saw this, approaching their table and silently sitting down on one of the empty chairs.

“Left Hand of Love,” the Fighter introduced himself.

Gu Fei seemed to have developed a slight habit of commenting on others’ IGN, so he immediately smiled upon hearing the name, “Then, what about the right hand?”

“Right Hand of Cool,” the Archer sitting with them replied while pointing to himself.

“We didn’t know each other before,” Left Hand of Love laughingly said, adding, “I never thought someone will have an IGN that rhymes with mine.” As he finished saying this, the two looked at each other with understanding. The way their lips curved upward while looking at each other sent goosebumps all over Gu Fei’s skin. Could these two be the Brokeback Mountain people spoken in legends?

The Mage finished his negotiations with the NPC tavern owner and joined them as well. “This is Drifting,” Left Hand of Love introduced the Mage to Gu Fei.

His IGN sounds familiar! As Gu Fei was thinking of this to himself, he noticed that the others around him were also thinking the same thing. Whispers could be heard all around them after Left Hand of Love said the name. Gu Fei was able to make out a phrase from all the whispers around them: the number one Mage. That was when he recalled where he had heard such a name before. ‘Drifting’ was the IGN listed on the very top of the Mages’ experience leaderboard and it was also listed quite high on the overall leaderboard. At present, only five people reached level 41 in Parallel World and Drifting was one of them.

Gu Fei had not heard that this well-known figure was a player of Yunduan City, though. The other two seem to be friends with him; are they all from another city? Since when did the various in-game cities start to get linked with one another? Gu Fei did not remember hearing the game officials announce anything about the teleporting arrays yet.

“What about you, brother? What’s your name?” the three collectively asked Gu Fei after introducing themselves.

Gu Fei smilingly replied, “Thousand Miles Drunk.”

“You’re THAT Thousand Miles Drunk?!” Even the dauntless Mage, Drifting, had a change of expression on his face.

Gu Fei’s smile turned uncertain, “Yeah.” Gu Fei had actually expected such a reaction from Drifting. Drifting’s IGN had always been on the very top of the Mages’ leaderboard ever since the start of Parallel World, but there was a period of time when the ‘Thousand Miles Drunk’ IGN outranked Drifting’s on the leaderboard.

Although Drifting surpassed Thousand Miles Drunk a few days later, the incident had undoubtedly left a thorn inside Drifting’s heart. From that point onward, he began to pay attention to the ‘Thousand Miles Drunk' IGN on the leaderboard. However, the ranking of Thousand Miles Drunk eventually sank and sank until it finally disappeared into the ranking of the thousands to the point where he could only find the IGN by keying it in.

Drifting could not help but be curious about him! He even tried adding Thousand Miles Drunk as a friend, only to discover that the latter had disabled his account’s friend request feature. Drifting was very aware that this was a normal move, especially by a high-ranking expert on the leaderboard, due to a very logical reason. Any player only had to search an individual’s IGN to add someone as a friend in-game. As for high-ranking players like them, they might enjoy the adorations of others this way, but they would also receive the harassment of countless others at the same time. Friend requests with messages, such as “Big bro, take me under your wing”, “Big bro, teach me how to play”, “Give me money and I’ll stream myself live for you”, and so on, made it impossible to play the game peacefully without them disabling that feature.

Drifting came to Yunduan City for a different reason, so he did not expect to meet THE Thousand Miles Drunk that he had long been curious about. The leaderboard lists did not include the city that the players lived in, after all. After thinking of all these things, Drifting started to talk to him, “Never thought I would get to meet the two renowned figures of Yunduan City so soon after arriving.”

“Ah? What?” Gu Fei asked, dumbfounded. Since when did I become a renowned figure?

Drifting exchanged looks with Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool, “We have seen Ray, the acclaimed owner of Ray’s Bar. As for Miles, you’re probably the other renowned figure of Yunduan City, right? That Close Combat Mage 27149?”

The tavern patrons were in an uproar. Compared to the number one Mage, the title ‘Close Combat Mage 27149’ was evidently more distinguished here in Yunduan City. However, Gu Fei reflexively responded, “No. I am not.”

“You are not?” Drifting asked, skeptical.

“Would I need you guys’ help if I were 27149?” as Gu Fei asked this, he could not help but channel a bit of the bitterness in his voice, since they had just snatched his PvP away from him.

“If we knew just then that you are 27149, we would of course not lend a helping hand,” Drifting answered frankly.

“Although I’m not 27149, I actually didn’t need the help just then. But...” Gu Fei stopped for a bit before continuing, “Still, you have my thanks.”

The three were stumped for a good while before they all said, “You’re welcome.”

“You’ve just accumulated 5 PK points in one shot... I have a friend who is actually doing ‘Bounty Mission’ right now, so be wary of him accepting the one targeting you.”

Drifting felt stunned, saying, “Is your friend not searching for local targets when he’s doing ‘Bounty Mission’?”

“Oh...” Gu Fei understood what he meant. Although Drifting had PK points on him, he was not a player of Yunduan City. Those doing ‘Bounty Mission’ in Yunduan City would of course not choose targets from other cities. As for those players from Drifting’s own city who had just picked up the ‘Bounty Mission’ for him, they were probably having their just desserts for targeting such a high PK value player that they could not hunt due to Drifting currently being here in Yunduan City.

Drifting curiously asked, “Hmm? Is doing ‘Bounty Mission’ a hot thing in Yunduan City right now?”