Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-141

Chapter 141 - Slow or Fast?

The players participating in the mercenary PvP tournament gathered at the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries’ entrance with ten minutes left before 7 P.M. Official statement stated that a teleportation array would send these players into their respective PvP arenas.

Players who had the participation-was-more-important-than-the-result mindset showed their high level of responsibility at this point and, as long as they were part of mercenary groups, made sure to participate in the PvP tournament. As such, the square was crowded with players like canned sardines and even the many roads leading to the square were filled with people.

The current scene naturally made the game company of Parallel World extremely exhilarated. At this moment, the game officials sent an emergency system announcement: [With this being the first round of the mercenary PvP tournament on the first day of the event, the amount of players participating has hit the maximum limit and exceeded our estimation. There will hereby be an extension to the time each player will take to enter his or her PvP arena. Can the players please hurry?]

The players, including the six members of Young Master’s Elite mercenary group, voiced their complaints when they heard this. The six had gotten separated from one another on their way to this square. Gu Fei discovered that the crowd had somehow been divided based on the players’ Strength, with the stronger ones being able to squeeze their way to the front and the weaker ones like himself naturally being pushed to the back of the line to wait for much longer. Before he knew it, all the players around him were now made up of weak Mages that looked as if they could be killed with just a lift of a finger. “Where are you guys?!” Throwing this question on the mercenary channel, Gu Fei saw that the other five men were also asking this same question.

In the blink of an eye, it was already 7 P.M., yet Gu Fei had not even advanced one step forward. It was at this point that the game officials finally permitted the players to enter their respective maps.

The human traffic started to flow. The players within the square started disappearing one by one in bright lights as they went through the teleportation array, allowing the players at the back to move forward and take the vacated spaces in front. Ten minutes later, the system sent another announcement: [Due to the current special circumstance in this first round, there will not be any time limit to entering the maps. All players may take their time to enter the teleportation array.]

“I’m in.” The first one among Young Master’s Elite to arrive at the teleportation array was actually Young Master Han.

“How’s that possible?!” Gu Fei exclaimed in shock. “Logically speaking, War Without Wounds should get there first!”

“It’s seduction! Seduction!” Royal God Call resolutely stated, making Gu Fei wonder if he had been the victim of seduction himself.

Gu Fei went into deep thought. Given Young Master Han’s astonishingly beautiful looks, pretending to be a woman would be far too easy for him. He reckoned that the other players must have mistaken Young Master Han as a beautiful lady and demonstrated their chivalrous spirit by effortlessly allowing him to afford of their ‘ladies first’ practice.

“The opposing mercenary group seems to have finished with its preparation.” Having entered the map, Young Master Han reported accordingly, “It's just one man!”

This was not a rarity. Quite a number of players enjoyed playing the game by themselves, so quite a number of mercenary groups had only one member. Thus, bumping into this sort of mercenary groups in the first round was a common occurrence.

The ensuing messages sent by Young Master Han’s fellow members on the mercenary channel had the same content: “I’m not going, then.”

“B*st*rds!” Young Master Han cursed on the mercenary channel. No matter how much of an expert he was as a Priest, he did not possess the necessary power to kill off his opponents, even if said opponent was alone. Upon closer inspection, he realized that only four messages of “I’m not going, then” had arrived on the mercenary channel. This meant that someone among the members had not said a word about this matter.

“Miles?” Young Master Han gingerly probed. The matter at hand was precarious; although Young Master Han was the leader on paper, everyone was of equal standing in the mercenary group. Therefore, Young Master Han could not oblige anyone to do his bidding. Since four had already declined to go and were nowhere to be seen, the Priest Young Master Han would have to face the opponent by himself if Gu Fei declined as well.

Thankfully, Gu Fei was someone who would not pass up any chance to PvP and immediately sent a positive reply, “I’ll go!”

Young Master Han exhaled hugely in relief. With fear still lingering in his heart, he coldly said to the others, “I’m gonna remember what you four did here.”

“TSK!” The four scoffed at his empty threat.

Gu Fei had no way of squeezing through the crowd, so he could only follow the motion of the people and move closer bit by bit to the teleportation portal. Half an hour had passed by the time he finally got to the teleportation array and entered the respective map.

A blue sky, white clouds, an unending field, and Young Master Han were what greeted Gu Fei when he entered the map.

“Let’s begin!” Young Master Han said impatiently.

Originally, the match would automatically begin at the appointed time for the mercenary PvP tournament. Due to the removal of the time restriction for players to enter their respective PvP arenas, the official time for the PvP tournament to start was canceled as a corollary. Each match would now begin once the system received the application of both parties stating that they were done with their preparations.

Once Gu Fei nodded his head, Young Master Han promptly handed in their group’s application and the system immediately began a five-second countdown. When the timer reached zero, white lights flashed and the two were sent to their real PvP arena.

Compared to the plain and simple field from before, the map they were in now was much more lush and abundant. Since only three people were participating in this battle, they were assigned the smallest PvP arena in the tournament. The terrain had highs and lows, water and trees, and birds flying among the many clouds in the sky. High hills were designated as the boundary for this map, reaching steepness of ninety degrees.

“Over there,” Young Master Han pointed somewhere in front of him as he observed the map.

As this map was very small, the two could clearly see the four sides of the boundary surrounding them and their opponent standing no more than two hundred meters away from them.

Originally, this sort of single-member mercenary groups had the strongest participation-was-more-important-than-the-result mentality, as they essentially stood no chance of victory unless they met other single-member mercenary groups, but when the opponent saw that he was up against two players in this match, he felt that he still stood a fighting chance. Rushing forward with confident steps, the opponent arrived at a land depression and quickly disappeared from the two’s line of sight.

“Let’s go!” Gu Fei pulled out his sword.

“Mhm!” Young Master Han agreed, following behind him.

The two immediately caught sight of the player hiding in the depression. Gu Fei and Young Master Han were dressed in their respective job classes, allowing the opponent to tell at a glance that one was a Mage and the other was a Priest.

The opposing player was a Warrior. After identifying the two’s job classes, the hopeful thought he had in his mind intensified. If the Warrior had been up against melee job classes with a Priest in tow, he might have discarded his hopes of winning the match. Since it was a Mage and a Priest, he only needed to engage them in melee. With the Mage’s inherently low HP, the Priest beside him would surely not be able to sustain his life for long.

Gu Fei proceeded forward ever so slowly as he was matching Young Master Han’s walking pace. Halfway there, Young Master Han suddenly said, “Go ahead and finish him off; I’ll head up that hill and take a look around.”

“What’s there to see?” Gu Fei asked, not understanding why the other would do something as troublesome as going up a hill.

“I’m going up to check the topological terrain of this map. The official website did not release any information about the twelve PvP arenas. Although this is the smallest map, I think it still has features similar to the other PvP tournament maps. By climbing up that higher landmass, I can get a better read of this whole place,” Young Master Han explained as he once again pointed to the spot he had previously indicated.

“Go on, then!” Gu Fei said, completely not understanding what Young Master Han was on about.

The Warrior, who was still hiding in the pit, was overcome with elation when he discovered that the two opposing players had split up. He wholly thought that the two could not find him, so the Priest headed to a higher ground to search for him up there. One going to look on a higher ground and the other one continuing to search on the leveled ground… The Warrior thought that this was a fatal mistake and quietly ridiculed the two noobs as he retracted his neck from his hiding place. He had already ascertained which higher ground Young Master Han was heading. Deciding to eliminate the Priest first, the Warrior retreated from his current position and used a different route to head to the Priest’s intended destination.

To prevent himself from getting discovered, the Warrior crouched so low that he was practically crawling on the ground as he made his way toward the location.

Everything was going very smoothly. Taking a different route, the Warrior arrived somewhere on the other side of the higher ground. He stretched his head to take a look and spotted Young Master Han sitting at a vantage point and looking left and right from time to time.

“Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around. Definitely do not turn around!” The Warrior repeated this mantra in his head as he carefully made his way up the hill.

It was a pity that he was a Warrior and not a Thief, so he could not help but make loud, clanking noises with his heavy armor no matter how careful he proceeded forward. It was quiet all around him, so the armor’s clanking sound was even more piercing to the ears. The Warrior felt it was impossible for him to quietly make his way into melee range at this rate. Suddenly, it dawned on him that he was only dealing with a Priest, a non-combat job class. Therefore, why would he need the defensive properties of his equipment? Thinking of this, he immediately took off his armor, pulled out his claymore, and made his way toward Young Master Han.

Without the armor, the Warrior could now proceed forward with ease. His heart could not help but sing with elation at the prospect of winning this match.

Thirty meters, twenty meters, ten meters… The Warrior got closer to Young Master Han with every step he took. This is great! After dealing with this fella, I’ll find another pit to hide in to deal with that Mage next! The Warrior was beside himself with happiness when he was just five meters away from the Priest, as if victory was well within his grasp. Three meters! I can begin my attack at this distance! The Warrior licked his lips as he raised his claymore with both hands toward Young Master Han. Just as he was about to activate the Charge skill, someone from behind him suddenly tapped his shoulder.

The Warrior was instantly petrified as he turned around half a beat later.

A Mage in black robe stood there.

The Warrior opened his mouth without making a sound, as he was still trying to maintain his silence to initiate his ambush! Realizing that his ambush would no longer succeed, the Warrior finally found his voice. “You… How did you….”

“I’m your opponent,” Gu Fei said plainly.

“Is… Is… this a trap?” the Warrior asked rigidly.

“Of course not,” Gu Fei said. He then asked Young Master Han aloud, “Are you done with your map research?”

“Almost,” Young Master Han replied.

“He’s about to finish; quickly put on your armor!” Gu Fei said to the Warrior.

“What?” The Warrior was absolutely flabbergasted at this point.

“Our fight will be better if you’re wearing your armor. Look at you now; what sort of defense do you even have?” Gu Fei patiently explained.

At this moment, Young Master Han stood up and turned around with wrinkled brows, “Stop nagging already and just finish this quickly.”

“You’re the one who wanted me to slow down; now, you want me to move things faster; why is it so difficult to please you?!” Gu Fei muttered to himself.

“What do you two mean?” the Warrior asked, still rooted to the spot in his shock.

“Oh. He wanted to take a look at the map, so he asked me to take it easy beating you. That’s why I followed you all the way without doing anything. Sorry about that!” Gu Fei explained.

You’ve been behind me all this time?” the Warrior asked, shocked.

Gu Fei nodded his head, “All this time.”

The Warrior looked at Gu Fei and then at Young Master Han. One had a look of expectation, while the other was simply impatient. “What is this?” the Warrior asked as his hands dropped to his sides, losing his will to fight.

“Twin Incineration! Incinerate!” Gu Fei suddenly struck; the flame orb glowed for a moment, insta-killing the Warrior.

“Why must you use Cyclone?!” Mistaking the Warrior’s movement as preparation to use Cyclone, Gu Fei dejectedly casted the Twin Incineration spell. He continued berating the Warrior who had already disappeared, “Weren’t you forcing me to insta-kill you by using Cyclone? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could fight slowly?”

In the next instant, the two were enveloped by white lights and were sent outside the PvP arena.

Round 1 winner: Young Master’s Elite mercenary group.