Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-142

Chapter 142 - Lack of Formidable Guildmates

“How are the rewards?” Young Master Han asked Gu Fei once they were teleported out of the PvP arena.

“They are alright,” Gu Fei gave the EXP and gold coins that they had just earned a quick glance. Since this was the first match, the rewards were just average. After all, the awards, as well as the odds of getting special rewards, would only become better the further they got into the PvP tournament. These rare, special awards were of course the most desirable rewards that the ambitious tournament participants all sought after.

Since Gu Fei got stuck at the end of the line previously, he entered the map a bit too late. He also tracked the opposing Warrior for quite some time. Therefore, a majority of the first batch of matches of the mercenary PvP tournament had long ended by the time the two got out of the map. Besides the steady stream of players being teleported back from their respective PvP arenas, few people were in the square.

Royal God Call and War Without Wounds, who were cheekily leaning by a wall near the teleportation array, began to clap loudly when they saw Gu Fei and Young Master Han step out of the teleportation portal, “Not bad! You two got off with a flying start.”

Young Master Han’s face was dark as he asked, “Where is Sword Demon and Brother Assist?”

“Sword Demon went to grind while Brother Assist went offline to check the forums,” Royal God Call replied.

The guild versus guild tournament was the next portion of the event, and Sword Demon and Brother Assist were not participating in that.

“How much EXP did you guys receive?” Royal God Call asked as he came next to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei reported the numbers and Royal God Call happily said, “He he! Seems like I received free lunch, after all! But we got less EXP compared to you two who have directly participated in the match.” As long as they were online, rewards from either the mercenary PvP tournament or guild versus guild tournament would be given to all members of the winning teams even if they did not participate in the matches. Some of the players who had no particular interest in joining mercenary groups tried their best to become part of large mercenary groups to partake in these free rewards. Unfortunately for them, the mercenary groups with actual strength had long reached their maximum member limit and there was no room in them for players who only wanted free meals during this PvP tournament.

The four chatted gamely as they headed toward the Main Hall of Guilds. The teleportation array for the guild versus guild tournament was located at the plaza outside the Main Hall of Guilds. Considering that there were more participants for this portion of the event compared to the mercenary PvP tournament, the time limit for entering the PvP arenas had of course been canceled as well. The four men naturally got separated from one another once more, as they were now up against a crowd far more denser than the throng of people outside the Hall of Mercenaries.

With everyone jostling and pushing about, Gu Fei once more found himself at the very back of the sea of players. He could feel his heart raging inside and nearly casted Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno to carve a path out. In fact, the Mages beside him had a similar idea! The burgeoning resentment seemed to have coagulated upon the heads of all the present Mages as dark clouds ominously blanketed their very thoughts.

The originally appointed time for the start of the guild versus guild tournament was at 9 P.M., but the game officials had to make an adjustment once more due to the large bulk of players. The teleportation array was opened without a restriction, allowing the match to start once both parties finished their preparations and ending it immediately once the match ended. The mass of players kept moving, yet almost an hour passed before Gu Fei managed to enter the teleportation array.

Cerulean sky, white clouds, vast field. The scenery the players first found themselves in seemed to be the designated map for the guilds’ preparation phase.

In sporting terms, this place the players were first transported in to prepare for their matches was akin to the changing room or locker room found in basketball or other sporting arenas. Gu Fei swept his gaze over this map for preparation and his thoughts went astray for a bit when he saw the pack of ladies nearby.

“Forty-seven!” July announced when she spotted Gu Fei as well, saying, “We’re missing three more members.” Although the event was something everyone looked forward to, there were always some players who would have all sorts of reasons to not make it. Out of the Amethyst Rebirth’s fifty-four members, four did not come online tonight.

“What’s the situation with our opposing guild?” Gu Fei asked.

“Unbeatable under the Heavens. A level 1 guild with fifty members all filled up,” July replied.

July considered level 1 and level 2 guilds as key opponents of the level 2 Amethyst Rebirth Guild with its fifty-four members. This was one of the guilds she had talked about lengthily before. Since Gu Fei was daydreaming at the time, he registered none of the information about the said guild.

“Everyone, how do you think we should fight that guild?” July asked.

July, who was a guild leader, was being very impartial and inclusive at the moment, even asking for everyone’s opinion. Gu Fei had the impression of her being more like a spokesperson of Amethyst Rebirth rather than its guild leader. Although this was just a game and a guild leader should not be so serious about his or her position, it was still necessary for one to have the disposition of a leader.

An example was the guild battle right now; a guild leader must command his or her members with confidence. Even if the command was poor, it would still be better than a scattered and directionless battle strategy. It was therefore somewhat inappropriate of July to gather everyone’s input in an important time like this. This sort of leader would definitely have great difficulty in achieving anything in a different guild other than Amethyst Rebirth. Although such a guild leader was well-received in Amethyst Rebirth, that might just be because of the agreeable personality of the ladies.

It was at this moment that Luo Luo opined, “Why don’t we split into small teams? Let us split our members into two small teams like how we do it during level grinding, since we will be more familiar with coordinating with one another.”

This was not a particularly exciting idea. Just look at Luo Luo’s grinding party that was mostly made up of Mages; if these Mages were to engage the opposing guild, would they not just be painting themselves as a large target? Although Gu Fei considered Luo Luo to have the better qualities of a guild leader, it was only because he preferred her personality and way of doing things over July’s. Nonetheless, she was still just an average player when it came to formulating battle strategies.

With that, all turned their gazes toward Svelte Dancer who was currently meticulously polishing her dagger. As one of the Five Unyielding Experts, what sort of brilliant idea would she come up with?

“Xiaowu, do you have any opinions?” July asked her directly.

“Opinion? Mm. Just kill opponents straight away. Everything will be over once they die,” Svelte Dancer said matter-of-factly, not even pausing what she was doing.

Ha ha ha… Gu Fei laughed to himself. It seemed like the Five Unyielding Experts could only be proud of their high level. This woman was stronger than most people, yet she knew nothing about battle strategies and the ilk! She’s just a gutsy Warrior without any knowledge of strategies, Gu Fei thought disparagingly.

“Miles, how about you?” July suddenly turned to ask Gu Fei.

“Ah!” Gu Fei froze up. Now that it was his turn to be asked, he tried hard to come up with a brilliant battle strategy, yet he could only blushingly say in the end, “Just kill them outright!”

Gu Fei was crying inside his mind, Turns out I am no better than Svelte Dancer; we are only good at one thing. In the end, we are just like Leeroy Jenkins. However, Gu Fei should not be blamed for this, as it did not mean that an intelligent person would surely be able to devise a great battle strategy. Knowledge and understanding of the various job classes’ fortes, methods of combat, and fighting styles were needed for a player to come up with a brilliant battle strategy.

For example, Gu Fei qualified to be called a top-notch solo player that could brave dangers in a RPG. When it came to commanding, however, it would require an expert well-versed in all sorts of strategy games.

The ladies were weak at commanding precisely because they usually had no interest in such strategy games. Gu Fei reckoned that out of all the ladies that he knew in this game, only Vast Lushness appeared to at least have a bit of knowledge about battle strategies. At the very least, her orders had been pretty good during that battle on the street when Gu Fei was taking revenge for Will-low.

As for the Amethyst Rebirth’s fifty members here, not one seemed to possess talent in this strategizing part of the game. In the end, the proposed battle plan was: rush together toward the enemies and overwhelm them through sheer number.

Such a crude and simple battle tactic! It was as good as not saying anything at all, yet this group of ladies sincerely nodded their heads as if they had received some sort of excellent strategy!

If Amethyst Rebirth wished to go far in this event, it seemed that they would have to rely upon the might and heroism of an indomitable player or players.

Hero number 1 Svelte Dancer finished polishing her dagger and, after lovingly caressing it for a bit, hung it by her waist as she looked at Gu Fei, “Let’s see who has the higher kill count!”

Hero number 2 Gu Fei smiled as he pulled out his sword, Moonlit Nightfalls.

“Preparation complete!” July submitted her application at this point. The opposing team had already been waiting for them for a long time. The scenery around them changed as everyone was teleported from the ‘changing room’ into the real PvP arena.

Unbeatable under the Heavens had fifty members but five of them did not show up for this match. These two guilds combined had ninety-five players, so the PvP arena Gu Fei found himself in now was much larger than the one he and Young Master Han had been placed in for the mercenary PvP match. At the very least, he could not see the enemies at a glance from their location.

“Advance forward!” July ordered.

The ladies swayed their hips in a carefree way as they ran across the field, laughing, joking, frolicking, and chasing after one another.

“Faster!”

“No. You slow down!”

The ladies laughed and shouted uncaringly as they advanced forward, not caring if some players ran fast or slowly. This resulted into them drifting apart the further they went forward. Svelte Dancer, with her amazing running speed, activated Fleetfoot all the way through and immediately disappeared into the horizon. Gu Fei kindly matched his pace to the Priests, thinking he needed to protect them with their inherently slow movement speed. In the end, he just became a target for Luo Luo’s constant bestowal of Heal.

“This is a PvP match! Be serious and stop wasting your mana!” Gu Fei admonished.

“Ha ha! I’m just joking; why so serious?” Luo Luo.asked as she ate a banana to replenish her mana.

F*ck! Their participation-is-more-important-than-the-result mentality is at the extreme! Gu Fei saw how the ladies were acting so carefree as if they were on a tour and not a PvP match. While they did not approach this matter with winning in mind and more of enjoying themselves to the fullest, Gu Fei was different. He was hoping that Amethyst Rebirth could fight a few more rounds, so that he could have more chances of slaying people! At this rate, won’t we just get eliminated in this round? Guess I must depend on myself, with that thought in his mind, Gu Fei no longer stayed around with this lot of plodding Priests as he broke off into a sprint, leaving the lot of ladies behind in the blink of an eye.

After running for a while, Gu Fei saw Svelte Dancer prone by a small mound ahead, peeking over as if she was checking something out. Gu Fei hurried over and lay sprawled on the ground beside her. He peeked out his head and asked, “What are you looking at?”

“You’re so slow!” Svelte Dancer mocked Gu Fei.

“Of course, you’re a Thief,” Gu Fei answered.

“You’re a Mage? Eh… Ha ha! You’re sh*t1!” Svelte Dancer laughed at the bad joke she had stumbled upon unintentionally.

Gu Fei did not bother answering her as he had already taken the situation in from beneath the mound. Before them, the Unbeatable under the Heavens Guild was slowly moving its troops around; the formed teams were maintaining a formation, with the Warriors at the vanguard, the Mages and Archers at the center, and the Thieves and Priests at the rear. Knights were split into the two wings of this formation as they constantly refreshed the stat buffs that they had placed on their fellow members. The rare and few Fighters in the guild were casually filling in the gaps of the formation.

Look at how professional they are compared to those ladies! Gu Fei frustratedly thought to himself. If the opposing guild’s formation were to clash with the Amethyst Rebirth’s scattered formation, the outcome would be less than suspenseful.

“How long are you gonna lie here and watch? Let’s start the killing!” Gu Fei said as he jumped up the mound and pointed his Moonlit Nightfalls forward, shouting, “Blazing Tree—”

“Are you mad?!” Svelte Dancer dove after Gu Fei, swiftly tackling him down to the ground.

The sound of several arrows piercing through air was heard as they went past the mound.

“That enemy guild has long prepared an ambush and is just waiting for our guild to show up!” Svelte Dancer exclaimed.

“Is that so? You better get off me quickly, then,” Gu Fei said to Svelte Dancer who lay sprawled over him.

Svelte Dancer was incensed, “I have yet to mention how you force me to get so physically close to you!”

“Look above you,” Gu Fei did not know if he should laugh or cry at what she had just said. Why are people’s thoughts always so filthy?

Svelte Dancer extended her neck upward and saw above them that the air seemed to rumble out of nowhere and tear apart instantly as countless flaming dragons erupted out of thin air before they turned into burning circles similar to wheels.

DESCENDING WHEEL OF FLAMES!

Chapter Notes:

[1] The joke here is a Chinese homophone. 师 (one of the characters for ‘mage’) sounds similar to 屎 (the character for ‘poop’).