Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-163

Chapter 163 - The Big Strategy

“Tsk!” Gu Fei did not believe Young Master Han’s words, “Don’t act like you meant for this to happen. Were it not for Svelte Dancer’s Teleportation Scroll, we would long die to that spell bombardment that you have set up.”

“Is that so?” Young Master Han drawled in his usual self-centered mannerism that seemed to be asking for a beating from others.

The glass in Gu Fei’s hand would already shatter if it were not for the fact that he was a Mage with low Strength. Do your best! Control yourself! Gu Fei thought to himself just like how Stephen Chow did it when he was facing that rough sea in the opening scene of King of Comedy1.

“Anyway, the situation now isn’t too bad,” Young Master Han looked at the time once more, asking, “Can Svelte Dancer get through this alone?”

“Of course!” Gu Fei nodded his head, “You’re not the only one who considered the issue of time. With Svelte Dancer’s capabilities, lasting until the match’s end won’t be a problem.”

“Capability? Is a Teleportation Scroll considered a capability now?”

Gu Fei did not answer his question. Pausing for a moment, he remarked, “It’s very boring sitting here and waiting.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be boring if War Without Wounds or Royal God Call was here instead,” Young Master Han said.

Gu Fei thought about it and honestly nodded his head, “I completely agree.”

A period of silence descended before Gu Fei finally asked, “Did you purposely strategize against Carouse?”

“Not at the start, but it became like that after I died,” Young Master Han answered.

“Why not from the start?” Gu Fei pressed on.

“Besides you and Svelte Dancer, the other members of your guild can totally be ignored. Although you two have fast movement speed, Carouse’s number and the long match duration would give us ample time to exert pressure all over the map to the point that neither you nor Svelte Dancer could escape,” Young Master Han reasoned, adding, “But after seeing Svelte Dancer’s Teleportation Scroll, I changed my mind and helped you two to achieve victory instead.”

“Oh?”

“That’s why I exaggerated about you and Svelte Dancer’s capabilities, suggesting that we proceed with caution by setting a defensive formation. I was planning to tell you my solution on how to deal with them in the final ten minutes, yet you were hot-headed enough to strong-arm your way to their defensive line half an hour earlier,” Young Master Han remarked expressionlessly.

“There you go deciding things on your own again! If we couldn’t hold on till the final ten minutes, wouldn’t your planning be for naught?” Gu Fei asked.

“Is it still my responsibility if you all couldn’t last till the final ten minutes?” Young Master Han countered.

Gu Fei choked, “Why couldn’t you have said something sooner?”

“Didn’t I say so before? My defense is perfect that even I have not found the method to break it yet. That was me telling you to stay put and not try anything fancy against my perfectly designed plan,” Young Master Han answered.

“Sorry about that! The way how your narcissism worked into your speech made me assume that you were just being sarcastic,” Gu Fei remarked dryly.

Young Master Han shook his head sadly, “Look at the cumbersome plan that you have come up with. Success will just mean that your luck isn’t terrible.”

Gu Fei could only laugh bitterly at his comment.

The two waited in silence inside the room for the match to end.

Half an hour later, Gu Fei received a message from Svelte Dancer: “Where are you?! We’ve won! WA HA HA HA HA! I AM REALLY TOO OP!”

Gu Fei happily replied to her message with one word, “Wonderful!”

Young Master Han furrowed his brows while he was peeking at Gu Fei’s messages from the sidelines. After a while, he waved his hands off dismissively, “How noisy.”

“Isn’t anyone going to trouble you?” Gu Fei asked as he drank his liquor. How he wished someone would rush here to give Young Master Han a good thrashing! Gu Fei could do it himself, but with everyone’s familiarity with one another, he felt uncomfortable doing the beating himself.

Young Master Han shook his head, “I don’t know.” He had long muted the guild channel.

Not too long after, a cacophony of noises echoed from outside the room and a woman’s voice boomed above the din, “Drinks are on me for everyone who’s currently here!”

Cheering echoed all over Ray’s Bar as Gu Fei and Young Master Han looked at each other’s eyes and called out in unison, “Ray!”

Ray hurriedly appeared before the two men.

“Is someone outside treating a round?” Young Master Han asked.

Ray nodded his head.

“Get me two bottles of your most expensive liquor,” Young Master Han ordered.

Ray gave a slight smile as he left the room.

“I’ve drunk that before, and it’s really not bad!” Gu Fei excitedly commented.

Young Master Han’s expression instantly turned frigid, “Need I remind you on how you could afford to drink that kind of liquor?”

Gu Fei hurriedly shut his trap. Ray quickly brought their drinks over. Because it was on someone else’s tab, the whole bar began to carouse to their heart’s content. Ray was immensely busy right now and said just two perfunctory words before placing the bottles of liquor down and leaving.

“Ah!” Gazing upon the bottle, Young Master Han radiated with a rarely seen happiness and swiftly poured himself a glass. Although Gu Fei was not that into drinking, he did not want to waste this chance to taste such a good quality liquor that the game had priced at 120 gold coins per bottle and also quickly poured himself a full glass.

Of course, those people who had rushed into the bar were none other than the ladies of Amethyst Rebirth. They could hardly believe themselves that they had won a match against the second largest guild in Yunduan City, Carouse. In their euphoria, they had temporarily abandoned their inhibitions and were openly tittering in the bar. The bar patrons inquired about the reason for this generous treat and could hardly believe their ears as well when they heard about the outcome of Amethyst Rebirth and Carouse’s match.

Svelte Dancer had accomplished a great feat indeed, with how she had to spend the last half of an hour alone against six hundred players. Outside the room, she was gamely telling everybody how she had managed to hide from the pursuit of over six hundred players. A look of realization dawned on Young Master Han as he said to Gu Fei, “Now I know why you didn’t choose to attack at the very last minute. Turns out you were purposefully leaving that half an hour for her so that she could be seen as the one contributing the most.”

Gu Fei smiled as he raised his glass, “Drink your liquor.”

Young Master Han emptied the glass with one gulp and sighed, “I don’t even feel like I’ve taken advantage of the situation drinking this liquor. I’ve earned it.”

Gu Fei chuckled. That was when the chattering outside suddenly subsided, cumulating into silence. In the next moment, Gu Fei heard July say, “Ah, it’s the gentlemen of Carouse. Is something the matter?”

“Are they looking for trouble?” Gu Fei frowned, his hand already reaching into his dimensional pocket for his sword.

“Don’t worry,” Young Master Han assured, “Brave Surge isn’t that sort of guy.”

The two then heard Brave Surge answer July’s question, “Can I know where is that male Mage of your guild? I’m quite interested in him, so I am hoping to get to know him a bit.”

“He’s not here,” July curtly replied.

“Oh…” Brave Surge had eyes of his own; a quick inspection of the bar and he indeed did not see a trace of Gu Fei. “Can you tell me how to contact him?”

“In that case, I’ll relay your message and let him decide!” July answered crisply.

“Thank you!” Brave Surge answered as he brought his men and left the premises.

The ladies all sighed in relief. Everyone had originally thought that Carouse’s men felt cheated off of their win and wanted to regain a bit of face on the spot.

“Hearing what the Carouse’s guild leader was saying, it seems that he wishes to headhunt Miles?” The ladies began to discuss this among themselves.

They could tell how mighty Gu Fei was after being with him in several guild matches, and a man of his caliber certainly seemed like someone that large guilds would fight over for. Gu Fei was different from Svelte Dancer. While she was a top-class expert herself, her mentality complemented the other ladies. She was here for a good time and did not harbor thoughts of tyrannizing or contending for the ‘throne’ of being number one. That was why she could be happy in a small guild and why her own mercenary group could be disbanded at the drop of a hat.

As for Gu Fei… None of the ladies could get a read of his thoughts, as they were not even close to him to begin with. Moreover, he had only joined the guild due to a misunderstanding and had mentioned before that he would leave the guild sooner or later.

The relationship between Gu Fei and these ladies was not especially deep, nor did they care if he was an expert or a noob. But as time went on, they had gotten used to having someone like him in the guild, so they felt somewhat saddened at the possibility of this status quo changing.

The atmosphere in the bar suddenly became quite sullen.

Young Master Han ridiculed, “Well what do you know... These ladies actually have quite a bit of a soft spot for you.”

Gu Fei smiled but did not say a word. It was not exactly a bad thing for people to have a soft spot for him.

The third round of the PvP event had ended as thus. Yunduan City once more had a hot topic to discuss and its content was the defeat of Carouse at the hands of Amethyst Rebirth. The tip off this time was different from that of Cloud Herder mercenary group’s, as the person who had leaked this information was from neither side. The original poster claimed that he had conducted a very thorough interview with both parties, yet the post did not mention the existence of the Mage Gu Fei. The post emphasized merely on the overwhelming strength of Svelte Dancer, one of the Five Unyielding Experts as well as the existence of a Teleportation Scroll.

This information did not exactly have a huge impact on the players outside Yunduan City, but it created huge waves to the ones within Yunduan City. Before, it was Cloud Herder mercenary group with its seventy or so members; now, it was Carouse with its over seven hundred members. This sort of ‘dragging the time out’ stratagem was simply too scary. Every large guild and mercenary group reacted appropriately, heavily researching a method to crack this stratagem.

“Heh… Carouse lives up to its name. The impact of their defeat is more intense than Crowd Herder’s defeat to us,” Young Master Han nodded his head in satisfaction.

“It’s Cloud Herder,” Brother Assist corrected.

“It’s all in the past, so why bother? I can’t wait to see what sort of strategy would our new foe come up with,” Young Master Han laughed coldly.

The rest of Young Master’s Elite took a copy each of the materials Brother Assist had gathered for today’s opposing mercenary group. Gu Fei swept through the data once and laughed, “This mercenary group we are facing for today will definitely be unaffected by whatever strategy you come up with.”

“Oh? Is there someone in that group who can see through my intentions?” Young Master Han asked as he checked the report that Brother Assist had prepared.

Young Master’s Elite mercenary group’s fourth round opponent: level 1 Amethyst mercenary group with twenty members. Besides the level 41 Thief Svelte Dancer, no one else had reached level 40.

Chapter Notes:

[1] King of Comedy - Starring Stephen Chow.