Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-176

Chapter 176 - A Unique and Outstanding Player

Vast Lushness did not express her puzzlement. The online gaming community was full of outstandingly unique individuals, after all. Compared to Ray who had used real-world currency to open a bar in Parallel World, Gu Fei’s action was still considered as normal.

After feeling surprised at this chance meeting, Gu Fei quickly recovered his business-like attitude and warmly greeted the customer before him, “Take a look and see if you have anything you want!”

Vast Lushness squatted down and carefully inspected each of the items on display.

Gu Fei felt bored as she inspected his wares, so he used his Appraisal skill on Vast Lushness. She was currently at level 31 with common-grade equipment and empty accessory slots. Even an average level 31 player would not be in such a state. Since he knew Vast Lushness had once been a level 30 illustrious figure, Gu Fei found this strange, “Why are your equipment slots empty?”

Vast Lushness, who continued to inspect the items in his stall, lifted her head and looked at him, “I lost it all when I got slain.”

“How many times have you gotten slain?” Gu Fei curiously asked. A player would drop a whole level every time he or she died in this game. Killing people until they lost all their equipment was not easy, as they could no longer be bullied into a PvP once they reached level 10.

“I’ve been getting hunted for over a month, so I’ve already lost count,” Vast Lushness was truly a tenacious person; she did not count death by the number of times she died but by the number of times she had been hunted to death.

“Shouldn’t you be at level 10?” Gu Fei asked, perplexed.

Vast Lushness glanced at Gu Fei in surprise, “Levels can be grinded again!”

“So you grinded your way up, only to be killed by them again?” Gu Fei pressed on.

“Should I be afraid of them, instead?” Vast Lushness answered him with a question.

For a Priest to stubbornly struggle under such a situation, Gu Fei could tell how strong-willed she was! Sighing in admiration, he asked her another question, “Are they not chasing you now?”

“Not after that time outside Yunduan City. Maybe they’ve gotten lazy, or they are busy with the game’s PvP event,” Vast Lushness replied.

“Oh…” Gu Fei merely nodded his head.

Vast Lushness continued to rummage through the equipment as she said, “I’ve yet to properly thank you for last time.”

“You’ve already thanked me,” Gu Fei reminded her. Vast Lushness had humbly said, “Thank you... Thank you...” over and over again last time when Gu Fei told her where Silver Moon was, which was a far cry from her tyrannical personality in Yueye City.

“I mean that time by the prison entrance. I’m grateful that you told me what you had heard,” Vast Lushness clarified.

“It’s nothing,” Gu Fei said, asking, “Did you manage to meet him?”

“No.”

“No?” Gu Fei was mildly surprised. He did not remember hearing any other ways in and out of the prison besides the main entrance.

“I left not too long later after you did,” Vast Lushness explained.

“Oh?”

“The truth is I had a hunch on exactly why he had been avoiding me… and yet I still tried chasing after him just so I could hear it from himself… But then I thought, why should I continue fooling myself if even an outsider like you could tell the truth?” Vast Lushness said numbly.

Gu Fei did not comment. Out of courtesy to a fellow human being, he told Vast Lushness what he had found out inside the prison. As for what she would do next, Gu Fei knew that he had no say in it.

While Vast Lushness had clearly put all her heart into her and Silver Moon’s relationship despite it being just a game, Silver Moon had always carried the mentality that everything here was but a game!

“That’s why I ought to thank you properly,” Vast Lushness said. Evidently, her gratefulness to Gu Fei toward this matter was even more sincere than when he had saved her from being killed before. With her not fearing death or getting hunted by men, Vast Lushness had only felt superficial gratitude toward Gu Fei for saving her life before, so her thanking him for that was actually just a polite gesture and nothing more. As for the matter with Silver Moon, Vast Lushness had truly felt genuine thankfulness for his kind gesture toward her.

Gu Fei of course did not feel that his action was very amazing to be worthy of someone’s deep gratitude, so he simply said, “Don’t worry about that.”

“Let’s add each other as friends!” Vast Lushness suggested.

Gu Fei was not bothered by her request in the least. Nodding his head in agreement, he opened up his friends list and allowed her to add him. The system then notified him: [Player Vast Lushness has added you as a friend.]

“Once I make it rich, I’ll treat you to a round of drinks. From your IGN, I’m sure you love to drink,” Vast Lushness said to Gu Fei while smiling wryly.

Even Gu Fei was getting tired of telling others about the origin of his IGN, so he merely said, “No need for that.”

“You said you had seen me in Yueye City; when was that?” Vast Lushness asked.

“I used to be Fugitive 27149,” Gu Fei honestly replied.

Clank! The emblem that Vast Lushness had just picked up loudly clattered to the ground. She raised her head and fixed Gu Fei a fierce stare. She had been conversing with him all this while with her eyes on the items he had on display.

Before either of them could say another word, a stifled laughter was heard from the player beside them.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you two,” the person hurriedly apologized, adding mischievously, “Pretty lady from Yueye City, you should know that Yunduan City’s Mages like to fashion themselves as Fugitive 27149 whenever they are chasing skirts….”

Gu Fei felt amused by this as he had never heard of it before, “And? What’s the result of their attempts?”

The person sighed deeply, “None has actually succeeded in scoring with ladies. In fact, they all got killed just for claiming that they were that guy!”

“Why’s that?” Gu Fei asked.

“Fugitive 27149 is an expert! All the pretty ladies want to see what he’s made up of. You have to get close to a lady to flirt, right? If someone wants to test your skill as a Mage at close range, it’s almost the same as you signing up for your own death!” The person explained while laughing.

“Ha ha ha ha! How pitiful of them!” Gu Fei laughed as well.

Vast Lushness did not join this exchange. She could tell that Gu Fei was not trying to flirt with her using that silly method and was telling the truth. This meant that he truly was once Fugitive 27149.

“So how is it? Do you still wanna treat me to a drink?” Gu Fei addressed Vast Lushness once he had his laugh.

“I’ve already said it, so it counts,” Vast Lushness replied evenly.

Gu Fei merely smiled.

“But! I originally wanted to treat you to some high quality liquor till you have your fill; now, I’ll only buy you one glass of the most common alcoholic drink available. We’ll then consider the matter between us as settled; what do you think?” Vast Lushness asked.

“Forget about the drink; just buy one of my items now!” Gu Fei bargained.

“Are you really in need of money?” Vast Lushness asked, surprised. The cheapest glass of liquor was only at 10 copper coins. She had initially thought that Gu Fei had set up this stall as a hobby, yet he was actually attempting to earn some money from it.

Gu Fei glumly nodded his head.

“Why aren’t you farming for high-grade equipment, then? Won’t it take much longer for you to sell all these junks?” Vast Lushness asked.

“I’m in a hurry and I thought that selling equipment here would be quick!” As Gu Fei said that, he suddenly jumped up and shouted, “Oh, crap!”

“What’s the matter?” Vast Lushness asked. Gu Fei’s shout made the surrounding players jump in fright as well.

“Help me look after this stall; I’ll be right back,” Gu Fei quickly hopped out from behind the stall as Vast Lushness received a system message: [Thousand Miles Drunk has set you as the stall owner.]

While any players could set up a stall whenever they pleased in all the Peddlers’ Streets, the merchants were still under the system’s protection. If not, all the Peddlers’ Streets could easily turn into Robbers’ Streets.

“Where are you off to?” Vast Lushness was at a loss.

“The P.E. session is about to start; I’ll be back soon!” Gu Fei said as he sprinted off.

“What?” Vast Lushness became even more clueless.

Gu Fei hurriedly ran to a safe zone and went offline. He then rushed out of his house and arrived at the school’s field.

Music played on speaker as the students made their way toward the field. Gu Fei sighed in relief; at least, he was not late for work.

That was right. Although physical education teachers did not have classes in the morning, supervising the students’ morning and assembly exercises was still part of their job. Gu Fei rushed between the two worlds precisely because of the assembly exercise....

He entered the game once more after he was done with his duty at school. When he got to Peddlers’ Street 2, he spotted someone arguing with Vast Lushness by his stall.

“Why are you selling all these for 1 gold coin? That’s quite the loss. Babe, you could sell this ring here for 2 or 3 gold coins! This dagger has decent traits to it, so 5 gold coins should be the right price for it. As for these…” The person pointed to a few other items and said, “They’re not even worth 1 gold coin each! Sigh… Must be tough for you to sell things here… Actually, I happen to need a Priest for my level grinding. Babe, how’s your skill? Why don’t you join me on my level grinding? We can sell some high-grade equipment together after we farm them. I’m now at level 40. With you aiding me as a Priest, we shan’t have problems fighting monsters five levels higher. Since the monsters are ten levels higher than yours, you’ll get lots of experience as well as high-grade equipment. What a great deal, it is! So are you in?”

The person chattered incessantly, looking as if he was trying to abduct a naive and unworldly teenage girl. Vast Lushness was only at level 31 with trashy equipment. Given how she was also currently selling a pile of trashy items at a low price, she completely fit the above descriptions.

Unfortunately, the man was dead wrong. After saying so many flowery words, Vast Lushness simply rolled her eyes, “Your tricks won’t work on me.”

The man felt stunned as he realized that his intentions had been seen through. Unexpectedly, he sulkily said, “Looks like babe isn’t a newbie, after all!”

As Vast Lushness flashed him a cold smile, the man continued, “Then, you should know better that there’s no future selling these items, right? Come and grind with me! Seeing how low your level is, you must be lacking the help of an expert during level grinding, right?” He suddenly felt a presence behind him as he was trying to convince Vast Lushness. Turning his head backward, he saw Gu Fei standing behind him, “It’s you!”

Before Gu Fei could reply, the man was already patting him on the shoulder and saying, “Bro, I saw her first so I got the dibs on her. Don’t mess things up for me! Besides, you already have the entire Amethyst Rebirth to yourself; is there a need to busy yourself with more? Anyway, it’s first come, first served basis here!”

Deplorable! He is too d*mn deplorable! Gu Fei cried inside him.