Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-198

Chapter 198 - Call for Merit

In the end, the match with Silver Moon mercenary group was one that was thrilling yet not life threatening, and Gu Fei’s repeated usage of Blink was enough to turn Silver Moon and his gang into a mess.

If Gu Fei were a normal Mage, Blink would be something easy to deal with. Unfortunately for his past and would-be opponents, Gu Fei had been using his spells quite differently from the average Mages in Parallel World. His use of Blink to instantly appear before his targets to cleave them in halves was akin to a Warrior gaining access to a teleportation skill – a fact that many found disconcerting.

When the system finished tallying the score of Young Master’s Elite for this round of match and teleported the six out of the PvP arena, the first individuals they saw were actually Silver Moon and his mercenaries.

“Good fight!” Seeing the six men appear, Silver Moon swiftly flashed them a broad grin.

The six were quite surprised by this. Honestly speaking, most competitors would still exchange a few words outside the PvP arenas after concluding their respective matches. After all, the tournaments were something that the game company had organized, so no vendetta existed between parties. Sometimes, even goodwill would be generated from these exchanges! Losing only meant that their opponents were skilled individuals, so most players would be more than happy to befriend such talented people.

However, Young Master Han reminded everyone that Silver Moon was no stranger to Young Master’s Elite since they had clashed with him before in Yueye City. Not to mention that they had just eliminated his mercenary group just now, and he might probably recognize a few familiar faces… With everything that had happened, the six men were merely hoping that he would not ambush them once they exited the PvP arena. Who would have guessed that he would warmly greet them, instead?

Silver Moon wore a fawning expression on his face as he shook hands with the six men, “How should I address you guys?” Excluding Gu Fei whom he already knew, Silver Moon proceeded to ask the rest for their IGNs.

Given that these men had well-known names in the online gaming community, Silver Moon could not help but exclaim, “I’ve always been a fan!” upon hearing their IGNs.

This was done until he got to Young Master Han. Silver Moon inclined his head to think for quite some time, but he could not recall the name as anyone of prominence, eventually treating him as a newly minted expert like Gu Fei. “To think Yunduan City has congregated so many epic level players!” Silver Moon could not help but sigh in awe.

Epic level! A few of these experts felt ten feet taller upon hearing such a wonderful praise. Royal God Call’s expert usage of Mage, War Without Wounds’ skills as a Warrior, Brother Assist’s gaming knowledge, Sword Demon’s kingly temperament… Silver Moon continued to stroke these experts’ ego one by one for quite some time by praising them for the aspects that these individuals were famous for in past MMOs.

He launched his offensive using candied words and rich praises! Gu Fei saw how elated Royal God Call, War Without Wounds, and even Brother Assist were upon being placed up high on a pedestal.

Only Sword Demon lived up to his name as a seasoned veteran, showing resilience to Silver Moon’s sycophantic and ass-kissing behavior. Because Silver Moon did not know about Young Master Han’s original identity, he could only compliment his physical appearance, “This bro here is too good-looking!”

“I know,” Young Master Han lightly answered, immediately causing Silver Moon to feel stunned for a good three seconds. He firmly shut his mouth to prevent himself from blurting this out, “Too shameless!”

And lastly, he looked toward Gu Fei. Unlike the others whom he had complimented with excessive flattery, Silver Moon merely said this, “Bro, you’re very strong!”

Gu Fei humbly smiled. When Silver Moon properly greeted all, he showed reluctance to part as he bade them farewell, “We’re all mercenaries here, so I hope we get a chance to work together in the future.”

Silver Moon was indeed an expert… at flattering others. His flattery was filled with technical and in-depth gaming terms, and Gu Fei did not even know about some of the things that Silver Moon had mentioned. But seeing Royal God Call and War Without Wounds’ ecstatic reaction, he knew that Silver Moon’s praises had touched on the truth.

Following this, they headed to Ray’s Bar to celebrate their success at making it through another round. As for Royal God Call and War Without Wounds, the two insisted that they were just pretending moments ago and openly expressed their disdain toward Silver Moon now.

“Hmph! That trash is not even in my sight,” Royal God Call disdained as he fixed his gaze straight ahead.

“It seems like he is no longer taking that matter in Yueye City to heart. If that’s the case, then that man is rather magnanimous,” Brother Assist said.

Young Master Han laughed coldly, “Magnanimous? It’s more like he’s a shrewd person. He tried to entrap us many times in today’s match, but Miles fortunately has the Blink skill. Otherwise, the match might not have ended well for us.”

“Entrap us? How so?” Royal God Call asked.

“By luring us into engaging them in melee,” Young Master Han replied, adding, “Attacking them from afar was useless, as their defense was too strong. That’s why I said it was a situation where you know you are at a disadvantage, but you still have to purposely fall for their trap.”

“Tsk! We could have dragged the match on to see who had more patience,” Royal God Call said.

“I don’t really mind,” Young Master Han stretched himself languidly, “It’s just that someone might grow impatient and start acting recklessly once he found out that dragging the match would cause him to be late for the upcoming guild match at 9 P.M.”

“Ahh...” Royal God Call was stunned, instantly remembering that he still had a guild match to participate later.

“And if we really dragged on for another two or three hours, there was still somebody else who might grow anxious since he only stays online for a short time everyday.” Young Master Han gazed over at Gu Fei.

“That’s why I hurried to kill them all!” Gu Fei clenched his fists.

Everyone grew dispirited once he said this. Almost all the enemies this match were handily defeated by Gu Fei. Even if they provided assistance from the sidelines, it was still nothing in comparison to Gu Fei’s achievements.

Royal God Call cried out in agony when he saw Sword Demon taking out the booklet for the record of their contributions.

“Actually, the biggest harvest we have gained from this match is that we managed to find out everything about Silver Moon’s skill, don’t you all think so?” Young Master Han remarked.

The others immediately agreed that the most important contribution for this match was information collection as they demanded for it to be assigned high points.

“It was through my strategic planning that let us uncover the secret behind Silver Moon’s skill. Give me some points for that,” Young Master Han told Sword Demon.

“That was quite the complicated equation I had to calculate. I should get more points for that,” Brother Assist patted Sword Demon.

“I bore that attack to get the data needed to make the calculation,” War Without Wounds reported his contribution, as well.

Sword Demon nodded his head, “I got attacked to gather that bit of data, too!”

“Me? What about me?!” Royal God Call was flustered. In that moment, he could not think of what he had contributed in this last match.

“You lent me the booklet and quill I used,” Brother Assist waved that booklet he had used to do the calculation.

“That’s right!” Royal God Call’s agony turned into joy.

“Miles did not even contribute a bit to this. He he he!” Everyone gloatingly regarded Gu Fei.

Gu Fei originally did not wish to squabble for the contribution points with the others, as unlike them, he was not very particular about this small stuff in a game. But seeing their gloating expression, Gu Fei knew that they were deliberately making things bad for him and that he should not let them succeed, so he asked, “I will be awarded many points if I manage to get concrete information about that skill, right?”

“Of course! You will get lots of points for that, too!” Royal God Call automatically answered.

“Give me a quill and paper,” Gu Fei reached out his hand.

“What for?”

“I have information,” Gu Fei replied.

Everyone was suspicious. Brother Assist tore out a page from the booklet and passed it to Gu Fei along with a quill.

Gu Fei huddled over the table and began writing on the paper. When he was done, he lifted the paper up, “This is a 100% accurate and detailed report.”

All regarded Gu Fei suspiciously as they took the paper from him.

[King’s Blade

Additional skill: Activates the battlefield aura ‘King’s Command’.

Effect: Party members within the area of effect will have all their stats increased by 15%. Consumes 4% of mana every second it remains active.

Skill cool-down time: 10 minutes]

Not only did Gu Fei state the skill description, he even wrote down the figures for basic attack of King’s Blade as well as the ‘additional +8 to all stats’ trait of it.

“You’ve fabricated something quite believable,” Royal God Call scoffed at it.

“It’s real,” Gu Fei slightly smiled.

“How do you know all this, then?” Royal God Call asked.

“I asked Vast Lushness about it,” Gu Fei replied.

They all froze on the spot. Brother Assist, who was doing the math in his head, almost exploded from anguish and he weakly slumped down on the sofa.

“How many points will I get for this?” Gu Fei asked Sword Demon.

Sword Demon sympathetically glanced at the others who had previously put their lives on the line for this information as he replied, “Most of the points will go to you.”

“Sword Demon, whose side are you on?!” Royal God Call demanded in his frustration.

“Are you complaining to the person who’s keeping track of your contributions? That’s very bold of you,” Sword Demon lightly chided. He was well-versed in all sorts of rules and regulations in online games, so he naturally was not just a goody two-shoes.

“Ha ha ha… Sword Demon big bro, do you have enough liquor? How about another one on me?” Royal God Call backtracked.

Sword Demon waved him off. He then shredded the page with the record for today’s match and began writing anew. Gu Fei had killed the most – if not all – and had also provided the most detailed information, so almost 75% of the contribution points for this match would go to him.

All emerged pale-faced when they came around to look.

“Dear students, you will only end up hurting yourself when you hurt others! Remember this well! I’m taking my leave now!” Gu Fei stood up and made his way out of the room.

“Hey, wait!” Recalling something, Brother Assist hurriedly chased after the departing Gu Fei.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Fei appeared before Brother Assist with a swish, giving the latter a fright.

“There’s something I need your help for once today’s guild match is over. Are you going offline now?” Brother Assist asked.

“It’s still early so I won’t go offline yet. What’s up?”

Brother Assist patted him on the arm, saying, “I’ll tell you when the time comes. You do your thing first!”

Everyone in the room stared at Brother Assist after Gu Fei left.

Brother Assist’s smile right now was particularly wretched, “Our business is doing well! We will have quite a few clienteles coming tonight to negotiate.”

“Alright! Let’s properly earn a pile of money from him as revenge!” Royal God Call bellowed.