Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-201

Chapter 201 - Putting on a show

“Everyone, the Mage of the hour will be here soon,” Brother Assist announced as he swept his gaze over to the crowd before him, whispering to Young Master Han after, “The ones who should be here are not here, yet many of those who shouldn’t be here are here.”

“Are you referring to Carouse and Cloud Herder’s people?” Young Master Han asked, chuckling.

Brother Assist nodded his head.

“If someone of Carouse is really planning to come, do you think I’ll be able to calmly sit here? I will not even be here if that’s the case!” Young Master Han continued to chuckle.

“What happened?” Brother Assist inquired.

“I’m not too sure, but it seems that Miles has already met Brave Surge,” Young Master Han answered.

“The same goes for Cloud Herder, I guess! To think that their flyers actually worked,” Brother Assist was very surprised.

Young Master Han shrugged his shoulders.

Brother Assist looked around once more, saying to Young Master Han, “I’ve spotted some familiar-looking faces that are acting furtive, as if they don’t wanna call attention to themselves.”

Young Master Han nodded his head, “I’ve spotted them as well.” The two men instinctively gazed over to these few people who were trying lie low among the many attendees for their current ‘event’.

“Let’s stop minding them and just focus on this conference!” Young Master Han said.

Brother Assist nodded his head and signaled War Without Wounds. War Without Wounds stepped away from the dimly lit corner that he had been staying in, causing the voices in bar to die down.

“What is that? Is it a pet?”

“I’ve never heard that there is a pet system in Parallel World!”

Everyone started to talk again, but the topic of their conversations was now the strange creature before them: War Without Wounds. Truly, his mismatched outfit was just too bizarre a sight. Since this was a VRMMO, physical appearance was a major concern for every player. While it was important for equipment to have decent stats, the equipment’s designs should also appeal to the public’s aesthetic taste. Right now, War Without Wounds was like a piece of abstract art painting in the eyes of others – unable to be described.

Royal God Call laughed until he was bending over, drawing the attention of a few people. Among these few people was Oathless Sword who promptly called out to him, “Royal, what are you doing here?” A guild leader might not necessarily know every member of his or her guild, but given Royal God Call’s fame in the online gaming community, Oathless Sword had been keeping an eye on him. In fact, Oathless Sword would have invited him to be a core member of Traversing Four Seas had it not been for Royal God Call’s young age and the fact that the latter was not playing a Mage, the job class that he was best at.

Royal God Call accidentally exposed himself due to his extreme glee, but he quickly turned the tables on Oathless Sword, “Eh?! Guild leader you’re here, too? Do you also wish to know that Mage? Why didn’t you ask me directly?! I know him as well.”

Royal God Call was no longer worried about revealing this to Oathless Sword as the latter had already paid the fee.

Oathless Sword did not really feel much regret at having paid a measly sum of 100 gold coins. Instead, he was happy to learn that he had a guild member that personally knew the Mage, as it would open doors to broaching the subject of recruitment. The many leaders present in this meeting would certainly be able to meet the Mage and some of them might even be able to add him as a friend, but they would be hard pressed to open the topic of recruitment to the Mage.

War Without Wounds was in great distress right now for garnering such a reaction from the players in the bar just by appearing before them. Brother Assist came forward and sympathetically patted his shoulders, “You’ll get extra compensation for this.”

War Without Wounds gritted his teeth and steeled his heart. Ignoring the shame he was feeling, he swaggered like always toward the bar entrance. They had already planned this beforehand; once Gu Fei came through the door, War Without Wounds would grab a hold of his shoulder to prevent him from escaping.

“Ray! Lock the other door!” Brother Assist said to Ray. The bar had two sets of doors, one on the left and one on the right. War Without Wounds was currently guarding the right door.

Ray nodded his head. He could do this as the owner of the establishment, yet his action of locking the left door made many leaders suspicious. Guarding the right door and locking the left door. No matter how one looked at it, this seemed like a trap set to kill them off in one go. The leaders with rich fighting experience, and especially those who tried to hide themselves earlier immediately went on guard. They were even thinking of bolting out before anything could happen.

Brother Assist totally did not expect everyone to be alarmed by their actions, so he tried as best as he could to come up with a reasonable explanation for it, “It’s just to ensure that we are not interrupted by uninvolved people. You guys paid for this information. Wouldn’t it be unfair to you all if someone accidentally barges in on us and freely gets to hear this information as well?” He would of course never mention to them that they were actually doing this to prevent the product from running away.

All the leaders easily accepted this reasoning and no longer paid attention to Ray locking the door; instead, they turned their attention to the bizarre-looking War Without Wounds who was guarding the left door.

It was at this point that the left door creaked open, and a Mage dressed in black robe appeared before the waiting crowd. The leaders eagerly studied the Mage’s appearance, but his face was unfortunately covered.

Those who personally knew Gu Fei could tell at a glance that it was him. Brother Assist could not fathom why Gu Fei was covering his face, but he still signaled War Without Wounds with a furtive glance.

“Ha ha! Why are you here?!” War Without Wounds warmly extended his arms to clutch Gu Fei’s shoulders.

Unexpectedly, Gu Fei dodged War Without Wounds’ outstretched arms and stared at him with wide eyes, “Who are you?”

“It’s me!” War Without Wounds hurriedly said to Gu Fei.

“What’s up with your getup?” Gu Fei asked, perplexed.

“It’s a long story,” War Without Wounds coughed as he tried to grab him once more, yet Gu Fei dodged his hands again and approached Brother Assist, “Why did you call for me?” Brother Assist was about to speak when Gu Fei shot his hand out to stop him, “Wait for me in the usual private room; I’ll go in once I’m done with my business.”

“Ahh… What business is this?” Brother Assist froze.

Gu Fei tossed 1 gold coin to Ray who felt stunned upon seeing his familiar action. Gu Fei then flipped over a bench and pulled out his sword, “‘Bounty Mission’! Please leave if you’re not involved!”

The whole venue came alive at once. Each of them was an influential figure in Yunduan City, so they had long heard of a Mage passionately doing ‘Bounty Mission’. Rumors had it that his skill was top-notch and that he had never lost his bounty. Some even wanted to recruit him right away, but this Mage was so occupied with chasing his ‘Bounty Mission’ targets that even catching a glimpse of him was hard. A few individuals who had luckily encountered the Mage in the middle of doing ‘Bounty Mission’ would patiently wait for him to finish his business to exchange a few words after. But once he was done with his mission and just as they were getting ready to greet him, the Mage would actually disappear in a white glow.

Nobody knew that there was a ‘Bounty Mission’ accessory called Windchaser’s Emblem that could teleport its wearer to the Bounty Assignment Hall, so those who had seen this scene actually thought that the Mage had used a teleportation scroll to leave the place after finishing his ‘Bounty Mission’, which thoroughly impressed them of his dedication and extravagance.

Looking at Brother Assist and his companions’ expression, all could tell that the Close Combat Mage 27149 that they had been waiting for was this black-clothed Mage. While Gu Fei’s acquaintances could recognize him just from his body frame and attire, those who were not that familiar with him, like Drifting, only identified Gu Fei upon seeing him toss 1 gold coin and shout out “‘Bounty Mission’!” Drifting smiled at this, “It truly is him.” Another person who met Gu Fei through this bounty hunting was Silver Moon, and it was at this very moment that Silver Moon connected the dots from this current scene to that episode back in Yueye City.

Gu Fei’s action shocked everyone present, especially when he mindlessly pointed his sword at several directions to distract his real target, “It’s you! Can everyone kindly make way please!”

Nobody knew who was his actual target, and those with PK points on them felt that he was targeting them instead. Even those who did not have any PK value on them were so shocked by him that they were all subconsciously trying to get out of his way.

There were not many top experts in the online gaming community, and it would be too coincidental for all of them to spawn in Yunduan City and become guild or mercenary leaders. Being a guild leader did not equate to having superb fighting ability, and their strength lay more on spotting a talent among the crowd. Not having indomitable fighting prowess and coming in this conference unaccompanied, it was hardly surprising that these leaders did not feel safe to be in the presence of the legendary Insta-kill Mage.

“Make way! Make way! Spells do not discriminate among people!” Gu Fei showily flourished his sword about as he started chanting a spell. This caused everyone to become even more flustered. Bars were a place where people had to share a limited space with others. If a Mage were to cast an AOE spell, the result would therefore be disastrous.

“Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno! Arise!” Gu Fei chose a random spot to point and chanted, causing everyone to scamper away. Gu Fei’s chanting was just a hoax, though. He had used Zhao San Mu Si while chanting the spell, so his sword tip had pointed to over a dozen spots at once. As such, even the most experienced players among the crowd could not determine where the inferno would spring forth.

The top-class Mage, Drifting, could tell that the spell would not be unleashed with a sword dancing so wildly like that. During spell-casting, a Mage must point a hand or a staff to a fixed spot to unleash a spell. With how Gu Fei was waving his sword about as he chanted, Drifting was certain that the spell was a dud.

Drifting was not the only one who could tell that Gu Fei’s move was a bluff. Out of everyone in the bar, Traversing Four Seas’ three men, The Black Hand mercenary group leader Black Index Finger, Silver Moon, Yueye City’s Dusky Cloud and company, and a few other guild leaders calmly remained on their seats.

Besides them, the four Amethyst Rebirth ladies also remained unperturbed. They believed that their relationship with Gu Fei was strong enough for him to simply let them off the hook if one of them ever happened to be his ‘Bounty Mission’ target.