Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-202

Chapter 202 - A Huge Mess

Only a minority of the present players could see through Gu Fei’s bluff, and a majority of them were completely taken in by his Zhao San Mu Si. Feeling that Gu Fei had cast the spell on their very feet, the whole bar lost any semblance of order as many leaders scampered about to dodge the incoming spell.

Just as Drifting was regarding the flustered leaders contemptuously, Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno flared into existence in the middle of the bar.

The spell’s AOE only extended to the center of the bar, so the fleeing players were able to escape to the side unscathed. Only a handful of players got blasted by the spell and they were mainly made up of those who had thought that they had seen through Gu Fei’s wild gestures. These people included the number one Mage Drifting, the four Amethyst Rebirth ladies, and The Black Hand mercenary group leader Black Index Finger.

The four Amethyst Rebirth ladies freaked out for a bit, thinking that their death was unavoidable given Gu Fei’s high Spell Damage. But when they unexpectedly remained relatively fine, they became very perplexed.

As for Drifting, he was trying to figure out how the spell had successfully been cast despite Gu Fei’s wild flailing of his sword, and he began to thoroughly inspect himself. The Black Hand mercenary group leader, for his part, promptly checked his HP and subsequently sneered, “You call this the Insta-kill Mage?”

They were not the only people who had gotten burned by the spell. When these other players heard Black Index Finger’s words, they immediately checked their HP and were shocked. The damage they had received from this Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno was far lower than the damage output of a naked level 40 Mage’s spell. It was indeed too farfetched to claim that Gu Fei could insta-kill someone based on the low Spell Damage he displayed just now.

‘Insta-kill Mage’ was how Brother Assist had promoted Gu Fei in his posts on the forums. Many of the present people had been drawn to this conference due to those two words, but now that they had experienced Gu Fei’s Spell Damage for themselves, the surrounding players grew extremely agitated as they assumed that they had been scammed by Brother Assist. Calling him a liar, everyone demanded a refund upfront. Some players even asked Brother Assist for a deathmatch. The scene quickly descended into chaos.

This was entirely outside Brother Assist’s realm of calculation. Seeing so many people brandishing their swords, sabers, bows, and staves threateningly at him, Brother Assist hurriedly raised his hands to appease the crowd, “Please don’t be so hasty, everyone. Let’s calmly talk about this.”

“What’s there to talk about?!” someone bellowed, “We’ve already experienced what his spell is capable of! That's nowhere near enough to actually insta-kill someone at all!”

The men refused to be pacified. After all, they now had solid proof of the falsity of Brother Assist’s claim after getting hit by Gu Fei’s spell. As for those players who had escaped Gu Fei’s Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno, they immediately asked the enraged men about Gu Fei’s Spell Damage. In a matter of minutes, dissatisfaction spread throughout the crowd in the bar.

Brother Assist was absolutely certain that Gu Fei’s Spell Damage could insta-kill many people, but it was also irrefutable that the latter’s recently released Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno had weak damage output. But as an acclaimed information expert, he was able to easily deduce what had just happened: While it was hard for weak players to suddenly get stronger in MMOs, it was actually very easy for the stronger players to slightly weaken their own Attack Power, and one of the way was through removing their weapons that greatly boosted their damage output.

The troubled Brother Assist thought of this as he gazed at Gu Fei. Despite his face being covered, Gu Fei’s twinkling eyes could clearly be seen. Brother Assist blanched as he exclaimed to himself, F*ck! I got sabotaged!

“Miles bro, don’t mess around. You almost caused my death!” Brother Assist hurriedly sent Gu Fei this private message.

[The player you’re trying to contact is temporarily unavailable.] the system expressed.

Sh*t! He came prepared! Brother Assist almost coughed up blood.

Covering his face, intentionally casting a weak spell, and even blocking any incoming messages… Gu Fei had clearly seen through Brother Assist’s plan and had purposely messed things up for him. Brother Assist watched helplessly as the hoard of leaders before him became more and more enraged. “You are all leaders or influential figures in our city! How am I going to live peacefully in this city from here onward if this is truly an attempt to scam you all out of your money?” was what he had said previously to eliminate the doubts of everyone, and in the eyes of the others, it seemed that he had done just that at the moment.

Guess I will have to abscond from this city! Brother Assist was in tears as this thought filled his head. Unexpectedly, someone stood up in his defense, “Everyone, please hold your horses!”

The one who had spoken was Young Master Han. But given the sort of people gathered in the bar today, Young Master Han held no sway to them. Some arrogant leaders even pointed to him and yelled, “Just who do you think you are?!”

At the same time, Brother Assist received a private message from Young Master Han: “I request to be given a bigger share of the pot if I manage to resolve your predicament.”

“Taking advantage of me while I’m in trouble?” They were both gaming experts after all, so their messaging speed was even faster than actual speech. Brother Assist might be lacking in other aspects as a player, but he was truly top-notch when it came to chatting, with his replying speed being faster than Blink.

Young Master Han did not respond to that; instead, his eyes steadily made contact with Brother Assist’s while smiling faintly.

Brother Assist was clueless to Young Master Han’s plan, so he could only nod his head to the latter.

“Ahem!” Young Master Han cleared his throat and raised his voice above the leaders’ din, “Hear me out first!”

“What’s there to explain?!” The men demanded angrily.

“Listen!” Young Master Han suddenly bellowed, “That man is absolutely not the Insta-kill Mage we want to introduce you guys to.”

The whole bar suddenly became quiet. Even Gu Fei looked at Young Master Han in surprise.

“Who is he, then?” someone skeptically asked.

“How do I know? I don’t know him. Perhaps, he’s here to sabotage us?” Young Master Han innocently replied.

This guy is really vicious and cunning! Brother Assist cried out in his heart. Basically, Young Master Han was implying that someone was trying to sully Brother Assist’s good name by making it seem that he had cheated the others of their money, and that someone was the ‘unknown’ Mage before them.

Naturally, quite a few leaders would want to hold Gu Fei accountable for this ruckus. And once Gu Fei retaliated against his attackers, his true colors would get revealed and the matter would subsequently be resolved. After all, none of these leaders would still be angry at Brother Assist once they realized Gu Fei was truly capapble of insta-killing the others. Right now, what was unknown was whose poor soul would get sacrificed to uncover this truth. Brother Assist sympathetically gazed at the crowd before him as he thought up to this point. It all boiled down to who among them was angrier at Gu Fei’s earlier stunt.

Young Master Han’s plan was not complicated, so Brother Assist was not the only one who could figure it out. Gu Fei had also seen through his intention. In the end, he simply said to the two with a slight smile on his lips, “I won’t attack even if I die.”

Young Master Han smiled faintly as well, “Then, go to hell!”

Young Master Han claimed that they were not acquainted with the masked man, yet now they were talking to each other. The people present were no fools so they immediately questioned them, “You guys are supposed to not know each other, right?”

“That’s right! We don’t know each other,” Young Master Han replied.

“Then, what were you two talking about?” someone asked.

“Your ‘mum’!” Young Master Han answered.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” the person bellowed in anger.

“Weren’t you asking us what we were talking about?” Young Master Han asked innocently.

The person who had asked the question was left speechless. What happened next was even more outside of Brother Assist’s expectation… .

Knowing that many of the present people were eager to beat Gu Fei up, Silver Moon, who had been maintaining silence all this while, suddenly said, “Everyone, please don’t be rash. Let’s just turn a blind eye over this weak Mage who has suddenly barged in for now. He’s all surrounded now, so there’s no way for him to run, anyway. Don’t forget; we didn’t spend 100 gold coins today just to fight here, so I think it’s better to get Brother Assist to invite this Insta-kill Mage out!” He then looked at Brother Assist and the gang with eyes full of loathing and malice.

Actually, from the way these ‘event organizers’ greeted the ‘weak Mage’ just then, everyone could already tell that those people knew one another, and that the Mage was probably the one that the gang had wanted to introduce to everyone. Who knew that things would come to this point where Young Master Han would vehemently deny his connection with Gu Fei? Given the fast development of the situation, hardly any people could connect the dots yet. Silver Moon coldly observed this proceeding, and unlike the others that had their focus shifting from person to person, his attention had remained on Gu Fei.

Just from the verbal exchange between Gu Fei and Young Master Han, Silver Moon more or less got the full picture of the situation and deduced that some sort of conflict must have transpired between the ‘weak Mage’ and ‘the event organizers’. With Gu Fei’s refusal to admit that he was the Insta-kill Mage and Young Master Han’s denial of their connection, these few people in charge of the event would probably be branded as scammers and would swiftly be annihilated by all the leaders in Yunduan City if they were unable to present the so-called ‘Insta-kill Mage’ right at this moment – an outcome that Silver Moon would thoroughly relish.

To think that the opportunity for revenge would come this soon, Silver Moon gleefully thought to himself as his mouth formed a sinister smile.

Brother Assist noticed how Silver Moon had tried to calm down the enraged crowd earlier, and his heart tightened when he saw the latter smirking at a corner.

Young Master Han had judged Silver Moon’s character correctly: He was indeed a very shrewd person. He knew that Young Master’s Elite was his arch-nemesis, yet he never showed it in his action. Seeing a chance for revenge, he had pounced on it and viciously bit hard on it. This one bite was rather fatal. If they were unable to present the Insta-kill Mage to the crowd, they would be featured on the forums the next day as swindlers and their reputations would be ruined by this one incident.

Right now, we could only hope that Miles would intervene, Brother Assist thought to himself, as he gazed imploringly at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei had naturally caught on to Silver Moon’s nasty plot. Although he had no wish to become a moneymaker for others, he could simply not allow such a villainous man to succeed. Finding a trade-off between the two, Gu Fei resolved to insta-kill Silver Moon with one move, even at the price of revealing his identity as the Insta-kill Mage. Everything else that followed could be discussed at a later period.

Just as he was about to make his move, Young Master Han spoke up once more. Even when he was in such a dire straits, Young Master Han’s tone remained measured and languid, “Everyone, you’ve actually seen the Insta-kill Mage just now without realizing it. He is one of the Five Unyielding Experts and Parallel World’s number one Mage, Drifting!” Young Master Han said this emphatically as he pointed to the seated Drifting who was calmly watching the proceeding.

“Oh…” Brother Assist came to a sudden realization upon this reveal. It turned out that Young Master Han’s earlier words to Gu Fei were not a threat uttered out of anger but the truth instead. He judged that Drifting was the perfect alternative candidate for the title of the Insta-kill Mage.

Was Drifting capable of insta-killing others, though? Although they had known him as one of the Five Unyielding Experts, none of the present people had actually seen Drifting in action. Given that there was not much difference in the levels of the current players, the ability to insta-kill others depended entirely on an individual’s equipment and spell proficiency. Drifting happened to have a higher level than every person in the bar, so Brother Assist and the others could not appraise his equipment and make a judgment of his might as a Mage.

Meanwhile, Drifting, whose name was suddenly shoved to the limelight, dumbly gazed at Young Master Han.

Everyone once more descended into silence. Young Master Han did his best to give everyone an introduction, “I’m sure that all of you are familiar with the name Drifting, since he has always been ranked first on the Mage leaderboard. But I believe that not many of you are aware that he is currently in Yunduan City, right? To actually get to meet a living legend... You should all feel that the money you’ve paid is well worth it!”

“B*llsh*t! He’s nothing but a shi*ty Mage!” Royal God Call was aware of their dire situation, yet the youth was ultimately more sensitive than sensible. He was utterly discontented to see his adversary being raised high up on the pedestal, so he shouted this without caring for the consequences.

Young Master Han was unperturbed by Royal God Call’s outburst and merely addressed Oathless Sword, “Guild Leader Oathless, you should grab this wild child of your guild and chastise him properly. This rascal has always been in conflict with Drifting. He knows very well that Drifting is in town, yet he never once saw it fit to inform you.”

The animosity between Royal God Call and Drifting, the two renowned Mage users in MMOs, was a well-documented fact known by many well-informed players. Everyone easily accepted Young Master Han’s words after seeing that Royal God Call was indeed just a youngster. Everyone merely viewed Royal God Call as a child throwing a tantrum even as the latter kept on shouting “B*llsh*t!”

The whole place once more returned to a state of tranquility as Brother Assist surveyed everything with incredulity, Is the situation really resolved just like that?