Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-219

Chapter 219 - Thousand Miles Drunk’s Reply

In actuality, only one hundred twelve individuals had mailed him the two hundred forty-one letters. This meant that each of them had sent two or three letters on average. While there were some who had only sent one letter, most had sent two or three letters over; in fact, a handful of them had mailed him four or five letters. What was regretful, though, was that none of the mails was a letter of challenge that Gu Fei had been hoping to find.

The various in-game cities were geographically divided, so Gu Fei’s fame was more or less limited to just within Yunduan City. Perhaps, some people would have sent letters of challenge to Gu Fei if the title of ‘the strongest across all lands’ could have been claimed by defeating him. Gu Fei pondered on this as he wrote a reply to each letter, Should I try to gain the title of ‘undefeated under the heavens’ to attract worthy challengers and travel all over Parallel World in search of such individuals?

Through their joint effort, Gu Fei and Young Master Han managed to compose one hundred twelve letters of reply; the name of each recipient was written properly across the surface of every envelope. The two needed not write Gu Fei’s IGN as the sender of the letters, as the system would help Gu Fei fill that portion up once he put the letters inside the mailbox.

“Off you go, then!” Young Master Han pushed all the letters on the table over to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei nodded his head, hugged the stack of letters, and left for the mailbox. Arriving at the mailbox by one of the city gates, Gu Fei slowly slotted each letter into the mailbox and was charged a nominal fee for each letter. While the one hundred twelve players bore the cost of their letters separately, Gu Fei now had to pay the full cost of all by himself when replying....

The system was very quick to send a mail, almost as if it was SMS¹. Gu Fei only closed the lid of the mailbox after putting all the letters in it for a bit, but when he opened it again in the next moment, he saw that the mailbox was already empty. All of the letters he had put inside it were already sent out.

Accomplishing this task, he looked at the time and saw that only thirty minutes were left until the start of the mercenary PvP tournament. It was at this point that he received Young Master Han’s message telling him to meet everyone by the teleportation array, so Gu Fei hurriedly made his way over.

Over by Four Seas’ side, Youthful Reflection was feeling restless. He had been waiting for a reply to his letter from last night until now. As time went by and he still did not get a reply, Youthful Reflection began to wonder, Just how did my beautifully crafted letter fail to sway him?

In the end, Youthful Reflection came up with this sort of reason, Perhaps, he’s really strong-willed! He then decided to give up on the matter. With only thirty minutes left until the match’s start and some members pestering him on the mercenary channel, he figured that it was best to focus his energy on organizing everyone and coming up with a way to fight the opponents. Youthful Reflection was glad he did not brag about his plan to his men after sending that letter last night; otherwise, he would really be shooting himself in his foot.

As he was thinking of this, the system suddenly notified him: [You have received a mail.]

Feeling slightly stunned, Youthful Reflection rushed over to the nearest mailbox by one of the city gates. He was an Archer with a full-Agility build, so he swiftly arrived at the mailbox. Heart filled with trepidation, Youthful Reflection opened the mailbox and gingerly retrieved the letter within. He felt giddy when he saw the sender’s name on the envelope’s surface: Thousand Miles Drunk.

Since the system generated the name itself, how else could it be faked? Youthful Reflection sprinted toward the teleportation array while he rapidly tore off the envelope to retrieve the letter within.

If the letter had indeed been written by Gu Fei, Youthful Reflection would have experienced what it felt to descend to the depths of hell from the pearly gates of heaven with Gu Fei’s “I thank you for your offer, but I refuse” reply. However, this letter was written by Young Master Han, so Youthful Reflection was abruptly sent straight up to the pearly gates of heaven – for now. The ‘hell’ part would definitely come later.

In this letter, Thousand Miles Drunk first voiced all the grievances he had with Young Master’s Elite before wholeheartedly approving of Youthful Reflection’s suggestion to defect over to his side. He then wished to show his dedication to his new mercenary group, Four Seas, by heartlessly revealing the PvP strategy for this upcoming match of his now ex-mercenary group, Young Master’s Elite.

Grand Kiting strategy! Thousand Miles Drunk revealed in the letter. No one in Young Master’s Elite had the guts to face the strongest mercenary group, Four Seas, head on in combat, so they decided to use the Grand Kiting strategy that they were well-versed at for this match. The best way to counter such a strategy was for Four Seas to control the number of its match participants; only Four Seas’ best and elite members should participate in this upcoming PvP match because Young Master’s Elite could only accumulate kill points by targeting the opposing side’s weakest members.

Furthermore, Young Master’s Elite would depend on its team’s Mage, Thief, and Archer – three job classes with the fastest movement speed – for the Grand Kiting strategy. The other three with low Agility would often be positioned far from the actual battlefield, so if Four Seas could ambush those three, the outcome of the match would tilt in Four Seas’ favor. As for how this could be done, Thousand Miles Drunk asked Youthful Reflection to think of this himself since he was regrettably not good at coming up with any combat strategy.

Finally, Thousand Miles Drunk expressed his regret for being unable to open his friends list to accept Youthful Reflection’s friend request as “There are simply too many people trying to add me these days.”

A flicker of doubt passed through Youthful Reflection’s mind as he read through the letter. Only half an hour was left until the match’s start, so the members of Four Seas were anxiously inquiring to him about their group’s strategy for this PvP. The match was about to begin, but Youthful Reflection had yet to tell them of how they would fight Young Master’s Elite. Did he wish for everyone to participate in the match or just the elite members? This was a question that the whole of Yunduan City was also wondering about.

Youthful Reflection hurriedly sent out a message on the mercenary channel before rushing over to the teleportation array by the Hall of Mercenaries. When Youthful Reflection was teleported into the ‘changing room’, he knew exactly which plan he was going with and announced, “Not all of us are going to participate in this match to prevent us from falling for enemies’ Grand Kiting strategy. Mmm… I’ll call out the names of the members who will join me for this match.” He then began to read out names from the members list. Out of the thirty members he was choosing for this match, he made sure to include ten Archers and ten Thieves before filling up the remaining spots with the other job classes.

Youthful Reflection had always been the commander and tactician of Traversing Four Seas Guild, so he had always had more authority than Guild Leader Oathless Sword when it came to this matter. No one objected to his decision once he announced it. The players who were not chosen for the match immediately left the ‘changing room’. According to Traversing Four Seas Guild’s rules, all the players would receive recompense just by abiding to the core members’ orders, so these players did not really feel saddened for not being chosen to participate in the match.

“This will do!” Youthful Reflection gazed at the thirty men before him as he thought of how to proceed.

In the ‘changing room’ of Young Master’s Elite, five men listened to Brother Assist count the number of participants of the opposing group for this match. “Hey, Four Seas initially had sixty-seven players for this match, so why are they down to only thirty men now?!” Brother Assist expressed his surprise at the final headcount of the opposing mercenary group’s match participants. “Looks like your Grand Kiting strategy is still very effective against our opponents. They are very afraid of it!” Brother Assist happily patted Young Master Han.

“He he…” Young Master Han merely chuckled.

“How are we fighting this match?” Gu Fei rubbed his fists together, the fighting spirit within him surging. Youthful Reflection would definitely be shedding bitter tears if he could see Gu Fei right now.

“It’s only thirty men! How about we just kill them all directly?” Young Master Han cheerfully fielded this idea.

“I absolutely agree!” This was Gu Fei’s favorite method, as it would let him rampage across the map and enjoy himself to the fullest! It reminded him of the times he had fought alongside Amethyst Rebirth….

“These… These thirty men that Four Seas have sent in cannot be compared to High Cloud’s. They are surely the elite within Traversing Four Seas; their teamwork won’t be lacking at the very least. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for us to simply face them head on?” Brother Assist was worrying about his fellow mercenaries’ way of approaching a fight as usual.

“Let’s have some fun! We should also learn to enjoy this tournament from time to time. Stop fussing over the minor details,” Young Master Han said something very uncharacteristic of him.

“Are you sure?” Brother Assist glanced at Young Master Han and then over to Sword Demon. Sword Demon’s expression was as calm as ever; he was like a great oak for Young Master’s Elite, unyielding and unbending no matter what raged on around him. He never questioned anything and always exuded an aura of resolve that bolstered the confidence of the people around him. Brother Assist habitually looked over to Sword Demon to search for his own self-confidence, which he successfully managed to find this time as well.

“Let’s focus on harassing the opponents like yesterday,” Young Master Han said, adding, “But our opponent this time around will certainly not be easily thrown into chaos like how High Cloud was, so we mustn’t prod them carelessly. Everyone should consider his retreat options before attacking and must only engage the enemies when he’s absolutely certain of success. The key here is to save your strength.” As all seriously nodded their heads, he reminded them, “The match is about to begin.”

When the ten-second countdown ended, both mercenary groups were sent into the PvP arena.

“You three should go ahead and advance along the edges of the map. I’ll observe the situation from a vantage point once you have circled the enemies. Wait for my command,” Young Master Han waved his hand dismissively. Gu Fei, Sword Demon, and Royal God Call proceeded forward following his order and soon disappeared without a trace. War Without Wounds, who was standing beside Young Master Han and Brother Assist, glumly asked, “Am I in charge of protecting you guys again?”

“Let’s head to a high ground!” Young Master Han ignored his question and merely brought the two to a vantage point. The three immediately spotted a group of people in the distance upon securing a vantage point, but they could not discern how many players there were due to them being very far away.

“How many people are there? Is that all thirty of them?” Brother Assist eyed the opposing team suspiciously. He felt that something was off with how Young Master Han had positioned their group today. Usually, they would all head to a high ground to spy on the enemies first before sending the attack squad on their way. Why did he split the group from the get-go?

“Sword Demon, slightly head toward the 328, 341 direction; Miles, move yourself toward 24, 357; and Royal, just head to your right and move—what the heck?! That’s your LEFT! Can’t you even tell left from right?!” Young Master Han adjusted the three’s routes on the mercenary channel.

“How’s everything?” Gu Fei and the two asked for information about the enemies on the mercenary channel after following Young Master Han’s directions for a while.

“There’s no movement on their end yet. Chill; we’re still testing each other’s patience,” Young Master Han replied.

“They should be able to see us over by this hilltop, so why are they not making a move?” Brother Assist voiced his suspicion.

“Perhaps, they have already sent a team over to ambush us,” Young Master Han explained unhurriedly. Just as he said this, several arrows could be heard flying toward their flank.

“That was quick!” Young Master Han laughed mirthlessly as he released the Heal he had prepared in advance. Although the enemy Archers used the same skill, due to their individual equipment and stats, they had different range and attack speed, and this caused their arrows to fly toward the three at different speed. Young Master Han accurately grasped the timing and heading direction of these arrows and swiftly bestowed Heal on War Without Wounds.

The arrows were indeed aimed at War Without Wounds. Fortunately, War Without Wounds’ new high defense armor and Young Master Han’s superbly timed Heal prevented the Archers from insta-killing him.

War Without Wounds was an experienced combatant, so he reacted swiftly to this surprise attack. Advancing a few steps forward, he unleashed Cyclone with his two claymores.

As expected, the Archers were not the only ones trying to kill him off; Thieves were also trying to stab him sneakily from behind. The Cyclone he had unleashed insta-killed these two Thieves on Stealth.

“D*mm*t! Things are looking dire!” When War Without Wounds saw five Archers sending arrows their way, he immediately assumed that the number of Thieves would be just as much – if not more – but, so far, he had only found and killed off two Thieves.

Youthful Reflection, who had personally led this team over to conduct the ambush, was currently quietly giggling to himself. Their three targets seemed to be utterly unprepared for this sudden turn of events, which finally led him to trust Thousand Miles Drunk’s words in the letter.

Two points were mentioned in the letter: first was for Youthful Reflection to only send out elite members for this PvP match and second was for him to ambush the three slower members of Young Master’s Elite who would not be directly participating in the fight.

While Youthful Reflection had misgivings about the letter’s content, the first point was something he would still do. This was because anyone could easily find out the amount of players participating in the match through the system. If he had ignored Thousand Miles Drunk’s first suggestion, the latter would have received the message that he was deemed ‘untrustworthy’ by him. In the off chance that the letter’s content was actually true, Youthful Reflection’s disregard of the first point would simply result in his brilliant plan backfiring before it could even be enacted.

Luckily, a second suggestion was given in the letter, which thus allowed Youthful Reflection to test the validity of Thousand Miles Drunk’s statement. If the letter was fake, then the opponent would surely use this particular point to set a trap and lure them into an ambush.

With Youthful Reflection’s successful ambush of the three targets and the three’s cluelessness about the entire situation, he could finally say with surety that Thousand Miles Drunk had been honest. That Priest being able to easily determine the focus of their surprise attack was just a testament to how skilled he was, as his superbly timed Heal at the start of their attacks also effectively saved the Warrior’s life.

Given War Without Wounds’ vast gaming experience, it was also not surprising for him to be able to deduce that Thieves would be attacking him and to successfully kill off two of them with his Cyclone.

Despite all these setbacks, the skirmish was still tipped toward Four Seas’ favor.

War Without Wounds turned his head around after killing the two Thieves, only to discover that Young Master Han had already been surrounded by three Thieves! Furthermore, the Archers had fired off a second volley of arrows toward him.

Young Master Han had never put points to his character’s Endurance stat, so his inherent HP was relatively low. He simply had no means to save himself from such a concentrated attack no matter how skilled he really was and turned into a beam of white light in a matter of seconds.

War Without Wounds let out a furious bellow as he aimed his Charge toward the Thieves. War Without Wounds knocked a Thief into a Dizzy state as he cut the hapless sap down with a few broad strokes of his claymores. Meanwhile, the other two Thieves used this opportunity to get away from him. This was when an innumerable amount of arrows came flying straight to him. Without a Priest’s Heal, what would that bit of stat from Brother Assist’s blessing even do for him to survive this? It was under this concerted assault of all the speed-based job classes that War Without Wounds had finally been sent out of the map. As for Brother Assist… He was also taken out unceremoniously by the enemies.

With this successful ambush, Youthful Reflection sighed in relief as a delighted smile formed on his lips. It was at this point that he spoke the line that Young Master Han had been waiting for. It was a command that would ultimately affect the outcome of this match. “Don’t bother with the enemies’ Mage; I’ve already turned him over to our side!”

[1] Stands for Short Message Service. It is technically for sending instant messages via a mobile provider that constitutes about one hundred sixty characters.