Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-23

Chapter 23 - The Joy of Helping

Players were still required to go to the designated safe zones to log off. So after Gu Fei left Ray’s Bar, he quickly headed to a safe zone.

On his way there, he passed by the Hall of Guild Creation and found many people coming and going. Now that most players had finally reached level 30, guilds were being formed like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. A few days ago, Fireball had asked about Gu Fei’s preparation to join any particular guild. When he saw Gu Fei’s disinterest in the matter, Fireball could only drop the question and conscientiously choose a guild on his own.

Has Fireball found a guild yet? Gu Fei asked in his heart as he pulled up his friends list and saw that Fireball was offline. Fireball had a rather irregular online schedule, so it was rather hard to keep track of his activities in-game. As he was pondering on this, he accidentally collided with someone.

Gu Fei staggered a bit. He really could not stand his weak physique in-game. Thankfully, he had equipped Eddie’s Emblem; without the extra 6 stat points to Strength and Endurance, he might have been knocked flat on the ground.

“It’s you!” Gu Fei raised his head and recognized the person who had bumped into him. It was Xi Xiaotian.

“Shh!” Xi Xiaotian motioned him to be quiet, “Help me!” With that, she hid behind Gu Fei’s body. Hiding the lady’s slim figure from view was pretty easy with his body frame that was toughened by kung fu.

Just as Gu Fei was about to ask her what was going on, he saw a little girl hurriedly rush from an alley. After looking around and only seeing Gu Fei, she stared at him and asked, “Hey, have you seen a woman pass through here?”

Kids nowadays are so rude! Gu Fei furrowed his brows. The Gu household was a wushu family that preserved many old traditions. They were naturally stricter in observing proper etiquette compared to the regular households. There were not many restrictions or rules to follow in the family but respecting the elders and teachers was one social propriety everyone in the Gu household rigorously adhered to. Hence, younger people were expected to respectfully greet their elders at any given opportunity, even in the wee hours or when they just woke up.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” the little girl shouted once more when she saw Gu Fei not responding.

It was hard to have a good impression of the kid, but Gu Fei still understood her feelings. She must have been duped by this scammer! So he nodded his head, “Yes, I have.”

“Where did she run off to?” the girl anxiously inquired.

Gu Fei sidestepped, raised his hand, and pointed toward the person behind him, “She’s right here!”

“Arghh!” Xi Xiaotian staggered forward. She had leaned on to Gu Fei’s back as she was trying to reduce her visible areas. Gu Fei’s sudden movement had forced her to lose her footing.

Gu Fei stared at Xi Xiaotian icily, but the little girl had unexpectedly rushed forward and helped Xi Xiaotian up, “Sister Tian, are you alright?”

Hearing how the brat addressed Xiaotian, Gu Fei realized he had misunderstood the situation.

Xi Xiaotian angrily glared at Gu Fei before she smiled at the little brat, “I’m fine.”

The little girl stared at Gu Fei and could vaguely tell something was up, so she asked once more, “Sister Tian, what were you doing?”

“Kitty, I just couldn’t agree with your request,” Xi Xiaotian replied.

“But we really couldn’t find anyone else!” the brat said.

“Just wait a little longer. I’m sure you’ll find someone eventually,” Xi Xiaotian bargained.

“Please! You have to help us!” the brat pulled Xi Xiaotian’s hand, shaking it as she pleaded.

Xi Xiaotian stubbornly shook her head and remained silent. Gu Fei could not help but interject, “Just help them already!”

Xi Xiaotian rolled her eyes, “You don’t know anything, so shut up and mind your own business!”

Gu Fei shrugged at the kid, showing his inability to help. He then proceeded to head toward the safe zone.

He had not walked for more than ten meters before he heard someone hollering from behind him, “Hey, wait a second!” Gu Fei turned his head and saw Xi Xiaotian rushing toward him.

“What?” Gu Fei asked.

“I know you’re the kind of person that loves helping people, so why not help them?” Xi Xiaotian said.

“With what?” Gu Fei asked.

“She’s asking me to help them make up the required number to nominate their guild,” Xi Xiaotian said.

“That’s it? Then why don’t you help them?” Gu Fei retorted.

“Me? Hey… You know what sort of person I am. Having any form of relations with me is problematic,” Xi Xiaotian explained.

“That’s true! I guess helping them will BE meaningful based on what you said. It would spare them the trouble of being dragged down by your existence,” Gu Fei said.

“Uh-huh. You must definitely join something so meaningful!”

“I refuse,” Gu Fei said.

“Why?” Xi Xiaotian was curious.

“You can’t fool me. You only need twenty people to nominate for a guild. Taking into account the number of players in Parallel World, hitting that target is very simple. Why would there be an issue with finding twenty people?” Gu Fei scoffed.

“She’s right there. You can ask her if you don’t believe me,” Xi Xiaotian was helpless.

Gu Fei regarded her with suspicion before walking toward the girl, “Are you guys short of people to nominate your guild?”

The brat nodded her head, “Yup! We searched for so long, and we are now just one person short.”

“Is it that difficult to find just one person?” Gu Fei couldn’t make sense of this.

“Yes! That’s why we must ask Sister Tian to help us,” the girl replied earnestly.

“It’s settled, Kitty,” Xi Xiaotian laughed, “Let’s go over there right now!”

“Really?!” the little girl bounced excitedly, looking gratefully toward Gu Fei, “Thank you!”

“It’s nothing really,” Gu Fei said.

“Let’s go!” the girl happily bounced toward the Hall of Guild Creation.

“Let’s!” Xi Xiaotian nudged Gu Fei and chased after the girl.

The Hall of Guild Creation was filled with people; the noise made conversing difficult as everyone was shouting to attract people.

“Four Pathways Guild! We’ve accomplished all kinds of quests before. Please come and help nominate!”

“Babe, come join our Xiaoke Guild. There’re weekly wages!”

“Home of the Warriors! Our Guild Leader is a level 30 Warrior. Those who love the Warrior job class should come and nominate!”

Hearing all these touting and shouting had led Gu Fei to believe Xiaotian’s words firmly. Although there are many people in Parallel World, getting twenty people to nominate a guild doesn’t seem easy. Maybe that’s the reason why Fireball has a hard time finding a guild.

“There’re too many people here. Kitty, go to Xiaoqi’s side and we’ll go to the nomination spot. Once we are there, I’ll message you and let Xiaoqi accept the nomination,” Xi Xiaotian said to the girl.

The girl nodded and headed toward the other side of the building. Xi Xiaotian dragged Gu Fei toward the other direction.

There were even more people cramped near the nomination spot. The people who came here to nominate guilds were treated like prey by those soliciting players. Gu Fei’s appearance had already resulted into several people coming over to attempt to poach him, “Brother, what’s your level now? Come join our guild!”

“Nominate us, nominate us!” Someone came from the right as well.

“Don’t you dare poach him!” Xi Xiaotian swiftly displayed her vulgar self, “He’s mine! Don’t you dare take him!” She grabbed Gu Fei and headed toward the nomination window in a huff.

The game had certain facilities deliberately created to not be contextually jarring for the ease of the players. The nomination spot, for example, equipped a touch user interface. While this by and large clashed against the design of the game, there were simply no other alternatives.

As they queued up, Xi Xiaotian sent off a message once they had reached the touchscreen interface and nodded toward Gu Fei, “Alright. Go ahead and nominate.”

“What’s the name of the guild?” Gu Fei had already touched the search bar.

“Amethyst Rebirth,” Xi Xiaotian said.

Gu Fei entered the name and saw it truly had been nominated by nineteen people, with one person short of the required number to officially create the guild. He went ahead and nominated it himself.

Ding! The system notification sound rang in his ear as Gu Fei received a series of system messages.

[Amethyst Rebirth Guild has been created successfully.]

[Player Thousand Miles Drunk is now a member of Amethyst Rebirth Guild.]

[Please refer to the relevant guild tab with regard to guild matters.]

....

“Done!” Gu Fei said and turned around, yet all he saw was Xi Xiaotian hurriedly squeezing through the crowd with great effort.

Oh, no! Instantly, a sense of ominous foreboding filled his heart as Gu Fei chased after her while he shouted for her to stop.

Sadly, his effort was for naught. Although Gu Fei was agile, he had no way of displaying his nimbleness in this crowd of people. He could only stare at Xi Xiaotian slowly disappear into the sea of humans.

“What are you up to?!” Gu Fei pulled out his friends list and fired off a message.

“Nothing! It’s a good thing!” Xi Xiaotian said.

“Explain yourself!” Gu Fei said.

“You’ll understand when you open up your guild tab and take a look!” Xi Xiaotian replied.

Gu Fei opened the guild tab as he forcefully squeezed ahead.

All the guild members’ level and job class were clearly listed before his eyes. There were all sorts of job classes. As for levels… They were not very high; there were only two level 30 members. Gu Fei’s name was actually ranked on top. Meaning, he was the member with the most experience earned. It was at this moment that Gu Fei felt stunned.

The column that showed the gender of the players had displayed a row of 'female' besides Gu Fei’s 'male'. From number two all the way to twenty, there was a total of nineteen 'female'.

This guild... Why were there only women?

At this moment, a series of “Player X would like to add you as a friend” message notifications resounded unceasingly. A quick sweep of all these requests of friendship made him realize that they were all names from the guild.

The first message read, “Who are you? How did you get into our guild?!”

Sender: July1.