Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-24

Chapter 24 - Amethyst Rebirth

“Come out! We’re outside the Hall of Guild Creation!” July sent another message.

Gu Fei sighed and squeezed his way toward the entrance. He did not wish to admit it, but he had fallen into Xi Xiaotian’s scheme once more. Although it was difficult to judge if this was a good or bad thing, Gu Fei nevertheless did not enjoy the feeling of being duped.

Gu Fei immediately identified the person who had called him out upon leaving the Hall of Guild Creation.

A group of women could be seen gathered around a corner of the eastern wall of the Hall of Guild Creation. Once Gu Fei stepped off the premise a hand immediately shot out to point at him. It was the little brat Xi Xiaotian had called Kitty. “That’s him!” the kid yelled.

The girls turned their heads in unison; their eyes staring straight at Gu Fei.

Gu Fei immediately counted six people in their group. He should have no issues handling that much if it came down to a fight, so he stood at where he was with a calm expression.

The six standing next to one another walked toward Gu Fei. Having the attention of six women should have been something to be proud of, but Gu Fei’s heart squeezed and hands became sweaty instead. This was because he could feel killing intent emanating from them.

There were many players passing by that stopped on their tracks and looked at Gu Fei enviously. They carefully examined the six ladies. They became even more mad with envy when they realized that the six were all outstanding beauties.

All the male players swallowed their saliva and audible gulps escaped when the six ladies walked up to Gu Fei.

“Thousand Miles Drunk?” asked the girl with a petite frame and short hair standing right in the middle of the six as she stared at him.

Gu Fei nodded his head. He immediately felt a sense of closeness to this short haired lady. Though, it was not because of some romantic feelings and instead was due to her equipment. Gu Fei could tell from a single glance that the lady had a Fighter job class. This was the job class that Gu Fei wanted the most at the beginning. Alas, he did not become a Fighter due to a twist of fate. After he got into the game, he found out there were lesser players who chose the Fighter job class as compared to the other classes. Apparently, it was due to the difficulty of maintaining particular body postures when the players tried to execute certain moves or skills. Many players who chose the job class found it to be physically demanding. Thus, the newer players who had heard about this avoided it on purpose. Now that Gu Fei finally had the chance to meet a player that chose to be a Fighter, he could barely hold back his excitement. Gu Fei assumed that anyone who chose this job class must be a kung-fu lover like himself.

“I’m July,” the lady introduced herself.

“Hello,” Gu Fei nodded in response.

“I’m the Guild Leader of Amethyst Rebirth.”

“So I see,” Gu Fei said.

“Could I trouble you to explain to us how all of this happened and how you ended up in our guild?” July said icily.

“Well… I was a little confused by this at first. But I think I somewhat understand what has happened now. I will need her to explain as well in order for everyone to get the whole picture,” Gu Fei pointed at Kitty.

July looked at Kitty as Kitty looked intently at Gu Fei as well.

“Xi Xiaotian said you guys were short of one person to nominate your guild and needed my help to do so,” Gu Fei began.

“We were missing one because we have very strict requirements with regard to our guild members,” July explained.

Gu Fei recalled the guild member list having nineteen 'female' in the gender column and nodded his head, “Yes, I saw.” He then looked at Kitty, “What did Xi Xiaotian say to you?”

Kitty stared at him as she said, “That she promised to join a friend’s guild so she couldn’t join ours, and that the friend is you.”

Gu Fei recalled what had happened back then and said, “She told you she needed to inform me about not wanting to join my guild in order to join yours. So you thanked me when she brought me back because you assumed that I didn’t make things difficult for her and allowed her to join your guild; am I right?”

Kitty nodded her head.

“As for me, I thought Xi Xiaotian was helping her to convince me to nominate for your guild, so she thanked me.” Gu Fei addressed the six ladies, “Is everything clear now? It was a misunderstanding orchestrated by her.”

“That d*mn Xiaotian!” July stamped her feet.

“Afterward, she got rid of Kitty to prevent her from seeing me doing the nomination. I don’t know how she found a loophole that allowed a male player to join your guild,” Gu Fei said.

July sighed, “There’s no way to verify the identity of a nominator for a guild. We would normally close the guild’s nomination, and would only temporarily open it when we found a suitable candidate. This is to prevent random people from nominating themselves in.”

“I see,” Gu Fei sighed.

All the ladies looked at one another and could not help but complain about Xi Xiaotian’s actions. But all they did was grumble and did not actually show real hatred toward her, so Gu Fei was puzzled. The ladies gathered and whispered a distance away from Gu Fei. Seeing that it was no longer his problem and that it was rather late, he quickly made his way to the safe zone to log off.

The ladies discussed for a while and finally came to a decision.

“Hey, that… Eh? Where is he?” July turned and was ready to speak to Gu Fei, only to find that he had already disappeared without saying goodbye.

“Where did he go?” July pulled open her friends list and it showed Thousand Miles Drunk was offline.

“What’s with that guy?! Who leaves before finishing a conversation?!” July angrily stamped her feet once more and the rest began their tirade against Gu Fei this time.

“Achooo!” Gu Fei, who had gone offline and rushed to the rooftop to practice his kung fu, suddenly sneezed. Just who is mocking me behind my back? Gu Fei wondered as he thought of the old wives’ tale about sneezing.

When he logged in the next day, Gu Fei’s message notification immediately lit up. He opened his inbox and saw that it was from July, “WRU WRU WRU WRU WRU WRU WRU!” A series of seven 'WRU' showed how much regard she had for the number seven.

“What do you want?” Gu Fei replied.

“What’s wrong with you? You left without waiting for us to finish our conversation!” July lamented.

“Was there anything else?” Gu Fei asked.

“Come here and we’ll talk,” July replied.

“Where?”

“Unit B17 on Charlotte Street!”

Yunduan City might not be as big as a metropolis, but navigating around it was still hard. This was because the city was unlike the ones in traditional MMORPGs where players could walk from the east gate to the west gate in just two or three steps. The towns were already big enough that it required name for streets to differentiate between roads. There were many for-sale houses lining up the streets as well, whereas the area the system occupied was actually just a small corner.

Unit B17 on Charlotte Street. Wonder who opened another shop, Gu Fei thought to himself as he headed to the street.

In online games, a player’s level decided how the economic market flourished. As more and more players got to transom of level 30, a hodge-podge of industrial occupations, such as smelting, weaving, mining, planting, etc., began popping up in-game. While a majority of players chose to carry big sacks and sold their wares right off the streets, a sizable portion of the pay-to-win players went ahead and bought houses along the streets to convert them into shops. Thus, other than the need for street names, the numbers for different housing units came to be as well.

B17... B17... Gu Fei repeatedly muttered the unit number as he walked down the street looking for it.

When he finally spotted it, he could not help but do a double-take. The shop was unlike the others that had readable signs at a glance. This shop hung a strange picture of a diamond-shape object painted a faint purple luster where other shops would usually hung their signage. Gu Fei could not tell what it was and did not wish to risk going directly inside, so he went and knocked on the door lightly a few times instead.

The door quickly opened to reveal July as well as a few other ladies within. Gu Fei had met some of them yesterday, while the others were strangers to him.

He followed July into the house and found a seat. All the other ladies took the chance to size up Gu Fei. The expression each of them showed varied. Many showed a look of resistance, while quite a few looked as if they could not be bothered. Embarrassingly enough, none of the ladies showed any signs of welcoming him. Even July, who was seated right across from him, seemed irritated at his presence.

“What is it you wish to talk about?” Gu Fei straightforwardly asked July. Gu Fei wanted to quickly put this matter behind him and leave, especially since he knew he was not welcomed here.

July opened her mouth but could not find the words as her face showed plenty of hesitation.

“Just be honest,” Gu Fei smiled.

“En. I thank you for helping us nominate the guild,” July started.

This was a very neutral opening, yet Gu Fei knew that this was not the main topic. He nodded his head slightly and waited for July to continue.

“You can tell the criteria we have toward our members when you look at our guild composition, right?”

Gu Fei immediately knew what she wanted to say and he was sincerely happy as he quickly interrupted her, “Don’t worry. I know what you mean. Ha ha ha ha! Alright. I’ll just remove myself from the guild and we can resolve this matter!”

Gu Fei quickly pulled up the guild tab and was about to remove himself from the guild. July’s expression changed as she shouted at him, “DON’T!”