Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-249

Chapter 249 - That Y-shaped Outline of Hope

Forever in Flowers’ mercenary channel suddenly went quiet. Everyone clearly heard Sakurazaka Moony saying that the Y-shaped outline was the path left for the employer to escape the triangular zone. If they put the traps inside it instead, the person would need a miracle to come out of the path unscathed.

“Just who are our real employers?!” Everyone was baffled; they had clearly seen the two men handing coins to Sakurazaka Moony.

“Are we actually double agents?” someone guessed.

“That’s so despicable!” all lambasted even as they continued to set the traps in the faint outline. Over a dozen men squeezed themselves into the triangular zone to prevent anyone outside from seeing what they were actually doing.

“It’s done!” The men quickly dispersed as their traps were set up and buried properly. They were indeed highly skilled at setting traps, since not a trace could be seen of their buried traps on the ground. They once more outlined a Y shape on the ground by sprinkling dust over it, faintly indicating where the person should step to trigger the traps.

“Pretty well done!” Sakurazaka Moony nodded his head in satisfaction.

“Mmm. Let me give it a try!” The interest of Nightmare of Death’s friends was piqued and one of them walked toward the Y-shaped outline to try it out. The bunch of Hunters threw a contemptuous look over to Sakurazaka Moony that seemed to say: “This is entirely your lousy plan’s fault; see how it’s about to get exposed!”

Sakurazaka Moony quickly blocked the player from proceeding toward the path, “Boss, please don’t joke with us. If you try it out, the faint outline we created will be destroyed. Since the whole area is now filled with traps, how are we going to redraw the outline? Unless you want us to redo the whole thing?”

“Don’t be like that; can’t you just redraw the Y-shaped outline as we move along it?” the person reasoned.

“But… Can you tell where the traps have been placed?” Sakurazaka Moony countered.

“Nope,” that person shook his head.

“And that’s exactly it. If you walk over the path and we redraw it, we can’t ensure that the line will be as accurate as before. We hafta dig out the traps and redo the whole thing if we wanna keep it precise,” Sakurazaka Moony explained.

Sakurazaka Moony’s reasoning sounded logical, so the person no longer insisted on trying the path. Sakurazaka Moony and his men sighed in relief.

“Alright, Moony. You’re pretty good at lying. We’ll give you that!” someone praised on the mercenary channel.

“Why haven’t you gotten a girl if you’re that good at lying?” everyone remarked, laughing.

“Not only has he got no girl to show, he even got tricked to death in a grinding map. HA HA HA HA HA!” everyone relentlessly mocked him.

Sakurazaka Moony was peeved, but it did not show on his face as he continued to banter with the two employers, “Respectable bosses, do you plan to kill the person once the traps are triggered?”

As Nightmare of Death’s friends nodded their heads in affirmation, Sakurazaka Moony raised his hand, “Alright. Since we don’t have something on, we’ll help you out in this matter. Brothers, ready your Homing Projectile!”

Everyone gamely agreed.

“Everyone, find a hiding spot!” Following his words, the men skillfully assisted one another up the nearby rooftops; anyone could tell that the men were experienced in this. Even the Mage showed an unusual adeptness at this. Everyone soon emptied out the street, leaving Nightmare of Death’s two friends on it. Gazing on the T-zone trap, the two felt a sense of dread overcome them.

“Do you two want to come up as well?” Sakurazaka Moony peeked out his head from a rooftop and asked this.

“Oh, thanks.” The two men were pulled up by some players atop a house. The scenery from above was pretty good; the hiding players on the rooftops around the street looked quite impressive at a glance.

“Everyone, get down. Only show yourselves after the Hunting Trap is triggered. The surrounding houses aren’t that high, so raising our heads will reveal us easily,” Sakurazaka Moony cautioned everyone.

“Everything is ready and in position. Remember, Y-shaped outline!” By the time Nightmare of Death received this message, he had already made it to the very street. He could only follow the given coordinates to arrive at the unfamiliar place, yet he kept walking into dead ends. He was starting to feel anxious that he had yet to locate the ambush spot, since Gu Fei’s set of coordinates was getting closer to him every time it refreshed.

“Just how do I get there?!” Nightmare of Death was on the verge of tears as he sent his friends this message.

His friends did not really know how to properly direct him to the location; they vaguely mumbled the coordinates for the place before asking Nightmare of Death for his current coordinates. They then uttered empty words of reassurance: “Oh, yeah. You’re almost there. Hurry up….”

Eventually, Nightmare of Death found the street with the T-shaped junction. Seeing that the entrance to the street was just ahead, he slowed down his pace and calmly waited for Gu Fei to arrive. He recalled that Sword Demon should be somewhere near him. If Sword Demon took the initiative to strike him and he headed to the trap now, Gu Fei would not be here for the traps to spring. The target Nightmare of Death wanted to catch was Gu Fei, and he cared not for Sword Demon at all.

Nightmare of Death wanted to stall for time, but he was afraid that Sword Demon would take that chance to attack him. Thus, he zigzagged along the street while he waited anxiously for Gu Fei’s coordinates to refresh. As Nightmare of Death continued to edge forward, he spotted a black-clothed figure at the other end of this lane. Their gazes met as the figure dashed toward him. Thousand Miles Drunk!

Nightmare of Death grew excited. The target was finally here, yet the direction of his approach was not ideal.

It would be best if Gu Fei approached the lane from the bottom of the T-shaped junction, since that would ensure that Gu Fei would step through the T-zone trap to get to Nightmare of Death. If Gu Fei was hot on his heels, Nightmare of Death could easily lure him into the zone. Right now, Nightmare of Death had no choice but to reach the turning first; otherwise, Gu Fei would just rush straight toward him.

He was almost at the street’s entrance after zigzagging toward it just then. Nightmare of Death darted forward as he looked ahead. Thousand Miles Drunk’s speed is really fast! Perhaps, he has already spotted me from across the street. Nightmare of Death knew that Stealth was useless against Gu Fei, so he strove to maintain his calm.

What nobody knew was that while Gu Fei could indeed detect a player in Stealth mode, it was only the player’s presence; the player’s state of mind would not matter at all. As such, Nightmare of Death’s forceful projection of calmness was pointless.

Lowering his head to the ground, Nightmare of Death barely made out the faint Y-shaped outline that he had been told of; he could not help but praise the Hunters who had set the traps skillfully. There was no obvious indication that this patch of land even looked as if there were traps buried underneath it. Had it not been for the trap experts’ prior warning, any regular player would have casually walked over it without a second thought. What a well-made path that gives people confidence and hope! My money was well-spent, indeed! Nightmare of Death was almost overwhelmed by his emotions. My day of gloom is finally at its end… With this thought in mind, he stepped right on to the Y-shaped outline.

SNAP! The clanking sound of metal echoed about. The crisp sound traveled past the muddy topsoil and pierced right through Nightmare of Death’s heart. Confidence, hope, life, dreams… All these instantly shattered into oblivion, and his feelings for what had just happened cumulated into this one bellow: “YOU M*TH*RF*CK*NG B*ST*RDS!” He could not move with the Hunting Trap on him, and a thought formed in his mind: the struggle of a trapped beast.

Nightmare of Death’s two friends heard his rage-filled bellow and thought that he was merely venting all his frustration on the trapped Gu Fei. The two then stood up and said, “We got him! Do it, everyone!”

“Got it!” Sakurazaka Moony nodded his head and extended his hands forward to lightly shove the two men. In the next instant, Nightmare of Death’s friends found themselves plunging head-first to the ground below. They landed in a spectacular mess before regaining their bearings. They looked down the street and saw Nightmare of Death standing motionlessly on one spot. As for Gu Fei, he was also at the junction and was calmly regarding Nightmare of Death.

Sakurazaka Moony stood up from where he was and showed Gu Fei an ‘OK’ sign with his hand. The Mage stood up from another rooftop and shouted to Gu Fei, “Drunk bro!”

“Yo, Fireball!” Gu Fei waved his hand toward the Mage even as a ball of fire formed on the tip of his fingers, which he quickly dissipated by performing a quick sword slash. “Long time no see!”

Drunk bro… With the Mage addressing Gu Fei in a familiar way, could they still misunderstand anything? Nightmare of Death’s heart had long been reduced into ash. His target was formidable and he had many friends… How was he going to fight him? It appeared that he had no choice but to face the music now.

Meanwhile, the other players on the rooftops stood up and took in the scene below with grim expression on their faces. “Such a huge mobilization; I thought we were springing traps for a babe, but it turned out to be just for that guy!”

“Who is he, anyway? D*mn! He’s not even wearing any clothes! Isn’t that a little too unrestrained?” Nightmare of Death was still only wearing that flimsy shirt and pants.

Someone came to a sudden realization, “For him to run on the street practically naked, he must have gotten caught with his pants down with someone or something!”

“No wonder many of us got mobilized! It only made sense!” Everyone was enraged now.

“We have the adulterer, so where’s the adulteress?!” someone asked aloud.

“I wonder who got cuckolded?” Everyone looked over to Sakurazaka Moony before glancing at Gu Fei.

“It couldn’t be Moony; does he even have anyone to cuckold him?” Everyone laughed mockingly.

“Couldn’t be that guy there, either. He’s got a harem of over fifty ladies; why would he care about losing one or two?” another person quipped.

“You’re still wet behind the ears, son. Don’t you know that only a man who values his every conquest can successfully establish a harem?” someone sagely said, pretending to be well-versed in the affairs of the heart.

“Wet behind the ears, my *ss! Do you even have a woman to call yours?!”

As everyone bickered on, Sword Demon really appeared by the street’s entrance just as Nightmare of Death had been expecting. He had been tailing Nightmare of Death all this while, and the only reason he had not struck him even now was the latter’s diligence at changing his position this time round.

The players on the rooftops seemed to have found the reason for this large-scale mobilization with Sword Demon’s emergence. “Wow… Look at that guy’s face. It must be him.”

“With looks like that, it is no wonder he got cuckolded!”

“He’s truly lacking in the good-looks department, but he at least has that imposing temperament going for him.”

“Hmm… But it's nothing compared to us, of course.”

“Naturally!”

Thankfully, this entire conversation occurred on Forever in Flowers’ mercenary channel; otherwise, the people below would not even need to fight any longer. They could just die from coughing up excessive blood upon reading the wretched and abominable chatlogs of these players.