Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-269

Chapter 269 - Reflect Damage

Every time a match ended in the two tournaments, the system would calculate the result while the victors remained inside the PvP arena map before sending them out in a short while. The Black Hand mercenary group had long been outside the PvP arena. When it was time to confirm their losses, most of them quickly departed from the square outside the Hall of Mercenaries. Not one of them was in the mood to look at the happy expressions of the victors. At the moment, the teleportation array by the Hall of Mercenaries was devoid of players.

When Gu Fei was sent out of the PvP arena, the only person he saw was Xi Xiaotian who had died together with him. At this moment, the system announced the final result. Naturally, Young Master's Elite emerged victorious. The Black Hand’s players assumed that their plan to prevent Young Master’s Elite from causing them further embarrassment by achieving ‘perfect victory’ had failed.

When that did not happen, the perplexed members of The Black Hand quickly checked the result of the mercenary PvP tournament’s finals.

Total Score

Young Master’s Elite - 87

The Black Hand - 1

“Someone among us managed to kill one of them?!” Even the members of The Black Hand found this hard to believe. After Black Index Finger had instructed the remaining players to spread out, hide, or run from Young Master's Elite, they had seen each of those players rapidly get methodically eliminated. The entire mercenary group was absolutely gutted when this happened, so none stayed behind to wait for the shameful result.

Hence, they did not know who had managed to kill off one member of Young Master’s Elite. Black Index Finger was still ecstatic at such a result and clamored on the mercenary channel, “Who is it?! Who among us managed to kill one of their players?! Also, which one did you kill?!”

Not one person spoke up.

“What the heck?! Is it a trend to remain anonymous after doing a good deed now?” Black Index Finger criticized. He knew that only twenty-one players had remained in the PvP arena from his mercenary group after his death. Only these twenty-one players had had the chance to prevent Young Master’s Elite from seizing a ‘perfect victory’, so only someone among them could have done the killing. Black Index Finger unfortunately did not know each of these remaining twenty-one members; he found it rather strange that no one was claiming the honor for the feat of killing an enemy at the moment, though.

The mercenary channel was filled with chattering about the matter. There were hundreds of different guesses, but the final conclusion they came to was that perhaps someone among Young Master’s Elite had accidentally died from falling down the mountain. No one would have believed such a bizarre death to be a feasible explanation, but after quite a few of them had suffered such a fate from today’s match, everyone was more than happy to accept such a reason for their enemies failing to achieve ‘perfect victory’.

“It is retribution!” everyone cheered on the mercenary channel.

At this moment, the five other members of Young Master's Elite exited the PvP arena. They felt quite surprised upon seeing that no one was by the teleportation to receive them. Before the others could react to this, Young Master Han coldly asked while sweeping his gaze around, “Miles, where the hell did you die off to?!”

The five hurriedly sent Gu Fei a message when they could not find him.

“Wait a moment. I have something on!” was Gu Fei’s reply.

“We’ll be waiting at Ray’s Bar,” Young Master Han coldly replied before leaving with a blackened expression.

“Isn’t your reaction a bit too much?” Royal God Call asked. While they felt somewhat saddened for not achieving ‘perfect victory’, none of them was incensed about it like him. It was already a miracle that their six-man mercenary group managed to defeat an eighty-seven-man mercenary group, so what more could they ask for?

“Young Master is too much of a perfectionist!” Brother Assist sighed.

“A man who’s not content is like a snake that tries to swallow an elephant whole1,” War Without Wounds philosophized.

“Sword Demon, go appease him or something,” Royal God Call said to Sword Demon.

“Let’s get to the bar first!” Sword Demon simply said.

Gu Fei was actually not far from the teleportation array and had merely followed Xi Xiaotian to an adjacent street.

“What happened? How did I die?” Gu Fei could not stop himself from blurting out this question. This question ricocheted in his head a hundred and eighty times in just this short walk; he considered every small detail and was absolutely certain that Xi Xiaotian had not done any strange motion and that he had not received the slightest bit of damage from any angle earlier.

How did I die? Gu Fei asked this question to himself numerous times as he chased after Xi Xiaotian.

“‘Reflect damage’,” Xi Xiaotian only replied to his question when they reached this particular street.

“‘Reflect damage’? What’s that?” Gu Fei asked.

“Haven’t you played MMOs before? Why don’t you know of this?” Xi Xiaotian rolled her eyes.

“I seldom play games, actually,” Gu Fei confessed.

Xi Xiaotian felt exasperated and began to lecture Gu Fei about it, “It’s really simple. All the equipment I currently have reflects damage with a 32% proc rate at a degree of 47%. This means that there’s a 32% chance of reflecting damage by 47% when someone attacks me. This 47% reflected damage ignores all defense and resistance. So, expert, you have essentially just insta-killed yourself.”

“I see…” With such a simple reason, Gu Fei immediately understood everything. If it was based on his damage… Gu Fei roughly calculated his equipment, skill, and Spell Damage and realized that 47% reflected damage was enough to kill him off. Gu Fei had low HP and did not have any equipment that increased this, so he was weaker in this aspect than most Mages.

“Hold on. Something doesn’t add up!” Gu Fei at least had some gaming knowledge after playing Parallel World for so long. “When I was trying to killing you, my total damage should be done on to your total HP, so the damage reflected from me shouldn’t be my total damage but your total HP, instead! You’re an Archer, so your HP should be about the same as mine, a Mage; why is my HP only 47% of yours?”

“Sorry break it to you but this Archer here has a full-Endurance build,” Xi Xiaotian stated dryly.

“Full Endurance?” Gu Fei was shocked, and then he realized, “That’s why your movement speed is so slow!”

“Yup. To think even my full-Endurance build couldn’t withstand your attack. Your Spell Damage is no joke, after all. But if I were a full-Endurance build Guardian or perhaps a Priest, I might survive your attack. Meaning, only you would have died just then,” Xi Xiaotian reasoned.

“Oi! The way you’re building your character and the trait of all your equipment… Are you intentionally trying to counter me?!” Gu Fei asked.

“Of course, I am. Wa ha ha ha! The top expert in Yunduan City fell to this unbeatable swindler’s hands in the end!” Xi Xiaotian chortled.

“Can you not have such a distasteful personality?” Xi Xiaotian’s tone reminded him of someone. He then hastily added, “Besides, I have yet to lose. Don’t forget that you got killed off as well, so we are even at most. Neither of us won or lost.”

“What? Are you dissatisfied?” Wanna give it another go?” Xi Xiaotian straightened herself and faced Gu Fei squarely.

“Let’s go!” Gu Fei brought out his sword as well.

“Are you for real? You’ll lose a level if you die now; aren’t you afraid of that happening?” Xi Xiaotian asked, skeptical.

“Swindler Tian, I’m sure you’ve realized it by now. Your chance of reflecting damage is only at 32%. It means that I have a 68% chance of emerging victorious and a 32% chance of dying together with you. As for you, you have zero chance of winning and 100% chance of dying…” Gu Fei reasoned.

“That’s perfectly fine by me! I was feeling that this sort of stat point allocation makes it hard for me to keep grinding, anyway. I’m ready to drop a level and reallocate my stat points when I level up again!” Xi Xiaotian said. “Come on; use your rich experience killing players to take me down!”

Gu Fei furrowed his brows for a moment before saying, “You don’t happen to have a vendetta with someone to the point of you using such method to get even, right?”

“No way… You managed to see through that?” Xi Xiaotian asked, shocked.

“You’re really despicable! If you wanna kill someone, just do what I do!” Gu Fei flourished his blade before putting it inside his dimensional pocket.

“You’ve got your ways, and I’ve got mine!” Xi Xiaotian replied simply.

“I wish you all the best, then!” Gu Fei was ready to leave.

“Remember to use Appraisal before killing someone; careful you don’t get killed this same way again!” Xi Xiaotian giggled.

“Mhm-mhm…” Gu Fei nodded his head in agreement. “How many people out there would be as crazy as you to actually use such a method?” After saying this, he turned around and left in the direction of Ray’s Bar where the rest of Young Master's Elite was currently waiting for him.

“I’m sure there’s someone out there like that!” Xi Xiaotian muttered softly as she watched Gu Fei walk away.

Ray promptly spotted Gu Fei once he stepped inside the bar, mildly acknowledging his presence with a ‘congratulations’. Although Young Master’s Elite did not get the privilege of being proclaimed as the victors on the world channel by clinching a ‘perfect victory’, the system would still publicly announce the final results of the mercenary PvP tournament. First place was Young Master’s Elite, second place was The Black Hand, and third place was Water Flower.

The whole city was stunned by this outcome; no one had expected for the six-man mercenary group of Young Master's Elite to be such a dark horse that even the most famous and strongest mercenary group in Yunduan City got beaten by it.

Gu Fei sped past the bar lounge and heard the surrounding players discussing the matter in earnest. He felt quite pleased with himself for taking part in the match and earning all those kill points to secure this win. But when he entered the room, all this feeling of satisfaction vanished in thin air as he saw Young Master Han’s dissatisfied expression.

“Just what happened to you?! Why did you screw up at the very end?!” Young Master Han began yelling at Gu Fei before he could even take a seat. Young Master Han was naturally suppressing this yell, as the rooms that Ray had built were not soundproof.

“Calm down!” Royal God Call and War Without Wounds did their best to pacify Young Master Han, which Gu Fei found to be quite surprising. The two would usually watch such a show unfold with a touch of schadenfreude and would not do anything to resolve it; what they were doing right now was truly unlike them.

“How many times must we tell you; we gotta stay united,” War Without Wounds sincerely said, fitting the mature look he had and making him appear more convincing.

“That’s right, especially at times like this,” Royal God Call said. When he saw that Gu Fei was about to say something, he quickly placed his finger on his lips and said, “Miles, just sit there and receive Young Master’s tongue lashing.”

“Yeah. Look Young Master; Miles knows that he’s in the wrong, and he’s behaving himself now. Old men like you should not act rashly. It doesn’t matter if you hurt yourself bottling all that anger up; you just hafta be careful not to be too emotional. It’s going to be extremely troublesome for us if you disband the mercenary group in a fit of anger,” War Without Wounds said solemnly.

“None of us has received the final prize yet! You definitely cannot disband the group at this time,” Royal God Call added.