Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-28

Chapter 28 - Fireball joins a guild?

“The heck! Who the hell are you?!” the person yelled while rushing at Gu Fei.

“I just told you, I’m Thousand Miles Drunk,” Gu Fei calmly replied, and then he realized something. The person’s shout just now sounded rather high pitched and the voice clearly contained a hint of sharpness. Gu Fei carefully examined the person’s face once more and was instantly taken aback, “You’re a woman?”

The person was wearing a full-body, heavy armor, but under the helmet was clearly a woman’s face. Her beauty was apparent, even though she was currently gnashing her teeth. The woman reached into her side pocket upon hearing his words. Gu Fei heard a whooshing sound and then a huge axe materialized in front of his very eyes. However, the truly terrifying fact was that she was holding it with only one hand, while her other hand was poised like a panther ready to strike. It was as if she could reach out and grab Gu Fei’s neck at any given time, hoisting him up and cleaving him into pieces with her weapon.

“Got a problem with that?” the lady produced a low growl. She had a versatile voice, allowing her to change pitch from high to low and vice versa.

“None at all!” Gu Fei blinked. It was undeniable that the woman looked powerful and intimidating.

“What do you mean, then?” The lady lifted the huge axe and hung it right above Gu Fei’s forehead.

“That I’m very thankful! Grateful that you helped carry my sack up to here. Honestly, carrying it takes a lot of effort for me,” Gu Fei said.

The woman showed some degree of shock at his statement.

“You know what? Take this as a gift! I don’t really need it anyway,” Gu Fei tossed the burlap sack over by the lady’s feet.

“Who wants your stuff?” the woman asked sarcastically.

“I’ve got something on, so I’ll take my leave,” Gu Fei waved his hand and hurriedly walked away.

“Hey… You!” Gu Fei had long since disappeared from the corner of the street that they were in by the time she shouted these words. The speed that the level 30 Mage Gu Fei had after pumping all his stat points into Agility was nothing to scoff at.

The lady mulled something over for a bit before she lowered her head. Finally, she could no longer resist the temptation and picked up the sack.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she opened it. “I’m only taking a look. It’s not like I want any of his stuff,” the lady mumbled to herself. Her decision turned into firm resolve after seeing what was actually inside.

“What?!”

“What the?!”

“What are these things?!”

As the woman searched through the sack, she could not stop herself from muttering the same words. While Gu Fei’s sack contained many things, their value was actually very little. Gu Fei was not an idiot after all; the items with worth were already placed into his dimensional pocket.

The lady spent quite some time searching through the burlap sack, finding only countless useless loots, such as a pile of bricks, a bunch of rocks, a single glass ball, and a rotten wooden stick. The items that the players had deemed worthless could all be found inside Gu Fei’s burlap sack.

In the end, the lady came to the conclusion that she had been trolled. Perhaps someone had recorded the humorous manner in which she stuck her head into the sack and searched through the items. She might find herself as the butt of everyone’s jokes in a few days once the video got uploaded on to the forums. Thinking of that possibility, she heavily slammed her huge axe onto the ground, causing pieces of concrete to fly all over. A brutal Warrior paired with an equally savage weapon. That strike just now was carried out with extreme graveness.

Thousand Miles Drunk is it? You better not let me see you again, the lady thought with fury.

“What a real pity about my sack! Achooo!” Gu Fei suddenly sneezed as he was thinking of how much he missed having his self-made burlap sack. At the same moment, he arrived outside the tavern. He quickly rubbed his nose and pushed open the wooden door.

There were numerous system-operated taverns in Yunduan City except for Ray’s Bar. Since it was a sprawling city, many bars were spread all over it to accommodate all the players, as well as to better earn their money.

The tavern Gu Fei had just entered was one of the most popular establishments in the area. Since it was the closest to the city gate most players were grinding, it was naturally everyone’s first choice to rest at. The tavern was open from day to night, so the sounds of players’ conversations filled the entire establishment twenty-four seven.

Fireball, who had already grabbed a good seat, stood up once he saw Gu Fei enter the tavern, “Drunk bro, over here!”

“Yo, What’s-His-Name!” Gu Fei cheerfully greeted back.

Fireball felt dejected. He had even taken the effort to address Gu Fei properly, yet here he was calling him What’s-His-Name. It was no wonder the players around them threw him a disdainful look, thinking that he was the sort of person who stuck around the pros to leech off them.

However, he could do nothing about this as it was all due to his gaming account name. He would still be a laughingstock had Gu Fei called him Fireball. Every time such a conundrum would pop up, the thought of dying would fill his heart.

“Sit! What’re you standing there for?” Gu Fei had already taken a seat and was patting the table to catch the attention of the momentarily frozen Fireball.

“How’s life? Found a guild yet?” Gu Fei understood what he was feeling right now, so he tried providing a new topic to snap him out of his depressing thoughts.

Fireball indeed sat down once he heard the question and replied, “Nope! Although I did see one I’m interested in, so I’m trying to find a way to get in.”

“Is that so?” Gu Fei lifted the glass off the table. The glass was filled with red wine that was sold for 50 copper coins and was largely considered as the cheapest in-game liquor available; the said wine made the most sales as well. Many players were obliged to order something since they were in a tavern, but almost no one was willing to purchase a drink except for the cheapest one. This was because many of them thought that their hard-earned coins should be spent on more important things. “What guild caught your eye?” Gu Fei asked as he took a big gulp of the drink as if it was nothing more than water.

“Amethyst Rebirth,” Fireball said.

Pfftttt! Gu Fei spat out half of the wine he originally had in his mouth. It was a blessing that he was a full Agility-based Mage, as he somehow managed to turn his neck and avoid spitting his drink all over Fireball at the last minute.

“What?” Fireball was surprised at Gu Fei’s strong reaction.

“Nothing. I choked,” Gu Fei coughed loudly as he asked, “What’s so special about this guild?”

“Drunk bro, have you not seen the forums?” Fireball replied with a question.

“Not recently, no,” Gu Fei answered.

“On the players’ interactive board, there’re various threads for each major city in-game. Right now, many guilds are busily recruiting players on these threads. That’s where I found this guild in our city’s thread,” Fireball spoke as his eyes glinted.

“Oh…” Gu Fei sounded, letting Fireball continue his narration.

Fireball shadily glanced around them before he moved his seat closer to the table as he whispered, “Drunk bro, you better not tell others what I’m about to tell you.”

“It’s already on the forums; why are you afraid others would find out?” Gu Fei asked.

“No no no!” Fireball anxiously responded, “That thread has long been buried. It took me quite a while to dig for it. It’s a post made not long after the game started. Guess what sort of guild it is?”

“What?” Gu Fei had pulled out the guild tab of Amethyst Rebirth and swept it a few times while he asked Fireball.

“It’s a guild of babes!” Fireball’s voice rose an octave in excitement, and his sentence ended up missing a key word.

Gu Fei did not give this much thought. He had already met a few ladies from Amethyst Rebirth. As for them being babes, it depended entirely on what a person considered as a 'babe'. Using Xi Xiaotian as the standard, then none of them would make the cut. If someone was to be more specific in defining the term, then July, Lie Lie, and another whose name he could not recall could be considered as beauties.

Given how Parallel World projected the actual person’s figure and features, some of those ladies would be considered as dishonest, immodest, or even excessively narcissistic if they believed themselves to be 'babes'.

“So Drunk bro, you interested?” Fireball asked.

Gu Fei smiled forcefully. Just how was he going to tell Fireball?

“Let me read you their requirements!” Fireball said as he took out a booklet from his pocket. He cleared his throat and began, “Number one: able to stand on their own and not be too dependent on others. How is it? I fit the criteria, yeah?” Fireball’s voice cracked in his excitement.

Gu Fei nodded. It was true that Fireball had not followed him and leeched off experience despite Gu Fei being such an efficient monster slayer. This showed clearly that he was capable of standing on his own and not depending on others.

Gu Fei’s nod stirred Fireball’s heart and he could not wait to continue listing the requirements. However, Gu Fei extended his hand and stopped him, “Although I think you probably fit the basic requirements listed, there’s one thing you don’t fit.”

“What?”

“Didn’t they mention they only recruit female players?” Gu Fei stated.

“Drunk bro, how did you know?” Fireball was stunned.

“Since you said it’s a guild full of babes, it’s obvious they only recruit female players,” Gu Fei said.

“I don’t think so,” Fireball scratched his head as he shared his opinion, “I think the requirements are just a pretense. The guild officials are attracting all the babes first. Then, they will use this bevy of babes to lure men in to create a first-rate guild. Once the leaders have recruited enough female players, they will definitely start accepting male players since they need people like me to be their knight in shining armor.”

Gu Fei sighed. He would have seen the merit of Fireball’s reasoning as well had he not interacted personally with the members of Amethyst Rebirth. Those people actually saw him like the plague. It was barely a day since he had joined in and they already wanted him to quit the guild of his accord. Was that the action of a guild that wanted a male player to join in?

Just as he was thinking of ways to explain things clearly to Fireball, Gu Fei suddenly heard someone nearby call him, “You’re here too, Thousand Miles Drunk.”

Gu Fei turned and saw a fellow member from Amethyst Rebirth. She was the one July referred to as Luo Luo and someone whom Gu Fei might consider as one of the three beauties, provided that the standard was lowered.

“Oh, hello,” Gu Fei got up and greeted her.

Fireball’s eyes were filled with admiration when he looked at Gu Fei. Would learning kung fu cause one to be gifted in such areas? Fireball started to ponder if perhaps he should take Gu Fei as his teacher.