Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-295

Chapter 295 - Quick Mission Completion

Gu Fei was relaxing in a system-operated tavern when he received Young Master Han’s message. He immediately informed Svelte Dancer of this and the two proceeded to activate their Windchaser’s Emblem, disappearing from the tavern in a flash of white light. Those players who had noticed that the two’s coordinates had not changed for the longest time hurried over to the tavern to catch either of them. Unfortunately, they did not manage to reach the place in time. When the coordinates refreshed again, these bounty hunters saw that the two’s position had finally changed. The experienced players among them quickly deduced, “D*mn! They have Windchaser’s Emblem as well!”

A few bounty hunters were still in the Bounty Assignment Hall when Svelte Dancer and Gu Fei teleported over, but their number was no longer a threat for the two fighting experts. Swiftly handing in their respective missions and picking up another, Gu Fei’s PK value was now down to 12 points, while Svelte Dancer was down to 6 points.

Plenty of these players were no longer eager to chase after the two, since they felt that they were just wasting their time with them. Some of them were even hoping for the two to quickly clear off their PK value so that they could pick up new ‘Bounty Mission’.

Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer left to hunt their respective targets, while Young Master Han and the rest stayed right outside the Bounty Assignment Hall.

“There shan’t be any more issues, right?” Having squatted for so long, Brother Assist finally stood up and was now massaging his numb thighs.

“Mmm…” Young Master Han gave a vague affirmation. He then stared straight ahead in a way that suggested that he was waiting for someone or something.

“What else could there be?” the others asked Young Master Han this upon seeing the far-off look on his face.

Young Master Han inclined his head to a certain direction. Looking in the indicated direction, they saw Dusky Cloud with a horde of men rushing over. Without a word, these new arrivals charged inside the Bounty Assignment Hall. Plenty of curse words were soon heard echoing from within the hall. In no time at all, several players emerged from the hall with their hands on their heads and eyes filled with fear.

Dusky Cloud and his compatriots came out of the Bounty Assignment Hall after. His steely gaze swept through the area, and when Dusky Cloud spotted several players dazedly standing by the side, he immediately pointed at them, “What are you guys doing here?”

“Mi – Mission…” these players stuttered and then froze up, clearly unsure of how they had offended such a large horde of men.

“Mission, my *ss! No ‘Bounty Mission’ for you lot! Scram!” Dusky Cloud chased away all these players. Only then did his gaze shift to the five men squatting by a wall and made his way over to them. “How’s everything? Is Miles bro alright?” Dusky Cloud asked with worry apparent in his voice.

“He’s fine!” Brother Assist answered for everyone, saying, “His PK value will be cleared off soon!”

“Why didn’t you inform us about this and let us intervene?!” Dusky Cloud asked.　　

The Ten Guild Alliance naturally had men that were clearing off their PK value through the ‘Bounty Mission’ as well. In fact, some of them were among those that were chasing after Gu Fei. Since the Ten Guild Alliance had over four thousand men, a few of them were bound to not know of who Gu Fei was.

It was only when a Ten Guild Alliance member who knew of Gu Fei’s appearance had come face to face with him that the ‘Super Mario’ who had taken the city by storm was found out to actually be Thousand Miles Drunk. Hurrying to inform the Ten Guild Alliance of the matter, Dusky Cloud hastily rallied his force to aid Gu Fei.

The Ten Guild Alliance was basically Yueye City’s tyrant organization. Dusky Cloud’s men quickly gained control of the Bounty Assignment Hall and they turned away any players, telling them to return at a later time. When would that ‘later time’ be? It would of course be once Gu Fei cleared off all his PK value.

Gu Fei and Svelte Dancer did not know of this at first; when Gu Fei disposed of his latest target and teleported himself to the Bounty Assignment Hall, he was taken aback by its strangely empty hallways. Exiting the hall to chase after his target, he saw a pack of players standing right outside.

Gu Fei’s heart leaped; why did his fellow mercenaries not inform him of this bunch of players blocking the way out? Did they think everything was over and ran off to do their things, instead?

As he was about to charge forward and fight the players, someone from the pack suddenly shouted, “Miles bro is back!”

Everyone turned to look. Dusky Cloud emerged from this crowd and approached Gu Fei, grasping his hand warmly, “Miles bro, it’s been tough on you.”

“Ah… Not really,” Gu Fei replied, feeling surprised.

“These m*th*rf*ck*rs of Yueye City just love clearing off their PK value. Honestly, I don’t even see the point in doing so. Just look at me; I’ve never bothered to clear off my PK value at all!” Dusky Cloud declared.

“That’s true,” Gu Fei casually agreed. Understanding that these men had come here with good intentions, he expressed gratitude. He then said, “I’m about to finish clearing off my PK value. No need to busy yourselves with this matter; it’s fine for you guys leave.”

“How many is left?” Dusky Cloud asked.

“Just 7 PK points!” the men behind answered for him. It seemed that quite a handful of them had gotten Gu Fei as their ‘Bounty Mission’.

“That’s two more missions! We’ll help you keep watch here,” Dusky Cloud said.

“No need to go through such trouble,” Gu Fei refused.

“We are brothers here; what’s there to be courteous about?” Dusky Cloud was adamant.

Gu Fei could only accept his offer. He was about to send Svelte Dancer a message to prevent any misunderstanding when the door behind him opened and he heard her exclaim, “Sh*t! I’m surrounded!”

By the time Gu Fei looked backward, Svelte Dancer had already activated Stealth. He hurriedly shouted, “Don’t do anything! They’re on our side!”

Silence pervaded as everyone looked blankly at the empty space. Svelte Dancer’s red figure slowly faded into view; she was holding a dagger which was actually inches away from Dusky Cloud’s neck. It seemed that she was about to lop his head off. “Friends of yours?” Svelte Dancer blinked.

“Yeah!” Gu Fei went over, lowered her dagger, and pulled her away, “Carry on with your ‘Bounty Mission’!”

Dusky Cloud could still feel the whip of air around his neck. Had it not been for Gu Fei’s timely shout, Dusky Cloud’s neck might have been reaped open by Svelte Dancer’s dagger. As a Thief, his heart was beset with bewilderment by what he had just experienced. To be able to move so quickly despite being in Stealth mode… Just who was this person?

“How may I address this heroine?” Dusky Cloud respectfully asked as he went forward.

“Svelte Dancer,” Svelte Dancer introduced herself.　　

“Oh…” Everyone was in awe. This bunch of ruffians had naturally heard of this number one pay-to-win gamer, who also currently held the title of being the top player of Parallel World.

“Okay. Time to go!” Gu Fei waved to the group as he dragged Svelte Dancer off.

Svelte Dancer was down to her final PK point, allowing her to clear her PK value with this last mission; Gu Fei’s 7 PK points were also quickly resolved with two more missions, finally settling the storm that had thrown the entire city into a tizzy. Gu Fei thanked Dusky Cloud once more, and the Ten Guild Alliance’s men dispersed after. Svelte Dancer also left to look for the Amethyst Rebirth ladies. Gu Fei watched these two parties walk away and hefted the hem of his robe, heading back inside the Bounty Assignment Hall.

“What are you doing?” The five men of Young Master's Elite asked, stunned. They had almost grown roots for staying by that wall this whole time.

“‘Bounty Mission’, of course!” Gu Fei answered.

“Didn’t you just clear off all your PK points?” they asked.

Gu Fei turned his head over to look at them. The five realized the foolishness of their question; ‘Bounty Mission’ was Gu Fei’s main reason for playing the game, after all. “Tsk!” they each raised their middle fingers to Gu Fei before leaving as well.

At the same time, Traversing Four Seas’ negotiation by the prison also ended. They had gathered everyone in case of a fight breaking out, yet not a drop of blood had been shed all this while. After Oathless Sword paid the fee to the prison guard, what he got in return was not an item but a person—to be precise, what he got was a dirty-faced, smelly NPC with disheveled hair. The NPC was wearing a coarse prisoner’s outfit and his hands and legs were still bound with chains.

The quest’s story became clearer with this. Apparently, this NPC was originally someone that held an important position from a certain city. The NPC was later found guilty of corruption charges and fled from that city. Unfortunately, it got captured in Yueye City and Traversing Four Seas was tasked of escorting this corrupted official back to its city to stand for trial.

Of course, only the Traversing Four Seas’ members were privy to this information; the mercenaries had simply been standing by the prison entrance this whole time, feeling wholly unsatisfied for being unable to do anything more constructive. Oathless Sword was rather rueful as well. Had he known that this part of the quest would be accomplished easily, he would have just gotten the NPC by himself and called everyone to continue on the road. In the end, he had wasted time setting up formation and getting people ready for a non-existent fight. Furthermore, many players had already run off to god knew where once they had learned that the expedition would not resume today.

Without any choice left, he could only stick to their earlier decision of continuing the journey tomorrow. As all the mercenary groups dispersed, Oathless Sword realized that he had no idea on how to handle the NPC they had gotten. He could not possibly bring it along as they grinded levels. What would happen when he logged off, then?

Oathless Sword nearly fainted when he directly asked the NPC.

Grinding levels was not a problem, but if anything untoward happened to the NPC, causing its death, this guild quest would be considered as ‘failed’. Beyond that, they would have to bring him back to the prison for temporary holding when they logged off. Since the prison was run by the system, it would naturally charge a fee for this service, which was exactly the cost Oathless Sword had just paid to take the NPC out of the prison. This meant that Oathless Sword had not only wasted time but also money. What was worse was that he would have to pay money once more to retrieve this man tomorrow before they could resume their journey to the next city.

In his anger, Oathless Sword stuffed the NPC back into prison before leaving in a huff with his band of brothers.

Gu Fei was still happily doing ‘Bounty Mission’. The PK value of Yueye City’s players was substantial, with many of them having at least 5 PK points. If not for this, Svelte Dancer and Gu Fei would have no way of clearing off their high PK value so quickly.

The higher the PK value of a bounty target was, the more lucrative the reward was. Gu Fei’s experience points and coin purse increased as his enjoyment reached an all-time high with the many fights he got himself into. There was nothing more he could ask for from the game at this point. When Sword Demon and the rest sent him a message asking if he would like to join them in some ‘new’ quests they had acquired, Gu Fei rejected them outright.

Even the quests in Yunduan City were ‘new’ to Gu Fei. When it came down to it, ‘Bounty Mission’ was still what he wanted to do the most!

Gu Fei slew the bounty target before him with this thought in mind. Quickly patting his Windchaser’s Emblem, Gu Fei teleported himself to the Bounty Assignment Hall. Gu Fei currently had a piece of cloth covering his face like any other Yueye City player, so not one of the people in the Bounty Assignment Hall realized that he was the bounty target that they had been chasing after just a while ago.

Finally managing to squeeze his way to the mission window, Gu Fei sighed deeply in relief. This was one area of Yueye City’s Bounty Assignment Hall that he felt dissatisfaction about: It was always crowded with people.

Gu Fei handed over his completed mission and was about to obtain another when he heard a dinging sound. This was exactly the same sound he had heard before when he received a special reward upon mission completion.