Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-331

Chapter 331 - Gold-farming assignment?

Youthful Reflection sent out twenty Thieves in that first wave, but Linyin City’s small teams managed to eliminate each of them methodically. With only three Thieves left, Youthful Reflection called for the mercenary leaders to send more of their men, but these leaders could clearly tell that their men would only be used as cannon fodders, so they began to shirk responsibility by claiming that all their Thieves were already dead.

Youthful Reflection could see the many mercenary Thieves out and about, yet when he directly ordered them to set out for the task, they would tell him to seek their leaders’ permission first, and when he did seek the mercenary leaders, these leaders would lie through their teeth by claiming that all their Thieves were already dead. This was another example of how such unprofessional mercenary groups abused the disharmony that was created by the hastily set-up chain of command. Youthful Reflection heaved a long sigh as he looked to the heavens for guidance. Just as the option of using these trashy mercenary groups was exhausted, a group of highly qualified mercenaries suddenly appeared before him.

However, instead of feeling happy, the sight of these mercenaries voluntarily stepping up to the plate only made Youthful Reflection’s heart hurt. These mercenaries were indeed excellent… so much so that they would always mention a fee before lifting even a finger.

Young Master Han came over to Youthful Reflection with a phony smile. “Do you need help from us for something?”

“Your group only has one Thief; what can you hope to accomplish with that?” Youthful Reflection rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“We’ll accomplish great things, of course.” Young Master Han chuckled. “Let us go and give those guys a good welcome gift. What do you think?”

“Are you sure you’re all up to it?” Youthful Reflection was skeptical. He did not doubt the skill that Young Master's Elite possessed, but given their current special circumstance, most people – Youthful Reflection included – would not be so confident that they could engage and beat the Linyin City’s players in guerilla warfare.

“We won’t charge you a dime if we can’t do it, so what do you have to lose?” Young Master Han asked in a persuasive voice.

“What’s the price this time?” Youthful Reflection asked.

“Each enemy we kill will cost you 30 gold coins,” Young Master Han replied.

“How’s that going to work? How will I know how many men you guys kill?” Youthful Reflection asked.

“You can follow us to observe!” Young Master Han invited. “Your eyes are the only thing you need to count the dead; you won’t even need to lift a finger.”

“In that case…” Youthful Reflection was clearly moved by this offer. After some thought, he decided. “Okay. We are in agreement.”

“Wait for us over there. We’ll be arriving soon,” Young Master Han casually pointed to a location as he went to gather the others. Soon, Youthful Reflection saw all the members of Young Master's Elite walking toward him with abnormal laziness as they discussed the assignment.

“30 gold coins per kill? The average ‘Punishing Pudgy Keith’ quest would be about this price!” Brother Assist said.

‘Punishing Pudgy Keith’ was the codename that Yunduan City’s players would use whenever they were talking about hiring people to PK certain players.

“One for 30 gold coins, so ten is only 300 gold coins. That d*mn twerp let those volunteer mops earn 300 gold coins a pop; he’s clearly discriminating against us!” War Without Wounds said indignantly.

“That’s not true,” Royal God Call refuted, saying, “Those guys mopped their way to stardom, so it only makes sense to pay such stars a high appearance fee.”

“Ha ha ha ha!” All of them laughed heartily. Only Sword Demon had the attitude of someone who was about to perform an important assignment. Meanwhile, Gu Fei was rather glum. Muttering to himself for a bit, he then raised his head and asked, “Just when will we be able to log off today?”

“Why are you always thinking of logging off?! What a deadbeat!” The person chiding Gu Fei was Svelte Dancer.

“This is a huge transaction; it's rare to get opportunities like this my friend, Miles. You shouldn’t look so listless! But then again, that’s a good thing for us.” The person who had said this was Drifting. Standing on his either side were Left Hand of Love and Right Hand of Cool.

“G*dd*mn! This is a real fight here boys; we’re not trying to chase skirts. You lot better pull your socks up!” The player lecturing a bunch of unruly men, who were all scoffing at his words, was none other than Sakurazaka Moony.

“You all are…” Youthful Reflection was shocked speechless.

“Oh, I went back and casually asked around. Didn’t expect many people to show interest in this gold-farming assignment, so I brought everyone along,” Young Master Han explained. Besides the above-mentioned mercenaries, there were a few other players who had come along.

Gold-farming assignment… Youthful Reflection was in a daze now. He felt as though he had unknowingly stumbled into a trap as he gazed at this bunch of players whom he had a hard time convincing moments ago but was now positively brimming with liveliness and could vaguely hear his heart shattering into pieces.

“Oh, yeah. If you want to count our kills, I’m afraid you alone won’t be enough. Best to call a few more men to help you keep an eye on us!” Young Master Han reminded Youthful Reflection with fake kindness.

“Yes. It’s best to send a Priest with me,” Drifting added. It was clear that these people had already been briefed about their current assignment.

“Give us some pretty ladies!” Sakurazaka Moony’s brothers yelled.

“Why would this lady cheat you over such paltry sum of gold?” Svelte Dancer glared. It was evident that she wanted to do this assignment alone and did not wish for anyone tagging along as she did her work.

“Give us an Archer over here!”

“We would like a Priest, please.”

“We want a Priest, too! Make sure she’s a woman….”

Their demands were nonstop. Youthful Reflection had tears in his eyes. Still, it was necessary for him to have these men supervised as, given their lack of professionalism, some of them might come to him later claiming to have single-handedly killed off the entire guild of enemies.

After their supervisors were assigned, these players roared, “Onward to prosperity!” Diving deeper into the jungle in various directions, the expression on Youthful Reflection’s face right now was as wooden as a tree bark.

From here on, a battle exploded into action in the southwest direction. All they heard were a few urgent yells that instantly ended, as though both parties had quickly transited into an insidious game of hide-and-seek – yelling loudly in such fights was plain suicide. The tranquility of the forest remained, and beyond the occasional sound of the clashing weapons or bursts of flames, the fight raged on practically soundlessly.

Such a scene was extremely strange. All of them knew that countless fights were happening around them, but none of them heard the sounds that usually accompanied such clashes. Could it be that the fights among the Linyin City’s players themselves would usually proceed as quietly as these current fights, too?

The only mercenary group doing things in a grand fashion was Young Master's Elite.

The six men swaggered into the jungle in all their arrogance and made quite the din; they even found the time to ridicule and tease Youthful Reflection every now and then as he accompanied them.

Youthful Reflection was having conflicting thoughts right now. On the one hand he really wished for a vicious ambush to spring on these six men and burn them into crisp, on the other hand he did not want that to happen as he was currently with them and their deaths would basically mean his death as well. Just as he was agonizing over this, Gu Fei yelled, “We’ve got company!”

With that declaration, he turned to a certain direction, cast a spell, and disappeared to that part of the jungle.

There was indeed a player hiding behind a tree. Having just peeked his head out to check the situation, this man did not expect Gu Fei to be able to sense his presence just like that. When he heard Gu Fei yell those words, he did not even consider the possibility of the latter referring to him. Just as he was wondering who among his comrades had gotten exposed, Gu Fei already teleported and materialized diagonally behind him. The poor man was still gingerly huddling behind the tree! Anxious to log off, Gu Fei did not hesitate in his attack – not even taking the time to greet this man shamelessly as he would normally do – and just quickly sent a sword slash on the man’s back.

At the same time, owing to him changing his position, Gu Fei spied two other players hiding behind another tree in his peripheral view. These two men had also spotted Gu Fei, but instead of attacking, they chose to hide! These two retracted their necks into themselves and managed to remove themselves from Gu Fei’s direct line of sight.

Having watched the Yunduan City’s Mages randomly toss their AOE spells, Gu Fei learned a thing or two from them. He first pointed his sword toward his right and chanted an incantation before doing the same to his left. After casting Descending Wheel of Flames and Blazing Tree of a Thousand Inferno to either side, he walked out from the tree line.

“How was it?” Sword Demon and the rest asked.

“I’m out of mana,” Gu Fei replied.

“We’re not asking about that!” Everyone eyed him with disdain.

Before these words left their lips, Gu Fei’s delayed spell came alive in two directions behind his back. None of the enemies saw where Gu Fei had tossed the spell, but even if they did see them, they would probably not bother to dodge the spells. This was because the Linyin City’s players firmly believed that one spell was not enough to insta-kill anyone. As such, they would usually grit their teeth and bear the hit. This was an acquired habit whenever they were hiding themselves.

Unfortunately for those two players, they were currently up against the indomitable Mage Gu Fei. Since these enemy players had job classes – Thief, Hunter, or Mage – with low HP, not many of them could survive Gu Fei’s AOE spell. Gu Fei turned to face Youthful Reflection. “I’ve got five kills.”

“How did you know that?!” Although Youthful Reflection had been standing here all this while, he had not seen a thing. He thought Gu Fei had only tossed out his spells without seeing anything himself.

“My PK value increased by 5 points,” Gu Fei replied, thinking to himself that Youthful Reflection was really inexperienced for even asking this.

Before Youthful Reflection could reply, Gu Fei rummaged through his pockets and tossed out a dagger in each of his hands to reveal two Thieves when they connected. Sword Demon with Brother Assist and Royal God Call with War Without Wounds paired up and took on a Thief with this pairing. With great precision and skill, these two Thieves were prevented from slinking back in the jungle.

“Here are two more,” Young Master Han announced before those players in front of him could die.

“Do… Do those kills that I don’t witness count?” Youthful Reflection drummed up his courage to ask this question. These mercenaries were doing work for them, so showing too much distrust on them would simply get in the way of things. However, while Youthful Reflection no longer doubted Young Master's Elite’s ability to complete this assignment, he was rather skeptical on whether these men would hide the truth from him, given their unsavory conduct. Youthful Reflection felt the need to show strictness regarding these things, particularly to this cunning lot. Perhaps, the 5 PK points Gu Fei claimed to have earned were only 2 or 3 PK points in actuality?

Young Master Han bestowed Heal on one of the Thieves with a wave of his hand. He then gestured to the player that they would have a temporary ceasefire.

“How many players did you lose?” Young Master Han asked the Thief.

“Five,” the Thief replied. He evidently felt that hiding such thing was pointless.

Young Master Han shrugged his shoulders as he addressed Youthful Reflection, “There you have it.”