Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-362

Chapter 362 - The Double Doors of the Bounty Assignment Hall

Gu Fei got online a bit earlier the next day, hoping to fully erase his PK value this time. Everyone from Yunduan City was expected to rendezvous at 7 P.M. today to resume the expedition. He might feel some reservation participating if a PvP ensued like before with his high PK value, so he decided to erase some of it to lessen his burden.

He made his way to Linshui City’s Bounty Assignment Hall, but he slowed down his steps near the establishment’s entrance. His intuition told him that someone nearby was watching him!

The Bounty Assignment Hall of Linshui City was quite near the street where the local players sell their goods and wares. Those players who had set up stalls on Peddlers’ Street extended their area of operation all the way to the hall, causing the place to bustle with activity with all the people about. Gu Fei was unable to pinpoint who was eyeing him, but he was positive that the person was doing it on purpose. The passing glance of people was entirely different from the focused attention that he was sensing right now. The latter was what Gu Fei meant when he said ‘killing intent’, while the former was far too brief and imperceptible for him to notice.

Gu Fei could still feel someone’s eyes on him; it was unlikely for the person to know that Gu Fei could sense his presence. He had experienced such bold surveillance countless times before; Thieves in Stealth were often the most brazen and were usually the ones involved in this sort of task.

Unfortunately for Gu Fei, he had no way to accurately spot the person in such a crowded avenue. This was why he had suddenly halted his footsteps and pretended to browse the items on display in a nearby stall even as his mind raced.

He was certain that the person watching him had ill intention. If this person was looking for him for something mundane, there was absolutely no need for them to observe his every movement while in Stealth. All the person had to do was approach and greet him.

While it was quite difficult to guess who this person was, he could easily tell their intention. The robbers in this city had even branched out to do their job out in the open waters, so how much safer could he be while on land? Gu Fei reckoned this person could perhaps just be one of those pirates from yesterday that had stubbornly stuck with their mark and were currently waiting for a chance to strike.

Surely, it was no coincidence for the entrance to the hall to be monitored like this. It was even possible that the opposing party had positioned their men to wait for Gu Fei’s appearance, expecting him to come and clear off his rather stupendous PK value. Considering that no men had been positioned like this yesterday, could this group have been patiently waiting for his reappearance for this entire day? That was truly some perseverance!

Still, Gu Fei had been squatting in this one spot for quite a while now, so why was it that the person watching him was still in that same direction? Were they planning to take him down with just that one man? They were truly looking down on him if that was the case! Maybe the lone person watching him was just a lookout, and the real ambush was right at the place where he must reach – inside the Bounty Assignment Hall? Gu Fei mulled this over as he glanced at the double doors of the hall.

Those doors were such a familiar sight! They were shut tightly just like how they always were. Gu Fei silently stared at them for quite some time, yet not a soul stepped out. Gu Fei was very well-acquainted with those double doors. Noticing just how unusually few the players entering and exiting them, he was even more suspicious that something was amiss.

However, just like the saying ‘a skilled man would be daring’, once Gu Fei ascertained that there would be a sort of ambush awaiting him behind those doors, he mentally prepared himself and purposefully walked toward the hall. He was really curious on what sort of stunt the bunch of men had up their sleeves.

Upon reaching the entrance, Gu Fei reached out to grab the door handle. Since the hall had double doors, his arm reached out to push the left door open until midway. His body had only taken half a step into the building as his right hand firmly gripped his sword that ran horizontally across his body in a small sword pose. This pose allowed him to most efficiently unleash his attack, be it a slash, stab, cleave, flick, or even a spell, in any particular direction. It was a pose that Gu Fei had invented himself that he felt was very suitable for this VRMMO.

The moment his step crossed the transom, he could already feel the killing intent thickening, especially on his right side. There was absolutely nobody there, yet the killing intent was intense. He of course knew that the killing intent was coming from a Thief in Stealth who was hurling himself straight at him right now. Having already prepared for this, his right leg flashed out the moment his left foot planted itself firmly on the ground, pushing out the right door instantly.

The door flew open without much delay, swinging out at the speed of at least 500 Agility points. The Thief that was rushing toward him had not expected this move and slammed onto the solid door with a resounding cry of agony.

If there was an ambusher on the right, why would the left lack any ambusher behind it? Gu Fei’s right leg hooked that right door back as his left arm threw the left door open until it hit the wall. The person on the left was thinking of circling around to attack when he saw the door on his side open, but how would he have known that Gu Fei would open the door to the point of it reached a full 180 degree? With yet another cry of agony, that man ended up pinned behind it.

Naturally, this was only temporary. If a Warrior decked out in Strength were in Gu Fei’s shoes, perhaps that man would die from getting pinned behind the door. Gu Fei knew his limits and did not even attempt to do that. Once more, he pulled that left door back to guard his left as he held Moonlit Nightfalls horizontally in his right hand. Gu Fei beamed. “Why is it so lively here?!”

A good number of people were inside the hall, and all of them were pretending to line up for obtaining a ‘Bounty Mission’. They were unaware that Gu Fei had been observing the hall for quite some time outside and noted that nobody had left the premise after all this while. The system assigning the ‘Bounty Mission’ was unlike the ticketing booth for a train station that could only assign them sequentially. With no player exiting the premise after all this while, it was clear that something was up the moment Gu Fei stepped in and saw a bunch of players queuing up like this.

The entire hall was silent after his declaration. He heard someone click his tongue, but no one came forward to help the man from behind the right door get up to his feet as that door slowly closed automatically. The Thief behind the door was holding his nose as he fiercely stared at Gu Fei.

“Are you okay?” Gu Fei asked. “I don’t know if the door has any Attack Power behind it, so did your HP get reduced?”

“YAHH!” the Thief bellowed, darting toward Gu Fei with his daggers flashing in both hands. Another bang could be heard as the door on the right suddenly swung out, causing Gu Fei to shake his head. “Insolent! Too insolent! For you to slam yourself into the same door twice, did you find out how much damage the door did this time around?”

At the same time, the Thief on the left had finally made his way from behind the door, stabbing his dagger out. Gu Fei unexpectedly shrank back a step, bringing that left door back to forty-five degrees and caused the Thief’s dagger to plant right onto the door, instead. Once more, Gu Fei pushed that door outward with a bang as the Thief backed off a few steps while rubbing his nose.

“Look, this door moves!” Gu Fei pushed and pulled that door a few times like he was working with bellows. The two Thieves were on the verge of tears.

“What are you waiting for?! Attack!” The bunch of players was finally done pretending to queue, each pouncing on the Mage like wolves in a valley of sheep. Spells, arrows, Charge, Spurring Meteor, and even the Priests’ Holy Ball were tossed toward Gu Fei, bombarding him. In the end, Gu Fei opted to retreat for another half a step and lightly pulled the door back.

Gu Fei felt a violent shudder come through the door he was holding. He could imagine how huge the collision was, yet it remained undamaged. Meanwhile, Gu Fei, who was standing behind it, had yet to suffer even a bit of damage. This level of defense afforded from a mere door had actually put all the top-grade items available in market currently to shame.

Gu Fei released his grip of the door and leaped backward down the steps. With a wave of his backhand, an Electric Wall formed right in front of the entrance. At this moment, that very same door was pulled off its hinges by the angry ambushers. Gu Fei glanced to his left and right and saw the two Thieves from before. The two prepared to leap out after him but ended up getting caught on the Electric Wall with a zap. The current arced and crackled loudly, as the man on the left convulsed so much that he could not even hold on to the dagger in his hand.

Gu Fei shook his head sorrowfully. Today must be these two men’s unlucky day; they just simply have no way to escape it! Thinking of this, he quickly turned to run.

He had no intention of fighting it out from the start. The hall had limited space. Just a few AOE spells from Mages would be enough to cover the entire area. No amount of skill he possessed would let him escape such a situation.

Gu Fei took a look with that push of the door to see if he could grab himself a ‘Bounty Mission’ before fleeing. Although the two Thieves suffered ample teasing by his hand, the enemies were actually positioned rather thoroughly –something that was obvious just from the way the men had waited by the doors. Thus, Gu Fei did not hesitate to leave after provoking them a little. By the time Electric Wall subsided, Gu Fei had long disappeared turning into an unknown corner of the street.

For a moment, he did not know what he should do now that he was denied from pursuing ‘Bounty Mission’.

Grind his level by fighting monsters? It seemed he could only do that. Gu Fei pondered on this as he asked a player beside him about the location of a level 50 grinding map in Linshui City.

Level 50? The player stared at Gu Fei curiously, even furtively appraising him.

Only the really strong teams out there were capable of killing monsters ten levels higher them; solo players would at most do three or five levels above theirs, yet this person before him was actually asking about level 50 monsters despite being alone. Just what was he thinking?

Although the man felt curious of this, he did not ask him for any details. He only looked at the time and said, “The boat to the level 50 grinding map has already left. You have to wait for an hour before it comes back.”

“You need to ride a boat to go to a grinding map?!” Gu Fei exclaimed.

Upon hearing Gu Fei’s rudimentary question, this man had already suspected this Mage was someone hailing from another city. This was more or less confirmed by Gu Fei’s exclamation after. The man proceeded to explain patiently, “Haven’t you noticed there’s water everywhere in Linshui City? All the grinding maps are located on the many islands around, and the only way to get to them is by boarding a ferry by the harbor that does scheduled stops in every area. It’s important to grasp the timing if you wish to grind here in Linshui City!”

“That’s so troublesome,” Gu Fei muttered, asking, “Haven’t the players thought of a solution to this?”

“Some business-minded individuals made their boats at the start, but they would often get stolen or be damaged by others. That’s a given, since things like a boat can’t fit into our dimensional pockets. Actually, there’s always a boat in every grinding map at every hour. It isn’t exactly that much of a problem as long as we players take note of the time and get used to it, which is why no one bothered to make their own watercrafts anymore.”

“Oh…” Gu Fei more or less understood the local’s feeling towards this matter. After bidding the man farewell, he quickly headed to the harbor.

Since he could not get to a level 50 grinding map, he would just look for any other maps suitable for his level. As long as there was a ferry for it, he would not need to search for it.

Gu Fei was suddenly reminded of Royal God Call. The latter would probably have quite a good life if he stayed here. He would not need to find his way around every time he left the city, as these boats would automatically ferry him to the suitable grinding maps. The ships would also ferry him back once he was done, which meant someone who had no sense of direction like Royal God Call would definitely find such a service wonderfully convenient.