Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-558

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“Where’s Vast Lushness?” Silver Moon quickly sent a message to Southern Lone Blade.

“Eh? You’re here?” Southern Lone Blade asked.

“Yup!”

“She’s over here. You’d better come over now to see for yourself that Thousand Miles Drunk is really standing right next to her and pay up the additional deposit.” Southern Lone Blade sent a set of coordinates to Silver Moon, feeling a little snubbed. That rascal, Silver Moon, actually suspected him of trying to extort 1000 gold coins and specifically came over to verify his claim. He truly was scum.

“Oh, no. That’s not what I meant!” Silver Moon rushed to explain. “Didn’t you say Thousand Miles Drunk is here? I’m just worried that you guys might have trouble dealing with him, so I brought a few of my friends along to help. Would I even use a Teleportation Scroll to get to this city if I cared for those 1000 gold coins? I’m no fool!”

Hearing this, Southern Lone Blade thought that it made sense. The guy did not really need to expend a Teleportation Scroll just for 1000 gold coins, so he asked, “What are you helping with?”

“Taking care of Thousand Miles Drunk, of course!” Silver Moon replied.

“Who said we’re gonna take care of him?” Southern Lone Blade retorted.

“Isn’t he right beside Vast Lushness?” Silver Moon asked.

“That’s why we’ll just make our move once he’s no longer around,” Southern Lone Blade replied. Honestly speaking, Southern Lone Blade was feeling a little ashamed for having to avoid such a person, but he truly had no way of dealing with Gu Fei, so even if he was reluctant to do this, he had to yield to the situation when he had to. While this might result in others to look down on his team, it was at least better than shouting his mouth off and bragging. His reputation would only worsen if someone attempted to hire them to take Thousand Miles Drunk’s life, and they ended up being unable to perform the assignment.

“Seriously…” Silver Moon was stunned. He had not expected Southern Lone Blade and his team to do such a thing.

“Is there a problem?” Southern Lone Blade asked. Silver Moon had no idea what to say in that moment, but what made him feel worse was the situation he was now in. He had brought Ye Xiaowu and No Smile all the way here with a claim that there was an opportunity to exploit, only for it to turn out that these people here had no intentions of taking action against Thousand Miles Drunk. Silver Moon was feeling deep remorse inside him; why had he been so reckless?!

“Where’s Thousand Miles Drunk?” Ye Xiaowu and No Smile were still asking this.

“Over in…” Silver Moon reported the coordinates he had just been given.

“Have they started?” Ye Xiaowu asked. Hearing Silver Moon’s analysis from before, he was also rather worried that those people would lose their level at Gu Fei’s hands. It was best if they could preserve as much of the firepower they had for this rectification objective.

“I don’t think so.” Silver Moon wiped off his sweat. He truly had no idea how he could explain to Ye Xiaowu and the others everything later when they saw Southern Lone Blade’s gang giving Gu Fei a wide berth.

“Then, we’d better get going!” No Smile, who was clueless about the situation, continued to urge everyone on, pissing Silver Moon off to the point that he was cursing the guy’s ancestors in his heart. It was obvious that, as long as there was a chance, No Smile was desperate to kill off Gu Fei as well.

No Smile and Ye Xiaowu went sprinting toward the coordinates. Silver Moon had no choice but to follow the two even as he began to plan what he would say when they saw no one in action when they reached the place.

————————————–

Back on the main street of Baishi City, Gu Fei and his group of six players had been strolling for half an hour now, yet the enemies had not once shown themselves. Gu Fei enjoyed this sort of activity, so he did not seem in the least bit annoyed by this, continuing to patiently walk down the street. However, the others were not as unperturbed as him, and they all felt that strolling in a row like how they were doing was far too stupid.

“Eh. Why aren’t you guys walking?” Gu Fei halted his steps when he realized that the others had all spontaneously fallen out of step.

The five of them looked at one another for a moment. Fireball straightened his back and stepped out. He was rather proud of himself for being able to speak to Gu Fei at times like this.

“Drunk bro, since we’re waiting for them to show themselves, what’s the point of us going round and round like this. Wouldn’t it be the same for us to stay at one place and wait?” Fireball asked.

“Weren’t we doing that because they might be unable to find us? That’s why we’re taking the fight to them,” Gu Fei said.

“But the city is so huge; won’t it be harder to find us if we continue to stroll about like this?” Fireball continued.

“Look; the situation right now is that,” Gu Fei patiently explained, “they are unable to find us. How anxious they must be! In their anxiety, they’ll surely head to the streets to find out more, and that requires more people to see us before they can find any trace of us from others. That’s why we need to keep walking around in this small area here. This will ensure that even more people see us, and because our movement is concentrated to one area, this will allow them to accurately locate us as soon as possible; get it?”

Fireball, as well as the other four, was stunned to silence.

“What? Is there a problem?” Gu Fei gazed at the five players, like how he would usually look at his students.

“Aren’t you the one who’s more anxious if they can’t find us?” Svelte Dancer asked.

“Am I anxious?”

“Drunk bro, you’re indeed rather tense…” Fireball had a deservedly well-meaning expression.

“Is that so… Then, let’s just complete another round before picking a place at random to wait; how’s that?” Gu Fei offered to the floor.

“Okay!” Everybody could only nod. Even though it was a little farcical, Gu Fei’s explanation did make sense. It was truly one of the simpler and more effective methods to get unknown enemies to serve themselves up.

Unfortunately, Southern Lone Blade and his men completely did not reciprocate such a straightforward method. After cautiously and diligently trailing after the six players as they complete two rounds, it became apparent to Southern Lone Blade and the others that these people were circling around meaninglessly.

“What the actual f*ck is going on?” Flame Singed Clothes was the first to become impatient, complaining across the party channel. They felt really pressured with Gu Fei’s presence as the group wandered about this whole time.

“Big South, what do you think?” Glue asked.

“They are waiting for us,” Southern Lone Blade replied.

“Is that what you think as well?”

“Yeah. They originally had a lot more people with them, a situation that we would never attempt to mount an assault. That’s why they intentionally dismissed a huge portion of their manpower the moment they stepped out of the tavern, leaving only six players to match our numbers. Afterward, they deliberately keep circling around in this small area here; it’s likely to draw our attention to them, so that we will strike,” Southern Lone Blade deduced.

“Did they not even consider us possibly watching them do all this in secret?” Flame Singed Clothes asked.

“What can we do even if we’re watching them? Let me ask you; if we don’t know that one of them is Thousand Miles Drunk, would we not have already made our move against any party of six?”

“Yeah. You’re right…” Flame Singed Clothes nodded. Aside from Thousand Miles Drunk, there was no way that they would be afraid of any party that had the same number of players as them, even if they were lower in level right now.

“I’m certain that Thousand Miles Drunk is the only one who can come up with such a plan. He’s the only one capable of disregarding any sort of enemies he may face, after all.” Glue sighed.

“A real m*th*rf*ck*r,” Southern Lone Blade cursed.

“So, what do we do now?” Flame Singed Clothes asked.

“Continue to follow them, of course. I still refuse to believe that he’s going to continue strolling like this for long.” Southern Lone Blade was grinding his teeth. “We might be no match for him in PK, but would we lose to the man when it comes to our patience?”

“That’s right; we’ll challenge his patience!” Each of them rallied. They had finally found a method to defeat Thousand Miles Drunk, even though it was rather wistful on their part.

In the end, the one who was the most hesitant was still Silver Moon. He followed Ye Xiaowu and No Smile as they made their way to the coordinates Southern Lone Blade had given, but Gu Fei was not there anymore. Silver Moon no longer wanted to find out where Gu Fei’s actual position was, so he chose to take a step back in the matter by deducing, “It’s unknown where he is. He might still be around, or he might’ve already left.”

But who would have guessed just how accurate this was, for Gu Fei and the others had indeed stayed around, and it was Ye Xiaowu and No Smile that had acted in line with exactly what Gu Fei had previously mentioned: They went around asking the players passing by.

A black robe was not particularly unique, but adding a top-grade sword with a deep purple sheen… Gu Fei’s ability to draw attention showed through these few details, allowing Ye Xiaowu and No Smile to very quickly learn what they wanted to know after asking a few players.

“Over here!” The two brought Silver Moon along as they walked, even as Silver Moon felt like crying despite there being no tears.

Asking along as they made their way around, they soon caught sight of Gu Fei’s signature look 200 meters away. At the same time, they also spotted the other five players alongside him, causing Ye Xiaowu and No Smile to turn back and stare at Silver Moon. “Alone?”

Silver Moon scratched his head, feigning a look of innocence. “How can this be?”

“Let’s take a closer look,” Ye Xiaowu said. Silver Moon and No Smile were not afraid, either. They were still quite a distance away from Gu Fei, and the only reason they managed to identify the man was his outstanding equipment. Silver Moon and the two were not dressed so conspicuously, so none of them was afraid that Gu Fei could pick them out from the crowd. Despite this, No Smile still cautiously kept his face covered.

As they got closer, they were able to deduce the other job classes of the six.

“Three Mages, a Priest, a Thief, and an Archer.” No Smile listed them out.

“That Priest—” No Smile recognized Vast Lushness, oddly glancing over to Silver Moon as the man quickly made eye-contact. While No Smile had no idea what this was about, he nevertheless hurried to stop short of saying the rest of his sentence.

“A Dark Priest,” Ye Xiaowu completed his sentence, thinking that No Smile’s hesitance was a result of how rare it was to see one.

Silver Moon quickly followed up. “That Mage on the far left is called Blue Ease. His skill isn’t too bad, but as for that female Thief, that’s Svelte Dancer.”

“Svelte Dancer! Oh…” Ye Xiaowu and No Smile exclaimed as their voices trailed off. Though neither had met her before, the two were well-aware that she was a player whose name preceded her.

“Not only is she high level, she’s actually very powerful, too,” Silver Moon added.

“Yes. Her dagger, Dancing Dervish, is on par with your King’s Blade and Thousand Mile Drunk’s Moonlit Nightfalls. Even though that dagger has no inlaid skill, its damage output is extremely impressive, and it’s currently the best weapon out there in terms of Attack Power,” Ye Xiaowu explained.

“You mean that it’s not Thousand Miles Drunk’s?” Silver Moon was surprised.

“I’m talking about just the weapon damage alone. Moonlit Nightfalls’ Attack Power is not higher than Dancing Dervish’s, but Thousand Miles Drunk still has his Midnight Spirit Robe – Intelligence +20, Spell Mastery +1, and increased Spell Damage by 10%. It’s an exceptional piece of equipment for a Mage, especially that Spell Mastery +1 trait. Without that robe, he’d be just like you without your Torq of Leadership, unable to bring into play the full extent of the weapon in his hand, which means that his high damage will no longer exist,” Ye Xiaowu said.

“Moonlit Nightfalls, Midnight Spirit Robe…” Silver Moon muttered. The entire playerbase of Parallel World knew just how frightening Gu Fei’s equipment damage was, but Silver Moon had not even learned what the names of those two equipment were until today. Meanwhile, No Smile was feeling a little more awkward as he stood at the side, for he had been killed back when Gu Fei had yet to earn his moniker the ‘Insta-kill Mage’. With just a crappy sword that dealt additional attack, Gu Fei managed to annihilate No Smile, momentarily making him feel immensely insignificant as a result.

“Speaking of which, why is a sword a Mage’s weapon?” This was something Silver Moon had been pondering over for the longest time.