Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-578

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

The three men involuntarily turned to look at Flame Singed Clothes and Glue. While they might be larcenists, the two men were very loyal to their comrades and dedicated to accomplishing their given tasks. They were truly model workers when compared to War Without Wounds.

Even now, retrieving the goods took up 70% of the two’s attention, while the remaining 30% was on the three men from Young Master’s Elite – their control was perfect in every sense. The way their bodies exuded an effortless ease made it seem as if this were second nature to them. Only when they realized that the three men were looking at them did a sliver of panic fleet across the duo’s expression.

“Look at them and look at yourselves!” Young Master Han would of course not let an opportunity for an on-site lecture go. They were all members of their respective small teams, yet Young Master’s Elite was nowhere near as united as Southern Lone Blade’s seven-man team. Their members would put the team before themselves, with none nitpicking over their individual losses. Meanwhile, Young Master’s Elite comprised experts that would never back down from a fight, yet the moment they came across something tedious, each would prefer to shirk all sorts of responsibility, and they were all more than willing not to do anything about it.

“Enough with all that useless chatter. Just tell us what we must do now!” War Without Wounds said.

“I doubt any of you would be willing to stake out this place like them,” Young Master Han said, instead.

“Would you be willing yourself?” War Without Wounds cleverly flipped the script on him.

Young Master Han dodged the question, but it was clear what everyone’s stance regarding this was. None of the three was willing; Royal God Call and Sword Demon were not the type to waste so much time on such an endeavor, either. There was no need to even mention Gu Fei as there was no way to guarantee that he would be online for long.

“How about we take turns?” Brother Assist suggested.

“What’s the point of us keeping an eye on them?” Young Master Han asked.

“Kill them, of course!” Brother Assist answered.

“If neither of them leaves, will you be able to do anything to them?”

Brother Assist was stumped for words, knowing what Young Master Han meant. What they needed was more than just keeping an eye on the magic staff’s appearance; they must ensure that they would be able to kill the other party as well. There would be no point in keeping an eye on them otherwise, for Southern Lone Blade’s team might even turn the knife toward them the moment they stepped out of the Auction House. At the end of the day, this was the crux as to why they were in such a bind. Both parties were stuck waiting here, but while Southern Lone Blade’s gang was camping out the Auction House for the buyer with the clear goal of making a profit and getting a reward, could the same be said for the members of Young Master’s Elite? They were here to play a game. For them to while their time away, and possibly for seven days at that, here at the Auction House with the seven larcenists… Forget about the boredom; just the experience points and gold coins they would stand to miss out on was tremendous already. It was simply not worth the loss.

“What about your original plan? With the Utopian Magic Staff truly getting sold off, how will we deal with such a situation?” Brother Assist asked.

“If this happened as per normal, Blue Ease and his lot would be very aggrieved, and given their personality, they’d most likely, and extremely diligently, keep watch over here in hopes of snatching back the magic staff, probably even going as far as to loot it off the buyer’s corpse if they had to. They would likely gladly volunteer to do this menial work, but alas, their attention right now is invested in that spineless fool. Vast Lushness is sure to be lenient on the man and will definitely not mind that this happened. With that being the case, this matter will be laid to rest right then and there. Actually, who would be willing to spend so much time pursuing such b*llsh*t, anyway? No one would be willing to impair their personal relations. As long as she says the word, they’ll all be happy to call it quits and go about their businesses without much of a fuss,” reasoned Young Master Han.

Brother Assist and War Without Wounds thought about how Blue Ease’s lot had acted before and concurred with Young Master Han’s assessment. If an outsider had been obtained the magic staff right from the very start, those men would surely have tried all sorts of methods to get it back. In such an instance, Southern Lone Blade’s gang would have been seen as competitors for the magic staff, and both parties would have butted heads until the bitter end. There was even a chance that Young Master Han and the others would not have to step in. Unfortunately, the current situation was as how Young Master Han had described it; that foolish bidding master had become the focus of Vast Lushness’s comrades’ collective resentment. All it took was Vast Lushness expressing her stance on the matter, and everything would be as good as settled.

“Hey. Why don’t we just leave it be?” Brother Assist hesitated for a moment before asking. Considering the situation that they were in, they would not really incur any sort of loss in every sense of the word if they took the initiative to wash their hands off this, and they could even save time doing so. They did not really have any deep-seated grudge against Southern Lone Blade and company, to the point where Young Master Han’s gang needed to wipe them off the face of the Earth. It was Gu Fei who was the one who had dragged them here to lend Vast Lushness a hand in the first place, and now that even the woman at the helm had decided to withdraw from this matter, there was simply no rhyme or reason for them to continue wasting their time and effort on this.

“Hmm. That’s not an unwise decision, either.” Young Master Han nodded.

“So, shall we take our leave?” Brother Assist asked.

“Having wasted so much of our effort and time, it is too disgusting if we don’t make them bleed at least a little.” As Young Master Han said this, he made his way over to Flame Singed Clothes and Glue; War Without Wounds and Brother Assist hurried right behind him.

“Where’s your boss?” Young Master Han asked right away when he came over.

The two ignored him. They were under Southern Lone Blade’s orders to pay no heed to these men and concentrate on the task at hand.

“Make way!” Flame Singed Clothes barked at Young Master Han. Someone was retrieving goods off the distribution NPC at this time, and Young Master Han happened to be blocking his view.

Young Master Han turned around, extending a hand to the line of players preparing to retrieve their equipment. “Everyone, stop.”

The crowd swept their gazes over to him suspiciously even as they continued to line up and retrieve their goods. They were all ignoring him.

Young Master Han’s actual purpose was to call attention to himself, and he did not really care if they listened to him or not. Seeing everyone’s glancing over, he quickly waved his hand and gestured at Flame Singed Clothes and Glue. “You all have seen these two bros loitering here for a long time, yeah? D’you guys know who they are? To be bold enough to retrieve your equipment at such a time like this, do you guys not want your equipment at all?”

The crowd froze, while Glue and Flame Singed Clothes became all the more nervous as they heard Young Master Han continue. “Don’t blame me for not warning everyone. These two here are professional larcenists that ‘relieve’ players of their dropped equipment upon death. They’re currently searching for a target and will be keeping their eye on said player the moment he or she steps outside. You guys should think over this yourself!”

“F*ck! Don’t you venomously slander us!” Glue came running out shouting.

“That’s right, everyone! Ignore this man. We’re not here to rob anyone. Please collect the equipment you’ve bought in peace!” Flame Singed Clothes came over to lend his voice as well.

Neither party produced any sort of evidence, but such a matter had always been an issue of belief. Even if no one believed it, Young Master Han’s words had already caused quite a few players to hesitate, and it no longer mattered what Glue or Flame Singed Clothes said.

These two men could immediately tell that they needed something even more convincing, and Glue reacted far quicker as he immediately called out to Young Master Han. “There’s no need to go overboard by making a tasteless joke like that!” Coming up with an excuse at this time would not salvage the situation. After all, there was no evidence that they were here to rob people, so Glue intentionally acted more relaxed, making it seem as if they were all no strangers to one another, hoping to lead the crowd into believing that this was no more than a prank between friends.

This proved to be rather effective as quite a few players’ expressions visibly lightened, with some even chuckling along. In the end, it was Young Master Han’s icy tone which cut through the crowd again. “Since you’re not here to rob people, why does it matter if anyone retrieve their equipment or not?”

Flame Singed Clothes and Glue were in a daze, even as they howled in their hearts that they had been tricked.

Sure enough, if this were not an attempted robbery and if they were truly friends playing pranks on one another, the pair should not have gotten flustered to the point of explaining anything to the crowd. Anyone would see it as a joke the moment they did not retrieve their equipment after being tricked like this. Why would it be any of their business if these players picked up their equipment or not? Only real robbers would be so unnerved that they would seek to explain themselves to those around them to prevent their identities from getting exposed or grow nervous when people stopped retrieving their equipment from the distribution NPC. The two men had completely fallen into the trap set by Young Master Han, and their attempt to assure the crowd became the best explanation. Glue’s method of pretending to be friends with Young Master Han was quite a good solution, but it was unfortunate that he had used it far too late; the crowd had already seen their initial alarm and panic upon getting exposed.

Many of the players queuing in an orderly manner to get their goods began to back away, and this was one of those instances where all it took was one player taking the lead for all the others to follow suit blindly. Everybody began to discuss this with one another, and the slower players listened to the more quick-witted players’ reasoning. Soon, almost half of the players that had been queuing left, and some players remained not because they were skeptical about it; rather, they knew that what they were picking up was nothing exceptional, and if these two were to choose them as target for something cheap, it would simply be an insult to their profession as robbers.

The news of two potential robbers searching for a target quickly spread throughout the Auction House, and soon, the two men found themselves being surrounded by an enraged horde of players. Even if the two of them were merely framed, the fact remained that they could hardly give a convincing explanation in defense; this was especially since they were truly robbers. If not for them being in a safe zone, which indiscriminately prevented players from having any form of physical contact with one another, there was a high probability of them dying under a stampede.

Young Master Han, who was comfortably onlooking the crowd’s impassioned anger from outside the encirclement, said to Brother Assist and War Without Wounds standing next to him. “We can’t possibly let them get off easily, can we?”

“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” The two wiped sweat off their foreheads. They only realized now how lucky they were to be in the same mercenary group as Young Master Han; at least, they would not have to go up against such a villainous opponent. What he had just accomplished, which was unmasking Flame Singed Clothes and Glue’s shady identities to the masses, was theoretically simple and straightforward, but the difficulty lay on how he had convinced the crowd to take his side, instigating them into a frenzy that then proceeded to mob the two.

Glue and Flame Singed Clothes pitifully bore with the endless spittle from the people around them as they reported what had happened to Southern Lone Blade.

“Ah, that’s too careless of me!” Southern Lone Blade slapped his thigh viciously. This incident would cause them to become the laughing stock within their circle. For professionals in such a reviled line of work like larceny, were they not tempting fate by sharing the same roof with those that knew their true identities and calmly setting up surveillance so publicly?

There was nowhere to hide in a place like the Auction House, so blatantly watching players collect their equipment was risky enough, and now that they had people that knew of their identities in the same building, they had actually not realized the danger they were in still. F*ck, f*ck, f*ck! Southern Lone Blade slapped himself twice more, for he knew that this was a lapse of judgement on his part as the leader.

“Run!” Southern Lone Blade ordered the two men. Even someone who barely knew what was going on could tell that neither man could continue their surveillance any longer. Going by the front entrance would surely result in their deaths, and there was no guarantee that Southern Lone Blade and the others would be able to hold off the anger of so many people even if they came to rescue them, much less when Gu Fei’s gang was still around.

Fortunately, they had long prepared a method of escape, and it was even Glue who had given them this suggestion.

Windchaser’s Emblem. After being in contact with Ye Xiaowu, Glue came to know of the existence of this item, as well as the method of obtaining it, and how effective its Teleportation skill was when used as an escape tool. However, even though Southern Lone Blade and his men were all larcenists, their low-profile existence meant that they would hardly engage in PKing outside of their assignment. While they had come into contact with ‘Bounty Missions’, none of them had accumulated the necessary 100 ‘Bounty Missions’. However, now that they had a purpose for doing so, it only took them an entire day and night of hard work to get their hands on two of this, which they then proceeded to hand over to Flame Singed Clothes and Glue.

Southern Lone Blade originally assumed that there would be an ambush waiting for them outside the Auction House, so there might not be any chance for these two players keeping watch of the place to get away safely, which was why they had thought of making use of the Windchaser’s Emblem’s Teleportation skill as an instantaneous escape.

Flame Singed Clothes and Glue, of course, knew that there was no longer any point in remaining here, and the moment they saw Southern Lone Blade’s order, they each tapped their emblems and disappeared in a flash of white light. This teleportation was considered as the system’s ability and not a skill any character possessed, so they were usable even in this safe zone where any and all skills were restricted from use; this was something that Southern Lone Blade’s team had already tested.

“Hmm? Where are they?” The moment this horde of players that were happily mobbing the two robbers saw them disappear from sight, suspicion filled their hearts as they hesitantly scattered. Alas, now that no one could find the two men, a shadow remained in everyone’s hearts. Everyone looked at one another, each finding the others to be suspicious except for themselves. In that moment, aside from those collecting goods, which were deemed to be of little worth, no one else came forward to retrieve their equipment.

Brother Assist could tell at a glance that this was still well within Young Master Han’s calculation. There might not be any long-term repercussions when the knowledge of this incident spread, but those in the Auction House would surely be a little more cautious in the immediate future. For the buyer of the Utopian Magic Staff, there was no way that he or she could not retrieve it, but they would surely be on their guard when doing so, which would naturally increase the difficulty Southern Lone Blade’s team would be facing in doing their assignments.

“Time to go!” Noticing that quite a few players had transferred their suspicions on him now, Young Master Han quickly instructed Brother Assist and War Without Wounds to depart. The human mind was truly a frightening thing, and there was bound to be people out there who would suspect Young Master Han and the others of colluding in such an elaborate scheme with those two players from before.

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In a flash of white light, Flame Singed Clothes and Glue soon found themselves in Baishi City’s Bounty Assignment Hall. With those angry faces they were facing moments before gone, they gave an involuntary sigh of relief, even as they thought of what a treasure Windchaser’s Emblem was. The two picked up a ‘Bounty Mission’ along the way and figured that, since they had nothing to do at the moment, they could first complete a bounty so as to maintain the usability of the emblem’s teleportation.

“Where’s your target?” The two exchanged the serial number of their bounties and the corresponding coordinates.

“Not really near. Hmm. Let’s do yours first!” Glue suggested. They had been completed the Bounty Missions as a group the entire night, as there was too much risk soloing Bounty Missions.

The two were talking to each other when they pulled open the door to leave the Bounty Assignment Hall. Right away, they caught sight of the two players leaning next to the double doors, basking in the sun as they chatted. They had just casually glanced over, but that one glance had caused Glue and Flame Singed Clothes to be petrified instantly. Both of them wished to turn tail and run, yet their feet felt as if they were rooted to the ground as they simply could not move.

The two men who were idling chatting also caught sight of the two the instant they left the building, and a single punch and kick came flying without another word. Flame Singed Clothes and Glue dropped to the ground right by the stone steps outside the door in the next second.

One man grabbed a hold of the two larcenists, while the other actually poked his head behind the door for a quick look before gazing at the two men with a sigh of regret. “Why are there just the two of you? Where are the others?”

Glue and Flame Singed Clothes felt like crying, yet no tears would come out. They were not about to say a word even if they were beaten to an inch of their life.

“You’ve all learned how to use the Windchaser’s Emblem, I see. It looks like you guys also progress with the times! Did you guys learn it from watching me? Shouldn’t you guys use your brains to realize that, since I know how to use it, why will I let you guys use this method to escape?” Gu Fei was squatting before the two men as he lectured them.

“Why waste your breath? Just kill them already.” Eternal Dominion was a little impatient. He was in the middle of consulting Gu Fei about a problem he was facing when the two interrupted by appearing before them. He was still waiting to hear his answer!

“Do it!” Gu Fei waved his hand and stood up.

Eternal Dominion stomped on the two men and killed them with a swift blow each. Stepping over their corpses, which had turned into white lights, he said, “Continue.”