Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-696

Chapter 696 – Another Guild

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Flux Bead was shocked, he never would have imagined that Thousand Miles Drunk would actually discover where he was hiding in the instant he turned his head around. In the beginning, he was still suspecting that it had merely been a bluff, but when both their eyes met, Gu Fei came charging without a blinking; how could he still remain skeptical after that?

Dash forward and kill him to establish my name across the land! This thought flashed through Flux Bead’s mind like a lightning bolt, but he gave up on the idea a second after. That was because a very simple mathematical equation hung before him: Can I kill 8 players in a single breath? I can’t! Thus when faced against Thousand Miles Drunk who had demonstrated that very reality mere seconds ago, Flux Bead knew he was no match for this opponent.

As such, all he could do was flee. Flux Bead turned around and ran in the direction that would get him out of the copse of trees. His Accelerate skill happened to have ended its cooldown not too long ago as well, so Flux Bead did not think he should have too much of a problem escaping. But in just a few steps running out, he heard a *clunk* sound and felt something tighten down on his foot. He had actually stepped onto a Trap.

“Who’s being so annoying? I just set that Trap!” someone stood up and began looking over to where he was from a nearby bush.

Once more, two pairs of eyes met each other.

“Who are you?” This person asked.

“I’m—” Flux Bead had no idea how he should introduce himself.

“Why did you step on my trap for!?” This person was unhappy.

Flux Bead was unhappy as well. Why was this person talking like he had intentionally stomped down on the Trap? Did he really seem to be such a despicable person?

It was around this time when Thousand Miles Drunk came running over, immediately asking what was going on when he saw the two arguing.

“That guy stepped onto my Trap,” This person complained to Thousand Miles Drunk.

Gu Fei glanced at the person in front of him. It was apparent he was not together with the 8 ambushers from before, and Gu Fei could not make out what was their relationship for the moment.

“Who are you?” Gu Fei asked, but he immediately caught sight of the guild emblem pinned on Flux Bead’s chest. “Oh, Carouse.”

“I’m not Carouse, the name’s Flux Bead.” Perhaps there were people who enjoyed flexing to outsiders using their guild’s name as their own identity, but Flux Bead had always valued himself more. Guild? That was no more than what he had joined in order to obtain Crushed Snow. His goal in Parallel World had always been for his own name to reverberate across the game world.

“Who were the 8 men from before?” Gu Fei asked.

Flux Bead had no answer for him, “How would I know? You should’ve asked them instead of asking me.”

“I tried, they didn’t say a thing, so I thought you would know.”

“Well, I don’t know them either.”

The trap on Flux Bead’s leg had already come off in this short while. Gu Fei similarly gazed over at the other man curiously, “Why did you set up a trap here for?”

“Since I have nothing to do anyway, I figured why don’t I set a trap so I can snare myself a lady? But who would have expected for me to trap this guy here instead,” The person said very glumly.

When Flux Bead heard what this man said, it was like he got struck by lightning. He turned to look at this person and asked, “Are you from Forever In Flowers?”

The person was elated when he saw that Flux Bead was actually able to tell where he came from, chuckling, “Well met.”

“Okay, stop messing around. Go and play somewhere else, Gu Fei said.

“Got it, Drunk bro,” this person seemed to have some strange respect toward Thousand Miles Drunk, not the sort that was shown by a guild underling to a guild leader, or the fearful deference a noob had for an expert. Flux Bead could not make sense just what sort of respect this was, and it was something only Gu Fei understood. Because the men from Forever In Flowers were convinced that he was someone who shared an entwined fate when it came to the ladies…

Once this person from Forever in Flowers departed, Gu Fei continued to converse with Flux Bead, “Are you here… Because your guild has plans here or are you here on your own?”

Flux Bead turned his gaze toward Gu Fei, “You’re from the city defender’s side, why would I tell you anything?” Even though Flux Bead did not really care about guild matters, he was someone who took the game rules into serious consideration and was somewhat more principled than the men from Forever in Flowers.

“If that’s the case, should I just kill you?” Gu Fei was prepared to respect his principle.

Without a moment of hesitation, Flux Bead turned tail and ran. Activating the Accelerate skill that he had not previously used with a slap of his emblem. Ultimately, before he even got ten meters away, his foot got ensnared again.

“M*TH*RF*CK*R!!!” Flux Bead was exasperated to the point of rage. He saw another head pop out from the bushes, revealing a look of excitement at first that quickly soured when he saw Flux Bead, “Who are you?”

“I’m—” The words got stuck in Flux Bead’s throat. He could already guess that this new person must be someone from Forever in Flowers again, but if the whole lot of them were setting traps here, could they all be here looking to net themselves a lady?

“Why the f*ck did you step on yours truly’s trap?” that person came striding out from the bushes interrogating Flux Bead.

“It wasn’t intentional,” Facing these men, Flux Bead was having difficulties wrapping his head around their line of thinking. In this exchange of words, Gu Fei was once more right behind him, and Flux Bead knew that there was no way of him fleeing any longer. In the end, Gu Fei had not slain him there on the spot, but stared at this other person, “Why are you out here as well?”

“It’s not just me, everyone’s here too!” that person divulged.

Gu Fei looked around, and sure enough, he could sense that he was not the only one. There were even several others who poked their heads out from their hiding spot and waved at Gu Fei.

“Since we’ve got nothing to do anyway,” that person laughed sheepishly.

Before, Gu Fei had wanted to take the opportunity while Traversing Four Seas was in a mess to look for Oathless Sword and cause trouble. But aside from Royal God Call who was only interested in watching the spectacle and not at all bothered about what a big deal such an attempt would be, anyone with a bit of intelligence felt Gu Fei’s idea was simply too radical.

“After such a huge setback, even if Traversing Four Seas is a little scattered, Oathless Sword would surely not let his guard down too much,” Vast Lushness advised.

“Young Master’s line of thinking was obviously waiting for us to appear to make our move on Oathless Sword. We got caught in his encirclement this time and were it not for Royal and the others’ timely intervention, both of us would surely have met a terrible end at his hands,” Sword Demon added.

Gu Fei felt what the two had said made sense. No matter how much of a mess the guild was in, the guild leader Oathless Sword would surely have a pack of his most trusted comrades around him. Even just a hundred men would be too much and too troublesome for him to handle. Besides, there was still Young Master Han, who was now working alongside Colored Clouds. Who knew where they were hiding to spring another ambush on them? Trying to get this mission completed was truly a tall task.

They temporarily had no chance at cracking the mission for Oathless Sword, and they had nothing on Sword Demon’s Assassination either, the only hope he held was that the people from Forever in Flowers might have heard of the name themselves, but nobody had heard of that small fry. Sword Demon had basically given up all hope on this and was prepared to head back into the city to abandon this quest. Thus, the only thing Gu Fei could do now was to continue that quest he had gotten from the Vigilante Corp: To visit Guillermo again.

Royal God Call was deadset on following Gu Fei and the others to become a troublemaker, while the sisters Slyris and Yan Xiaozhu originally did not participate in their city’s assault. But when they saw how Gu Fei and Sword Demon were fighting against all the guilds in the city all by themselves, they felt it was quite an interesting endeavor and decided to stay and lend a hand. As for the bunch from Forever in Flowers, they no longer had the chance to return and help out in the City Wars effort after this, as all of them had already been labeled as traitors that deserved the pillory. They had essentially ruined their guild as a result, but none of these men showed any concerned toward this; they were still enjoying themselves, going so far as to follow Gu Fei to cause trouble now that they actually ran all the way into this copse of trees and were randomly setting up traps for their own entertainment.

“Drunk bro, since we don’t have anything to do right now, why don’t we come together and see what we can help you with!?” Fireball stepped out to help speak for his comrades.

“Where’s Moony?” Gu Fei asked. Nowadays whenever he ran into Forever In Flowers, it seemed like it was Fireball who spoke for everyone more and more often when it should be the responsibility of the guild leader to be doing so.

“Moony? I don’t know where that guy’s holed up to! Are you looking for him? Then why don’t you find Vast Lushness? Wherever she is, Moony will naturally be close by,” Fireball said.

Gu Fei sweated as he quickly called out, “It’s fine.”

“Drunk bro, you don’t have to care about us. We’ll just be here having fun on our own,” Fireball said.

Gu Fei had no idea just what was so fun hanging around these trees here, but it was precisely because he did not know that was why he was definitely not anything like them, and that was a very comforting thought to Gu Fei. Instead, it was Flux Bead, whose trap had come off by this time, that had no idea if he should be running or staying. With how he was now surrounded by so many heads poking out from their hiding spots, and he had no clue just how many more traps are there around him. If I run away, I’ll end up stepping into another trap… Flux Bead did not want to keep embarrassing himself like this; after all, solo heroes had very lofty self esteems!

Flux Bead was already waiting for Gu Fei to end his misery, but who would have thought Gu Fei and those men would casually chat with each other for some time before turning his head and walk away. Flux Bead was astonished, “Hey!” He could not help but call out to Gu Fei.

“Aren’t you going to kill me?” Flux Bead asked.

“Oh? If that’s what you want, I won’t mind,” Gu Fei said as he pulled his sword out.

“No no no. I don’t want that!” Flux Bead quickly replied. Who in their right mind would seek to die for no reason!?

And so, Gu Fei nodded and did an about-turn. Flux Bead was left standing there blankly for a while before he suddenly stepped forward right behind him. Gu Fei quickly sensed this and he turned back around, “What are you following me for?”

“Uhhh… You’re busy with your business, I’m busy with mine. It just so happens that we are going the same direction,” Flux Bead explained.

“Oh. Okay then!” Gu Fei resumed making his way out.

Thus, Flux Bead slightly adjusted his path, splitting apart to maintain a route that diverged from Gu Fei, making it appear as if they were getting more and more apart from each other, though Flux Bead kept him within his range of vision. Flux Bead had quite the foresight this time, feeling that by depending on this powerful slayer to carve out a path, he could use this chance to investigate the situation at the same time, which made things far more convenient for him.

Seeing that Gu Fei did not seem to have any inkling about what Flux Bead was planning here, the Thief watched the man walk out to the edge of the copse and observe the situation beyond, so he quietly hid by the side.

Gu Fei kept his eyes outward, munching on an apple as he did, replenishing his mana back to full before he kept walking forward.

There are Assassins! Flux Bead knew about this, but while the Assassins might have no problem dealing with most players, against someone like Thousand Miles Drunk, he was afraid that they would merely be no more than walking targets that freely provided the Mage with contribution score. That was what Flux Bead had thought, only to see Thousand Miles Drunk slowly close in on the cavity, yet the Assassins that were supposed to be assassinating any player that approach this location never did reveal themselves. Instead, several heads poked out from within the cavity before they quickly walked over, acting absolutely familiar with Gu Fei.

Flux Bead was extremely astonished by this, and he could not help but move himself closer to the point where he could hear them speak, “Brother Miles, hahahahaha…”

“What exactly is going on here?” Flux Bead was puzzled at first, but he was soon in tears when he continued to eavesdrop on their conversation. He had originally thought there was some sort of a plot afoot between the two parties, but he finally understood after listening in that it was not the case. The Assassins had not made their move but had sent a representative to personally receive Thousand Miles Drunk instead, precisely because he was Thousand Miles Drunk. They had no intention of offending such a powerful player, so they decided to peacefully resolve this issue. Thinking back to how he was treated when facing those Assassins before, Flux Bead realized he was still far away from his dream of being renowned across Parallel World.

It was like a bucket of water was splashed over Gu Fei at this moment. He had originally sensed that there were Assassins around, so his left hand was already in his dimensional pocket and was already clutching onto the handle of his Moonlit Nightfalls. He had been ready to pull it out and attack at any moment, but the Assassins had unexpectedly not made a move. Instead, a whole bunch of men quickly came running out from the cavity, calling him ‘brother’ in the first instance. Gu Fei was a little confused. He carefully eyed the players that appeared in front of him, and after making sure that he positively had no idea who any of them were, he wondered just where did this ‘brother’ come from.

Fortunately, the people did not keep calling Gu Fei a brother without clarifying what was going on. After exchange words of greetings to each other, the topic of conversation changed, “Haha, after all this talk, Brother Miles here might not recognize me. This little bro’s name is Skygazing under the Tree.” This person extended his hand out to Gu Fei.

Gu Fei pulled out his right hand from his dimensional pocket in response, and he was still holding onto his sword. Everyone was shocked as they involuntarily took a step back. However, Gu Fei simply smiled and swapped his sword over to his left hand, extending his right hand to reciprocate Skygazing under the Tree.

Skygazing under the Tree was shocked when he saw Gu Fei pull out his sword, but when he saw the man swap his sword over to his left hand, he barked out a laugh and stepped forward once more, firmly shaking Gu Fei’s hand.

Gu Fei did not drop his guard at all. When he saw him making the move to shake his hand, he was vigilant against the possibility that this person might seize this chance to grab a hold onto him and proceed to use their hooligan method of fighting. That was why he first made sure to have his sword in his left hand, even making sure to designate that hand to be his dominant hand as well. Gu Fei had thought of everything, so as long as this person makes a strange motion, his left hand will slash out a Twin Incineration, while his right hand would unleash a Palm of Thunder. There was no reason for this player to remain alive after facing both those attacks.

In the end, the handshake was really just a gesture of courtesy. After the person let go of Gu Fei’s hand, he flashed a bright smile and continue, “Brother Miles, are you still a little puzzled about where I’m from? Hehe, that’s not strange. Your little bro here is just an insignificant bit player, the guild leader of Yunduan City’s Disembodied Spirits under the Tree. I’m afraid Brother Miles had not even heard the name of our guild, right?”

“Not at all,” Gu Fei was very honest. But as he said this, he was calling out in the mercenary channel, “BROTHER ASSIST! BROTHER ASSIST!!”

There was no reaction.

“BROTHER ASSIST, I HAVE GOSSIP!”

No reaction.

“IT’S SUPER JUICY!”

Still no reaction.

“SUPER DUPER EXCLUSIVELY JUICY GOSSIP!”

Brother Assist was suffering. He was pulling his hair and banging his head into a tree, until he finally could not stand it any longer, replying with tears in his eyes, “What’s the gossip?”

“Turn on your incoming messages. We can’t talk about it over here,” Gu Fei was taking precautions against the possibility that others might overhear them.

Brother Assist did not answer, but Young Master Han had already sent a message out, “Brother Assist, I’ll kill you if you dare to not tell me what you learned!”

Brother Assist was in tears; it was tough living between a rock and a hard place! Both men had sent their messages one after the other, yet they were not talking directly to each other, insistent on using Brother Assist between them. Even Brother Assist had gotten angry as he ground his teeth, “I’m not gonna open it. Whatever you have to say, just do it over the mercenary channel!”

“Do you insist?” Gu Fei asked with these three words.

“Do you confirm?” Young Master Han also sent out three words.

Threats! Blatant threats, but Brother Assist had thought it through completely this time. If he were to open his private messaging, the two men would each make a beeline for him and it would just be that much harder for himself. Thus, he once more gritted his teeth and braved the threat, “I insist and confirm!”

“Fine!” Gu Fei said.

“Good!” Young Master Han said.

Brother Assist tingled.

“What sort of guild is Disembodied Spirits under the Tree?” Gu Fei was asking about Disembodied Spirits under the Tree’s guild directly as he tried to inquire about the same thing from Brother Assist, someone he trusted.

“Disembodied Spirits under the Tree? Why are you asking about them?” That was the unique characteristic of Brother Assist. He would not answer a question first, but gossip.

“I met their guild leader. My quest might have something to do with them,” Gu Fei had already seen that there was quite a good number of players gathered down in the cavity. Skygazing under the Tree must have gotten some quest here, for he had a lot of his men defending the site! Meanwhile, since that person had come up and introduced himself, he was not in a rush to make his move. So as that person continued to ramble on in front of him, Gu Fei had decided he wanted to first probe further about him.

“The guild leader? You mean Skygazing under the Tree?” Brother Assist began. “That guild is only level two, and I’ve heard that they have not even got a full roster yet. But it seems like they have quite the strength, and the rumors were that Skygazing under the Tree is a rich man. However, I, Brother Assist, happen to have a bit of insider information about him.”

“Quick spit it out,” Gu Fei was anxious. While Brother Assist really wanted to enjoy keeping everyone in the dark about the information he had on hand, Gu Fei was just about to end the conversation he had between Skygazing under the Tree and himself.

“Heh, according to my reliable sources, Skygazing under the Tree isn’t some wealthy player, but someone from a workshop, and he’s a proper professional gamer. The strength that his guild possessed at the moment was no more than the players they temporarily hired while they went about their workshop business.” Brother Assist revealed.

“Workshop? Which one?” Due to Five Night’s sinister countenance, Gu Fei did not have view workshops favorable.

“I don’t know about that. What quest are you on that caused the two of you to meet?” Brother Assist continued to pry.

“Heh, I can’t say that. Someone’s clearly eavesdropping in this channel!” Gu Fei said.

Brother Assist was silent as Gu Fei directly provoked Young Master Han. He had no intention of jumping in the crossfire.

Was Young Master Han the sort to stomach any slight by others? Very naturally, the man retaliated, “You’ve already said enough. Disembodied Spirits under the Tree? You better not run off too quickly now.”

“Do you dare to have a 1v1 duel with me?”

“Do you dare to have a drink-off with me?”

“What sort of skill is drinking?”

“Can violence solve everything?

“Not everything, but it can at least take care of you!”

“Yours truly can drink you to your death. Not only will you be finished, but I can even relieve myself on you after, wahahahaha!”

Gu Fei was speechless. Just from this verbal sparring alone, it was apparent that he was no match for Young Master Han. Everything needed practice, after all! Young Master Han was far too proficient when it came to disparaging others. Gu Fei wisely opted to keep his mouth shut and waited till they meet before he unleashed 180 cuts on the man, thinking it was the best way he could show him which was ultimately the more useful skill.

“Brother Miles? Brother Miles?” While Gu Fei and Young Master Han were calling each other out, he had forgotten all about his ongoing conversation with Skygazing under the Tree, and the person immediately called out Gu Fei’s name twice when he saw he suddenly had no response. Meanwhile, the others beside him began to show a worried expression when Gu Fei suddenly came back to his senses, “Ah? What?”

“Uh, we were just wondering just what Brother Miles is passing by here for,” Skygazing under the Tree asked.

Gu Fei chuckled, “I specifically came by because I have a quest around here.”