Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-70

Chapter 70 - Showing Mercy

Gu Fei’s 15 PK points had dropped by 5 points after spending more than ten hours in-game. Currently, he was left with just 10 PK points. But if he were to kill these players before him, his PK value would surely reach a new height. The legend of 27149 has been usurped by another legend of 27149... That’s just absurd, Gu Fei thought to himself.

However, the more absurd thing here was that Gu Fei still did not know why these masked men were attacking him. They had barely spoken a word to Gu Fei, and then they immediately started raining attacks on him. The online gaming world was really too unreal – nobody even needed an excuse to assault another person.

Worried that his PK value would increase, Gu Fei decided to let the viciously beaten Thief go. Moonlit Nightfalls had a high damage output. This was more evident since his two opponents had the Thief job class, which was known for its low HP, and could barely withstand Moonlit Nightfalls’ strikes. Right now, the Thief on the right, who had been cut twice by the sword, was waiting for his impending doom by the next attack. When the attack from Gu Fei did not arrive, the Thief hurriedly ran back to his group.

“What’s the matter?” At that moment, a few more members of the group had arrived at the alleyway. The sight that greeted them was of their buddy running toward their direction instead of chasing after Gu Fei.

“I almost got killed,” the Thief said in a shaky voice as he reached them.

“How?” everyone asked, feeling stunned. Thinking about Gu Fei’s insanely fast running speed, they somewhat deduced that he had put a majority of his stat points into Agility. The more experienced members of the group even concluded that Gu Fei was a Knight, seeing as he was wielding a sword. This resulted into the person who had earlier said that Gu Fei was a Mage to earn a few glares from his teammates. But even though the guy was a Knight, he should not possess such a high damage output, especially since he had added most of his stats into Agility. Therefore, the source of his monstrous strength should be that sword in his hand.

“Scary. If he’d used Blessing of Strength, I would’ve already been dead,” The Thief, who was left with just a sliver of HP, could feel his heart thumping fast at the thought.

After a short while, the second Thief, who had received Gu Fei’s attack, made his way to the group as well. His face wore a terrified look as he howled, “Quick! Heal me!”

However, all the Priests were still far behind the group, as their job class had inherently low Agility.

“How much of his HP did you reduce?” someone asked.

“Reduce, my *ss! Only my HP got reduced!” the Thief snarled.

Everyone looked at one another. Gu Fei was just right in front of them, yet no one dared to approach him after hearing their accounts.

While they were standing there in a daze, a scream reached their ears from just ahead. A Thief tried to attack Gu Fei by getting near him while on Stealth. Unfortunately for the Thief, Gu Fei had long known of his presence. Thus, he was easily taken care of in one or two moves by Gu Fei. The Thief hurriedly scampered back toward his fellow mercenary members with barely a sliver of HP left.

“Archers!” a Thief shouted to the bunch of Archers that had just arrived at the alleyway.

Gu Fei no longer wished to tangle with this group of players. He turned around and started running toward the log-off point once more, fighting off a few persistent Thieves along the way.

“GO! GO! GO!” the Thieves shouted their trademark battle cry as they pushed the Archers forward. The Archers chased after Gu Fei as they shot arrows at him.

The Archers were unable to use their current strongest skill, Snipe, while moving, so most of them could only shoot normal arrows at Gu Fei. A few outstanding Archers managed to fire off arrows using their low-level skill, Power Shot, which dealt a higher damage than a normal arrow. Unfortunately, Power Shot could not pose a threat to Gu Fei. He easily turned to a corner at the alley exit under their hail of arrows without getting hit even once.

“Don’t let him escape!” An Archer who had added most of his stat points to Agility was the closest to catching up to Gu Fei, and he yelled on to inspire the fellow mercenary members behind him. Leaning his body sideways, he leaped forward and drew the bow mid-air. Obviously, his shooting stance was more for the purpose of looking cool in front of his buddies than sending an arrow to Gu Fei.

Actually, the system provided Archers support when it came to shooting arrows. Since players even needed basic guidance regarding the bow’s proper use, they would naturally require the system’s assistance to shoot an arrow accurately. However, this did not mean that the system would ‘thoroughly’ and ‘always’ correct the players’ aim. So when this Archer attempted to shoot at such a difficult angle that even Olympic medalists would not dare try, the system harshly left him to his own devices. The Archer managed to draw his bow at its full length mid-air, yet he could not locate his shooting target. Without a second thought, he still let loose an arrow. After all, he was just doing this to look cool in front of the others.

What followed this shot was a chop that came out of nowhere. Gu Fei cleaved downward with his two hands on Moonlit Nightfalls.

The poor Archer did not get to finish his ‘cool’ move. While he did successfully leap in the air, his stance could only be considered perfect if he followed it up with a somersault. But before he could execute the last part of his performance, Gu Fei had already sent a slash his way, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground rather inelegantly.

Too shameless! the Archer thought to himself.

So reckless! Gu Fei thought to himself. He had nearly gotten hit by that arrow.

“Stop! Beware of an ambush!” The few Archers following that ostentatious Archer stretched out their hands to stop the ones behind them from proceeding forward.

The flailing Archer on the ground felt angry when he heard their warning. He was only lying on the ground and was not dead yet! How could they readily give up on him? He had just wanted to look cool earlier, yet he ended up testing the water for them. “F*ck you all! Come save me, already!” he yelled indignantly.

The quick-witted players standing behind did not dare expose themselves even with his remark. They could see the Archer’s flailing legs near the alley exit, so one of the braver players dashed forward and caught the Archer’s flailing legs, dragging him back into the alley. “Whew! That was a close call!” The person praised himself, as he wiped non-existent sweat off his forehead with his hand. Had he acted any slower, the flailing Archer would have been decapitated.

Unfortunately, they could no longer determine Gu Fei’s next direction now that all of them were staying hidden in this alleyway. Everyone waited for a few seconds before tentatively asking, “Is he still there?”

Nobody dared to take a look. If the opponent was still behind that corner of the wall, then the first person to peek would have to fight with him. Could an Archer survive a melee? Nocking an arrow, drawing a bow, and firing an arrow required time and preparation. Hence, any form of assault from the enemy could easily disrupt the shooting preparation of any average Archer.

“Retreat,” someone whispered. A few of the mercenary members started edging backward. They could at least put some distance between them and Gu Fei by doing so.

“I’ll count to three and we’ll all rush out together. This way, he won’t know which one to cut down,” a person suggested.

“Good idea!”

“One… two… three! GO! GO! GO!” the person yelled, hoping to unnerve Gu Fei with their trademark battle cry.

“F*ck me, where is he?” Gu Fei’s figure could not be seen anywhere when they finally exited the alleyway.

There was quite a distance between the two ends of the adjoining alley. Gu Fei could not possibly reach its other end and turn to another direction in just a short while. The Archers were stumped. When the Thieves finally caught up to them, they all analyzed the situation and still could not figure out how Gu Fei had disappeared.

“Did he forcefully log off?” someone speculated.

It was possible to forcefully log off from the game. However, it was dangerous so almost no one dared to do so. The game officials had stated before that some progress might not be saved if the players forcefully logged off; as for how much progress would be left unsaved, nobody actually knew.

The Mages and Warriors that had just arrived tried to join in on the search as well. And yet, all of them did not know where to begin the search. They all stared blankly at the deserted alleyway in front of them.

“Attention to all divisions!” the leader said on the mercenary group channel, “Our target has mysteriously vanished. Immediately report it if you see him.”

Those who were present over there entered the adjoining alleyway and examined it. Suddenly, someone shouted, “Ah! He probably went up the rooftop!”

Everything suddenly made sense to them. The houses lining up this alleyway were not exactly tall. The walls on both sides were not far from each other as well, making it easy for someone to climb up them by spreading his arms and legs sideways and shimmying upward. The man, who had mentioned this point, demonstrated it himself. Easily managing to scale the walls and get on to a rooftop, he looked around and said, “I don’t see anyone up here. I think he’s run off far away already.”

“Don’t worry. As long as he’s in Yueye City, we’ll definitely capture him sooner or later,” the group leader said confidently.

At this point, the Thieves that had taken quite a beating from Gu Fei began to describe his swordplay.

“He halved my HP with just one strike! Who said he’s an all-Agility player? I almost got insta-killed by his normal attack! F*ck, if he’s a Warrior, one attack is enough to insta-kill me!” a player said.

The Black Hand’s group leader happened to be a Warrior. Upon hearing about the sword’s high damage output, he became more spirited in his search. He repeated his orders on the mercenary channel to keep searching for a man wearing a seemingly black mage robe.

Seven minutes later, the leader received a report. Someone saw a similar individual entering a safe zone and going offline.

“Which safe zone is that?” the leader asked his members.

“Zone A in the Knights’ Barracks,” someone answered.

“Monitor that place in shifts. We must not let that guy get away!” the leader ordered. If the target was an average player, he would call this hunt off to not waste any more of their time. But knowing that Gu Fei possessed a top-grade sword, he could not just let him go.

“Someone head over there and keep an eye on things! The rest of you, head over to Sixth Night tavern; drinks are on me!” the leader declared grandly.

The group gathered in Sixth Night tavern as they waited for Gu Fei to come online.

Gu Fei prepared to sleep after going offline. As he was lying in bed, he started to mull things over. Once Gu Fei had decided to kill No Smile, he truly hunted the latter until No Smile went offline. One could say that Gu Fei was not able to keep things bottled up inside him for long. At the moment, everything he was doing in Parallel World felt a bit troublesome due to his PK value. It was as if there was fish bone lodged in his throat and he could not get rid of it no matter what. This feeling of discomfort more or less summed up his view of his present ordeal, and it had only gotten worse after logging off.

Gu Fei knew that this quirk of his would be diagnosed by doctors as a minor case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Right now, he forcefully tried to go to sleep by telling himself to forget about his current dilemma.

When Gu Fei went online the next day, the only difference in-game was that some drunk men now littered the Sixth Night tavern.

“I bet that guy’ll show himself in the next hour!” one of them said with glazed eyes.

“Yeah! That b*st*rd! Making us wait for a whole day and night. We’re definitely not letting him off!” The person used in-game time as measure when he made this remark.

The person who was stationed outside the log-off point had brought several bottles of liquor with him as well. He drank the liquor in all of the bottles as he waited for Gu Fei’s appearance. So by the time Gu Fei strutted out and stood in front of him, he had long fallen asleep coiled up in a fetal position by a wall column.

Since spending time in the safe zone could reduce his PK value as well, Gu Fei did not hurriedly get out. He had a matter that he needed to make sure of, and he could only accomplish this undisturbed within the safe zone.

Before logging in to Parallel World, Gu Fei had tried searching for information on the game’s official website regarding the unfamiliar terms ‘Spell Mastery’, ‘Sword Aptitude’, and ‘Spell Aptitude’, yet he came up with nothing. With no other options, he could only bother Fleeting Smile again.