Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
chapter-712-30041322

Chapter 712: Chapter 712 – Gathering Manpower (I)

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“You’re right about that. If we form a guild with those guys, it’s no different from just the two of us fighting,” Gu Fei said.

“But no matter the case, it’s still better to create it in the first place. Directly dismantling an encampment, I wonder how much contribution score would you get from such an act? But how are they going to calculate the reward in your current state? I doubt they would lump it all to Amethyst Rebirth, much less your friend’s guild out in another city, right?” Xi Xiaotian said.

“That makes sense,” Gu Fei nodded.

Meanwhile, Sword Demon, being the faithful and true gamer that he was, was also rather keen about the in-game reward. He felt extremely discomforted when he heard that his efforts before might well be treated like nothing in the eyes of the system and the rewards might not be rightfully granted to him.

“Let’s establish a guild first. We’ll use whomever we can get our hands on to join, and we’ll both do the fighting even if none of them would be of any use in the end. At least your guild would be eligible to get something when it’s time to allocate the reward,” Gu Fei said.

“That’s all we can do for now,” Sword Demon nodded his head.

“Then I’ll go get my people,” Xi Xiaotian said.

“Who needs you to do that?” Gu Fei eyed her with disdain. “It’s just 20 people. I can easily gather that many with a wave of my hand.”

Xi Xiaotian had no choice but to pout her lips in response.

“Brother Assist. Let’s call Brother Assist over,” the first thought that Sword Demon had was their colleague from their mercenary group, a neutral third party player that had no guild affiliations just like him.

“He still has his private messages blocked. Seems like it’s a little inconvenient for us to put it up in the mercenary channel, right?” Gu Fei said. “Say, do you think Young Master would join us if we ask him?”

“He might join us later… But now… I’m afraid it is highly unlikely.” Sword Demon said. He understood Young Master Han well. Even if that man was someone who treated the people around him like they were nothing more than mere chess pieces for him to use, abandoning his compatriots for the enemy and switching sides was an act that he looked upon with great disdain.

“Oh, do you think Royal would join us though?” Gu Fei asked.

Sword Demon was silent for a good moment. Even though he did not want to say that Royal God Call would do it, it was very unfortunate that deep down in his heart, Sword Demon knew that he would definitely have no moral qualms about switching sides like this, so he nodded, “I think he would.”

“Speaking of which… Where did Royal run off to yesterday?” Gu Fei suddenly remembered this.

“What? Was he not with you?” Sword Demon was astonished.

“I thought he was with you,” Gu Fei replied, aghast.

“No, he wasn’t!” Sword Demon blurted.

The two pondered about this for a moment before they looked at one another, “Is he lost?”

“Doesn’t he know to ask for help after getting lost?” Gu Fei shook his head.

“His pride probably got in the way!” Sword Demon concluded.

“So do you think he’s able to find this place now?” Gu Fei wondered.

“It would be quite the ordeal,” Sword Demon concurred.

“We’ll just have to go fetch him if he can’t!” Gu Fei said.

“Then why don’t we ask him for his current location and go search for him ourselves? Otherwise, we would just end up wasting even more time if he were to insist on finding his way to us by himself,” even though Sword Demon was honest and considerate, he was also very pragmatic, putting emotional considerations aside for actual results.

“We’ll go look for him then…” Gu Fei nodded. He originally wanted to tell Royal God Call their coordinates and get him to meet them, but hearing Sword Demon’s analysis of the situation, he was completely convinced of his point of view and simply asked Royal God Call for his coordinates and told him to sit tight and wait for them.

“After meeting Royal, we’ll get him to contact Sakurazaka Moony and his bunch,” Gu Fei said. Sword Demon and he were both city defenders, so there was no way he could message the opposing guild forces representing the city assaulter’s forces directly. Thus, they needed to use Royal God Call as the middleman to make contact.

“Mmhmm…” Sword Demon kept his opinion to himself. In all honesty, hearing that the guild he was about to establish would include those reprehensible men as a foundation, Sword Demon could not help but shiver despite the lack of chilly wind. Then, there was also Royal God Call… But was there any difference between that rascal and the men from Forever In Flowers?

Sword Demon held out a little bit of hope for Royal God Call, but it instantly crumbled when they met; Royal God Call had jogged the short distance when they caught sight with one another, but he had ignored both Gu Fei and Sword Demon, heading straight toward Xi Xiaotian without asking a single question.

“Big sister Xiaotian!” Royal God Call had called out sweetly, which only caused Sword Demon’s mood to worsen.

“Why are you still here?” Gu Fei asked Xi Xiaotian.

“Hey, it’s really bad manners to shoo someone away like this! Can’t I play along for a bit with this guild business of yours?” Xi Xiaotian pouted.

“What guild business?” Having just been kicked out of a guild, Royal God Call was a little sensitive when the word was mentioned.

“Sword Demon is going to establish a guild, you should join as well!” Gu Fei said.

“With big sis Xiaotian?” Royal God Call was grinning cheerfully, and Sword Demon’s disappointment toward the man had hit rock bottom.

“What’s your intentions here?” Gu Fei asked Xi Xiaotian.

“The City Wars event had gone on for a day, and the city assaulters have hardly made any progress. Conversely, the two of you have created plenty of upheaval on the city defender’s side. I’m just going with the flow; don’t you think it makes sense for me to throw in my lot with you guys and leech off your contribution score?” Xi Xiaotian very honestly broke down her situation to him.

“Eh? Wait a minute. If Sword Demon were to create a guild now, we would all be on the city defender’s side?” Royal God Call’s attention had finally shifted away from the pretty lady and he began thinking about the question at hand.

“We’re going to give it a try. We’re not too sure about it at the moment,” Sword Demon said.

“Sword Demon, you need to be prudent. You can’t accept this sort of menace,” Gu Fei was still hung up on the matter with Xi Xiaotian, persuading Sword Demon even as he glanced over Xi Xiaotian closely, “Speaking of which, you seem to have been convinced that you would be a calamitous existence that would become a huge burden if you were to ever join a guild the last time we spoke about this. How is it that you’ve changed your mind now? You must be looking to find a safe harbor to ride out the storm after causing trouble, eh?”

“I could just join any random guild for that; why even risk getting stabbed by you for that?” Xi Xiaotian countered.

“That’s true…” even Sword Demon could see the logic in that. Having been a guild leader before, it was definitely easy for a lady to join a guild. There were probably many guilds out there that would fight for a chance to get a real beauty like Xi Xiaotian to join them.

“Let’s do a raise of hands to decide, I’ll vote for, big sister Xiaotian would vote for, Sword Demon is undecided so he abstains, while Miles votes against. 2 against 1, the decision to include big sister Xiaotian has gone through!” Royal God Call declared.

“I’ll slay both of you and make it a 0 against 1!” Gu Fei pulled his sword out.

“Don’t do that,” it looked like Sword Demon was about to become a guild leader once more, so he quickly stepped forward and exercised his impartiality. “This idea was something Xi Xiaotian had come up with after all. It’s not good for us to leave her out of it like this, Miles.”

“Boss Sword Demon is still the one who knows how to sort things out fairly,” Xi Xiaotian giggled, eyeing Gu Fei disdainfully.

“You’ve let in a wolf amidst the sheep!” Gu Fei bemoaned.

“Since it’s a guild, we would naturally have our guild rules. So if anyone were to do something that goes against these rules, we would of course deal with the culprit accordingly,” Sword Demon stated matter-of-factly.

“That’s right, it’s frowned upon to judge people based on their choice of hobby,” Xi Xiaotian cheekily announced.

Gu Fei had the urge to just slay her right where she stood, but he thought it would be better if he just endured it for now. He decided he’ll first find out just what the woman’s up to before acting, thus he glared at Xi Xiaotian. She simply ignored him as she turned her head the other way and began whistling.

“We need at least 20 players to establish a guild. Where’re the others?” Royal God Call asked.

“Royal, help me send a message to Deep Waters,” Sword Demon said.

“Got it!” Royal God Call was now a mouthpiece for Sword Demon, immediately contacting Deep Waters.

“Also, contact Sakurazaka Moony. Ask them for their coordinates and set a meeting,” Gu Fei instructed as well.

Royal God Call acted accordingly. Deep Waters was the first to reply, and he naturally had no complaint whatsoever, even helping Sword Demon by directly kicking him from the guild.

Now that Sword Demon was back to being a free agent, the party of four began to make their way over to meet the men from Forever In Flowers. These men were quite pitiful; now that they were deeply despised by every player from every guild in Yunduan City, none of them dared to appear in front of other players with their guild emblem. Even if none of them ended up getting killed because of their identity, they would surely be drowned out by the sound of curses from everyone. At the moment, the whole lot of them were gathered in a little forest outside the war zone and were just having fun entertaining themselves. Gu Fei wondered to himself: If what these guys ended up doing had nothing to do with the City Wars, what was the reason for even registering to participate in the first place?

Sword Demon had a different opinion about this. The moment he saw that these men were all hiding out in the gloomy little forest, hidden away from the rest of the world, he felt that it was because of their intervention helping Gu Fei that resulted in the whole lot of them to be in their current predicament. Afraid of revealing themselves to the general population out in Yunduan City, they could only choose to hide somewhere as pitiful as this forest here. Sword Demon instantly felt that he was being excessive to dislike them for their actions and how they conducted themselves. Sword Demon had figured that Forever In Flowers had no qualms making a stand and rebelling against the masses, but while they had done a disservice to the entire population of players from Yunduan City, they definitely have not wronged him at all! Thinking about this, Sword Demon immediately felt that he was being very unbrotherly, so he hurriedly reflected upon this profoundly.

“Where are you guys?! Come on out!!” Gu Fei entered the forest and saw nobody. He knew these people were all in hiding, so he promptly shouted to make himself known.

As it turned out, there was actually no need for Gu Fei to shout as the boys from Forever In Flowers were already running out. Their keen eyes had very quickly spotted Xi Xiaotian’s presence, and Fireball had pretty much came scrambling out from the foliage, demonstrating a level of agility that an Archer would boast, bounding forward almost like he was a cheetah. Just as he crossed the halfway mark between where he started and where Xi Xiaotian was standing, the man suddenly disappeared in a flash of white light. While the four were puzzled about what just happened, they discovered a man standing up from a bush behind where Fireball had been moments ago, blowing off the bow in his hand like it was a gun, “So shameless.”

“Drunk bro, what are you in such a hurry for?” Nobody from Forever In Flowers seemed to care about Fireball, acting like nothing had happened as Sakurazaka Moony walked on over and rather casually addressed Gu Fei.

“Oh, it’s like this…” Gu Fei began to tell them everything that the four had discussed prior.

These men were all very excited when they heard it, everyone raising their hand to volunteer to second the guild’s formation. They were all keen to join Gu Fei’s guild, eager to leave Sakurazaka Moony to play all by himself in Forever In Flowers. In the ensuing hubbub, someone finally asked a question that they were very concerned about, “Drunk bro, after getting us in, will you be getting the ladies from Amethyst Rebirth to join in after?”

“Ah yes? Will that happen?” These men all asked, their saliva flowing freely.

“About that… Well… I didn’t ask them, nor did I intend to ask them…” Even if Gu Fei had such plans to begin with, he would have most certainly changed his mind when he saw how this bunch of ravenous ghouls acted. Sword Demon’s fear surfaced once more: if a bunch of ladies, who do not know how to game, join my guild like this, then add in this pack of players who only knew how to chase skirts… What sort of guild would it become?

“Oh, in that case…” Even though these men all sounded rather disappointed, none of them shrank away in response. All of them still expressed their wish to follow Gu Fei. Accompanying Gu Fei means there would be ladies to chase! That was the mantra all of them believed the entire time.

“Alright, all of you better shut your g*dd*mn*d mouths!” Sakurazaka Moony suddenly bellowed. Everyone was about to ridicule the man when they saw an unprecedented somber expression on his mug. All of them instantly shut themselves up, quietly preparing themselves to hear what Sakurazaka Moony wanted to say, while they got ready to mock him once he was done giving his speech.

“Drunk bro, if Boss Sword Demon wishes to establish a guild, then it would most definitely become well renowned. Honestly speaking, these guys with me are just all over the place. None of them are the sort that would ever consider the outcome of their own actions and all of them being the delinquent sort. Such a proper guild looking to achieve any measure of greatness would not suit us. If we were really to join you, we would most definitely stir up quite a lot of trouble, making it difficult for Boss Sword Demon to properly act the part. That is why I firmly believe we are not suitable for this task, even though you’ve sought us out,” Sakurazaka Moony very earnestly gave his opinion on this matter.

The entire forest was silent, before someone from within Forever In Flowers mused, “Well, what do you know? Moony actually knows how to speak like a human.”

“You jackass!!” Sakurazaka Moony fumed.

“That idiot really thought that we would actually join Boss Sword Demon’s guild! Hehe, we were all just looking to liven things up a little. We’re the charming men of Forever In Flowers, how can we join such a garish large guild? That would be too much of a disgrace.”

“That’s right, we can’t do something that would cause us to lose face. How would we be able to chase after the ladies in the future?”

“Heh, Drunk bro, we were only joking around before. Did you really think we were for real?”

Gu Fei and Sword Demon were both feeling all sorts of emotions right now. Gu Fei was clueless when it came to matters pertaining to guilds, so he had never considered things in such fine details. In truth, these men lacked any sense of conscience and would provoke much hatred from others. If they were to be in a guild, it would most definitely be a huge headache to deal with the trouble they might cause. Sword Demon knew this, but when he thought of how much help these men from Forever In Flowers had been for him, he was unable to say a thing about it. He had even felt ashamed that he originally shared the same sentiment that Sakurazaka Moony had just expressed.

But who would have guessed that the men of Forever In Flowers were well aware of this reason themselves? Everyone had the impulse to join at the start, but after hearing what Sakurazaka Moony said, all of them immediately came to their senses. They were very clear about what they enjoyed and how they played the game. Joining a proper guild? That would just restrict their own freedoms and end up putting their guild in a difficult position. That was the reason why they had freely established a group just for themselves that suited their playstyle the most.

“Drunk bro, Boss Sword Demon, I do believe that should more or less settle the matter regarding joining your guild, alright?” Sakurazaka Moony said. From the very beginning, Gu Fei had only wanted to borrow their headcount to meet the minimum amount of members needed to start a guild, but the men from Forever In Flowers had mistaken it for an invitation to their guild. Saying all that now would make things more than a little awkward, considering the kindness that Sakurazaka Moony and his men had shown to them. Gu Fei and Sword Demon exchanged glances with one another. If everyone in Forever In Flowers had thought of them as such, neither Gu Fei nor Sword Demon could find it in them to tell them that they were only thinking of using them to hit the minimum member quota. As such, there was no need to mention anything further about this, nodding their heads as a reply as he called, “Alright then!”

After parting ways with the people from Forever In Flowers, everyone’s emotions were in a state of turmoil. Nobody expected this group of men that seemed to have no care for responsibility to actually show such unyielding thoughtfulness.

“Those men…” Sword Demon had a fleeting moment of impulse to just get those men to join his guild, but emotions were just emotions, and there was no space for that when considering things from a logical standpoint. Sword Demon was very clear that if he were to get those men into his guild, the rules would only act as a restraint to them, and they would have a very unhappy time playing the game; Conversely, not giving those men constraints would only result in the guild becoming unhappy, so the result they had ended up with right now was actually the optimal solution.

“So what do we do? Do you need me to find some people?” Xi Xiaotian asked.

Before either Sword Demon or Gu Fei could express their thoughts about this, they saw someone scurry on his feet as he came hurtling over, yelling loudly, “Drunk bro!!!”

Gu Fei looked and saw it was Fireball. He had just come dashing over from the spawn point and happened to run into the four people. He quickly came bounding over shouting, “Bring me along, bring me along!”

“Sakurazaka Moony has already said that you guys won’t be joining us,” Gu Fei explained.

“No no no. I’ve already quit Forever In Flowers. I want to hang around with you guys,” Fireball said with a measure of determination.

“Me? I won’t be joining the guild!” Gu Fei exclaimed.

“Even better; then I’ll join you in Amethyst Rebirth!” Fireball said.

“I’m really gonna slay you!!” Gu Fei curbed the urge.

“Since I’ve already decided and told Moony about it, and I’ve even left the guild as well, you can’t not accept me in,” Fireball was being unreasonable.

“I’ll leave it to you!” Gu Fei said to Sword Demon.

“Then we’ll just take him in! Are there any friends of yours willing to come over?” Sword Demon had suddenly felt this was a good idea to repay these men, so he would accept anyone willing to come over.

“Won’t this be considered poaching his men?” Gu Fei reminded Sword Demon.

“Ah?” Sword Demon broke in a bout of cold sweat, regretting that he misspoke, but thankfully, Fireball soon answered, “Nope, none of them were interested.”

“Why are you so determined to join us? I can tell that you get along very well with those guys from Forever in Flowers!” Gu Fei asked. Even though Fireball had just been killed through the hands of a fellow guildmate, anyone could tell that it was precisely because their camaraderie was so strong that such a thing had actually occurred. Had their relationship been anything but strong, how would Fireball not be at odds with the others when he got casually finished off like that?

“I figured I’ll be a lot cooler following Drunk bro,” Fireball balled his fist.

“Your boss is there,” Gu Fei pointed to Sword Demon.

“Does that make you the no. 2?” Fireball asked.

“I’ll kill you!!” Gu Fei was very disgruntled after being called by the easily misunderstood term of ‘no. 2′. Given just how lewd Fireball was, Gu Fei had no doubts that he had said it intentionally.

“Okay, now that we’ve gotten another to join us, do you need me to look for more?” Xi Xiaotian asked in a serious tone.

“Oh, are there more babes coming? Let’s go find them quick!” Fireball was instantly excited.

“Ah? Ladies are going to join us? Then what are we waiting for!!!” The moment Royal God Call heard Fireball utter out his misinterpretation, he had also further misunderstood what was happening.

“Wait a minute, we seem to have forgotten some people,” Gu Fei called out.

“Who?”

“Southern Lone Blade and the others!” Gu Fei mentioned.

“Oh right!” Sword Demon slapped his forehead.

“Royal, contact them for us,” Gu Fei said.

“They are neutral third party players, you can contact them yourself,” Sword Demon reminded.

“Oh, that’s right…” Gu Fei had almost forgotten, and quickly sent a message to Southern Lone Blade. Simple and concise words were exchanged, and the other party quickly embraced the idea. This time, the intention of simply making up the numbers was also laid out, making it so that even if they were interested in staying with the guild after, they simply had to temporarily join in and find some other ways to get out from being bound to the guild at a later time.

Southern Lone Blade and his men had been idling about. They had nothing to do during the City Wars, so the moment they heard they could join the city defender’s side, and they could quite possibly earn a huge reward, their interests were piqued and they easily agreed to it without another word.

“We got another seven men,” Gu Fei announced.

“That makes 11. We still need 9 more,” Sword Demon counted.

“Brother Assist! That guy hasn’t allowed private messages yet, so we need to think of a solution to contact the man. Then there’s also Wounds, should we ask him as well?” Gu Fei wondered.

“I’ll ask,” Sword Demon said.

The exchange of messages that occurred was quick, and Sword Demon shook his head, “Wounds said we’ll discuss it further after the City War.”

“Tsk, he’s still pretending!” Royal God Call did not believe that War Without Wounds so upstanding.

“He’s different from you; his relationship with the people in his guild isn’t that bad,” Sword Demon explained for War Without Wounds, though that was actually indirectly refuting War Without Wounds’ virtuosity. Sword Demon was not particularly surprised by his answer, and he was certain that Wounds would have immediately defected if he was in a guild that he was not particularly attached toward, just like Royal God Call.

“Young Master? Have you guys checked in with Young Master?” Royal God Call asked.

“He won’t do it,” Sword Demon was certain.

“Then we still need 8 more players, even if we add Brother Assist into the mix!” Gu Fei said.

Xi Xiaotian was not saying a word either. Her suggestions would always be ignored anyway! Might as well just let them solve the problem themselves!