Virtual World: Close Combat Mage
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Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

“You’re thinking far too one-dimensionally,” Young Master Han said as he lifted an open bottle of liquor which he had just purchased to give to Moonless Water. Moonless Water originally wanted to reject the offer, but he saw with a quick glance that the bottle Young Master Han was offering him was the legendary Two Hundred. Even though the prices for liquor had dropped significantly after the economic readjustment not too long ago, and the legendary Two Hundred was now worth 20 gold coins, even fewer players would be compelled to spend money on something like this. Thus, Moonless Water decided to cherish this opportunity and accept the liquor that Young Master Han was offering, before seeing Young Master Han opening another bottle for himself.

Several comrades from Colored Clouds were standing around them, and each of them was looking on with greed in their eyes. Young Master Han glanced at everyone around them, “Do you guys want a drink as well?”

Everyone nodded their heads vigorously.

Young Master Han took a step to the side and stood there, showing the door of the bar to everyone, “Go in and buy it yourself.”

Suddenly, no one wanted to drink any longer as they silently stood to the side.

Moonless Water felt a little awkward when saw that he had liquor to drink and his comrades did not have any. However, he only had the one bottle in hand; there was no way he would be able to split it among several hundred others, and it was impossible for him to treat the others to their own bottles either. With neither options working out, Moonless Water did not continue to vacillate over this any longer, drinking from the bottle he was given by himself even as he asked, “What do you mean I’m thinking too one-dimensionally?”

“Didn’t we test it out when we entered the city just now? The city guards would not take the initiative to attack us, the neutral third party players, but they would not hesitate to kill us the moment we generated any Threat. Even though we’re all inside the city at the moment, despite our numbers, the fact remains that we’re still on their turf. Do you see the guards there?” Young Master Han casually pointed to the city guards walking past the streets ahead, before continuing, “They belong to the city defender’s forces at the moment, and if we were to attack Gu Fei and the rest, the system would most definitely deem us to be generating Threat and would attack us as well. That is why you should not think that we’ve got them dead to rights just because we outnumber them.”

“So what you mean to say is that we need to find a location where the city guards would not be around to make a move on us? That would be rather difficult!” Moonless Water furrowed his brows. During this City Wars event, the city was being patrolled far stricter than usual. During the entire time they had stayed outside Ray’s Bar, they had already spotted four units of city guards patrol by. One of them had even walked right past them, causing many of their men to inadvertently tense up, though it was fortunate that the city guards were not intelligent enough to determine this sort of anxiety as a form of aggro.

“That is why we’ve got to come up with a solution,” Young Master Han said.

“What solution?” Moonless Water asked.

“Have you heard of the player who opened this bar right here?” Young Master Han asked.

“Ray? Of course we have,” Moonless Water said.

“It’s very clear that he must belong to a Faction. Furthermore, I’m certain he has not joined up with Thousand Miles Drunk and the others,” Young Master Han said.

“Oh, so what about that?” Moonless Water continued to ask.

“What about that? Well, if he establishes a guild, and if we were to join him, wouldn’t our new guild belong to the city defender’s force as well, and from there, won’t we be able to greet those people no matter where we are here in this city?” Young Master Han answered him with another question of his own.

“Ah… This…” Moonless Water had not expected there to be such a method.

“Has he already agreed?” Moonless Water asked Young Master Han.

“Not yet, but I don’t think it’s too big an issue. I came out to let you guys know about the plan, so you can use this time to choose the people necessary,” Young Master Han said.

“Choose the people?”

“Genius, you can only have a maximum of 50 players in a newly established guild. Do you really think we can get all of these men in?” Young Master Han said.

“Oh!” Moonless Water hurriedly nodded his head.

“And forget about Knights and Priests,” Young Master Han suddenly recalled this matter before he entered the bar once more, so he stopped and abruptly informed him about it.

“Why is that?” Moonless Water was surprised.

“If both sides will be city defenders, there’s definitely no way for the city guards to be aggro-ed when we end up PK-ing against each other. If Priests and Knights were to provide support to the players, they would still be helping players that were part of the city defender’s forces, so I believe that the system would not deem that to generate Threat. As a result, there’s no need to waste our guild member limit on either of these job classes,” Young Master Han nodded very approvingly at his own deduction as he said this before he proceeded to enter Ray’s Bar.

Ray was hunched over the liquor cabinet continuing to tweak his brew when he suddenly heard the sound of the door opening. Lifting his head, he saw that it was Young Master Han returning after leaving the premises not too long ago, he was momentarily uncertain how to react as he stood there staring at the man, stunned.

Young Master Han was already certain of his deduction regarding Ray being a player affiliated with a Faction, and that was all thanks to the advantage that he got from the spyglass he had repeated borrowed off Vast Lushness’ hands yet again. While nobody had any idea that it was Ray making those trips to pick up the rocks and debris out on the battlefield whenever the fighting came to a halt, Young Master Han had immediately identified him the moment he caught sight of him.

Nobody would make their way out to pick up the rocks and stones from under the city walls for no rhyme or reason, so Young Master Han had no doubt that Ray must have been on a quest or mission. If he was only a neutral third party player that had managed to get himself into the city, there was no way that he would have gotten himself a quest. Thus, it was very evident that Ray was affiliated with a Faction as well, someone who had started out as part of the city defender’s forces just like Gu Fei and Sword Demon. Furthermore, Ray was already picking up rocks before Gu Fei and the others created their guild. The man was still picking up rocks after Gu Fei and the others created their guild. From this, Young Master Han could make a further inference that Ray was not a part of Gu Fei and the others.

Seeing how Ray stared at him blankly, Young Master Han decided to go straight to the point, “Ray, what’s your Faction?”

“The Mercantile Trade Association,” Ray said.

“I see that you’re interested in getting some contribution score for yourself, so you can cut a slice of the proverbial pie when the event ends to distribute the area of influence and better benefit your business in the future, am I right?” Young Master Han asked.

“Yeah!” Ray was a little annoyed. He had originally planned to do this with a bunch of people who were of the same profession, and they were prepared to compete for points together. But now that he was split apart from them, he had been working very hard on his end, but he had no idea if there would be a unified conversion of contribution points for working both the city defender’s side and the city assaulter’s side.

“But you’re not earning much contribution score every time you move your rocks time and time again, right?” Young Master Han chuckled.

“It can’t be helped!” Ray sighed.

“Actually, I do have a solution for you!” Young Master Han said.

“What sort of solution?” Ray asked.

“Do what Miles and the others did; form your own guild,” Young Master Han revealed.

“Form a guild?” Ray was astonished.

“That’s right. The contribution score for the City Wars event is given to the guild, so now that you’re doing everything by yourself, no matter how hard you work, can your contributions alone compete against a small guild of 50 players?” Young Master Han asked.

“We’ve got some people as well,” Ray answered.

Young Master Han was stunned when he heard this, “Who?”

“The people whom I’ve formed a guild with before the event, of course. Though in the end, I was tossed over to this side, and I can’t contact any of them now,” Ray glumly answered.

Young Master Han sighed in relief, “That’s even more troublesome. They are the attackers, while you’re with the defenders. You’re both on opposite spectrums, so how would they end up calculating the contribution scores you guys earn? Would they add together… Or would they offset each other?”

It was evident that the possibility of it offsetting the contribution score was something that Ray had been very worried about, but the moment he heard what Young Master Han had said, he very quickly understood what he was insinuating, “So what you mean to say is that our guild should be disbanded for now, and I can establish a new guild with me as the leader, so that at least our hard work would not offset each other?”

“Clever,” Young Master Han nodded.

“But I have no way of contacting them at all right now!” Ray was distressed.

“That is why I say you’re not clever enough.” Young Master Han said this as he sent a message out. The doors of the bar were immediately pushed open, as a bunch of fully equipped players, none looking like they were people who dabbled in business, burst through and filled the room. Ray was dumbfounded as he stared, hearing Young Master Han speak, “See, I’ve already helped you with all the preparations.”

Ray was no fool, so how could he not read the signs? He grimaced as he said, “Did you prepare this for me, or am I the player with a Faction that is readily prepared for you?”

“It works however you want to think of it! In any case, the manpower here is enough for you to establish a small level 1 guild of your own,” Young Master Han said.

“But you guys would of course not be helping me with my quests…” Ray said.

“Of course not. You gotta do what you need to do by yourself, except we will revert back to being neutral third party players after we are done with what we came to do and quit your guild. By then, we would be able to contact you and your friends, and they can disband their guild then and enter your guild. This way, they can join you and help develop your city defender’s guild. How is it?” Young Master Han said.

“It sounds good on paper, but they have already been going at it outside the city for a day and more now…” Ray still had his doubts.

“You clearly have no idea what’s the situation outside the city walls. Quests are now even more enticing than BOSSes right now, and do you really think just those friends of yours from your small merchant guild would be able to compete for any quest out there? You guys are suited for the city, where it provides you with a peaceful and undisturbed environment for you to quest, and just this condition alone would be able to convince them to come over. Even if it does not, we’ll randomly leave some of our men to help you keep your guild above the threshold that would cause it to automatically disband, and even if these people cannot help you in your questing, we will at least ensure that your efforts in this would not go unrewarded. That’s a good deal, no?” Young Master Han offered.

Ray did not respond immediately, carefully mulling over what Young Master Han had said to him before finally nodding his head, “Alright!”

“That’s the spirit! Now bring us over to go establish your guild now!” Young Master Han said.

Ray nodded and stepped forward, casually asking, “What are you up to, using the guild like this?”

“Why don’t you hazard a guess?” Young Master Han chuckled.

“I think I would rather not…” Ray sweated. Naturally, he had already guessed that Young Master Han must have thrown his gauntlet down against Thousand Miles Drunk and the others, and neither side were people that were to be trifled with. Stuck in the middle, the wisest option is to play dumb, act like he knew nothing and would, therefore, offend no one.

“There’s quite a distance before we get to the Hall of Guild Creations from here, what are we going to do if we bump into someone else?” Moonless Water asked.

“It’s a matter of time before we do, so who cares if this happens a bit earlier or later?” Young Master Han did not seem to care.

“But wouldn’t we be able to hold the element of surprise if we don’t cross paths with them at all?” Moonless Water felt a bit rueful, thinking they should try to remain concealed.

“What’s the point of having the element of surprise? They would all immediately know that something’s up if you were to randomly pick one out of the lot and kill them. Actually, what do you think is the biggest disadvantage we possess if we were to go up against them right now?” Young Master Han asked.

“The fact that we’re not part of the city defender’s force?” Moonless Water answered.

“Aren’t we going to become one now!?” Young Master Han said.

“Uh… Then are we still disadvantaged?” Moonless Water felt that they would be stronger since they had more players on their side. With 50 players attacking as the main force and all their Priests and Knights as support while the rest was just an empty show of strength, they should still be able to make something happen.

“We’ve 300 men with us here. But tell me, do all 300 of you know each other?” Young Master Han asked.

“Of course we don’t,” Moonless Water blurted out.

“Well, that is our disadvantage. All of their combatants know each other! So if you have the energy to worry about that, why not use that time to get to know each other!?” Young Master Han snappily answered. The difference between knowing your comrades and not was the biggest problem with group battles in Parallel World. With the MMOs of old, the guild name would be floating right above a players’ head, and players’ IGN would be colored red for the enemy and blue for their allies. Anyone could differentiate friend or foe in a glance, but in Parallel World, the system was so stingy that all they gave the players was a guild emblem for identification purposes, resulting in everyone needing to keep their eyes peeled on people’s chests when a group fight breaks out. If they were to really run into a guild like Amethyst Rebirth, there was no way that they could avoid lascivity regardless of the PK outcome. Of course, this lascivity was also intentional. Since the enemy was Amethyst Rebirth, the faces of the ladies were much more recognizable than their guild emblems, yet it was completely an excuse for them to still keep their eyes staring at the emblem on the ladies’ chest.

Young Master Han’s words made sense. Moonless Water had no way of refuting what was said, so he quickly called for everyone to familiarize with each other. They were all in the same guild anyway, so it was quite awkward that they did not actually know everyone. With 300 players all mixing around, every person on average should know about one third, heard of the other one third, and completely have no idea who the remaining one third was. At the moment, while everyone was getting to know each other, there were actually instances of “Oh, it’s you! I didn’t know you’re in my guild as well. I’ve never seen you wear the guild emblem!” “Haha, I don’t usually wear it” and similar conversations.

Considering how hard it was for someone to get to know over a 100 players so abruptly, pretty much nobody succeeded in doing so among the 300 present. Moonless Water himself was having a tough time getting to know everyone as well, yet he saw how Young Master Han was very leisurely walking in front with Ray, completely unconcerned with what was happening. When it came to the number of people that Young Master Han would not know, he would surely be the highest among them, yet he was completely laid back even as everyone else was trying so hard. Moonless Water thought of this and hurried right up to Young Master Han, “Say, how many people do you know? You should come over and get to know the others as well.”

“I’m different,” Young Master Han stated.

“How so?”

“Firstly, I’m good looking enough so anyone who has seen me would instantly recognize me. If you don’t believe me, just ask any of these 300 men. Does any of them not know who I am?” Young Master Han explained.

Even though Moonless Water really wanted to beat him up, he could not help but admit that even he himself had not forgotten who Young Master Han was after meeting him for the first time. He believed the same could be said for the others, so this was not merely empty words. Thus, he gritted his teeth, “I don’t mean for everyone to know you, you need to be acquainted with everyone as well.”

“Heh, and that’s my second point: Even though I don’t know you, I know all of the enemies we’ll be facing. To put it in other words, anyone whom I don’t know would thus be on my side. Are you convinced now?” Young Master Han finished before continuing along the way.

“G*d d*mm*t!” Moonless Water wanted to vomit.

At the end of the day, the city was huge, and there were just not that many people from both Amethyst Rebirth and Extremely Heaven Defying. Unexpectedly, this contingent of 300 players managed to arrive at the Hall of Guild Creations without bumping into anyone at all.

“Those who are joining my guild, please step forward!” Ray called out as 50 of the most indomitable and powerful combatants out of the 300 players stepped out and followed Ray into the Hall of Guild Creations.

Everything proceeded swiftly; Ray’s guild was named Ray’s Bar, while the guild emblem he had chosen was the same signage he used for his own bar. Every one of these men from Colored Clouds felt a little awkward wearing such a guild emblem while bearing such a guild name. This was especially the case when they saw Young Master Han standing by the side, his eyes seemingly teasing leering look, like he was keeping a joke to himself, and this made everyone suspect if they had been made a fool of. However, none of the arrangements they had made thus far seemed to be inappropriate no matter how hard they mulled over everything. In the end, they could only come to a single conclusion: That Young Master Han was a despicable man who derived great pleasure in seeing people put on the spot.

“Now that everything is ready,” Young Master Han began to address everyone now that they had stepped out from the building, “Ray. You may continue with your quests like before.”

“Okay. Best of luck, you guys,” Ray did not really say anything, nor did he ask anything further as he departed immediately. He was not Brother Assist, and he would rather speculate what would happen inside him than be implicated in the ensuing battle. He considered people from both sides to be his friends, but he would not really think of them as very close friends. Would he really feel at ease taking their payment for drinks if they were that close? What Ray wanted was to earn money from both sides, and he did not wish to depend on any one side alone.

“The rest will be up to us. Have the 300 of you more or less gotten to know each other?” Young Master Han asked.

“Not yet,” Everyone felt quite ashamed.

“Then form up teams with those who are mutually acquainted.”

Thus, they were in disarray once more; Some would know another, but that person would not know the other, and so on so forth. Young Master Han could not stand this any longer, so he bellowed to get everyone’s attention to stop, before pointing out to Moonless Water. “You, find me another 8 men, and each of you will choose 29 members they know well to form a team.”

“Then what about the remaining 30 men?” Moonless Water asked.

“Can’t you leave the remaining 30 men with me, genius?” Young Master Han rolled his eyes.

Moonless Water vomited blood once more. Time and time again, he had served himself up to be disdained.

But Young Master Han’s method was rather effective. When someone picked those he was familiar with, they would often end up with a circle of friends. Several more could then be added in after if the numbers were not enough, and after a quick round of introductions, everyone would very quickly get to know each other, and that was a lot easier than getting people to get acquainted with more than a 100 players in one go. It was just the 30 players that were left behind after this whole sequence was completed who ended up feeling really awkward because, in the process of the choosing of players from before, the players would often introduce and recommend each other to fill the slots, so these 30 players whom no one had chosen were really those players who were barely known in the guild.

“Great, we now have a total of 10 teams with 30 players each. But please don’t think that you would hold the upper hand since you have the numerical advantage with the 30 of you. Everyone, please be prepared to take note of who your opponent is before you strike. If it is Thousand Miles Drunk, please loudly report the set of coordinates for your current position and I’ll rush over if I’m nearby. We will stand a chance if this happens, otherwise, please try and take a detour to avoid him or just accept your fate.”

A ring of middle fingers were raised at Young Master Han.

“If you chance upon Sword Demon, there’s no use surrounding him, since his skill is powerful enough to finish off a small 30-man encirclement. The smart move here is to get a firm grasp of the rush distance of his skill and form a two layer encirclement. I’ll be telling you guys the distance in a moment, but please remember, even Guardians should not attempt to intercept him when he rushes you.”

This time, none of them responded to what was being said, merely memorizing what they were being told dutifully.

“If you meet Royal God Call, just use the terrain and circle around the streets a bit. He’ll get lost and you can send in Stealthed Assassins after to finish him off. If you see a seven man squad, contact the nearest team and proceed to entrap and slaughter them together; take note of the coordination between their Warrior and their Mage. If you stumble onto any ladies, everyone please recall very clearly that we do not have a single woman in our contingent of 300, so this is definitely not someone you need to please. The ladies you see will be opponents, so treat them accordingly.”