Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

Chapter 285 - When in Rome...

All these mercenaries were knowledgeable when it came to quests and missions; they knew that an escort mission would usually have an item that could not fit into a player’s dimensional pocket, requiring the players to manually carry, bear, or lift it to the destination. The point was that it had to be carried openly.

So far, not one of them had seen an item that fit this criterion among the Traversing Four Seas’ players. Nevertheless, this quest’s validity could not be denied; the Mountain Bandits and Robbers’ ambush near Oolong Cave, the system-formed crevasses on the mountain path, and Boss Sooto’s appearance near the end of the Oolong Mountain Range... These situations that players would usually not bump into were clearly triggered by Traversing Four Seas’ guild quest.

After reaching their first stopover, someone could no longer hold in his curiosity and voiced it out. He believed that his question was sound, yet the players around were unexpectedly gazing at him rather peculiarly. The man felt aggrieved; although his comrades often called him an idiot, he considered his question to be quite clever, and he could not fathom what was wrong with it no matter how hard he thought. Amid this man’s puzzlement, Oathless Sword laughingly told him, “Man, your mercenary leader must not have joined the meeting this morning, or perhaps he forgot to inform you?”

“Mercenary leader?” the man asked, confused. The term sounded foreign to his ears, and it took him quite a while to register its meaning. He turned his gaze over to Sakurazaka Moony, their so-called ‘mercenary leader’. Unfortunately for the man, Sakurazaka Moony was entirely occupied with sticking as close as possible to Vast Lushness to care even a whit about his predicament. No one bothered to supply him with information about the matter either, with everyone merely continuing toward Yueye City.

The players from Yunduan City that had never been to this region before soon became well-acquainted with Yueye City’s local customs. In the short distance that they had traveled toward the city, they witnessed five separate group PvPs and seventeen duels – these excluded the fights happening further away for them to assess.

This local custom that was steeped in unbridled aggression left the players from Yunduan City tongue-tied. They were now even starting to understand why many players in this region were keeping their faces covered. Just from the twenty-two fights that they had witnessed along the way, seven occurred despite the players’ faces being covered. They even heard some of those involved shout, “Even if you turned gray and old, I’d still recognize you!” before clashing with one another. Funnily enough, there were instances when the pieces of cloth that these combatants were using to cover their faces would fall off during the fight, which would then cause all the combatants to freeze up. Cursing at one another, they would then demand, “Who the f*ck are you?!” Instead of reaching a peaceful resolution, the combatants would just cover their faces once more before continuing their fights. It was as though even when their old animosity remained unfinished, new adversaries were made... Every Yueye City player persisted in PvPing until the very end.

Those hailing from Yunduan City were experienced gamers themselves, and they watched these fights with awe and wonder. As for those hailing from Yueye City, when they saw the large throng of players walking by, they would immediately give them a wide berth, opting to warily observe the procession from afar.

Meanwhile, the people part of the expedition were currently discussing about what they had just witnessed on their respective channels. Those who had been to Yueye City before, like Gu Fei and the rest of Young Master’s Elite, were discussing how the local customs had evolved since their last visit to the region; Will-low, June’s Rain, and those that had actually stayed in the city for a long while were feeling nostalgia over their return to familiar grounds; finally, Silver Moon, Vast Lushness, and those who had quite the history in Yueye City performed different actions. Silver Moon somehow acquired himself a piece of cloth to cover his face, while Vast Lushness, who was originally part of Silver Moon’s former Past Deeds Guild, merely continued to walk toward the city with her face exposed.

The players in the expedition soon found themselves standing right before one of Yueye City’s gates. Oathless Sword stepped forward and addressed everyone for the last time today, “This will do for tonight! Please arrive at seven o’clock sharp tomorrow night right on this spot. I believe none of you will have problems with that!”

The players gave an affirmative answer and dispersed into the city after.

While Traversing Four Seas chose to start the guild quest’s journey daily in accordance with the same primetime period that the game officials had used for the just-ended PvP tournaments, this was not the only time many of these players played the game. Besides Gu Fei, the others in Young Master’s Elite pretty much lived their lives inside Parallel World. Arriving at Yueye City, plenty of these players would continue to play the game even with the mission temporarily on hold.

But seeing that Yueye City was not a peaceful region, these players did not immediately engage themselves in activities like what they would do if they were in Yunduan City. Even the five experts of Young Master’s Elite seriously discussed where they would grind on monsters or do quests.

“Miles, what about you?” the five men asked Gu Fei on the mercenary channel.

“I’m logging off,” Gu Fei replied.

The five were already expecting his response, so they did not speak further about the matter. Most of the players playing Parallel World would log off at a set time like Gu Fei, but the expedition members happened to be made up of those that would grind their levels whenever they had time. Within this thousand-man army, those that had a fixed log-off time were in the minority. Gu Fei and the many Amethyst Rebirth ladies belonged to this group.

While the others were busy asking around for the nearest log-off point, Gu Fei and the ladies had the privilege of being guided by June’s Rain and Will-low to a safe zone.

June’s Rain happily took this role of guiding the ‘foreigners’ to a spawn point. Will-low, for her part, was more reserved despite actually being a past resident of Yueye City; her gaze was locked toward a direction as she silently took out a dagger from her dimensional pocket and activated Stealth. Someone lightly patted her shoulder as she took a step forward, canceling her Stealth as a corollary. Will-low irately turned to look behind her. It was Gu Fei.

“What are you trying to do?” Gu Fei asked with a smile.

Will-low used her eyes to do the talking. Gu Fei followed her gaze that landed on Vast Lushness, who was blankly standing by the side of the street.

“My friends in Yueye City told me that Silver Moon and Vast Lushness have disappeared here. I didn’t expect for them to turn up in Yunduan City,” Will-low spat with vitriol, adding, “I should’ve thought of this. Since Silver Moon turned up in Yunduan City, why wouldn’t she be there, too?”

Silver Moon’s name had spread in Yunduan City after his performance in the mercenary PvP tournament, yet Will-low only had discord with Vast Lushness, so Will-low only cared about her. Although Vast Lushness had maintained a low profile in Yunduan City, she had come into contact with the Amethyst Rebirth ladies before. Why did Will-low not know this, though?

Puzzled, Gu Fei asked her about it. This caused Will-low to express her shock, “When was this?!”

“It’s when we grinded levels together... on the second day!” Gu Fei reminded her.

“That day, huh...” Will-low recalled before jolting to attention, “I was sick that day! In fact, I didn’t log on for several days!”

“Oh...” Gu Fei also remembered. Will-low had indeed been feeling sick to the point of falling down with the slightest tap when she had gone to log off prior to that fateful day.

“That explains why you didn’t know...” Gu Fei gave Will-low an overview of Vast Lushness and Silver Moon’s situation that had led to their arrival to Yunduan City.

Will-low was truly clueless as to what had transpired that day. Silver Moon and Vast Lushness’s matter had been discussed by the ladies for several days after, yet Will-low had coincidentally been offline on those days. When she got online, the matter was no longer a hot topic for the ladies to discuss. Thus, Will-low remained in the dark about the whole matter and only learned of Silver Moon’s arrival to Yunduan City when his mercenary group garnered the public’s attention. Today was also the first time she had seen Vast Lushness; Will-low had actually been pondering on how to go about dealing with Vast Lushness during their entire trip to Yueye City.

Hearing Gu Fei’s recount of Vast Lushness and Silver Moon’s story, Will-low felt rather sympathetic toward Vast Lushness. She now found Silver Moon to be extremely detestable, especially since Gu Fei had vast knowledge of his bad deeds that were unknown to the ladies. Still, the fact that she had enmity with Vast Lushness remained true; it was simply not easy to let go of such a deep grudge after clashing verbally and physically many times before.

Will-low gripped her dagger tightly, unable to make a decision.

“Actually, taking her down now may not be as easy as you think! Do you see that guy next to her?” Gu Fei asked.

“Yes...” Will-low’s voice was dripping with contempt. There was no way she would miss Sakurazaka Moony bouncing up and down beside Vast Lushness during their journey to Yueye City.

“Although that guy looks and acts deplorable, he’s actually a skilled gamer,” Gu Fei said, adding, “Those guys with him are also veteran gamers.”

“What a reprehensible lot. Hmph! Birds of the same feather really flock together!” Will-low had an utterly repulsive impression of Vast Lushness’s character, so it was not surprising for her to fling all sorts of insults regarding the latter. Just as she finished criticizing the men with Vast Lushness, someone from the lewd bunch happened to look over and called out, “Drunk bro!”

Will-low curiously eyed Gu Fei, who was currently feeling very embarrassed. Was he included in this flock of birds, then?

The atmosphere between them suddenly turned awkward and uncertain. This was when Sakurazaka Moony bounded toward them, with Fireball and the others flanking his sides. Waggling their eyebrows, they silently expressed their admiration for Gu Fei’s ability to easily find a babe to accompany him wherever he went.

“Drunk bro, what plans do you have for tonight?” Fireball asked.

“I’m about to log off,” Gu Fei answered.

“Logging off now?!” Everyone was shocked. Does maintaining similar gaming schedule help earn these ladies’ affection? These lewd men began analyzing Gu Fei’s pick-up techniques in great detail.

Gu Fei did not know that these deplorable men were currently discussing about him on their mercenary channel as he lamented their inability to perceive the tension pervading the air due to their presence. Will-low was still holding her dagger tightly as she hatefully glared at Vast Lushness. Vast Lushness silently looked at Gu Fei and Will-low.

Sparks flew when the two ladies’ eyes met, yet the lewd men remained oblivious to all this as they discussed the various pick-up techniques they knew of. This entire scene was astounding in itself!

“Have fun playing, then; we’re gonna log off first!” Gu Fei moved to drag Will-low with him.

Will-low sighed and did not resist his pull. Just from Gu Fei forcibly canceling her Stealth and telling her of Vast Lushness and Silver Moon’s issue, she could tell that he had been trying to dissuade her from acting. Whether she accepted his explanation or not, she had no wish to reject his thoughtfulness and could only reluctantly give up her attempt to take Vast Lushness’s life. Next time, then! Will-low thought to herself as she departed with Gu Fei.