Virtual World: Close Combat Mage

“Hello…” Gu Fei, Sword Demon, and Coco greeted one another.

“Is there nothing to sit on here?” Sweeping his eyes across the room, Gu Fei saw that this cottage’s design was so simple it practically had nothing inside.

“Sit? Can’t you sit on the ground?” Coco tapped the floor with her foot.

Gu Fei was, of course, not averse to sitting on the floor. He only thought that the three of them specially making a trip here for a three-way conversation about the topic at hand was a little comical and unnatural. Still, seeing that neither of them was against it, he did not say anything further and casually leaned against the wall to start the discussion. “Broken Water Arrow is quite the interesting individual.”

“Sword Demon already told me what you mean,” Coco said.

“Yes. What are your thoughts regarding it?” Gu Fei asked.

“Broken Water Arrow is a skilled and charismatic individual. Plenty of our guild members look up to that man. All that is an open secret. As for the suspicions you have about him… heh… You’ve got quite a cynical mind!” Coco said.

“Hey… No wonder you two are old friends!” Gu Fei cried out.

“But, of course,” Coco said.

“I need to make this clear; it is because that man has become the target of Sword Demon’s ‘Daily Mission’ that I’m speculating like this. My assessment is based off on how this game and its system operate thus far; I believe that the system won’t condone PKing for a quest or mission completion with no rhyme or reason. Take the mission I previously picked up; it tasked me with slaying a player that had single handedly killed over 1600 individuals through his PKing career. That’s why I’m not hesitating to think up of the vilest and cruelest conjecture regarding Sword Demon’s target. Whether Broken Water Arrow is really such a person or not isn’t the key here,” Gu Fei said.

“Well, you’ve both met the man in person; what’s your first impression of him?” Coco asked.

“His neck, waist, and thighs have the right amount of muscles; he appears to be someone who typically relies on his physical strength. He most likely has flexible and nimble movement when fighting, and possesses explosive punches while being strong enough to take blows directly.” Gu Fei shared his observation.

“What is he talking about?” Coco asked Sword Demon.

“It’s his professional analysis…” Sword Demon replied.

“Too professional… But that’s not what I’m asking; it’s his intention! Given how well-respected and popular this man is, we don’t know if he truly has any ill intention toward Deep Freeze,” Coco said.

“How would we find that out so easily? We gotta stalk the man a little first!” Gu Fei said.

“Stalk? Whoa. You’re really full of detestable ideas!” Coco exclaimed.

“This is Sword Demon’s idea…”

“You’ve been badly influenced.” Coco shot Sword Demon a pained look. “Told you that you shouldn’t hang out with such dubious characters!”

“Enough with the jokes…” Sword Demon said.

“All right. Let’s do things like this first; I’ll inquire after Broken Water Arrow’s current location, and you two will secretly observe him – watch his actions and how he behaves. Once you have a better understanding of him, we’ll make another round of inference,” Coco suggested.

“Do you want to join us?” Gu Fei asked.

“Join you guys? Forget it. I’ll be too eye-catching,” she rejected.

“You can always disguise yourself!”

“Haven’t I told you before? I’d rather die than get my face all smeared up like that,” Coco vehemently refused.

Women! Gu Fei sighed inwardly. Obsessing over things that don’t matter at such a crucial time.

“Then, let’s hurry up! Find out where that man is right now,” Sword Demon said.

“Wait for my message.” Coco nodded to him.

The two men were leaving when Sword Demon looked back. “Oh, yeah. Who are Rice Soup and White Sand, anyway? Would they goof up and expose us?”

“Relax; the two may have joined our guild, but they have yet to reach Linyin City. I’ve already told them that there’s no need to hurry over,” Coco assured.

“You guys are accepting players from other cities as well? What for? Opening up a subsidiary branch?” Sword Demon asked.

“What do you care so much for?! Busybody. Go and do what you need to do. It’s a ‘Daily Mission’; do you want to take a whole week for it? What a disgrace!” Coco urged.

“Oh, and before I forget; take these!” Right before the two left, Coco remembered to give the two men something.

The two each took an item from her hand and looked. Sure enough, it was Deep Freeze’s guild emblem. The actual guild emblems from the system were made of some unknown material, while these fake emblems in their hands seemed to have been carved out from wood and later dyed. To be able to create such a an authentic-looking counterfeit, there were truly many players with all sort of hidden talent.

“Hold on to it tightly. The moment anyone suspects anything, just take it out and show it to them, but don’t wear them, as Appraisal will 100% give it away,” Coco warned.

“Is that so?” The two immediately used Appraisal on it upon hearing this, and sure enough, the item description was as followed: a piece of wood.

“Time to go!” The two properly stowed away their fake guild emblems and left the cottage. Covering their faces once more, they headed into the jungle. Along the way, Gu Fei suddenly made a new suggestion. “I feel that we should get Young Master to join us on this. That man is really quite talented when it comes to figuring out other people’s intention.”

“That might be the case, but do you think that guy will be willing to have his face painted up like us?” Sword Demon pointed to Gu Fei’s face as he said this.

“No. I mean let him analyze and make sense of what we find out from our investigation,” Gu Fei said.

“Then, let’s talk about that after we have done the deed!”

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

The two entered the jungle and changed out to their camouflage outfits before heading into the area Deep Freeze was training. As they were about to reach the place, Gu Fei suddenly sensed the atmosphere around him changing, much like that time they had first come here, as the bows and arrows of several men poked out from the surrounding underbrush and foliage; all were aimed at them.

“We’re with you guys!” Gu Fei raised his hands and waved them about.

“How did this happen?” Sword Demon sent a private message to Gu Fei. Right now, he was probably feeling so guilty even the lightest breeze caused him to think that he had gotten exposed. The man truly did not have it in him to be a bad person.

“Emblem. Show them our emblems quickly.” Gu Fei was quick-witted enough to realize what was going on. Sending this message to Sword Demon, he donned on the emblem.

“We’re Rice Soup and White Sand – new members to the guild.” Gu Fei introduced themselves to the crowd while flashing the guild emblem he had pinned on the chest part of his mage robe, which was underneath the camouflage windbreaker he was currently wearing. Sword Demon followed suit. They turned a full round as if they were male models flaunting their clothes on the runway.

Neither of them had much confidence that these fake guild emblems would be of any use, but they figured that since Coco had wasted her time and effort getting these done, she probably had some idea of the guild’s practice. Thus, they figured that she had no reason to do all this if the fake emblems were really useless.

As Gu Fei was thinking about this, the crowd encircling them lowered their bows and returned to their hiding places upon confirming that the situation was a false alarm. A single man was left waving at the two men, indicating that all was fine.

The two men breathed a sigh of relief, passed this perimeter, and stepped into the area proper.

“That’s quite the tight defense they have set up,” Gu Fei commented. “Are they afraid of strangers sneaking their way in to steal military secrets from them?”

“What secret do they have?! They are probably just trying to prevent others from getting in their way as they do their drills and training!” Sword Demon spent quite some time with Onesie and the lot, so he knew how troublesome things would get if some outsiders accidentally stumbled on to their trap formation while they were busy fighting the monsters.

Having found out Broken Water Arrow’s coordinates, Coco quickly sent the set to them. The two men immediately headed off in the stated direction.

“If we need to keep a distance of 10 meters from the man, won’t we be unable to eavesdrop on what he’s saying?” Sword Demon remembered Gu Fei mentioning earlier about keeping their distance from Broken Water Arrow to prevent the man from realizing that he was being followed.

“The man’s pretty loud when he speaks; if the surrounding is quiet enough, we should have no problems hearing the man clearly even at a distance of 10 meters,” Gu Fei said.

As the two walked and talked, they occasionally saw the many members of Deep Freeze flitting about. However, since they were already in the inner regions, none bothered to take their bows and spring out against the two men. Even if they came face to face with the others, these players merely exchanged smiles with them without another word.

“Look; over there!” Sword Demon suddenly pointed. In an area just ahead, they saw about a dozen or so players crowding around Broken Water Arrow. The man was holding something in his hand as he gestured to the players around him.

“Over here!” The two circled around a bit and realized that it would be quite difficult to get within 10 meters of Broken Water Arrow. This was all because the man was never alone. He was always surrounded by a circle of players, whose eyes were looking in every direction.

The two had only spent less than a day with this guild, so neither of them had the expertise to move silently amid the underbrush like how Onesie or Ginkgo Tea. In the end, Sword Demon had no choice but to enter Stealth and Gu Fei used his Blink to make their way to the tree behind Broken Water Arrow.

“What is he holding in his hand?” Gu Fei asked Sword Demon. He was hiding behind a tree, while Sword Demon was still Stealthed; the latter was able to stand out in the open and see what was in that direction.

“A piece of paper,” Sword Demon replied. At the same time, Broken Water Arrow’s voice softly drifted into their ears.

“Look here, you guys. This place here… When you, the Thief, draw the enemies over, no matter which direction they come from, any of these three entry points will work for you. The way the three paths lead you in are all the same, so you don’t have a lot to memorize; your fellow teammates setting up the traps will have an easy time, too, but when the real battle commences, we need to deal with the enemies in accordance to the number you will be facing.

“If they are just in pairs, or small groups of three, I don’t think there’s much I need to say. You’ve got twelve men, so there’s really no need to lure them into traps; you can all directly surround and crush them with your numerical superiority. You’ll need to utilize the trap formations when the numbers you are facing are equal to what you have, or even when they are holding the upper hand in terms of numbers. As long as you guys can lure them into the trap formation, it will no longer be just the team of 12 against them; every trap that you’ve set in that area would become like a stationary comrade of yours.

“That is why Xiaoxing, your role is vital to this operation. You are the one guiding this entire battle; every step you take dictates what your teammate must do, and the rest will all take their cue from what you are doing. You need to familiarize yourself with the position of every trap placed, as well as the position of each of your teammates. You must be aware of the impact to the battlefield you can create with every step you take. This is because the outcome of this entire fight rests solely on your shoulders.”

“Wow. That guy sure can talk!” Gu Fei sighed in awe.

“Yeah!” Not only could Sword Demon hear him, he even clearly saw that this particular ‘guide for the battle’ which Broken Water Arrow had heavily emphasized was a Thief. Sword Demon could not make out the emotions this man was feeling due to the face paint he had on, but he could imagine the indescribable levels of pride this Thief must be feeling right now.